Drow 5e: Stat Block, Knockout Poison and Darkness Tactics

This is the drow monster stat block the DM uses for a dark elf scout or raider, not the drow player lineage. A drow is a CR 1/4 Medium Humanoid (elf) worth 50 XP, with AC 15, 13 hit points and 120-foot darkvision. What makes it dangerous is its hand crossbow: a hit forces a DC 13 Constitution save, a failure leaves the target poisoned for an hour, and a failure by 5 or more knocks the target unconscious. It can also cast Darkness and Faerie Fire once a day. There is no drow stat block in the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1), so this page uses the 2014 block, which works fine in a 2024 game.

Table of Contents

• •Drow Stat Block (2014)
• •Is There a 2024 Drow Stat Block?
• •How Drow Fight
• •How Many Drow for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Drow
• •Drow Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Drow Stat Block (2014)

This is the drow from the 2014 rules (SRD 5.1).

Compare it with a goblin, the other common CR 1/4 humanoid. The drow has the same AC 15 and the same +4 attacks, nearly twice the hit points (13 against 7) and no bonus-action escape. What it gets instead is control: poison that can take a character out of the fight, a once-a-day Darkness, a once-a-day Faerie Fire and Dancing Lights at will. Its spell save DC is only 11, so the spells are better as tools than as attacks.

Its defensive traits:

• •Fey Ancestry. Advantage on saves against being charmed, and magic can't put a drow to sleep.
• •Sunlight Sensitivity. In sunlight, disadvantage on attack rolls and on sight-based Perception checks.
• •Darkvision 120 feet. Twice the range of most player darkvision.

Is There a 2024 Drow Stat Block?

No. SRD 5.2.1 (the 2024 rules) has no drow monster. Drow appear only as an elf lineage for player characters, which gives 120-foot darkvision, the Dancing Lights cantrip, and Faerie Fire and Darkness at higher levels. If you run a 2024 game, use this 2014 stat block as written. Its numbers sit close to the 2024 Goblin Warrior, another CR 1/4 creature with AC 15 and 10 hit points. If you want 2024 formatting, its initiative is +2 (Dexterity 14).

How Drow Fight

A drow fight should feel like being hunted in the dark. Every part of the stat block supports the same plan: see the party first, shoot from where they can't see, and take people out of the fight without killing them.

The knockout math. A hand crossbow hit deals 5 piercing damage and forces a DC 13 Constitution save. A target fails if its total is 12 or less, and falls unconscious if it fails by 5 or more, which means a total of 8 or less.

Run it against a level 1 or 2 wizard with AC 12 and Constitution +1. The drow hits on an 8 or higher (65%), and the save fails badly 35% of the time, so each shot has about a 23% chance of knocking the wizard out. Four drow firing at the wizard in one round knock it out about 64% of the time.

The follow-up. An unconscious creature drops what it is holding and falls prone, attacks against it have advantage, and any hit from within 5 feet is a critical hit. A drow that walks up and stabs a sleeping character deals 2d6 + 2 (9 on average), enough to drop most level 1 casters. But damage also wakes the target. A drow that wants prisoners leaves sleepers alone and shoots the next character. A drow that wants the party dead walks up and stabs.

Even awake, poisoned hurts. The poisoned condition lasts an hour, and it gives disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. A fighter who saves against the knockout but fails the poison save is fighting the rest of the encounter at a disadvantage, and the next one too if the party doesn't rest or cure it.

Mind the range. The hand crossbow's normal range is only 30 feet; out to 120 feet it shoots with disadvantage. A drow hiding in darkness beyond the party's sight gets advantage for being unseen, which cancels the long-range disadvantage: it rolls normally from up to 120 feet while the party can't see it. Characters with 60-foot darkvision see 60 feet. Characters relying on a torch see about 40 (20 bright, 20 dim). A drow has room to work in both cases.

Darkness, used right. The Darkness spell fills a 15-foot-radius sphere, and even the drow's darkvision can't see through it. Don't drop it on the drow. Use it to:

• •block the line of sight between the party's archer and the drow,
• •cover a retreat down a tunnel,
• •or cast it on a pebble and throw it into the party's light, since nonmagical light can't illuminate it and a spell-made light of 2nd level or lower that it overlaps is dispelled.

Darkness requires concentration, and so do Faerie Fire and Dancing Lights, so each drow can hold only one of the three at a time. Spread them across different drow.

Faerie Fire on the invisible. DC 11 is a weak save, but Faerie Fire is the drow's answer to an invisible character or a rogue who hides well: an outlined creature can't benefit from being invisible, and attacks against it have advantage.

Dancing Lights as bait. Up to four torch-like lights within 120 feet, moved as a bonus action. Make them look like a lantern-carrying patrol down a side passage. The party chases the lights while the real drow wait in the dark beside the main path.

Retreat in daylight. Sunlight gives drow disadvantage on attacks. A raid that runs into dawn should turn into a fighting withdrawal toward cover.

How Many Drow for Your Party?

Drow are CR 1/4 but swingy, because the knockout poison can take a character out of a fight on one bad roll. Treat them as a step harder than their XP suggests at level 1.

Using the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, agree with the warning. Four drow are 200 XP, doubled to 400 for a group of 3 to 6: exactly the Deadly threshold for four level 1 characters, and Medium for four level 2 characters.

Best fit: levels 2 to 4. At level 1, three drow is a full fight. From level 5, drow work as the screen around a bigger threat, and a party with more hit points can survive a knocked-out member.

Giant spiders pair naturally. Their Web attack restrains a target, and a restrained target has disadvantage on Dexterity saves and gives every attacker advantage, including a drow at long range.

How Players Beat Drow

• •Cure the poison. Lesser Restoration ends the poisoned condition. A character who wakes up is still poisoned until the hour ends or someone cures it. Dwarves have advantage on saves against poison in both editions of the SRD.
• •Wake the sleepers. A creature knocked out by the poison wakes when it takes damage or when another creature uses its action to shake it awake. Spending one action to bring the wizard back is usually worth it.
• •Lead with Constitution. Fighters, barbarians and sorcerers are proficient in Constitution saves, and a +4 save drops the knockout chance to 20%. Send the fighter or barbarian forward first.
• •Bring sunlight. The 2024 Daylight spell creates sunlight in a 60-foot sphere, which gives drow disadvantage on attacks, and it dispels any Darkness spell it overlaps. The 2014 Daylight also dispels Darkness, but it doesn't say its light is sunlight.
• •Don't cast Sleep. Magic can't put drow to sleep. Use Hold Person instead: drow are Humanoids with a +0 Wisdom save. Charm spells work less well, since Fey Ancestry gives advantage on the save.
• •Close fast. At 13 HP and AC 15, a drow survives one ordinary hit and usually not two. In melee its shortsword deals 5 a hit, much less threatening than its crossbow. Getting adjacent removes the reason it is scary.

Drow Encounter Ideas

The lantern thieves. A merchant road runs through a mile-long tunnel under a ridge. For a week, caravans have reached the far end with fewer people than they started with. Three drow have been dropping Darkness on the lead lantern, knocking out the last wagon's driver and carrying him off. The missing drivers are alive, and the drow want to know where the road's new silver comes from.

The sentry who sleeps. The party finds a road warden lying at a crossroads at dusk, alive, unconscious and poisoned, with a hand crossbow bolt in his shoulder. Shaking him awake gets a description of "small lights in the trees." The drow who shot him is a lost scout who didn't want to kill anyone. She is three hundred feet away, watching, and she needs a guide back underground before the sun rises.

The prisoner in the square. Villagers have caught a drow and chained her in the open market at noon, where sunlight leaves her nearly helpless. They plan to hang her at sunset. She offers to tell the party when and where her raiding party will strike the village tonight if they free her first. The raid is real. So is the second group she isn't mentioning.

If a drow scout survives and becomes a recurring rival, Loreify's session recorder keeps every name, deal and betrayal in the campaign notes so the next encounter picks up where the last one ended. For names, the elf name generator works for drow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a drow in 5e?

The drow is CR 1/4 (50 XP) in the 2014 rules (SRD 5.1). It has AC 15, 13 hit points and 120-foot darkvision.

Is there a drow stat block in the 2024 rules?

No. The 2024 SRD (5.2.1) has no drow monster. It includes drow only as an elf lineage for player characters. Use the 2014 drow stat block in a 2024 game.

How does drow poison work in 5e?

A drow's hand crossbow deals 5 piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 13 Constitution save or be poisoned for 1 hour. If the save fails by 5 or more, the target is also unconscious while poisoned. It wakes up if it takes damage or if another creature uses its action to shake it awake.

Can you put a drow to sleep?

Not with magic. The drow's Fey Ancestry trait says magic can't put it to sleep, so the Sleep spell has no effect. It also has advantage on saves against being charmed.

Is this the same as a drow player character?

No. This is the monster stat block the DM uses. Player drow use the elf species rules (in the 2024 SRD, the drow lineage gives Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire and Darkness), not this stat block.

How much XP is a drow worth?

50 XP. Four drow are 200 XP, the full Low-difficulty budget for four level 1 characters under 2024 rules, and the Deadly threshold under 2014 guidelines.

Stat block: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.