Giant Centipede 5e: Stats, Paralysis Poison and the 2024 Rewrite

The giant centipede is a CR 1/4 Small Beast that climbs walls, senses everything within 30 feet by blindsight, and bites for 4 piercing damage. Everything interesting about it lives in the poison, and the two editions disagree completely. The 2014 centipede (AC 13, 4 HP) forces a DC 11 Constitution save against 10 poison damage, and a character dropped to 0 by that poison stays paralyzed for an hour even after being healed. The 2024 centipede (AC 14, 9 HP) drops the save and the poison damage: its bite just leaves the target Poisoned for a round.

Table of Contents

• •Giant Centipede Stat Block (2014)
• •The Giant Centipede in the 2024 Rules
• •How Giant Centipedes Fight
• •How Many Giant Centipedes for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Giant Centipedes
• •Giant Centipede Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Giant Centipede Stat Block (2014)

The 2014 giant centipede from SRD 5.1:

Read the Bite carefully, because it does two separate things:

1. •The hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage at +4 to hit.
2. •The poison: a DC 11 Constitution save. On a failure, 10 (3d6) poison damage. On a success, nothing. There's no half damage.

The rider is what makes the centipede memorable. If the poison damage is what drops a character to 0 hit points, that character is stable (no death saves) but Poisoned for 1 hour, and Paralyzed for as long as the poison lasts. Healing doesn't end it: a Healing Word brings them back to consciousness, but they're still lying there unable to move or act for the rest of the hour.

The rest of the stat block is fragile. Four hit points means any hit kills it, and Wisdom 7 (passive Perception 8) makes it one of the easiest creatures in the SRD to sneak past.

The Giant Centipede in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 makes the centipede tougher to kill and much less dangerous to fight.

The 2024 bite is a debuff. A Poisoned character has Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, so the centipede's real job is to bite the fighter before the fighter swings. Because it lasts only until the start of the centipede's next turn, it overlaps exactly one turn of the target's: the one right after the bite.

If you liked the 2014 paralysis, use the 2014 stat block. It's the same CR, and the difference is a design choice, not a balance fix you have to respect.

How Giant Centipedes Fight

Come from above. A 30-foot climb speed puts centipedes on the ceiling of every corridor and cave. They drop onto whoever walks underneath. Blindsight 30 feet means they don't care about darkness, Invisibility or a Darkness spell within that range.

2014: go for the low-Constitution targets. A level 1 wizard with Constitution 12 fails the DC 11 save on a 9 or lower, 45% of the time; a fighter with Constitution 16 and proficiency fails only on a 5 or lower (25%). Against AC 12, the centipede's +4 hits 65% of the time. On a hit and a failed save, the wizard takes 4 + 10 = 14 damage, which is more than most level 1 wizards have. The likely result is a paralyzed wizard, not a dead one: the poison stabilizes them instead of starting death saves.

Then the swarm problem starts. A stable character at 0 HP is still Unconscious, and the Paralyzed condition means any hit from within 5 feet is a critical hit. If a second centipede bites a downed, paralyzed character, the crit counts as two failed death saves. One centipede knocks people out. Three centipedes kill them. Run it that way only if your table knows the risk.

2024: bite and debuff. With 9 HP and AC 14, the 2024 centipede survives one hit more often than not (a d8 + 3 weapon kills it on a 6 or higher on the die). Have it bite the party's best attacker every round so that character swings with Disadvantage. It does little damage, so the threat comes from what it's paired with: a giant wolf spider hunting in the same tunnel, or a goblin warband using centipede-infested caves as a defense.

Ignore morale. Intelligence 1. Centipedes don't flee, negotiate or coordinate. They attack whatever moved last.

How Many Giant Centipedes for a Level 1 Party?

One giant centipede is 50 XP in both editions. Using the 2024 budget per character (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

Those numbers fit the 2024 centipede. The 2014 centipede punches above its weight against level 1 characters because of the paralysis rider, so halve them at level 1: two or three 2014 centipedes is already a tense fight. The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines agree: three centipedes are 150 XP, doubled to 300 by the group multiplier, which is a Hard encounter for four level 1 characters. Check your own mix in the encounter calculator.

From level 3 up, single centipedes stop mattering. Switch to a swarm of centipedes or use them as a hazard in a room with a bigger monster.

How Players Beat Giant Centipedes

• •Kill them before they bite. At 4 HP (2014), any hit, any damage cantrip and nearly any area spell kills one. Even at 9 HP (2024), Burning Hands (3d6, average 10.5) kills on a failed save most of the time.
• •Fix paralysis with the right spell. Lesser Restoration ends the Poisoned condition, which ends the 2014 paralysis with it. Protection from Poison neutralizes it too. Healing alone doesn't; check the paralyzed condition rules and plan for it.
• •Guard the downed. A paralyzed ally is a crit magnet. Stand over them so centipedes have to get past you.
• •Look up. A light source and someone checking the ceiling stops the drop ambush. Their passive Perception of 8 also makes them easy to bypass: a party with average Stealth can often just walk past a nest.
• •Charm one out of the doorway. Centipedes have Intelligence 1 and Wisdom 7, so Animal Friendship works on them in both editions, and a Wisdom 7 creature fails the save often.

Giant Centipede Encounter Ideas

The breathing dead. A mine runner stumbles out shouting that the night shift is dead. The party finds four miners along the lower tunnel, cold, still, and when someone kneels close, breathing. 2014 centipede poison dropped each of them to 0, which left them stable but Paralyzed for an hour, and the centipedes are still in the timber supports overhead. Any further bite on a miner at 0 hit points is a death save failure, and a hit from within 5 feet is a crit that counts as two. Saving them means fighting under a ceiling full of climbers while shielding people who can't move.

The bathhouse. An abandoned bathhouse has warm water, steam and cracked tile walls. The steam lightly obscures the room, the centipedes have blindsight, and the party's Perception checks take Disadvantage. Three centipedes hide in the drainage channels and attack anyone who wades in.

Pest control. A wizard pays the party to clear her cellar of giant centipedes before her apprentice comes back. The centipedes are easy. The twist: the apprentice was breeding them for their venom and wants to know who killed his stock.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a giant centipede in 5e?

CR 1/4, worth 50 XP, in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The 2014 centipede has AC 13 and 4 hit points; the 2024 version has AC 14 and 9 hit points.

Does a giant centipede paralyze you in 5e?

Only under the 2014 rules, and only if the bite's poison damage drops you to 0 hit points. You're then stable but Poisoned for 1 hour and Paralyzed while poisoned, even if someone heals you. The 2024 centipede's bite just gives you the Poisoned condition until the start of its next turn.

How do you cure giant centipede paralysis?

Lesser Restoration or Protection from Poison ends the poison, and with it the paralysis. Otherwise it wears off after 1 hour. Regaining hit points doesn't end it.

Can a giant centipede see in the dark?

It has blindsight out to 30 feet, so it perceives everything within that range without light. It has no darkvision, so beyond 30 feet it relies on light like anyone else.

What's the difference between a giant centipede and a swarm of centipedes?

A giant centipede is a single CR 1/4 creature. A swarm of centipedes (CR 1/2, SRD 5.1 only) is a mass of ordinary centipedes acting as one creature that can share other creatures' spaces and resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage. Use a swarm when single centipedes are too easy for the party.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.