Giant Shark 5e: Stats, Blood Frenzy and Underwater Fights

A giant shark is a CR 5 Huge beast with AC 13, 126 hit points, a 50-foot swim speed, 60-foot blindsight and a +9 bite for 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage. Blood Frenzy gives it Advantage on melee attacks against any creature that has lost even 1 hit point. The 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) rebuild it as a glass cannon at the same CR: 92 hit points instead of 126, but two bites per turn, which roughly doubles its damage. Neither version can leave the water.

Table of Contents

• •Giant Shark Stat Block (2014)
• •The Giant Shark in the 2024 Rules
• •How Giant Sharks Fight
• •Running a Giant Shark Encounter
• •How Players Beat Giant Sharks
• •Giant Shark Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Giant Shark Stat Block (2014)

The giant shark is the top of the SRD shark line. The hunter shark is Large, CR 2, with 45 hit points and a +6 bite for 13. The reef shark is smaller still. The giant shark nearly triples the hunter's hit points and bites for 22. Its Strength is 23. Its Intelligence is 1, so it doesn't plan: it goes for whatever is bleeding.

The Giant Shark in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 shark loses 34 hit points and gains a second bite. Blood Frenzy is no longer a trait; the Advantage is printed into the bite itself. The trigger is the same: the target doesn't have all its hit points.

How Giant Sharks Fight

The damage math. A +9 bite against AC 16 hits on a 7 or better, 70% of the time. With Advantage the chance becomes 1 − 0.3 × 0.3 = 91%. Ignoring critical hits:

For the 2024 shark against an uninjured target, the first bite hits 70% of the time. If it lands, the target is hurt and the second bite has Advantage (91%); if it misses, the second bite is a flat 70%. Expected damage: 0.7 × 22 + (0.7 × 0.91 + 0.3 × 0.7) × 22 ≈ 15.4 + 18.6 = 34.

Forty damage is more than a typical level 5 wizard or rogue has, so a 2024 giant shark can drop one in a single turn. A 2014 shark needs two or three.

Pick the wounded swimmer. Blood Frenzy applies to any creature missing hit points, and that's everyone after round one. In practice the shark chases the target it can reach. With blindsight 60 feet it finds swimmers in murky or dark water where they can't see it.

Stay in deep water. The shark breathes only underwater. The 2024 version has a 5-foot walk speed, which is a flop on a beach, not movement. Fight it on a boat, a pier, a reef or a flooded hold, and it can only reach what is in the water or within 5 feet of the waterline.

Underwater combat rules punish the party. In both editions, a creature without a swim speed has Disadvantage on melee weapon attacks unless the weapon is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear or trident (2014) or deals piercing damage (2024). Ranged weapon attacks automatically miss beyond normal range and have Disadvantage within it. The 2014 rules exempt crossbows, nets and thrown weapons like javelins from that Disadvantage; the 2024 rules don't. Anything fully underwater has resistance to fire damage, so the party's Fireball does half.

Running a Giant Shark Encounter

The budget labels assume a fair fight. A fight in open water is not one. If the party is swimming, treat a single 2024 giant shark as a High fight for level 5 characters regardless of the label. Our encounter calculator handles the 2014 math. A shark against a party on a ship's deck, where it can only reach someone who falls in, is a different and much easier fight.

How Players Beat Giant Sharks

• •Stay out of the water. The simplest counter. From a boat, characters attack with no underwater penalties and the shark can reach only the edge.
• •Use its weak saves. Intelligence 1 (−5), Charisma 5 (−3), Wisdom and Dexterity +0. It's a beast, so Dominate Beast works and turns it on its own kind, and Hold Person doesn't.
• •Don't get hurt first. Blood Frenzy keys off losing even 1 hit point. Both SRDs say temporary hit points aren't actual hit points, so the natural reading is that damage absorbed entirely by temporary hit points leaves a character with all its hit points and the shark gets no Advantage. Neither SRD addresses Blood Frenzy directly, so confirm the ruling with your DM, then hand out temporary hit points before anyone gets in the water.
• •Lightning, not fire. Lightning Bolt does full damage underwater. Fireball does half, because of the fire resistance rule.
• •Bring piercing weapons. Spears and tridents work in both editions; in 2024 any piercing weapon avoids the melee penalty.

Giant Shark Encounter Ideas

The pearl beds. Divers on a fishing island bring up pearls from 40 feet down. Two have been taken in a week. The party goes down with them and finds the giant shark circling a sunken shrine whose door has been forced open from inside.

The ship's wake. A prison hulk has been dumping its dead overboard on the same route for years. A giant shark follows every ship on that route now. The party's ship is next, and a mutiny below decks means someone is about to go over the side.

The flooded arena. A city lord stages naval battles in a flooded amphitheater. For the finale, he releases a giant shark into the water while two crews fight on rafts. The party is one of the crews.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a giant shark in 5e?

CR 5, worth 1,800 XP, in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

How does Blood Frenzy work?

The 2014 giant shark has Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. The 2024 version has the same effect written into its bite: Advantage if the target doesn't have all its hit points.

How many hit points does a giant shark have?

126 (11d12 + 55) in the 2014 rules and 92 (8d12 + 40) in the 2024 rules.

What changed for the giant shark in 2024?

It lost 34 hit points, gained Multiattack with two bites, got a 60-foot swim speed (up from 50) and a 5-foot walk speed. Blood Frenzy became part of the bite. AC, CR, bite damage and blindsight are the same.

Can a giant shark leave the water?

Not usefully. It breathes only underwater. The 2014 version has no walk speed; the 2024 version has 5 feet.

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.