Giant Spider 5e: Stats, Webs and Running the Ambush

A giant spider is a CR 1 Large beast with AC 14, 26 hit points, a 30-foot climb speed, Spider Climb, Stealth +7 and two attacks that work together: a Web that restrains a target (recharge 5–6) and a poisoned Bite that hits a restrained target with Advantage. The 2014 web is a ranged attack you escape with a DC 12 Strength check. The 2024 web (SRD 5.2.1) is a DC 13 Dexterity save at 60 feet, and the stat block gives no escape check: the target stays restrained until someone destroys the web.

Table of Contents

• •Giant Spider Stat Block (2014)
• •The Giant Spider in the 2024 Rules
• •How Giant Spiders Fight
• •How Many Giant Spiders for a Level 1-3 Party?
• •How Players Beat Giant Spiders
• •Giant Spiders as Wild Shapes and Summons
• •Giant Spider Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Giant Spider Stat Block (2014)

This is the SRD 5.1 giant spider, the same as the 2014 Monster Manual.

The 2014 spider is the better hunter by senses. It has blindsight 10 feet (it can't be hidden from at arm's length), darkvision 60 feet and Web Sense: while touching a web, it knows the exact location of every other creature touching the same web. It also has a strange mercy built into its bite. If the bite's poison damage drops a character to 0 hit points, that character is stable instead of dying, but poisoned and paralyzed for an hour. The spider isn't killing that character. It's storing them.

The 2014 Web in detail. Web is a ranged weapon attack, +5 to hit, range 30/60 feet (Disadvantage beyond 30). On a hit the target is restrained. The restrained target can use its action to make a DC 12 Strength check to burst the webbing. Anyone can also attack the webbing: AC 10, 5 hit points, vulnerable to fire, and immune to bludgeoning, poison and psychic damage. A hammer or a mace won't cut it.

The Giant Spider in the 2024 Rules

What those changes mean in play:

• •The web ignores armor now. In 2014 the paladin in plate (AC 18) gets hit 40% of the time. In 2024 the same paladin, with Dexterity +0 and no proficiency in Dexterity saves, fails a DC 13 save on 12 or lower, 60% of the time. Heavy armor protects against the 2014 web and does nothing against the 2024 one.
• •Escape works differently. The 2014 victim can spend an action on a Strength check. The 2024 victim has to destroy the web or have an ally do it, and a restrained creature attacks with Disadvantage. On the other hand, a 2024 web is no longer immune to bludgeoning, so anyone with a club can help.
• •The bite always poisons. The 2024 spider deals a flat 14 on a hit (7 + 7). The 2014 spider deals 7 plus 9 poison on a failed save, 4 on a success. The 2024 bite also dropped the paralysis clause, so a 2024 spider that drops a character to 0 hit points leaves them dying, not stable.
• •It notices more and senses less. The 2024 spider trades blindsight for Perception +4 (passive 14), so it spots sneaking characters at range more often but can't automatically pinpoint an invisible wizard next to it.

How Giant Spiders Fight

A giant spider plays like a trap with legs. It picks the battlefield, opens with Web, and bites whoever is stuck.

Start on the ceiling. Spider Climb lets it walk across ceilings without a check, and Stealth +7 beats a passive Perception of 13 on a 7 or better, 70% of the time. A spider in a dark cave mouth or a forest canopy usually starts the fight unseen: a surprise round under the 2014 rules, Disadvantage on the party's Initiative rolls under the 2024 rules.

Web first, then bite. Web starts charged, so the first action is Web at the most dangerous target the spider can see. In 2014, aim it at the lightly armored archer or caster (+5 against AC 13 hits on 8 or better, 65%). In 2024, aim it at the heavily armored fighter, who probably has the worst Dexterity save. Then close and bite the restrained target, who grants Advantage:

A level 1 wizard has 6 to 8 hit points. One 2024 bite that hits does 14. The 2014 version is a little kinder because of the paralysis clause.

Recharge. Web recharges on a 5 or 6, a one-in-three chance at the start of each turn. In a three-round fight, a spider gets its opening web and about one more.

Drag the meal home. A 2014 spider that paralyzes a victim drags it away into the dark and up the wall. It's a beast with Intelligence 2; it isn't interested in a fair fight with the rest of the party. When it drops under 10 hit points, it climbs out of reach and waits.

Use web terrain. The stat block covers the spider's thrown webs, not the webs covering its lair. For that, the 2014 Web spell is a good model: webbed areas are difficult terrain, lightly obscured, and anyone who enters makes a Dexterity save or is restrained, with a Strength check to break free. Web Walker means the spider moves through all of it at full speed, and in 2014 Web Sense tells it exactly who is caught where.

How Many Giant Spiders for a Level 1-3 Party?

The giant spider is a CR 1 creature that fights above its CR against level 1 characters. Under the 2024 rules, the XP budget per character is 50 / 75 / 100 at level 1, 100 / 150 / 200 at level 2 and 150 / 225 / 400 at level 3 (Low / Moderate / High).

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, used by our encounter calculator, are stricter. One spider is Medium for four level 1 characters (party thresholds 100 / 200 / 300 / 400). Two spiders against four level 2 characters are 400 XP, multiplied by 1.5 for a pair to 600: Hard.

At level 1, one giant spider is enough. An average 2024 bite (14 damage) can kill a 6- or 7-hit-point wizard outright through massive damage, and a party with no fire and no Strength may struggle to get a webbed friend free. If you want more bodies, mix one giant spider with two or three giant wolf spiders (CR 1/4, 50 XP each). At levels 2 and 3, two to four spiders in a webbed cave is a strong set piece.

How Players Beat Giant Spiders

• •Fire. Every web in both editions is vulnerable to fire and has 5 hit points. Fire damage of 3 or more, doubled by the vulnerability, destroys a web outright, so a Fire Bolt (1d10) that hits the web (AC 10) frees a friend 80% of the time. Burning Hands also hits spiders clustered on a web.
• •Know how to escape your edition's web. In 2014: use your action for a DC 12 Strength check (a fighter with Strength 16 succeeds on 9 or better, 60%), or have an ally hack the web (no bludgeoning). In 2024: there's no check in the stat block, so an ally has to destroy the web, or you attack it yourself at Disadvantage. Plan who carries the knife.
• •Light the room. Giant spiders have no sunlight sensitivity, but darkness is where their Stealth +7 works. Dancing Lights or a lantern on a pole shows the ceiling before the party walks under it.
• •Protect the poisoned. In 2014, a character paralyzed by the bite is stable; get them out before the spider drags them off. Lesser Restoration ends the poisoned condition, and the paralysis ends with it. In 2024 there's no paralysis, so focus on keeping the bitten character's hit points up.
• •Don't fight on the web. Web Walker means the spider ignores webbing and you don't. Pull back to clean ground and make it come to you; it has no ranged attack except Web.
• •Animal magic works. It's a Beast with Intelligence 2. Animal Friendship can charm it in both editions, and Speak with Animals lets you ask it what it ate recently, which is a great way to find a missing person.

Giant Spiders as Wild Shapes and Summons

Wild Shape. A giant spider is CR 1 with no fly or swim speed, so a druid can take the form from level 8 in both editions (Circle of the Moon, which isn't in the SRD, gets CR 1 forms earlier). In 2014 the druid gets 26 hit points, Spider Climb and Web. In 2024 the druid keeps its own hit points plus 8 temporary hit points and can speak in spider form. Either way the web is a good control tool: a DC 13 web (2024) or a +5 web attack (2014) that restrains a target for the rest of the party.

Conjure Animals (2014). The 2014 Conjure Animals can summon two beasts of CR 1 or lower, and a pair of giant spiders is one of the best picks: two webs on the first round and a climb speed to get anywhere. The 2024 version of the spell summons a pack of spirits rather than specific stat blocks.

Giant Spider Encounter Ideas

The silk road. A logging camp has started selling spider silk, harvested from a spider nest in the old forest. The silk is worth more than the timber, so they've been feeding the nest goats. Last week they ran out of goats. Two loggers are cocooned in the canopy, paralyzed but alive (2014) or barely alive (2024), and the camp foreman doesn't want the party to burn the nest.

The mine shaft. Three giant spiders live in a vertical mine shaft. The party has to climb down 80 feet on ropes, and the spiders climb the walls around them. A web on a climbing character means hanging restrained over a drop. Fire is the obvious answer, and the obvious way to burn through your own rope.

The keeper. An ettercap keeps four giant spiders like hounds in a ruined chapel and sends them after travelers on the road. Killing the ettercap doesn't end the problem: the spiders stay and keep hunting.

If a spider drags someone into the dark and the rescue happens two sessions later, you'll want the details. Loreify can record the session and keep track of the creatures and NPCs the party met, so the story survives.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the DC to escape a giant spider's web?

In the 2014 rules, a restrained creature uses its action for a DC 12 Strength check to burst the webbing. The 2024 stat block has no escape check: the creature stays restrained until the web (AC 10, 5 hit points, vulnerable to fire) is destroyed. The 2024 web lands on a failed DC 13 Dexterity save.

What CR is a giant spider?

CR 1 (200 XP) in both editions. It has AC 14 and 26 hit points.

Is a giant spider's bite poisonous?

Yes. In 2014 it deals 7 piercing damage, then 9 poison on a failed DC 11 Constitution save (half on a success), and a character dropped to 0 by the poison is stable but paralyzed for an hour. In 2024 it deals 7 piercing plus 7 poison on every hit, with no save.

Can you burn a giant spider's web?

Yes. In both editions the webbing is vulnerable to fire and has 5 hit points, so almost any fire damage destroys it.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a giant spider?

Yes, from druid level 8 in both editions, since it's a CR 1 beast without a fly or swim speed.

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.