Giant Toad 5e: Stats, Swallow and Why It Kills Low-Level Characters

The giant toad is a CR 1 Large Beast with AC 11 and 39 hit points. It bites for piercing plus poison damage, grapples, and then swallows any Medium or smaller creature it's holding. Once inside, a character takes 10 (3d6) acid damage every round, can't be targeted from outside and can only get out when the toad dies. That makes the giant toad one of the few CR 1 creatures that can kill a level 1 or 2 character outright. The 2024 version swallows without an attack roll and starts the acid damage the same turn, but can't bite anyone else while it digests.

Table of Contents

• •Giant Toad Stat Block (2014)
• •The Giant Toad in the 2024 Rules
• •Giant Toad vs Giant Frog
• •How Giant Toads Fight
• •Running a Giant Toad Encounter
• •How Players Beat Giant Toads
• •Giant Toad Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Giant Toad Stat Block (2014)

The 2014 giant toad from SRD 5.1:

The 2014 toad's damage, round by round, against a level 2 cleric with AC 16:

A character who gets bitten, swallowed and digested once has taken about 34 damage by the start of the toad's third turn. Most level 1-3 characters don't have that many hit points.

The instant-death math. If you take damage while at 0 hit points and that damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you die. A level 1 wizard with 8 maximum hit points who drops to 0 inside the toad takes 3d6 acid at the start of its next turn. 3d6 rolls 8 or more about 84% of the time. Warn new players before you put a 2014 giant toad in front of a level 1 party.

The Giant Toad in the 2024 Rules

Two changes cut in opposite directions:

• •Faster to swallow, faster to burn. The 2024 toad doesn't roll to swallow, and the acid hits at the end of the turn it swallows you. A grabbed character who fails to escape on their turn takes 10 acid before the round is over.
• •Less dangerous to everyone else. The 2014 toad digests one character while biting the next. The 2024 toad is out of attacks until its meal is dead or the toad is, so the rest of the party is free to hit it.

The 2024 grapple also doesn't Restrain, so the grabbed character attacks the toad normally and gets one clean chance to break out (Athletics +5 vs DC 12 succeeds on a 7 or higher, 70%).

Giant Toad vs Giant Frog

The two are often confused, and the difference is size.

A giant frog can only swallow halflings, gnomes and other Small creatures. A giant toad can swallow almost any player character. If you want a swallow threat that matters to a party of humans, elves and dwarves, use the toad.

How Giant Toads Fight

Lie in wait in the shallows. The toad has no Stealth proficiency, so hide it with terrain: murky water, tall reeds, a mud bank at night. It has darkvision; most swamp fights happen at dusk.

Close the gap with a jump. Standing Leap gives a 20-foot long jump and 10-foot high jump. The 2014 toad's walk speed is only 20 feet, so the leap is how it reaches the back line or gets out of the water onto a dock.

Swallow the softest Medium target. A 2014 toad wants the target with weak escape odds: the wizard with Acrobatics +2 needs an 11 to beat DC 13. The fighter with Athletics +5 escapes on an 8. Bite the wizard.

Run with dinner. A toad with a swallowed character has every reason to leave. It swims 40 feet (2014) or 30 feet (2024) a round. A toad that dives into a pond with the cleric inside turns the fight into a chase where every round costs the cleric 10 hit points.

2014: keep biting. After swallowing, the 2014 toad is free to bite and grapple a second character. It can't swallow them too, but 12 damage a bite on top of 10 acid on the first victim adds up.

Running a Giant Toad Encounter

A giant toad is 200 XP. Using the 2024 budget per character from SRD 5.2.1, for four characters:

At level 5, toads work as support. A giant crocodile (1,800 XP) plus 2 toads (400 XP) is 2,200 XP, a Moderate encounter for four level 5 characters (just over the 2,000 Low budget, under the 3,000 Moderate budget), and puts two different grapplers in the same river.

On paper one toad is a Low fight for four level 1 characters (200 XP budget). Because of the swallow, treat a single 2014 toad as a real threat at level 1 and save groups of toads for level 3 and up. The encounter calculator applies the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines if you want the old math.

How Players Beat Giant Toads

• •Focus the toad holding someone. 39 HP at AC 11 means three or four hits. Killing it is the only exit for a swallowed character: they crawl out using 5 feet of movement and land Prone.
• •Healing can't reach inside. A swallowed creature has total cover, so it can't be targeted by spells like Healing Word. Heal them before the swallow or after the toad dies.
• •Break the grapple before the next turn. Escaping on your own turn (DC 13 in 2014, DC 12 in 2024) stops the swallow. Allies can help by killing or incapacitating the toad, which also ends the grapple.
• •Fight it on land. The 2014 toad walks at 20 feet. Keep it away from deep water and it can't run with its meal.
• •Charm or control it. Intelligence 2, Wisdom 10. Animal Friendship and Dominate Beast both work in either edition.

Giant Toad Encounter Ideas

The festival prize. A lord breeds giant toads for a yearly toad-jumping contest. During the final, his champion bolts into the crowd, bites the reeve and makes for the moat with him in its mouth. The lord wants the toad alive. The reeve's family wants the reeve alive. Once the toad swallows, 10 acid a round will kill an ordinary townsperson almost at once, so the party has to decide before the toad's next turn.

The sacred well. A drought-stricken village claims the spirit in their well takes one offering a month in exchange for clean water. The "spirit" is a giant toad living in a flooded cistern under the well. The current offering is a young Medium NPC being lowered on a rope tonight.

The flooded crypt. Rainwater has turned the lowest level of a crypt into a knee-deep pool. Two giant toads live there now and use the sarcophagi as islands to leap between (20-foot long jump). Everyone else wades at half speed through the difficult terrain.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a giant toad swallow a player?

Yes, if the character is Medium or smaller and the toad is already grappling them. Most player characters are Medium, so almost anyone can be swallowed. Inside, they take 10 (3d6) acid damage each round until the toad dies.

What CR is a giant toad in 5e?

CR 1 (200 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 11 and 39 hit points.

How do you get out of a giant toad?

The swallowed creature escapes when the toad dies, using 5 feet of movement and exiting Prone. Neither edition's stat block gives another way out, so the party needs to kill the toad quickly.

What's the difference between a giant toad and a giant frog?

The toad is CR 1, Large and has 39 HP, a poisonous bite, and swallows Medium or smaller creatures for 10 acid a round. The frog is CR 1/4, Medium, has 18 HP and can only swallow Small or smaller creatures, for 5 acid.

What level can a druid Wild Shape into a giant toad?

Druid level 8, in both editions, because it is a CR 1 beast.

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.