Grick 5e: Stats, Rock Ambushes and the Resistance Problem

A grick is a CR 2 Medium monster with AC 14, a 30-foot climb speed and a habit of waiting motionless on cave walls for prey to walk underneath. The 2014 grick has only 27 hit points but resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, so a low-level party without magic weapons has to deal about 54 weapon damage to kill it. The 2024 grick drops the resistance, doubles its hit points to 54, becomes an Aberration and grapples with its tentacles. Either way, it's tougher than "CR 2" suggests for a level 1 or 2 party.

Table of Contents

• •Grick Stat Block (2014)
• •The Grick in the 2024 Rules
• •How Gricks Fight
• •How Many Gricks for a Low-Level Party?
• •How Players Beat Gricks
• •Grick Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Grick Stat Block (2014)

This is the grick from SRD 5.1, matching the 2014 Monster Manual.

The damage resistance is the line that decides fights. Halving every sword, arrow and mace hit turns 27 hit points into roughly 54 for a party with mundane weapons. Spells and magic weapons ignore it, so the same grick dies in half the time to a party with a wizard and a cleric.

Its attack is conditional. The grick swings its tentacles (+4, 9 slashing), and only if that hits does it get a beak attack (+4, 5 piercing) against the same target. Miss with the tentacles and the turn is over.

Stone Camouflage gives it advantage on Stealth checks to hide in rocky terrain. Its Stealth is only +2 (Dexterity), so advantage does the real work.

The Grick in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 grick (SRD 5.2.1) keeps AC 14, the speeds, the ability scores and CR 2. Nearly everything else is different.

Against a party of fighters with ordinary weapons, the two gricks last about the same number of hits. Against spells and magic weapons, the 2024 grick lasts twice as long. Its damage is also more reliable: two independent attacks instead of one attack plus a bonus.

Because it's an Aberration in 2024, Protection from Evil and Good works against it. Against the 2014 grick, a Monstrosity, that spell does nothing.

How Gricks Fight

Wait on the wall. Gricks climb at full speed. Put them on the walls and ceiling of a tunnel, 10 to 15 feet up, where characters looking ahead down the passage don't check above. They drop or climb down onto whoever is at the back of the marching order.

The ambush roll. How hiding works depends on your rules:

• •2014: the grick rolls Stealth (+2) with advantage in rocky terrain against the party's passive Perception. Against passive Perception 12 it needs a 10 or higher on either die, about 80%. A surprised character can't move or act on its first turn.
• •2024: Hide is a DC 15 Stealth check (+4) while Heavily Obscured or behind solid cover, so it succeeds on an 11 or higher, 50% of the time. Surprised characters roll Initiative with Disadvantage instead of losing their turn.

Damage per round. Against AC 16 a +4 attack hits on a 12 or higher, 45% of the time:

Pin and pile on (2024). A grappled character's speed is 0 and it has Disadvantage on attacks against anyone but the grick holding it. Three 2024 gricks can pin the back half of a party in place while the front half is out of reach. The escape DC is only 12, though, so most characters break free with an action.

Retreat up the wall. A grick at half hit points climbs out of melee reach. Most characters can't follow at 15 feet speed (climbing costs double without a climb speed), so the grick waits up there until the party moves on, then follows.

How Many Gricks for a Low-Level Party?

A grick is worth 450 XP. With the 2024 SRD budget for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, are harsher. One grick is over the Deadly threshold (400) for four level 1 characters. Two gricks count as 1,350 XP after the ×1.5 group multiplier, which is Hard for four level 3 characters.

The 2014 resistance makes the book numbers optimistic. If the party has no magic weapons and relies on weapon damage, treat each 2014 grick as roughly two. Good company for gricks: a roper for a level 5 cave, or a pack of darkmantles in the same tunnels.

How Players Beat Gricks

• •Use spells and magic weapons (2014). They ignore the resistance. Spiritual Weapon (force), Guiding Bolt (radiant) and Fire Bolt all deal full damage. A party with one magic weapon should put it in the hands of whoever attacks most.
• •Target Constitution. The grick's Constitution save is +0. Thunderwave (2d8 thunder, Con save) deals full damage on a fail, about a third of a 2014 grick's hit points. Intelligence (−4) and Charisma (−3) are worse, but few low-level spells use them.
• •Light the walls and check overhead. A character who announces they're watching the ceiling should get a real chance to spot gricks. Light doesn't stop a grick from hiding in rocks, but it removes the darkness that makes 2024 Hide easy.
• •Don't fight it on the wall. A grick that climbs out of reach is wasting its turn. Ready a ranged attack for when it comes back down, or move on and keep a rear guard.
• •Break the grapple fast (2024). Escape DC 12 is low. A character with +3 Athletics breaks free on a 9 or higher, 60% of the time.

Grick Encounter Ideas

The mine lift. Miners have stopped riding the rope lift down the main shaft after two loads came up empty. Three gricks cling to the shaft walls 20 feet below the top platform and attack the lift as it passes. The party fights on a swaying 10-by-10-foot platform, and anyone knocked off falls.

The rubble field. A scout party went into a collapsed tunnel and didn't come back. The tunnel floor is boulders and broken stone, ideal for 2014 Stone Camouflage. The scouts are alive, trapped behind the rubble, and two gricks are working at the gap. The party has to clear the gricks before the scouts' lamp oil runs out.

Climbing the gorge. The party is climbing a 60-foot cliff face to reach a cave. Gricks nest in cracks halfway up and attack climbers. Climbing characters move at half speed, can't easily dodge and are a long way up if the 2024 grapple holds them. Rope, pitons and a belay partner become real tactics.

Gricks make good repeat monsters in a cave crawl, and Loreify can record each session so the party's map notes and close calls stay in one place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a grick in 5e?

A grick is CR 2 and worth 450 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The 2014 grick has 27 hit points; the 2024 grick has 54.

Does a grick resist nonmagical damage?

The 2014 grick resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks. The 2024 grick has no damage resistances at all, but twice the hit points.

Is a grick an aberration?

In the 2024 rules, yes: it's a Medium Aberration. In the 2014 rules it's a Medium Monstrosity. The type matters for Protection from Evil and Good, which works against Aberrations but not Monstrosities.

Can a grick grapple?

Only the 2024 grick. Its Tentacles attack grapples a Medium or smaller target (escape DC 12) on a hit. The 2014 grick's tentacles just deal slashing damage and open up a beak attack.

Is a grick a good monster for level 1?

No. One grick exceeds the High budget for four level 1 characters under the 2024 rules and the Deadly threshold under the 2014 guidelines. The 2014 grick's resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks makes it even worse for a party with no magic.

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.