Hezrou 5e: Stats, Stench and Running the Toad Demon

The hezrou is a CR 8 Large demon (3,900 XP) with AC 16, 136 hit points and three melee attacks a turn. Its defining trait is Stench: anyone who starts a turn within 10 feet of it makes a Constitution save or is poisoned, which puts disadvantage on their attacks. It has no spells and no ranged attack. It is a brawler that makes the people standing next to it worse at hitting back. The 2024 hezrou is AC 18 with 157 HP, a harder DC 16 stench that never grants immunity, and a bonus-action Leap.

Table of Contents

• •Hezrou Stat Block (2014)
• •The 2024 Hezrou
• •How the Hezrou Fights
• •How Many Hezrous for a Level 7 Party?
• •How Players Beat a Hezrou
• •Hezrou Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Hezrou Stat Block (2014)

The numbers that matter: a bite for 15 and two claws for 11 each at +7, so 37 damage if all three land. Against AC 16 a +7 attack hits on a 9 or better (60%), which works out to about 22 damage a round. It has the usual 2014 demon package: resistance to cold, fire, lightning and to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, immunity to poison, and Magic Resistance.

The 2014 Stench has a built-in off switch. A creature that succeeds on the DC 14 save is immune to that hezrou's stench for 24 hours. In practice, each character is at risk for a round or two, then it stops mattering.

The 2024 Hezrou

The stench change is the big one. A wizard with a +2 Constitution save fails DC 16 on a 13 or lower, 65% of the time, and has to roll again every turn. Over three turns next to a 2024 hezrou, that wizard is poisoned on at least one of them about 96% of the time. The 2014 version would have stopped after the first success.

Three fifths of each Rend is poison damage. Anything with poison resistance, like a dwarf, takes 10 instead of 15 per hit. Demonic Restoration means a hezrou killed outside the Abyss reforms there instantly, so a Material Plane victory sends it home rather than ending it.

How the Hezrou Fights

Stand in the middle. The stench only works on creatures that start their turn within 10 feet. The hezrou wants to be surrounded. A fighter, a paladin and a cleric all in melee with it each roll every turn (2024) or until they succeed once (2014), and each one that fails attacks with disadvantage. A +9 attacker against its AC 16 drops from 70% to about 49% to hit.

Hit the person who isn't poisoned. A poisoned character is already doing half the hezrou's work for it. Spread the three attacks onto whoever passed the save. Each attack can go to a different target.

Leap past the line (2024). The bonus-action Leap spends 10 feet of movement to jump 30 feet. A 2024 hezrou can hop over the fighter, land next to the archer and the wizard, and put both inside its stench in one turn. That is the move that makes it feel smarter than its Intelligence 5.

Fight in tight spaces. Corridors and sewer tunnels force melee characters within 10 feet. In a 10-foot-wide passage there is no "stand back and stab" option.

Telepathy and simple minds. The hezrou has telepathy out to 120 feet but Intelligence 5. It works best as muscle under a smarter demon. A glabrezu or nalfeshnee gives the orders, and the hezrou holds the door.

How Many Hezrous for a Level 7 Party?

One hezrou is 3,900 XP. For four characters:

The 2014 column uses the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator). Two hezrous are 7,800 XP, multiplied by 1.5 for a pair, which crosses the Deadly line for four level 9 characters even though the 2024 budget calls it Moderate. With two hezrous, a melee character standing between them rolls against each one's stench every turn, and in 2014 a success only grants immunity to the hezrou it was made against.

How Players Beat a Hezrou

• •Stay 15 feet away. Characters outside 10 feet never roll against the stench. Reach weapons and ranged attacks do their full work. In 2024, watch for the Leap.
• •Pass the save once (2014). Against the 2014 hezrou, a front-liner who makes the DC 14 save is done with the stench for a day. Protection from Poison or a dwarf's poison resilience make the first save easier.
• •Don't use fire, cold or lightning. It resists all three, so Fireball and Cone of Cold deal half. Spirit Guardians (radiant) and Shatter (thunder) deal full damage.
• •Target Charisma or Intelligence. Its worst saves are Intelligence (-3) and Charisma (+1). Banishment at DC 15 still lands about 42% of the time even with Magic Resistance's advantage, and a banished demon that stays gone for the full minute goes home.
• •Bring magic weapons to the 2014 fight. The 2014 hezrou resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. The 2024 one doesn't.

Hezrou Encounter Ideas

The cistern gate. A city's flooded cistern has a summoning circle at the bottom, and a hezrou squats in the only 10-foot tunnel that leads to it. The party can't go around. They can only decide who goes first.

Ferry of the drowned. A hezrou rides a stolen barge down a marsh river, poisoning every fishing village it passes. Fighting on a 20-foot deck means nobody can stay out of the stench, but pushing it overboard is a real option.

The bodyguard. A nalfeshnee sends a hezrou to guard a cult's envoy at a parley. The hezrou never speaks, only stands in the doorway. If the talks go wrong, the party starts the fight already inside its stench.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a hezrou in 5e?

The hezrou is CR 8 and worth 3,900 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

How does the hezrou's Stench work?

Any creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of the hezrou makes a Constitution save or is poisoned until the start of its next turn. In 2014 the DC is 14 and a success makes the creature immune for 24 hours. In 2024 the DC is 16 and there is no immunity, so it rolls every turn.

Is the hezrou resistant to nonmagical weapons?

In 2014, yes: it resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks. The 2024 hezrou has no weapon resistance, only resistance to cold, fire and lightning.

Is a hezrou a demon or a devil?

A demon. It is a Large Fiend (Demon), chaotic evil, and speaks Abyssal. Unlike devils, it isn't immune to fire, only resistant.

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.