Hunter Shark 5e: Blood Frenzy and the Shark That Hunts Alone

The hunter shark is a CR 2 Large Beast with AC 12, 45 hit points, a 40-foot swim speed and one bite at +6 that deals 13 piercing damage (14 in 2024). Its defining trait is Blood Frenzy: it has Advantage on attacks against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. Once someone in the water is bleeding, the shark hits them about four times in five. The 2024 rules write Blood Frenzy directly into the bite, raise its damage to 3d6 + 4, and double its blindsight to 60 feet.

Table of Contents

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

Hunter Shark Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 hunter shark:

The SRD places it between the reef shark and the giant shark: 15 to 20 feet long, living in deep water, usually hunting alone, though several may feed in the same area. Its bite is +6 for 13 (2d8 + 4). Blood Frenzy gives it Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. It can breathe only underwater and has no walking speed.

Its only sense beyond normal sight is blindsight 30 feet, enough to find a swimmer in murky water or at night once it's close.

The Hunter Shark in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps CR 2, AC 12, 45 hit points and the 40-foot swim speed.

The bite is its only attack, so the 2024 rewrite of Blood Frenzy plays the same way. The real upgrade is blindsight 60: a 2024 hunter shark perceives everything within 60 feet regardless of light, murk or invisibility, which covers most underwater encounter areas.

How the Hunter Shark Fights

First blood changes the fight. Against a character at full hit points, the shark is an ordinary +6 attacker. Against anyone who has taken even 1 point of damage, it has Advantage. The math against AC 16:

Pick the wounded swimmer. A hunter shark with blindsight doesn't need to see who's bleeding; the rules only care whether the target is missing hit points. Have it ignore the full-health fighter and go for anyone who hasn't healed to full since an earlier fight, so Blood Frenzy is on from the first bite.

Use depth. A swim speed of 40 lets it attack and pull back out of reach. Characters without a swim speed move at half speed in water (every foot of swimming costs an extra foot), so a shark can bite, swim 40 feet down into the dark, and come back next round.

It leaves when the meal costs too much. The SRD says it usually hunts alone. A lone shark below about 20 hit points should break off. A second hunter shark arriving because of the blood in the water is a good escalation.

Running a Hunter Shark Encounter

Four characters, 2024 SRD budget:

The 2014 column follows the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines our encounter calculator uses. The SRD says hunter sharks usually hunt alone; pairing one with a reef shark school is a story choice (they're both drawn to the same blood).

Both difficulty systems assume the party can fight normally. Underwater, a party without swim speeds or piercing weapons is at a real disadvantage, so a "Moderate" shark encounter in the water plays harder than the label. For a bigger threat, use the Huge giant shark (CR 5).

How Players Beat a Hunter Shark

• •Fight from above the water. It can't leave the water, so characters on a boat deck or a pier are hard for it to reach. The SRD's underwater rules cover attacks made underwater, not attacks from above the surface into it. DM ruling, not rules text: apply the underwater ranged penalty if the shark is fully submerged.
• •Heal before you swim. Blood Frenzy keys off missing hit points. A character at full hit points denies the shark Advantage until it lands its first bite. Temporary hit points help here: damage they absorb doesn't reduce your hit points.
• •Use piercing weapons underwater. In 2014, daggers, javelins, shortswords, spears and tridents avoid the Disadvantage that other melee weapons have for creatures without a swim speed; in 2024, any piercing weapon does.
• •Target its Wisdom. Its Wisdom save is +0 and it has no save proficiencies. Animal Friendship works on a Beast with Intelligence 1: on a failed save it is charmed by the caster for 24 hours, until the caster or an ally damages it. Command won't help in 2014 (the target must understand your language), and Charm Person can't target a Beast.
• •Spells ignore the water penalty. Spell attacks and saving-throw spells aren't impeded underwater (only fire damage is reduced, since everything underwater resists fire).

Hunter Shark Encounter Ideas

The harbor that stopped fishing. A port's fishing fleet stays tied up because a hunter shark has been ramming small boats and taking whoever falls in. The harbor master suspects it was drawn by the slaughterhouse dumping offal into the bay. Killing the shark solves this week; moving the slaughterhouse solves next year.

The druid's summons. A 2014 druid's Conjure Animals can call one beast of CR 2 or lower, and a hunter shark qualifies. An NPC druid has been summoning sharks to guard a sunken shrine. The 2024 version of the spell summons a spectral pack instead of specific beasts, so this hook needs 2014 rules or a different summoner.

Bleeding in the water. The party is shipwrecked in the middle of a fight, still wounded, and in the water. Every one of them is missing hit points. A hunter shark arrives in round three.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a hunter shark?

The hunter shark is CR 2 (450 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 12 and 45 hit points.

How does Blood Frenzy work in 5e?

In 2014, Blood Frenzy gives the shark Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. The 2024 hunter shark has no separate trait; its Bite is made with Advantage if the target doesn't have all its Hit Points. Either way, any damage to a target's hit points turns it on. Damage absorbed by temporary hit points doesn't count, because it doesn't reduce hit points.

What's the difference between a hunter shark and a giant shark?

The hunter shark is a Large CR 2 shark with one bite. The giant shark is a Huge CR 5 shark with a much larger bite and many more hit points, and in 2024 it bites twice per turn. Both have Blood Frenzy (as a trait in 2014, built into the bite in 2024).

What's the difference between a hunter shark and a reef shark?

The reef shark is Medium, CR 1/2, and hunts in packs with Pack Tactics. The hunter shark is Large, CR 2, usually hunts alone, and gets Advantage from Blood Frenzy instead.

Can a hunter shark leave the water?

No. It can breathe only underwater. The 2024 version has a 5-foot walking speed, but out of water it can't breathe.

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.