Invisible Stalker 5e: Stats, Tactics and How to Fight Something You Can't See

The invisible stalker is a CR 6 Elemental with AC 14, 104 hit points (97 in 2024), 50 feet of walking and hovering flight, and a trait that decides every fight it's in: it is always invisible. Players attack it with Disadvantage and it attacks them with Advantage until someone fixes that with a spell or a trick. The 2014 version is a hunter with Faultless Tracker, which always knows where its assigned quarry is. The 2024 version drops the tracking trait, becomes Large, and gains Vortex, which swallows a caster in a howling grapple that stops spells with a Verbal component.

Table of Contents

• •Invisible Stalker Stat Block (2014)
• •The Invisible Stalker in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Invisible Stalker Fights
• •Running an Invisible Stalker Encounter
• •How Players Beat an Invisible Stalker
• •Invisible Stalker Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Invisible Stalker Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 stalker, a Medium Elemental that understands Common but only speaks Auran:

On paper this is a modest CR 6: two slams at +6 for 10 bludgeoning each. The numbers that matter are elsewhere. Stealth +10 and passive Perception 18 mean it notices the party long before the party has any chance of noticing it. Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks halves a mundane sword. Its condition immunities include Grappled, Prone and Restrained, so nets, Entangle and shoving all fail.

Faultless Tracker is the story trait. Whoever summoned the stalker gives it a quarry, and it knows the direction and distance to that quarry anywhere on the same plane. It also always knows where its summoner is. The SRD doesn't say how stalkers are summoned. One rules-legal route: Conjure Elemental (2014) cast with a 6th-level slot calls an elemental of CR 6 or lower, and the stalker qualifies.

The Invisible Stalker in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the CR, XP, AC and ability scores but rebuilds what the stalker does on its turn.

What changes at the table:

• •It hits much harder. Three force attacks instead of two bludgeoning ones, and force damage is rarely resisted.
• •Magic weapons no longer get through. The 2024 resistance covers all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, so a +1 longsword deals half.
• •Air Form puts it inside you. It can enter an enemy's space and stop there, and Vortex only targets a creature in its space. It also slips through any gap an inch wide: keyholes, arrow slits, under doors.
• •No more Faultless Tracker. The 2024 block has no tracking trait. If your plot needs a stalker that always finds its target, give it that as a story element, or use the 2014 block.
• •It can talk. The 2024 stalker speaks Common, so it can deliver threats or messages.

How the Invisible Stalker Fights

The stalker doesn't need clever positioning to win the opening rounds. It needs the party to be slow at answering one question: where is it?

Advantage on every attack. Against AC 16, the 2014 stalker hits on a 10 (55%), which Advantage raises to about 80%. Two slams average about 16 damage a round. The 2024 stalker hits on a 9 (60%, about 84% with Advantage), so three Wind Swipes average about 28 damage a round. Two turns of that is more than a level 6 wizard's hit points (38 with Con +2).

Pick the caster, then Vortex. In 2024, the stalker drifts into the wizard's space and swaps one swipe for Vortex. A wizard with Con +2 fails the DC 14 save 55% of the time, takes 7 thunder, and is grappled. Until they escape (an action, Athletics or Acrobatics vs DC 13) they can't cast anything with a Verbal component and take another 7 thunder at the start of each of the stalker's turns. Meanwhile the stalker keeps swiping with its other two attacks.

No opportunity attacks against it. In both editions you can only make an opportunity attack against a creature you can see. The stalker can strike the cleric, fly 50 feet to the archer and strike again without anyone getting a free swing.

Invisible isn't the same as hidden. In 2014, an invisible creature counts as heavily obscured for hiding, so the stalker can take the Hide action anywhere; while it's merely invisible, the 2014 rules let noise and tracks give away its location, and a hidden stalker gives away its location when it attacks. In 2024, Hide needs Heavily Obscured or three-quarters/total cover and no enemy line of sight, so in an open, lit room the stalker can't hide at all: the party can't see it, but they know roughly where it is. Behind a pillar or in darkness it can (Stealth +10 beats DC 15 on a 5 or better), and making an attack roll ends it. In both editions Hide costs its action, so a stalker that hides doesn't attack that turn.

Use the third dimension. It hovers at 50 feet. A stalker that attacks from the ceiling of a 30-foot hall, or from above a rope bridge, makes melee characters guess in three dimensions.

Know what it wants. A summoned 2014 stalker has a job. Once its quarry is dead or it's been dismissed, it has no reason to finish off everyone else. Let it break off when the target is gone.

Running an Invisible Stalker Encounter

An invisible stalker is worth 2,300 XP. With the 2024 budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

The XP budget doesn't price invisibility. A party with no answer to it (no Faerie Fire, no See Invisibility, no blindsight) will find one stalker much harder than "Low". A party that has the answer can turn it into a slugfest against an AC 14 creature with under 105 hit points.

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), one stalker is a Medium fight for four level 5 characters and Easy at level 6 (2,300 XP, just under the 2,400 Medium threshold). Treat level 6 or 7 as the sweet spot for a single stalker, and only drop it on a level 5 party that has at least one way to reveal it.

How Players Beat an Invisible Stalker

The fight is a race to remove its invisibility. After that it's an ordinary CR 6 creature with mediocre AC.

• •Outline it. Faerie Fire is an area spell, so you don't need to see the stalker to catch it in the 20-foot cube. Its Dex save is +4: against a DC 15 it fails on a 10 or lower, 50% of the time. On a failure it can't benefit from being invisible and every attack against it has Advantage. Cast it right after the stalker attacks, when you know its square.
• •See it. See Invisibility (2nd level, 1 hour, no concentration) lets the caster see it for the whole fight, though only that one character. Blindsight and truesight work too. The 2014 Onyx Dog figurine becomes a mastiff that can see invisible creatures within 60 feet; the 2024 version gets Blindsight 60 feet instead.
• •Area damage. Spells that fill an area don't care whether you can see the target. Fire, cold, lightning, radiant and force all bypass its resistances in both editions. Spirit Guardians is especially good because a stalker that wants to reach the cleric has to stay in it.
• •Send it home. Its Charisma save is +0, tied with Intelligence for its worst. Banishment needs a target you can see, so pair it with Faerie Fire or See Invisibility. Because the stalker is an Elemental from another plane, holding the spell for the full minute sends it home for good in both editions. Dispel Evil and Good also gives Elementals Disadvantage on attacks against the caster, cancelling the stalker's Advantage.
• •Make it make noise. Flour on the floor, dust in the air, bells on a string, a room full of loose pages. The 2014 Invisible condition says an invisible creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or tracks it leaves. The 2024 condition doesn't say this, so there it's a DM ruling whether the trick works. Either way, a clever trap tells the party which square to attack.
• •Don't bother grappling or restraining it. It's immune to Grappled, Restrained and Prone, so Entangle, nets and shoves do nothing. Against a 2024 stalker, a grappled caster should spend their action escaping the Vortex rather than trying to cast through it.

Weapon damage is the weak option. In 2014, bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks is halved and attacks have Disadvantage (a +7 attacker hits AC 14 on a 7, 70%, which falls to 49% with Disadvantage). In 2024 even magic weapons are halved. See the Invisible condition guide for how each edition handles seeing and targeting.

Invisible Stalker Encounter Ideas

The witness. A merchant saw something at the docks he shouldn't have, and now furniture moves on its own in his rented room. He hires the party as bodyguards for three nights until his ship leaves. A rival's 2014 stalker knows exactly where he is at all times. The party's job is to survive the nights, and to work out that killing the summoner ends the hunt faster than fighting the stalker.

The becalmed ship. A merchant ship sits motionless in open water, sails slack, crew gone. A 2024 stalker drifts in the rigging and through the cabin vents, using Air Form to slip under doors. It was bound to guard the hold's cargo by a wizard who died in a storm, and it still is. The captain's log says "the wind came aboard."

The broken leash. A court mage loses concentration on the Conjure Elemental spell that called a stalker into the palace. Under the 2014 spell, the elemental becomes hostile and stays for the rest of the hour. The party has under an hour in a crowded palace to stop something nobody can see before it does whatever it wants to the mage who summoned it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is an invisible stalker in 5e?

The invisible stalker is CR 6 and worth 2,300 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 14 in both, with 104 hit points in 2014 and 97 in 2024.

How do you fight an invisible stalker?

Make it visible or ignore the need to see it. Faerie Fire stops it from benefiting from invisibility, See Invisibility lets one character see it, and area spells hit it without needing a target. Once it's revealed, Banishment against its +0 Charisma save can send it off this plane for good.

Can you see an invisible stalker with See Invisibility?

Yes. See Invisibility lets the caster see invisible creatures for an hour, so that character attacks it normally and it doesn't get Advantage against them. Other party members still can't see it unless it's outlined by Faerie Fire.

What is Faultless Tracker?

It's the 2014 stalker's tracking trait. Its summoner gives it a quarry, and it knows the direction and distance to that quarry while they're on the same plane, plus where its summoner is. The 2024 stat block doesn't have this trait.

Is the invisible stalker Medium or Large?

Medium in the 2014 rules and Large in the 2024 rules. Despite the bigger size, the 2024 version's new Air Form lets it move through a gap 1 inch wide and stop in an enemy's space.

What's the difference between an invisible stalker and an air elemental?

Both are air-flavored Elementals that speak Auran (CR 5 and CR 6), but they fight differently. An air elemental is a visible whirlwind that hits groups. An invisible stalker is a single unseen hunter that picks one target at a time. If the party ends up hunting its summoner, Loreify's session notes keep track of the clues they found on the way.

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.