Poisonous Snake 5e: Venom, Snake Pits and the 2024 Venomous Snake

A poisonous snake is a CR 1/8 Tiny Beast with AC 13, 2 hit points, 30-foot walk and swim speeds, 10-foot blindsight and one bite: +5 to hit for 1 piercing damage, plus a DC 10 Constitution save against 5 (2d4) poison damage (half on a success). The 2024 rules rename it the Venomous Snake and rebuild the bite: no save, a flat 4 piercing plus 3 (1d6) poison, and 5 hit points instead of 2. The 2014 snake is mostly a familiar form and a trap. The 2024 snake hits harder and survives one hit.

Table of Contents

• •Poisonous Snake Stat Block (2014)
• •The Venomous Snake (2024)
• •How Poisonous Snakes Fight
• •Snake Pits: How Many Snakes for Level 1?
• •How Players Beat Poisonous Snakes
• •Snake Familiars and Wild Shape
• •Poisonous Snake Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Poisonous Snake Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 poisonous snake:

The bite deals poison damage. It does not give the Poisoned condition, in either edition, so a bitten character has no Disadvantage afterward.

The Venomous Snake (2024)

The XP is the same, but the 2024 snake is a better monster. It survives a hit for 1 or 2 damage and doesn't let a tough character shrug off the venom with a save.

How Poisonous Snakes Fight

Damage per bite. Against a character with Con +1, the 2014 save (DC 10) fails on 1-8, 40% of the time:

Neither snake will kill anyone alone. They matter in numbers and as a cost: a snake under a floor tile, in a chest or in a bedroll gets its first bite in before anyone sees it.

Blindsight 10 feet. The snake doesn't need light within 10 feet. It fights fine in a pitch-dark pit, which is where you want it: anyone without darkvision who drops in is fighting things they can't see.

Swim speed. It's as fast in water as on land. Put snakes in a flooded corridor: characters without a swim speed spend extra movement to swim, and the snakes don't.

Snake Pits: How Many Snakes for Level 1?

The 2014 labels come from the Dungeon Master's Guide multiplier in our encounter calculator. The 2014 math overrates 2014 snakes: eight 2-HP snakes bunched in a pit can die to one area spell. With the sturdier 2024 snakes, six or eight in a pit is a real fight. For a bigger threat, use a swarm of poisonous snakes or a giant poisonous snake (CR 1/4, 11 hit points, 10-foot reach).

How Players Beat Poisonous Snakes

• •One hit each. A 2014 snake has 2 hit points. A 2024 snake has 5. Any weapon hit kills either most of the time.
• •Area damage. Thunderwave or Burning Hands cleans out a pit. Against 2-HP 2014 snakes, even the half damage on a successful save almost always kills.
• •Dwarves. Dwarven Resilience gives resistance to poison damage in both editions, which halves the poison part of either bite.
• •Check before you reach. A Perception or Investigation check before opening a chest or reaching into a dark hole is the counter to the snake trap.

Snake Familiars and Wild Shape

Familiar. The 2014 Find Familiar list includes "poisonous snake". The familiar can't attack, so the venom never matters. It's a Tiny scout with a swim speed and blindsight. The 2024 Find Familiar list doesn't name a snake, and the Venomous Snake is CR 1/8, above the CR 0 limit for "another Beast", so it isn't eligible.

Wild Shape. CR 1/8, but it has a swim speed. In the 2014 rules that means druid level 4 (level 2 forms can't swim). In the 2024 rules only fly speeds are restricted, so it's available at level 2.

Poisonous Snake Encounter Ideas

The tax collector's chest. A paranoid tax collector keeps two poisonous snakes in his strongbox. The party has to steal the ledger out of it without waking the snakes, which react to anything that touches the coins.

The flooded crypt. The lowest level of a crypt has flooded knee-deep. Six snakes swim through it. The water is dark, the snakes have blindsight, and the party's torches only make the surface glare.

The snake charmer. A traveling performer's act uses four snakes, and someone has swapped one for a much deadlier giant poisonous snake to kill a noble in the audience. The party has one show to find out who.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a poisonous snake in 5e?

CR 1/8 (25 XP). The 2024 Venomous Snake has the same CR and XP.

What is the poisonous snake called in the 2024 rules?

The Venomous Snake. It has 5 hit points instead of 2, AC 12, and a bite that deals 4 piercing plus 3 poison damage with no saving throw.

Does a poisonous snake bite poison you?

It deals poison damage but doesn't give the Poisoned condition, in either edition.

Can a poisonous snake be a familiar?

In the 2014 rules, yes: it's on the Find Familiar list. In the 2024 rules, no: the Venomous Snake is CR 1/8 and isn't named on the list.

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.