Rat 5e: Stats, the Rat Familiar and Rat Wild Shape

A rat is a CR 0 Tiny beast with AC 10, 1 hit point, a 20-foot speed, 30-foot darkvision and a bite that deals 1 piercing damage. On its own it's not a threat. It matters because players use it: the rat is on the Find Familiar list in both editions, and the 2024 rules name it as a recommended Wild Shape form for a level 2 druid. The 2024 rat (SRD 5.2.1) adds a 20-foot climb speed and the Agile trait, which stops it from provoking opportunity attacks. That one trait turns the rat from the weakest familiar on the list into one of the most useful in melee.

Table of Contents

• •Rat Stat Block (2014)
• •The Rat in the 2024 Rules
• •The Rat Familiar
• •Rat Wild Shape and Polymorph
• •How Rats Fight
• •Running Rats in an Encounter
• •How Players Beat Rats
• •Rat Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Rat Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 rat.

Keen Smell gives it Advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell. Advantage adds 5 to a passive score, so for anything it can smell, a 2014 rat's passive Perception is 15 instead of 10. That beats most level 1 characters, and smell works past the end of its 30-foot darkvision.

The Rat in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 rat trades a better nose for a better body. Climb 20 feet puts it on walls, rafters and shelves. Agile means it doesn't provoke an Opportunity Attack when it moves out of an enemy's reach, on any turn, with no action spent. The bite bonus rising from +0 to +2 matters only for a DM running rats as enemies.

The Rat Familiar

Find Familiar names the rat in both SRDs. The spirit uses the rat's statistics but is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend (your choice). It obeys your commands, rolls its own initiative, can't attack, and can deliver your touch spells with its reaction while within 100 feet of you.

Why a 2024 rat beats most familiars at the Help action. A familiar earns its keep in combat by taking the Help action: it distracts an enemy within 5 feet, and an ally's next attack against that enemy has Advantage. The catch is getting out again. Leaving an enemy's reach provokes an opportunity attack, and most familiars have 1 to 3 hit points. The 2014 fix is the owl's Flyby. The 2024 rat has its own fix in Agile:

1. •Move 10 feet to a space within 5 feet of the enemy.
2. •Take the Help action.
3. •Move 10 feet away. Agile means no opportunity attack.

Its 20-foot speed is the limit: the rat has to start within 15 feet of the target to get in and out on the same turn, where an owl can cover 30 feet each way. In a tight melee that's rarely a problem.

A 2014 rat can't do this safely. It reaches the enemy and Helps, then either stays (and gets attacked on the enemy's turn) or leaves and eats an opportunity attack. With 1 hit point and AC 10, either way usually ends with an hour-long recast.

What Advantage is worth. A level 3 fighter with +5 to hit against AC 14 hits on a 9 or better, 60% of the time. With Advantage that rises to 1 − 0.4 × 0.4 = 84%. For a rogue, Advantage also unlocks Sneak Attack.

Out of combat. A rat is the familiar nobody notices in a tavern cellar, a barracks or a sewer, and seeing through its senses gives the caster its 30-foot darkvision. The 2014 rat's nose makes it a decent sentry; the 2024 rat's climb speed gets it into the rafters of a meeting hall.

Rat Wild Shape and Polymorph

Wild Shape. The rat is eligible for a level 2 druid in both editions: it's below the CR 1/4 cap and has no fly speed (2014 also bars swim speeds at level 2; the rat has none). How good it is depends on the edition:

• •2014: you take the rat's hit points. A rat-form druid has 1 hit point, so the first hit reverts you, with excess damage carrying over to your normal form. The rat is a scouting form and nothing more.
• •2024: you keep your own hit points and gain temporary hit points equal to your druid level. You also keep the ability to speak. A level 2 druid in rat form has their full hit points plus 2 temporary ones, climbs walls, and can talk to the party. The SRD 5.2.1 Wild Shape text lists the rat as one of four recommended starting forms, along with the riding horse, spider and wolf.

Use the form for infiltration: under a door, through a drain, onto a ledge. Pick a wolf for fighting.

Polymorph. A rat is a CR 0 Beast, so it's a legal Polymorph form for any target that fails the Wisdom save. Turning an enemy into a rat takes away its attacks and spells. In 2014 it has 1 hit point and the first hit ends the spell, with excess damage carrying through to its real body. In 2024 it keeps its own hit points and gains 1 temporary hit point, and the spell ends when that's gone. Either way, the rat-shaped enemy is out of the fight only until someone hits it.

How Rats Fight

Rats do almost nothing as enemies. A 2014 rat hits AC 16 on a 16 or better, 25% of the time, for 1 damage. Ten rats on a fighter deal about 2.5 damage a round. The 2024 rat's +2 helps (35% against AC 16) but doesn't change the picture.

Where rats bite is against the unarmored. Against AC 10 a 2024 rat hits 65% of the time, so a sleeping or Incapacitated character surrounded by rats takes real damage. That makes rats a good tool for a scene, not a fight: the party wakes in a cellar, the rats are already there, and the question is how much damage the party takes before it gets organized.

Being Tiny helps rats move. Under the 2014 rules a creature can pass through a hostile creature's space if it's at least two sizes larger or smaller, so a rat can run through a Medium character's square. The 2024 rules go further: anyone can pass through a Tiny creature's space, and a Tiny creature's space isn't Difficult Terrain. Rats don't block corridors.

Rats fleeing up a stairwell also make a good early warning that something worse is coming.

Running Rats in an Encounter

A rat is worth 10 XP. The 2024 Low budget for four level 1 characters (200 XP) would be twenty rats, each with its own turn and attack roll. Use these instead:

Ordinary rats then become dressing: they show up as a wererat's spies, a sign that a sewer is lived in, or the thing a nervous NPC mistakes for a monster. If you do run a handful of rats, roll their attacks as a group with the dice roller and check our encounter calculator only to confirm they're Trivial. Four rats are 40 XP, doubled to 80 under the 2014 group multiplier, still below the Easy threshold (100) for four level 1 characters.

How Players Beat Rats

• •Any hit kills. Every rat has 1 hit point. AC 10 is hit by nearly everything.
• •Area spells clear a room. Thunderwave or Burning Hands kills every rat in the area, even the ones that save: half damage is still at least 1.
• •Talk to them. Speak with Animals turns a sewer full of rats into a crowd of witnesses. Rats have Intelligence 2, so they know what they saw and smelled, not what it meant.
• •Spot the familiar. A rat that doesn't flee from armed people, or that turns up in three different rooms, may be someone's familiar or a Wild Shaped druid. In 2024, a druid rat that takes a hit and doesn't die is a giveaway.

Rat Encounter Ideas

The witness. A merchant was killed in a locked warehouse. The only witnesses were the rats. With Speak with Animals the party learns the killer "smelled of the sea and of the man from the tower," which narrows the suspects to two people the rats see every day.

The talking rat. A rat in the party's inn room speaks. It's a druid in 2024 Wild Shape (which keeps the ability to speak), sent by a druid circle to warn the party, and the form could end at any moment in full view of the innkeeper's dog. A 2014 druid can't speak in beast form, so under 2014 rules the rat leads the party to a note instead.

Rats leaving the ship. Every rat on a cargo ship crowds the gangplank at dawn and flees into the harbor. The crew laughs. Whatever the rats smelled in the hold is still in the hold, and the ship sails at noon.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a rat in 5e?

A rat is CR 0 and worth 10 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

Can a rat be a familiar in 5e?

Yes. Find Familiar lists the rat by name in both the 2014 and 2024 SRDs. The familiar uses the rat's stat block but is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend instead of a Beast.

What does the Agile trait do?

Agile, on the 2024 rat, means the rat doesn't provoke an Opportunity Attack when it moves out of an enemy's reach. A rat familiar can move in, take the Help action and move away without being attacked.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a rat at level 2?

Yes, in both editions. The rat is CR 0 with no fly or swim speed. The 2024 SRD lists it as a recommended level 2 form, and 2024 druids keep their own hit points in beast form.

What's the difference between a rat and a giant rat?

A rat is a Tiny CR 0 beast with 1 hit point and a 1-damage bite. A giant rat is a Small CR 1/8 beast with 7 hit points, a bite that deals 4 damage (5 in 2024) and Pack Tactics, and is the one to use when you want rats that can threaten a level 1 party.

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.