Raven 5e: Stats, Mimicry and the Raven Familiar

The raven is a CR 0 Tiny Beast with AC 12, 1 hit point (2 in 2024), a 50-foot fly speed and a beak that deals exactly 1 damage. Nobody fights a raven. What makes it worth a page is Mimicry: it repeats simple sounds it has heard, and anyone who hears them has to pass a DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check to tell they're fake. The raven is on the Find Familiar list in both editions, and it's the bird familiar you pick for sound tricks, not for night scouting: it has no darkvision. The 2024 version doubles its hit points and raises its Intelligence from 2 to 5.

Table of Contents

• •Raven Stat Block (2014)
• •The Raven in the 2024 Rules
• •How Mimicry Works
• •The Raven Familiar
• •How Ravens Fight
• •Running Ravens in an Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Raven Spy
• •Raven Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Raven Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 raven:

The beak is +4 to hit for 1 damage. Perception +3 gives a passive 13. The raven has no darkvision and no keen senses, so after dark it sees no better than a human.

The Raven in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 makes small changes:

Two points matter. 2 hit points makes the 2024 raven sturdier than the owl and hawk (1 each). Intelligence 5 matters when someone casts Speak with Animals and asks it what it saw. The 2024 Mimicry text drops the "baby crying" example, but the rule is the same: simple sounds it has heard, DC 10 Insight to spot the fake.

How Mimicry Works

What it does. The raven reproduces a simple sound it has heard. A creature that hears it spots the fake with a DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check. A guard with Wisdom +0 succeeds on a 10 or better (55%), so the trick works a bit under half the time.

What it doesn't do. It doesn't give the raven speech. The SRD doesn't define "simple", but its examples point to short noises: a whisper, a cough, a door creaking, a dog barking. A reasonable ruling is that a full sentence in someone's voice is beyond it. It also can't repeat a sound it has never heard, so a raven that has never met the duke can't imitate the duke.

When to call for the check. Call for the roll when a listener has a reason to doubt: a whisper behind a guard on a quiet night. A crying baby in a busy market draws no check at all.

Good uses at the table:

• •Pull a guard. A whisper or a clatter from the far end of a corridor. On a failed Insight check, the guard goes to look and the rogue slips past.
• •Fake a pursuit. Footsteps and barking from the woods behind a group of bandits make them think the watch is coming.
• •Signal. Agree with the party that the raven's caw means "clear" and its imitation of a horse's whinny means "guards coming." It's a code nobody else knows.

The Raven Familiar

Find Familiar lists the raven by name in both editions. The familiar takes the raven's statistics but is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend instead of a Beast. It obeys you, can't attack, and can deliver touch spells with its reaction within 100 feet. You talk to it telepathically within 100 feet.

What makes a raven a good or bad familiar choice:

• •Good: the sound tricks. It's the only Beast in either SRD with Mimicry (the only other creature with the trait is the green hag). Telepathy lets you tell it exactly when to make the noise.
• •Bad: no darkvision. An owl sees 120 feet in the dark. Looking through a raven's eyes in an unlit dungeon shows you nothing. Use the raven in daylight, cities and lit halls.
• •Bad: no Flyby. It can fly in to take the Help action, but it provokes an opportunity attack when it leaves. With 1 or 2 hit points, that's usually a dead raven. Keep it out of melee.
• •Seeing through its eyes costs your action in 2014 (and you're blind and deaf to your own senses until your next turn) and a Bonus Action in 2024.

How Ravens Fight

Barely. A raven hits AC 12 on an 8 (65%) and deals 1 damage. Ten ravens attacking an AC 12 target would average about 6.5 damage a round, which is why the SRD has a separate swarm of ravens stat block for the "cloud of angry birds" scene. A single raven flies off when threatened, at 50 feet a turn, out of most characters' reach.

Running Ravens in an Encounter

A raven is worth 10 XP. Ten ravens are 100 XP, a Low encounter for four level 1 characters under the 2024 rules (100 of the 200 Low budget). Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), the group multiplier for 7 to 10 creatures (×2.5) makes ten ravens 250 adjusted XP (Medium for that party), but that number badly overstates a flock of 1-damage birds. Use a swarm stat block for a fight and keep individual ravens for everything else:

• •The enemy's eyes. An enemy wizard's raven familiar watching the party's inn. The party might notice it on a Perception check against its Stealth, or just notice the same bird on the same roof three days running.
• •Messengers. Animal Messenger works on any Tiny Beast, and a flying messenger covers about 50 miles per 24 hours. In 2014 the raven goes without a save. In 2024 a CR 0 beast makes a Charisma save first; the raven's is −2, so against DC 13 it ends up carrying the message 70% of the time. The Silver Raven figurine (uncommon, in both SRDs) becomes a raven for up to 12 hours and lets its owner cast Animal Messenger on it.
• •A druid's voice. A 2024 druid keeps the ability to speak in Wild Shape, so a level 8 druid can become a raven that talks (the raven has a fly speed, so it needs druid level 8 in both editions). A raven that speaks full sentences is a great NPC reveal, and it's legal under 2024 rules.

How Players Beat a Raven Spy

• •Hit it once. Any hit kills a 2014 raven, and almost any hit kills a 2024 one. A thrown dagger or a cantrip does it.
• •Notice the pattern. A real raven doesn't follow a party from town to town. If the same bird shows up twice, suspect a familiar. A familiar is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend, not a Beast, so Detect Evil and Good senses it within 30 feet while an ordinary raven doesn't register.
• •Call the bluff. When a noise is too convenient, ask for the DC 10 Insight check.
• •Ask it. Speak with Animals lets you question a wild raven about what it has seen in the last day. A 2014 raven (Intelligence 2) gives simple answers. A 2024 raven (Intelligence 5) is a better witness.

Raven Encounter Ideas

The crying in the cellar. Villagers hear a baby crying in the cellar of an abandoned house every evening. Three people have gone down to look and not come back. A 2014 raven nesting in the broken chimney has learned the sound from a family that once lived there, and something in the cellar has learned that the sound brings dinner.

The informant on the gallows. A raven perches on the gallows every day and mimics the last words of the condemned: a whisper, a gasp, the trapdoor's creak. The townsfolk think it's an omen. It belongs to a green hag, who has Mimicry of her own, and she uses it to listen to whoever comes to watch. Two mimics working together can stage a whole conversation from the far side of a wall.

The talking raven. A 2024 druid in raven form lands on the party's table and speaks: she's been watching them for a week and needs help. Her grove is being cut down by a baron's woodsmen, and a bird with a 1-damage beak can't stop a dozen axes. The party decides whether to trust a talking raven, and whether to tell anyone that one followed them. If your table likes to keep track of who's been watching them, Loreify's session notes do the remembering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a raven familiar talk in 5e?

No. A raven familiar uses the raven's statistics, and Mimicry only reproduces simple sounds it has heard, like a whisper or a chitter. You communicate with it telepathically within 100 feet. A 2024 druid in raven form, however, keeps the ability to speak.

What does raven Mimicry do?

It lets the raven mimic simple sounds it has heard, such as a whisper. A creature that hears them can tell they're imitations with a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check.

How much HP does a raven have in 5e?

A 2014 raven has 1 hit point (1d4 − 1). A 2024 raven has 2 (1d4), more than the owl or hawk.

Does a raven have darkvision in 5e?

No, in neither edition. Its only sense is passive Perception 13. For a familiar that sees in the dark, take an owl (darkvision 120 feet).

How much XP is a raven worth?

A raven is CR 0 and worth 10 XP in both editions.

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.