Spider 5e: Stats, Familiar Uses and the 2024 Bite

The spider is a CR 0 Tiny beast with AC 12, 1 hit point, a 20-foot climb speed and Stealth +4. In a fight it barely registers: one hit from anything kills it. Its real job at the table is utility. A spider familiar or a druid in spider form walks across ceilings, feels every creature touching its web and scouts places a cat or an owl can't reach. The 2024 rules keep the numbers but drop the saving throw from its bite, so the poison damage always lands on a hit.

Table of Contents

• •Spider Stat Block (2014)
• •The Spider in the 2024 Rules
• •Spider Familiars, Wild Shape and Polymorph
• •How Spiders Fight
• •Running Spiders in an Encounter
• •How Players Beat Spiders
• •Spider Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Spider Stat Block (2014)

This is the ordinary spider from SRD 5.1, the same one the 2014 Find Familiar spell lists by name.

The bite is the only attack: +4 to hit for 1 piercing damage, and the target makes a DC 9 Constitution save or takes another 2 (1d4) poison damage. Against a commoner (AC 10, 4 hit points) that's a real threat over a few rounds. Against an adventurer it's a nuisance.

The three traits are where the value is. Spider Climb lets it walk on walls and ceilings without a check. Web Sense tells it the exact location of anything else touching the same web. Web Walker means webbing never slows it down. Darkvision 30 feet covers a dark room, though not a large cave.

The Spider in the 2024 Rules

Only the bite matters in practice. The 2014 spider needs a hit and a failed save. A level 1 fighter with Constitution +2 fails a DC 9 save only on a roll of 1 to 6, so most bites deal 1 damage. The 2024 spider deals 3.5 on average every time it connects, which doubles its damage per hit against adventurers (3.5 vs 1.75 for that fighter).

Spider Familiars, Wild Shape and Polymorph

Most players meet the spider stat block from the other side of the screen.

Find Familiar. Spider is on the 2014 list by name, and the 2024 spell lists it as well (along with any other CR 0 Beast). The familiar becomes a Celestial, Fey or Fiend instead of a Beast and can't attack in either edition, so the bite never comes up. What you get is a scout that climbs to the ceiling of a throne room and sits in a corner with Stealth +4. Through the telepathic link you see what it sees. In 2014 that costs your action and leaves you blind and deaf to your own surroundings; in 2024 it's a Bonus Action with no such drawback. The familiar can also deliver touch spells as a Reaction while it's within 100 feet of you.

Wild Shape. The 2024 druid's Wild Shape names the Spider as one of four recommended starting forms. Under the 2014 rules it qualifies at 2nd level too: CR 1/4 or lower, no fly or swim speed. The difference is durability. A 2014 druid takes the spider's 1 hit point and drops back to druid form after one hit. A 2024 druid keeps their own hit points and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to their druid level, so a spider-shaped druid can take a stray hit and keep scouting.

Polymorph as a disable. Polymorph can turn any creature into a Beast with a CR equal to or lower than the target's, and CR 0 qualifies for everything. Turning an ogre into a spider removes its attacks, but it ends on the first damage. In 2014 the target has 1 hit point and reverts when it drops to 0, carrying over the excess damage. In 2024 it gets 1 Temporary Hit Point and the spell ends when that's gone. Use it to take a brute out of the fight, then make sure nobody on your side hits it.

How Spiders Fight

A single spider doesn't fight; it hides. When cornered it bites the nearest creature and tries to climb out of reach.

The math on one bite (+4 to hit):

The 2014 figures fold in the save: on a hit the target always takes 1, plus 2.5 on a failed DC 9 save (40% for Con +0, 30% for Con +2).

That's why a spider is a threat to sleepers, children and livestock rather than to a party. The bite deals poison damage but never applies the Poisoned condition, so there's no lingering penalty after a bite.

What changes the picture is numbers and webs. A web full of spiders gives every one of them perfect knowledge of where the intruders are. Put the party in a webbed corridor and the spiders know who touched which strand before anyone rolls Perception.

Running Spiders in an Encounter

A spider is worth 10 XP. Under the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget, four level 1 characters have a Low budget of 200 XP, which buys 20 spiders. Nobody should run 20 individual spiders. That's what the swarm of spiders stat block (2014, CR 1/2) exists for: one creature with 22 hit points standing in for the whole mass.

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator) show the same thing. Ten spiders are 100 XP, multiplied by 2.5 for a group of 7 to 10, so 250 XP, a Medium encounter for four level 1 characters. Ten d20 rolls for 1 damage each is slow, so use the swarm.

Use individual spiders as:

• •A hazard. A chest or a boot with a spider in it. One bite, then it runs.
• •A sign. Ordinary spiders gathering in one place means something bigger is nearby: a giant spider (CR 1), a pack of giant wolf spiders (CR 1/4) or a phase spider (CR 3).
• •An enemy's eyes. An NPC wizard with a spider familiar is the cheapest spy in the game.

How Players Beat Spiders

• •Any damage kills it. 1 hit point means a single cantrip, a thrown dagger or a stomp ends it. Area spells clear a room of them.
• •Finding it is the hard part. Stealth +4 and a ceiling to hide on mean the party usually doesn't see it. Light helps. In 2024, Hide needs the creature to be Heavily Obscured or behind three-quarters or total cover, so a lit room with clean walls leaves it nowhere to go.
• •Check the familiar. A spider sitting perfectly still in the corner of a sealed vault is not a normal spider. Detect Evil and Good senses Celestials, Fiends and Fey, which covers every Find Familiar spirit. A familiar that drops to 0 hit points disappears in both editions, which is its own confirmation.
• •Burn the web. Without the web, a spider loses Web Sense and the party loses the alarm system.

Spider Encounter Ideas

The witness. A merchant was poisoned in a locked room. The only living thing inside was a spider in the rafters, and it belongs to the merchant's apprentice, a hedge wizard who swears it's an ordinary house spider. Speak with Animals gets no answer at all, because it isn't a Beast. Detect Evil and Good says it's a Fey. The apprentice watched the murder through its eyes and is too frightened to say who did it.

The quiet larder. A village's grain store has been webbed over, and the farmers want it burned. A druid in the party can Wild Shape into a spider and walk the webs to count what's in there. Most of it is harmless. Web Sense tells the druid that something heavy is touching the far end of the web and hasn't moved in an hour.

The letter box. A rival sends the party a gift: a sealed box with a spider inside, plus a note. With the 2014 bite it's an insult. With the 2024 bite, opened by a commoner servant, it's a 2.6-damage-per-round threat to a 4-hit-point NPC, and the party has to decide whether the rival meant to hurt the messenger.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a spider in 5e?

The spider is CR 0 and worth 10 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 12 and 1 hit point.

Is a spider bite poisonous in 5e?

Yes. In 2014 the bite deals 1 piercing damage and the target makes a DC 9 Constitution save or takes 2 (1d4) poison damage. In 2024 the bite deals 1 piercing plus 2 (1d4) poison damage with no save.

Can you have a spider familiar?

Yes. The 2014 Find Familiar spell lists the spider by name, and the 2024 spell lists it among its forms. The familiar can't attack, but it can climb ceilings, scout with Stealth +4 and deliver touch spells.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a spider?

Yes, from 2nd level in both editions. It's a CR 0 Beast with no fly or swim speed, and the 2024 rules list it as a recommended starting form.

What's the difference between Web Sense and Web Walker?

In 2014 they're separate traits: Web Sense tells the spider where every creature touching its web is, and Web Walker ignores movement restrictions from webbing. The 2024 spider has one Web Walker trait that does both.

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.