Stirge 5e: Stats, Blood Drain and Running a Stirge Flock

A stirge is a CR 1/8 Tiny flying bloodsucker with AC 14, 2 hit points and one attack, Blood Drain: a +5 bite for 5 piercing damage that leaves the stirge stuck to its victim, draining 5 more hit points at the start of each of its turns. In the 2014 rules it lets go once it has drained 10 hit points, so each stirge that lands costs its victim about 15 hit points if nobody pulls it off. The 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) make it a Monstrosity with 5 hit points and remove the 10-point cap entirely: a 2024 stirge keeps feeding until someone removes it or kills it.

Table of Contents

• •Stirge Stat Block (2014)
• •The Stirge in the 2024 Rules
• •How Stirges Fight
• •How Many Stirges for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Stirges
• •Stirge Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Stirge Stat Block (2014)

The stat block is tiny but the attack bonus is not. +5 to hit is what a level 1 fighter has, so a stirge hits AC 16 chain mail on an 11 or better, 50% of the time. Its 40-foot fly speed lets it pick any target on the map, and 60-foot darkvision lets it see a torch-carrying party from the dark. Its passive Perception is only 9, so a careful party can sneak past a roost.

The Stirge in the 2024 Rules

Three changes matter at the table:

• •No feeding limit. The 2014 stirge is a self-limiting hazard: two turns of feeding and it flies off sated. The 2024 stirge stays on until it's removed. Two stirges on a level 1 wizard with 8 hit points is a death sentence in either edition, but in 2024 a single ignored stirge will eventually kill anyone.
• •Hit point loss became Necrotic damage. A 2014 drain is lost hit points, not damage, so it doesn't force a concentration save and resistances don't reduce it. The 2024 drain is damage: an attached stirge forces a concentration save every turn (DC 10, since half of 5 rounds down below 10), and anything that resists Necrotic halves it.
• •It isn't a Beast any more. Spells that target Beasts, like Animal Friendship, Speak with Animals and Dominate Beast, work on a 2014 stirge and do nothing to a 2024 one.

How Stirges Fight

A stirge has one plan: land on something warm and hang on. The fight is about how many land before the party reacts.

The 2014 feeding math. One stirge that hits and is left alone:

Each drain is 1d4 + 3 (4 to 7). Two drains total 10 or more about 81% of the time (2d4 needs to roll 4 or higher, 13 of 16 outcomes), so most stirges let go after the second drain and a few need a third. Budget about 15 hit points per stirge that connects. Read literally, the bite's piercing damage doesn't count toward the 10: the trigger is "10 hit points of blood" drained.

The 2024 feeding math. The bite is 6 damage, then 5 necrotic at the start of every stirge turn with no cap. The bite plus three drains is about 21 damage, and the stirge is still attached.

Who it bites. Play stirges as hunters that go for exposed skin: the robed wizard, the leather-clad rogue. Against AC 12 a stirge hits on an 8 or better, 65% of the time, so a flock of six split between the two lightest-armored characters lands about four bites in the first round.

Attached stirges don't roll. In 2014 an attached stirge doesn't attack; in 2024 it can't make Proboscis attacks. The drain is automatic, so each stirge that lands turns into guaranteed damage every round until someone deals with it.

Retreat. A sated 2014 stirge detaches and flies back to the roost. Let it go: the party can follow the sated ones home.

How Many Stirges for a Level 1 Party?

Under the 2024 rules the encounter budget per level 1 character is 50 (Low), 75 (Moderate) and 100 (High):

Treat that table with suspicion. The budget assumes damage spread over a few rounds, while stirges deal their damage as an automatic drain the party has to spend actions to stop. Six 2024 stirges (150 XP) are only a Low encounter on paper, and they play like a much tougher fight for four level 1 characters. Twelve can kill two of them.

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator) are closer to that warning. Six stirges are 150 XP, doubled to 300 by the group multiplier for 3 to 6 creatures: exactly the Hard threshold for four level 1 characters. Eight stirges are 200 XP times 2.5, or 500, which is past Deadly (400).

Rules of thumb:

• •Level 1: 3 to 5 stirges. Enough to scare, not enough to drain the whole party.
• •Levels 2 to 4: 6 to 10 stirges, or a few stirges added to a fight with something else. Stirges plus a giant spider in a web-choked cave is a nasty combination: one pins the party, the others feed.
• •Level 5 and up: stirges become a resource tax rather than a threat. Use them to burn a few hit points and spell slots before the real fight.

How Players Beat Stirges

• •Kill it instead of pulling it off. Detaching a stirge costs an action and the stirge can simply bite again next turn. Killing it costs an attack. A 2014 stirge dies to any hit (2 hit points); a +5 attack hits its AC 14 on a 9 or better, 60% of the time. A 2024 stirge has 5 hit points and AC 13, so a hit for 1d8 + 3 kills it seven times out of eight.
• •Attack attached stirges first. An attached stirge isn't going anywhere and gets no defensive bonus. Kill the one feeding on the wizard.
• •Area spells work, carefully. Thunderwave or Burning Hands wipes a cluster of 2014 stirges on a failed save and most 2024 ones too, but an attached stirge is sitting on an ally, and area spells don't care who they hit.
• •Sneak past the roost. A stirge's passive Perception is 9, so a Stealth result of 10 or higher gets past it. Darkness doesn't help the party (stirges have darkvision).
• •Protect the casters. Put the lowest-AC characters in the middle of the marching order and send heavy armor into a roost first.
• •2014 only: beast tricks. A 2014 stirge is a Beast, so a druid can use Speak with Animals to learn where the roost is, or Animal Friendship to charm one so it won't attack the caster. Neither works on a 2024 stirge.

Stirge Encounter Ideas

The well rope. A village's only well has gone foul, and the last person sent down came back pale, with round wounds on his arms. Twelve stirges roost in a dry side tunnel 40 feet down. The party has to descend one at a time on a rope, which means every character arrives alone and with both hands busy. Have the first stirges hit the climber, not the people waiting at the top.

Feeding the guardian. A cult keeps a stirge roost in the crypt under its shrine and lets the flock feed on prisoners. The cultists carry smoking censers that the stirges avoid. If the party steals a censer they can walk through the crypt untouched. If they kill the cultists first, the censers go out.

The sated trail. Stirges have been attacking livestock at night. Track a sated stirge (one that detached after a full feed) back to its roost and the party finds the roost is inside the walls of the local lord's manor, which has been empty for a year. Something else lives there too.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a stirge in 5e?

A stirge is CR 1/8 and worth 25 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

How does a stirge's Blood Drain work?

On a hit, the 2014 stirge deals 5 piercing damage and attaches. At the start of each of its turns the target loses 5 (1d4 + 3) hit points. It detaches after draining 10 hit points or when the target dies, and any creature can use its action to pull it off.

Does a 2024 stirge stop draining?

Not on its own. The 2024 Proboscis has no feeding limit: the stirge stays attached, dealing 5 (2d4) Necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns, until it spends 5 feet of movement to detach, or the target or a creature within 5 feet of it pulls it off as an action.

Is a stirge a beast or a monstrosity?

The 2014 stirge is a Tiny Beast. The 2024 stirge is a Tiny Monstrosity, so Beast-only spells like Animal Friendship and Dominate Beast no longer affect it.

How do you remove an attached stirge?

Take an action to detach it (in 2024, you must be the target or within 5 feet of it), or kill it. Killing it is usually better: it takes one hit and stops the stirge from biting again.

Does stirge blood drain break concentration?

In the 2014 rules, no: the target loses hit points rather than taking damage, and concentration saves are triggered by damage. In the 2024 rules, yes: the drain is Necrotic damage, so a concentrating caster makes a DC 10 Constitution save every turn a stirge is attached.

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.