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Succubus and Incubus 5e: Stats, Charm, Draining Kiss and the 2024 Split
The succubus and incubus are CR 4 Medium fiends with AC 15, about 70 hit points, a 60-foot fly speed and a way to pass as a Humanoid (a true shapechange, or Disguise Self for the 2024 Incubus). In the 2014 rules they share one stat block, and the fight revolves around two actions: Charm, which makes one Humanoid obey for a day, and Draining Kiss, which deals 32 psychic damage to a charmed creature and lowers its hit point maximum by the same amount. The 2024 rules split them into two different stat blocks: the Succubus dominates and drains, while the Incubus curses, haunts dreams and puts people to sleep.
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning, poison, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal, telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge 4 (XP 1,100; PB +2)
Traits
Telepathic Bond.The fiend ignores the range restriction on its telepathy when communicating with a creature it has charmed. The two don't even need to be on the same plane of existence.
Shapechanger.The fiend can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into its true form. Without wings, the fiend loses its flying speed. Other than its size and speed, its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Actions
Claw (Fiend Form Only).Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Charm.One humanoid the fiend can see within 30 feet of it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be magically charmed for 1 day. The charmed target obeys the fiend's verbal or telepathic commands. If the target suffers any harm or receives a suicidal command, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. If the target successfully saves against the effect, or if the effect on it ends, the target is immune to this fiend's Charm for the next 24 hours. The fiend can have only one target charmed at a time. If it charms another, the effect on the previous target ends.
Draining Kiss.The fiend kisses a creature charmed by it or a willing creature. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw against this magic, taking 32 (5d10 + 5) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Etherealness.The fiend magically enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa.
Stat block from the SRD 5.1 (2014 rules) by Wizards of the Coast, licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Check an encounter with this monster in the encounter calculator.
Look at its actions and you'll see something unusual for a CR 4 monster: no Multiattack and a weak claw (+5, 6 slashing damage, and only in its fiend form). In a straight fight it barely hurts anyone. Its threat is entirely in Charm and Draining Kiss, plus a list of resistances (cold, fire, lightning, poison, and bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks) that makes it hard to kill without magic.
Draining Kiss is what makes this CR 4 creature lethal. It works on a creature charmed by the fiend or a willing one. The target makes a DC 15 Constitution save and takes 32 (5d10 + 5) psychic damage on a failure, half on a success, and its hit point maximum drops by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest. If the maximum hits 0, the target dies. A level 5 wizard with a +2 Constitution modifier has a maximum of about 32 hit points, so one average failed kiss can kill them outright.
The 2024 Succubus and Incubus
SRD 5.2.1 (2024) gives each its own stat block, and they play very differently.
Charm.The succubus casts Dominate Person (level 8 version), requiring no spell components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 15).
Draining Kiss.Constitution Saving Throw: DC 15, one creature Charmed by the succubus within 5 feet. Failure: 13 (3d8) Psychic damage. Success: Half damage. Failure or Success: The target’s Hit Point maximum decreases by an amount equal to the damage taken.
Bonus Actions
Shape-Shift.The succubus shape-shifts into a Medium or Small Humanoid, or it returns to its true form. Its game statistics are the same in each form, except its Fly Speed is available only in its true form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed.
Stat block from the SRD 5.2.1 (2024 rules) by Wizards of the Coast, licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Check an encounter with this monster in the encounter calculator.
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal; telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge 4 (XP 1,100; PB +2)
Traits
Succubus Form.When the incubus finishes a Long Rest, it can shape-shift into a Succubus, using that stat block instead of this one. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed.
Actions
Multiattack.The incubus makes two Restless Touch attacks.
Restless Touch.Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) Psychic damage, and the target is cursed for 24 hours or until the incubus dies. Until the curse ends, the target gains no benefit from finishing Short Rests.
Spellcasting.The incubus casts one of the following spells, requiring no Material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 15):
At Will: Disguise Self, Etherealness
1/Day Each: Dream, Hypnotic Pattern
Bonus Actions
Nightmare (Recharge 6).Wisdom Saving Throw: DC 15, one creature the incubus can see within 60 feet. Failure: If the target has 20 Hit Points or fewer, it has the Unconscious condition for 1 hour, until it takes damage, or until a creature within 5 feet of it takes an action to wake it. Otherwise, the target takes 18 (4d8) Psychic damage.
Stat block from the SRD 5.2.1 (2024 rules) by Wizards of the Coast, licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Check an encounter with this monster in the encounter calculator.
2014 Succubus/Incubus
2024 Succubus
2024 Incubus
CR (XP)
4 (1,100)
4 (1,100)
4 (1,100)
AC / HP
15 / 66
15 / 71
15 / 66
Attacks
Claw +5, 6 slashing (fiend form only)
Multiattack: Fiendish Touch +7, 16 psychic, plus Charm or Draining Kiss
Multiattack: two Restless Touch, +7, 15 psychic each plus a curse
Charm
DC 15 Wis, one Humanoid, 1 day, not Concentration
Casts Dominate Person (level 8 version), DC 15, up to 8 hours with Concentration
None. Casts Hypnotic Pattern 1/day
Draining Kiss
32 (5d10 + 5), charmed or willing target
13 (3d8), charmed target within 5 ft
None
Other magic
Etherealness (action), Telepathic Bond
None beyond Charm
Disguise Self, Etherealness at will; Dream 1/day; Nightmare bonus action
Shapechange
Action
Bonus action
Uses Disguise Self
Resistances
Cold, fire, lightning, poison; B/P/S from nonmagical attacks
Cold, fire, poison, psychic
Cold, fire, poison, psychic
The changes that matter at the table:
•The 2024 fiends fight back. Both attack at +7 every turn: the Incubus twice, the Succubus once plus Charm or Draining Kiss. The 2014 version was nearly harmless in melee; neither 2024 version is.
•The kiss got much smaller. The 2024 Draining Kiss deals 13 damage instead of 32, but the succubus can pair it with a Fiendish Touch every turn. It no longer works on willing targets, only on someone it has Charmed.
•Charm is now a spell, with all a spell's weaknesses. The 2024 Charm is Dominate Person: it needs Concentration, the target has advantage on the save if the succubus or its allies are fighting it, and the target repeats the save every time it takes damage. The 2014 Charm lasts a day, needs no concentration and isn't a spell.
•Weapons work now. The 2014 resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks is gone. In its place, both 2024 fiends resist psychic damage.
Forms and Shapechanging
Form
Rules
How it changes
What changes in the stat block
Fiend form
2014
Its true form
Fly 60 ft; can use Claw
Humanoid form
2014
Action (Shapechanger), Small or Medium Humanoid
Loses fly speed and Claw; everything else stays; reverts on death
Humanoid form
2024 Succubus
Bonus action (Shape-Shift), Small or Medium Humanoid
Fly speed only in true form
Disguised
2024 Incubus
Disguise Self, at will
An illusion; its body doesn't change
Succubus to Incubus, or back
2024
After a Long Rest
Uses the other stat block
In every form, its creature type stays Fiend. A shapechanged succubus looks like a Humanoid but isn't one, which matters for detection: Detect Evil and Good senses Fiends within 30 feet whatever form they wear.
How Succubi and Incubi Fight
These fiends rarely start a fight. They're infiltrators, and the combat stat block exists for the moment the party works out who they are.
The 2014 loop: charm the strongest, kiss the weakest.
•Charm the fighter. Charm targets one Humanoid within 30 feet: DC 15 Wisdom save, and on a failure the target is charmed for a day and obeys the fiend's verbal or telepathic commands. A fighter with Wisdom +1 fails on a 13 or lower (65%). Now the party's best warrior is guarding the fiend.
•Use the fighter as a wall. The charmed character only gets a new save if it takes harm or receives a suicidal command. Ordering it to attack its friends isn't suicidal, and its friends will hesitate to hurt it.
•Kiss. Draining Kiss needs a charmed or willing target. The fiend can only have one creature charmed at a time, so a smart one releases the fighter, charms the wizard and kisses the wizard. Against a level 5 wizard with Con +2, a failed save (60%) drops their maximum hit points by about 32.
•Leave. Etherealness takes one action and puts it on the Ethereal Plane, where the party can't follow or see it without the right magic. With Telepathic Bond, it can still talk to anyone it has charmed, on any plane, for the rest of the day.
The 2024 Succubus: dominate and drain together. Its Multiattack is one Fiendish Touch plus Charm or Draining Kiss. On turn one it touches someone (+7 against AC 16 hits on a 9 or higher, 60%, for 16 psychic) and casts Dominate Person on the fighter, who has advantage on the save because the succubus is fighting it (DC 15 with Wisdom +1 and advantage: fails about 42% of the time). On turn two it touches again and kisses the fighter for 13 more. The dominated fighter spends its own turns attacking the party on telepathic command. The weakness is Concentration: with Constitution +1 and no save proficiency, a 16-damage hit forces a DC 10 save that the succubus fails 40% of the time, and the domination ends.
The 2024 Incubus: wear the party down.
•Restless Touch curses each target it hits for 24 hours: no benefit from short rests. Two touches at +7 deal 30 psychic damage if both land.
•Nightmare (bonus action, Recharge 6) targets one creature within 60 feet with a DC 15 Wisdom save. A target with 20 hit points or fewer falls unconscious for an hour unless it takes damage or someone spends an action to wake it. A healthier target takes 18 psychic damage instead. Use it on the character the party just knocked low.
•Hypnotic Pattern (1/day) charms and incapacitates everyone in a 30-foot cube who fails a DC 15 Wisdom save, until they take damage or someone shakes them out of it.
•Dream (1/day) reaches a sleeping target it knows anywhere on the same plane. If the dream is terrifying and the target fails a Wisdom save, it gets no benefit from that rest and takes 3d6 psychic damage on waking. Combined with Restless Touch, one victim a night can't recover on short rests or long ones.
They don't die for a fight. All three stat blocks fly at 60 feet, and both the 2014 fiend and the 2024 Incubus can go ethereal at will. Run them as creatures that leave the moment the odds turn and come back with a new face.
Running a Succubus or Incubus Encounter
One of these fiends is 1,100 XP. Under the 2024 budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters, that's a High fight at level 3 (budget 1,600), Moderate at level 4 (1,500) and Low at level 5 (2,000). Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, used by our encounter calculator, it's Hard for four level 3 characters (Hard 900, Deadly 1,600) and Medium for level 4.
Those numbers undersell the 2014 stat block in one direction and oversell it in another. In open combat it's weak; with an hour of social play before the fight, a charmed party member and a kiss, it can kill a level 5 character. Budget it as the boss of an investigation, not as a monster in a room.
Give it a household. Pair it with Humanoids it has charmed or bought: a few cultists, a noble patron, a spy who thinks he works for the noble. The party fights the people the fiend controls while it decides whether to stay.
Talk to your players about charm effects. A charmed character is a player whose character is being run against the party. Keep it short: let the player run their own charmed character (with your instructions), give them the new save every time they take harm, and make the fiend release them when it switches targets. If anyone at your table is uncomfortable with a seduction-themed villain, run the same stat block as a silver-tongued courtier or a dream-haunting visitor. The mechanics don't need the theme.
How Players Beat a Succubus or Incubus
•Find it first. Detect Evil and Good reveals a Fiend within 30 feet no matter what form it wears, and truesight sees through its disguises. A succubus that is identified before it charms anyone is a CR 4 creature with 66 to 71 hit points.
•Break the charm.Dispel Evil and Good ends charm from a Fiend with a touch (Break Enchantment). Calm Emotions suppresses the Charmed condition on Humanoids for up to a minute, and the charmed ally can choose to fail the save. Protection from Evil and Good stops a Fiend from charming the warded character at all.
•Hurt the charmed ally a little. Against the 2014 Charm, any harm gives the target a new save. Against the 2024 Dominate Person, the target repeats the save every time it takes damage. A 1-damage cantrip on a friend is a valid rescue.
•Break its concentration (2024 Succubus). Its domination is a Concentration spell, and its Constitution save is +1. Every hit counts.
•Bring magic weapons against the 2014 version; skip psychic against the 2024 versions. The 2014 fiend resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, plus four damage types. The 2024 fiends resist cold, fire, poison and psychic, but take full damage from weapons, radiant, thunder, acid, force and necrotic.
•Send it home.Banishment on a Fiend for a full minute sends it back to its home plane, but its Charisma save is +5, so it fails DC 15 only on a 9 or lower (45%). Its Strength save (−1) is the weakest it has.
•Rest somewhere guarded (2024 Incubus). Keep a watch, and treat a night of bad dreams as a clue rather than flavor.
Succubus and Incubus Encounter Ideas
The advisor (2024). A count has taken a new advisor and signs whatever she puts in front of him. She is a succubus, and she dominates him with Charm every morning: Dominate Person at level 8 lasts up to 8 hours, so each day there's a gap before she recasts it. For a few minutes after dawn, the count knows what's happening. He has been leaving notes for himself in a hollow bedpost. The party finds the third one.
The village that doesn't sleep (2024). Everyone in a mill town looks exhausted. A traveling tinker, who is an incubus using Disguise Self, is sending a terrifying Dream to a different villager each night. He wants the mill's deed signed over before the harvest. The party arrives at dusk and is offered beds.
The healer's blessing (2014). A shrine in the hills offers a "blessing" that leaves pilgrims weak for a day and certain they feel better. The healer is a succubus in Humanoid form, and the blessing is Draining Kiss on willing targets. One elderly pilgrim didn't survive it. His family wants answers, and the shrine has armed believers.
The succubus is CR 4 (1,100 XP) in both editions. In 2014 it shares the Succubus/Incubus stat block; in 2024 the Succubus and the Incubus each have their own CR 4 stat block.
What is the difference between a succubus and an incubus in 5e?
In the 2014 rules there's no mechanical difference: one stat block covers both. In the 2024 rules the Succubus dominates a Humanoid and drains it with Draining Kiss, while the Incubus curses targets so they can't benefit from short rests, sends Dreams and uses Nightmare to knock out weakened characters. Each can become the other after a Long Rest.
How does the succubus's Charm work?
In 2014, one Humanoid within 30 feet makes a DC 15 Wisdom save or is charmed for 1 day and obeys the fiend's commands, repeating the save whenever it's harmed. In 2024, Charm casts Dominate Person at level 8: a DC 15 Wisdom save, Concentration for up to 8 hours, and a new save whenever the target takes damage.
Can Draining Kiss kill you?
Yes. Draining Kiss lowers the target's hit point maximum by the damage it deals, and a creature whose maximum reaches 0 dies. In 2014 the kiss deals 32 on a failed save, enough to kill many level 5 characters in one use. A long rest restores the lost maximum.
Is a succubus immune to charm?
No. Neither edition gives the succubus or incubus any condition immunities. They do resist cold, fire and poison damage in both editions, plus lightning and bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks in 2014 or psychic damage in 2024.
What other fiends work like a succubus?
For a shapechanging infiltrator that isn't a fiend, use a doppelganger. For a fiend that preys on sleep, a night hag pairs well with the 2024 Incubus's dream theme. For a higher-level manipulator, the rakshasa is a CR 13 fiend that also hides in plain sight.
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.
This page includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Loreify is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.