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Swarm of Quippers 5e: Blood Frenzy and the River Crossing
A swarm of quippers is a CR 1 swarm of carnivorous fish: AC 13, 28 hit points, a 40-foot swim speed, no walking speed, and a bite that deals 14 piercing damage (4d6) to a creature in its space. Blood Frenzy gives it Advantage on attacks against any creature that's missing even one hit point. Against an unhurt character with AC 15 it hits 55% of the time. Once that character is hurt, it hits about 80% of the time. The 2024 rules call it the Swarm of Piranhas, give it a 5-foot reach and a smaller bite (8 damage), and keep the frenzy.
Blood Frenzy.The swarm has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points.
Swarm.The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny quipper. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Water Breathing.The swarm can breathe only underwater.
Actions
Bites.Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the swarm's space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage, or 7 (2d6) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.
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.
The SRD 5.1 notes that a quipper can adapt to any aquatic environment, including cold underground lakes, and that quippers frequently gather in swarms. So a quipper swarm fits anywhere there's water: a jungle river, a flooded dungeon level, a cave pool.
It follows the standard swarm rules: shared spaces, no healing, resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing (magic weapons included) and eight condition immunities. Its 2014 bite only reaches a creature in its own space and drops to 2d6 at 14 hit points or fewer.
Swarm.The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny piranha. The swarm can’t regain Hit Points or gain Temporary Hit Points.
Water Breathing.The swarm can breathe only underwater.
Actions
Bites.Melee Attack Roll: +5 (with Advantage if the target doesn’t have all its Hit Points), reach 5 ft. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) Piercing damage, or 5 (1d4 + 3) Piercing damage if the swarm is Bloodied.
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.
Blood Frenzy trait: Advantage on melee attacks vs. a creature missing hit points
Built into the bite: Advantage if the target doesn't have all its Hit Points
The 2024 swarm loses almost half its damage per bite (14 to 8). Since a swarm makes one attack a turn, that is the whole difference: the 2014 swarm is a killer, the 2024 swarm is a hazard.
How Swarms of Quippers Fight
First blood, then the frenzy. +5 against AC 15 hits on a 10 or better, 55% of the time. With Advantage that becomes about 80%. Against a character at full health, a 2014 swarm averages about 7.7 damage a round. Against one who has taken any damage at all, including from a previous bite, it averages about 11.2. A 2024 swarm goes from about 4.4 to 6.4.
Everyone is bleeding. Characters rarely enter a river at full hit points. A character who took one arrow earlier in the day already counts. Unless the party rests before crossing, assume the swarm has Advantage against most of them from the first bite.
The water fights for the fish. Under the underwater combat rules, a creature without a Swim Speed has Disadvantage on melee weapon attacks unless the weapon is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear or trident (2014) or deals Piercing damage (2024). Ranged weapon attacks miss beyond normal range and have Disadvantage within it (2014 exempts crossbows, nets and thrown weapons like javelins). Anything fully underwater, the swarm included, has Resistance to Fire damage. A character who dives after the swarm with a longsword fights at Disadvantage against something that also halves the damage. How much of this applies to someone wading waist-deep is the DM's call; the rules only describe fighting underwater.
It can't follow onto land. The 2014 swarm has a walking speed of 0 and breathes only underwater, so a character who reaches the bank is safe. The 2024 swarm can flop 5 feet onto the bank and bite with its 5-foot reach, but it can't breathe air, so it won't stay there.
Running a Quipper Swarm Encounter
Each swarm is worth 200 XP. Encounters for four characters:
The 2014 column uses the Dungeon Master's Guide group multiplier, as our encounter calculator does.
The sahuagin pairing is deliberate: sahuagin in both editions also have Blood Frenzy. A sahuagin's spear wounds a character, and from then on both the sahuagin and the fish attack that character with Advantage.
The easiest lever is how long the party spends in the water. A 20-foot stream crossing is one or two rounds of bites. A 100-foot swim across a lake with three swarms under the surface can kill a level 2 party.
How Players Beat a Swarm of Quippers
•Stay out of the water. A rope bridge, a raft or a fallen log keeps characters out of reach of a 2014 swarm with reach 0. A raft isn't safe against a 2024 swarm with 5-foot reach.
•Heal before you swim. Blood Frenzy only cares whether you're below maximum hit points. A Cure Wounds that brings a character back to full takes away the swarm's Advantage until it lands its first bite.
•Spells on the surface.Thunderwave and Shatter both call for Constitution saves, and the swarm's Constitution is 9 (−1). Wisdom is worse (−2): Spirit Guardians from a cleric standing on the bank catches any swarm that comes within 15 feet.
•Drain or move the water.Control Water can part the water and open a dry trench. The spell doesn't say what happens to fish in the trench. DM ruling, not rules text: a fish swarm left out of water uses the suffocation rules. With Constitution −1 it holds its breath for the minimum 30 seconds (5 rounds). After that, a 2014 swarm lasts 1 more round and then drops to 0 hit points; a 2024 swarm gains 1 Exhaustion level at the end of each of its turns (the SRD 5.2.1 Suffocation rule) until it reaches water or dies. Either way, the fight is usually over first.
•Lure it. DM ruling, not rules text: throwing fresh meat into the water upstream draws the swarm away for a round or two. It costs nothing and plays to what a frenzy is.
Quipper Swarm Encounter Ideas
The ford. The only road crossing for 20 miles is a waist-deep ford. A merchant caravan has stopped at the bank because the last mule that tried to cross came out as a skeleton. Two swarms live in the deep pool just downstream. The party can build a bridge, find a way around, or try to cross before the fish notice.
The sunken treasury. A dungeon level has flooded, and the treasure room is now 10 feet underwater. A cave pool connects it to the outside, and quippers came in with the flood. Diving for coins with a swarm in the room is a timed challenge: each round underwater is another bite, and every bite makes the next more likely.
The sahuagin trap. A coastal village's fishers vanish near a sea cave. Inside, a group of sahuagin has walled off a tide pool full of quippers. They wound intruders with spears and drive them into the pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
What CR is a swarm of quippers?
CR 1, worth 200 XP. It has AC 13, 28 hit points and a swim speed of 40 feet. The 2024 Swarm of Piranhas has the same CR, AC and hit points.
How does Blood Frenzy work?
The swarm has Advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. Missing even 1 hit point triggers it. The 2024 piranha swarm has the same effect written into its bite.
Can a swarm of quippers leave the water?
The 2014 swarm has a walking speed of 0 and can breathe only underwater, so it can't move on land. The 2024 piranha swarm can flop 5 feet on land but also breathes only underwater.
What's the difference between a quipper and a piranha in 5e?
They're the same creature under different names. The 2014 SRD calls it a quipper; the 2024 SRD calls it a piranha. The swarm version changed most: the 2024 swarm has 5-foot reach and deals 8 damage per bite instead of 14.
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.