Vrock 5e: Stats, Stunning Screech and Spore Tactics

The vrock is a CR 6 Large demon (2,300 XP) with AC 15, 104 hit points, a 60-foot fly speed and two melee attacks a turn. Its two signature actions decide the fight: Stunning Screech (once per day) stuns every non-demon within 20 feet that fails a DC 14 Constitution save (in 2014, only those that can hear it), and Spores (Recharge 6) poisons everyone around it for 1d10 damage a turn. The 2024 vrock has 152 HP, DC 15 saves, adds poison damage to every hit and 3d6 thunder damage to the screech. It is a much harder fight at the same CR.

Table of Contents

• •Vrock Stat Block (2014)
• •The 2024 Vrock
• •How Vrocks Fight
• •How Many Vrocks for a Level 7 Party?
• •How Players Beat a Vrock
• •Vrock Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Vrock Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 vrock.

The vrock carries the standard 2014 demon defenses: resistance to cold, fire and lightning, resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, poison immunity and Magic Resistance. Unlike a devil, it is not immune to fire, and silvered weapons don't get past its physical resistance. Only magic weapons do. At levels 5 and 6, when a party may still be swinging mundane steel, that resistance halves most of their damage.

Its attacks are ordinary for CR 6. Beak (10) plus talons (14) at +6 is 24 damage if both land. The actions are what earn the CR.

The 2024 Vrock

Three of these changes add up. The 2024 vrock has 46% more hit points, its Multiattack deals 40 damage if both hits land instead of 24, and its screech now deals damage as well as stunning. A party that handled a 2014 vrock comfortably at level 5 should expect a real fight from the 2024 one.

The one thing the 2024 vrock lost is its resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, which helps low-level parties without magic weapons.

How Vrocks Fight

Screech, then shred. Stunning Screech is an action, and the stun lasts until the end of the vrock's next turn. That timing is the whole plan: screech on turn one, then on turn two attack a character who is still stunned. Attacks against a Stunned creature have advantage, and it automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saves.

How often the screech lands against a level 7 party:

Against a stunned target with AC 16, the vrock's +6 attacks hit about 80% of the time instead of 55%. That moves a 2024 vrock's expected damage from about 22 to about 32 per turn.

Screech in pairs. The screech can't stun demons, so other vrocks, dretches and glabrezu are safe inside it. With two vrocks, one screeches and the other dives on whoever is stunned on the same round. The second vrock saves its screech for round two or three, after the party's first wave of saves.

Spores at the choke point. Spores poisons everyone within range on a failed save, and each poisoned creature takes 5 (1d10) at the start of its turns until it saves. Poisoned also means disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. The 2014 spores spread around corners, so a vrock in a doorway or corridor bend catches characters who thought they were behind cover. Spores are a Recharge 6 action, so expect them once, at the start of the fight, and treat any second use as a bonus. Non-demon allies in the cloud get poisoned too.

Use the air. A vrock flies at 60 feet and walks at 40. It doesn't need to stay in melee. Dive in, screech, take the opportunity attacks, and finish the stunned target next turn. When it drops below half its hit points, it flies out of reach and lets the spores and other demons work.

How Many Vrocks for a Level 7 Party?

One vrock is 2,300 XP. For four characters under the 2024 budget:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator) are tougher on groups. Two vrocks are 4,600 x 1.5 = 6,900 XP, just past the Deadly threshold for four level 7 characters (6,800), and Hard at level 8.

The budget doesn't capture how much the screech swings a fight. Two vrocks stunning two characters on round one feels like a much bigger encounter than the XP says. If the party has no way to resist it, start with one vrock.

How Players Beat a Vrock

• •Stay out of 20 feet. Both the screech and the 2024 spores reach 20 feet. Ranged characters who stay farther away can't be stunned. Melee characters should come in from different sides so one screech can't catch them all.
• •Silence the 2014 screech. The 2014 version only affects creatures that can hear it. A deafened character, or one standing inside a Silence spell, is immune. This doesn't work against the 2024 screech.
• •Carry holy water. Emptying a vial of holy water on a creature ends the spore poisoning in both editions, and holy water deals radiant damage to fiends if thrown. Lesser Restoration also ends the Poisoned condition.
• •Pick damage types carefully. Vrocks resist cold, fire and lightning, so Fireball and Lightning Bolt deal half. Shatter (thunder), Spirit Guardians (radiant) and magic weapons deal full damage. Poison does nothing.
• •Target Intelligence, Charisma and Strength. The vrock's worst saves are Intelligence (-1), Charisma (+2) and Strength (+3). Banishment is a strong play even with Magic Resistance, and grappling a flying vrock drops its speed to 0 so it can't leave.

Vrock Encounter Ideas

The rookery. Four vrocks roost in a collapsed cathedral dome. The party crosses the nave below along a single aisle of broken pews, and the vrocks drop in pairs. The holy water font at the altar still works, if someone can get to it.

The wrong sacrifice. Cultists summon what they think is a single demon and get a vrock that immediately screeches, stunning half of them. The party arrives mid-massacre. The surviving cultists are poisoned, stunned and desperate, and the vrock is already wounded. Do the players help the people who caused this?

Spore season. A village's well water carries a strange green tint, and villagers are falling sick. A vrock is nesting in the cistern below the town, using Spores in the enclosed tunnels where they spread around every corner. The party has to fight it underground, where its flight matters less and its spores matter more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a vrock in 5e?

A vrock is CR 6 and worth 2,300 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

How does the vrock's Stunning Screech work?

Once per day, every creature within 20 feet of the vrock makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 14 in 2014, DC 15 in 2024) or is stunned until the end of the vrock's next turn. Demons are unaffected. The 2014 version only affects creatures that can hear it, and the 2024 version also deals 10 (3d6) thunder damage on a failed save.

How do you stop vrock spores?

The poisoned creature repeats the Constitution save at the end of each of its turns and recovers on a success. Emptying a vial of holy water on the target ends the effect immediately, and Lesser Restoration ends the Poisoned condition.

Is a vrock a demon or a devil?

A demon. It is a Large Fiend (Demon), chaotic evil, speaks Abyssal, resists cold, fire and lightning, and is immune to poison but not to fire. Devils, by contrast, are immune to fire.

What changed for the vrock in the 2024 rules?

HP went from 104 to 152, its two attacks became Shreds that add 10 poison damage each, the save DCs rose from 14 to 15, Spores became a 20-foot Emanation, and Stunning Screech now deals 3d6 thunder damage and no longer requires the target to hear it.

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.