Werewolf 5e: Stats, Forms, Silver and the Lycanthropy Curse

A werewolf is a CR 3 shapechanger with three forms (human, wolf and wolf-humanoid hybrid) and a bite that can curse a Humanoid with lycanthropy. The 2014 werewolf has 58 hit points, AC 11 or 12 depending on form, and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons, so a level 3 party with ordinary swords can't hurt it at all. The 2024 werewolf is a Monstrosity with AC 15, 71 hit points, Pack Tactics, a longbow and no damage immunities, and its curse turns a character who drops to 0 hit points into a werewolf on the spot.

Table of Contents

• •Werewolf Stat Block (2014)
• •Werewolf Forms at a Glance
• •The Werewolf in the 2024 Rules
• •The Lycanthropy Curse, Edition by Edition
• •How Werewolves Fight
• •How Many Werewolves for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Werewolves
• •Werewolf Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Werewolf Stat Block (2014)

This is the werewolf from SRD 5.1, the same creature as the 2014 Monster Manual, shown in each of its three forms. The hybrid is the one most fights use.

The attack bonus is low (+4) and the damage is modest: a hybrid's bite (6) and claws (7) total 13 if both hit. The CR comes from its defense. Immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons makes a 2014 werewolf nearly invulnerable to a low-level party without spells, silver or magic weapons. Under SRD 5.1, silvering a weapon or ten pieces of ammunition costs 100 gp, a real expense at level 3.

Keen Hearing and Smell gives it Advantage on Perception checks that use hearing or smell. With Perception +4, that's effectively a 19 passive score for anything it can hear or smell, so sneaking up on one at night is hard.

Werewolf Forms at a Glance

The werewolf's true form is its humanoid one. It shifts between forms as an action (2014) or a Bonus Action (2024), and its statistics stay the same except for the listed changes. Equipment doesn't transform with it.

Three details matter in play. The bite, and so the curse, is available only in wolf or hybrid form. The SRD 5.1 Multiattack (human or hybrid form) is "one with its bite and one with its claws or spear," so read literally a 2014 werewolf in human form, with no bite, makes a single spear attack. And the 2024 hybrid is Large, so it takes up a 10-by-10-foot space instead of 5 by 5. In tight tunnels, the wolf form is the one that fits.

The Werewolf in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 werewolf (SRD 5.2.1) keeps CR 3 and 700 XP and is rebuilt around pack hunting.

The trade-off: the 2024 werewolf is far more dangerous in an even fight and far less dangerous to a party without magic. At level 3, a 2014 werewolf can't be hurt by the fighter's longsword at all. A 2024 werewolf takes full damage from it, but deals almost twice as much per round and hits with Advantage when it has an ally next to its target.

It's no longer a Humanoid. Hold Person and Charm Person work on a 2014 werewolf in any form. They can't target a 2024 werewolf, which is a Monstrosity.

The Lycanthropy Curse, Edition by Edition

Both versions curse a Humanoid that fails a DC 12 Constitution save after a bite. What the curse does is very different.

2014 (SRD 5.1). The stat block says the target is "cursed with werewolf lycanthropy" and nothing more. The rules for how a cursed character changes (alignment, transformation, ability scores) are in the 2014 Monster Manual, not the SRD, so we don't reproduce them. Under the SRD alone, the DM decides what the curse does, and the Remove Curse spell ends all curses on a creature.

2024 (SRD 5.2.1). The stat block spells it out:

• •Failure: the target is cursed. If it later drops to 0 hit points, it doesn't fall unconscious. It becomes a Werewolf under the GM's control, with 10 hit points.
• •Success: the target is immune to that werewolf's curse for 24 hours.

That makes the 2024 curse a combat effect. A cursed character who goes down mid-fight stands back up as an enemy. Against a level 3 party with no access to 3rd-level spells, there's no Remove Curse yet, so the party has to keep a cursed ally above 0 hit points until they find a cleric or a scroll.

Odds per round (2024): a hybrid with Pack Tactics bites at +5 with Advantage. Against AC 15 it hits about 80% of the time, and a character with Constitution +2 fails the DC 12 save 45% of the time. That's about a 36% chance per round to curse the target it's biting.

How Werewolves Fight

A werewolf is a hunter, not a duelist. It has Intelligence 10, the instincts of a wolf and a human's ability to plan an ambush.

Damage per round against AC 15:

2014: rely on the immunity. A 2014 werewolf should walk straight at the party's best melee character and laugh off the sword. Once the party realizes swords don't work, the werewolf switches to whoever is casting spells. It can hear and smell them coming, and Keen Hearing and Smell makes it hard to surprise.

2024: hunt in packs. Pack Tactics gives the werewolf Advantage against any creature with one of its allies within 5 feet. Pair it with wolves, which also have Pack Tactics, and every attack in the fight has Advantage. Have the wolves surround one character, then put the werewolf's bite on that character to fish for the curse.

Open from range in human form (2024). The 2024 werewolf carries a longbow (150/600 feet) usable in human or hybrid form. It can shoot from the treeline as a "hunter," then use its Bonus Action to shift into a hybrid and close the distance. Changing shape costs only its Bonus Action, so it can shift and attack in the same turn.

Use the wolf form to travel. Wolf form moves 40 feet. A werewolf runs ahead as a wolf, then shifts to hybrid when the fight starts. In 2014 that shift takes its action; in 2024 it's a Bonus Action.

Retreat and come back at night. A wounded werewolf flees in wolf form and returns the next night, in human form, as the friendly woodcutter who offers the party shelter. Werewolves are scariest when the party doesn't know which villager it is.

How Many Werewolves for Your Party?

A werewolf is worth 700 XP. Using the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget for four characters:

Wolves are CR 1/4 (50 XP). Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter difficulty calculator uses, a lone werewolf (700 XP) is a Medium fight for four level 3 characters. One werewolf with four wolves is 900 XP, doubled for a group of five to 1,800, which is past Deadly (1,600) at level 3.

Adjust for the immunity. The CR assumes the party can hurt the werewolf. A 2014 werewolf against a level 3 party with no silver, magic weapons or damage spells is effectively unkillable. Either give the party a clue and a silversmith before the fight, or use the 2024 stat block.

Other lycanthropes fill different slots: the wererat (CR 2) is the urban sneak, and the werebear (CR 5) is often an ally. A pack of werewolves led by a vampire is a classic gothic campaign arc.

How Players Beat Werewolves

• •2014: silver, magic or spells. Weapon damage needs to be magical or silvered. Spells ignore the immunity. Magic Missile, Guiding Bolt and Fire Bolt all work. A level 3 party should buy silvered arrows (100 gp for ten) before the full moon.
• •Moonbeam forces it back to human. Moonbeam is the anti-shapechanger spell. In 2014 a shapechanger makes its save with Disadvantage, and on a failure it reverts to its true form and can't change until it leaves the light. In 2024 any shape-shifted creature that fails reverts and can't shape-shift until it leaves. A werewolf forced into human form has no bite, so it can't spread the curse.
• •Hold it while you can (2014). A 2014 werewolf is a Humanoid with Wisdom +0, so Hold Person paralyzes it on a failed DC 13-15 save. That doesn't work on the 2024 Monstrosity.
• •Break the pack (2024). Pack Tactics needs an ally within 5 feet of the target. Kill or push away the wolves first, or fight in a corridor where only one creature can reach you, and the werewolf loses Advantage.
• •Keep cursed characters standing (2024). If someone fails the save, heal them early. A cursed character at 0 hit points becomes a 10-hit-point werewolf under the GM's control.
• •Target its mind. Its Intelligence and Charisma are +0 and its Wisdom is +0, with no Magic Resistance. Save-based spells that target those work well.

Werewolf Encounter Ideas

The new sheep dog. Sheep are disappearing from a hill farm, and the farmer's new sheep dog is the only thing that seems to keep the wolves away. The dog isn't a werewolf. The farmer's son, who brought it home, is. He's been feeding the dog the scraps. The 2014 version is a mystery about silver; the 2024 version is a race to reach him before his pack does.

The bite that doesn't heal. A traveling knight joins the party with a bandaged arm and a story about a wolf attack. In the 2024 rules, he is cursed and doesn't know it. The next time he drops to 0 hit points, in the middle of a fight with bandits, he becomes a werewolf and turns on the party. If they figure it out first, they have to find Remove Curse while keeping him alive.

The silver market. A border town is under siege by a werewolf pack, and the only silversmith has tripled her prices. The party needs silvered weapons (2014), and someone in town is buying up all the silver first. The hoarder is one of the werewolves, trying to disarm the town before the next full moon.

When a villager turns out to be the werewolf three sessions later, you want the notes on what they said. Loreify records the session and keeps your campaign notes, including every NPC the party has met.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a werewolf in 5e?

A werewolf is CR 3 (700 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The 2014 werewolf has 58 hit points and AC 11 or 12; the 2024 werewolf has 71 hit points and AC 15.

What is a werewolf immune to?

The 2014 werewolf is immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons. The 2024 werewolf has no damage immunities at all.

Does silver hurt a werewolf?

In the 2014 rules, silvered weapons bypass its immunity, so they deal normal damage. Silvering a weapon or ten pieces of ammunition costs 100 gp in SRD 5.1. The 2024 werewolf takes normal damage from any weapon, so silver gives no extra benefit.

How do you get lycanthropy in 5e?

A Humanoid bitten by a werewolf in wolf or hybrid form makes a DC 12 Constitution save; on a failure it's cursed. In the 2024 rules, a cursed creature that drops to 0 hit points becomes a werewolf under the GM's control with 10 hit points. The SRD 5.1 stat block says only that the target is cursed with werewolf lycanthropy.

How do you cure lycanthropy?

Remove Curse ends all curses on a creature in both editions, which includes lycanthropy. A level 3 party usually can't cast it yet, since it's a 3rd-level spell.

Is a werewolf a Humanoid or a Monstrosity?

In the 2014 rules a werewolf is a Humanoid (human, shapechanger). In the 2024 rules it's a Monstrosity (Lycanthrope). That decides whether Hold Person and Charm Person can target 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.