Wolf 5e: Pack Tactics, Knockdowns and Wolf Wild Shape

A wolf is a CR 1/4 Medium beast with AC 13, 11 hit points, a 40-foot speed and a bite (+4 to hit, 7 piercing damage) that can knock its target prone. Pack Tactics gives it Advantage on attacks whenever another wolf is next to the same target, so wolves are built to fight in groups and to swarm one character at a time. In the 2024 rules the bite deals less damage (5) but knocks a Medium or smaller target prone on every hit with no saving throw. The wolf is also the classic first Wild Shape for a level 2 druid in both editions.

Table of Contents

• •Wolf Stat Block (2014)
• •The Wolf in the 2024 Rules
• •How Wolves Fight
• •How Many Wolves for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Wolves
• •Wolves as Wild Shapes, Summons and Mounts
• •Wolf Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Wolf Stat Block (2014)

This is the wolf from SRD 5.1, the same stat block as the 2014 Monster Manual.

Read the bite and Pack Tactics together. The bite asks for a DC 11 Strength save or the target falls prone, and melee attacks against a prone creature within 5 feet have Advantage. So the first wolf that lands a knockdown hands Advantage to every other wolf, whether Pack Tactics applies or not.

Keen Hearing and Smell gives Advantage on Perception checks that use those senses, which makes the 2014 wolf a good tracker and hard to sneak past. It has no darkvision, an oddity for a night hunter that the 2024 version fixes.

The Wolf in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 trades damage for a guaranteed knockdown.

At the table, the 2024 wolf is more reliable and less damaging. Every hit puts a Medium or smaller target on the ground, so a pack of 2024 wolves can keep a fighter prone round after round, but each bite deals 2 less damage on average. The 2014 wolf's knockdown depends on the save: a fighter with Strength save +5 only fails 25% of the time, while a wizard at −1 fails 55% of the time.

How Wolves Fight

Pack Tactics in numbers. A wolf attacks at +4. Against AC 16:

Four 2014 wolves around one AC 16 fighter average about 20 damage a round. Four 2024 wolves average about 14, but the first hit knocks the fighter prone 70% of the time, and the fighter then spends half their movement standing up each turn.

Surround one target. Every wolf needs a friend adjacent to the target, so a pack always fights as a knot around a single character. Pick the one standing alone: the scout, the archer on the flank or the character who charged ahead. Two wolves on one target is the minimum, and three or four is the ideal.

Knock down, then bite. Against a prone target, every wolf gets Advantage. A prone character who stands up costs half their speed, and in 2024 the next hit puts them down again. A character trapped like this can still attack, but with Disadvantage while prone.

Hit and fade. With 40 feet of movement, wolves can pull back into the trees after a round and come in again from another side. Use this when the party forms a tight circle. Wolves want isolated targets, and pulling back gives the party a reason to spread out and chase.

Run like animals. Wolves are hungry, not suicidal. When half the pack is down, or the leader falls, the rest scatter into the dark. A party that drives off wolves without killing them may hear them following at a distance for the rest of the night.

How Many Wolves for a Level 1 Party?

Each wolf is worth 50 XP. Using the 2024 XP budget for four characters:

Eight wolves surrounding a level 1 party is a real threat to someone's life. For a first-session fight, three or four wolves is enough to teach the party about Pack Tactics without killing anyone.

The 2014 guidelines (from the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, used by our encounter calculator) agree that small packs bite above their weight. Three wolves are 150 XP, doubled by the group multiplier to 300, exactly the Hard threshold for four level 1 characters. Four wolves reach the Deadly threshold of 400.

How Players Beat Wolves

Stand together. Pack Tactics needs a second wolf next to the target. A party in a tight line with a wall behind it lets fewer wolves reach each character, and an ally standing next to a downed friend makes the wolves pay opportunity attacks to leave.

Strength saves matter in 2014. A character with Strength save proficiency (fighters, barbarians, monks and rangers) gets knocked down much less often. In 2024 there's no save, so it helps more to keep the small and Medium characters away from the pack.

Area damage kills them. At 11 hit points, a wolf that fails its save against Burning Hands (3d6 fire, average 10.5) dies half the time, and one caught by Thunderwave (2d8 thunder, average 9) dies about a third of the time, and survivors that fail the save are pushed 10 feet away from their target. Packs bunch around a single target, so a well-placed spell can catch three of them.

Charm or calm them. Wolves are Beasts with Intelligence 3, so Animal Friendship works on them in both editions (the 2014 version fails on beasts with Intelligence 4 or higher). Speak with Animals can turn a fight into a negotiation, and throwing the pack a haunch of meat is a fine use of a Survival or Animal Handling check.

Fire and noise. Nothing in the stat block makes wolves afraid of fire, but a DM can reasonably let a big fire and a good Intimidation check send a hungry pack looking for easier food.

Wolves as Wild Shapes, Summons and Mounts

The wolf shows up on the player side of the table more often than almost any other beast. What each spell or feature actually allows:

Wild Shape wolf in play. In 2014, the druid takes the wolf's 11 hit points as a buffer and returns to their own hit points when the wolf form drops to 0. In 2024, the druid keeps their own hit points and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to their druid level. Either way, a druid wolf next to the party's fighter gets Pack Tactics, and every bite that knocks an enemy prone gives the fighter Advantage too. For a level 2 druid, few turns do more for the party.

Mounts. A mount must be at least one size larger than its rider, so a Medium wolf can carry Small riders only. That's why goblins ride wolves: see the goblin guide for building a mounted warband, or step up to the Large worg.

Wolf Encounter Ideas

The winter road. A trade caravan is stuck at a mountain inn after a storm closed the pass. Every night a wolf pack circles the stables, and every morning another horse is gone. The innkeeper wants the pack dead. The druid who lives up the valley says the wolves are starving because someone poached the elk herd, and she knows who. Fighting the pack is the easy answer, and finding the poachers is the one that stops it happening again.

The hunt as a chase. The party is being chased by a pack of six wolves across open moorland at night toward a river ford a mile away. Wolves move 40 feet, so most characters can't outrun them. Run it as a running fight: each round the wolves catch whoever is last, knock them down and bite, and the party has to decide whether to stand, split up or carry the fallen.

The vampire's hounds. A village's dogs have been killed one by one, and wolves now walk the streets after dark without attacking anyone. They're watching. A vampire in the old manor can call 3d6 wolves when outdoors (2014 rules), and it's been using them as eyes. Killing the wolves tells it exactly where the party is.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a wolf in 5e?

A wolf is CR 1/4 (50 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has 11 hit points and AC 13 (2014) or AC 12 (2024).

How does Pack Tactics work?

A wolf has Advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of its allies is within 5 feet of that creature and isn't incapacitated. Against AC 16, that raises a wolf's hit chance from 45% to about 70%.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a wolf?

Yes. In both the 2014 and 2024 rules a druid can take wolf form from level 2, because the wolf is a CR 1/4 beast with no flying or swimming speed. The 2024 rules list the wolf as one of four recommended starting forms.

Can a wolf be a familiar?

Not with the Find Familiar spell. The 2014 spell lists specific animals that don't include the wolf, and the 2024 spell only allows its listed forms or another beast of CR 0. A wolf is CR 1/4.

Does a wolf bite always knock you prone?

In the 2014 rules the target makes a DC 11 Strength save to stay standing. In the 2024 rules, any Medium or smaller creature it hits is knocked prone, no save.

What's the difference between a wolf and a dire wolf?

A dire wolf is a Large CR 1 version with a 50-foot speed and a harder bite (2d6 + 3 in 2014, 1d10 + 3 in 2024). It has 37 hit points in 2014 and 22 in 2024. Both have Pack Tactics. When the party keeps meeting the same pack across sessions, Loreify can record the sessions and keep track of which wolves got away.

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.