Xorn 5e: Stats, Earth Glide and Fighting Something Inside the Walls

A xorn is a CR 5 Medium Elemental that speaks Terran, with AC 19, 73 hit points (84 in 2024), four attacks a turn, and Earth Glide: it moves through natural earth and stone like water, leaving no tunnel behind. It also smells precious metal and gems (Treasure Sense) within 60 feet, which tells you why it's showing up. The 2024 version loses its resistance to piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks but hits harder, picks up immunity to poison, and gets a bonus-action Charge that lets it close distance through solid rock before it attacks.

Table of Contents

• •Xorn Stat Block (2014)
• •The Xorn in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Xorn Fights
• •Running a Xorn Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Xorn
• •Xorn Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Xorn Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 xorn:

Three numbers carry the block. AC 19 is plate-and-shield territory, so a level 5 character with +7 to hit lands only 45% of attacks. Constitution 22 is where its 73 hit points come from. Tremorsense 60 feet means it knows where everyone standing on the ground is, through walls and floors, without seeing them.

The traits explain how it moves and what it wants:

• •Earth Glide lets it burrow through nonmagical, unworked earth and stone without disturbing it. No tunnel, no rubble, no sound of digging.
• •Stone Camouflage gives it Advantage on Stealth checks to hide in rocky terrain, which offsets its modest +3.
• •Treasure Sense lets it pinpoint precious metals and stones, such as coins and gems, by scent within 60 feet.

Its resistance is narrow: piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine. Bludgeoning goes through in full.

The SRD doesn't say what a xorn eats or why it wants treasure. The idea of xorn eating gems and bargaining for them comes from the Monster Manual, not the SRD. If you use it, you're borrowing lore; the SRD gives you Treasure Sense and lets you decide the rest.

The Xorn in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the CR, XP and AC.

Three changes matter. It's easier to hurt with weapons: no resistance at all, so the party's slashing and piercing weapons work at full value. It's harder to shut down: it can't be paralyzed, petrified or poisoned, so Hold Monster and poison stop working and Flesh to Stone can only restrain it. Charge doubles its movement. A 2014 xorn moves 20 feet and attacks. A 2024 xorn moves 20, Charges another 20 through the rock straight at someone, and still makes all four attacks.

How the Xorn Fights

It attacks from the floor. A xorn gliding through bedrock has total cover, and nobody can see it there. It feels the party's footsteps at 60 feet. It surfaces next to whoever it wants, attacks, and the first anyone knows is a mouth coming up out of the floor.

Four attacks, one target. Against AC 16, each attack at +6 hits on a 10 (55%):

That's steady rather than spiky. A xorn wears down one character over two or three rounds, which gives the party time to respond, if they can find it.

Hit and sink. It has no Disengage, so retreating into the ground from melee provokes opportunity attacks from everyone next to it. A 2014 xorn usually commits to the fight once it surfaces. A 2024 xorn can afford to drop back into the stone, wait, and Charge out again where the party's line is thinnest.

Only natural stone. Earth Glide works through unworked earth and stone. Dressed masonry, brick walls, flagstone floors and paved roads are worked stone, and it can't glide through them. In a cave, a mine or a quarry, the xorn is everywhere. In a castle, it has to come in through the foundations or the cellar where the walls meet bedrock.

It wants the gold, not the party. Treasure Sense tells it where every coin pouch and gem is within 60 feet. A xorn that came for a cleric's diamond might fight only the cleric. Use that to shape the fight and to offer a way out of it.

Running a Xorn Encounter

A xorn is worth 1,800 XP. With the 2024 budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), one xorn is a Hard fight for four level 4 characters and Easy at level 5, while two xorns at level 5 multiply to 5,400 adjusted XP, past Deadly.

The XP doesn't account for terrain. In a rocky cave a xorn plays above its CR because the party can rarely see it coming. On a paved courtyard it's a slow (20 feet) AC 19 brawler. Choose the ground on purpose. Pair it with creatures that live underground: duergar miners who've struck a deal with it, or an earth elemental that shares its Earth Glide.

How Players Beat a Xorn

• •Stand on worked stone. The single best counter is choosing where to fight. Move onto a paved floor, a wooden bridge or a built room and Earth Glide stops working beneath you.
• •Use bludgeoning against a 2014 xorn. Its resistance covers only piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine. Maces, warhammers and quarterstaffs deal full damage, as does any magic weapon.
• •Hit its weak saves. Its Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saves are all +0. Banishment is excellent. In 2024, a banished Elemental held for the full minute doesn't come back; in 2014 the same applies if the creature is native to another plane, which the SRD leaves to the DM for a xorn. Faerie Fire gives Advantage against AC 19, which raises a +7 attacker from 45% to about 70%.
• •Readied attacks. Once you know it's under the floor, ready attacks for the moment it surfaces next to someone.
• •Pay it. Treasure Sense means it knows exactly what you're carrying. Dropping a pouch of coins or a gem and backing away is a real option if it's after treasure, and Tongues or a character who speaks Terran (2014) or Primordial (2024) can turn a fight into a negotiation.
• •Skip what doesn't work. In 2024, Hold Monster, poison and the petrification half of Flesh to Stone fail against it. Grapples and the Restrained condition still work and keep it from sinking back into the ground.

Xorn Encounter Ideas

The shrinking strongbox. A mining camp's payroll chest loses a little every week, though the lock is never touched. The chest sits on a natural rock floor in the foreman's tent. A xorn comes up under it at night, takes a few coins through the bottom and sinks again. The foreman suspects his miners. The party has to prove it wasn't them, then decide what to do about a creature that only wants the silver.

The flooded vein. A silver mine's deepest shaft opens into an underground stream, and the miners have abandoned it after three deaths. The deaths were a xorn defending a rich vein it considers its own. The miners can have the rest of the mine if someone talks to it. It wants the vein left alone and a delivery of uncut stones every month.

The bank job. A thieves' guild has hired a xorn to break into a vault from below. The vault's walls and floor are dressed stone, so Earth Glide can't get through. The guild has bribed the builder repairing the vault to leave one corner of the floor as bare, uncut bedrock. The party learns about the plan two days before the job.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a xorn in 5e?

A xorn is CR 5 and worth 1,800 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 19 in both, with 73 hit points in 2014 and 84 in 2024.

Can a xorn move through walls?

Only walls of natural, unworked earth and stone. Earth Glide doesn't work through worked stone like masonry, brick or flagstones, so a built wall stops it.

What is a xorn resistant to?

The 2014 xorn resists piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine; bludgeoning and magic weapons do full damage. The 2024 xorn has no damage resistances but is immune to poison and to the Paralyzed, Petrified and Poisoned conditions.

Do xorns eat gems in 5e?

The SRD stat blocks don't say. Both editions give the xorn Treasure Sense, which pinpoints precious metals and stones within 60 feet. The gem-eating xorn comes from Monster Manual lore, not the SRD.

How many attacks does a xorn get?

Four: three claws and one bite. In 2014 they deal 6 each and 13 for the bite, 31 total. In 2024 they deal 8 each and 17 for the bite, 41 total, and the xorn can also Charge as a bonus action.

What's the difference between a xorn and an earth elemental?

Both are CR 5 Elementals that speak Terran and have Earth Glide. The earth elemental is a Large, Intelligence 5 brute with Siege Monster for smashing structures. A xorn is Medium, has Intelligence 11, senses treasure, and tends to want something specific. If your party bargains with one, Loreify's session notes keep track of what was promised.

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.