Zombie 5e: Stats, Undead Fortitude and Running the Horde

A zombie is a CR 1/4 Medium Undead with AC 8, 22 hit points (15 in the 2024 rules), a 20-foot speed and a single Slam attack. It is slow, easy to hit and hits weakly. What makes it a real monster is Undead Fortitude: when damage drops it to 0 hit points, it makes a Constitution save against DC 5 + the damage taken, and on a success it stays up with 1 hit point. Radiant damage and critical hits skip the save. The 2024 zombie has fewer hit points and a bigger Slam, and keeps the same trait with the same numbers.

Table of Contents

• •Zombie Stat Block (2014)
• •The Zombie in the 2024 Rules
• •Undead Fortitude: The Actual Odds
• •How Zombies Fight
• •How Many Zombies for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Zombies
• •Zombie Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Zombie Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 zombie:

Read the block as a list of weaknesses with one exception. AC 8 means a +5 attacker hits on a 3 or better (90%). Dexterity 6 gives it a -2 initiative modifier, so zombies usually act last. Speed 20 feet means any character with a 30-foot speed can walk away from one forever. Intelligence 3 means it doesn't flank, retreat or pick targets with any cunning.

The exception is Constitution 16. That +3 feeds Undead Fortitude, and it's why a zombie with 22 hit points often takes four or five hits to put down instead of three.

The Zombie in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 zombie (SRD 5.2.1) is the same creature with the numbers shifted toward the attack.

AC 8, speed 20 feet, darkvision 60 feet, the Wisdom save proficiency (+0 total) and Undead Fortitude are unchanged.

The 7-hit-point drop is bigger than it looks. Against the 2014 zombie, a level 1 fighter with a longsword (1d8 + 3, average 7.5) needs three hits on average just to reach 0. Against the 2024 zombie, two hits do it a little over half the time (2d8 + 6 reaches 15 on 56% of rolls). The 2024 zombie dies faster but hits 25% harder per Slam (5 average instead of 4). If you run 2014 adventures with 2024 rules, either zombie works at the same XP value. The 2024 one makes fights shorter and a little sharper.

Undead Fortitude: The Actual Odds

Undead Fortitude reads simply but plays strangely, so here is the math. The zombie's Constitution save is +3. The DC is 5 + the damage taken from the hit that dropped it. So the zombie succeeds if its d20 roll is at least the damage + 2. A natural 1 on a saving throw isn't an automatic failure in either edition, so the odds come straight from the d20.

Three things follow from the table.

The whole hit counts, not the overkill. A zombie at 2 hit points that takes 9 damage rolls against DC 14, not DC 7. Big hits are the cleanest kill, even when the zombie is nearly dead.

Small hits feed the zombie. Once it's at 1 hit point, every hit drops it again and forces a fresh save. With a 60% save chance, the expected number of extra hits before it stays down is 0.6 / 0.4 = 1.5. With a 70% chance it's 2.3. A dagger-wielding rogue without Sneak Attack can spend a whole fight on one zombie.

Two things skip the save entirely. Radiant damage and critical hits end it at 0. The SRD doesn't say what happens when one hit mixes damage types (a weapon hit plus radiant from a spell or feature), so decide your ruling before the session rather than mid-fight.

Roll the save in the open. Players learn the rule after one zombie stands back up, and start asking who has radiant damage.

How Zombies Fight

Zombies don't have tactics, so the DM supplies the situation. The stat block pushes you toward three uses.

The slow wall. Six zombies shuffling down a corridor at 20 feet a round don't threaten a mobile party; they threaten a party that can't leave. Put them between the characters and the exit, or between the characters and something they need to protect. Their threat is attrition: each Slam is +3 against AC 16, hitting on 13 or higher (40%). Six zombies in reach of the fighter deal about 9.6 damage a round in 2014 (6 x 4 x 0.4) or 12 in 2024 (6 x 5 x 0.4). That's survivable for a round or two, and very much not survivable if the cleric is the one surrounded.

The distraction. One zombie doesn't kill anyone. One zombie that stands back up twice while a ghoul pack or a necromancer works on the party absorbs actions. Pair zombies with something that needs time: a ritual, a door being barred from the other side, a creature that hides.

The horror beat. A zombie that stays standing after the fighter's best swing is a scene, not a stat line. Describe Undead Fortitude every time it triggers. Players start to dread the moment instead of shrugging at a CR 1/4 monster.

Movement rules worth knowing:

• •A zombie that Dashes covers 40 feet but can't attack that turn. A party that walks away at 30 feet gets caught; a party that Dashes (60 feet) leaves the horde behind.
• •Darkvision 60 feet. Light doesn't matter to them, but it does matter to the party's ability to count how many are coming.
• •They understand languages but can't speak. A zombie raised by Animate Dead follows its creator's commands, so a controlled horde can act with more purpose than a wandering one.

How Many Zombies for a Level 1 Party?

Zombies are worth 50 XP each in both editions. With the 2024 encounter budget for four characters:

The budgets per character (50/75/100 at level 1, 100/150/200 at level 2, 150/225/400 at level 3) come from the SRD 5.2.1 encounter table.

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter difficulty calculator uses, rate zombies much more harshly. Six zombies are 300 XP, doubled to 600 by the group multiplier for 3 to 6 monsters. For four level 1 characters that's past the Deadly threshold of 400. For four level 2 characters it's exactly Hard.

Our read: the 2014 multiplier overrates zombies, because they arrive slowly and act last. The 2024 numbers are closer to what you see at the table. A sensible plan:

• •Level 1: 4 to 6 zombies, in a space where the party can't simply walk away.
• •Level 2 to 3: 8 or more, or zombies as a screen for a stronger creature.
• •Level 4 and up: zombies stop being a fight on their own. Use them as a timer ("twelve more are coming up the stairs in 3 rounds") or as the minions of a wight, which can control up to twelve, or of a lich, whose Finger of Death raises any humanoid it kills as a zombie.

How Players Beat Zombies

Radiant damage first. It ignores Undead Fortitude. Guiding Bolt (4d6 radiant, average 14) drops a full-health 2024 zombie on a roll of 15 or more (about 44%), and when it does, there's no save. Spirit Guardians deals radiant damage if the caster is good or neutral, and slows zombies that are already slow.

Hit hard, not often. The table above is the whole lesson. One 12-damage hit beats two 6-damage hits, because only the dropping hit sets the DC. Two-handed weapons, Sneak Attack and smites are the right tools.

Area spells mostly work. A failed-save Burning Hands for 10 damage leaves each zombie a 45% chance (DC 15, needs 12+) to stay up, and at 1 hit point. Most of those die to the next cantrip. Fireball averages 28 on a failed save, and any total of 19 or more leaves the zombie no roll that can save it.

Critical hits end it. Attacks against a Paralyzed or Unconscious creature from within 5 feet are automatic crits, but zombies are rarely either. More practically, anything that grants Advantage raises crit odds from 5% to about 10%.

Turn Undead. The zombie's Wisdom save is +0. Against a DC 13 cleric it fails 60% of the time. In the 2014 rules, a level 5 cleric's Destroy Undead destroys a zombie that fails the save (CR 1/2 or lower). In the 2024 rules, Sear Undead at cleric level 5 deals radiant damage to every undead that fails, which bypasses Undead Fortitude entirely.

Don't bother with poison (immune) or anything that relies on the Poisoned condition. In 2024, Exhaustion doesn't work either.

Walk away. It's a legitimate tactic. A party that Dashes covers 60 feet a round to a zombie's 40, and zombies usually act last, so a party that leaves on round 1 isn't caught.

Zombie Encounter Ideas

The flooded crypt. Knee-deep water fills a burial vault and makes the whole floor difficult terrain. Five zombies lie under the surface, still, until someone steps near. In the water they manage 10 feet a round and the party 15, so nobody outruns anything. The real problem is the iron gate behind the party, which swings shut on a pressure plate. The party has to hold for 4 rounds while one character works the lock.

The plague ward. A town has walled off a quarter after a sickness. The locals believe the sick are just sick. Behind the wall, a necromancer has been using Animate Dead on the bodies each night, and the zombies are the town's own dead, wearing clothes the party might recognize from earlier scenes. The fight is easy. Telling the mayor is not.

The wight's harvest. Bodies from a bandit massacre on the road are rising one by one, exactly 24 hours after each death. A wight killed them with Life Drain. The party arrives at hour 20 and has four hours to burn or bury twelve bodies before they stand up, with the wight watching from the tree line and in no hurry.

When the party is tracking which bodies rose, which ones they burned and which villager knew the dead, a D&D session note-taking app like Loreify can record the session and keep that cast list straight.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a zombie in 5e?

A zombie is CR 1/4 and worth 50 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 8, 22 hit points in 2014 and 15 hit points in 2024.

How does Undead Fortitude work?

When damage reduces a zombie to 0 hit points, it makes a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 plus the damage taken. On a success it drops to 1 hit point instead. Radiant damage and critical hits skip the save, and any hit of 19 or more damage is impossible for a +3 zombie to survive.

Does Undead Fortitude work against radiant damage or crits?

No. Undead Fortitude doesn't trigger if the damage is radiant or comes from a critical hit, in both editions. The zombie just dies at 0 hit points.

How much XP is a zombie worth?

50 XP. Under the 2024 budget, four zombies are a Low-difficulty fight for four level 1 characters and eight are High.

Can 5e zombies talk?

No. A 2014 zombie understands the languages it spoke in life, and a 2024 zombie understands Common plus one other language, but neither can speak.

What's the difference between a zombie and a skeleton?

Both are CR 1/4 undead. A skeleton is quicker (30 feet), better armored (AC 13 in 2014, 14 in 2024) and has 13 hit points, with a shortbow for range. A zombie is slower and easier to hit but has more hit points and Undead Fortitude. Skeletons shoot; zombies refuse to stay down.

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.