Ghoul 5e: What It Is, How It Fights, and How to Run One

A ghoul is Challenge 1 with AC 12 and 22 hit points, and its claws paralyse on a failed DC 10 Constitution save. Here is what that means at the table, how a ghast changes the encounter, and three ways to run them.

A ghoul is a Medium undead in DnD 5e, Challenge 1, with AC 12 and 22 hit points. Its claws force a DC 10 Constitution saving throw, and a failed save means paralysed for a minute. That one line is the whole monster. A ghoul does not out-damage your party. It waits for one bad roll and then the pack eats at advantage. One ghoul is a nuisance. Four ghouls in a corridor is a story your players retell.

Why Challenge 1 lies about ghouls

Read the numbers and a ghoul looks like a speed bump: +4 to hit with claws, 7 slashing damage, 22 hit points, gone in two rounds. The danger is not the damage, it is the DC 10 Constitution save that rides along with every claw hit.

A paralysed creature cannot act, fails Strength and Dexterity saves, and every attack against it from within 5 feet is a critical hit on a hit. So the fight stops being about hit points and starts being about how many ghouls are standing next to the character who just failed a save. Two ghouls deal double damage. Four ghouls change the maths entirely, because the first failed save turns the next three claw attacks into automatic crits.

There is one detail most tables miss, and it is worth knowing before you build the encounter: the ghoul's paralysis does not work on elves. The claws still cut, but an elf or an undead creature never rolls that save. If your party has an elven fighter, ghouls are an ordinary Challenge 1 encounter. If it does not, they are not.

Ghoul stat block (SRD 5.1)

• Medium undead, chaotic evil
• Armor Class 12
• Hit Points 22 (5d8)
• Speed 30 ft.
• STR 13 · DEX 15 · CON 10 · INT 7 · WIS 10 · CHA 6
• Damage Immunities poison
• Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, poisoned
• Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
• Languages Common
• Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Ghoul vs ghast: what actually changes

A ghast is the same hunger, older and in charge. Challenge 2, AC 13, 36 hit points, and three changes that matter more than the extra hit points:

• The elf exception is gone. A ghast's claws force the same DC 10 Constitution save on any creature that is not undead. The elf who walked through the ghoul encounter untouched rolls this one.
• Stench. Any creature that starts its turn within 5 feet must make a DC 10 Constitution save or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. The fight opens with a saving throw, before anyone swings.
• Turn Defiance. The ghast and every ghoul within 30 feet have advantage on saves against turning undead. The cleric who planned to scatter the pack with one Turn Undead finds out that this pack has a leader.

Put a ghast behind four ghouls and you have changed a Challenge 1 encounter into a problem, without adding a single new mechanic your players have to learn.

Ghast stat block (SRD 5.1)

• Medium undead, chaotic evil
• Armor Class 13
• Hit Points 36 (8d8)
• Speed 30 ft.
• STR 16 · DEX 17 · CON 10 · INT 11 · WIS 10 · CHA 8
• Damage Resistances necrotic
• Damage Immunities poison
• Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, poisoned
• Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
• Languages Common
• Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Stench. Any creature that starts its turn within 5 ft. of the ghast must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the ghast's Stench for 24 hours.

Turn Defiance. The ghast and any ghouls within 30 ft. of it have advantage on saving throws against effects that turn undead.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Three ways to make ghouls memorable

1. A corridor, not a chamber. Paralysis only matters when nobody can walk away. A crypt with one exit turns Challenge 1 into a real threat, and it costs you nothing to draw.
2. Not all at once. Two ghouls come in, two more arrive after two rounds. The party gets to feel like it is winning first.
3. Leave the leftovers. Ghouls eat. A gnawed corpse, a grave dug open from the inside, a wet scraping sound behind the wall - the encounter starts before you roll initiative.

Where ghouls come from

The useful version at the table is the simple one: a ghoul is someone who ate what should not be eaten and did not stop. That gives you a hook you can hang a cult, a famine or a bad winter on, and it explains why this particular graveyard is not quiet.

You do not need more than that. Ghouls work because the hunger is legible. Everyone at the table understands a creature that wants to eat them, and nobody needs a lore lecture to be afraid of it.

Putting one on the table

We keep a large undead family in the guild, because ghouls rarely arrive alone. Where we usually start:

• Ghoul 5e Bone Undead Miniature - lean, long fingered, the baseline for a pack
• Abomination Ghoul 5e Monster Miniature - bigger, for the round in which the party thinks it has counted the enemies
• Ghoul 5e Undead Queen Miniature - if something in this crypt gives orders
• Wight Ghoul 5e Ghast Monster Miniature - the one to put behind the pack
• The whole family: Undead 5e, 637 miniatures

We craft each one to order and finish it by hand, so a pack of six does not look like six pulls from the same mould.

The short version

• A ghoul is Challenge 1: AC 12, 22 hit points, claws at +4 for 7 slashing damage.
• The claws carry a DC 10 Constitution save. Fail it and you are paralysed for a minute, and every attack from 5 feet away is then a critical hit.
• Elves and undead creatures never roll that save against a ghoul. Against a ghast, they do.
• A ghast is Challenge 2: AC 13, 36 hit points, plus Stench and Turn Defiance, which gives every ghoul within 30 feet advantage against Turn Undead.
• Ghouls do not scale linearly. Put them somewhere nobody can walk away from and Challenge 1 stops being a speed bump.

Legal Information

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.