Wolf

Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class
13
natural armor
Hit Points
11
2d8 + 2
Speed
40 ft.
  • STR +1
  • DEX +2
  • CON +1
  • INT -4
  • WIS +1
  • CHA -2
Skills
Perception +3, Stealth +4
Senses
passive Perception 13
Challenge 1/4 50 XP · Proficiency +2

Traits

Keen Hearing and Smell

The wolf has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pack Tactics

The wolf has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wolf's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Actions

Bite

Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

How to run it

Pack Tactics plus a knockdown on the bite is a nastier combination than the CR suggests. Two wolves on one target attack with advantage, and a failed DC 11 Strength save leaves that character prone, which gives every other wolf in the pack advantage as well. The fight snowballs.

Wolves target the isolated. Run them as hunters, not soldiers: they circle, they cut off the straggler, and they break off when badly hurt rather than fighting to the death.

Building the encounter

Four wolves is a genuine threat to a party of four at level 1 and a solid encounter at level 2. Their speed of 40 means the party does not get to choose the range.

Open terrain with scattered cover suits them, and so does anything that separates the party. A wolf pack that catches the group in a defile with the ranger fifty feet ahead is doing exactly what wolves do.

What to pair it with

A druid, a ranger, or any humanoid who plausibly commands them. The wolves become the reach and the humanoid becomes the reason.

They also pair well with worse weather. Wolves in a blizzard, where the party cannot see beyond thirty feet, use their Keen Hearing and Smell to fight a battle the party cannot see coming.

Reskins

Any fast pack predator. Hyenas, giant rats scaled up, hounds of something infernal with the damage type changed, or the hunting beasts of a fey court.

The knockdown is what makes it feel like a wolf. Keep that and you can change everything else.

Commonly played wrong

The knockdown save is only triggered if the target is a creature, and it is a Strength save, not Dexterity. Heavily armoured characters are not automatically good at it, which surprises people.

Pack Tactics requires the ally within 5 feet of the target. A wolf circling at range gains nothing for its pack, so wolves who spread out are wolves played badly.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 1/4 the wolf is the mobile one. Speed 40 and Keen Hearing and Smell mean it dictates when the fight starts, which no other creature at this rating does.

Against the goblin it trades tricks for reach and a control effect. A goblin makes a fight annoying. A wolf pack makes a fight dangerous, because prone characters at level 1 die.

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