Hello zoologists of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 36th episode of our beast series. Today we have a rather interesting case in store for us. We’re gonna be taking a look at the dolphin which for some strange reason is found in the volo’s guide to monsters book. I thought for sure it was found on the basic rules but i guess not, i don’t know i don’t actually remember seeing it in the volo’s guide to monsters book but yes it’s there.
It is considered to be a cr 1/8 creature which is so far as to say it’ll give you a 25 experience point should you be able to defeat it. I don’t know why you’d ever want to, i couldn’t really imagine an evil dolphin but i guess there’s a stat block for for a reason. That being said, let’s actually take a moment and check out its stats here.
Dolphin DnD 5E Stat Block
- Type: Medium beast, unaligned
- Armor Class: 12 (Natural Armor)
- Hit Points: 11 (2d8 + 2)
- Speed: 0 ft., swim 60 ft.
So they consider dolphin to be a medium beast that is unaligned which makes sense because dolphins in the wild i think can get longer than 6 feet pretty easily. So make sense, AC of 12 which is pretty good, 11 hit points calculated by rolling 2d8 and adding 2 to it. 0 feet of movement the traditional sense but it does have a swim speed of 60 feet. Which makes sense because although it’s a mammal you know i can’t really walk or anything. Now taking a look at its actual stats.
Stats
- STR: 14 (+2)
- DEX: 13 (+1)
- CON: 13 (+1)
- INT: 6 (-2)
- WIS: 12 (+1)
- CHA: 7 (-2)
You’ll see that it’s actually pretty well rounded at least for a beast. It’s got a decent amount of strength, it’s a little bit of dexterous, it’s got some constitution to it, although it does have a -2 to intelligence that is certainly great in comparision to all the other beasts we’ve covered, it has +1 to wisdom so it’s a little bit wise and it’s also only got -2 to charisma and once again in comparision to those other beasts this is quite good.
- Skills: Perception +3
- Senses: Blindsight 60 ft., Passive Perception 13
- Languages: —
- Challenge: 1/8 (25 XP)
Taking a look at its skills he’s a +3 to perception which of course alone’s itself to a passive perception of 13 and the dolphin also has access to blindsight upto 60 feet which is fantastic let me tell you best sense in the game. Now let’s take a look at its other traits here.
Other Traits
- Charge: So the dolphin is interesting in the way they can actually do a charge attack. So if the dolphin moves at least 30 feet in a straight line towards a target and then hits it with a slam attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.
It doesn’t really knock comprone but it’s also underwater combat so i don’t know if you really can be not prone in the traditional sense.
- Hold Breath: The dolphin can also hold its breath once again they’re technically mammals so this makes sense.The dolphin can hold its breath for 20 minutes. Which is quite an outrageous amount of time if you actually break it down into combat rounds. Now let’s take a look at its actions here.
Actions
- Slam: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Dolphins are clever, social marine mammals that feed on small fish and squid. An adult specimen is between 5 and 6 feet long.
The dolphin only has one action and that is a slam attack, it is a melee weapon attack, +4 to hit which is nice reach of five feet, it can only target one target and deals a 5 bludgeoning damage on a hit, calculated by rolling 1d6 with a modifier of +2.
That being said, i really do think the dolphin is best used as an ally for your party. Certainly because it actually feeds on small fish and squid which means that things like the quipper are the dolphins favored enemy and they run the risk of being quite a headache for the adventuring party so it kind of just goes in tandem.
And if you see the party really struggling in underwater combat you can always have a pot of dolphin swoop in and kind of rescue them a little bit so that’s probably how i would use them in my game. Also check out what is the damage threshold in d&d?.
Conclusion
That being said, let me know how you would use them in yours down beneath in the comment section. Also be sure to mention any thoughts, questions, comments or concerns you may have regarding the dolphins in 5e. That being said, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy researching. Keep reading seal 5e | porpoise 5e | killer whale 5e | shark dnd 5e | giant octopus 5e | dnd dolphin delighter|