Piranha
Tiny Beast · · CR 0
- Beast
- Tiny
- Tier 1
Piranha, CR 0, fills the tiny beast role with unaligned disposition. Encounter regions: underwater. Sourced from Monster Manual (5.5e 2024).
Stat Block
- Challenge Rating
- 0
- Type
- Beast
- Size
- Tiny
- Alignment
- —
- Speed
- —
- Habitats
- Underwater
- Sources
- Monster Manual (5.5e 2024)
Ecology
Piranhas swarm warm rivers and lakes — Chult, the Mhair Jungles, Sword Coast tropical river-systems. Diet is fish, fallen mammals, blood-trail prey. They are normally not aggressive to large healthy creatures but Blood Frenzy turns them into a feeding storm: a single drop of blood draws every piranha within 100 yards within seconds. They breed in seasonal flooded forests and shoal in groups of dozens to hundreds.
Behaviour
Reactive predators driven by chemosensors detecting blood and amino acids in water. They communicate by lateral-line pressure waves, coordinating swarm direction without thought. A piranha alone is timid; a piranha with one bloody target is a **possessed creature**. They flee dry environments and die quickly in still or hot water.
Origin
In Chult, **Ubtao's worshipers** use piranha pools as a trial of judgment: the accused stands in a piranha pool with a small cut, and survival is taken as innocence. The Mwangi tribes of Chult also farm piranhas for ritual scarring rites. The Yuan-Ti consider them lesser cousins to their bloodline.
Related Monsters
Frequently Asked Questions about Piranha
- What is the challenge rating of Piranha?
- Piranha is rated CR 0. The rating matches a tier-1 group in low-stakes encounters.
- What type of creature is Piranha?
- The bestiary type for Piranha is beast, tiny size.
- Where does Piranha live?
- Piranha's listed habitats include Underwater.