WARHAMMER 40K · ONE-SHOT KIT

🛠️ For the DM

The Bestiary of the 41st Millennium

10 Ready-to-Run Enemy Stat Blocks for Warhammer 40,000 — D&D 5e One-Shot

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war."

Every creature below is a straight reskin of a known 5e Monster Manual / SRD stat block. The math is RAW: to-hit equals proficiency + the relevant ability mod, damage dice are unchanged from the base monster, and the listed Challenge Rating is the real CR you plug into your encounter budget. All I changed is the flavor and, occasionally, the damage type (slashing → still slashing, but now it's a chainsword; piercing is now a lasgun bolt). Reskinning never touches the underlying numbers, so your encounter math stays honest.

How to use this:

Quick reference — encounter roles:

# Enemy Reskins CR XP Role
1 Grot (Gretchin) Goblin 1/4 50 Trash swarm
2 Poxwalker Zombie 1/4 50 Horror / slow tide
3 Chaos Cultist Cultist 1/8 25 Fanatic rabble
4 Heretic Guardsman Scout 1/2 100 Ranged line infantry
5 Ork Boy Orc 1/2 100 Standard melee
6 Combat Servitor Animated Armor 1 200 Construct
7 Genestealer Ghoul (+Pack Tactics) 1 200 Ambush horror
8 Bloodletter (Lesser Daemon) Quasit 1 200 Warp skirmisher
9 Ork Nob Ogre 2 450 Mini-boss bruiser
10 Chaos Space Marine Gladiator 5 1,800 Climax boss

1. Grot (Gretchin)

(reskins: Goblin) — CR 1/4 (50 XP)

Small humanoid (greenskin), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
8 (−1) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 8 (−1) 8 (−1)

Nimble Escape. The grot can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.

Actions

Shiv (Scimitar). Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.

Scrap-Slugga (Shortbow). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. (A clapped-out crude pistol or a hurled chunk of sharp junk.)

Flavor: Knee-high green cowards, the runts of Ork society — ammo-runners, mine-fodder, and bullet-sponges who only fight because a bigger greenskin is watching. They scavenge, screech, and bolt the instant the Boyz turn their backs.

In a fight: Send them in mobs of 4–8 to teach the party action economy with zero real danger. They snipe from cover and Nimble Escape away the second a PC closes. The moment their Ork overseer (a Boy or Nob) drops, have every surviving Grot fail morale and flee — a great, readable beat for a first-time DM.

2. Poxwalker

(reskins: Zombie) — CR 1/4 (50 XP)

Medium undead, neutral evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
13 (+1) 6 (−2) 16 (+3) 3 (−4) 6 (−2) 5 (−3)

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the poxwalker to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the poxwalker drops to 1 hit point instead.

Actions

Rotting Slam (Slam). Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) bludgeoning damage.

Burst of Spores (optional flavor rider — does not change CR). When the poxwalker dies, each creature within 5 feet must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or take 1 poison damage and be poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Flavor: Victims of Nurgle's Walking Pox — bloated, grinning, half-rotted citizens whose disease shambles them onward long after the person is gone. The grin never leaves their faces.

In a fight: A slow, relentless tide. Undead Fortitude sells the "won't stay down" dread and forces players to commit real damage instead of chipping. Run them as a creeping-horror opening: 4–6 lurching out of the fog, the party backpedaling while they reload. The death-spores keep melee characters honest about where they stand.

3. Chaos Cultist

(reskins: Cultist) — CR 1/8 (25 XP)

Medium humanoid (human), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 10 (+0)

Dark Devotion. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

Actions

Ritual Blade (Scimitar). Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) slashing damage. (A jagged sacrificial knife etched with the Eightfold Star.)

Autopistol (option — reskins Bandit's light crossbow). Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage. (Swap this in for half your cultists to get a gunned-up rabble.)

Flavor: Hooded human fanatics who worship the Dark Gods — chanting, self-mutilating, and dying gladly to thin the walls between reality and the Warp. They were factory-workers and clerks yesterday; today they want the sky to open.

In a fight: Cannon fodder with conviction. Dark Devotion means your fear/charm casters can't trivially shut them down — a nice early lesson that not everything folds to Frighten. Mix knife-cultists and autopistol-cultists. They chant during combat ("Blood for the Blood God!"); when the daemon or the Cult Fanatic appears, that's the payoff of the chanting.

4. Heretic Guardsman

(reskins: Scout) — CR 1/2 (100 XP)

Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 11 (+0)

Actions

Multiattack. The heretic makes two ranged attacks with its autogun (or two melee attacks with its bayonet).

Autogun (Longbow). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage. (Semi-auto autogun — the two attacks model a controlled burst.)

Bayonet (Shortsword). Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.

Flavor: Imperial Guard who turned on the Emperor — drilled, disciplined soldiers who now serve the Ruinous Powers. More dangerous than cultists because they actually use cover and lay down coordinated fire teams.

In a fight: The real teeth of a traitor warband. Keep them at range, behind the melee mobs, hammering your squishy casters with two shots a turn. Have them use cover (remind the table: half cover is +2 AC). They fall back and re-form when pressed rather than charging — let their professionalism contrast with the screaming cultists in front of them.

5. Ork Boy

(reskins: Orc) — CR 1/2 (100 XP)

Medium humanoid (greenskin), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 7 (−2) 11 (+0) 10 (+0)

Aggressive. As a bonus action, the Ork can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Actions

Choppa (Greataxe). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) slashing damage. (A massive cleaver of welded scrap.)

Slugga / Thrown Scrap (Javelin). Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

Flavor: The bread-and-butter Ork warrior — a hulking slab of muscle and bad attitude who lives to fight and is genuinely thrilled to die doing it. "WAAAGH!"

In a fight: Aggressive IS the Ork charge — every turn it bonus-action-closes the distance and swings its choppa. Run them in mobs of 5–10 and let them barrel headlong at the party with no tactics and no fear. They never retreat; they get louder. For a shootier mob, reflavor as Hobgoblins (Martial Advantage = a slugga volley), but the Orc is the truer Boy.

6. Combat Servitor

(reskins: Animated Armor) — CR 1 (200 XP)

Medium construct (servitor), unaligned

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 1 (−5) 3 (−4) 1 (−5)

Immutable Form. The servitor is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Antimagic Susceptibility (reflavored as Cogitator Lock). The servitor is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field (or a successful tech-disrupt / haywire effect, at DM discretion). If targeted by dispel magic, it must succeed on a Constitution save against the caster's DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

Machine Spirit (reflavors "False Appearance"). While the servitor remains motionless and powered down, it is indistinguishable from an inert industrial drone or a corpse bolted to a workstation.

Actions

Multiattack. The servitor makes two melee attacks.

Servo-Limb Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. (A piston-driven industrial claw, a rivet gun, a bone-saw arm.)

Flavor: A lobotomized human-machine hybrid — mind-wiped, bolted to industrial or weapon tools, no will and no fear. It does exactly one task forever, including "kill whatever the tech-priest pointed at."

In a fight: A slow, high-AC obstacle that's terrifying to a low-level party precisely because it can't be reasoned with, frightened, or charmed — every "talk it down" or "scare it off" plan bounces off. It powers up from apparent inertness (Machine Spirit) for a great ambush. Pair two of them guarding a door the party must get through. Note its blindsight 60 ft. but blindness beyond — clever players can simply outrange it.

7. Genestealer

(reskins: Ghoul + Pack Tactics) — CR 1 (200 XP)

Medium aberration (tyranid), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
13 (+1) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 7 (−2) 10 (+0) 6 (−2)

Pack Tactics (added — Genestealers are death in numbers). The genestealer has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the genestealer's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Actions

Multiattack. The genestealer makes two attacks: one with its rending claws and one with its bite.

Rending Claws (Ghoul Claws). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit (Dex-based; the speed and precision of the strike), 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 (pinned and gutted). The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

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

Flavor: A Tyranid vanguard organism — a lithe, four-armed chitinous horror that infiltrates a world, hides in the dark, and kills in close quarters with sickening speed. Where there's one, there are always more.

In a fight: The signature ambush horror. Pack Tactics + that paralysis claw is genuinely scary — two stealers flanking one PC will likely paralyze them, and a melee hit on a paralyzed target within 5 ft. auto-crits. That's lethal, so telegraph it: have them burst from vents and ducts so the party can react. Speed 40 + climb means they come from above and behind. Run them in 2s and 3s, never alone — a lone Genestealer is a wet firecracker.

8. Bloodletter of Khorne (Lesser Daemon)

(reskins: Quasit) — CR 1 (200 XP)

Small fiend (daemon), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
13 (+1) 17 (+3) 12 (+1) 7 (−2) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)

Shapechange (reflavored Manifestation Flicker). The daemon can use its action to phase between two forms — its true horned shape and a streak of half-real red mist — or revert. Its statistics are the same in each form. In mist form it can't attack or interact with objects, and is invisible until it strikes (reflavors the Quasit's beast forms + invisibility into a Warp-flicker).

Magic Resistance. The daemon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical (psychic) effects.

Warp Instability (reflavors "Variant: Familiar" — optional). When reduced to 0 HP outside a Warp-active zone, the daemon isn't slain but banished, its essence screaming back into the immaterium.

Actions

Hellblade Claw (Scimitar/Claws). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 3) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or take 5 (2d4) poison damage (reflavor as searing Warp-bleed) and be poisoned for 1 minute. The target can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.

Invisibility / Mist-Step. The daemon magically turns invisible (a smear of red haze) until it attacks, or until its concentration ends. Any equipment it wears or carries is invisible with it.

Flavor: A minor entity spat from the Sea of Souls — here, a horned, sword-bearing Bloodletter of Khorne, the foot-soldier of the Blood God. It exists to butcher and to feed the Warp on terror. (Swap the flavor for Nurgle's Plaguebearer, Tzeentch's Pink Horror, or Slaanesh's Daemonette — same block.)

In a fight: A flickering skirmisher that teaches the table about resistances (their mundane gunfire does half — power weapons and psyker spells are the answer). It Mist-Steps in, claws a target, then turns invisible and repositions before they can focus it. One Bloodletter is the spooky reward for letting the cultists chant too long; two is a real threat. On 0 HP, narrate the banishment, not a death — Warp things don't really die.

9. Ork Nob

(reskins: Ogre) — CR 2 (450 XP)

Large humanoid (greenskin), chaotic evil (reskinned from Ogre's giant type)

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 8 (−1) 16 (+3) 7 (−2) 7 (−2) 9 (−1)

Aggressive (added Ork trait — keeps the Nob charging; well within CR 2). As a bonus action, the Nob can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Actions

Power Klaw (Greatclub). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. (A crackling energy-claw that crushes ceramite like tin.)

Big Shoota (Javelin). Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage. (A belt-fed slug-thrower; the long range makes the Nob a threat across the room.)

Flavor: A "Nob" (noble) is the biggest, meanest, best-armed Ork in the mob — leadership by being the toughest one standing. A power klaw, an ego the size of a hab-block, and a body count to back it up.

In a fight: A simple, satisfying bruiser bag of HP — perfect as a first real mini-boss because there's nothing fiddly to track. It Aggressive-charges the nearest threat and swings the power klaw for big, scary numbers (13 a hit gets a player's attention without one-shotting a level-2). Surround it with a mob of Ork Boyz and Grots so the party can't just dogpile it — and when the Nob falls, watch the Grots break and run. For a tougher table, the Orc War Chief (CR 4) is the upgrade path.

10. Chaos Space Marine

(reskins: Gladiator) — CR 5 (1,800 XP) — climax boss

Medium humanoid (heretic astartes), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 15 (+2) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 15 (+2)

Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the Chaos Marine hits with it (included in the attacks below).

Transhuman Dread (reflavors nothing mechanically — narrative note). This is a 7-foot, ten-thousand-year-old killing machine. Lean on it.

Actions

Multiattack. The Chaos Marine makes three melee attacks (chainsword) or two ranged attacks (bolter). It can also use Leadership before or after these attacks.

Chainsword (Spear, with Brute). Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft. (hurled), one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage, or 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage with the extra die from Brute if used in two hands. (Roaring monomolecular teeth that saw through armor and bone.)

Boltgun (added ranged option — a Heavy Crossbow reflavored as bolt fire; this replaces the Gladiator's thrown-spear ranged mode). Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage (mass-reactive bolt shells — each round detonates inside the target).

Leadership (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). For 1 minute, the Chaos Marine can utter a special command or warning whenever a nonhostile creature that it can see within 30 feet of it (a cultist or traitor) makes an attack roll or a saving throw. The creature can add a d4 to its roll provided it can hear and understand the Marine. A creature can benefit from only one Leadership die at a time. This effect ends if the Chaos Marine is incapacitated.

Reactions

Parry. The Chaos Marine adds 3 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it. To do so, the Marine must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.

Flavor: A traitor Astartes — a transhuman super-soldier in baroque, daemon-etched ceramite who has warred against the Emperor for ten thousand years. Where the Marine walks, lesser men kneel or die. The signature heavy villain of the setting.

In a fight: Your cinematic finale, ideal for a party of level 4–5. Brute + Multiattack (three chainsword hits at ~13 each) makes it feel like a power-armored monster shrugging off blows and answering with overwhelming force — and Parry lets it turn aside a killing blow at the dramatic moment. Crucial: never run it alone — a solo CR-5 gets swarmed and dies in two rounds. Surround it with 2–3 Chaos Cultists or Heretic Guardsmen (whom it buffs with Leadership), so it survives to round 3 and the boss fight lands. Have it monologue, single out the bravest PC, and refuse to fall quietly — when it finally drops, give the table the kill they earned.

Appendix: Encounter Recipes (drop-in)

Three pre-balanced encounters using only the blocks above. XP totals are raw; remember to apply the encounter multiplier for number of monsters (2 = ×1.5, 3–6 = ×2, 7–10 = ×2.5) when comparing to your party's daily thresholds.

A. The Creeping Hold (warm-up / horror) — ~4 PCs, level 2

B. The Traitor Line (the real fight) — ~4 PCs, level 2–3

C. The Heretic's Champion (climax) — ~4–5 PCs, level 4–5

The Emperor protects. (He does not. But it helps to say it.)

A final word to the DM: every number here is just the Monster Manual wearing a different coat. If a fight is going sideways, trust the base monster's math, add or remove a mob body or two, and keep the spotlight moving. Reach the climax, let them feel like heroes against an uncaring galaxy, and the table will remember it. For the Emperor.

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