D&D 5E Legendary and Lair as tools for every level.

[Giltonio_Santos]

What do you think about it?

As I see this, legendary traits and lair actions are a mechanical way to create memorable boss fights, but memorable boss fights can happen at any level. If I give the CR 2 orcish warchief a lair and some legendary actions instead of a bunch of sidekicks, am I inviting a TPK?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've been thinking of doing exactly this, and I rather hope there are some suggestions for it in the DMG section on modifying/building monsters. I love the idea of, say, a legendary wraith or doppleganger. And giving lair actions to a ghost is a great way to simulate a haunting.

I haven't figured out how to do it so it's not unbalanced, yet, but I'm sure it's possible.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I would say for every for every Legendary action it can do, raise the CR by 1. A Lair would raise the CR by 2.

You could have the Orc Warlord have a legendary action to take a bonus action each turn, which would raise the CR by 1. Maybe Autosave 1/day would be legendary but might not raise his CR but add +15% EXP?

 

[Evenglare]

What do you think about it?

As I see this, legendary traits and lair actions are a mechanical way to create memorable boss fights, but memorable boss fights can happen at any level. If I give the CR 2 orcish warchief a lair and some legendary actions instead of a bunch of sidekicks, am I inviting a TPK?

Nah man, do it! Infact I'd love to see a fan compilation of all of this stuff. The lair and region actions are song of the best new rules!

 

[Tormyr]

What level is the party. Just remember that lair actions add 1 to the CR of a creature. Check the description for the dragons and how being in their lair changes their CR. Adding legendary abilities probably adds another 1 to CR as well. Lower level legendary creatures have fewer automatic saves and few legendary action uses per round. My best guess is that the lair goes on 20 with 1 of a couple different options that cannot be repeated from 1 round to the next (maybe goblin or kobold slaves activating traps), the chief gets 1 save per day, and it can do 1 legendary action per round. The end result is a chief with a CR of 4.

That's just back of the napkin stuff though. It might scale differently at different levels.

EDIT: Regional effects could be roaming bands of orcs attacking people within a certain number of miles of the lair and sticking their heads on pikes. After the chief dies, the tribe moves and all of the roaming orc patrols disappear in 1d10 days.

 

[The_Gneech]

As long as the hazards in the lair don't tax the PCs' resources too much, you should be all right. At low levels, much of the party's efforts are spent on just keeping the members up off the floor from round to round, so you don't want to make that impossible.

-TG

 

[Boarstorm]

EDIT: Regional effects could be roaming bands of orcs attacking people within a certain number of miles of the lair and sticking their heads on pikes. After the chief dies, the tribe moves and all of the roaming orc patrols disappear in 1d10 days.

I like this. I hadn't thought of using regional effects to simulate more than changes to the environment.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Yes I think not only can this be done, but you should do it - its more interesting than for example bumping the creature level up too high, like the venomfang encounter in the starter set. I hope dmg includes guidance on this, presumably it will.

 

[Daniel Russell]

Did this over the weekend I had a basic kobold (CR1/8) with the Mage Initiate feat as a Druid so I bumped his CR to 1/4.

I gave him a Lair action in his greenhouse to have a plant cast Poison spray so made him CR 1/2. Chucked in a couple of Kobolds and it made a decent encounter for 3 lvl 2 PCs.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I plan to have an encounter with a legendary moose.

What you need to do is compare a creature in the MM that has legendary actions, with a creature of the same CR that does not. I suspect that the legendary creature does not have fewer HP or do less damage than the non-legendary. Ergo, no change in CR needs to occur.

This raises the question of CR = EXP again, though.