D&D 5E Experience with Legendary Resistance: How is it working for you?

[SilverfireSage]

My group fought our first legendary creature. This legendary resistance mechanic has me somewhat concerned. I'd like to hear what others experiences have been with this mechanic. It seems to devalue casters as anything other than buff bots and make martials king of the all the key combats against the toughest creatures.

The sequence of events for us went like this:
1. Bard casts bless (probably the most powerful group buff spell in the game now).

2. Fighter heads into room, engages creatures, hits it with two attacks with one using feinting maneuver, then action surges hitting it with two more attacks. He does 48 points of damage in a single round at level 5.

3. Opponent hits fighter. Fighter uses reaction to parry portion of damage.

4. Monster casts 15 foot radius darkness.

5. Remaining party can't do much because he can't see anyone.

Round 2:
1. Fighter Disengages and backs out of room.

2. Paladin smites creature doing 4d8 and 2d6 with thunderous smite for 28 points.

2. Wizard casts Fireball for 31 points. Creatures uses Legendary[/I] resistance to save automatically saving taking 15 points.

3. Bard casts sleep causing legendary creature to fall since its hit points now below threshold dropping darkness.

Round 3:
1. Party keys off fighter using ready action to all strike creature while it is prone.

Legendary creature dead.

1. Fighter 48 points plus killing blow.
2. Paladin 28 points.
3. Wizard 15 points with 3rd level spell.
4. Bard buffs and sleeps target since Legendary Resistance won't stop a no save spell.


Is this how it is working for most groups? Seems to make spells with saves pretty pointless against creatures with Legendary Resistance. On top of the save every round mechanic and Legendary Creatures having better stats, resistances, and saving throws, does this seem like overkill to limit casters forcing us to choose a very narrow selection of spells to be useful in fights against legendary creatures?

What creature were you fighting that has legendary saves at level 5-9ish? I don't recall any creatures with legendary attributes in that level range but I could be wrong. I'm also going to repeat what other people have said and ask why the legendary creature didn't use his legendary actions to fight during the oppositions turn? I've found that typically is what does the most damage to the characters. Lastly, complaining about legendary resistances negating spells is like saying a lot of hit points and resistances negates fighters abilities to kill it. It's a limited resource and will go away if the characters hammer it with enough spells.

Actually I also find it funny that you seem to be complaining that spells aren't powerful enough and legendary creatures are too powerful, but the Wizard only used a single 3rd level spell during that entire fight, and the creature still dropped in 3 rounds. Something is fishy here, and I would love to know what they were fighting.

 

[Tormyr]

What creature were you fighting that has legendary saves at level 5-9ish? I don't recall any creatures with legendary attributes in that level range but I could be wrong. I'm also going to repeat what other people have said and ask why the legendary creature didn't use his legendary actions to fight during the oppositions turn? I've found that typically is what does the most damage to the characters. Lastly, complaining about legendary resistances negating spells is like saying a lot of hit points and resistances negates fighters abilities to kill it. It's a limited resource and will go away if the characters hammer it with enough spells.

Actually I also find it funny that you seem to be complaining that spells aren't powerful enough and legendary creatures are too powerful, but the Wizard only used a single 3rd level spell during that entire fight, and the creature still dropped in 3 rounds. Something is fishy here, and I would love to know what they were fighting.

I don't know. Does the unicorn have legendary actions? An evil, dark unicorn? If it was at level 5, I think this was a homebrew villain. At that point, if it had legendary resistance of 1/day but no legendary actions, I could see the fight going the way it did. The darkness tactic was good, but it needed to be putting out more damage if it was off on its lonesome. Of course, this is all speculation since and not the point of the thread.

 

[Nebulous]

No, the casters can also use their save spells, knowing that there is the possibility of the enemy shrugging it off. Don't forget the legendary resistance only kicks in after the creature initially fails the saving throw. So if the creature is unlucky, it will have burned through its legendary resistance quickly. It also has the choice of not using LR if it does not feel it needs to do so.

I think you ran into a much bigger problem with 5e in your description. Solos get splattered quickly. This creature had legendary resistance but no legendary actions? What were they fighting?

I think the idea is that if you're going up against a foe with Legendary Resistance, you got to HAMMER that muther with spells. Force it to save over and over and over and over until it has no options left.

 

[Chocolategravy]

It's a very bad mechanic as is legendary actions. At high level you're going to find it gets even worse. At high level we don't have much in the way of monsters that AREN'T legendary! So to fill in your 6-8 fights per game day your wizard is going to be finding anything with a save on it to be pretty worthless unless it's to mop up "minions" around the legendary.

 

[SilverfireSage]

It's a very bad mechanic as is legendary actions. At high level you're going to find it gets even worse. At high level we don't have much in the way of monsters that AREN'T legendary! So to fill in your 6-8 fights per game day your wizard is going to be finding anything with a save on it to be pretty worthless unless it's to mop up "minions" around the legendary.

This is decidedly untrue.

 

[Gundark]

I think you ran into a much bigger problem with 5e in your description. Solos get splattered quickly. This creature had legendary resistance but no legendary actions? What were they fighting?

This. I haven't experienced a Legendary creature in our campaign yet but I'm sorry to hear that Solos are still punks that go down in a heartbeat.

 

[Chocolategravy]

This is decidedly untrue.

It quite obviously is true. Or do you have a "magical" MM that the rest of us don't have? CR 17 4/7 legendary, CR 18 1/1 legendary, CR 19 0/1 legendary CR 20 2/3 legendary, CR 21 4/4 legendary, CR 22 2/2 legendary, CR 23 4/4 legendary, CR 24 2/2 legendary. At high levels of your 6-8 fights per day MOST will be against legendary monsters and several can very well be against MULTIPLE legends.

 

[Tormyr]

It quite obviously is true. Or do you have a "magical" MM that the rest of us don't have? CR 17 4/7 legendary, CR 18 1/1 legendary, CR 19 0/1 legendary CR 20 2/3 legendary, CR 21 4/4 legendary, CR 22 2/2 legendary, CR 23 4/4 legendary, CR 24 2/2 legendary. At high levels of your 6-8 fights per day MOST will be against legendary monsters and several can very well be against MULTIPLE legends.

It isn't true because 4 CR7 creatures provide a medium encounter for 4 20th level PCs. Solo encounters don't necessarily work well. Legendary actions help that, but the BBEG flunked its How to Be a BBEG correspondence course if he skipped the section on "Using minions to screw up adventurer's tactics for fun and profit."

In the end, you don't need a 20th level bad guy to fight a 20th level party, and it is probably a not good idea to have one on its own.

 

[Sacrosanct]

What creature were you fighting that has legendary saves at level 5-9ish? I don't recall any creatures with legendary attributes in that level range but I could be wrong. I'm also going to repeat what other people have said and ask why the legendary creature didn't use his legendary actions to fight during the oppositions turn? I've found that typically is what does the most damage to the characters. Lastly, complaining about legendary resistances negating spells is like saying a lot of hit points and resistances negates fighters abilities to kill it. It's a limited resource and will go away if the characters hammer it with enough spells.

Actually I also find it funny that you seem to be complaining that spells aren't powerful enough and legendary creatures are too powerful, but the Wizard only used a single 3rd level spell during that entire fight, and the creature still dropped in 3 rounds. Something is fishy here, and I would love to know what they were fighting.

Unless I missed something, I didn't find a single creature that had legendary resistance that didn't also have legendary actions. And they all would pretty much destroy a 5th level party of 4. So I'm guessing it's a homebrew creature?

 

[SilverfireSage]

Unless I missed something, I didn't find a single creature that had legendary resistance that didn't also have legendary actions. And they all would pretty much destroy a 5th level party of 4. So I'm guessing it's a homebrew creature?

It pretty much has to be. In which case, what's the point of complaining about a feature that they didn't even really use correctly in the first place? Seems very odd to me.