D&D 5E First Legendary Monster!

[Dausuul]

I felt this deserved its own thread. We've now got our first official legendary monster! It's in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen supplement, page 4: Adult Blue Dragon.

Apparently, Legendary consists of the following:

1. The Legendary creature gets three "get out of jail free" cards to use on failed saving throws. Three times per day, when it fails a saving throw, it can say, "Nah, I succeed anyway. I'm LEGEN--wait for it...--DARY!"
2. The Legendary creature gets special "legendary actions" which it takes at the end of other people's turns. It can take up to three legendary actions per round, but only one per turn. For the blue dragon, they include a Perception check, a tail slap, and a wing buffet which costs two actions. I am assuming the dragon can use the same option multiple times, though it's not clear from the text.

Presumably, being Legendary also gives you a boatload of extra hit dice, but they're rolled into the dragon's regular stats so there's no way to tell what's coming from Legendariness and what's regular dragon-stats.

Discuss!

 

[Sir Brennen]

The Vampire in the supplement is also Legendary

 

[Crothian]

Let's start with the basics. What is a Legendary creature? Any definition on what that means? Is it kind of like a template or something for unique creatures?

 

[Dausuul]

The Vampire in the supplement is also Legendary

Nice catch! The Adult White Dragon is, too.

Let's start with the basics. What is a Legendary creature? Any definition on what that means? Is it kind of like a template or something for unique creatures?

From what Mearls has said, Legendary is the 5E equivalent of 4E's "solo" and "elite" monster types: A quasi-template that you apply to a monster in order to make it suitable for taking on an entire party by itself. There may or may not be a definition for what that means in the game fiction, but presumably it's something like "Tough, mean, and good at defending itself from multiple foes."

(There was a Legends and Lore article that mentioned it, I think... trying to dig it up. Stupid site redesign.)

 

[Dausuul]

Found it. Thank you, Google caching: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...e.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20130617&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1

"We've recast solo and elite as legendary, a description that applies to truly powerful, notable, and important creatures in the world of D&D. These are monsters whose very nature is tied to the fabric of the cosmos. Magic runs through their veins, and their mere appearance is a noteworthy event. Dragons, titans, most fiends, and elder elementals are a few examples of legendary creatures. Artifacts can also make creatures into legends. The orc king carrying the spear of Gruumsh is a legendary figure.

Big creatures that still pose a physical threat can simply have mechanics to reflect their abilities. They don't need to dip into the legendary mechanics to pose a threat."

It looks like the concept has drifted a bit if vampires are now considered legendary, but maybe the vampire has an artifact?

 

[Gargoyle]

It looks like the concept has drifted a bit if vampires are now considered legendary, but maybe the vampire has an artifact?

Or maybe the concept of the vampire has changed so that they are now more formidable. I'm ok with that.

 

[Sir Brennen]

There's no definition presented. Just this reference: "For more information on monsters and how to read a monster’s statistics, see the D&D basic rules or the Monster Manual"

So I'm thinking Legendary Monsters will be in the Basic PDF as well.

It looks like the concept has drifted a bit if vampires are now considered legendary, but maybe the vampire has an artifact?

I'm thinking Vampire Spawn, the next monster in the document, will be more like "regular" vampires, and the actual vampire entry represents a "master", like Dracula, and thus treated with the Legendary features.

Side note about the Vampire: it's Bite attack is not something it can do as a "regular" attack against a hostile target. They have to grapple first, or the target must be unable to defend themselves (unconscious or incapacitated). I like this mechanic, though I'm sure it's been around a while (but not in 1E/2E, where "Bite" was just a standard attack.)

However, it can grab/bite as part of the same multi-attack on its turn, and can then also grab and bite with the use of two separate Legendary Actions. So, potentially, twice a round. Then consider each bite heals the vampire 3d6 hit points...

edit: on TOP of his Regen 20! Hard to keep a good vamp down!

 

[Joe Liker]

1. The Legendary creature gets three "get out of jail free" cards to use on failed saving throws. Three times per day, when it fails a saving throw, it can say, "Nah, I succeed anyway. I'm LEGEN--wait for it...--DARY!"
Discuss!

So spellcasters who rely heavily on saving throw magic are going to regret some of their decisions.

You can look at this as strong encouragement to diversify your spellbook (wise advice anyway), but I imagine some people are going to feel persecuted.

 

[Kinak]

Very consistent mechanic for these (three saves a day and three legendary actions a turn), so presumably that's what they settled on.

The basic mechanic is fairly reasonable, pushing back a bit against the action economy advantages a party of PCs has. It's probably not coincidental that one base action plus three legendary actions gives you as many actions as a four person party.

That said, in the original design, they were talking about making them more... interesting and tied to their lairs, which doesn't really shine through here. The dragons in particular are way more similar to each other than, say, the Monster Vault dragons.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Dausuul]

I'm thinking Vampire Spawn, the next monster in the document, will be more like "regular" vampires, and the actual vampire entry represents a "master", like Dracula, and thus treated with the Legendary features.

Whoa, yeah. I figured vampire spawn would be cheap mooks, like the minions they were in 4E. Turns out they're tough customers in their own right. CR 5 and 82 hit points! 5E vampires are bad news.