D&D 5E Legendary Concentration

[Seramus]

I allow it as a Legendary Action that costs 1.
So a spellcasting legendary monster could run multiple concentration spells in exchange for her Legendary Actions.

 

[overgeeked]

DM: Behold, a terrifying monster! What do you do?
Fighter: I draw my sword!
Invisible flying wizard from behind his phalanx of summoned fire elementals: Don't worry, I've got this.

I largely think the Concentration mechanic was a brilliant addition to D&D and, more than any other particular thing, resolved the LFQW problem.

I don’t think so. It’s certainly helped. At 17th level a fighter can swing their sword three whole times a round...and action surge two whole times per rest. While at 17th level a wizard can cast wish...once per day as an action.

However, I think it makes magic-using monsters incredibly anticlimactic. They get to typically sustain one effect and then blast away. I've started letting solos concentrate on multiple spells, since spells are much rarer among monsters than adventurers, and a high level-monster with low-level Concentration spells hardly ever has a good reason to use them (especially since many spells have had their duration cut to 60 seconds).

Do you think certain monsters should be able to concentrate on multiple spells? Should a Lich be able to cast Cloudkill from inside his Globe of Invulnerability? Should Yeenoghu be able to cast Fear while sustaining Detect Magic?

Monsters with spells in 5E are lame. Rewrite them to have abilities like 4E monsters. Things trigger off events like bloodied, certain effects just exist without concentration, some abilities recharge, certain monsters have innate auras, etc.

 

[Quartz]

The Dread Emperor from the Book of Vile Darkness always has four children chained to him. The let him recall prepared spells at the cost of damaging the children.

That was it.

 

[guachi]

There's a monster in X2 Castle Amber, the Brain Collector, that, well, collects brains. For each brain collected the monster can cast one 1st to 3rd level spell. I allowed the creature to concentrate on one spell for each brain it had, which basically meant it could concentrate on all of it's spells.

 

[Xeviat]

I actually literally wrote "legendary concentration" into the stat block of a lich I was converting from 3E to 5E. Since monsters, especially legendary monsters, follow different rules from the PCs, and their best capabilities are taken into account when their CR is calculated, it's cool.

If you really need your players to feel like their characters can (eventually) do everything the monsters and NPCs can do, I wonder if you could make a spell that allows one to cast two lower level spells and concentrate on them at the same time?

 

[Northern Phoenix]

There is no inherent reason NPCs must follow rules made for player characters. Use the social understanding of fairness to not "dunk" on your players, and beyond that, anything goes.

 

[cbwjm]

If I want a bad guy to concentrate on an extra spell, I will often grant them a special ability that replicates a specific spell. Things like summon elemental, a fire mage might summon a fire elemental as a special ability rather than a spell without having concentration as a requirement.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This is a great place for legendary items, btw.

An Ioun Stone of Focus could concentrate on a spell for you, as could a Collar of The Familiar that gives special properties to your familiar, including allowing them to concentrate for you.

Items are definitely things that the player characters will want when they defeat the enemy, and that’s great! They’ll never appreciate an item quite as much as the one that almost killed them and they then pried from the enemy’s cold dead hands.