D&D 5E Low-medium CR creatures with lair actions?

[Sacrosanct]

I've been tinkering with ways to incorporate lower and mid CR creatures to have legendary actions and lair actions. What are everyone's thoughts on that? does it make the stat blocks too busy? or do you prefer to those options? I think I'm really leaning towards having lair actions to a lot of creatures, as it helps give guidance on incorporating the environment into the combat encounter, which I'm a huge fan of, and have seen less and less of over the years. I.e., I'm seeing a lot more people just go from encounter to encounter, only incorporating monster abilities into the combat while the actual environment gets ignored.

Here is an example of the Black Annis that has lair actions involved, as sort of a rough idea of where I'm going with this.

 

[Charlaquin]

Im a big fan of lair actions on low and mid CR creatures, especially early-game bosses. I’m kind of surprised a ghost’s ability to cross back and forth between the material and ethereal planes isn’t a lair action. A ghost should be able to manifest in a place it haunts but not elsewhere. Plus lair environmental effects are perfect for creating haunted house phenomena.

 

[Lyxen]

Im a big fan of lair actions on low and mid CR creatures, especially early-game bosses. I’m kind of surprised a ghost’s ability to cross back and forth between the material and ethereal planes isn’t a lair action. A ghost should be able to manifest in a place it haunts but not elsewhere. Plus lair environmental effects are perfect for creating haunted house phenomena.

I agree, you can have bosses even for low level adventures, and this is exactly what they need to be memorable and counter the problems of action economy in 5e. So no reason to deprive yourself. I would add that MOoT adds the Mythic Monsters which show further interesting options for bosses. When you combine mythic, legendary and lair, you can really do something worth remembering, and still not so dangerous as to risk a TPK.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It is quite good. I love how you put it in the habitat section, really good idea.

I wish most creatures had some kind of minimal lair actions, even if they are very simple.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Good stuff! Lair actions certainly add an interesting layer to combat and can cause the players to cringe when the "top of the order" comes around.

I've been experimenting with legendary actions on lower CR mini-bosses, too. Usually just one (or maybe two) per round. And keeping it simple: a single extra attack or some movement that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.

 

[Tonguez]

I’ve been thinking of running mass combat scenes as essentially Lairs and allowing the boss trigger Lair Actions across the ‘battle field’.

So the boss is a goblin chieftain and his horder of goblins? Cool

• hidden goblin archers fire a barrage of arrows
• a rockfall trap is triggered
• goblin shield wall goes up to defend the chieftains position
• reinforcements add 1d8 additional goblins next round
• Alchemist stink bomb mines detonate etc

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Good stuff! Lair actions certainly add an interesting layer to combat and can cause the players to cringe when the "top of the order" comes around.

I've been experimenting with legendary actions on lower CR mini-bosses, too. Usually just one (or maybe two) per round. And keeping it simple: a single extra attack or some movement that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.

Exactly. Some ''ranking'' monsters should have at least 1 Legendary Save/Action, such as Goblin Boss, Flind, Eye of Grumsh, Orc Warchief etc

 

[Ancalagon]

Matt Colville had a good video about this using a goblin boss as an example...

 

[Li Shenron]

I think this is a great idea!

If you look at it from the point of view of the action economy of the single creature getting these abilities, it might seem a big deal that should be reserved for high CR monsters. But if you look from the point of view of the action economy of the whole enemy side, it really isn't an issue.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

About the mythic trait: it is nice, but kinda mechanically heavy for low-ish CR monsters.

I think some kind of feature based on the Bloodied condition, where you gain a bunch of THP and a cool move or a refresh of special abilities the first time you are Bloodied in an encounter could be less complicated.

Maybe somewhere in the Behavior section?