D&D 5E Reactions for all monsters!

[Sacrosanct]

How do you feel about reactions and monsters, more specifically, how do you feel about low CR and mook having reactions. Would granting these creatures inevitably increase their CRs because it allows them extra "stuff" a typically low CR creature wouldn't have?

I'm strongly leaning to give every creature, even low CR creatures, a unique trick or feature in their statblock, which often manifests into a reaction they do. For example, the afanc below is only CR1, but it has a reaction limited to it's species type:

 

[ninjayeti]

I'm not opposed to it in theory, but tracking reactions adds more bookkeeping to a fight. I often run fights against a dozen or more mooks, and trying to keep track of which ones had used their reaction and which had not would be a big enough hassle that I would probably skip it. (The monster in your example has two uses of the reaction, so a DM ALSO needs to track total uses for each monster as well as tracking if they have used it that round.) So for practical reasons I would prefer reactions be limited to more elite/solo type enemies where you are only going to be facing one or two at a time.

 

[billd91]

I don’t think they necessarily turn battles or should only be for important monsters, but I also don’t feel special reactions should be available to everyone. There are a series of middle paths here.

 

[Charlaquin]

I wouldn’t necessarily say every monster should have reactions, but I have no qualms about any given monster having reactions. Use them freely wherever it helps create ludonarrative harmony, but don’t go out of your way to add them where they don’t obviously fit.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I don’t think they necessarily turn battles or should only be for important monsters, but I also don’t feel special reactions should be available to everyone. There are a series of middle paths here.

Yeah I think something along these lines would be good above

 

[Shiroiken]

If it makes sense for a creature to have a reaction, it should have it regardless of power level. Shoving in reactions for monsters just to have the option is dumb.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've been giving monsters unique Reactions for years now...especially monsters that I've designed myself, and nothing has broken yet. I say go for it!

When my players voted to use the optional rules for Feats, I started giving feats to the monsters they fight as well (one feat for every 4 Hit Dice of the monster, minimum 0). That didn't break anything, either.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I love giving reactions to all monsters! I think it's a fun way to add back in a bit of 4e monster design.

It can also create really dynamic battles. A monster that causes an explosion of elemental energy as a reaction to taking damage, a monster that teleports as a reaction to getting attacked, a monster that attempts a grapple as a reaction to movement... It's a really fun way to add in more strategies and movement to combat.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Reactions are good, but I would either keep them to important monsters (like the BBEG) or make them quite specific so that they are not getting used every round. I'd hate to run a battle against 10 skeletons and every time someone takes a turn one or more skeletons get to react to it.
I feel that would get quite frustrating for me as a DM and would slow everything down - especially as I do seperate initiative for each monster already.

 

[Krachek]

It may double the time needed to play a monster. If you add also bonus action, it may actually triple. give more reaction to players, and we will get close to endless turntable seen in 4ed.