D&D 5E To Be or Not to Be: Legendary

[dave2008]

I like it a lot. The "legendary actions only" thing is something I had thought about instead of the "monster with 3 initiative rolls" and it feels like it would work pretty well. I think I will design my party's tier 1 big bad -- a super worg -- to use that method just to see how it goes.

Let me know how it works for you.

 

[Stalker0]

Ok, @evilbob, @Stalker0, @Reynard, and @Matrix Sorcica here is a revised take that leans into Legendary style actions, removing no legendary actions from the design. I tried this out in some deity (avatar) statblocks a while back and then stopped using it. I think it is time to bring it back!

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the draconic actions is a nice cake and eat it too ability. I like how the dragon does it how it wants, just any combination. I am a little worried putting draconic recovery there, as you can just blow your load on actions and then get hammered by a condition later. Maybe that should be a reaction?

On the reactions and oppurtunity attacks, maybe a cooler way to do this (which I think is cool for a perceptive dragon). Give it the ability to make an opportunity attack against each creature once per round and theirs OAs don't take a reaction.

The magic disruption is a bit strangely worded. What is "touch" in this context, is it an action, can the dragon just touch three spells in a round and dispel them all? WHen it lands a hit on an opponent do they suffer a full dispel magic? Needs some clarity.

I am all about some magic resistance for the dragon but I do think this is too much. Complete saving throw immunity to all spells period?.... I could use a 9th level sword of annihilation and it does nothing?....eh seems too much. Maybe 5th level spells and lower kind of thing I can totally see, but between that and the condition removal I am not sure what a wizard is supposed to do in a battle with this dragon.

Is the dragon missing some initiative bonus? You have it at +7, but then the take 10 average is 22.

 

[dave2008]

Thank you as always for your thoughts. I do want to say that what I showed was not what I consider a typical dragon. I had particular ideas I wanted to express in this version of white dragon. Here are my first pass reactions:

the draconic actions is a nice cake and eat it too ability. I like how the dragon does it how it wants, just any combination. I am a little worried putting draconic recovery there, as you can just blow your load on actions and then get hammered by a condition later. Maybe that should be a reaction?

That is probably a good idea. Most of the dragons will have a version of this ability as a trait that activates on the dragon's initiative count. I wanted this White to have a different feel. I think having it be a reaction works better.

On the reactions and oppurtunity attacks, maybe a cooler way to do this (which I think is cool for a perceptive dragon). Give it the ability to make an opportunity attack against each creature once per round and theirs OAs don't take a reaction.

Personally I don't like the optics of that. In my mind it conjures an image of dragon jumping around like a spinning top. I don't want that. It is to gamist for my taste, but it is a good mechanic to balance our fights with a lot of opponents.

The magic disruption is a bit strangely worded. What is "touch" in this context, is it an action, can the dragon just touch three spells in a round and dispel them all? WHen it lands a hit on an opponent do they suffer a full dispel magic? Needs some clarity.

Yep, I went back and forth on this one. I wrote it a couple of different ways. I will need to take another pass at it.

I am all about some magic resistance for the dragon but I do think this is too much. Complete saving throw immunity to all spells period?.... I could use a 9th level sword of annihilation and it does nothing?....eh seems too much. Maybe 5th level spells and lower kind of thing I can totally see, but between that and the condition removal I am not sure what a wizard is supposed to do in a battle with this dragon.

Just an FYI, this is actually a weaker version of the 2024 Rakshasa's trait:

The concept I had for white dragons was that they are primarily melee brutes who want to smash you in the face. WotC decided that white dragons would be the only dragons without spells. I didn't like that at first, but then decided to lean into it. There lack of spells isn't a strike against them, it is because they are the nemesis of magic / magic uses. The shrug off and destroy magic on there way to tearing you apart. So yes, a wizard would feel pretty helpless against this dragon, but that is the whole point.

Is the dragon missing some initiative bonus? You have it at +7, but then the take 10 average is 22.

Copy paste issue that never got corrected. It is fixed now.

Thank you again for the help!

Edit: Here are my updates