I am looking for some input on creating Legendary Actions for a mid-range BBEG. Assume the group is three to four chars, 9th level.
The over-arching plot lines of my campaign is for my crew dealing with a death cult that is trying to raise a Draco-Lich which will rule the Prime Material Plane as a proxy for Tiamat. I promise, I have never read nor played a particular module that I think has a very similar storyline.
So, I like to build my BBEG's around specific classes/sub-classes of PC classes. I know that leads to trouble, as they are typically glass cannons, and of course, have huge Action Economy issues. To that end, I am looking for LA's I can add to say, a Death Cleric (DMG), or Undead Patron Warlock (UA). Naturally, said mid-range BBEG will have minions about. But I am trying to come up with some cool LA's as well.
BTW, I say mid-range because this group will hopefully get to 14th or 15th level before facing the ultimate test.
If you haven't watched Coleville's "Action Oriented Monsters" video, I suggest doing so. He has some great ideas on how to do this kind of thing. In addition to legendary actions, he also recommends giving a bonus action and some reactions. What those are will depend on your BBEG and the circumstances. For example, the first Legendary enemy my party faced was a guy who as a reaction to a skeleton minion being destroyed, could shout "Your tassssk is not done" (he was Yuan-Ti) and the skeleton would re-animate with 1 hp left. This absolutely freaked out the party the first time he did it. My guy could also summon a new skeleton as a B.A.
Anyway, back to Legendary actions, what I try to do is come up with 3 different ones:
A default attack (a basic weapon attack or cantrip-type spell attack)
A movement ability allow repositioning
Something special and nasty that costs all 3 LAs
For instance I had a Yuan-Ti Boss that had been recently killed and wraithed that fought the party at level 5. His LAs were "Cast a Cantrip", "Fly up to 1/2 movement" , and "Vile Curse", which was a made-up ability that gave the target Disadvantage on saving throws and attack rolls. The Vile Curse, being a 3-LA ability, was not concentration... it just lasted for 1 minute. The Wraith ended up cursing one PC who was stuck with it for the whole battle because the party forgot that the cleric was holding a Remove Curse scroll.
The party won the fight, and nobody even went down, though 2 of them were left in single-digit hp and all their spell slots and abilities had been used up by the end of it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There isn't really a strong need to distinguish LAs from other actions -- just decide what you want your boss to do every round and split as convenient between LAs and regular actions.
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I am looking for some input on creating Legendary Actions for a mid-range BBEG. Assume the group is three to four chars, 9th level.
The over-arching plot lines of my campaign is for my crew dealing with a death cult that is trying to raise a Draco-Lich which will rule the Prime Material Plane as a proxy for Tiamat. I promise, I have never read nor played a particular module that I think has a very similar storyline.
So, I like to build my BBEG's around specific classes/sub-classes of PC classes. I know that leads to trouble, as they are typically glass cannons, and of course, have huge Action Economy issues. To that end, I am looking for LA's I can add to say, a Death Cleric (DMG), or Undead Patron Warlock (UA). Naturally, said mid-range BBEG will have minions about. But I am trying to come up with some cool LA's as well.
BTW, I say mid-range because this group will hopefully get to 14th or 15th level before facing the ultimate test.
If you haven't watched Coleville's "Action Oriented Monsters" video, I suggest doing so. He has some great ideas on how to do this kind of thing. In addition to legendary actions, he also recommends giving a bonus action and some reactions. What those are will depend on your BBEG and the circumstances. For example, the first Legendary enemy my party faced was a guy who as a reaction to a skeleton minion being destroyed, could shout "Your tassssk is not done" (he was Yuan-Ti) and the skeleton would re-animate with 1 hp left. This absolutely freaked out the party the first time he did it. My guy could also summon a new skeleton as a B.A.
Anyway, back to Legendary actions, what I try to do is come up with 3 different ones:
For instance I had a Yuan-Ti Boss that had been recently killed and wraithed that fought the party at level 5. His LAs were "Cast a Cantrip", "Fly up to 1/2 movement" , and "Vile Curse", which was a made-up ability that gave the target Disadvantage on saving throws and attack rolls. The Vile Curse, being a 3-LA ability, was not concentration... it just lasted for 1 minute. The Wraith ended up cursing one PC who was stuck with it for the whole battle because the party forgot that the cleric was holding a Remove Curse scroll.
The party won the fight, and nobody even went down, though 2 of them were left in single-digit hp and all their spell slots and abilities had been used up by the end of it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There isn't really a strong need to distinguish LAs from other actions -- just decide what you want your boss to do every round and split as convenient between LAs and regular actions.