PROPHECY & POWER | how to create legendary creatures, puzzles, two 5e adventures, and more! In January and February 2023, get this issue of Lair Magazine by becoming a DM Lair patron here: www.patreon.com/thedmlair If it's March 2023 or later, get this issue of Lair Magazine on the DM Lair Store here: the-dm-lair.myshopify.com/collections/lair-magazine

I love the use of the pathfinder goblin on the preview lol.

I needed this. I've just started a nautical campaign and have created a number of Legendary Pirate captains. Rather than just having a legendary name (with brief story behind how they got that name) I'm inspired to create legendary actions and lair actions (If the pirates are attacked on their ship)

This is a succinct and clarifying explanation for further customizing capstone combat encounters.

The fight with Strahd is due this Saturday or the next. I plan on having two of the brides with him. Each of the brides is an improved vampire spawn

Something I've used lately with my players to make Legendary resistance more interesting and not just a slap aside special move mechanic is that they can do it as many times as they want, but they take a modified point of exhaustion (-1 to all rolls and AC per level of exhaustion, and a-5 movement at levels 1, 3, and 5) every time they do it. They can resist all they want, but they weaken and can quite possibly kill themselves by doing it too many times.

Great video Luke; it's quite a difficult methodology to explain and you did well. I'd also like to add that for those fights that aren't necessarily against legendary creatures, or are just meant to be slightly more difficult, I would suggest DMs simply looking at including bonus actions and reactions to some of the mobs. It doesn't always require a leap in CR, but it can make for more unique and flavorful fights.

📝 You will love the Encounter building rules for Pathfinder 2nd edition. Note , if your players are new to pathfinder 2nd edition. Simply reduce the XP level by one or two. Or you can use the weak template or Elite template to adjust the difficulty level to fit the party & players skill level. The weak & Elite templates can be found in the front of each Bestiary book

Just in time...I needed this for today's session cause I really need a boss idea. So thank you Luke :) much obliged

Thank you. This video is great. 5e is still my preferred system, even with its evil overlord.

One things I'm doing now is always for every encounter prepare one downbeat action, less effective like the ennemy mocking the player or shouting at them to intimidate or fear for when players are loosing a a fight a upbeat action for when players are winning, witch is a usually a large attack that both damage and impede characters. It's a useful tool that avoid exchange of damages until all are dead. Also, in initiative, always place one player and one ennemy in succession to tempo out fight, so it goes player or monster with the highest ini, player or monster (the other side) with the highest ini, player or monster with the second highest ini, other side second highest ini, until everyone played.

This was just a ridiculously helpful video for my current campaign. Thank you

This is extremely helpful! Thank you very much for putting this on the Internet.

Not a jab, but a D&D video with a Pathfinder goblin on the thumbnail makes me giggle. Good man.

I sure wish I had heard this a year ago before finishing up the Lost Mine campaign with my group. The boss battle was...ok. But the party quickly incapacitated the lesser enemies protecting the BBEG. A few legendary actions would have come in handy.

Great idea, I like adding modest abilities that don’t immediately crank the CR to ridiculous levels.

Love this style of video- thanks for making it!

I have a party of 7 to 9 players depending on who shows up that night so I gave legendary actions to lots of monsters. With that big of a party was the only way to keep the action economy close 💯

What would be interesting is legend of an ice king, once joyful to the people now frigid, keeping rule from his throne. Players go to defeat, only to find out (eventually) the king is long dead, and it's an animated suit of armor welding the sword. Having smaller suites of armor being animated during the fight would pose for good minions, as well as having them being rusted if you don't want to overwhelm your players. Would bring a new meaning to, "where do you strike?", much like the three kobalds in a trench coat.

Such a helpful video - keep it up Luke, basically just convinced me to become a patron

that's when the dead body reanimates, they fight him again, then the wrecked corpse releases a demon that was controlling it, and the third phase begins...

2:09 What IS a Legendary Creature? 4:20 Flying Sword -> Rime's Embrace 5:28 Challenge Rating 7:38 Legendary Resistances 9:55 Challenge Rating Considerations 11:50 Legendary Actions, 13:10 Examples, 16:00 Action Economy 1v5 18:10 Challenge Rating Considerations 19:50 Lair Actions 24:20 Challenge Rating Considerations

Thank you for your explanations

Tomb of annihilation’s atropal cry ability was devastating during the climactic final battle in a campaign I played in.

This is great way to make your boss monster more fun!

Decent video, thanks for sharing

10:57 Good vid. You might want to proofread the cover of your Lair magazine though!

My Level 2 party just finished taking on a CR3 Legendry Dryad I brewed up. CR1 MM base, CR 2 outside the Lair, CR 3 since they encountered her in the Lair. Minions: Dryad starts with 3 Awakened Shrubs (CR 0) on her side, each containing a hidden Constrictor Snake (CR 1/4) that attacks with the Shrub, and gets an attack of opportunity on melee attacks against the shrub. The first melee attack against a shrub, the attack of opportunity will be a surprise attack against the PC. Non-fire or non-AOE damage is divided between Shrub (7hp) and Snake (14hp) the snake can move to a new shrub if theirs is killed. Fire damage and AOE hit both for full damage. Snake cannot made any DEX saves while in a shrub. When their shrub dies, the snake is immediately able to use 1/2 their movement and can enter any shrub in range. There are 6 other Shrubs in the clearing. Shrubs/snakes all share initiative, separate from the dryad. Lair action: On initiative 20 the Dryad can cast Awaken on 1d3 shrubs in the clearing, and a Constrictor Snake with dash from cover to enter the shrub. There is a Constrictor Snake inside the shrub that does not move or act independently, but attacks with the shrub, and gets an attack of opportunity against any attack melee made against the shrub. The Clearing contains 6 shrubs. Can be used every Initiative 20 if there are still unawakened Shrubs in the clearing. Legendary Resistance 1/day Legendary actions(1/turn): -any player within 5ft of a tree is attacked by a a constrictor snake bite. Hit +2, on hit 1d6 damage. -Dryad can use up to half her movement and Tree Stride Once defeated, she retreated to her 80ft tall ancient Elm tree and cast awakening. This Tree is also a homebrew CR5 creature, and it's awakening triggered a deadly chase scene the party barely escaped, and they know the Dryad and her Elm returned to the sacred grove where they need to get the magical water from. That was the end of our last session. Waiting to see what they do next! Oh, and this is all part of a Campaign where the Party only learned AFTER the chase that the Dryad has fallen under the influence of a Green Hag that is locally known to be the head of a Coven and some type of Patron to a guild of Ancient Old One warlocks. I am super proud of these creatures (my first homebrew legendaries) and this campaign in general (first time I've written one totally from scratch). I have gotten soooo much of my inspiration and clarified so many ideas from watching your videos, and I definitely think my Players appreciate how much I've been able to get out of them!

Fantastic video. The one thing I really enjoyed about Van Richten's Guide was the concept of mythic creatures and mythic actions. While it feels very much like a video game where you take down the boss only to now face off against its "final form", it's very fitting for a boss encounter, especially a final boss. You could even argue adding a second or even third additional form. For the Castlevania fans, just think about how many times you have to fight against Dracula before you're finally fighting his true form at the end of the game. One resource I enjoy using is the Bloodied & Bruised series of books. While it's not everyone's cup of tea (including my own), these books allowed you to turn the monsters into 4e versions of themselves with bloodied conditions. I really like how it changes up the monsters so it's not the same tired old encounters. Now that you've released this pdf for making the creatures Legendary on top of that, there could be some really amazing boss monsters. To that end, and bringing back the idea of "additional forms" like the dullahan has, I want to request that in a later Patreon release, a "this isn't even my final form" section that gives monsters mythic actions and a revised form (in the case of the dullahan, it's just summoned heads). Maybe for a goblin chief shaman, when it hits 0 hp, it summons goblin warriors. Or, in same vein your example, a githyanki gish regains 3/4 hp, gain mythic actions, and visually a sudden tear in reality opens a hole to the astral plane, calling forth three githyanki fighters (using the scout NPC stats adjusted with racial bonuses and traits).

This great advice . Thanks.

Here's something I've used in my games before: Legendary Concentration: The creature can concentrate on 2 spells at once. I usually do this for creatures with multiple heads. When my party fought Tiamat, I gave her Legendary Concentration (5), a separate concentration for each of her five heads.

One of my favorite combos is when things are going to easy for the party is combo of calling reinforcements at intervals of health for the boss, and a magic or physical action the boss can take to drain those minions to restore it's own health or switch places with a minion.

Thanks a lot!

I just turned one of the new Dragonflesh Grafters from fizbans treasury of dragons into a legendary boss enemy for a party of level 3 adventurers. Doubled the hp, gave it legendary actions, spells....... They still kicked the crap out of it. I love this game 🤘

This is an awesome video, useful for all GM's new and old.

Hmm, you know, with a video like this, if I had to do it, and for Tier 1 Play, I would make a Legendary Harpy. Maybe throw in a bit of ancient Greek or Roman lore, and give it Bronze Feathers that it could fling a small number of them from a distance, but also give it a vulnerability to Thunder Damage, for starters.

I decided to do a bit of homebrew, and make a green hag who can take two actions per turn, as well as an expanded spell list. Thing is, if an singular enemy is gonna get curbstomped by the party, I give it buffs until it can give them a run for their money.

My boss monsters always have exactly as many hit points as their stat block says they have... Are the munchkins gone? My boss monsters also always have as many magic shields, iuon stones, and secondary hp bars as they need for the fight to last long enough for every member of the party to fire off at least one cool ability or land at least one big hit. As for legendary actions, my favorite comes from an old 3.5 Dragon magazine I read years ago. There was an article in it on spells made for and by dragons. One of the spells turned the dragon's breath weapon into an elemental that persisted for several rounds. . All my bosses with breath weapons have a trait that summons elementals made of their breath weapon element when they use their breath weapons.

Awesome Video!

Gonna do some kind of crystalline spider. Small ones will soak up damage for the larger one. The large one can lay 1d4 small ones as a bonus action. Resists piercing damage.

Very helpful and timely. My players are fighting a legendary sea hag tomorrow. Thanks, Luke!

I plan to make a talking chimera with a circlet of intelligence stuck on it. The chimera will be demanding sacrifices from a small village in return it provides protection from monsters.

I'm using a oni that grows in power along with the characters. first growth is the old ogre-titan transformation and if the characters get to the point where they can handle it the second growth will be half-fiend.

I've heard of an interesting notion of making a solitary boss enemy be able to act after every characters acts on their turn. Admittedly this is similar to legendary actions but I think it would be cool if other people gave this a try and see if they like it.

I've got a pirate king that I can't wait to make legendary now! Thanks man! Ray Slowman won't get one rounded now!

An honestly phenomenal video, Luke.

You should do a video about how you ran your final fight with Strahd!

and a little thing i add to really tough bossfights: Legendary reactions. That are special reactions the monster gets in addition to its normal reaction, so it has atleast 2 reactions per round =D

I decided on the spot last night to give my lt legendary actions but no resistances. Needless to say, they seemed to enjoy the surprise of some real Anarchy but the bady was still beatable since it was 2 clerics and a paladin

Floating Disk + Forest > tree uproot > tree fall > 10 tons (weight of an average mature tree according to google) which falls from "10 meters" high. The rule for fall damage being: 1d6 / 100 kg over 3 meters. So its done : 10.000/100 *3 = 300D6 (or just 100D6 for the 3m fall) In forest combat against forest creatures it makes all the trees terrifying. ^^ It's also a normal attack for my players in d&d. If that can give you some ideas.

This is fantastic and a great step through of how to build great and memorable baddies.

Pathfinder goblins are so much fun.

Good video. I'm a novice DM and always worry about an unimpressive underpowered boss fight. This will really help. Gonna check out some of the magazines too.

I had one encounter for my group where they would fight a wizard in his library. They would face a Gearforged Templar (KP:Tome of Beasts) with Lair actions of the library coming to life. Didn't make him a Legendary Creature, but compensated by swapping out the creature's Greatsword with two Longswords (animated swords). As they worked in tandem, it gave the illusion that it was a single creature with extra attacks instead of three separate creatures. Once the golem was brought down, then the swords could fight on their own to surprise the group. Also had Brown Mold as part of the environment to counter any fire spells (it is a library afterall). On personal note, I don't inform my group if Legendary Actions/Resistances take place so as to have it play out organically. To me, it makes it too meta and then players will try and cheese it once they find out. Seen enough videos when players are counting down how many resistances have been used and never liked that.

I'm modding a Priest into a legendary infernalist. I'm changing uo her spell list to be all spells from the infernal warlock patron +a couple of wizard spells because they are a necromancer. They are mid ritual when the players will arrive and thus to begin my plan is to have her protected by some zombies and a protective magic circle the players will have to work out a puzzle to turn off while the zombies Swarm them. So my infernalist necromancer will only use legendary actions, lair actions of clouds of smoke and fire effects and the zombies until the magic circle is broken or the sacrifice is completed. After the magic circle is down the lair actions are going to change to lowering the floor into a magical darkness room, the zombies will stop regenerating and the boss will join the fight properly since he will be unaffected by the necro-darkness.

FIVE! Three sir! ...THREE! I really like this variation on legendary actions. This should have been included in 5th. I dislike how similar they made all legendary creatures. Telling new DMs that CR is a guideline and not a science because it hugely depends on player ability and character efficiency - is excellent advice.

I dont often see people apply classes and associated abilities to villains. In fact…ask the players to help you build a tricked out character for a game you’re playing in… Add magic items. Add minions also with classes…. Have fun.

The image at 0:08 is not the githyanki leader. That is the githzerai leader

I have a coven of 3 hags that have legendary resistance and legendary actions, and beefed up hp (150) and spell casting options

I wouldn’t have been to surprise if you used a flying frying pan instead, that had a lair action of recruiting sizzling pieces of bacon to attract on initiative 20

When Calculating the CR for creatures with legendary actions I often start by looking at 1) what would their CR be without any legendary actions then 2) what would their CR be if they used their Legendary actions for the optimal damage output (or optimized defenses depending on if you prioritized defense over offense). Then the "true" CR will be somewhere between those 2 numbers. I'm a math nerd though so I enjoy the calculations.

I Just finisched a Little One shot where the final boss was basically a wealer versione of the lich, with 100 hp, a lot of resistence and some good spells. At the final round, i basically stopped to count hp and Just described in the collest way possibile the last shot from everybody. It was Amazing.

Feeding the algorithm, as always very good advice, I'm gonna put good use of this for the stocking of my dungeon23 megadungeon

Time for sinister experimentation… The Immense Rodent Chucker will be marvellous

I have a party of 7 level 6 players. They're about to go into a battle against a legendary warlock and minions and they're at mostly full strength with lots of magic items. I'm hoping that I don't TPK them and that it isn't too easy. They'll be fighting against a warlock who will mostly use scorching rays, hellish rebuke and can cast high level eldritch blast and fire bolt as two legendary action with a single legendary resistance. She is accompanied by 2 minotaurs, 2 berserkers, a cult fanatic and 2 flying snakes for a total of ~22,000 xp. One of the minotaurs is enchanted and can turn against the warlock if my players pick up on it and cast dispell magic. And the warlock can use power word kill to kill one player on the second round depending on how the battle is going. My players are all full health full spell slots, I have a fighter with a helm of brilliance that has 4 fireballs, A necromancer, a wizard with a wand of scorching rays that has 4 charges, a bard with a cello that can cast a nerfed weird spell (1D10 damage), a rogue with spider boots, a barbarian with a greataxe that gives him +1 con and a tempest cleric. Balancing around their magic items is tough, I'm not sure how much I should bump up the difficulty. I took over the game from my dad and didn't hand out most of the magic items.

A lesson I had lerned on the action economy was not to use debilitating spells against the party. I had an enchantress take control of a castle with the local paladin order charmed by her. The party fought her in the throne room and the paladins started combat by banishing the two front line lighters, with the enchantress Feebleminding the spellcaster. This turned the fight against the part badly and found it being no fun at all, especially for the fighters. Until this fight, the party was curb stomping my fights so I thought to try and make the combat more challenging, but realised I went way to far with that one. Have since learned to never do that again, it is never fun to remove a players action or agency.

I already turned a Banshee into a legendary creature once, she was the boss in a ever frozen forest and I figured since a banshee is already a strong enemy she would be a great boss monster

i had a player once upon who was a big fan of wow and asked me if boss could be treated in D&D like in the mmo with a special gimmick, i tried once i called them "Lair Mechanics" and work better then i thought, i have a more narrative style but was a good deviation from expected d&d gameplay

Thats why I almost NEVER pre make my bosses. I usually improvise to fit the story. I have a rough idea of its HP, damage and special abilities but its better to tweak and modify on the fly so the battle can be more epic

I'm going to be be changing up one of my homebrew creatures. A Blood Oath Paladin to make him a Commander.

Bacon algorithm! Thanks for the tips, Luke. Super useful after I found the Mind Flayer fight I hosted last night lacking. 🥓

I think it would be cool to make flying weapons like this and put them around the world. And when the players defeat them the weapon will serve them and then the players get a version of the weapon with some special abilities from the stat block you create.

I got 5 level 8 characters going against King Xardarok from a homebrew alteration of Rime of the Frost Maiden. Along with him will be his dragon, chained and unable to move, yet, Avarice the tiefling from the module, and a pair of drow one being a priestess and one being her drow fighter. I also have a chamce to add an Illithid that has been working alongside all of them. Any advice I can get for running multiple BBEG in the same encounter? I have started simplifying them to just a few things they can do to make them quick and thematic in running them. I am also looking for any ideas that might be a thematic ability or any other advice i might get would help.

will i be able to purchase Lairs and Legends and Loot and Lore hardcover later on or was the kickstarter all there was?

I think I’m going to make a Bacon loving Goblin

I'm going to use a Legendary Commoner one day who is just a comoner who's legend grew out of pure misunderstanding of situations. A diety of luck of some sort found it funny and made sure the legend would only grow. Basically King from One Punch Man. Just a Comonner with all those Legendary Abilities and maybe more.

In that situation, I would have said "is he the final boss" and made it like that was a phony stand in for the boss. I would have made up a perception check on the spot and if anyone passed it, they'd get some kind of clue that this wasn't the real guy. Essentially, I would've went the red skull route Until I got a baddy worthy of my players.

10:38 I think that's the wrong table.

Is it worth starting a a channel under the new OGL ? was thinking about it as am a year in DM (50 sessions , 1campaign completed) whos new enough to know the pains but experienced enough to know how to hold a group of 5 together through a years worth of scheduling issues xD

I'm going to make the dire flumph as my next boss fight

I love technical

Rest Monster Brood Mother

Always max the monster's HP if its a solo monster. A fighter with action surge can get 4 or even 6 attacks in one round, doing a massive amount of damage. Some spells just dish out major damage. All that work to give the monster all those actions, they roll an initiative or 7, and don't even get a turn.

I should probably know this, but what does Initiative count 20 mean?

Trying to figure out how to apply any of this to AD&D 2e...

You forgot about calling for allies

10:40 wrong table - it's for legendary actions, not resistances and such

I like to give certain monsters polearm master and sentinel.

Ooooohhhhh boy, this was complicated 😭 I got the gyst of it but my goodness.

Do you have a Degree in this stuff? They really need to make one. This is complex.

Ben did his job as a player, the DM failed them. It is math, a Boss needs minion support and one must be a healer or an item that heals him. Don't feel bad, I think critical role does the same thing. I had the same problem as a player, the DM gave giants magic weapons like +3 hand axes (battle axe to us) to just hit our high level melees high armor classes. We ended up with a TON of magic weapons, that is a worse answer to the problem. Those weapons went to our minions who ramped up the power more. I told him to pick a different monster and fill dungeons with them.

❤❤❤💛

going to make a goblin god.

this is a nice break from the ogl wotc shenanigans.

Gonna use this to beef up a couple of hag sisters

I'm surprised that you're still making D&D 5E content.

What do these Giths have against yankees?

Drink when he says legendary.

Honestly, I never give my bosses health. I just let them do their stuff, and when I feel they had fun and all did something cool, I let the Boss drop dead. I mostly just give a minimum they have to do, but even that can be changed. You are the DM.

I'm turning the aboleth into a better aboleth lol