What are Legendary Actions?
Legendary actions are a special type of action for powerful creatures. Monsters with legendary actions are known as legendary creatures, and each legendary action has a cost—a set number of legendary action points (LAPs) required to take the action in question. Legendary actions are usually attacks or magical abilities, and most creatures have between 1 and 3 legendary action options available (though a few have more). Each legendary action option costs 1 action point unless otherwise stated, and most legendary actions are worth 1 to 3 action points. For example, ancient red dragons have the ability to make a Perception check as a legendary action, which costs 1 action point. They also have a Wing Attack legendary action, which costs 2 action points.
Legendary actions can only be used on other creature’s turns. Every creature in combat gets a single turn per round, including legendary monsters. However, legendary actions aren’t supposed to be used on the monster’s turn; instead, legendary monsters use their regular actions on their turn, and then use legendary actions at the end of another creature’s turn. Legendary monsters can take a set number of legendary actions per round. Once they use up all their action points, they can’t take any additional legendaries that round. However, legendary creatures regain all spent legendary actions at the beginning of the next round—so they can still use legendary actions every round of a battle. For example, ancient red dragons get 3 legendary actions per round, which means they can either take 3 legendary actions that cost 1 point, or take a Wing Attack (which costs 2 points) and a different action that costs 1 point. Once the ancient red dragon spends 3 legendary action points in a round, it can’t use any more until the start of the next round—where it’ll regain all 3 of its legendary actions.
When to Use Legendary Actions
Use legendaries to make strong enemies more flexible and challenging. On a technical level, legendary actions give enemies more power, which in turn adds to their overall challenge rating (CR) and makes them stronger than the average foe. Use legendaries when you want a monster to adapt to player strategies and stay in the fight longer, even when surrounded by a party of high-level players. Legendary actions are particularly useful in battles against one legendary creature and several players because they give the creature a chance to act multiple times in a round (instead of once). In D&D 5e, action economy (the actions each combatant is allotted each turn) is a crucial factor in the overall balance of an encounter. So, giving a creature multiple actions per round (with legendary actions) gives them the chance to stand up to a party of PCs that cumulatively has multiple actions per round as well.
Create dynamic and memorable encounters with legendary actions. Narratively, stating that an enemy has legendary actions can instantly signal to players that they’re dealing with something very powerful. After all, shouldn’t the main villain of an adventure have some special moves? Use legendary actions in the most challenging encounters of an adventure to make them more compelling for players. Legendary actions can scale up an encounter and distinguish a monster from its less-powerful minions. For example, say you (as the DM) have your players fight through a musty cave filled with goblins and orcs—and at the heart of the cave is an ancient green dragon! Since ancient green dragons are a logical final “boss” (the most challenging enemy of an adventure), it makes sense for them to have legendary actions.
Types of Legendary Action
Making an attack Many creatures with legendary actions have at least one that allows them to make an attack of some kind—whether it’s an attack with their main weapon or an unarmed strike with one of their natural weapons (like a tail or claw attack). Examples of attack-based legendary actions include: Tail Swipe. The creature makes one tail attack (available to aboleth, adult dragons, and ancient dragons). Unarmed Strike. The creature makes one unarmed strike (available to vampires). Tentacle Attack. The creature makes one tentacle attack or uses its Fling feature (available to krakens). Attack. The creature makes one attack or uses one of its other actions (available to mummy lords). Bite Attack. The creature makes one bite attack or uses its Swallow feature (available to tarrasques).
Casting a spell Monsters with spellcasting abilities often have the power to cast a spell on a legendary action—though legendary spells often have a higher cost than legendary attacks. Additionally, some creatures have innate magic, and can use it as a legendary action. For example: Cantrip. The creature casts a cantrip (available to liches). Cast a spell (costs 3 actions). The creature casts from its list of prepared spells (available to gynosphinxes and androsphinxes). Heal self (costs 3 actions). The creature magically regains 11 (2d8 + 2) hit points (available to unicorns). Blasphemous word (costs 2 actions). The creature speaks a blasphemous word and non-undead targets within 10 feet must succeed a Constitution saving throw or be stunned (available to mummy lords). Lightning storm (costs 2 actions). The creature uses the Lightning Storm spell, magically creating 3 lightning bolts that strike a target within 120 feet (available to krakens).
Moving Legendary creatures can sometimes get extra movement out of a legendary action. Movement-based legendary actions make creatures more mobile in combat and able to traverse a battlefield (or make a quick escape) easily. For example: Move. Some creatures (like vampires) have a legendary action in which they can move up to their movement speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Teleport. Other creatures (like solars and gynosphinxes) have innate teleportation abilities that allow them to magically disappear and reappear a certain distance away.
Unique actions As a DM, you’re always free to design your own legendary actions for monsters. The more unique and tailored to the specific monster they are, the more fun they’re likely to be on the battlefield! Ask yourself what type of action might enhance the creature’s natural abilities and fit with their typical combat strategy. Examples of legendary actions include: Summoning allies. Summoning allies can prevent legendary monsters from getting cornered early in a fight by players! For example, the archdevil Bel can summon ice devils to aid him as a legendary action. Similarly, you could have a legendary elemental monster summon low-level mephits to aid it, or have a dragon summon a few kobold minions in battle. Commanding minions. If the legendary monster has allies in a fight, it could use a legendary action to issue a command—such as helping the legendary monster, flanking a character, or distracting opponents. Imposing conditions. Allow your legendary monster to impose conditions on enemy PCs—like atropals (which can cause the exhausted condition with their Wail action), or mummy lords (which can blind opponents with Blinding Dust).
Legendary Creatures with Lairs
Some 5e monsters have lairs with lair actions. Lairs are where certain legendary creatures live—and fighting a legendary creature in its lair gives the creature a home field advantage. That’s because legendary creatures with a lair can trigger lair actions: special effects that either happen naturally or because the creature wills them into happening. For example: Ancient red dragons typically live in mountain caverns, abandoned mines, or caves with volcanic activity. So, when fighting an ancient red dragon in its lair, the dragon can trigger 3 lair actions: it can cause magma to erupt and damage foes, tremors to shake the cavern, or volcanic gasses to poison creatures in the area.
Lairs also come with regional effects. Regional effects represent the impact of a legendary creature’s presence on the surrounding environment. When legendary creatures live in a lair, their presence warps the area with strange, wondrous, and sometimes dangerous effects. Regional effects persist until the legendary creature dies, after which they gradually (or suddenly) disappear. For example, ancient red dragons have several regional effects surrounding their lairs. Earthquakes are common within 6 miles of the lair, and water within 1 mile is unusually warm and tainted with sulfur. Additionally, rocky fissures within 1 mile create portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire. If a legendary monster has lair actions and regional effects, it’ll say so on their stat block!
Using Lair Actions
Give each lair a description to make it feel unique. A monster’s lair should feel like it has a distinct type of terrain suited to its occupant—whether that means creating a lonely tower in disrepair filled with strange enchantments and curios for a legendary lich, or an underwater cavern only accessible by deep-sea diving for a kraken. If you’re designing your own lair, tailor it to the creature living there! For example: Vampires. You could design an imposing, gothic castle and underground crypt for a vampire's lair. Ancient White Dragons. An ancient white dragon might live in an icy underground cave system filled with twists, turns, and perilous traps. Beholders. A beholder might have its lair in a huge cavern with high ceilings and the petrified statues of past adventurers who tried to challenge it.
Take lair actions on initiative count 20 of a combat encounter. Lair actions automatically trigger on initiative count 20 of each round, losing all initiative ties. So, if other creatures roll a 20 for initiative, lair actions will trigger after those creatures take their turns. However, legendary creatures can’t use lair actions while incapacitated or unable to take actions. If the legendary creature is surprised, it can’t use lair actions until after its first turn in combat. By comparison, regional effects are ambient; if you’re the DM, you can implement them at your discretion (so it’s up to you if they factor into a fight at all).
How do legendary actions & lairs affect a creature’s CR?
Lairs and legendaries increase an encounter’s challenge rating (CR). Because legendary actions and lairs both give a monster extra options in combat (including, potentially, the ability to deal more damage or impose conditions on players), they often factor into the creature’s challenge rating. Challenge ratings loosely measure how difficult a creature is to defeat in combat. The easiest way to check an existing creature’s challenge rating is to look at their stat block. In some cases, a creature’s stat block will also state whether its CR increases while in a lair. If you’re making a custom monster (or implementing custom legendary actions), you can check examples from existing monsters to get an idea of the likely CR.
Balancing Encounters with Legendary Creatures
Build encounters around the legendary creature’s abilities. Consider the number of actions a creature will get per round, including legendary actions and lair effects. From there, calculate the average amount of damage players might take per round and the debuffs or negative conditions they might get. This can give you an idea of whether a legendary monster might be too difficult (or well-suited) for players. Try assigning a set number of actions to your legendary creature each round. Decide which actions they can use, and how you’ll use them effectively in a fight. For example, say you’re planning an encounter with an ancient blue dragon. With 2 legendary attack options (tail and wing attack) and 3 regular attacks per turn, it’s capable of making 5 to 6 attacks per round. That means, on average, an ancient blue dragon can deal around 118 points of damage per round—or 142 (with roughly 88 to each character) if it uses its lightning breath. From there, lair actions add, on average, about 10 more points of damage per round to multiple characters—plus the restrained or blinded condition, depending on which action you use.
Compare the creature’s abilities with players’ damage output per round. How many hit points (HP) and defenses does the monster have? How much damage are the player characters (PCs) capable of dealing per round? Measure those numbers against the legendary monster’s damage output and CR to build an encounter that’s as balanced as possible! For example, say you’re DMing for a party of four 15th-level PCs. If you take a look at their average damage output and feel it’s enough to take on an ancient blue dragon (with the calculations above), that’d likely be a well-balanced fight. Remember to use your legendary actions strategically and take advantage of them whenever possible. It’s okay if you do something that challenges the players—that’s the idea! If you’re designing a legendary action that feels slightly too powerful, you can increase the number of points it takes to use that action to balance it out.
Try adding balanced legendary creatures even at lower levels. While you might not typically see legendary actions for monsters with a low CR, you can certainly add legendary actions to an encounter yourself! Legendary monsters aren’t a problem at low levels in the game, so long as they’re properly balanced, and they can add intrigue to those early encounters! In other words, you wouldn’t throw a CR 13 vampire at four 4th-level PCs, but you could design legendary actions for a CR 4 ghost or a CR 5 bulette. Legendary actions are, at their core, a tool to help DMs manage their monsters’ action economy and create challenging encounters, so don’t be afraid to use them.
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