Gain extra reactions as legendary actions?

[Jgosse]

I am building a Battle field control NPC encounter and currently missing combat reflexes, the only thing I can think to do is give some sort of ability that gives extra reactions/AoO or use legendary actions as reactions and grant a legendary action that allows for AoO. I am wondering which sounds better . personally I am Leaning more to Combat reflexes as an ability and have it so that it grants addition AoO equal to dex mod.

Already he is a bugbear knight I have given him sentinel , poll arm master , and mage slayer. as well as long arm.

my party is a little over powered as early on I accidentally used the treasure hoard chart instead of the individual treasure.

[stoutstien]

Just give the NPC multiple initiatives.

[Jgosse]

Just give the NPC multiple initiatives.

I have never heard of anyone doing this is it common?

[stoutstien]

I have never heard of anyone doing this is it common?

No idea lol. It's just a really quick way to increase the presentation and presence of an NPC that can also be quickly calculated if you use CR to build encounters.

Using PC options are hard to value and tend to be very swingy in nature. In my experience I've never had satisfactory results using feats or class levels.

[Jgosse]

No idea lol. It's just a really quick way to increase the presentation and presence of an NPC that can also be quickly calculated if you use CR to build encounters.

Using PC options are hard to value and tend to be very swingy in nature. In my experience I've never had satisfactory results using feats or class levels.

thanks for the Idea, but I don't like it myself. I would rather just give him more AoO in some way.

[Danielqueue1]

I've done the legendary reactions thing on two characters in a campaign I ran, one of them never used it in front of the players because the characters decided to talk to her instead of fight (good choice), the other was the BBEG who used it generously every time the party encountered him.

It is tons of fun and got my group to think strategicly for the fights. My recommendation, instead of just giving them extra reactions, give them something interesting to do with those reactions. The character I did it on was a "mage breaker" so had one "legendary reaction" that operated like deflect missiles but for spells (including reversing it on the caster on a success)

Make sure the party can tell that this character is different than normal though. Let them hear about this character before they meet it so when they pull out something outside the normal rules it isn't a "hey that's against the rules!" But a, "ah that is why they are so famous."

[MrStabby]

You could just do what the Marilith does and get a reaction every tuen in combat - that avoids the multiple reactions on a single player's turn but still gives it a bit more presence.

[Prince Vine]

You could just do what the Marilith does and get a reaction every tuen in combat - that avoids the multiple reactions on a single player's turn but still gives it a bit more presence.

This. I have a master fencer NPC that I gave this ability

[Zhorn]

I have never heard of anyone doing this is it common?
Seen it a few times, it's quick and simple, and mechanically feels more 'fair' to the players than having a suped up custom creature.


Using PC options are hard to value and tend to be very swingy in nature. In my experience I've never had satisfactory results using feats or class levels.
Likewise. Especially when the NPCs are almost always joining a fight fresh while the PCs might be 2 or 3 combats in, the disparity power between an NPC with class levels vs an NPC with just a MM stat block is very noticeable, and not in a fun way for the players.
The kind of powercreep that class levels can add to NPCs lends itself to pushing d&d combat into rocket tag territory.


thanks for the Idea, but I don't like it myself. I would rather just give him more AoO in some way.
I don't think it needs anything more complicated than the initial idea, give the NPC legendary actions and have Attack of Opportunity as a use of it. No special names, no extra rules, just a number of legendary action equal to the number of reactions you want.

[Jgosse]

You could just do what the Marilith does and get a reaction every tuen in combat - that avoids the multiple reactions on a single player's turn but still gives it a bit more presence.

Oh I have never used a marilith so that works perfectly. Thanks this solved my problem perfectly.

[Eldariel]

Yeah, Marilith and Hydra both have this ability and they're actually accessible to PCs through Shapechange.

[greenstone]

I have never heard of anyone doing this is it common?

You've done it many times without even thinking about it, when you add more monsters to a combat. :-)

Instead of the PCs facing two opponents with two turns between them (two Actions, two Reactions), they face one opponent with two turns (thus two Actions, two Reactions).

It helps to make the opponent appear badass.

Just remember to count "two creatures" for the XP calculation for the encounter.

I have done this on three occasions, each time in a significant boss fight. It allowed me to focus the fight on one big boss, without having the action economy shred the boss before it gets a single turn.

In the first fight, it made all the players sit up straight and quickly re-evaluate how hard the fight was going to be. I think it was suitably badass.