Modifying Monsters: what do YOU do?

[Zhorn]

Bringing in a discussion topics I was having with some folks on discord the other night.
Modifying monsters; specifically giving them different attack options and abilities based on their physiology and what they would realistically be capable of.

What are some things you like doing for your games?

For me, I like giving more monsters with large jaws a bite+grapple option, and creatures with mouths/bodying sufficiently larger than their targets a swallow+restrain option on grappled targets.
For mimics I like this because it plays more to the trope of them eating people whole.
Similarly for oozes I like to give broader access to engulfing targets as to have an attack option targeting a save as opposed to only having pseudopods for attack rolls vs AC.

[Sception]

I usually run dragons as unique - ie, there aren't distinct, true-breeding types of dragon, and one can't necessarily tell just from looking at one what their personality/disposition/alignment/elemental affinity is. In practice I will occasionally mix and match abilities, add heads, tails, or stingers, add or subtract limbs, etc.

One thing I've been tinkering with but haven't implemented in game yet is giving multiple parts of a dragon or other big boss monster their own initiative and action pool.

EG: a dragon's head(s) will have one initiative where it can use a breath weapon, cast a spell, roar (frighten effect) or make a bite or horn attack, the wings will have one where they can wing slap or create a gust of wind (aoe shove) or fly the dragon around, the claws will have one where each pair of limbs can either attack or move the dragon, the tail(s) will have a turn where it can tail slap or sweep or stab, and the main body with its internal furnace of raw elemental magic will get a turn where it can transfer some of its hp to one of the other parts or recharge the breath weapon and for large and powerful enough dragons when reduced to half or less hp emit an elemental or status aura to harm or impair everything close to the dragon as the injured elemental furnace starts venting raw magic. Each part will have its own defenses and hit point pool and can be crippled to stop that action when reduced to zero hp, with the overall dragon dying when the elemental engine goes out (main body reduced to zero hp). Maybe have a chance of the elemental furnace exploding when the dragon dies to end the encounter with a bang.

Alternatively: beholders with each eye stalk as an individual little monster riding around on the main eye body, giants where each limb has its own initiative count and action pool, hydras with each head acting independently, etc.

The theory is that this can replace legendary and lair actions to more effectively address the issue of action economy imbalance as well as to intermingle a solo monster's various turn with the party members so it's a bit more back and forth. spreading out the parts of a monster throughout the turn is a bit awkward, admittedly, but for big monsters I think that works in their favor, helping to convey their massive, ponderous nature.

[EggKookoo]

One thing I've been tinkering with but haven't implemented in game yet is giving multiple parts of a dragon or other big boss monster their own initiative and action pool.

I've begun experimenting with this sort of thing as well. It's a variation on AngryGM's Paragon mechanic (not sure if he invented multi-turn creatures or just popularized it). I don't split the creature into body parts. I'm not looking to replicate a Zelda-like boss. I just create a kind of lesser-CR version of the creature and replicate it a number of times, usually making one more instance than the number of PCs in the party. Narratively, it's a single creature. Mechanically, it's ~5 creature "instances" all occupying the same space. The PCs can't perceive the separate instances, but I let the players know I'm doing something weird like that so they're not too confused. My players don't have a problem with this.

It works really well now that I've gotten some kinks out. Each instance has its own initiative count, and can do everything a separate instance could do (action, bonus action, reaction, move, etc.). Any damage dealt to the creature is deducted from the HP of instance with the highest initiative count, until that instance reaches 0 HP and loses its turn. Movement is a bit strange. I ended up spreading the movement across the instances. Typically each instance can move 10 feet. Anything that affects the monster's positioning takes special consideration. When one instance moves, they all move.

For save-based things, I generally only have the effect apply to the first instance, but it kind of persists between turns. Like, if you hit this monster with Stunning Strike, I have it make a save like normal (since all instances are identical, the question of "which instance is making the save?" is irrelevant). If it fails, it's stunned. But the stun effect briefly drops when the next instance gets its turn, then it gets stunned again until another instance comes around. Finally, when the first instance's turn comes up again, it can retry the save. This creates a partial stun effect, where the monster gets these halting actions but can't take reactions off-turn, and hits against it have advantage. It makes a much more scary creature. I have more detailed mechanics on this if anyone's interested, but it's not too different from the Angry stuff.

Regarding actual monster features, I'm learning that it really ups the stakes (and fun) when I can mess with the PCs' positioning. I try to give monsters (regardless if they're this kind of "instanced turn" things or not) some ability to affect PC position. Knockback blows are good for hulking brutes. Magical repositioning via teleportation is something an evil spellcaster might do. I had a big whomping-willow thing lob big acorn things as ranged attacks (in addition to melee branch hits). Even if they missed, I kept track of where they landed. Once a few were down on the ground, the creature could make a line of grasping vines burst up between any two, grappling at any PCs in its path. Once the players became aware of it, they had to keep an eye on where things were to make sure they stayed out of those potential lines, or devote attention to destroying the acorns. And of course the monster kept throwing them.

[da newt]

With experienced players I've stopped giving them the names of foes - I don't tell them they see trolls, I tell them they see large humanoids with warty hides and oversized hands. Or 'you see a muscular male humanoid with pointy ears and teeth, black hair and beard, redishpurple skin, wielding a glaive' - is it a hobgoblin or bearded devil or oni or mindflayer or tiefling or ... I like to think it's more realistic and reduces some metagaming.

I like to reskin foes too - I change the appearance to something that fits the world / location but use an as written stat block. I create a giant pangolin but use bulette stats. I use a beholder stat block, but my version is a big spider (so many eyes).

In world full of magic I'll give some intelligent creatures CR appropriate cantrips or low level spells. If the party can sling spells, the foes can too.

But mostly I just try to have my bad guys fight with INT/WIS appropriate tactics and goals in mind. My pack of wolves act like a pack of wolves - they are group predators who single out the weak to quickly subdue and eat - they don't each attack a different soldier in formation and they flee once they realize the risk isn't worth the reward. Only brainless zombies fight like brainless zombies.

[Dienekes]

Giants get area attacks. For some of the smaller giants it's just that their attacks hit multiple squares. For the bigger giants some of their attacks just become dexterity saving throws. Other attacks have knockback involved. For the truly gargantuan creatures I've had their attacks create rough terrain where they hit. Or break ground into chasms depending on where the fight is taking place. I've had the Tarrasque stomp on a player, and after that point they were half buried underground and pinned beneath the monster and they had to either try to hack their way out when they could barely move or wait until the Tarrasque moved.

Messing with player's positioning or changing the environment can really up the threat of a fight, I've found.

Big creatures bite attacks potentially swallowing whole I've done for awhile. I usually keep it as bite attack + grapple attempt if successful the target is in the mouth. From here an additional grapple attempt can swallow, or the creature can chew but not both as the same action. Swallowing is another grapple check.

Residue from attacks can also be fun. Water elementals leaving trails of water around that splash about and may cause people to slip as though it was the grease spell. Or dragons and fire elementals start actual fires when they miss that spread along the battlefield on their own.

I also often give creatures made of stone or known for having incredibly hard scales some reaction move to mitigate damage dealt to them in some way.

I think once in 3.5 I had a Hydra bite/grapple someone with two of their heads and then those two heads spent the rest of their actions just pulling the creature it caught in two. Like two crocodiles tearing apart a catch between them. That was fun.

[Segev]

There is a golem in ToA that is made primarily from the corpse of a particular NPC whom I had deciDed was an Echo Knight, so I gave the golem the signature feature.

[MoiMagnus]

Bringing in a discussion topics I was having with some folks on discord the other night.
Modifying monsters; specifically giving them different attack options and abilities based on their physiology and what they would realistically be capable of.

I like to add "group attacks", i.e a group of archers can combine their fire into a single AoE (with Dex save for half damage), of strength depending on the number of archers participating (works better if you make all identical creature share the same initiative).
Alternatively, that's an action from the commanding officer to trigger an AoE of strength proportional to the number of remaining archers with a line of sight (on top of the regular attack the archers do during their turn).

[stoutstien]

That's quite a substantial list for me but I will go through some of the more simple alterations I perform.

Make resistance and vulnerability more common. Also try to make the distribution a little bit more even as well.

Brought back damage resistance in different forms. For example I have a feature called thick skin that gives damage resistance 10 to every type of damage besides psychic but it's also bypassed by critical Hits completely.

Multiple HP pools. And in turn multiple turns in the initiative order as long as they have each of the pools available. This acts as Nova protection and allows players to see actual progression in the encounters as they defeat them. It's kind of the opposite of the new mystic actions they use for some of the dragons that they've released. Can even mix and match different NPCs into a single block so you can have like a swarm of snakes operating a suit of armor. You could just pass your way through both HP pools or if you find a way to circumvent the armor you could just take out the snakes and dealing with the problem that way.

Redistribute effects that call for saving throw so each ability has somewhat equal weight. in the same vein I tend to remove and avoid options that completely deny actions but rather limit them or dampen their effects. So replacing hold person with Tasha's mind whip.

I add in a lot more aoe's half damage on saves or automatic damage effects. Depending on the level they are facing these it's usually nowhere more than a couple percent of their total HP pools but it does the job of maintaining tension. Sometimes I introduce little damage auras that can stack with each other so the effects are greatly increased by the number of that particular NPCs are facing.

[Pooky the Imp]

Honestly, it depends heavily on what I want out of said monster.

For example, I wanted to include various were-creatures in a recent campaign but felt that the standard statblocks were far too similar and not particularly interesting. Hence, I tried to differentiate them more:

- I had werewolves lean more towards dex than strength. Moreover, I gave them regeneration, pack tactics and something akin to a rogue's Cunning Action. The intent here was to make them more agile in combat and to emphasise their working as a pack. Further, regeneration, aside from being (IMO) thematic, also gives them the option to were down prey with hit & run tactics.

- Wererats are similarly nimble but instead of pack tactics they instead gain a version of sneak attack that scales with the number of wererats within range of the target. They could also move half their speed as a reaction (without provoking opportunity attacks) after taking damage. The idea is that they act more as a swarm than a pack, not so much working tactically as trying to overwhelm targets with sheer numbers. However, each rat is also fairly cowardly and so will try to scurry back when injured.

- Werebears are large, hardy beasts and start each encounter with a pool of temporary hit points. As long as they have that pool, they have resistance to virtually all damage types. I believe I also gave them bonuses if they attacked a creature alone. Effectively, they're meant to be the hardiest of were-creatures, at least until they start to tire and enemies managed to get through their hides of thick fur and flab. Further, they're very much loners and so (unlike the above) specifically prefer not to fight with others of their kind.

- Wereboars are fearless and madly attack enemies until one or both are dead. Thus, they have a reaction attack against an enemy that attacked them and also gain bonuses to damage when their health is lower.

(Not an exhaustive list but hopefully you get the idea. Basically just wanted to try and make their mechanics better match their flavour.)


In more general terms, one thing I always try and do when modifying monsters (or creating entirely new ones) is to make use of bonus actions and reactions - ideally both. To both try and give them better action economy and (in the case of reactions) make them more interactive. Even for minor minions, it can be nice to give them a little reaction of some sort.

This is especially true for any boss-type monsters. Further, I like to give them stages (usually based on remaining hp) - where they'll either change form or else at least change tactics/actions.

Incidentally, I always try to avoid Legendary Resistance as I absolutely despise that mechanic. Instead, I try to give monsters more thematic ways of avoiding or shaking effects that would otherwise be potentially encounter-ending. One example would be the aforementioned stage change - if this involves any sort of transformation, I'll usually have it remove any spells or conditions currently affecting the boss. Alternatively, I might have an ability more appropriate to the specific creature - e.g. I had a boss that was basically a swarm of bones and I gave it an ability that would let it have just a single bone fragment be affected by a spell effect. However, in doing so it would have to jettison the affected fragment and a few others besides, thereby costing it a small chunk of hit points.

Lastly, after watching a certain video (which I apparently can't even link to because my post count is too low :smallconfused:) I'm much more inclined to design spellcasting monsters in an entirely different way. In most cases, rather than trying to make a 'proper' spellcasting NPC, I'll instead just choose a few spells (or spell-like effects) and let it cast them at will. Simply because I have enough to concentrate on without also having to stop to consider an entire spell list of options. :smalltongue:

[Yora]

I roll for monster hit points. In a group of six identical monsters, each of them has different maximum hp. And when practical, I try to describe them as being different size or bulk, or give them other distinguishing features.
Particularly at low numbers of dice and with small constitution bonuses, this can cause a considerable spread of different hp. For a simple bandit or grimlock, this will usually range from 5 to 17 hit points. That can mean the difference between one or four hits to take them out, without having to touch any other of their stats. (More dice of course allow for a wider spread, but statistically more dice means the results will stick more to the average with extremes becoming more rare.)

I made my own monster book from the SRD, where I can easily make all the edits and rewrites I want, and I have the hit points for all creatures listed as their Hit Dice, with the expected range of possible results in parentheses. (Average, plus-minus 2 Standard Deviations; a fancy statistical way of saying "96% of all rolls would fall into this range".)
Looks like this.

Hit Points 2d8 + 2 (5-17 hp)
If for some reason I don't want to take the time to roll the hp for all creatures in a group, I can just make up some numbers that are somewhere in the middle of that range. The odds for an actual die roll resulting in a number outside of that range would be only 4%, so that works as a decent shortcut to say hit point totals larger or smaller than that won't happen.

[sithlordnergal]

Always, and I mean ALWAYS, modify spell lists. Especially for full caster NPCs. The spell lists NPC full casters get are horrific.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Bringing in a discussion topics I was having with some folks on discord the other night.
Modifying monsters; specifically giving them different attack options and abilities based on their physiology and what they would realistically be capable of.

What are some things you like doing for your games?

For me, I like giving more monsters with large jaws a bite+grapple option, and creatures with mouths/bodying sufficiently larger than their targets a swallow+restrain option on grappled targets.
For mimics I like this because it plays more to the trope of them eating people whole.
Similarly for oozes I like to give broader access to engulfing targets as to have an attack option targeting a save as opposed to only having pseudopods for attack rolls vs AC.

What you suggest is a common one for me. Big stuff being able to swallow the characters seems to fit and it definitely gets my players jittery when that starts to happen.

[noob]

Always, and I mean ALWAYS, modify spell lists. Especially for full caster NPCs. The spell lists NPC full casters get are horrific.

It is because their spell lists are horrible that they get low cr.
If you give them better spell lists you need to consider them to be of a higher cr when thinking about the balance of the encounter.

[solidork]

For a short campaign where the PCs would be fighting these extraplanar goo monsters that came through an exploded leyline, I did the following:

Took the Ape stat block and gave them a rechargeable attack that was Dex save or take necrotic damage and be covered in magical goo.

Took the Ogre stat block and gave them an action that pulled someone covered in goo 30ft closer and let them make an immediate attack. This removed the goo. Also, when they dropped to half their total hit points, they would send out a wave of goo around them.

Took a spell casting orc stat block and made it so that if you were covered in goo, you had disadvantage on the spells save but being targeted by a spell would consume the goo. They could also teleport along the lines of a sigil that was the focus of the encounter by liquifying and flowing along it.

Took the yeti stat block but only let them use their paralysis if you were covered in goo. They also had a cone attack that would apply the goo.

Their first encounter was just with the Ape stat blocks, so it was somewhat mysterious what the goo was about. It was hard to clean off and reacted strangely to magic so they were a little spooked. Then when they started encountering enemies that did extra things to people covered with goo it added an extra dimension to the combats. I think it was pretty successful overall.

[sithlordnergal]

It is because their spell lists are horrible that they get low cr.
If you give them better spell lists you need to consider them to be of a higher cr when thinking about the balance of the encounter.

Ehh, I've never really seen a need to rebalance encounters after changing a spellcaster's spell list. They tend to die really quickly and their save DCs tend to be low enough that players can easily survive their worst spells that it ends up balancing out the encounter for me.

[togapika]

EG: a dragon's head(s) will have one initiative where it can use a breath weapon, cast a spell, roar (frighten effect) or make a bite or horn attack, the wings will have one where they can wing slap or create a gust of wind (aoe shove) or fly the dragon around

So then as a player, I can solely target the wings in order to "kill them" and remove its ability to fly?

[EggKookoo]

So then as a player, I can solely target the wings in order to "kill them" and remove its ability to fly?

That's one reason I don't like to treat the separate turns as actual distinct components. Hit charts mess up D&D combat.

[JNAProductions]

So then as a player, I can solely target the wings in order to "kill them" and remove its ability to fly?

I'd assume so. Unless the whole party can fly or the party has a significant terrain advantage, it's still a flipping dragon and therefore quite dangerous.

[togapika]

I'd assume so. Unless the whole party can fly or the party has a significant terrain advantage, it's still a flipping dragon and therefore quite dangerous.

The problem with this line of thinking is that then a player takes it to its logical conclusion of "Can I just attack the head's HP alone and chop off the head, thus bypassing all the other parts and killing it?"

[JNAProductions]

The problem with this line of thinking is that then a player takes it to its logical conclusion of "Can I just attack the head's HP alone and chop off the head, thus bypassing all the other parts and killing it?"

Which is why you have a monster where the head's not vital!

Trolls, Hydras, many varieties of undead... :P

That being said, I do see your point. It's not something I've done myself, but it seems like something worth exploring for at least some tables.

[Sception]

So then as a player, I can solely target the wings in order to "kill them" and remove its ability to fly?

Yes, that's exactly a thing you could do, and imo targeting thing wing membranes to impair a dragon's ability to fly is the sort of tactical choice you'd expect to see of heroes fighting a dragon.

That said, I'd allow a dragon to land safely ('crash' dramatically, but without taking damage) even on 'broken' wings, and I'd also give the core body the option to shift some of its hit points to damaged body parts to repair them - but if it's doing that it isn't doing other things, and burning through the core body's hp is how you eventually need to kill the dragon anyway.

The dragon still has almost all of its offensive ability with the wings 'broken' (I'd even still let it make wing slap attacks, just not fly or create walls/gusts of wind), so basically targeting the wings would be the opening goal of the party members with ranged attacks, bringing the dragon down into a ground battle where the party's melee combatants can take part. This also avoids the issue of every party member needing long ranged attacks or fast flying speeds to even participate in fights against dragons.


What I envision is a multi-phase fight. In the opening phase, the dragon is flying, making strafing runs. Not bringing all of its offense into play, but not all of the party can effectively fight back either. The members of the party who can target the wings do so while the dragon tries to get in what damage it can from relative safety.

Once the wings break, the real fight starts, with the grounded dragon now bringing all of its offense into play - spells/bites/breath from the head, multiple claw attacks, tail stabs/sweeps, wing slaps, while the whole party now gets to engage at maximum effectiveness. This is sort of a battle of attrition - the party members start crippling a few body parts, the dragon starts downing party members. The dragon is forced to start burning core energy to revive body parts, while the party is forced to burn resources to get downed members back into the fight.

Eventually resources stat running low on both sides. Maybe the party starts to run low on healing reserves, or the dragon manages to overkill a party member straight to death. The dragon starts running low on core HP, or the party cripples multiple parts at once while the core can only revive one at a time. Despite the wings being the most fragile & least damaging body part, the dragon might revive them and try to escape, forcing the party to once again rely on their ranged members to force it back down.

The dragon's core hp drops below a threshhold (a third? a half), where a desperation phase starts. The dragon's core is ruptured, and it's leaking magic, supplementing the dragon's dwindling action pool as parts break with a large passive aoe damage and debuff aura, along with other random effects - randomly restoring hp to body parts, manifesting elemental spells, spawning hostile elemental monsters - weaker ones, but still a hassle for a party that's been fighting for a while now. At this point the party should be at the advantage, but they need to burn the dragon's remaining health down quickly, not just to avoid being overwhelmed but also because if the dragon continues fighting in this desperation phase for too many rounds (how many I'm not sure) its core will go critical causing a massive explosion with a reasonable likelihood of tpk.

[Sception]

The problem with this line of thinking is that then a player takes it to its logical conclusion of "Can I just attack the head's HP alone and chop off the head, thus bypassing all the other parts and killing it?"

Reducing a part to zero cripples it, but doesn't sever or destroy it outright (unless a party member over-kills it with a big damage crit or some dramatic attack that I feel warrants that sort of major reward). The main action of the core body of the dragon - the elemental furnace which animates it - is to spend some of its own energy/hp to restore some hp to a body part. Effectively the dragon would gain regeneration for one body part per round, which can even restore that part from 0hp/crippled status to positive hp/active status. To keep parts down, the party will have to cripple multiple parts at once. Sort of like a fight with a group of enemies backed up by a hard-to-reach enemy cleric that only knows/casts healing word.

You could attack the head to 'cripple' it - temporarily stopping it from using the head to attack (no roar, breath, spell, bite, or gore). Though the head is a high value part, so on the core's turn it would use its action to heal the head before basically anything else. The head would also have good defenses - second only to the core - and a reaction bite attack to use once per round against an enemy that attacks it within biting range.

Even if you did sever the head, the dragon could regrow it. The dragon itself in this model is the core, the elemental furnace. Everything else is bells and whistles attached to it. This is imagining dragons as more of a magical disaster/supernatural force kind of thing, rather than a more naturalistic fantasy beast.

The party could just focus their attacks on the main body effectively damaging the core directly. This would kill the dragon faster, but leave it fully active for the entire fight, including the desperation phase when the low hp core adds a passive damage aura and random additional effects (wild magic spells, elemental adds, etc).



Other multi-part 'boss' monsters wouldn't be as involved (the game has dragons in the name after all). Like a beholder where each eye stalk has its own hp that can be individually targeted and severed by a party that, for instance, wants to get rid of the disintigrate ray first.

[togapika]

including the desperation phase when the low hp core adds a passive damage aura and random additional effects (wild magic spells, elemental adds, etc).


So you want an MMO fight...

[JNAProductions]

So you want an MMO fight...

Honestly, if that’s you mean by MMO fight… hell yeah! That sounds dope.

Hell of a lot more interesting than current design, if a lot more involved and complex. But for a rare boss monster… yes please. Be fun. Be complex. Be challenging.

[MoiMagnus]

Honestly, if that’s you mean by MMO fight… hell yeah! That sounds dope.

Hell of a lot more interesting than current design, if a lot more involved and complex. But for a rare boss monster… yes please. Be fun. Be complex. Be challenging.

Fully agree. Bosses with multiple phase with various powers, and special rules unique to the fight, are very interesting IMO as a player. As a GM, the main downside is that it takes some significant time to prepare, especially if you want something that will feel fair to the players.

[EggKookoo]

Hell of a lot more interesting than current design, if a lot more involved and complex. But for a rare boss monster… yes please. Be fun. Be complex. Be challenging.

That's part of my problem with Legendary Actions. It doesn't really work. I much prefer a multi-turn creature, including multiple reactions and movement. It's not hard to tune it properly. Then as instances drop, new abilities unlock, or something along those lines.

[Sception]

So you want an MMO fight...

I want a fight that changes while feeling engaging throughout. Too many fights in 5e are resolved via the same tactics, or are over too soon, or if they do last a while get repetitive as the same actions are used by both sides round after round, with conclusions that are no longer in doubt long before they finish. These things are fine for generic encounters, but narrative climax encounters & particularly fights against large dragons feel like they need some extra spice imo, something more than legendary/lair actions are quite able to pull off.

unfortunately, I haven't really implemented any of this yet because I really don't have the numbers down right. Turning a boss monster into a boss cluster can pretty quickly lead to tpk situations as the party loses their advantage in action economy, and tuning the boss's HP probably needs to be done on an individual party scale due to how wide the damage output numbers can be from one party to another in this game based on whether players are optimizing and whether they're optimizing for damage specifically.

[noob]

I want a fight that changes while feeling engaging throughout. Too many fights in 5e are resolved via the same tactics, or are over too soon, or if they do last a while get repetitive as the same actions are used by both sides round after round, with conclusions that are no longer in doubt long before they finish. These things are fine for generic encounters, but narrative climax encounters & particularly fights against large dragons feel like they need some extra spice imo, something more than legendary/lair actions are quite able to pull off.

unfortunately, I haven't really implemented any of this yet because I really don't have the numbers down right. Turning a boss monster into a boss cluster can pretty quickly lead to tpk situations as the party loses their advantage in action economy, and tuning the boss's HP probably needs to be done on an individual party scale due to how wide the damage output numbers can be from one party to another in this game based on whether players are optimizing and whether they're optimizing for damage specifically.
Also consider removing legendary saves to bodyparts if you are doing this: legendary saves are here because when the boss fails against a SOL effect he is out while it is no longer the case for a multipart boss.

[Sception]

Also consider removing legendary saves to bodyparts if you are doing this: legendary saves are here because when the boss fails against a SOL effect he is out while it is no longer the case for a multipart boss.

Yes, definitely. Different parts may be subject or immune to different conditions ie, the wings can't be charmed or frightened, but the head maybe can. Other more deleterious effects may require multiple parts to be hit at once. Like, maybe a dragon can be 'banished', but only if you successfully banish both the dragon's mind (the head) and soul (the core) simultaneously. If you hit the dragon with a negative condition without picking a specific subtarget, then it will randomly target one of the non-broken parts that are vulnerable to that condition, if any. eg, 'hold monster' without a called target will randomly affect the head or the claws or the wings or the tail. I might also let the core shrug off an effect, or at least allow a new save against one, instead of healing a body part on its action.

But yeah, ideally negative condition effects should be able to work on at least part of the dragon, at least temporarily, so they can be useful without shutting the entire fight down and without the dragon having to get free auto-pass saves.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Stuff I've done:

Reskin animals from PHB appendix, describing them like an aberration.

Add a resistance with a corresponding vulnerability and giving a hint of it in the description.

Add damage reduction 5. Remove regeneration.

Add a one time special nova like many demons have. Something than makes many PCs roll save or suck and also affects the allies of the monster.

Give legendary actions to mooks, reducing number of mooks accordingly.

Give boss of group max HP.

I miss templating.

[noob]

Stuff I've done:

Reskin animals from PHB appendix, describing them like an aberration.

Add a resistance with a corresponding vulnerability and giving a hint of it in the description.

Add damage reduction 5. Remove regeneration.

Add a one time special nova like many demons have. Something than makes many PCs roll save or suck and also affects the allies of the monster.

Give legendary actions to mooks, reducing number of mooks accordingly.

Give boss of group max HP.

I miss templating.
Templates are not very hard to add back to 5e (Some 3.5 templates can directly translate to 5e as long as it does not mentions too many 3.5 only mechanics).
The major issue is that you have to reestimate cr each time you complete a templated monster which a sane gm ought to do in 3.5 too.