Enemy Statblocks: The Fair Lady’s Congregation (Hive Mind Cult)

Preface:

This showcase presents my custom statblock designs from a previous story arc in my homebrew DnD 5e campaign: From the Pale We Came. In this document I share some of my creature designs, and talk about the design process that went into creating them. I also write at the end about how I iterated on the statblocks after getting playtesting from my players during the campaign. Note that these statblocks were created for my homebrew DnD 5e rules overhaul, and there may be changes within the formatting (and some mechanics) that cause confusion if you are coming from a vanilla 5e background. There will be a section at the bottom of this document that details some of these changes if you are not familiar with From the Pale 5e rules.

Narrative Framing:

A sleepy fishing settlement in the swamps by the Vertund Lake is turning into a large walled city seemingly overnight. Each time the party passes by, they swear the city got a few miles wider along the coast. The party barely has time to rest after their latest adventure before they receive a distress signal over the radio from their friend in the army. They trace it back to the mysterious lakeside city of Vertalia, but the signal cuts out and they must begin their investigation. After entering the city, their truck is sabotaged the moment they take their eyes off it, and they find most of the city’s inhabitants acting manically, trying to convert them to a strange religion –The Congregation of Our Fair Lady. The few people in the city who aren’t like this are paranoid, scared, and hesitant to speak with the party. The party then finds that their rations are deteriorating fast, and most of the food in the city is infested with small leeches, which the residents happily eat.

As night falls, the party –trapped in the city– are beset on all sides by rapidly mutating parishioners who wish to share the blessings of their fair lady with them. The party must scavenge for untainted supplies, make allies with the uninfected survivors, find their friend, and eventually strike at the heart of this nightmare: the lady of leeches herself.

Central Arc Mechanic:

Infection

Infection is a disease that can’t be cured all at once by magical means. Any source which can cure diseases can only clear two points of infection at a time, and cannot reduce infection to 0.
A creature at 1 point of infection can only be reduced to 0 points of infection if another creature succeeds on a DC 20 Medicine check to remove the prime leech.
If a creature has at least one point of infection, they gain another point at the beginning of each day.
If a humanoid creature reaches 15 points of infection, then it will fall unconscious after 1 minute. If it is not treated within an hour, they will reawaken as a Congregant. After this hour, a creature cannot have their level of infection reduced.

The Statblocks of the Arc:

Congregant

(Medium Aberration, Lawful Evil)

AC 14 AC (natural armor)

HP 30

Speed 25 ft.

STR +3 / DEX +1 / CON +4 (proficient) / INT -1 / WIS -1 / CHA -1

Skills Deception +7

Vulnerability 1 Fire, 1 Cold

Resist 2 Psychic, 2 Acid, 1 Radiant

Senses passive Perception 9

Languages The languages this creature knew before infection (can also understand and follow the orders of the Lady of Leeches, and those she shares her favor with)

Level/Threat 9 Low Threat

Mechanics:

The Mask. This creature has 15 points of infection, but acts like a normal human during the day, and will go about its activities as normal. It still will try to convert any nonbelievers to the faith if it notices someone in its vicinity who does not have at least 1 point of infection, but will seek to use mostly nonviolent tactics during the day unless it is provoked or ordered.
The Fair Lady’s Generosity. Whenever a creature receives damage from this creature’s Slam or Deathgrip actions, that creature gains 1 point of infection. In addition, food and water that has been within 15 feet of creatures with this trait becomes contaminated after a cumulative minute of exposure. Eating or drinking contaminated substances cause a creature to gain 1 point of infection.
The Fair Lady’s Blessing. The first time this creature receives damage, roll a 1d4. The roll causes it to take an injury in a specific area of the body which immediately becomes overgrown with leeches to create an evolved bodypart. When a bodypart is evolved, this creature either gains a specific buff, or can access a new feature based on the evolved part. The buffs are as follows:
- 1 – Head Evolution: This creature can use the Acidic Bile action.
- 2 – Arms Evolution: This creature’s slam attacks gain 5 feet of range, and it gains +1 to the attack roll and +2 to the damage roll.
- 3 – Body Evolution: This creature gains 10 temporary hit points, can use the Burning Blood Reaction, and regenerates 5 health at the beginning of each of its turns –if this creature takes fire or cold damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of its next turn.
- 4 – Legs Evolution: This creature gains 15 feet of move speed, and can use the Desperate Grasp action.
Deathrattle. When this creature is reduced to 0 hit points for the first time, it is reduced to 1 hit point instead. On its next turn it must use its Deathgrip action if able. This creature dies at the end of its turn if it is unable to use its Deathgrip action.

Actions:

Multiattack. This creature makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: (1d8+3) bludgeoning damage.
(Head Evolution) Acidic Bile. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 60/120 ft., one target. Hit: (2d8+3) acid damage.
(Leg Evolution) Desperate Grasp. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: (2d8+3) bludgeoning damage. If this creature moved at least 10 feet in a straight line towards its target before making this attack, the target must make a DC 15 strength saving throw or be grappled by this creature, and both creatures fall prone.
Deathgrip. This creature dies, exploding in a violent mass of leeches that seek to restrain and burrow into their surroundings in search of a new host. Up to three creatures within 15 feet must make a DC 11 strength saving throw or be restrained and knocked prone. Creatures restrained this way take 2d6 acid damage at the beginning of their turn. A restrained creature can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the condition on success.

Reactions:

(Body Evolution) Burning Blood. When this creature receives damage from another creature within 10 feet, it can force that creature to make a DC 15 dexterity saving throw or suffer 3d6 acid damage, or half on success.

Hierophant

(Medium Aberration, Lawful Evil)

AC 15 AC (mage armor)

HP 80

Speed 30 ft.

STR -1 / DEX +2 / CON +2 / INT +0 / WIS +4 (proficient) / CHA +4

Skills Perception +8, Deception +8

Vulnerability 1 Fire

Resist 3 Psychic

Condition Immunity Charm

Senses passive Perception 18

Languages Common (can communicate with and command Congregants)

Level/Threat 9 Medium Threat

Mechanics:

The Mask. This creature has 15 points of infection, but acts like a normal human during the day, and will go about its activities as normal. It still will try to convert any nonbelievers to the faith if it notices someone in its vicinity who does not have at least 1 point of infection, but will seek to use mostly nonviolent tactics during the day unless it is provoked or ordered.
The Blessing, Adapted. This creature has advantage on constitution saving throws needed to maintain concentration on its effects. This creature also gains the benefit of Mage Armor on itself when combat begins, lasting for 10 minutes. This creature also does not need to eat, drink, or breath, although it will still do so in the company of others if it feels the need to maintain a disguise.
The Generosity, Abused. Creatures with 5 or more points of infection have disadvantage on their saving throws against this creature’s spells and effects. These creatures also have vulnerability 1 to all of this creature’s damage.
The Faith, Shared. This creature can communicate telepathically with any creatures within 50 feet who can hear it, provided they have at least 1 point of infection. In addition, this creature can sense the location of any creatures within 15 feet that are infected, although it can’t tell people apart.
Psionic Spellcasting. This creature has two spell slots of 4th level each, can cast spells without any components, and knows the following spells: Charm Person, Command, Alter Self, Tasha’s Mind Whip, Hypnotic Pattern, and Arcane Eye (although the eye is not invisible when cast this way). These spell slots are recovered on a short rest.

Actions:

Fleshwarp Shiv This creature’s hand is psychically commanded to warp into a barbed shiv coated in psionic energy. Melee Spell Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: (1d8+4) piercing damage. When hit, the target gains 1 infection, and must make a DC 16 wisdom saving throw or suffer 1d8 psychic damage and be charmed by this creature until the end of the target’s next turn. On a success the target takes half that much psychic damage and is not charmed.
Hive Screech. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 120ft., one target. Hit: (3d8+4) psychic damage. When hit, the target must make a DC 16 wisdom saving throw or be frightened by this creature until the end of the target’s next turn. On a success the target is not frightened. Creatures frightened by this ability can still move closer to the source of their fear.
Spellcasting. This creature has a +8 to hit with spell attack rolls, and its spell save DC is 16.

Rafael, the Immortal

(Medium Aberration, Lawful Evil)

AC 17 AC (mage armor)

HP 40

Speed 30 ft.

STR -1 / DEX +4 (proficient) / CON +2 / INT +0 / WIS +4 (proficient) / CHA +4

Skills Perception +8, Deception +8

Vulnerability 1 Fire

Resist 4 Psychic

Condition Immunity Charm

Senses passive Perception 18

Languages Common (can communicate with and command Hierophants and Congregants)

Level/Threat 9 High Threat

Mechanics:

Hive Reincarnation. When this creature dies, it selects a creature within 50 feet that has at least 10 points of infection and reincarnates in that body. That creature dies (not triggering any effects that would otherwise trigger on death or reaching 0 hp), and Rafael is left standing in its space. When Rafael reincarnates, he is treated as a new creature that had just joined the combat, but his legendary resistances carry over from when he died.
The Mask. This creature has 15 points of infection, but acts like a normal human during the day, and will go about its activities as normal. It still will try to convert any nonbelievers to the faith if it notices someone in its vicinity who does not have at least 1 point of infection, but will seek to use mostly nonviolent tactics during the day unless it is provoked or ordered.
The Blessing, Adapted. This creature has advantage on constitution saving throws needed to maintain concentration on its effects. This creature also gains the benefit of Mage Armor on itself when combat begins, lasting for 10 minutes. This creature also does not need to eat, drink, or breath, although it will still do so in the company of others if it feels the need to maintain a disguise.
The Generosity, Abused. Creatures with 5 or more points of infection have disadvantage on their saving throws against this creature’s spells and effects. These creatures also have vulnerability 1 to all of this creature’s damage.
The Faith, Shared. This creature can communicate telepathically with any creatures within 50 feet who can hear it, provided they have at least 1 point of infection. In addition, this creature can sense the location of any creatures within 15 feet that are infected, although it can’t tell people apart.
Psionic Spellcasting. This creature has two spell slots of 5th level each, can cast spells without any components, and knows the following spells: Charm Person, Command, Vortex Warp, Tasha’s Mind Whip, Antagonize, and Compulsion. These spell slots are recovered on a short rest.

Actions:

Fleshwarp Shiv This creature’s hand is psychically commanded to warp into a barbed shiv coated in psionic energy. Melee Spell Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: (2d8+4) piercing damage. When hit, the target gains 1 infection, and must make a DC 16 wisdom saving throw or suffer 1d8 psychic damage and be charmed by this creature until the end of the target’s next turn. On a success the target takes half that much psychic damage and is not charmed.
Hive Screech. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 120ft., one target. Hit: (4d8+4) psychic damage. When hit, the target must make a DC 16 wisdom saving throw or be frightened by this creature until the end of the target’s next turn. On a success the target is not frightened. Creatures frightened by this ability can still move closer to the source of their fear.
Spellcasting. This creature has a +8 to hit with spell attack rolls, and its spell save DC is 16.

Legendary Resistances (2/2):

Her Gift, A Privilege to Share. At the beginning of this creature’s turn, any other creature within 30 feet of it takes acid damage equal to the number of unspent legendary resistances this creature has, and they gain that same number of points of infection.

The Lady of Leeches

(Gargantuan Aberration, Lawful Neutral)

AC 14 AC (mage armor)

HP 650

Speed 0 ft. (30 ft when disconnected)

STR +5 / DEX -1 / CON +6 (proficient) / INT +2 / WIS +1 (proficient) / CHA +4 (proficient)

Skills Persuasion +9

Vulnerability 2 Fire, 1 Cold

Resist 6 Psychic, 3 Force, 3 Radiant

Senses passive Perception 18

Languages Common (can communicate with and command any creature with 15 infection or more)

Level/Threat 9 Boss

Mechanics:

Hive Queen. This creature is considered to have 15 points of infection, but she has full control over her actions. In addition, any creature with 15 or more points of infection that have undergone the transformation will obey her commands without question. She can communicate telepathically with any creature that has 5 or more points of infection within 2 miles, and influence their dreams. In addition, this creature can sense the location of any creatures within 15 feet that are infected, although it can’t tell them apart.
Festering Generosity. All food and water magically created within 2 miles of this creature is automatically contaminated, and consuming it causes the creature to gain 1 point of infection. This also happens to food that enters the material plane from a different plane (such as a pocket dimension).
Swarm Mind. When the Lady of Leeches would take psychic damage, before the damage is reduced by resistances, the creature which damaged her suffers 2d6 psychic damage. In addition, any creature with 5 or more points of infection has disadvantage on saving throw rolls against her effects.
Psionic Spellcasting. This creature can cast these spells at their base levels without any components once per day each: Charm Person, Command, Vortex Warp, Tasha’s Mind Whip, Antagonize, and Raulothim’s Psychic Lance. These spell slots are recovered on a short rest. If this creature has points of Divinity, she can use a point of Divinity to cast the spell without expending the use of that spell. If this creature casts these spells on her turn, they are automatically twinned, targeting two different creatures rather than one.
Shared Burdens. When a creature receives psychic damage from the Lady of Leeches, they are connected to the psychic web. Whenever a creature in the psychic web receives damage, each other creature in the mental network receives 5 psychic damage. The damage from the psychic web does not trigger this effect.
Divine Leech. The Lady of Leeches is currently leeching power from the city’s god, Poseidon. She gains points of Divinity from her legendary resistance mechanic, and can spend them on various features. For every 3 points of Divinity she spends, she gains a point of Apotheosis, which is consumed to use her actions that have the (Ascendant) tag.

Actions:

Divine Attribute, The Trident. The Lady of Leeches makes a melee weapon attack at +9 to hit with her trident against every creature in a 15 foot cone emanating from her, then can repeat the process with a new cone. Creatures who are hit take 2d8+5 piercing damage and an additional 1d4 psychic damage. In addition the hit creature must make a DC 16 Strength save or be knocked prone at the end of this action.
Ascended Hive Screech. Each creature in a 300 foot line that’s 10 feet across emanating from The Lady of Leeches must make a DC 16 Wisdom save or suffer 6d8 psychic damage and be frightened until the end of their next turn. Creatures who succeed on their saving throw take half of this damage and are not frightened. Creatures frightened by this feature have their save DCs reduced by 2.
Divine Edict (costs 3 Divinity). Each other creature with 7 or more points of Infection within 150 feet moves up to their speed towards the nearest creature of The Lady of Leeches’ choice and makes a melee attack.
Synaptic Crush (costs 3 Divinity). Each creature in the psychic web must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or suffer 8d8 psychic damage, halved on success. Every creature in the psychic web is then disconnected from the psychic web.
Deiform Epithet: Pontomedon (Ascendant – costs 1 Apotheosis). The Lady of Leeches calls forth the nearby tides to sweep around the room and displace everything. Up to 10 creatures of the Lady of Leeches’ choosing within 300 feet must make a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be dragged up to 30 feet in a direction of her choosing, taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage. On a success, the creature takes half of that damage and is not moved. The Lady of Leeches can choose to not deal damage with this effect, and a creature can choose to not resist the saving throw.
Deiform Epithet: Prosklystios (Ascendant – costs 3 Apotheosis). The Lady of Leeches creates an enormous sphere of water which floods an area of the room, before swirling to a center point and crushing everything at once. The Lady of Leeches selects a point within 150 feet of her. Each creature within a 30 foot radius of that point must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or suffer 14d6 magical bludgeoning damage, be dragged to the closest point possible to the center of the effect, be stunned, and be knocked prone.
Spellcasting. This creature has a +9 to hit with spell attack rolls, and its spell save DC is 16.

Legendary Resistances (5/5):

Conceptual Pinnacle Weave: Leeching Divinity. The Lady of Leeches gains a number of points of divinity at the beginning of her turn equal to her number of unused legendary resistances. The Lady of Leeches can have at most 5 points of Divinity at a time.

Legendary Actions (3):

This creature can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. This creature regains spent legendary actions at the start of their turn.

Psionic Quickcast (Costs 1 Divinity). This creature can cast a spell of 2nd level or lower from her Psionic Spellcasting list.
Sympathetic Shock (Costs 1 Divinity). Up to two creatures The Lady of Leeches can see within 120 feet must make a DC16 Wisdom saving throw or suffer 3d6 Psychic damage and gain a point of Infection.
Trident Sweep (Costs 1 Divinity). The Lady of Leeches makes a melee weapon attack at +9 to hit with her trident against every creature in a 15 foot cone emanating from her, then can repeat the process with a new cone. Creatures who are hit take 2d8+5 piercing damage.

Lair Actions:

While The Lady of Leeches is absorbing a god, and within the city limits of that god’s domain, the Lady of Leeches can take lair actions. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), The Lady of Leeches can take one of the following lair action options, or forgo using any of them in that round:

Swarm Command. Two Congregants or one Hierophant enter the battle, rolling new initiatives. The Lady of Leeches also gains one point of Divinity. These new enemies will enter the battlefield from the back, if possible.
Rapid Ascendency. The Lady of Leeches gains 1 point of Apotheosis. The Lady of Leeches cannot use this lair action two times in a row, and cannot use this lair action if she has 2 or more points of Apotheosis already.

Design Process:

I wanted this arc to be more of a sandbox than my previous arcs, where the players would be put in a zombie-infested city, given a problem to solve, and set free to tackle the problem as they see fit. To this end, I had to provide challenges for the party in the arc beyond the enemies themselves. I created a mechanic which can ruin easy food supplies for the players (the ability for Congregants to contaminate food they are near), and tied it with the infection mechanic that the party would need to deal with while handling the zombies.

This was a simple mechanic to have the players track, and having them track it had them on edge for the entire story arc. I never explained the mechanic fully to them (just asked them to add a point of infection to their sheet when relevant), which caused further paranoia. I left room for the players to experiment with the mechanic themselves to try and find answers, like survivors in a zombie movie.

The enemy faction itself was focused on flooding the battlefield with many bulky (but relatively weak) frontliners who aren’t threatening on their own, but pose a risk in a swarm. The rest of the faction is largely range-focused as a result, to take advantage of their meatshields. This design direction was chosen to take advantage of the cramped urban environment the party would fight these enemies in. The higher danger enemies have a subtheme in psionic control effects that are more effective against the party depending on their infection level. This was to make infection more of a threat even before its final stage, which would have lethal consequences for the player.

Playtesting, Feedback, Iteration:

Outside of any of the statblocks for the arc, I ran into a problem. Food, and scavenging for safe supplies, was intended to be a large part of the challenge for this arc. Alas, bags of holding and the create food and water spell meant this issue was an instantly solved one for the party at this level. This largely removed the survival gameplay in the arc, so I sought to fix it with a new feature added to the Lady of Leeches. Future adventurers in Vertalia will watch in horror as they realize food can’t be stored in extradimensional spaces, nor created on the spot.

The second problem was with the base zombie statblock, who used to be a medium threat. For a zombie arc, I quickly realized that I couldn’t throw a lot of zombies at the party at the same time without overwhelming them (with what was meant to be fodder). Keeping the horror themes and not causing cognitive dissonance for the players and their perceived power (e.g. “what do you mean my level 9 Fighter got overwhelmed by just three zombies??”) are not mutually exclusive. The horror of the arc isn’t in facing overwhelming monsters that can kill the party with ease, but rather in how difficult long resting is, causing players to slowly see their resources be depleted. To that end, I changed the Congregant statblock to be a lot squishier, and reduced their speed and lethality so that they would be light threats rather than medium threats. Ideally now DMs after me who use this statblock will be able to throw a proper horde at their players. I then made a medium threat version of that monster (not shown in this document) by taking the old version of the statblock, buffing its numbers slightly, making it a large creature, and then removing the restriction that it could only mutate once.

Another problem I found with the arc was that, while the players were nervous about gaining infection, the consequences of gaining it were pretty much nothing until the player reached the max infection level. The only statblock that interacted with this mechanic was that of the Lady of Leeches herself. I decided to make the Hierophant and Rafael the Immortal take on that same characteristic, to add consequences for the players who realize that maintaining a middling level of infection can have advantages in stealthily traversing the city.

The Lady of Leeches fight went well in the campaign, but it happened early in the design process for the new Legendary Resistance Mechanic. She didn’t fully recharge her resistances each round, and since the fight was just her and a handful of Congregants, she was overwhelmed the instant the party focused on her. I also noted the lack of a distinct big flashy move on the stablock that really helped her play into the theme that she was leeching power from a god. In the second version of the statblock, I created the Apotheosis mechanic to put a timer on the party to make sure they stop her big super move. For the design of the Apotheosis mechanic, I knew that I had a decent starting base for the legendary resistance mechanic already with the Divinity points. Those worked well when I tested them in this fight, and resource pools are a common mechanic I fall back on when designing resistance mechanics. I spent a day trying new designs and simulating their resource gain and expenditure, and settled on a design that encourages the use of Divinity points to gain Apotheosis, but also doesn’t lock the Lady of Leeches out from using her Apotheosis attacks if given enough time by the party, while being locked out of gaining enough legendary resistances. Between adding new attacks, giving her the ability to summon more reinforcements that can split the party’s attention, and tweaking her damage values (so the added rate at which she gains Divinity isn’t overwhelming to a party, damage-wise), the Lady of Leeches will be much more prepared to face new parties in future adventures.

Notes on Statblock Layout and Differences with Vanilla 5e:

Hit Dice. I do not use hit dice to calculate average health for these statblocks. If a creature needs to expend hit dice, it has a number of them equal to its level, and the size of the hit dice is based on its size. Tiny and Small creatures use d6s. Medium creatures use d8s. Large creatures use d10s. Huge and Gargantuan creatures use d12s.
Proficiency. I typically have the proficiency bonus of enemies equal that of the party, to make the creature’s scaling more flexible. This applies for skills and saving throws (as well as save DCs and attack roll modifiers behind the scenes).
- “(Proficient)” in the creature’s statline means that it is proficient in that saving throw.
Resistances/Vulnerabilities. This uses my homebrew system for enemy resistances and vulnerabilities. I will list a number for the vulnerability/resistance level, then list off the damage types that are relevant. When a creature takes damage of that type, it takes Xd4 less/more damage, where X is equal to their resistance/vulnerability level. This change was done to allow me to include more vulnerabilities and resistances into the statblocks I design without making fights too swingy based on whether the players have access to the right damage types or not. Vulnerabilities in particular create a feeling of mastery in players that parallels their characters as they adventure and slowly learn what damage types that certain creatures are weak to.
Level/Threat. This indicates at what level I had the players encounter this statblock, and also how they fit into the encounter. Each player is “worth” a certain number of enemies of this level in combat. By balancing the threat of the enemies and the number of players who will be in this combat, I can create mostly balanced encounters that can be easily tweaked if I have more or less players that session than expected. If the players are lower level than the enemies, usually I bump the threat level of the enemies up by one step (Low Threat to Medium Threat, Medium to High, and so on) for every 3 party levels below the enemy level the players are. Do the inverse when running enemies that the players are higher level than.
- Low Threat: Usually small enemies that spice up the encounter by shifting party focus. Usually a player is worth about 4-6 low threat enemies (the player would win, but take significant damage or use significant resources). Low Threat usually doesn’t mean low damage or offensive output, just low health, letting them be removed from combat with relatively little dedicated effort, but punishing the players if they ignore them.
- Medium Threat: Similar offensive output to low threat enemies, but with much more defensive bulk, requiring more effort to remove from the fight. Usually a player is worth 2 Medium Threat enemies.
- High Threat: Usually a miniboss who will define the combat if there isn’t a boss present. Usually a High Threat enemy is worth 1-2 players.
- Boss: This enemy always defines the combat they are in, and is worth about 4 players, and only worth more if they have mechanics granting them additional actions. Even with the changes in From the Pale, they will still need support from other enemies if the players vastly outnumber them.
Mechanics. This section is basically the same as the Traits section on other statblocks. I relabeled it because some of the traits in these statblocks are more complicated and have a bigger influence on the statblock as a whole compared to many creatures in vanilla 5e. As an example: legendary resistances are now a mechanical system in and of themselves.
Legendary Resistances. This system received a heavy rework in my homebrew project. To give a simple explanation of the change…
- Legendary resistances now regenerate to full at the beginning of a creature’s turn, but no longer provide the ability to automatically save against an effect.
- Legendary resistances now are automatically spent (whether the creature wants to or not) when that creature would fail a saving throw. This adds the creature’s proficiency bonus to the result of the roll, potentially turning it from a failure to a success.
- In addition, the creature can spend a resistance at the end of its turn to cleanse one debuff on itself.
- Finally, unspent legendary resistances empower the creature at the beginning of each turn (before it recovers its spent uses). This empowerment sometimes is just simple consumable damage boosts or temporary hp, but just as often will be tied to a boss’s unique mechanics.
- This rework was done to make fights more dynamic by letting players use CC on bosses, while also (mostly) preventing permanent stunlocks of a boss. The change also serves to open up the design space for statblocks, and let DMs create more interesting fights for players.