Resistances and Vulnerabilities

Enemies have had the resistance and vulnerability mechanic reworked. While this mechanic functions the same for all player-facing content, enemies now have a sliding scale of resistance and vulnerability levels.

• When an enemy has resistance to a damage type, they will roll a number of d4 equal to their resistance level to the damage, and reduce the incoming damage of that type by that much. 
• Enemies vulnerable to a damage type will roll a number of d4s equal to their vulnerability level and take that much additional damage when they suffer damage of a type they are vulnerable to.

Legendary Resistances

Legendary resistances are a resource that some monster statblocks (bosses) have to help them make their saving throws, while also being tied to an additional mechanic that increases the boss’s danger level.

• Creatures with legendary resistances will vary with how many they have in total, but it will usually be telegraphed to you how many they have left.
• When a creature with legendary resistances fails a saving throw, it automatically consumes one legendary resistance (it cannot choose to not spend the resource) and gains a bonus to the saving throw equal to the monster’s proficiency bonus, potentially turning the failure into a success.
• This resource regenerates back to the creature’s maximum at the beginning of every turn, but first any unspent legendary resistances from the previous round are tallied.
• This number of unspent resistances is then used to make the boss stronger. This can be anything, from simply giving the boss a pool of temporary hit points, to fight-defining mechanics like setting the pace that a dragon’s breath attack charges.
• At the end of a boss’s turn, it can spend a single legendary resistance to end a harmful effect on itself, become immune to a spell or feature that has forced it to make a saving throw for the next minute, or to ignore an effect restricting its movement in the environment around it.
  • A harmful effect can range from spells like Hypnotic Pattern or Faerie Fire, to conditions like being grappled or stunned. 
  • When a creature uses a legendary resistance to become resistant to a spell or feature that has forced it to make a saving throw, this means the creature automatically succeeds on all future saves against it, but does not prevent damage or other effects from happening. For example if the boss becomes immune to the Spirit Guardians spell, it automatically saves on all future rolls against the spell, but still takes the half damage as usual, and has its movement halved while in the area.
  • An effect restricting a creature’s movement in the environment around it can range from difficult terrain on the battlefield (magical or nonmagical), environmental obstacles (like a castle’s doors being too small for a giant to get through), or even spells like Forcecage. 
• These mechanics force the players to play around the boss’s legendary resistances by either working to minimize the number of unspent resistances a boss has, or working together to overwhelm it in order to open the path for the boss to be debuffed effectively. Keep in mind the players won’t be expected to reduce the boss’s resistances to zero every turn in order to win; it isn’t about stopping the boss mechanics, it’s about slowing them down.