D&D 5E Giving monsters more (unlimited?) reactions in one turn

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Per the 2024 rules, characters can only take one reaction per turn. Is there a supported way around this?

I've homebrewed a monster that basically instantly reacts with a bonus attack any time someone does melee damage to it. I could just, essentially, cover it in spines, but that doesn't really fit the idea for the monster.

It doesn't look like Legendary actions would support this, either.

 

[MarkB]

It doesn't sound like you want this monster to have unlimited reactions. You're not, for instance, looking for it to be able to make opportunity attacks multiple times per round. So what's wrong with just saying "this ability does not expend the creature's reaction"?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Per the 2024 rules, characters can only take one reaction per turn. Is there a supported way around this?

Not really, and it's very much by design.

Because 3E and 4E let you have a lot of reactions and it slows the game down to an absolute crawl without really making it more interesting.

I've homebrewed a monster that basically instantly reacts with a bonus attack any time someone does melee damage to it. I could just, essentially, cover it in spines, but that doesn't really fit the idea for the monster.

I think if it's a one-off and there's sufficient fictional justification, like time-control powers, existing half in another quantum reality, being the greatest swordsman who ever existed, etc., it could work.

For the Minotaur Manhunter though? Big nope from me. There's no fictional justification which would let it take unlimited Reactions (or even more than one) when highly skilled PC combatants and other monsters can't.

I'd lose a lot of respect for a DM who let just a random relatively-normal minotaur have literally unlimited Reactions in a game very heavily balanced around people only having one Reaction. I would just make it be one Reaction and let it lie for that monsters design, frankly. Especially as it's essentially scaling damage which scales based on the number of PCs who are designed to use melee attacks (which are already the most-disadvantaged way to do damage in D&D, I'd argue).

It doesn't sound like you want this monster to have unlimited reactions. You're not, for instance, looking for it to be able to make opportunity attacks multiple times per round. So what's wrong with just saying "this ability does not expend the creature's reaction"?

I think there's a lack of fictional justification in this specific case. Because there's no supernatural or even really super-training element you're essentially raising the question of "why couldn't a PC do this?" in a way a lot of stuff doesn't. Avoiding extra Reactions is a good rule to not break.

 

[Xeviat]

Fire Shield deals damage to creatures that hit you in melee. Changing that from fixed damage to an attack roll for potentially more damage is fine. Monsters don't need to follow the player rules. The reaction limitation is needed for player balance; it's okay for a monster to act differently, as that's calculated into it's CR (you'd probably want to assume 1 PC triggers it each round, as they will adjust their tactics).

 

[DEFCON 1]

Per the 2024 rules, characters can only take one reaction per turn. Is there a supported way around this?

I've homebrewed a monster that basically instantly reacts with a bonus attack any time someone does melee damage to it. I could just, essentially, cover it in spines, but that doesn't really fit the idea for the monster.

It doesn't look like Legendary actions would support this, either.

Seems to me all you are really doing is giving your minotaur a standard aura type of Trait... except requiring the minotaur to hit with an attack roll and making the damage much higher than a normal aura might be.

The Azer has the following: Heated Body. A creature that touches the azer or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.

That's essentially what you have here for your minotaur. So to avoid your concerns about dealing with multiple reactions or whatnot... just change your minotaur's Vengeance ability to match Heated Body-- don't require an attack roll, let the minotaur gore automatically when it gets hit with a melee attack, and just reduce the amount of damage this Vengeance Gore does to something more in line with an automatic hit.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Taking a page from World of Warcraft (gasp), I'm thinking of maybe changing the reaction to Whirlwind: When the minotaur is hit in melee combat, it does a spin attack with its two-handed sword and makes an attack roll against everyone in melee combat for less than the normal amount of damage.

Good points about the aura, but from a fiction standpoint, this is -- as @Ruin Explorer notes -- basically just a big minotaur ranger, and not a supernatural being.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Taking a page from World of Warcraft (gasp), I'm thinking of maybe changing the reaction to Whirlwind: When the minotaur is hit in melee combat, it does a spin attack with its two-handed sword and makes an attack roll against everyone in melee combat for less than the normal amount of damage.

Good points about the aura, but from a fiction standpoint, this is -- as @Ruin Explorer notes -- basically just a big minotaur ranger, and not a supernatural being.

That could work but I think what I'd do is a variant on that.

I'd have the spin be a Reaction, and do normal damage, and use the Minotaur's one Reaction when executed. That way you're rewarding tactics, because if one PC goes in and attacks, and takes the spin, then other melees can dip in and get attacks without taking damage and maybe get away before the spin gets triggered again.

Either that or I'd have it doing some sort of continuing whirlwind (which maybe made it roll a d6 each round, on a 1-2 it has to stop spinning for this combat and gains Exhausted 1 or something) which auto-attacked you for moderate damage when you approached.

 

[Quickleaf]

Per the 2024 rules, characters can only take one reaction per turn. Is there a supported way around this?

I've homebrewed a monster that basically instantly reacts with a bonus attack any time someone does melee damage to it. I could just, essentially, cover it in spines, but that doesn't really fit the idea for the monster.

It doesn't look like Legendary actions would support this, either.

Hydra is an example of one approach.

 

[Sorinth]

You can make it a standard reaction keep the 1/Reaction a turn limit and just word it as "Until the start of the MM next turn whenever a creature in melee range damages MM, MM makes a gore attack against the attacking creature"

That said after the first attack you should definitely warn the players that it's sort of enraged and further attacks are going to be dangerous to clue them into the fact. And as a bonus by keeping the reaction limits in place it won't get an OA which fits nicely into the idea of it going into some sort of wild animalistic rage so it can't take advantage of creatures backing away.

 

[Shiroiken]

If you look into Monsters of the Multiverse, you'll see several monsters have Legendary Reactions, rather than Legendary Actions. It works the same way, having a set number per round that recharge, but you can only use one per round. You could simply have your homebrew monster just have the one choice and have 3 Legendary Reactions.