So I'm looking into designing some NPCs to fill in a decidedly thus-far unfilled niche in 5e: high level (CR 15+) human/humanoid foes who can function as an ultimate (or near-ultimate) foe for a campaign. But, as the examples we have thus far in the MM and VGtM show, you can't just create an NPC near-clone of a what a similar high-level PC would look like; those end up around CR 10 - 12 or so, simply due to action economy - a typical party can quickly burn them down before the NPC can do much. Thankfully, 5e does give us the tools to help even out this disparity in action economy, though lair and legendary actions. So, my question here is, what would make for some good lair and (especially) legendary actions a high-level NPC might possess?Lair actions aren't too hard. Some things I've thought of are various traps for a rogue, weapons and armor that leap from the wall and attack/defend for a turn for a warrior-type, restraining effects for clerics and druids (restraining vegetation for druids, various themed restrains like webs for Lolth worshipers, skeletal hands from the earth for those of death gods, and golden chains of light for those of various good deities), and so on. Given time, I can come up with all sorts of things for lair actions, but I'm definitely open for some suggestions.
Legendary actions are a bit tougher, simply because should the NPC be able to do something that breaks normal action economy, players might be annoyed that their characters can't achieve the same things. Sure, we can have a high-level wizard or cleric NPC be able to cast a second spell as a legendary action, but a someone playing a magic-using character might not be too happy at that, even if is just a cantrip (which is something liches can do, but liches are more a monster than NPCs). Something like a radiant/necrotic AoE burst for clerics/paladins (or similarly bursts of sound/thunder damage for bards) could definitely work, but my ideas are a bit thin on the ground here.
So, our hearty adventurers have finally trapped their nemesis in their sanctum, be they a master rogue in the thieves' guild complex, an evil wizard in their tower, a savage warlord in their keep, or evil-deity-worshiping high priest in their temple. What sort of lair and legendary actions should we give their foe to make this a more complex and memorable encounter, and not just an anticlimactic two rounds and their campaign-long enemy drops dead to the floor?
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