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There are hundreds of deadly creatures and monsters inDungeons & Dragons.
And not in the ‘roll to see if you hit,’ kind of way.
These abilities have what’s called a recharge to them.
Inferno Of The Star Mounts by Jesper Epsing
But what’s a recharge, and how does it impact your friendly neighborhood D&D campaign?
As a Dungeon Master (DM), you have to be aware of recharge when running encounters.
Which, as the fates would have it, is what this guide will go over in detail.
Ancient Black Dragon via Wizards Of The Coast
What Is Recharge?
Monsters tend to have at least a few tools at their disposal.
It can take the form of their attack action, innate spellcasting, or something similar.
Ancient Black Dragon via Wizards Of The Coast
For those skills,monsters can use them all the timeunless specified otherwise.
It’s just part of their every-round kit, so to speak.
However,recharge works differently.
Adult Black Dragon stat block via Wizards Of The Coast
Then, they have towait for it to recharge.
As an example, and for the examples going forward, take a look atthe Adult Black Dragon.
TheirAcid Breathis arecharge ability with a recharge of five or six.
Bigby’s Appraisal by Katerina Ladon
But what does that mean?
Most recharge abilitiesinstead have one number on a d6 you must hitbefore regaining accessto that action.
A Fomorian isa huge-sized creatureand is classified as a Giant.
Unfortunately, for the Fomorian, that makes it an ability thatonly gets used once in combat.
Do you want your players to feel like the heroes in their own story?
Of course, you do!
Agatha by Nikki Dawes
And hero points can help achieve that.
Instead, it has more to do withhow powerful the creature is and its ability.
Even a Ghost, when compared to the might of Ancient Dragons, has a recharge ability.
Unless, of course, you are very lucky with your rolls.
Forget the battle maps and the minis - let’s play theater of the mind Dungeons & Dragons combat.
