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There are hundreds of deadly creatures and monsters inDungeons & Dragons. While some have multiple attacks, special features, and even legendary or lair actions, some abilities are left up to a dice roll. And not in the ‘roll to see if you hit,’ kind of way.
These abilities have what’s called a recharge to them. 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.
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. 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.
Some monsters have a recharge ability, which means that they canuse that attack or type of action once. Then, they have towait for it to recharge.
These tend to be powerful attacks that can turn the tide of the battle or are something that the monster is known for. 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. But what does that mean?
How Recharge Works
Sticking with the Acid Breath ability, when you are givena number or range of numbers, that meansyou roll a d6. On a five or six, the Dragongets their Acid Breath back, allowing you as a DM to either use it immediately if you’d like or wait until the party is in a better position to hit multiple targets at once.
And, as you may surmise,if you roll anything outside of that range, a four, for instance, then the Dragondoes not get that weapon backand will have towait until their next turn to try and recharge it.
In the meantime, though,they can still use any of their other abilitiesor actions as they please.The only one that’s off the table to them is their Acid Breath.
Not all monsters that have a recharge ability have a set range of numbers to roll like the Dragon does. Most recharge abilitiesinstead have one number on a d6 you must hitbefore regaining accessto that action.
Other Types Of Recharge Conditions
Most monsters are going to require you to roll a dicefor the ability to recharge. But, while that’s standard, it’s not the only type of condition a recharge ability might require. A Fomorian isa huge-sized creatureand is classified as a Giant.
A Fomorian has a recharge ability called Curse of the Evil Eye thatcan transform a creature if they’ve failed their Charisma saving throwagainst the other Evil Eye ability the Fomorian uses.
Once they use this curse on a foe of theirs, they canonly recharge it after a short or a long rest. Unfortunately, for the Fomorian, that makes it an ability thatonly gets used once in combat.
Whatever the condition for a recharge is,it will be stated in parentheses right next to the ability name. That makes it clear thatnot only is this a recharge ability, but you don’t have to go digging through the creature’s stat block or lore to find what it is you need to do to, hopefully, use the ability more than once in a single combat session.
Examples Of Monsters With Recharge
While the majority of Dragons, even Wyrmlings, have a recharge ability because of their Breath weapons,they aren’t the only classification of monster that has a recharge abilityup their sleeve. Here are some of the other monsters you can find and use in your campaign that have those abilities as well:
There are many more creatures in the vast expanse of D&D monsters, but it shows thatit doesn’t depend on how that creature is classified.
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.
While a Ghost is much easier for a party to deal with than a Dragon, it’s because their ability, Possession, is so powerfulgiven their challenge rating.
If the target of the Possession fails a Charisma saving throw, the Ghosttakes control of their body completely,and only a select set ofspells and features can force the Ghost out, making it extremely difficult to deal with. But, also makes it understandable thatthis isn’t something the Ghost can do endlessly, as having it trapped behind a recharge shifts things to have some more balance. Unless, of course, you are very lucky with your rolls.
