[RPG] How to a Unicorn establish a foreign location as its own lair, when it’s already the lair of a Lich

dnd-5emonsters

The party's Cleric and Wizard have worked together to summon and bind a Unicorn to their side for a year and a day. Now they get to enjoy an intelligent mount with legendary actions, teleportation, and extra healing. It can even have a lair of its own.

The party has gone inside a Lich's domain. Is there anything the party can have the Unicorn do so that it can establish this very same location as its own domain, such that it becomes the lair of both the Lich and the Unicorn? If so, what does that process look like?

As an important note, this particular Lich is very pointedly not interfering with the party's preparations up until they meet. This campaign is more of a hack and slash, so there's not really any deeper underlying reason as to why. What is important is that it doesn't violate the rules.

Here's the subcomponents of this question, as I see it:

  1. Can any creature turn any location into its lair?

  2. Can more than one creature treat the same location as their lair?

  3. What is the process for a creature turning an area into its lair?

I believe the answers to (1) and (2) are yes because there isn't a specific rule that I know of that forbids this, so the main question here is (3). However, if you can cite a rule that shows the answer to (1) or (2) is a "no," I believe that in this scenario it renders the succeeding questions moot, so that's also an acceptable answer.

The motivation for doing this is to gain the benefits of the Unicorn's lair, which is described under the Regional Effects section. Specifically, I'm after the following effects:

  • When a good-aligned creature casts a spell or uses a magical effect that causes another good-aligned creature to regain hit points, the target regains the maximum number of hit points possible for the spell or effect.

  • Curses affecting any good-aligned creature are suppressed.

Best Answer

The answers

Is there anything the party can have the Unicorn do so that it can establish this very same location as its own domain, such that it becomes the lair of both the Lich and the Unicorn?

Maybe.

If so, what does that process look like?

It looks like whatever the DM decides that it looks like.

For your subquestions:

  1. Can any creature turn any location into its lair?

Maybe.

  1. Can more than one creature treat the same location as their lair?

Maybe.

  1. What is the process for a creature turning an area into its lair?

Whatever the DM decides.

The support

All that we know about legendary creature lairs is what's in the Monster Manual. On p. 11 it says:

A legendary creature might have a section describing its lair and the special effects it can create while there, either by act of will or simply by being present. Not all legendary creatures have lairs. This section only applies to legendary creatures that spend a great deal of time in their lairs and are most likely to be encountered there.

Lichs and Unicorns are both "creatures that spend a great deal of time in their lairs".

In the specific entry for Lichs and Unicorns, it describes their typical lair preference and is completely silent on how they are established, how big they are, what architectural firms exist for designing them and where they can hire plumbers to fix them. The Monster Manual does not go into that sort of detail.

The important thing to remember is that D&D (particularly 5e) is not a game; it's a game system that allows individual DMs and their groups to create actual games. If you want this stuff in your game, put this stuff in your game.

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