Marine ecosystems are undergoing rapid changes, including rising temperatures and more frequent extreme climatic events. Currently, the consequences of these phenomena heavily impact the structure and functioning of marine communities, especially benthic ones. Studying how key species respond to environmental change has become essential, as local biodiversity depends on their ecological conservation status. Although the effects of climatic and anthropogenic stressors on many of these crucial habitat-formers have been extensively studied, there is limited information on their dispersive early life stages, which are fundamental to population survival. The performance response of the endemic coral Astroides calycularis to various realistic stressful conditions (heat spikes, marine heatwaves, and marine heatwaves followed by a drop in salinity) was explored by measuring life-history traits (mortality) and dispersal traits (larval duration and settlement rate) over time. The results indicate that increasing temperatures and decreasing salinity significantly impair the species’ performance, leading to accelerated metabolism, quicker settlement rates, and increased mortality. Such findings are crucial for understanding and predicting species distribution and population dynamics under current and future environmental change scenarios. They are also vital for conserving Mediterranean biodiversity associated with this endemic habitat-former.