Battle help - beefed up 3.5/Pathfinder Hydra

[Balmung77]

Hello, all! I was hoping to get some opinions or suggestions about an upcoming battle I'm going to partake in. A little background: Currently, my party is level 12 and I control all four characters. The hero is a Rogue 2/Paladin 9/Shadowbane Inquisitor 1, and his supporting cast members are a Sacred Exorcist/Death Delver/Cleric/Prestige Paladin pretty boy, a mythic Marshal/Paladin lady, and a cheesey Hellfire Warlock with devil bloodline, legacy champion, and uncanny trickster for giggles.

We are currently in a bonus dungeon right now where I have an Ancient shadow dragon as my friend via a Mistake staff acquired as a treasure earlier in said dungeon. But now we are in a labyrinth leading up to a nasty hydra that I'm not sure how to beat.

According to the DM in information I've gathered, the Hydra is gargantuan, has 24 heads, also a pyrohydra, immune to critical hits, and has mythic levels and feats. Not to mention unknown nasty tricks. So my question is...does anyone have any suggestions about how to defeat this thing? I'd say I'm fairly seasoned with 3.5 but high level hydras aren't something I've faced before. Any insight or suggestions would be much appreciated!

[sovin_ndore]

Well, you are going to be overcoming alot of fasthealing 34/round (10+1/head). Your party will be taking alot of fire damage (breath weapon from each head, reflex for half) and needing cold damage to keep it from regrowing heads. It will also have reach and a huge number of AOO attacks that trigger each time you provoke(one for each head), so not provoking when engaing would be a good plan.

I would definitely see if you can acquire Protection from Energy (or equivilant) and pretty much any way to deal periodic cold damage. Buffs to resistance would also be useful (Resistance, Greater/Superior) if you don't already have solid resistance items. Movement spells like Slide or Dimension Door or stealth spells like Invisibility could help you prevent provoking and reach weapons can help keep you in range.

Depending on the lair you end up fighting in, staying out of reach may be a viable strategy (Fly, etc) as I am pretty sure this critter is not going to be airborne.

[Balmung77]

I've already got some buffs in place for 24 hours including Energy Immunity from fire, so the breath weapon (that I know of) is basically nullified. My DM has banned flying in this campaign though so I can't play keepaway that way.

On a good note, if I hit, my people can usually do 100 damage at least in a round. I also have Vitriolic Blast with my warlock so I can seal heads that way. The only problem is actually severing them. The only way I see is taking ready actions and sundering the heads as they attack. Problem with that is I don't have combat reflexes.

[sovin_ndore]

Yeah, with an advanced Hydra an AOO or even worse a full attack could be a death sentence. If they have Rapidstrike/Improved Rapidstrike, you could be looking at a 2-3x their number of heads in attacks and stock they come with super Combat Reflexes. Remember that this this has Gargantuan size modifier to natural attack damage dice (probably base 3d8+Str each) and double your level in number of heads. It would have to miss alot to avoid killing you. And if you don't have an ability to sunder without provoking (Improved Sunder, Greater Invisibility, etc) I wouldn't really try... its not worth taking the AOO.

[Balmung77]

That's what I was afraid of. I considered my ranged options but a gargantuan creature will just cover that distance pretty quickly anyway. I don't suppose getting under him and hacking at the body would be a viable option?

I'm hoping my shadow dragon friend will get off his negative level breath attack on it a couple times to help out, too. But I have a feeling the hydra will have Death Ward on or some DM effect that's similar.

[sovin_ndore]

Well, being someone that plays alot of Tiny creatures, I know that you can absolutely enter their square so long as they are two size categories larger than you. The biggest problem, though, is getting there without provoking... Their radius of reach will probably be 20' around their rather spacious hydra form. By default, Hydras have weak Will saves, but I don't know what it will have after advancement. It also has a very draconic low base Dexterity and an Animal Intelligence, so you could always resort to cheese like Shivering Touch [Frostburn] or even just a Ray of Stupidity to drop it.

[Balmung77]

Ooh I have never heard of Shivering Touch before. That sounds perfect! I just have to keep my cleric alive long enough to cast that as many times as possible. Maybe I can keep the Hydra's attention with my paladin guy and the dragon long enough to cheese that.

[sovin_ndore]

Word of caution on Shivering Touch... it is extremely broken, especially for its level, and probably very quick to recieve the banhammer in most games. If you use the spell, be sure to use it as a last resort (when you really need a Deus Ex Machina) because it would be very anticlimactic to one shot a significant BBEG.

[EldritchWeaver]

If the DM follows the rules for HD, then your opponent has 24 HD. All the other stuff you mentioned make me doubt that this encounter is feasible at all. And with being a custom hydra, I wouldn't be surprised if it can't negate at least some counters which have been suggested.

Are you sure that your DM doesn't plan to kill your party off?

[Balmung77]

Yeah it's a beefy enemy to be sure. But he doesn't want me to die per se, but he wants to give me a challenge since this is the final boss of this optional dungeon. And treasure galore if I win!