Lernaean Creatures Immune to Attack?

[ImaDeadMan]

In the WotC web enhancement for 3.5 here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20020621a), it describes that a multi-headed creature with the lernaean quality has a body that is immune to attack. I'm confused as to what this means. Does it mean that all attacks are automatically directed at the heads? Does it mean that when attacked normally, the creature doesn't take damage unless they're attempting to sunder the head?

One other question regarding these creatures: the entry states "The only way to slay a Lernaean creature is to sever all its heads. However, each time a head is severed, two new heads spring from the stump in 1d4 rounds" so I assume that if the party were to sever all of the heads, the creature would go down as if it were dead but would spring back up once one of the heads grew back unless the appropriate 5 points of acid or fire damage was dealt to the stump.

I would love to throw one of these monsters at the party because it would be an interesting encounter, but I would like to know how you guys would rule these creatures. How would you say these mechanics work?

[Zanos]

In the WotC web enhancement for 3.5 here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20020621a), it describes that a multi-headed creature with the lernaean quality has a body that is immune to attack. I'm confused as to what this means. Does it mean that all attacks are automatically directed at the heads? Does it mean that when attacked normally, the creature doesn't take damage unless they're attempting to sunder the head?
I would read it as that attempting to attack the body works normally but inflicts no damage. You have to make sunder attempts on the heads.


One other question regarding these creatures: the entry states "The only way to slay a Lernaean creature is to sever all its heads. However, each time a head is severed, two new heads spring from the stump in 1d4 rounds" so I assume that if the party were to sever all of the heads, the creature would go down as if it were dead but would spring back up once one of the heads grew back unless the appropriate 5 points of acid or fire damage was dealt to the stump.
I would say that once you sever all the heads the creature dies, so it's ability to grow back heads stops working. So if you sever all the heads extremely quickly, you could kill it without acid or fire damage.

[Necroticplague]

In the WotC web enhancement for 3.5 here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20020621a), it describes that a multi-headed creature with the lernaean quality has a body that is immune to attack. I'm confused as to what this means. Does it mean that all attacks are automatically directed at the heads? Does it mean that when attacked normally, the creature doesn't take damage unless they're attempting to sunder the head? Technically, it's the second. Attacking their body does nothing, only severing necks does anything. The only exception is spells which can cause insta-death, which can be directed at the body to try and insta-kill it.


One other question regarding these creatures: the entry states "The only way to slay a Lernaean creature is to sever all its heads. However, each time a head is severed, two new heads spring from the stump in 1d4 rounds" so I assume that if the party were to sever all of the heads, the creature would go down as if it were dead but would spring back up once one of the heads grew back unless the appropriate 5 points of acid or fire damage was dealt to the stump.

I would love to throw one of these monsters at the party because it would be an interesting encounter, but I would like to know how you guys would rule these creatures. How would you say these mechanics work?

Personally, I'd say that any kind of regrowth or healing stops post-mortem. Once dead, you're no longer the creature that has that ability, you're a corpse, which can't have those abilities (them being creature abilities). And Lernean does say that cutting off the heads kills it.

A bigger rules concern I'd have is that lernean doesn't seem to provide any rules for targeting the neck itself. No mention of how much HP a neck has, or how attacking a neck is in any way different from targeting a body, or how much AC a neck has.

[ImaDeadMan]

I'd say that's a reasonable way to rule it. I'm thinking that if I want it to be a recurring threat, I could have its heads grow back after the party leaves and the monster sneaks away. Provided they don't do the acid or fire damage to the stumps of course.

[ngilop]

necks have an AC of 19.

That said the 'template' is a bit foggy on what happens exactly if you chop all the heads off in 1 action.

one the hand like the others have stated you can just say ' it dead, yo" but I am of the "you did to deal the requisite 5 acid/fire damage so now heads grow back, after all the creature was only mostly dead. after all according to Miracle Max "There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead....mostly dead is slightly alive."

[ImaDeadMan]

A bigger rules concern I'd have is that lernean doesn't seem to provide any rules for targeting the neck itself. No mention of how much HP a neck has, or how attacking a neck is in any way different from targeting a body, or how much AC a neck has.

For hydras in the SRD, it states "To sever a head, an opponent must make a successful sunder attempt with a slashing weapon. (The player should declare where the attack is aimed before making the attack roll.) Making a sunder attempt provokes an attack of opportunity unless the foe has the Improved Sunder feat. An opponent can strike at a hydra’s heads from any position in which he could strike at the hydra itself, because the hydra’s head writhe and whip about in combat. An opponent can ready an action to attempt to sunder a hydra’s head when the creature bites at him. Each of a hydra’s heads has hit points equal to the creature’s full normal hit point total, divided by its original number of heads".

So because of this, I believe that to sunder the neck you make an attack roll against the creature's AC and the HP of any given head would be equal to the creature's normal HP/number of heads. I would say a player definitely has to declare that they are attempting to sunder a head/neck.

Edit: spelling