How can i make a Hydra more fun?

[pastaskamisama]

So in my campaign my players are gonna fight a hydra boss(they don't know this yet, they only know there is a monster in a inmense treasure room) they are 6 on fifth level so a single hydra would be too easy for a boss, i want the encounter to be hard a bit deadly even but i don't want them to fight any other monster, any advice on how to make the hydra more dangerous?

[Temperjoke]

Give each head a different breath attack?

[Chugger]

Put a saddle on it, and have a deranged Ranger beast master riding it. He shoots arrows dipped in its venom or something. And he looks like Elvis. And he's sparkly and wearing a magical, armored jumpsuit. And he sings:

You ain't nuthin but a zombie, moanin' all the time.
You ain't a'nuthin but a zom-BAH - moanin' all the time.
You ain't never won initiative and you ain't no frien' o' mine!

There could be a light spell that comes on, that makes him all radiant. And when he dies, a Magic Mouth appears on the wall and says "Elvis has left the dungeon".

(oh, how could I have forgotten (edit) - when he's hit in combat he says, each time, "Thangyou. Thangyouverymuch!" See this awesome thread by easy lee for more inspiration http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?376418-Breaking-BM)

[Waterdeep Merch]

Make it a color-coded puzzle. The core body is invulnerable to all damage. Players must choose a specific head to attack. Each head has 25 HP, has the effects of evasion against any AoE spell (to prevent a fireball from soloing it), and the creature dies if all of its heads are dead.

Red- Vulnerable to fire, must be finished with fire to prevent growing two orange heads at the beginning of its next turn.
Orange- Vulnerable to slashing and piercing, must be finished with either to prevent growing two yellow heads at the beginning of its next turn.
Yellow- Vulnerable to lightning and thunder, must be finished with either to prevent growing two green heads at the beginning of its next turn.
Green- Vulnerable to acid and poison, must be finished with either to prevent growing two blue heads at the beginning of its next turn.
Blue- Vulnerable to cold, must be finished with cold to prevent growing two purple heads at the beginning of its next turn.
Purple- Vulnerable to bludgeoning and force, must be finished with either to prevent growing two red heads at the beginning of its next turn.

Next up, the arena- make it a flier. It's a crazy flying-rainbow hydra, after all. If it's got 5+ heads, it tries to approach as many enemies as possible to snap at everyone with reaction attacks. If it's got less, it tries to keep some distance and uses a bit of cover to protect itself. Add some large rubble and ruins to offer places where even it can hide, a huge murky lake that's heavily obscured outside of it and lightly obscured inside of it (hydras swim), and as a last trick:

Severed heads have a 50:50 chance of attacking on their own with the stats of a constrictor snake. They don't have their normal abilities when like this, but they'll keep their vulnerabilities.

EDIT: Give them some sort of cryptic hint as to how this all works. Not too direct, but enough so that they'll know that they need to guess the correct damage type to avoid giving the thing dozens of heads. Unless they plan on opening a restaurant business.

[Rainbownaga]

If you want to be tru to the original stories, you should definitely give it poison (a stink cloud aura, venomous fangs, or both).

I'm honestly suprised the base hydra isn't venomous.

[ImproperJustice]

Make it a Hydralisk.

Each head has a different gaze attack.
Fear, Confusion, Petrification, Charm, Slow, Paralysis, Sleep, and Death.

One or more of the heads is a spell caster.

Have a magical trap that casts Mirror Image on the beast, or one that hits the party with Dispel Magic.


The room has a magical rune inscribed in the floor/ceiling.

Each time a head is severed, the rune glows brightly and at the start if the next round a full grown hydra bursts forth from it.

This continues until some unknown magical threshold of damage is reached (say 500) and the rune shatters. At this point all the hydras die. For more fun, have any slain players turn into Hydras too.

[Herobizkit]

Ready to form Voltron!

[X] giant snakes, or naga, slither about. When they lose half their number, they slither together and become a [x]-headed hydra.

[Rebonack]

1) Give the hydra a poisonous cloud aura, like the Leraean Hydra did. All non-hydras/giant vipers in the area save against it each round to avoid taking poison damage and acquiring the poisoned condition.

2) More heads, more HP. If this critter is a solo encounter, scale it way up.

3) Legendary Resistance. Nuff said.

4) Heads that get chopped off become giant vipers one round later unless someone finishes them off with a follow-up attack. Have several giant vipers there already representing failed attempts to kill the monster.

[BW022]

I would tend to avoid the changing the monster. Use a standard hydra, but look at the setting, terrain, or build-up.

Examples...

Water Hydras can hold their breach for an hour. Have the fight take place in a cavern full of underground ponds where the hydra can go down and quickly swim between areas. Use hit and run -- coming up, attacking weaker rear characters, possibly trying to pull one into the water, and then diving down, swimming to a safe place, and short resting.

Reach Have the hydra on a tall ledge, which players have to climb up. Have him just knock players back with some of the attacks and maybe use other heads to knock stalactites down on the players. This may give it cover, prevent most attacks, etc. and allow it to really focus on the first PC to climb up.

Other Creatures Put it near some type of creature which doesn't attack it. A room full of giant lizards or snakes or something. Use reach and movement to draw the players into the other creatures.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

Do the Thessalhydra from 1st edition and Stranger Things. More fearsome than the Demogorgon, imo.

[Chugger]

Make it impossible for the party to kill. It regenerates too fast. But it won't chase them if they flee - but they have to kill it to get a body part from it to accomplish some other goal.

It's pretty intelligent and talks. And its various heads actually, if they spy on it, get very bored and argue with each other all the time. The secret to killing it is to use a minor illusion voice to trick it into killing itself. Or hurting itself so badly that it's vulnerable to a sudden player ambush.

[Gignere]

What level is your group? If level 1 a standard hydra is pretty darn tough already. Most of the above suggestions will guarantee wipe low level groups.

[EvilAnagram]

What level is your group? If level 1 a standard hydra is pretty darn tough already. Most of the above suggestions will guarantee wipe low level groups.

He said six fifth level PCs in the OP. Why would he scale up a hydra - or even run one - at first level?

[Hruken]

Volo's gives the idea for a hydra with goblins riding each of the heads. Gives the enemy side better action economy.

I ran one like that against my party. The goblins had acid flasks and shortbows. But the all of the goblins were wiped out in the first attack, didn't even get a chance to act.

[LaserFace]

I would tend to avoid the changing the monster. Use a standard hydra, but look at the setting, terrain, or build-up.

Examples...

Water Hydras can hold their breach for an hour. Have the fight take place in a cavern full of underground ponds where the hydra can go down and quickly swim between areas. Use hit and run -- coming up, attacking weaker rear characters, possibly trying to pull one into the water, and then diving down, swimming to a safe place, and short resting.

Reach Have the hydra on a tall ledge, which players have to climb up. Have him just knock players back with some of the attacks and maybe use other heads to knock stalactites down on the players. This may give it cover, prevent most attacks, etc. and allow it to really focus on the first PC to climb up.

Other Creatures Put it near some type of creature which doesn't attack it. A room full of giant lizards or snakes or something. Use reach and movement to draw the players into the other creatures.

This is good advice.

I was also thinking flooded chamber(s) that give the Hydra good maneuverability, but limit that of the players. You could further complicate the encounter by having the dry areas filled with lots of rubble (maybe the Hydra has rampaged and wrecked some of the interior structure), creating Difficult Terrain.

If the area is filled with treasure, maybe have coins spilled all over the room such that Stealth checks to maneuver silently are at disadvantage; maybe even casting Invisibility isn't a sure way to hide if you're running around.

Also, if you remember to make the area pitch black, the Hydra has 60ft Darkvision; he might be able to get the drop on some of them if used to his advantage. It's likely the players have some manner of light source, but this maybe highlights their general position even if the Hydra is submerged, too.

Edit: Damn now I actually really wanna run this fight for my group