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Awesome thank you.

So I guess the question becomes does water break line of effect for summoning spells?

I have a question I was hoping I could receive help with. In some time my player group will be finding themselves in a swamp for about a weeks time. I plan on making it slow going and terrible for them, with difficult terrain, atmosphere effects, exhaustion, hypothermia, trench foot etc. They will remember this swamp.

Anyways, while in the swamp the players will never find dry land, it will always be water no less then a couple feet deep.

I have a player who uses summon monster, in apprehension of combat or utility I needed clarification.

Under Summon Monsters in the Magic section on page 209 it says
"A creature or object brought into being or transported to
your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside
another creature or object, nor can it appear f loating in
an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a
surface capable of supporting it."

The bold part is what I am interested in. If they are always in water with no dry land does this mean my player is unable to summon any land based creature? Would the water break Line of Effect, and because the top of the water can not support the land based creature it the spell would fail?

Thank you in advance.

I only allow Core Rulebook, and no prestige classes from it,
I also make my players use a 15 point pathfinder buy.
Hit points are also max at 1st level and then average die plus 1 per level, plus con mod.
I regulate magic items like they are nuclear as well. Nothing is Market Price listed in the book they need to diplomacy to lower that price down. I roll everything out, as core, so there isn't a walmart of items. If they want a specific magic item they have to RP for it to make it happen.
I also ban sundering, unless a monster does dmg to armor and weapons like Green Slime.
There is a myriad of other smaller changes for balancing issues, like the monster ability whirlwind, using scrolls not of your caster level etc.

I do add a lot of controlled content from pathfinder sources, as the adventure goes on, mostly magic items.

I am def a hardcore DM, but my players love it.

I know a lot of people think even the core classes are unbalanced, but with a standard 15 point buy, regulated items, The classes are really balanced in their perspective roles. There are some stronger then others but it is purely situational. As a DM I like to give the opportunity at least once per gaming session for each PC to excel or stand out, which the classes do very well when everyone doesn't have +5 stat and items.

The classes that I have seen in a lot of the expansion material is just way unbalanced, same with a lot of the feats and some of the items. It is just too time consuming to go through it all and nerf 50% and ban another 30%.

I know some may see this as limiting the players or making them never have the feeling of having a +7 weapon of broken dmg.

It really doesn't if anything it forces the players to truly build a PC instead of just a build or a pile of magic items. If they beat a dragon, it wasn't the magic items that did it, it was the party. And when they do find that +2 sword that has history behind it, they cherish it a lot more.

I cannot find the warden template in the pfsrd. That being said, 7 players will probably end a CR 9 encounter too soon to consider it an epic fight. A CR 10 will be more appropriate, maybe even more according to your players and the monsters being used.

A more powerful creature may one-shot them though. Consider toning down the hydra and adding minions in order to make the fight more difficult.

EDIT: I found the template.

Honestly you can take a normal hydra cr 4, and put it in a room with 1 entrance and 1 exit on opposite sides. This can be done via cave, maybe a thick swamp where trees block the way etc, or even a dungeon etc.

The room is 40 by 40 or something large like that. The entire room is flooded by dark water. The top of the water being floor level with the entrance doorway pathway that the PC's walked on, make the entrance so only 1 PC at a time (so 5 foot by 5 foot doorway) can even see in the room, you can make the path behind it curve. So no one other then 1 PC has LOS or LOE. Forcing the PC's into the room.
So the water is technically pit. The PC's can only see 5 feet down into the water before total concealment. Make it about 40 feet deep, double move for the hydra. In the middle of the room put a small island something like 10 by 10. The room has no walk ways so the PC's have to either "fly" or swim over the water. You can put a "key" or something in the Hydra that pops out as it explodes as your PC's kill it. ETC ETC I am sure you can come up with a ton of reasons why they HAVE to do this fight.

The Hydra uses the water to move and uses it 10 foot reach to stay in the water and to attack PC's using the pounce. Using this tactic over and over until it gets hurt enough it swims down and waits out its fast healing to regen it's life.

Your PC's will have to ready attacks. Either 4 PC's on the island and 1 PC in the entrance and the rest in the water.
No one wants to be in the water, make them all roll swim checks if they go in once per round, due to the deplorable condition and snags and gunk in the water it is considered rough water DC 15.

If they are foolish enough to all go in the water, it is feeding time. Try having the Hydra grapple and pull the weakest character down 40 feet into the water.

If you succeed your party will freak.

This is arguably a CR 5ish challenge due to terrain, but it is a very very deadly fight for the ill prepared or too eager of a party.

It's seems your party is a little higher but even then with these conditions it makes for a rough fight. You can either add a fitting template to the hydra or add a second hydra that is waiting for the first to distract the party striking when the time is right.

Either way this scenario will make them think of water and hydras never the same