The encounter with the cryohydra in the Pit of Seven Jaws was really hard for my players and not much fun for me to run. The hydra is a really difficult monster if you're not prepared for it, and with SEVEN breath weapons every 1d4 rounds, it would've killed the party quickly if I hadn't pulled punches. Here's a couple ways for DMs to deal with it:
1) Just bypass the encounter. It's hard, there's no treasure, and it doesn't advance the plot, so there's no reason to run it.
2) Give the PCs clues about the Pit of Seven Jaws before they leave Cauldron. Make sure they have a chance to do some research so that they are prepared to take on a seven-headed cryohydra.
3) Adjust the cryohydra itself. I feel this monster is really too hard for its CR. Perhaps, like the beholder, the cryohydra is only able to use a fraction of its heads in any one 90-degree arc. Perhaps it can't use its breath weapon from all heads at once, or perhaps each breath weapon only does 1d6 damage (making the total damage equal to a fireball from a 7th-level wizard, not TOO bad for a 5th/6th level party).
for another great discussion on this topic, see theCryohydra a TPK? thread.
I think the name 'pit of 7 jaws' is a dead giveaway. Just make sure crazy Jared uses that name when giving directions. It worked for my pc's.
Remember that the cyrohydra is trapped in that pit. The PC's can easily bombard him with fireballs and ranged attacks while staying away from the hydra's breath weapons. It should be a fairly easy fight once the PC's get out of the pit. The encounter also reminds pc's that rushing in, swords drawn is often a recipe for disaster.
I'm going to get to this one in my next session. The pit is 40 feet wide and 60 feet deep, so sunlight should go all the way to the bottom. The only reason the players wouldn't see the cryohydra would be because it's in the fissure and the stairs obscure the fissure.
But they should still be able to hear it.
I figure when they reach the landing where the cryohydra breathes, I give the party a listen check (DC18). If they make the check they hear "an inrushing of air below" and they get to roll initiative. If they beat the cryohydra's init then they get to do whatever they want, if they don't, the it's breath away!
Think that's too much? I know if I just have them get to the landing and make a reflex save vs the breath there will be complaining of the "undetectable trap." How did the rest of you run that first breath?
I think the name 'pit of 7 jaws' is a dead giveaway. Just make sure crazy Jared uses that name when giving directions. It worked for my pc's.
Crazy Jared did drop the name, but unfortunately it didn't work for my PCs. They didn't guess what it meant, and even if they had, none of them were familiar with how hydras work... and none of them passed Knowledge checks to see if their characters knew. Giving the PCs a chance to research in Cauldron, where there might be books on the topic to aid their Knowledge checks, would have been a big help.
I think the name 'pit of 7 jaws' is a dead giveaway. Just make sure crazy Jared uses that name when giving directions. It worked for my pc's.Crazy Jared did drop the name, but unfortunately it didn't work for my PCs. They didn't guess what it meant, and even if they had, none of them were familiar with how hydras work... and none of them passed Knowledge checks to see if their characters knew. Giving the PCs a chance to research in Cauldron, where there might be books on the topic to aid their Knowledge checks, would have been a big help.
Celeste could tell them about the hydra- after all, they still need to go to Jared for directions.
for another great discussion on this topic, see theCryohydra a TPK? thread.
I think the name 'pit of 7 jaws' is a dead giveaway. Just make sure crazy Jared uses that name when giving directions. It worked for my pc's.
Remember that the cyrohydra is trapped in that pit. The PC's can easily bombard him with fireballs and ranged attacks while staying away from the hydra's breath weapons. It should be a fairly easy fight once the PC's get out of the pit. The encounter also reminds pc's that rushing in, swords drawn is often a recipe for disaster.
Yep, that's exactly what my party did. But not at first, they got half way down the stair case and got hammered before retreating, casting web, and then hammering it with arrows until it managed to plow its way back into the niche and gain some cover. Then it was magic missled to death.
I ran the cryohydra encounter tonight. The rogue moved down the stairs by herself checking for traps. I mention that the stairs are squeaky. She moves down anyway without trying to move silently. After reaching the NE landing, the cohort fighter drops onto the NE landing with her featherfall ring. The rogue continues to move down to the NW landing. She arrives and they cryohydra moves in and breathes on the rogue. She makes all seven saves and takes no damage. The archer ranger shoots two arrows into it doing really good damage. Then the wizard hits it with two scorching rays, critting with one of them and doing 87 points of damage, after multiplying by 1.5. It dies hard, doing no damage to the party. Actually, it did damage with three out of seven AoO on the cohort fighter when she featherfalled to the ground.
Gottrod dies quickly also. Even though I put the party around 200 feet away from the hut, the archer hits and crits the dragon right off the bat. Gottrod moves 40' in the air toward the party and casts mage armor. The rest of the party pound on it with arrows, magic missiles, and searing lights. It goes full defensive and flies away 150' using the hut as cover between it and the party. The party finish it off with arrows anyway. Party is undamaged. In retrospect, I should have had it with mage armor up in the beginning, but I figured that Gottrod believed that he was in no danger when he was interrogating Jared and burning down his hut.
My party is tearing through monsters like the main character in Ultraviolet mows through bad guys. The umber hulk got taken down in two rounds, even though almost all of the party was affected by confusion.