By the RAW, can a hydra wear magical headgear on each head?

[Seidaku]

Are there any rules for the number of magic item slots non-humanoid monsters can use in the RAW? Just as humanoids have 10 fingers but only have two ring slots, I would expect similar magic item slot restrictions for monsters with an abundance of other body parts.

Just looking for specific RAW references or PF developer answers, not house rules.

[InversionComplex]

What an amusing and obscenely dangerous idea. This demands looking into.

EDIT: preliminary results: the magic item section only talks about characters and humanoid shaped bodies. Cannot find anything in the bestiaries on the implications of polycephalia.

[Matthias]

I would say yes, since they forego ring, boot, weapon, belt. Just rememeber like bonuses don't stack

[hgsolo]

Matthias wrote:

I would say yes, since they forego ring, boot, weapon, belt. Just rememeber like bonuses don't stack

If you wanted a really silly visual you could put headgear on one head, collars (as magic rings) on two heads, and giant boots on two of the heads.

[Quantum Steve]

Matthias wrote:

I would say yes, since they forego ring, boot, weapon, belt. Just rememeber like bonuses don't stack

Well, they still get all those slots (except weapon, that's not a slot). If a hydra wants to wear a boot on it's head to gain the effects, as long as it's the only boot it's wearing, that's just fine.

[B.A. Ironskull]

But how would the hydra put on a helmet/helmets/array of jaunty magic caps? Or boots for that matter?

[InversionComplex]

There isn't anything on non-humanoids using magic items (except for horseshoes) in the rules. Sorry OP, none of what you were looking for.

[Trafalgar]

boots as earrings

[Haley Hahn]

I ran into this exact problem once.

What I decided was yes, each head can have it's own headgear. I needed the Hydra to be smarter, so I got headbands of Int. However, I felt each head needed it's own headband. (Treat each head as a different creature, for boost that effect mental powers.)

However, it would only need one ring of pro to gain the AC bonus. (Many separate minds, but all share the same body!)

Basically, the item slots are the same. Except each mind needs it's own headgear. Really having multiple heads is a penalty, because it forces you to buy more crap, for the same effect. So instead of only buy one headband of Int +6, I had to buy six.

Same is true for Ettins.

[Artanthos]

Matthias wrote:

I would say yes, since they forego ring, boot, weapon, belt. Just rememeber like bonuses don't stack

Be very careful with answers like this.

Not only can eidolons have a great many heads, this line of reasoning can be extended to other body parts.

[stringburka]

I think the closest to RAW answer you can get is "no, they gain the same slots as a human would" (including belt and others).

The rules for item slots seem to imply it's for humanoid characters, but they don't explicitly state there are other ways.

[Damon Griffin]

Perhaps "Ultimate Equipment" will address this.

[Generic Villain]

OP, I think you answered your own question with the ring example. Although you could theoretically cram dozens of magical rings on a human hand, you can only benefit from two rings at any given time. The hundred-handed, fifty-headed hecotoncheires from Bestiary 3 could only ever be utilizing two magical rings at once, so why would magical headbands be any different?

A body part and a magical item slot are not necessarily the same thing. You need a head to utilize your head slot, but just because you have twenty heads does not mean you get twenty head slots to fill. Hydras don't have any hand or arm slots, but that's just too bad for them. Evolution's a fickle mistress.

Haley Hahn wrote:

What I decided was yes, each head can have it's own headgear. I needed the Hydra to be smarter, so I got headbands of Int. However, I felt each head needed it's own headband. (Treat each head as a different creature, for boost that effect mental powers.)

Despite having multiple heads, a hydra shares a single mind. There are a few rare creatures whose stats specifically spell out that it is actually more than one consciousness in a single body (can't even think of any off the top of my head), but any other multi-headed creature is a single thinking entity. For a hydra, I'd just say that each of its many brains form a single-albeit-unconnected organ.

[Richard Leonhart]

I believe the ARG has a race with 4 arms that reminds that you can't use 4 rings. I would say the same reasoning applies here, 1 headgear, you can't have more than any given human.

[hgsolo]

B.A. Ironskull wrote:

But how would the hydra put on a helmet/helmets/array of jaunty magic caps? Or boots for that matter?

Very carefully.