Hey all
So, I'm trying to put together a fairly epic hydra fight in a campaign I'm running, but I'm having difficulty deciding how to build it. The party is a large group (6-7 players) of wildly differing skill all running 25 point buy 5th level characters ranging many different races. There is an optimized pistollero gunslinger, an strength heavy fighter, a slightly insane blackblade/kensai magus/monk(too many voices in his head), a frail but effective wizard, a life oracle, a ronin samurai, and a rouge. The story isn't key but the fight set up is there is a large explosion leading to a sizable cave-in out of which will crawl this hydra. I want the fight to be tough and should definitely knock out one to two characters but I'm not looking for a wipe.
I'm leaning towards an 8 headed warden hydra which equates to a CR 9 encounter. The warden is a template that I'm sure none of the players have seen before and would be thematically appropriate, but I'm not sure if I'm stacking the deck too much.
Looking for thoughts and opinions. I want the party to be legitimately scared for their characters but make it a still winnable fight.
This particular hydra, has been captured in the wild and raised/beaten into a very big and mean guard dog for an underground compound in the center of a city, so story wise the boggards don't fit, however i like the idea of some minions, maybe the hydra's handlers, though not sure what they should be, it's much more the guardian of a secret thieves guild type organization.
Edit: Just found the dark caller/stalker/slayers what's your take on putting one each of the caller and stalker and then 3 slayers?
Nice, I think I'll leave out the dark dancer though, I'm gonna take him and add some bard levels then make him the leader the party thinks they understand.
I'll still be tied on action economy with the 6 other dark folk and the hydra, and with the caller's deeper darkness the dark folks see in darkness and the warden hydra has blindsense and blind-fight we should still have an interesting fight.
Thinking a stinking cloud or create pit within the deeper darkness will be potent as well.
They'll deal with the dancer at a later time, I'm gonna make him a recurring villain that levels as the party does, but this will be a hell of an intro for the dark folk
The game is Friday so I'll be sure to update you after then.
Have you considered a pyrohydra?
I really like hydras, but I generally mix them with an element. Add some nice breath weapons.
Agree there needs to be something else added to the fight. Perhaps oozes in a trench the players will have to cross to get to it.
If the hydra is given some ranged capabilities and mooks to shield it a bit, it allows it to engage the party without being ganked from long range. Then they come in and the real fight starts.
Spitting poison hydra? Everyone loves fort saves.
luckily all the dark folk use poison so fort saves will be present in mass.
I did consider the pyrohydra, but the party just finished a fight with some flame drakes and I don't want to hit them with the same trick twice in a row, the warden hydra meshes well with the dark folk and has a lot of unique abilities the party won't expect
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
delay of game, the gunslinger (who is both the most experienced player and the party's biggest damage dealer) was busy larping some zombies.
so now I have more time to fine tune the encounter.
sadly OmniBlock the story is mostly set in so much as terrain is concerned, but I could probably add an underground lake for the hydra to retreat to in order to heal up, cause that's a fantastic idea and the party has no druid to wildshape and give chase.
what other ideas do you guys have? remember i'm looking for deadly but winnable.
Make it a Mythic Hydra
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I'm not super impressed with the mythic ruleset, and while the dual initiative is tempting, i don't want to introduce mythic rules when i have no intention of implementing them for the players