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Make the arena difficult terrain, that will break the charge. The party is very magic lite, and unless the ranger is an archer, have no good way to deal with flying. Instead of a pyrohydra, make it a half-dragon hydra. Same CR, Can fly if needed, has a fire breath weapon, and much higher str giving it a higher CMD.
What level BBEG were you planning?
Freedom of Movement shuts him down cold, but I'm guessing that you would prefer to avoid it if possible.
If suffocation is a problem, find a template or subtype to apply to a hydra that won't require breathing, perhaps.
Or give it Hold Breath, if making it immune to suffocation entirely seems like too much.
Prerequisites: None.
Benefit: Members of this race can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to four times their Constitution score before risking drowning or suffocating.
To make the grapple less of a sure thing, you could give the hydra some grapple-fu, since it has plenty of extra grabbley bits to work with.
Prerequisites: Any type except humanoid, Large size.
Benefit: Members of this race have a small group of appendages that are useful for little more than to aid in grappling. Members of this race gain Improved Grapple as a bonus feat, and can maintain a grapple and still make attacks with their main appendages.
I think a BBEG Wizard might be perfect here. He is gonna have every obnoxious answer to the Monk for levels and levels. He is gonna make clean getaway after clean getaway. And then just when a wizard is at the height of his power the tetori grabs him with inescapable grasp and saves the day.
I would say add a few goons. When I play a monk and there are two toughies, I usually grapple one while everyone beats on the other. It usually works pretty decent and everyone is happy. Up the CR rating a bit and add a couple mobs.
I'm hoping to get some help balancing some upcoming encounters for my group of 4. First off, I know some of my players read these boards, so Feylah, Nielax, Scaven, and Geoden, stop reading! Spoilers ahead!
My group is all 5th level, Tetori Monk, Urban Ranger, Polearm Master, and a Dervish of Dawn bard. I have a series of encounters coming up, but the recent past encounters have proven I need to better account for the incredible power that is the monk. The level 5 monk (+15 grapple), with chokehold and a potion of enlarge person, can solo anything sized huge or smaller, easily. (He soloed a CR8 last night without taking a hit)
I need help with some upcoming encounters. There are a series of gladiator-style fights coming up. The first battle is a group of 5 dienonychus. The second I haven't decided yet, and the last is SUPPOSED to be a BBEG with a hydra. The first fight, I'm not worried about. The second fight - I'm looking for ideas. Anything gladiator thematic stuff would be great.
The last fight is SUPPOSED to be against a hydra (I was planning a PyroHydra (6) heads). But after watching the monk, I know this will not work. He can solo it, easily. He'll provoke 2 attacks of opportunity on his charge, if either miss, he gets a free grapple check (Snapping turtle clutch), and if he succeeds, he can then pin on that same turn, and begin the suffocation. The hydra will have to roll a 19 or 20 to break free, at that point (because it doesn't have escape artist - and the tetori monk has massive CMD against grapple). In the mean time, the rest of the party can just kill it.
What can I do? I don't want to just pick encounters where he can't use his signature ability - it's what he WANTS to play. It feels cheap to just tailor it to avoid him getting to use his one ability.
Help!
1. He doesn't have to take Attacks of Opportunity.
2. you can re-do his skill ranks to give him Escape Artist.
Edit:
The Hydra has 6 heads. How would the tetori monk ever maintain a chokehold on all 6 heads?
That way my very first thought as well. I concluded that since the hydra write up didn't include immunity to suffocation, the monk was supposed to grapple him, and then use the hydras own necks to tie it up. Could just be me though...that's probably not RAW.
oi, no way he's going to be able to suffocate a creature with six heads. He's gonna start squeezing one head and the rest are going to reef on him.
Keep Combat Reflexes. The hydra can get an AoO with EACH HEAD on the monk when he moves in...and they have reach. That's 6 attacks before he gets in close.
The hydra's CMD should be pretty impressive, too, having 4 legs. But the fact is there is no way the monk can pin all six heads, nor can he kill them.
That hydra, run properly, should clean his clock. Difficult terrain to break the charge should only help.
==Aelryinth
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As a monk player myself, I'm inclined to agree that if the monk chooses to run up and grapple the six headed hydra, then he pretty much has it coming from the heads. As others have pointed out, he'll have good saves, and each successful save is 0 damage. I also don't see how he could logically suffocate all 6 heads at once. Also, keep in mind that unless the tetori archetype says something different, the monk's defenses also go down a bit while he's grappling since he too gains the grappled condition.
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in a game where people snap their fingers and fireballs fly out of their asses, i think "logic" and "reason" is irrelevent.
anyway, a 5th level tetori will be able to grapple this creature no problem.
the best way to hinder a tetori is to not have one BBEG, but instead make an encounter involving a bunch of weaker BBEGs like seven 2 headed hydras, because tetoris are great for big bad single target style fights, and are only average at multi-mob fighting.
Do you roll in the open or behind the DM screen?
The difference between fudging dice can make a big difference as well.
If you roll out in the open, and they do something stupid (like charge and try to solo a Pyrohydra) and a couple critical hits come up, they die. I feel no remorse and will not save a player who is doing something he really shouldn't be doing.
Behind the DM screen you can do whatever you want. Your monster has whatever + to hit and CMD that you decide, the only way your players will know any different is meta-gaming which is highly discouraged in any role-playing system.
If rolling behind the DM screen, get a couple of "critical hits" in on the monk to scare him off and rethink his strategy.
Also if rolling behind the DM screen you can save a player who isn't playing bad, but is just having some rotten luck. You're the DM, you tell the story, the players are just along for the ride.
Make it a fun, challenging fight and your players will appreciate it all the more.
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Also, keep in mind that unless the tetori archetype says something different, the monk's defenses also go down a bit while he's grappling since he too gains the grappled condition.
It does. At 4th level, a tetori suffers no penalties on attack rolls, can make attacks of opportunity while grappling, and retains his Dexterity bonus to AC when pinning an opponent or when grappled.
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I think a Hydra might not be a good choice as sole villain. Add some back-up to the beast.
On a more general note of 'things to challenge the Tetori':
Anything that can fly. Especially with ranged attacks.
Any spell caster. Yes, grappling is terrible for them...so most have a way to avoid it.
A group of creatures, especially if all are decent at grappling themselves. A pride of lions, for example. He'll still grapple and eventually kill one...but the others might rip him up while he's at it.
Incorporeal things.
As mentioned, anyone with Freedom of Movement. Likewise anyone with teleportation as a Supernatural ability.
Some of these become obsolete eventually, but the'll all work now.
As mentioned, single boss fights are not very good. They lose out on action economy and can be 100% shutdown more easily than groups.
Generally the PCs should be outnumbered in gladiatorial fights, think Amalur's House of Valor if you've played it.
As mentioned, single boss fights are not very good. They lose out on action economy and can be 100% shutdown more easily than groups.
Generally the PCs should be outnumbered in gladiatorial fights, think Amalur's House of Valor if you've played it.
The single boss fight isn't a cake walk just for grapplers either. Pretty much most parties will have an easy time with something like this due to action economy.
As mentioned, the breath weapons are Su, so not affected by being pinned. If you are going to allow him to suffocate 6 heads at once, I don't see why you wouldn't allow the Su abilities to work as well. Finally, if you are really concerned, again, make the big bad a caster or at least add a few other opponents. Heck, throw a 7th level cleric in there and have him cast Freedom of Movement on the Hydra. That will shut the monk down right there. Granted, I wouldn't use that tactic every time, but when you have a character that is essentially a one trick pony (grappling in this case) you should run into plenty of situations where that trick just won't fly (so to speak).