I am very confused about the hydra, and it's all because of one word.
In the Bestiary (p.178), it states (under Hydra Traits), that "...Severing a head deals damage to the hydra's body equal to the hydra's current HD."
It's the word "current" that is giving me problems.
As HD for a monster are usually static, the fact that the word "current" is used here implies that a hydra's HD are not static.
It implies (based on instructions for creating more powerful hydrae) that a hydra's HD is ALWAYS equal to it's CURRENT number of heads.
This means that, every time the party successfully severs a head and prevents it from growing back, the GM (that's me) has to recalculate BAB, attack bonuses, Saving throws, skill bonuses, whether or not it loses a feat (and which one), whether or not it loses an ability score bonus due to high HD (and which one), and possibly many more if an ability score drops to the point where the ability modifier is changed.
Likewise, every time the hydra successfully grows new heads, the GM (still me) has to recalculate BAB, attack bonuses, Saving throws, skill bonuses, whether or not it gains a feat (and which one), whether or not it gains an ability score bonus due to high HD (and which one), and possibly many more if an ability score raises to the point where the ability modifier is changed.
This simply cannot be what was intended. A single hydra fight would take an entire evening, with the players mostly sitting around bored waiting for the GM to FINALLY finish his calculations...until another head was lost/gained....
It is my assumption that this statement somehow slipped past the editors, and that it was supposed to say that the hydra loses hp "equal to its current number of HEADS". However, the errata was released, and it wasn't fixed there, so my confusion continues.
Any official word on this anywhere?
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Taffer
This is a simple over thinking of the meaning of a single badly placed word.
Nowhere in the hydra entry does it state that the hydra's HD change during combat (only its number of heads). However there is the following:
You can make more powerful hydras by increasing their Hit Dice—each added HD increases the hydra's statistics as appropriate, but also gives it one additional head and a +1 increase to its natural armor. A hydra's CR increases by +1 for each Hit Die it gains.
So taking this into consideration, it is entirely possible to fight a 10 headed 10 HD, CR 9 hydra. Suddenly it becomes a bit more understandable why "current HD" slipped into the ability description.
To summarize: A hydras HD remain the same for the entire fight. Thinking otherwise leads to madness.
Edit:
You're over analyzing this.
ninja'd and +1.
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Bah. You should just write up ten stat blocks for the hydra *before* game. As heads get cut off, switch stat blocks. (I kid, I kid.)
If I were going to have the hydra change HD mid fight, I would probably use something akin to "temporary negative levels." to represent the change.
But probably the previous posters are correct and you should just roll with it.
I think I see your problem. You believe that the number of (current) heads determine the number of HD. This is incorrect. The number of HD determines the number of (original) heads.
Example: 8 HD = 8 heads (originally) and 16 heads (maximum).
If the 8HD hydra loses 2 of 8 heads it grows 4 more and now has 12 heads. However, it still originally had only 8 heads and is still only an 8HD hydra.
Summary: Set the HD, which sets the number of original heads. The HD do not change when the number of heads increases or decreases due to battle.
Impressive necro, but yes, you can. Among other things, you could make up a backstory for one that had a lot of heads, but they were cut off and the stumps were burned, similar to fisherman stories about there being giant fish in the river with hundreds of fish hooks stuck in their mouth, never having been properly caught. Another method, even easier, is to give it class levels. Each level brings a new HD, and I personally could be persuaded either way on whether that increased its number of heads, or just increased the maximum potential number. In theory, each Hydra only has one head to start with, and grows more as needed, after battle.