Question about hydra's Storm of Jaws.

[Mogensen]

Apologies if this has already been addressed, and please point me at a thread if it has.

Situation: A ten-headed Hydra is surrounded by four PCs within its 10' reach. It uses its Storm of Jaws ability, which reads:

"The hydra makes a number of Strikes up to its number of heads, each against a different target. These attacks count toward the hydra’s multiple attack penalty, but the multiple attack penalty doesn’t increase until after the hydra makes all its attacks."

It makes one Strike against each of the PCs, using four of its ten heads.

My question is: can any of the remaining six heads make Strikes against any of the PCs who have already attacked? It would seem by interpreting the "up to the number of heads" and "each to a different target" that the extra six attacks are wasted.

By RAW, is this the case, or can the remaining six heads continue to each make an attack to available targets within range?

[breithauptclan]

The balance point is to avoid piling excessive damage onto a small number of characters. So it is balanced with the ideas of AoE effects in mind.

So if there are only four targets in range, then those four targets only get attacked once.

If the Hydra only has 3 heads, then it would only be able to choose three targets of those four candidates.

But having 10 heads doesn't mean that those four targets get all 10 attacks.

[HammerJack]

The extra six heads do not make Strikes if there are no more targets.

[Ectar]

You can make one attack against up to 10 (# of heads) targets.

Weather it's better to use Storm of Jaws or Focused Assault is dependent on number of heads and number of targets in the Hydra's reach.

[Lia Wynn]

After the Storm, which is a 2-action activity, the hydra might have 1 action left that it could attack with one head, at max MAP. It wouldn't be able to attack with all six heads though.