Good preliminary encounters for a hydra

[NewJeffCT]

The party I'm DMing is now level 8 and may have an upcoming encounter with a hydra in a nearby swampy area.

Before the big solo encounter, what would be some good swamp/river encounters for the players? Maybe aquatic ogres (merrow)? lizardfolk seem a bit low in level, but I guess I could bump a few up... any other ideas?

 

[Saagael]

Hags, trolls and oni are my standard "swamp" monsters. For a hydra as the climactic encounter, I would probably do some combats with yuan-ti (they could be servants of this hydra, who knows).

There's also dryads and wood woads that might think the players are up to no good in their swamp.

Maybe some sahuagin and a piranha swarm if you want a more aquatic encounter.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I'm not sure what level the encounter could be made into, but an alligator is my first thought for a swamp encounter (of course, I live in Florida so I'm a little biased there). Also, P1 has will o' the wisps defined as new monsters. Check the link for the on-line stats. However, it might be a little too high-level for your group. Here's one conversion found on these forums.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I'm not sure what level the encounter could be made into, but an alligator is my first thought for a swamp encounter (of course, I live in Florida so I'm a little biased there). Also, P1 has will o' the wisps defined as new monsters. Check the link for the on-line stats. However, it might be a little too high-level for your group. Here's one conversion found on these forums.

thanks, plus a level 10 lurker isn't too big of a challenge considering my party has two pretty nasty strikers in it.

 

[jester_gl]

I just want to urge you to be careful with that hydra. DMed an encounter about 2 months ago with a Hydra and an Eidolon as support and this is considered by my group to be the deadliest encounter they had to face to date, and they were level 9.

The battlemind marked it on the first round, and then proceeded to get massively walloped, dropping from full hp to 1 hp from minus bloodied in a single round. And the Eidolon hadn't activated yet.

The group survived by immobilizing the hydra 4 round in a wall of fire.

I'm talking about the Monster vault hydra here.

 

[Lindeloef]

I just want to urge you to be careful with that hydra. [...]

I'm talking about the Monster vault hydra here.

second this. last Sunday I nearly tpk my party with a hydra. Hydra furry is extreme lethal against a party without fire or acid damage to prevent more heads spawning.


Also a close corridor where the fight takes place is quite an advantage for the hydra 'cause of snapping jaws.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Hydra furry is extreme ...

Hydras aren't furry, they're fluffy!

 

[NewJeffCT]

I just want to urge you to be careful with that hydra. DMed an encounter about 2 months ago with a Hydra and an Eidolon as support and this is considered by my group to be the deadliest encounter they had to face to date, and they were level 9.

The battlemind marked it on the first round, and then proceeded to get massively walloped, dropping from full hp to 1 hp from minus bloodied in a single round. And the Eidolon hadn't activated yet.

The group survived by immobilizing the hydra 4 round in a wall of fire.

I'm talking about the Monster vault hydra here.

I agree - it looks pretty tough. From the description, if a PC closed to melee range with it, the PC would suffer an Opportunity Attack because the hydra has threatening reach (bite for 3d10 damage). Then, if the PC remains within the threatened area and the end of his or her turn, the hydra would then get its trigger attack, which is two bites for 3d10 each, so it is a potential 9d10 damage when it's not even the hydra's turn (average 18 pts of damage per hit, so a potential 54 points of damage)

Then, PC two closes to melee range on his initiative and it repeats that since it is a different turn in the initiative...(opp. attack, then 2 trigger attacks)

Am I reading that correctly?

 

[NewJeffCT]

Hydras aren't furry, they're fluffy!

No, this is fluffy...

 

[Infiniti2000]

Am I reading that correctly?

Yes. The hydra is a melee-PC killer.