The Spicier Hydra

Spiciness: 4/5

Lots of multiattacks means it's easy to finish a downed player. Damage isn't super high though, unless they don't figure out how to stop new heads from growing!

Feeds about 3-5 players, level 6-8

Scales for: Number of Players, Player Level

Ingredients:

• The Hydra

Scale Party Size: Give the Hydra an amount of starting heads equal to your party size +1. The Hydra has a terrible initiative (+1) and is likely to go last-- meaning it could be decapitated to death before its first turn if you don't!

Scale for Party Level: +10hp to the Hydra for each level above 6.

Preparation

The Hydra is fairly well known as a myth, and so some mechanics are kind of set in stone (the losing and regrowing of heads). Similarly, its weaknesses are well known. As well, fire is the single most common damage type for spells. To combat that, I've changed the Regrow mechanic to be affected by either Acid or Necrotic damage. I've also lowered the amount of damage the Hydra needs to take to lose a head as well-- this makes it more likely to be able to heal & grow new heads.

The Reactive Heads ability was unlikely to ever come into play since players often avoid AoOs, so I've given the Hydra a Roar ability to trigger it.

The Decapitated Heads were added to make the damage more consistent per round (since Hydras regrow its heads at the end of its turn, they would have lost those attacks for the turn).

While designing this, I wanted to avoid any similarity to dragons, and so have avoided giving them a breath attack. Sometimes, monster design is like jazz-- it's about the notes you're not playing.

Cooking the Hydra

Round 1. Walk as close to the party as possible, and open up with the Dazzling Gaze. This will prevent some of the party members from hitting you (since charm prevents hostile actions), and force them to walk into your threat range. At this point, the party should hold fire on the hydra rather than try to focus it down, since they lack the fire power. Good time for buffing! At the end of your turn, grow 2 for each they managed to cut off, and heal for 10 for each new head.

Round 2. If the party is still half charmed, it may be better to simply multiattack a non-charmed person. Otherwise, use Frightening Roar. This will give them disadvantage on all attacks against you, stop melee opponents from getting near you, and trigger a bunch of attacks of opportunity as they're forced to run away from you. It does end the charm effect, however.

Round 3. Now is when the party should try to nuke him down, and you should be trying to do the same. Avoiding melee combatants who are frightened (since they're worthless at the moment), multiattack someone down, and then use 2 of your heads to finish them off (2 hits = 4 automatic failed save). If you do this though, have the rest of the heads also target the now-dead character, ripping them apart and eating them-- because that's what a hydra would do!

Cooking the
Decapitated Hydra Heads

Round 1+: They're really here to help maintain damage, encourage AoEs over hitting the hydra with single-target spells, and to give the fight a very unique feel.

Note that they lose 5 HP a round, so at most they will stick around for 2 rounds. They also have very little HP in general, so AoEs can wipe the board easily.