H4H: Red Hand of Doom (full)

[Rhun]

Also, with 6 heads, the thing is going to be deadly when we close in to melee with it, so I will start sapping the strength from it with empowered rays of enfeeblement, to make its bite much less.

Oops...5 heads. Duroin chopped one off during the last round of combat. Which means we either sear the head or it is soon going to be 7 heads.

And Evo is correct about the Ray of Enffeblements...they won't stack. Still, the one will help some. It should do less damage and miss more often now. Sir Jonathon needs healing badly, but Kirrg is also the only one that has a spell that can stop the creature from regrowing heads (produce flame).


I'm thinking Kirrg needs to heal Jonathon, and then cast a produce flame to seal the one stump...am I correct in assumming we want to go after the body instead of the heads?

 

[s@squ@tch]

I think you hit the head, but I don't think you killed it.

 

[Rhun]

I think you hit the head, but I don't think you killed it.

Read the IC description:

Multiple heads snap at Jonathan and Duroin. Duroin lops off one of it’s heads that come close only to be bitten by two others. Jonathan himself is wounded yet again and is starting to feel shaky from blood lose. Only through the power of stone and drawing strength from scoring strikes on the thing keeps him up.

 

[s@squ@tch]

Damn -- forgot about the rays not stacking. Had visions of reducing it to 1 strength...

Yikes. We need to sear that stump asap -- lets target the body.

Now that its body is revealed, I will start pelting it with offensive magic.

Jonathan needs healing, but Kirrg's waraxe and fire is needed.

 

[Rhun]

Yes...Kirrg's produce flame causes 1d6+5 damage, easily enough to sear stumps. If he can heal Jonathon, then sear the stump, he can use the rest of the spell's duration to toss the flames at the body and aid Jonathon and Duroin in laying the smack down.

 

[Rhun]

Hey H2H...how would you rule on tumbling past a hydra w/o provoking AoOs? It says add +2 to the DC for each foe after the first...but does each head count as an additional foe?

 

[ethandrew]

You need to consider you're in a wading pool of water too, Rhun, so that might raise the DC a little.

Kirrg has 5 minutes worth of Produce flame, which means he can lob 5 flames at him, eliminating 5 heads. Now that there's 7, 2 heads might be more manageable.

So now we have a tactics issue: Do we fight around the heads and attack the body direct? Or do we get rid of the heads one by one until there's two left, then attack the body without that much more of a threat?

Rhun: How was your trip to Seattle, by the way? That's where I'm from.

 

[Rhun]

You need to consider you're in a wading pool of water too, Rhun, so that might raise the DC a little.

Good call, I didn't think about that.

Kirrg has 5 minutes worth of Produce flame, which means he can lob 5 flames at him, eliminating 5 heads. Now that there's 7, 2 heads might be more manageable.

Right. One head is already down, and if you can sear it before it comes back, that would help a lot. 5 heads is better than 7.

So now we have a tactics issue: Do we fight around the heads and attack the body direct? Or do we get rid of the heads one by one until there's two left, then attack the body without that much more of a threat?

Duroin and Sir Jonathon are attacking the body. If Kirrg uses Produce Flame he could start by searing the "dead head" and then use the rest to either take out heads from a distance, or attack the body itself. I'm guessing it will take an average of 2 flames to destroy a head (average damage 8.5), but if he gets lucky he could take out another head in one shot.

Rhun: How was your trip to Seattle, by the way? That's where I'm from.

I had a great time in Seattle. I actually spent about half of my time in Auburn at Emerald Downs. I went up there for a handicapping tournament. Unfortunately, I didn't win. Seattle was great, but I'll tell you one thing: Your traffic sucks!

 

[s@squ@tch]

My $0.02 - reserve the produce flame to sear the stump after duroin or jonathan sunders a head. But we need to attack the body in a concerted effort - as our characters will begin to notice that the thing seems to heal its wounds each round.

I hope that H4H rolled a large number for the time to regrow the heads...

I could target heads with magic missile w/o provoking the AoO, but could also use it to attack the body to help out... And the ice breath is always another option for damaging the body directly. Too bad each head would not take damage as well from the area of attack....

If Duroin can get into flanking position, I would use snake's swiftness on him for the additional attacks -- would he get an additional full attack (meaning both hands) or just with his axe? (with sneak attack damage, he could possibly take the thing down in one round with the large axe + short(long)sword -- 4d8 +4d6 plus 2d8+4d6 if all hit)

 

[ethandrew]

I think Snake Swiftness only offers one extra attack for all who qualify. I think it's feasible that Virashil and Kirrg do a magic missile - produce flame combo to take out heads. If we rid all the heads we can, then we're left with a body with only One Hydra head. Then we can all move to where we see fit, provoking only one AoO and then beat it down.

Rhun: I actually grew up in Auburn and live the next town over. Had I have known you were going to be in my area, I would've invited to you my game! And yeah, I heard that per capita, the Seattle area has the worst traffic in the country. But I know all the backroads