Suitable Miniboss for Level 6 Party (My players stay out!)

[Magil]

I've been trying to challenge my players with a solo encounter for a while, but I've always been falling short, for various reasons. In any case, they're level 6 now, and I was thinking about making a solo monster the "mid-boss" of the dungeon rather than the "end boss," to change things up and test it out. This is what I've come up with so far, using monsters from the Monster Vaults, MM3, and Dark Sun Creature Catalog for reference:

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Will Doyle]

Nice, but potentially lethal (depending on how optimised your party is).

If I was to use this, I'd ditch the 5 acid damage if all attacks miss and the ongoing 5 acid on a hit, and replace that with an aura 2 acid damage 5 when bloodied. Simpler to track, but still nasty. Mainly I'd lose the triple fury attack when just one head is left: which at +10 damage per attack is pretty wild for a 6th level party.

This said, I'm not 100% sure why you've restricted the fury so it can't attack one creature more than three times? If the party's allowed it to grow seven heads, don't they deserve that pain, just like all the other hydras?

I love hydras, but in my experience, it's too easy for players in the know to prevent them regrowing heads - which is kind of their schtick - so I really like what you've done there (1 less head per 12 points of fire/cold). That's really neat.

 

[Magil]

Nice, but potentially lethal (depending on how optimised your party is).

If I was to use this, I'd ditch the 5 acid damage if all attacks miss and the ongoing 5 acid on a hit, and replace that with an aura 2 acid damage 5 when bloodied. Simpler to track, but still nasty. Mainly I'd lose the triple fury attack when just one head is left: which at +10 damage per attack is pretty wild for a 6th level party.

This said, I'm not 100% sure why you've restricted the fury so it can't attack one creature more than three times? If the party's allowed it to grow seven heads, don't they deserve that pain, just like all the other hydras?

I love hydras, but in my experience, it's too easy for players in the know to prevent them regrowing heads - which is kind of their schtick - so I really like what you've done there (1 less head per 12 points of fire/cold). That's really neat.

Well, thanks for the feedback! In any case, one of the main concerns I had was that the party I have has very limited access to fire/cold damage--they had more, but apparently the shaman has decided to retrain out of scorching sands for something else.

As for comments on Acidic Fury, here's what I was thinking: I wanted it to deal damage even if it couldn't land an attack, but I didn't want it to be tied directly to Bite, as that would affect the power level of Snapping Jaws. So I figured tying it into Acidic Fury would work. I also thought that an aura and Snapping Jaws combined might be too much damage just for being there, so tying it to Acidic Fury meant the hydra at least still had to attack in order to deal the damage.

Of course, I wanted to word Acidic Fury in such a way that the 5 acid damage only affected a creature if it was A. missed by all of the attacks and B. only once per use of Acidic Fury. I didn't want to tie it into every single missed attack, as that would be too much. Along the same lines, making the extra benefit of ongoing 5 acid with the AC penalty a (save ends) effect makes sure it only affects a creature once per use.

The fight will likely be short yet brutal, as we do have a dual-wielding ranger in the party with a perfectly reasonable level of optimization (meaning he can dish out a ton of damage in one turn), along with 2 other strikers. This is a 6-person party, by the way. Bite by itself is rather low damage with only 3d6 damage, the only time a single bite deals significant damage is if it has 2 or less heads and it uses Acidic Fury (consider that this means it will only have 2 attacks with acidic fury). Also do consider that though 3d6+10 with three targets at one head can seem rough, it's about 20.5 average damage to 3 characters, which seems about right for a "critical" solo of the level (it can't possibly only have 1 head unless it's at a critical amount of HP). I figured I could get away with not giving the hydra any special powers when it's bloodied, as it naturally becomes more dangerous the more damage it takes.

Anyways, I'll consider everything and see if there's any adjustments I want to make. Thanks!

 

[Will Doyle]

Cool stuff Let us know how it turns out.

 

[aco175]

I always make a solo fight harder by adding more creatures to the encounter, I know it doesn't make it solo anymore. I have the solo of the same level and add a few other monstwers to make the encounter a few levels higher then the party. I ran one last week where there was a level 18 solo dracolich, controller that I added a L18 brain in a jar, artillery and 10 minions l18 soldiers with regeneration. The first few round of the fight the party was trying to take out the minions and the brain while staying out of the way of the solo. The minions almost took out the wizard before they all died.

 

[Magil]

I always make a solo fight harder by adding more creatures to the encounter, I know it doesn't make it solo anymore. I have the solo of the same level and add a few other monstwers to make the encounter a few levels higher then the party. I ran one last week where there was a level 18 solo dracolich, controller that I added a L18 brain in a jar, artillery and 10 minions l18 soldiers with regeneration. The first few round of the fight the party was trying to take out the minions and the brain while staying out of the way of the solo. The minions almost took out the wizard before they all died.

I had this in the last solo fight I used against them, a modified dracolich that had four soldier-minions that it constantly reanimated. I thought I'd try something different this time, and the hydra monster type seemed like a good candidate.

 

[aco175]

You can always give it 2 iniatives like on 25 and 15. This may make it a lot harder when it starts to get a lot of heads though. I would also give it an acid spit atk at range 10 or even 15. These do not provoke an AOO if it has more than one head. You could also give it an aura 2, 5 points of bite or acid damage.

I would also think about not giving more atacks when it has less heads. It seems that it starts off fairly strong and gets stronger before it should start to die off when they party of finally getting the upper hand. These long fights tend to drag after the first several rounds when the cool powers are used up and only at-wills are left.

Another point is terrain. You can limit the fightiing area and give the monster the upper hand. If it is in an area where it gets reach and casters cannot stand that far away without being blocked by terrain it stands a better chance. I always liked to throw some cool terrain for effect and movement purposes. Blood rock and healing ground are good. I also had these crystals once that gave back an encounter power but were then used up. There was a few in the room and the monster got to use the first one to get back a blast power.

 

[Magil]

I intend to do the "two initiative" thing when thematically appropriate, like with an ettin, or maybe a "final bossy" style solo. The new MV dragons essentially get a turn and a "half turn" at their initiative + 10, which is another way to do it. The three-headed dragon in the new monster vault gets three turns. As they say, though, variety is the spice of life, so I don't want to do that for every monster.

As for not giving it more attacks when it gains more heads, I have to ask why, really? I believe a solo should get more dangerous as it gets lower on health. This is already embodied in many solos that WotC has made, and in fact is suggested for solos to become more dangerous when they become bloodied (dragons get a free breath attack, and often one or two of their other powers improve in some manner as well). Though the hydra's increasing power is not directly tied to it becoming bloodied, it does become more dangerous when wounded, which I feel is very much a "solo" trait.

Originally, I had this as a "spitting" hydra that had more heads as you suggested, but I decided to change it to a brute that focused on melee as I was having difficulty keeping it as an "artillery" monster that could function on its own (without a front-line to keep it safe). The blue dragon kinda works in this manner because it can fly, but I didn't want a flying hydra! In any case, the ravenous rampage power is designed to discourage kiting.