Miasma Blood. When the hydra takes piercing or slashing damage, each creature within 10 feet of the hydra takes 5 (1d10) poison damage. Creatures that are immune to disease or that don't breathe are immune to the damage.
Multiple Heads. The hydra has five heads. While it has more than one head, the hydra has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
Whenever the hydra takes 40 or more damage in a single turn, one of its heads falls off and rises as a zombie hydra head in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of the hydra. If all its heads fall off, the hydra dies.
At the end of its turn, it grows two heads for each of its heads that fell off since its last turn, unless it has taken fire or radiant damage since its last turn. The hydra regains 10 hit points for each head regrown in this way.
Reactive Heads. For each head the hydra has beyond one, it gets an extra reaction that can be used only for opportunity attacks.
Regeneration. The hydra regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point. If the hydra takes radiant damage or fire damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of its next turn.
Bestial Subtype. This creature is bestial, meaning the spells animal messenger, beast bond, beast sense, locate animals or plants, and speak with animals affect the creature as if it were a beast.
Multiattack. The hydra makes as many bite attacks as it has heads.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (1d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 5 (1d10) poison damage.
Miasma Breath (Recharge 5–6). The hydra exhales miasmain a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 44 (8d10) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures that are immune to disease or that don't need to breathe are immune to this damage.
Description
Hydras are known for their supernatural ability to grow new heads when one of their multiple heads is removed. The nature by which hydras do this is a mystery to even the most learned of scholars. Few scholars know about the hidden potential and greater mystery lurking within the body of the hydra. When the proper methods and rituals are applied to the dead body of a hydra, it can be raised as an undead creature that unlocks an even more powerful regenerative force within the hydra's flesh. A hydra that has been transformed in this way is typically called an undying hydra.
Lifeless Regrowth. No one knows for sure why the transformation into undeath has such a profound effect on the hydra's ability to regenerate. Hydras raised as regular zombies do not experience this change. Some-how, the specific way that negative energy invests the flesh of the undying hydra grants it a twisted reflection of its original vitality. Undying hydras are often created by talented necromancers to act as sentinels, left in an area unattended to ward away all intruders. They are far more stupid than even zombies, making them almost impossible to command effectively.
Toxic Blood. Undying hydras have toxic blood that doesn't move and carries the touch of disease. When their blood is spilled, it fumes into deadly miasma. The hydra's bite is also made poisonous by the blood, which pools in their mouths and becomes a foul saliva. With effort, the hydra can expel its blood in a gaseous spray that emerges out of one of its mouths.
Undying Heads. Undying hydras feel an instinct to hunt and eat, but they do not need to or actually know how. Instead, their jaws bite and chew flesh, but merely drop the half-eaten food out of their broken maws rather than swallowing. When one of these heads is cut off, the head does not instantly die. It continues to slither over the ground like a bulbous snake, acting out its instincts until its magic runs out and it finally stops moving.
Undead Nature. An undying hydra doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
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