Amphibious. The Black Hydra can breathe in both land & water.
Darkness Dweller. The Black Hydra has resistance to Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, Psychic, & Necrotic damage while in dim light or darkness.
Fear Aura. Each creature hostile to the Hydra that starts its turn within 20 feet of it and knows it's there must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw, unless the Hydra is Incapacitated. On a failed save, the creature is Frightened until the start of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature is immune to the Black Hydra's Fear Aura for the next 24 hours.
Insatiable Hunger. When the Black Hydra reduces a creature to 0 hit points or attacks a target that already has 0 hit points with Bite, Ferocious Bite, or Crunch, the creature is eaten by the Black Hydra and killed instantly. The Black Hydra then recovers 10 hit points.
Multiple Heads. The Black Hydra has five heads, each with 50 hit points. If a head is destroyed, it regrows after 2 rounds. The Hydra's heads are the ones that attack, not the Hydra itself. The Black Hydra's heads have 14 AC, and the Hydra itself has +3 AC for each head it currently has. When the Black Hydra regrows a head, it recovers 10 hit points.
Stealth Strike. If the Black Hydra attacks a visible creature with Bite or Ferocious bite and the creature cannot see or hear it and does not have the Alert feat, the attack automatically hits and is counted as a critical hit, and the Black Hydra has advantage on all of the damage rolls. Additionally, if the attack is Ferocious Bite, the creature has disadvantage on the Strength saving throw.
Multiattack. Each head makes one Bite, Toxic Breath, Ferocious Bite, or Crunch attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., 1 target. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) Piercing damage.
Toxic Breath (Recharge 6 per head). The head that uses this attack fires toxic breath in a 30 foot cone. Anyone in the cone must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 14 (3d6+3) Poison damage. If they fail the save, they are Stunned & Poisoned for 2 rounds.
Ferocious Bite (Recharge 6 per head). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., 1 target. Hit: 21 (2d10 + 10) Piercing damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be Grappled by the Black Hydra. While Grappling someone like this, this Black Hydra head can only use the Crunch action. The target can repeat the saving throw at the start of each of their turns to break out of the Grapple.
Crunch. The Black Hydra bites down on a target it is Grappling, doing 14 (2d8 + 5) Piercing damage.
Description
The Black Hydra is an ambush predator, using its lair to bait foolish adventurers to come in for it to snack on.
Lair and Lair Actions
The Black Hydra's lair is a network of caves that the Black Hydra has complete familiarity with. It is filled with a magical darkness which reduces the light radius of all light sources by half, and creatures that have darkvision only have half their darkvision unless the Black Hydra decides otherwise for that particular creature.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Black Hydra takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the Black Hydra can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The ground begins to wrap around the legs or lower area of up to three creatures of the Black Hydra's choice. Those creatures are Restrained, requiring at least a DC 20 Strength check to escape.
- The magical darkness inside the lair intensifies greatly. Bright light becomes dim light and dim light becomes darkness, and light sources only emit light in 1/4 the radius they would in nonmagical darkness. The darkvision of any creature besides the Black Hydra is reduced to a maximum of 10 feet. This lasts until the end of the round.
- The lair becomes overwhelmingly cold, causing any creature besides the Black Hydra to have the effect of the Slow spell applied to them until the end of the round.
Regional Effects
A legendary Black Hydra's lair creates one or more of the following effects:
- The Black Hydra can sense the location and species of any creature within 1000 feet of the lair.
- Anything within 500 feet of the lair is filled with the same magical darkness found inside the lair, but additionally, any creature that starts their turn within this darkness must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 Cold damage unless the Black Hydra decides otherwise. This darkness is also toxic to plantlife, so the ground will be barren and the trees will be dead.
- The area within 200 feet of the lair is mushy and wraps itself around creatures. This means that this area is difficult terrain for all creatures, unless the Black Hydra decides for it not to be for that creature.
If the Black Hydra dies, these effects fade over the course of 8d4 days.
Comments