Multiple Heads. The ancient gem dracohydra has five heads. While it has more than one head, the dracohydra has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
Whenever the dracohydra takes 50 or more damage in a single turn, one of its heads dies. If all its heads die, the dracohydra dies.
At the end of its turn, the dracohydra grows two heads for each of its heads that died since its last turn, unless it has taken radiant damage since its last turn. The dracohydra regains 20 hit points for each head regrown this way.
Reactive Heads. For each head the dracohydra has beyond one, it gets an extra reaction that can be used only for opportunity attacks.
Wakeful. While the dracohydra sleeps, at least one of its heads is awake.
Multiattack. The Ancient Gem Dracohydra makes as many Bite attacks as it has heads.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 3d10+9 piercing damage plus 4d6 damage of a type chosen by the Dracohydra: force, psychic, radiant, necrotic, or thunder.
Prismatic Breath (Recharge 4–6). The dracohydra’s heads exhale a single breath of multicolored energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 49 (9d10) damage of a type chosen by the dracohydra: force, thunder, psychic, necrotic, or radiant. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage.
Multiheaded Awareness. When the dracohydra is targeted by an attack, it may use one reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.
Reactive Heads. The dracohydra can take a number of reactions each round equal to the number of heads it has. It can use these reactions only to make opportunity attacks.
The ancient gem dracohydra can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time, and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The hydra regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The dracohydra makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Swipe. The dracohydra makes a tail attack: Melee Weapon Attack, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: bludgeoning.
Bite (Costs 2 Actions). The dracohydra makes one Bite attack.
Description
The dracohydra is the result of arcane experimentation dedicated to recreating Tiamat’s power, but twisting it to reflect the power of gem dragons. Amalgamating the magic of gem dragons with the blood of a hydra resulted in a many-headed draconic monster with wings and multiple snakelike tails. The gem dracohydra’s breath weapon is a multicolored mass of energy that contains the essence of a gem dragon’s elemental power.
Contrary to their chromatic counterparts, the gem dracohydra’s appearance in a region does not spell disaster for all local fauna, but will result in a great loss of biodiversity. Each of the heads of a gem dracohydra tends to develop specific tastes, and will tailor the local environment to overproduce that particular species, by eliminating competing species, whether those species are predators to its chosen meal, or resource competitors. Examples include eliminating elk and wolves in an area to boost deer and coyote populations, or completely eliminating a particular fish from a local lake to boost the population of a different fish. Some ancient gem dracohydras have even been able to make deals with humanoid farming settlements, where they hunt invasive or pest species in exchange for sheep or cattle, though in some cases, those humanoid farmers are in danger of eventually being seen as competing predators for those animals.
A dracohydra can sometimes be found in the service of the spellcaster who created it, kept obedient by the rituals of their creation, or they me found in the wild, where wild magic surges can cause a Dracohydra to spawn from the co-mingling blood of a feuding dragon and hydra.
An ancient Dracohydra has survived for far longer than a normal Dracohydra, but that’s quite relative. Most dracohydras only survive five years from their creation, due to their ravenous, or disruptive nature attracting heroes, monsters, or other upset dragons. As such, most ancient dracohydras are only 15 years old, which is still triple the average lifespan of a dracohydra, and their ability to survive comes mostly from their willingness to run from a fight. As such, most ancient dracohydras will have several scarring rings on each of their necks, from times they were attacked, and lost some heads, but still escaped to live another day, and form a new territory somewhere else.
Previous Versions
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3/13/2025 10:23:57 PM
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6/7/2025 1:49:21 AM
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