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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 1:22PM
#21
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2010
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Regardless of potential origins of a water beast, they can't be aquatic-only. They need to be able to get around, and fight, on land.
D&D Next = D&D: Quantum Edition
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 1:32PM
#22
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In the composite picture in the article, the legless hydras on the far right just look dorky, like a many-headed slug or Hutt. If you are going to go legless, you have to keep the body lean, otherwise it just looks like a land-blob.
My personal preference is legs, though whether 2 or 4 doesn't matter so much. And I agree with all ya'll that they have serpentine qualities, not draconic qualities. The heads could be "reptilian" without evoking a dragon - kind of a cross between monitor lizards and poisonous snakes like the asp or viper would look cool to me. Scales could be snake or lizard like, more the plate-style than the overlapping fish-style. They are not that intelligent, but certianly vicious and cunning in a predatory animal way.
What I don't want is "many-headed dragon". I want something reptilian, mean, and challenging, without stepping into dragon territory.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 1:36PM
#23
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Date Joined:
Apr 10, 2009
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I think the solution is obvious.
But first - my bias. When I hear Hydra, I (like the artist) think "Draconic creature with lots of necks and heads" - because my first exposure to a hydra was the AD&D1st MM. And these are not aquatic. They are found in marshes, etc. Not underwater. And I just wrote the lack of any real similarity to Hercules' Hydra as "just another unfortunate case where the D&D monster didn't quite line up with its mythological origin".
But I also like the idea of a truely aquatic Hydra. But the body type shown in the 1st MM and in some of the posts in this thread doesn't work for a fully aquatic creature.
So - what is the solution? Obviously two different types of Hydra. One has a bulky,draconic body and is found on land - although by preference among marshy, swampy areas. The other is found in large bodies of (fresh) water and has a snakier body more appropriate for an aquatic environment. It likely doesn't even have legs, although it can still move about on land.
It isn't an 'either/ or' dilemma. THe answer is "both"
Carl
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 3:31PM
#24
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The most important part about hydras in my mind is that they have extremely long necks.
A fight with a hydra should be a fight versus the heads and the necks, not against the body. I picture that the heads of the hydra will attack up from a water surface, slither through cracks and cave openings and attack the players. In a typical fight against a hydra the main body should be completely out of sight, or very much so. Attacking the body should most of the time not even be an option (give it mechanics that make it all about the head and nothing about the body, hitting the body should not do any good in most cases (dont even give the body a HP.. as long as it has a head it lives)).
Preferably the necks should be so long that its not even clear that the players are fighting a single monster (so that the necks can attack from several different cracks and cave openings).
I really don't like the more agile versions of hydras that look like they are going to run around and do claw attacks...
It does not matter to me really if they have legs or not, or if they are aquatic or not (there could be many types as CarlT said), but the body should preferably be a stationary or slow moving thing.
I can even picture a massive clumsy body that almost roots itself into place and the hydra uses its extreme necks to kill and eat stuff like a giant snake anemone.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 4:59PM
#25
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Does anyone else remember when these art columns used to have original art in them? It was nice...
FWIW, I'm used to hydras as four legged, no-winged reptiles with a big ol' mess of heads, but I'm pretty easy about it.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 06, 2013 - 5:13PM
#26
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2010
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Art takes time, eventually you run out.
D&D Next = D&D: Quantum Edition
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3 months ago ::
Feb 19, 2013 - 9:04PM
#27
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Date Joined:
Feb 19, 2013
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I have always thought of the Hydra are a sort of amphibian with skin that looked like that of a Frog. With that being said I always pictured the Hydra having a body and legs best suited for the water but was never constrained to just Lakes, Rivers, and Seas. I like the idea of trating its body as a sort of anchor it keeps it safe in caves and cracks while sending out its long necks and heads to kill prey. How does that fit with all of you out there what are your opinions?
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3 months ago ::
Feb 19, 2013 - 10:02PM
#28
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as long as if when you cut a head off it grows 2 out of the neck if you dont burn it im good i dont care if it has legs or flippers i can home rule that.
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3 months ago ::
Feb 20, 2013 - 2:06AM
#29
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2006
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The picture by Todd Lockwood for 3rd Ed is perfect. Lots of predatos live and hunt in the water but they have got legs, for example cocodriles. --- I thought hydra was the symbol of vice couldn´t be easily corrected, when it is tried a new vice appears (like when somebody want stop smoking but he starts to eat more, or when a crime lord is arrested and two more appear to fight fo the zone). --- If illithids catch alive a hydra...they could eat lots of hydra brains..couldn´t they? --- What if beheaded hydra heads don´t die but they fight like (living construct) monster with anaconda stats? Or they could look for a dead corpse to fuse it like a zombie-like monster. You behead the infected body and both are alive and the head can infect more corpses.  Hydregion, fan-art of pokemon creature. --- If PCs face a hydra with only a head, but they destroy the brain, without behead it.. it would be dead, wouldn´t it? I have imagined other version of hydra. Only a head it the true, but when its suffer damage by magic or other powers energy is used to summon a new head (only a living contructs, like spell to summon monster). Or maybe hydra can create new head like a psycometabolism equivalent of astral construct (or summon monster), but it would rather no use it if it necesary (because is painful and exshausting if they isn´t rage feeling).
"Say me what you're showing off for, and I'll say you what you lack!" (Spanish saying)
Book 13 Anaclet 23
Confucius said: "The Superior Man is in harmony but does not follow the crowd. The inferior man follows the crowd, but is not in harmony"
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3 months ago ::
Feb 20, 2013 - 5:04AM
#30
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The picture by Todd Lockwood for 3rd Ed is perfect.
Lots of predatos live and hunt in the water but they have got legs, for example cocodriles.
---
I thought hydra was the symbol of vice couldn´t be easily corrected, when it is tried a new vice appears (like when somebody want stop smoking but he starts to eat more, or when a crime lord is arrested and two more appear to fight fo the zone).
---
If illithids catch alive a hydra...they could eat lots of hydra brains..couldn´t they?
---
What if beheaded hydra heads don´t die but they fight like (living construct) monster with anaconda stats? Or they could look for a dead corpse to fuse it like a zombie-like monster. You behead the infected body and both are alive and the head can infect more corpses.
Hydregion, fan-art of pokemon creature.
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If PCs face a hydra with only a head, but they destroy the brain, without behead it.. it would be dead, wouldn´t it?
I have imagined other version of hydra. Only a head it the true, but when its suffer damage by magic or other powers energy is used to summon a new head (only a living contructs, like spell to summon monster). Or maybe hydra can create new head like a psycometabolism equivalent of astral construct (or summon monster), but it would rather no use it if it necesary (because is painful and exshausting if they isn´t rage feeling).
targeted attacks ie the brain arent part of the game rules as you have many factors like movement in combat ect. destroying a head by any means spawns 2 that is how i would rule on it. and once a head is cut off it is dead
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