Post/Author/DateTime	Post
thedeveloper 06-05-06, 05:06 AM	Hello all. I shall present an impossiblish situation to you, and ask for your guidance in overcomming this obsticle. My little gnome sorcerer level 6 is to fight a 7 headed cyrohydra in 24 hours gametime. Meaning my character will have 24 hours to prepare. He currently has 277 gold, no magic equipment to speak of other than an iuon stone that heals 1hp/hour (perhaps I can sell it to buy more needed stuff?) and no expensive equipment. My gnome is a sorcerer but, as a roleplaying thing, he cannot cast ANY direct damage spells and most of his abilities lie in illusion. Also he cant have a familiar. His spells are: ghost sound, message, light, open/close, detect magic, mage hand, arcane mark, disguise self, 3.0 enlarge, color spray, 3.0 reduce, minor image, invisibility, and haste His feats are craft wonderous item, extend spell, spell focus illusion, greater spell focus illusion and concentration 1 (lets him cast a spell while concentrating on an illusion) He has an AC of 14 and has 35 hp. His skills are focused in bluff, intimidate, spellcraft, concentration, craft and profession alchemy, hide, use magic device, spot and listen. 10 str, 16 dex, 16 con, 14 int, 14 wis, 19 cha As I said, my assets are an iuon stone worth 20,000 according to the books and 277 gold. I have 24 hrs to prepare. The arena itself is huge and has scattered rocks and a pool of water in the center of the fighting area. WHAT can I buy to augument WHAT strategy to win this fight?
MerlintheTuna 06-05-06, 05:25 AM	Use your 20,000 gp Ioun Stone to bribe the person running this thing. <_< >_> <_< But more seriously... A 7-Headed Cryohydra is CR 8. This would basically be a boss battle of sorts for a 4 man party of level 6. You facing this thing alone is, well, a bad situation for you. That having been said, you're clearly not going to take the thing down with direct damage. So let's look at saves. Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +4 Low Will saves are nice. In this case, though, there doesn't seem to be a lot you can do with it. It's got too many HD for Color Spray to be very useful, at least. You might consider using illusions as a distraction, since those are pretty likely to work, but the fact that you're dealing with 7 breath weapons means that illusions might not go that far. That having been said, I have the following proposition (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#poison) . Id moss Ingested DC 14 1d4 Int 2d6 Int 125 gp You might be able to get your hands on some of this stuff (or Craft something comparable), and since the hydra is an animal, it has a mere 2 Int -- dropping it to 0 (which you have a 75% chance of if it fails the initial save) means that it becomes catatonic, leaving you as the victor. The problem here is the low DC and the high save bonus. If you can figure out some way of hitting the thing with a CON penalty, this could be your ticket to freedom.
Sunrider 06-05-06, 05:43 AM	Get a bow and as many arrows as you can carry. Hydras are slow. Keep on running and shooting, running and shooting, running and shooting, until the hydra goes down. Sure, it'll take ages, but it will probably go down in the end.
MerlintheTuna 06-05-06, 05:44 AM	Get a bow and as many arrows as you can carry. Hydras are slow. Keep on running and shooting, running and shooting, running and shooting, until the hydra goes down. Sure, it'll take ages, but it will probably go down in the end. Not with Fast Healing 17 it won't...
Arem_K 06-05-06, 05:49 AM	You realize that a seven headed cryohydra is a CR 8 right? Your only real offensive spell is color spray, which will stun it for one round on a failed save. Unfortunately, you just wasted a round to get that effect, so you do not have an advantage. I would try to milk minor image for everything you can. Make an image of a balor riding a twelve headed hydra. You can not make speech, but you can have it scream a worldless battle cry. Hopefully the cryohydra will retreat. If your DM does not allow you to use the image line in this way, you are boned.
MerlintheTuna 06-05-06, 05:54 AM	Got it. A Scroll of Deep Slumber (Sor/Wiz 3) should be useable, and it only costs 375 gp. It's essentially Sleep, only it affects up to 10 HD, and a 7 Headed Hydra (pyro/cryo or otherwise) is only 7 HD. It's 1 min/level, so assuming it's scribed by a Wizard (base case), that's 5 minutes of sleeping hydra, giving you plenty of time to gently feed it any poison you so desire, if the fight isn't declared over as soon as it starts snoozing anyway. I'd recommend picking up two scrolls, just in case the thing rolls well on the first one. Also, the bribery remark was only half joking. This is the sort of obscene challenge that sounds like your DM is trying to hint to you that there's a better way of handling this situation. Or he doesn't like you personally. *Shrug*
tsuyoshikentsu 06-05-06, 11:38 AM	Just remember, that if he finds out we helped you, he could assign you another labor. ;) As above -- deep slumber is a wonderful thing -- but also pick up a scythe. It won't matter if you're non-proficient with it, because if you attack the thing while it's helpless, you can coup de grace it -- which automatically hits. The lowest your DC to save against immediate death would possibly be is 18, and if your dice roll right you could actually get it high enough that it'd be impossible for it to save.
Alienfreak 06-05-06, 11:57 AM	Buy 3 Scrolls of "Ray of Stupidity" and one of "Fly" Costs 150 GP each and does 1d4 Int damage on an ranged touch attack. So if you hit it with one there is a 50% chance it will drop, if not just use the second scroll. Probably turn invisible, use an scroll of fly. Being invisible also gives you a neat attack bonus on your first attack (+2 and denying him his dex bonus on AC if im not wrong). But be careful to be out of range of his breath weapons :), so just hove 25ft above the hydra and kill it off. I see no way how the hydra is able to win.
MerlintheTuna 06-05-06, 02:08 PM	Buy 3 Scrolls of "Ray of Stupidity" and one of "Fly" Costs 150 GP each and does 1d4 Int damage on an ranged touch attack. So if you hit it with one there is a 50% chance it will drop, if not just use the second scroll. Probably turn invisible, use an scroll of fly. Being invisible also gives you a neat attack bonus on your first attack (+2 and denying him his dex bonus on AC if im not wrong). But be careful to be out of range of his breath weapons :), so just hove 25ft above the hydra and kill it off. I see no way how the hydra is able to win. I don't have the book in front of me, but if Ray of Stupidity is like Ray of Enfeeblement, then you can't drop the target's score below 1, and therefore can't drop him with INT damage. That's why I suggested the poison.
NoldorForce 06-05-06, 03:27 PM	Ray of Stupidity is your best bet. It's 1d4+1 Int damage. Unlike the Rays of Enfeeblement and Clumsiness (which grant ability penalties, as well), there's no restriction on how low the target's Int score can be reduced. Pack a couple (plus the scythe for coup de grace) of scrolls to make sure you aim properly, and killing it will be easy.
Llochlyn 06-05-06, 03:37 PM	(whatever deity who might read this, I beg your pardon) To defeat cryohydra, you should use charmander....... I'm so sorry... but I couldn't resist... I was gonna use the INT damage strategy... man the spell compendium shouldn't exist... :)
Korhal_IV 06-05-06, 03:38 PM	Ray of Stupidity is from Spell Compendium, and allows you to drop a target's Int score to 0. I too suggest flying your little butt out of there as soon as possible - scroll of Fly and 2 Scrolls of Deep Slumber should do it. Remember, you automatically succeed on activating these scrolls because the minimum you can roll is the DC (7). Unlike attacks or saves, IIRC, you do not fail caster checks on a roll of natural 1. Deep Slumber and a scythe is your best bet, but honestly - if the DM is forcing you to fight a CR 8 all by yourself, you REALLY need to figure out if there's an alternate way out of this situation. edit: 2 Scrolls? Bring like SIX of Deep Slumber. Make sure he goes down! Buy lots of scrolls of various other things too, to confuse your DM, if that might be an issue. :P
thedeveloper 06-09-06, 01:47 AM	Hahahah! Thanks for your ideas, but I did it my own way. I ended up winning. This is how I did it: I had an unseen servant begin dumping acid powder and greasy oil stuff in the pool of water in the center of the arena while I used illusions to distract the hydra. I casted haste on myself to make sure I moved faster than it at all times, and used a gnome calculus to launch tons of flammable oil all over the hydra for like 6 rounds. Then I had the illusion it was following run twords my position, where I had a barbed lance with an immovable rod placed inside of it so it floats in the air, and i casted invisibility on the lance/rod. 10 feet in front of the lance I had a bomb rigged using alchemist fire and black powder and some other nasty things. The hydra charged my location and impalled itself on the lance, then I triggered the bomb device which blew up directly under it. The oil soaked hydra caught on fire and ran for the pool of "water" .. it jumped in and the whole lake caught on fire and the acid finished the beast off.
Brol_The_Mighty 06-09-06, 01:54 AM	lol, Good God! Nice strategy, but the poor thing didn't have a chance :( *end sarcasm* Very good thinking. I'm sure your DM's jaw hit the table
Alienfreak 06-09-06, 07:32 AM	Not very inside the rules and more time and effort than the ray of stupidity but as long as your DM plays nice on this one :)
EldonG 06-09-06, 08:30 AM	Nice. Expensive, perhaps, but very nice. That was some serious thinking. :D
runestar 06-09-06, 08:33 AM	It's a good thing the dm didn't suddenly announce the hydra had a half-red-dragon template on it... :P
thedeveloper 06-10-06, 07:14 AM	Not very inside the rules and more time and effort than the ray of stupidity but as long as your DM plays nice on this one :) What was "not very inside the rules" about it?
skydragonknight 06-10-06, 07:38 AM	I actually appreciate your effort to roleplay, using illusions and trickery to defeat your foe. That sounds exactly like something a gnome would try, while everyone simply stares in awe wondering how the gnome just did that.
EldonG 06-10-06, 10:34 AM	I actually appreciate your effort to roleplay, using illusions and trickery to defeat your foe. That sounds exactly like something a gnome would try, while everyone simply stares in awe wondering how the gnome just did that. Yes. What a wonderful, entertaining image! :D