7:47 Heracles did get poisoned by the hydra but not for the reason you would expect. He had coated his arrows in the hydra's poison and used an arrow to shoot a centaur that tried to abduct his second(?) wife. Heracles slew the centaur with an arrow and the centaur tricked the wife into keeping a vial of his (the centaur's) blood to use as a love potion. She would have to spread the blood on a tunic and have Heracles wear it to make him fall in love with her again. Since the centaur was shot with an arrow coated in hydra poison, the blood was also poisoned. There was a time when the second wife thought Heracles was unfaithful and so followed the centaur's advice, which resulted in Heracles ascension to Olympus.
It was indeed his second wife; his first wife, Megara (like in the movie) and his kids were all killed *by* Heracles when Hera made him trip balls and go into a murderous rampage. Hera hated Heracles for being yet another one of Zeus's bastard half-human offspring and sent two snakes to murder him as a small child (also like in the movie), but that didn't take. The murder of Megara and the children was the reason that Heracles had to perform his twelve labours, to be cleansed of the crime, and from Hera's point of view hopefully get killed in the process. It was originally supposed to be ten labours, but as Will mentions in the episode, it was decided that a couple of them didn't count because he had help or because he got paid for the job.
One thing they don't tell you in school is Heracles doesnt die right there. His wife and than his son is actually the main focus in the story. The garment coated with the venom was sent to Hercules via his son from his wife when he returned with slaves. One particular beautiful slave was a princess of a conquered kingdom. Heracles suffered and demanded (yelling, screaming, and cursing) his son kill him. He couldn't do it. So Heracles asks his son to build him a pyre and light it a flame. The son agreed as long as he didn't light the flame. Heracles was than burned to death.. this is a WAY oversimplification of the story, but it's great. In a way Heracles comes to forgive his wife. It's a nice(?) Story. Edit: Also should be added the centaur that tricks his wife is named nessus. Heracles killed him when nessus tried to rape his wife with an arrow.
Using the Draconomicon, I homebrewed an NPC to be a pit fighter with Hydra Leather armor, it was a +1 studded leather armor, with the secondary function that it gave you water breathing
*salutes* I have liked and commented! I continue to serve the dungeoncast! milords will and brian! surely this noble paladin could perform ten labors for you just as hercules did in Greek mythology! I will slay not only any hydra you command me too, but also every hydra! I will drive them to extinction and prove my devotion! for I follow the almighty dungeoncast! and no beast, not even a hydra will stop me! I was very excited when I saw this episode recommended to me. I love hydras, I just wanna say that bit at the end brian mentioned about the heads coming up out of the water while being on a ship is very similar to the tutorial boss of the first god of war game. the first level has you on a ship and it ends with you impaling the hydras head and shit. like all god of war stuff it's badass. also while I love the idea, the tarrasque would win that fight with the primordial hydra every time. unless the hyrda has access to a wish spell. I also got reminded of dragons dogma as I recently slew my first archydra in that game on bitterblack isle. I took it down surprisingly easy because normally bbi will kick your ass and force humility into you. I rained down meteors on it to finish it off and three of its heads all consecutively went flying in multiple directions. it was so badass. I also like how apparently dogma took inspiration from greek mythology on their hyrda as well because if you use fire on a severed head it'll slow down its regeneration. also I had an idea when you mentioned the growing pains and stuff with the hydras regeneration. what if in your setting hydras began to frenzy from the sheer pain of regrowing heads? also about the discussion where brian mentioned the hydra still being tired from one of its heads being awake when it sleeps, I feel there's an interesting real life parallel that can be used for this. you see when dolphins sleep only one half of their brain sleeps at a time so the other half can remain awake and it can resurface to breath when it needs to. what if a hyrdas brain is split up into five sections (or however many your hydra starts out with I just imagine five) and each section is dedicated to controlling one head so it can work similarly to a dolphin. this falls apart a little though when you consider how it works after the hydra regrows more heads but I feel it's an idea to take into consideration. anyway have a good day anyone who bothered to read this far through my rambling. :)
Just started the podcast a week ago, already on episode 9. You guys, are good, really good. I'm a new player and the information has helped me up my game dramatically.
I'm currently playing a game that takes place mostly at sea, combat is awesome as you can run up into a lot of different things and you're limited to the limited space of the ship deck. Also, you can die at any moment or end up stranded if the ship takes much damage (which adds to the level of challenge 5e lacks).
I had an idea to make a Hydra that was tamed by some Kobolds and armored up to make it harder to kill, not to mention the idea of a Kobold Tribe using a Hydra sounds fun, not to mention it adds a new challenge to the lair, does the party wait till the Hydra leaves and risk getting more or less trapped inside when it returns? or do they make an attempt while it's in the cave and risk getting pelted by Kobolds, as the Hydra more or less forces them to fight it.
Why make all hydras basically snakes? i have made mine mammalian lions loved me a 9 headed lion head hydra with thunder attacks. i have also used an 8 headed piranha plant hydra with fireball breath. and i also made a 10 headed shark hydra with necrotic blood breath for an ocean session. oooh or a scorpion hydra that regrows more tails instead of heads.
I almost don't want to reveal this because im trying to figure out how to fit this into my book. My Hydras dont grow new heads, each severed head and neck grows a new body and every year a hydra grows a new head. so you start out fighting a hydra with eleven heads and each head cut off becomes a single headed hydra. eventually its eleven single headed ones.
TLDR: The only time I managed to truly challenge my 6 player party with a single foe was with this homebrewed Hydra. I made this boss Hydra encounter for my party of 6 lvl 12 players and it was a combat that pushed a well rounded, well supplied, and well equipped party to their very limits. The Chromatic Hydra. A standard hydra infused alchemically and magically by worshippers of Tiamat. Appearing as the standard Hydra of 5e with the following changes: -Hit Points 230 (20d12+100) -Skills Perception +8 -Senses passive Perception 18 -Challenge 13 (10,000) -within Multiple Heads: “The hydra has five heads, one corresponding to each of the chromatic dragon colors.” and “unless it has taken special damage since it’s last turn. The special damage being ice for Black, acid for Blue, lightning for Green, poison for Red, and fire for White.” -Bite becomes +9 to hit, with the damage being that of the Young Dragon bite for the applicable colored head. -Breath Weapons: see the applicable action for the Young Dragon -Legendary Action (1): Breath Weapon The encounter I created had some on location hints about the special damage needed, but my hydra had stacked up to 9 heads before the party started to figure out the damage system and it achieved nearly a dozen heads during this 6v1 combat that lasted over ten rounds. Once combat with this sucker had concluded my 6 PCs were all still alive, all below 1/2 health, 90% of the party’s collective abilities spent (Ki Points, Spell Slots, Rage), several potions drank (my PCs are item hoarders so this was a treat), and a magical sword, magical ring, and an arm were lost (this due to other encounter details). I really want to use the Pyro and Cryohydras now after listening to this, but I fear I have over played my hydra card in this more Dragon themed campaign I’m running.
I’ve been enjoying the show on the iPhone podcast app and don’t know how to like things on it. So I’m gonna go through and like all the videos on TH-cam.
Edward Burns gotta ask. what's your reason? btw do note in this hypothetical you are guaranteed to escape alive after one year in both cases but it is possible that in either case you could be corrupted into something not fully human.
@@DragonGunzDorian Well I am pretty sure that if you entered the far realm your mind would probably immediately break, as to where you probably have a better chance at maintaining a degree of sanity. If I am a powerful enough adventurer I could potentially carve out my own section of the abyss and achieve greater power, as to where in the far realm I feel like as a mortal no matter how powerful you are your kinda of screwed.
Can we pick which layer of the Abyss? One of Grazz’t’s layers probably wouldn’t be much different than living in Florida. If we don’t get to choose our layer I’d go Far Realm
Abyss, definitely. Things are still partially logical even if it's terrifying. The Far Realm would quite literally drive you insane almost immediately. The only thing you'd get from the Far Realm is madness. If you survived in the Abyss long enough, you might fight your way to becoming a potential Demon Lord if you're smart and strong enough.
Y'all are way off on how long editions lasted. 1974 (original. Just the little brown books that you needed Chainmail to be able to play) 1977 (D&D Basic) 1977-1979 (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) 1989 (AD&D 2nd Edition) 1991 (D&D Rules Cyclopedia, which is essentially a reprint of a reorganized BX +the expanded rules for higher level play) 2000 (D&D 3rd edition) 2003 (D&D v3.5) 2008 (D&D 4th edition) 2014 (D&D 5th edition)
The difference with the 10ft reach is that the Hydra is taking up more than a single square like your bugbear is... A Bugbear already projects damage across 17 squares with the 10 foot reach, but with a Hydra already being huge and taking up 9 squares with just its body and projecting a 10 foot reach from there, that's a huge area that is put at risk... Increasing it to 15 feet would be kinda ridiculous
What I want to know is why no one ever thinks to just cut off it's heads until becomes too encumbered by it's own weight.
7:47 Heracles did get poisoned by the hydra but not for the reason you would expect. He had coated his arrows in the hydra's poison and used an arrow to shoot a centaur that tried to abduct his second(?) wife. Heracles slew the centaur with an arrow and the centaur tricked the wife into keeping a vial of his (the centaur's) blood to use as a love potion. She would have to spread the blood on a tunic and have Heracles wear it to make him fall in love with her again. Since the centaur was shot with an arrow coated in hydra poison, the blood was also poisoned. There was a time when the second wife thought Heracles was unfaithful and so followed the centaur's advice, which resulted in Heracles ascension to Olympus.
It was indeed his second wife; his first wife, Megara (like in the movie) and his kids were all killed *by* Heracles when Hera made him trip balls and go into a murderous rampage. Hera hated Heracles for being yet another one of Zeus's bastard half-human offspring and sent two snakes to murder him as a small child (also like in the movie), but that didn't take. The murder of Megara and the children was the reason that Heracles had to perform his twelve labours, to be cleansed of the crime, and from Hera's point of view hopefully get killed in the process. It was originally supposed to be ten labours, but as Will mentions in the episode, it was decided that a couple of them didn't count because he had help or because he got paid for the job.
One thing they don't tell you in school is Heracles doesnt die right there. His wife and than his son is actually the main focus in the story. The garment coated with the venom was sent to Hercules via his son from his wife when he returned with slaves. One particular beautiful slave was a princess of a conquered kingdom. Heracles suffered and demanded (yelling, screaming, and cursing) his son kill him. He couldn't do it. So Heracles asks his son to build him a pyre and light it a flame. The son agreed as long as he didn't light the flame. Heracles was than burned to death.. this is a WAY oversimplification of the story, but it's great. In a way Heracles comes to forgive his wife. It's a nice(?) Story. Edit: Also should be added the centaur that tricks his wife is named nessus. Heracles killed him when nessus tried to rape his wife with an arrow.
Using the Draconomicon, I homebrewed an NPC to be a pit fighter with Hydra Leather armor, it was a +1 studded leather armor, with the secondary function that it gave you water breathing
DC about to implant both greek and DnD Lore in my mortal mind
Whispers: "Hail Hydra..."
You beat me to it XD
I will root hydra out! the dungeoncast are the only ones worth hailing!
yes I get the reference I just wanted to make this joke. lol.
*salutes* I have liked and commented! I continue to serve the dungeoncast! milords will and brian! surely this noble paladin could perform ten labors for you just as hercules did in Greek mythology!
I will slay not only any hydra you command me too, but also every hydra! I will drive them to extinction and prove my devotion! for I follow the almighty dungeoncast! and no beast, not even a hydra will stop me!
I was very excited when I saw this episode recommended to me. I love hydras, I just wanna say that bit at the end brian mentioned about the heads coming up out of the water while being on a ship is very similar to the tutorial boss of the first god of war game. the first level has you on a ship and it ends with you impaling the hydras head and shit. like all god of war stuff it's badass.
also while I love the idea, the tarrasque would win that fight with the primordial hydra every time. unless the hyrda has access to a wish spell.
I also got reminded of dragons dogma as I recently slew my first archydra in that game on bitterblack isle. I took it down surprisingly easy because normally bbi will kick your ass and force humility into you. I rained down meteors on it to finish it off and three of its heads all consecutively went flying in multiple directions. it was so badass.
I also like how apparently dogma took inspiration from greek mythology on their hyrda as well because if you use fire on a severed head it'll slow down its regeneration.
also I had an idea when you mentioned the growing pains and stuff with the hydras regeneration. what if in your setting hydras began to frenzy from the sheer pain of regrowing heads?
also about the discussion where brian mentioned the hydra still being tired from one of its heads being awake when it sleeps, I feel there's an interesting real life parallel that can be used for this. you see when dolphins sleep only one half of their brain sleeps at a time so the other half can remain awake and it can resurface to breath when it needs to. what if a hyrdas brain is split up into five sections (or however many your hydra starts out with I just imagine five) and each section is dedicated to controlling one head so it can work similarly to a dolphin. this falls apart a little though when you consider how it works after the hydra regrows more heads but I feel it's an idea to take into consideration.
anyway have a good day anyone who bothered to read this far through my rambling. :)
For the Greeks, there was a sea monster called Scylla that was a hydra like monster that had 100 heads and tried to kill Odysseus.
Just started the podcast a week ago, already on episode 9. You guys, are good, really good. I'm a new player and the information has helped me up my game dramatically.
Making different custom hydras is one of my favorite DM pastimes, loved the episode!
"The Hii-dra"
5:45 A masochistic hydra concept a'brewing
Would love to use a hydra trained as a guard dog for my ancient Black Dragon lair. Since'ya know, Black Dragons can mentally control ALL reptiles.
That's a neat idea!
Love the lore videos. Keep up the great work!!
I included a hydra in my homebrew, I just gave it acid damage with its bite, and it can spit at someone melting their armor.
Kinda weird how Hydras are the same CR as Tyrannosaurus rex. Feels like it should be higher imo.
Or trex lower
1:05 hell yeah it’s gonna be a good episode
Love you guys! Your dragons episodes have helped me roleplay them so much better as my games DM. Thanks for the great content.
Looking to have my first boss within my starting a campaign as a Hydra and using this video for reference! :D
You said it the coolest way I have ever heard...
Hydras: it's gonna rain it's gonna rain lol
One hydra head looks you in the face and 8 more appear lol you are done for
I'm currently playing a game that takes place mostly at sea, combat is awesome as you can run up into a lot of different things and you're limited to the limited space of the ship deck. Also, you can die at any moment or end up stranded if the ship takes much damage (which adds to the level of challenge 5e lacks).
MOB = Monster or Beast, my dudes!
Infinite Dragon Food, YES!
Basically it's like FLorida stone crabs.
i still think hydra wou;d have to eat to get the 'material' for regrowth, but it's all magic bullshit, so who knows.
Cook it well. You dont want plant parasites
I had an idea to make a Hydra that was tamed by some Kobolds and armored up to make it harder to kill, not to mention the idea of a Kobold Tribe using a Hydra sounds fun, not to mention it adds a new challenge to the lair, does the party wait till the Hydra leaves and risk getting more or less trapped inside when it returns?
or do they make an attempt while it's in the cave and risk getting pelted by Kobolds, as the Hydra more or less forces them to fight it.
Maybe a mated pair of hydras
Hail Hydra!!
A snek with many heads from the hercales
Why make all hydras basically snakes? i have made mine mammalian lions loved me a 9 headed lion head hydra with thunder attacks. i have also used an 8 headed piranha plant hydra with fireball breath. and i also made a 10 headed shark hydra with necrotic blood breath for an ocean session. oooh or a scorpion hydra that regrows more tails instead of heads.
Gonna have to use these...
Awesome
I almost don't want to reveal this because im trying to figure out how to fit this into my book. My Hydras dont grow new heads, each severed head and neck grows a new body and every year a hydra grows a new head. so you start out fighting a hydra with eleven heads and each head cut off becomes a single headed hydra. eventually its eleven single headed ones.
dude love the idea for a reverse hyrda. that's awesome.
TLDR: The only time I managed to truly challenge my 6 player party with a single foe was with this homebrewed Hydra.
I made this boss Hydra encounter for my party of 6 lvl 12 players and it was a combat that pushed a well rounded, well supplied, and well equipped party to their very limits.
The Chromatic Hydra.
A standard hydra infused alchemically and magically by worshippers of Tiamat.
Appearing as the standard Hydra of 5e with the following changes:
-Hit Points 230 (20d12+100)
-Skills Perception +8
-Senses passive Perception 18
-Challenge 13 (10,000)
-within Multiple Heads: “The hydra has five heads, one corresponding to each of the chromatic dragon colors.” and “unless it has taken special damage since it’s last turn. The special damage being ice for Black, acid for Blue, lightning for Green, poison for Red, and fire for White.”
-Bite becomes +9 to hit, with the damage being that of the Young Dragon bite for the applicable colored head.
-Breath Weapons: see the applicable action for the Young Dragon
-Legendary Action (1): Breath Weapon
The encounter I created had some on location hints about the special damage needed, but my hydra had stacked up to 9 heads before the party started to figure out the damage system and it achieved nearly a dozen heads during this 6v1 combat that lasted over ten rounds. Once combat with this sucker had concluded my 6 PCs were all still alive, all below 1/2 health, 90% of the party’s collective abilities spent (Ki Points, Spell Slots, Rage), several potions drank (my PCs are item hoarders so this was a treat), and a magical sword, magical ring, and an arm were lost (this due to other encounter details).
I really want to use the Pyro and Cryohydras now after listening to this, but I fear I have over played my hydra card in this more Dragon themed campaign I’m running.
Next lore video is Mothra :D
I prefer ladon a different kind of hydra that protect the fruits of the gods!
I use Double Good rules in my games. If a player blasts a white dragon with fire for example, that's gonna be Double Good
to recreate the elemental hydras: Half Dragon Template
Primordial hydra sounds tough as shit
22:22 I'd make that one live in the river Styx
Hail This Video :)
I’ve been enjoying the show on the iPhone podcast app and don’t know how to like things on it. So I’m gonna go through and like all the videos on TH-cam.
here's a hypothetical for everyone.
where would you rather live for one whole year?
the abyss or the far realm?
I think I would prefer living in the abyss to be honest.
Edward Burns gotta ask. what's your reason? btw do note in this hypothetical you are guaranteed to escape alive after one year in both cases but it is possible that in either case you could be corrupted into something not fully human.
@@DragonGunzDorian Well I am pretty sure that if you entered the far realm your mind would probably immediately break, as to where you probably have a better chance at maintaining a degree of sanity. If I am a powerful enough adventurer I could potentially carve out my own section of the abyss and achieve greater power, as to where in the far realm I feel like as a mortal no matter how powerful you are your kinda of screwed.
Can we pick which layer of the Abyss? One of Grazz’t’s layers probably wouldn’t be much different than living in Florida. If we don’t get to choose our layer I’d go Far Realm
Abyss, definitely. Things are still partially logical even if it's terrifying. The Far Realm would quite literally drive you insane almost immediately. The only thing you'd get from the Far Realm is madness. If you survived in the Abyss long enough, you might fight your way to becoming a potential Demon Lord if you're smart and strong enough.
So people actually like 5e, they destroyed so much 3.5e for the win
Oh, the days when you could have a "cough" without people treating you like a leper
Are hydras herbivore or carnivorou?
Y'all are way off on how long editions lasted.
1974 (original. Just the little brown books that you needed Chainmail to be able to play)
1977 (D&D Basic)
1977-1979 (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons)
1989 (AD&D 2nd Edition)
1991 (D&D Rules Cyclopedia, which is essentially a reprint of a reorganized BX +the expanded rules for higher level play)
2000 (D&D 3rd edition)
2003 (D&D v3.5)
2008 (D&D 4th edition)
2014 (D&D 5th edition)
its too bad that their teeth don't raise the undead
MLP had a bog hydra
The difference with the 10ft reach is that the Hydra is taking up more than a single square like your bugbear is... A Bugbear already projects damage across 17 squares with the 10 foot reach, but with a Hydra already being huge and taking up 9 squares with just its body and projecting a 10 foot reach from there, that's a huge area that is put at risk... Increasing it to 15 feet would be kinda ridiculous
u