Hydra!

[Sparkymark]

Great idea for a thread. Just one question though, are most of these beasts not a bit large to grace a Heroquest board? Perhaps they could dwell in the larger rooms but how would they fit through doors or walk down single tile width passages?

[Gold Bearer]

There's a few options.

It could actually make them more usable because the they're very powerful and the heroes can run past them instead of fighting them or find another way round because they won't be able to leave their room. Of course they could be guarding a treasure if the heroes do manage to defeat it.

Custom board or outside quest.

Use double doors on the central room lined up with the double corridors to give them the whole width of the board.


I shouldn't have put the dracoliche on that list, they have to go with undead.

Hydra
Hell Hound - Fire spells
Cockatrice
Karrion
Hypogriff
Griffin
Chimera
Wyvern
Dragons
Manticore
Lamassu
Great Taurus
Roc
Sphinx
Cerberus
Basilisk
Kraken
Leviathan - Water spells
Behemoth - Earth spells
Ziz - Air spells
Jabberwocky

Monsters can attack and cast in the same turn but can only cast once per turn, otherwise they'd be no point in casting with the high attack dice.

I'm going to use the Egyptian type sphinx because I've got a pic of that monster. That's what most people will think of anyway, I did.

Isn't a drake a type of monster? Might be another name for dragon, I'll check that. Oh and Wyrm, I think that's how you spell it.

[Torgo]

This thread got me thinking about large monsters as end bosses or as single monsters in a lair.

Hydra

Move: 6
Attack: 10
Defend: 8
Body: 12
Mind: 2

Regeneration: Each of Zargon's turns the Hydra regains a Body Point.

Manticore

Move: 9
Attack: 8
Defend: 6
Body: 10
Mind: 3

Tail Spikes: The Manticore may make three tail spike missile attacks with 4 combat dice.

Chimera

Move: 8
Attack: 9
Defend: 7
Body: 12
Mind: 2

Fire Breath: The Chimera may make three Fire Breath attacks which affect a 2x2 square area with 4 combat dice.

Wyvern

Move: 9
Attack: 7
Defend: 8
Body: 12
Mind: 2

Tail Lash: The Wyvern may instead attack with it's tail lash for 4 combat dice to each adjacent figure.

Cockatrice

Move: 10
Attack: 3
Defend: 4
Body: 4
Mind: 2

Petrify: Once per turn the Cockatrice may try to petrify a Hero. Unless the Hero rolls a 6. Roll 1 red die for each Mind Point.

[Torgo]

There's more!

Gorgon

Move: 8
Attack: 3(4)
Defend: 5
Body: 6
Mind: 5

Petrify (same as Cockatrice), Armed w/Bow, Maybe a spellcaster?

Minotaur

Move: 6
Attack: 6
Defend: 6
Body: 8
Mind: 2

Berserk: The Minotaur gains +2 attack dice once it has suffered at least 1 body point of damage.

Dragon

Move: 10
Attack: 12
Defend: 10
Body: 16
Mind: 9

Fire Breath (Same as Chimera except 6 attack dice), Spellcaster (Command for sure, Fear, Firestorm, etc)

Giant

Move: 6
Attack: 10
Defend: 6
Body: 15
Mind: 2

Throw Boulders: The giant may throw a Boulder as a missile attack up to three times for 6 attack dice.

[Torgo]

Jabberwock

Move: 6
Attack: 8
Defend: 8
Body: 10
Mind: 4

Confusion: The Jabberwock can cast an aura of confusion up to three times. All Heroes that can see the Jabberwock have their movement and attack dice halved unless they roll a 6 on one red die per mind point. Spellcasters can not cast while confused.

Basilisk

Move: 6
Attack: 7
Defend: 7
Body: 10
Mind: 2

Petrify (as Cockatrice)

Griffon/Hippogriff (Maybe Hippogriff has lower attack die?)

Move: 10
Attack: 8
Defend: 5
Body: 10
Mind: 2

Great Taurus

Move: 8
Attack: 8
Defend: 8
Body: 12
Mind: 1

Fire Breath (same as Chimera)

Lammasu

Move: 9
Attack: 7
Defend: 7
Body: 12
Mind: 6

Spellcaster (Fear, Firestorm, Command, Cloud of Chaos, Summon Orcs)

[Anderas]

And after you need a copy of Mythic Battles: Pantheon to play Heroquest. However, rumor has it that this game will be made of Unobtanium.

I would give them higher stats. If they really are THE incarnation of a Monster, like THE Minotaur and not a GW Minotaur, then they are just fine as the only Monster on the Board and the Heroes may come with some Mercenaries each plus full equipment.

As a generic statline I would give 3 or 4 Mind Points, 6 to 8 AT and DE, up to 26 BP. But they have to be made special with a rule each, a scenario each, and maybe there is even a Spirit blade kind of quest pack for each of them.

[Anderas]

I was just running some monsters through the Questimator.
Those are the Monster stats that a 4-dice-group (The maxi group in base game) can just about still take and survive.
And "Survive" means like a beginner's group survives "The Trial":
they will lose around 20BP in total. So likely two or three of them will die.
Or they bring some potions and mercenaries and will be ok.

AT DE BP
8 8 44 (well, 44 BP is kind of ridiculous )
9 9 33
10 10 26
11 11 20
12 12 16
13 13 13



Can't stop thinking about this topic

(Link to source & Copyright owner)

This Hydra, if it attacks, maybe it could roll 11 dice and then distribute the skulls among any adjacent and diagonal field as she likes, simulating that several heads attack at the same time.

Hr hr hr Knightkrawler and others were printing extra large boards to not have monsters bigger than one square, but i think this one will even exceed 40mm squares.

so for one of the mythic monsters (if it doesn't just guard a treasure chest) one would need. Well. I would need.

* A quest pack 3 or 4 quests: one to find some hints, one to discover the monster and maybe an instructions sheet how to kill it, one to find the artifact according to the instructions, one to face and kill the thing.
* Special rules for the monster so that the monster really feels special. Spell cards? Fight Rules? All of them?
* A generic set of rules to define how a big monster can move on small squares. Well, could be copied from Space Crusade Dreadnought rules. They function.
* In some cases, a special Board. Maybe from inked adventures. In some cases, just a special room. You can't put a 4x4 monster in a 5x4 room. Well, technically, you can, but it would feel awkward. If there is one thing i would do better if i were to remake heroquest, that is i would put a couple of bigger rooms on the board or make overlays so that i can emulate bigger rooms. Wait. I do! And i do!


Then, if you just want a generic "a Cerberus" instead "the Cerberus", it shouldn't have a statline like i posted here. Still it is a good idea to make it strong - the treasure chest guarding Monster can replace the pre-Boss that is just there to remove some potions and spells from the group before the real Boss is introduced. Another thing they often forgot in the Heroquest missions.

Quite cool!

[Thor-in]

Hydra.jpg

I needed this for a dark spell in my evil winds of magic supplement but I thought it was deserving of it's own topic. Hydras have always been my favourite monster (actual monster) anyway. It probably should be more dangerous than I've made it but then the spell would be overpowered and monsters wouldn't be suitable for standard HQ if I went that route. It's still really tough compared to standard monsters. I decided not to make it so two heads grow back when they don't use fire, too strong.

I plan to do all the main mythical monsters because that's one thing that the custom content hear is lacking. I'll change the topic to title to monster when I've done a few more.

Ignoring giant real animals:
Hell Hound
Cockatrice
Karrion
Hypogriff
Griffin
Chimera
Wyvern
Dragons
Dracoliche
Manticore
Lamassu
Great Taurus

Any obvious ones I've missed?

Why not add Draconian (Dragon Lance - Dragon-born in D&D) to that list, it's a species of dragon that walks on two feet that can speak, spit acid, use magic, and when killed by a stabbing or slashing weapon it turns to stone and will cause the heroes weapon to become stuck in the corpse. Obviously they are not big enough to be a boss, but maybe good for a mini boss or a guard at the boss room?

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/d ... test/03513

[Big Bene]

I would vote for the stats or special rules reflecting the features that make the creatures stand out in mythology.
E. g. the Hydra grows two new heads for every one lost in combat.
In Mythology, Heracles overcame this by taking his nephew with him in combat - Heracles severed the heads of the Hydra, the boy burned the wounds immediately with a torch.
In HQ rules I would put this somewhat like this:
Hydra has 1 BP per head. Starts with 4 heads/BP. Every round she can attack with as many combat dice as she has heads / BP left. She can only loose 1 BP per attack (you can't do more damage than severing a head). Whenever a head / BP is lost, she will have two new heads and BP instead of it at the start of her next turn. To prevent this, another hero must attack and hit (score at least one undefended skull) the Hydra with a torch (2 Combat Dice, Hydra defends as normal). He must do so after the hit that cut of the head, but before the Hydra's next turn. The heroes may think of another way to prevent the heads from regrowing. More than two heroes may attack the Hydra, but for every "cutting" hero, there must be a "burning" hero to prevent regrow.

Other example - the Gorgon:
Other than the Basilisk, who really has a petryfying gaze, the Gorgon is just so bizarre to behold that a hero turns into stone when he sees her.
So, a possible rule would be:
We can assume that the heroes are smart enough to close their eyes or look the other way when the Gorgon is around, and they could even just ignore her and take the combat damage she does, but when they try to attack her or defend against her attack, they must make a test against their MP for every such action or be petrified.

[knightkrawler]

I would vote for the stats or special rules reflecting the features that make the creatures stand out in mythology.
E. g. the Hydra grows two new heads for every one lost in combat.
In Mythology, Heracles overcame this by taking his nephew with him in combat - Heracles severed the heads of the Hydra, the boy burned the wounds immediately with a torch.
In HQ rules I would put this somewhat like this:
Hydra has 1 BP per head. Starts with 4 heads/BP. Every round she can attack with as many combat dice as she has heads / BP left. She can only loose 1 BP per attack (you can't do more damage than severing a head). Whenever a head / BP is lost, she will have two new heads and BP instead of it at the start of her next turn. To prevent this, another hero must attack and hit (score at least one undefended skull) the Hydra with a torch (2 Combat Dice, Hydra defends as normal). He must do so after the hit that cut of the head, but before the Hydra's next turn. The heroes may think of another way to prevent the heads from regrowing. More than two heroes may attack the Hydra, but for every "cutting" hero, there must be a "burning" hero to prevent regrow.

Other example - the Gorgon:
Other than the Basilisk, who really has a petryfying gaze, the Gorgon is just so bizarre to behold that a hero turns into stone when he sees her.
So, a possible rule would be:
We can assume that the heroes are smart enough to close their eyes or look the other way when the Gorgon is around, and they could even just ignore her and take the combat damage she does, but when they try to attack her or defend against her attack, they must make a test against their MP for every such action or be petrified.

...or when they try to cast a spell on her.