Night Hags
Basic Information
Anatomy
Civilization and Culture
History
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Mutable Type. At will, a night hag can choose whether she counts as fey, fiend or both for the purpose of any magical effects that refer to those types. This also changes her damage resistance, with her resistance to non-magical weapon attacks being overcome by silvered weapons only when she counts as a fiend and by cold iron only when she counts as fey. Innate Spellcasting. The hag's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: At will: detect magic, magic missile 2/day each: plane shift (self only), ray of enfeeblement, sleep Magic Resistance. The hag has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Night Hag Items. A night hag carries two very rare magic items that she must craft for herself If either object is lost, the night hag will go to great lengths to retrieve it, as creating a new tool takes time and effort. Heartstone: This lustrous black gem allows a night hag to become ethereal while it is in her possession. The touch of a heartstone also cures any disease. Crafting a heartstone takes 30 days. Soul Bag: When an evil humanoid dies as a result of a night hag's Nightmare Haunting, the hag catches the soul in this black sack made of stitched flesh. A soul bag can hold only one evil soul at a time, and only the night hag who crafted the bag can catch a soul with it. Crafting a soul bag takes 7 days and a humanoid sacrifice (whose flesh is used to make the bag). Hag Coven. When hags must work together, they form covens, in spite of their selfish natures. A coven is made up of hags of any type, all of whom are equals within the group. However, each of the hags continues to desire more personal power. A coven consists of three hags so that any arguments between two hags can be settled by the third. If more than three hags ever come together, as might happen if two covens come into conflict, the result is usually chaos. Shared Spellcasting (Coven Only). While all three members of a hag coven are within 30 feet of one another, they can each cast the following spells from the wizard's spell list but must share the spell slots among themselves: • 1st level (4 slots): identify, ray of sickness • 2nd level (3 slots): hold person, locate object • 3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, counterspell, lightning bolt • 4th level (3 slots): phantasmal killer, polymorph • 5th level (2 slots): contact other plane, scrying • 6th level (1 slot): eye bite For casting these spells, each hag is a 12th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as her spellcasting ability. The spell save DC is 12+the hag's Intelligence modifier, and the spell attack bonus is 4+the hag's Intelligence modifier. Hag Eye (Coven Only). A hag coven can craft a magic item called a hag eye, which is made from a real eye coated in varnish and often fitted to a pendant or other wearable item. The hag eye is usually entrusted to a minion for safekeeping and transport. A hag in the coven can take an action to see what the hag eye sees if the hag eye is on the same plane of existence. A hag eye has AC 10, 1 hit point, and darkvision with a radius of 60 feet. If it is destroyed, each coven member takes 3d10 psychic damage and is blinded for 24 hours. A hag coven can have only one hag eye at a time, and creating a new one requires all three members of the coven to perform a ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour, and the hags can't perform it while blinded. During the ritual, if the hags take any action other than performing the ritual, they must start over. Variant: Death Coven. For a death coven, replace the spell list of the hags’ Shared Spellcasting trait with the folllowing spells: 1st level (4 slots): false life, inflict wounds 2nd level (3 slots): gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement 3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, revivify, speak with dead 4th level (3 slots): blight, death ward 5th level (2 slots): contagion, raise dead 6th level (1 slot): circle of death Variant: Nature Coven. For a nature coven, replace the spell list of the hags’ Shared Spellcasting trait with the folllowing spells: 1st level (4 slots): entangle, speak with animals 2nd level (3 slots): flaming sphere, moonbeam, spike growth 3rd level (3 slots): call lightning, plant growth 4th level (3 slots): dominate beast, grasping vine 5th level (2 slots): insect plague, tree stride 6th level (1 slot): wall of thorns Variant: Prophecy Coven. For a prophecy coven, replace the spell list of the hags’ Shared Spellcasting trait with the folllowing spells: 1st level (4 slots): bane, bless 2nd level (3 slots): augury, detect thoughts 3rd level (3 slots): calirvoyance, dispel magic, nondetection 4th level (3 slots): arcane eye, locate creature 5th level (2 slots): geas, legend lore 6th level (1 slot): true seeing
Claws (Hag Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (2d8 + 4) slashing damage. Change Shape. The hag magically polymorphs into a Small or Medium female humanoid, or back into her true form. Her statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment she is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. She reverts to her true form if she dies. Etherealness. The hag magically enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa. To do so, the hag must have a heartstone in her possession. Nightmare Haunting (1/Day). While on the Ethereal Plane, the hag magically touches a sleeping humanoid on the Material Plane. A protection from evil and good spell cast on the target prevents this contact, as does a magic circle. As long as the contact persists, the target has dreadful visions. If these visions last for at least 1 hour, the target gains no benefit from its rest, and its hit point maximum is reduced by 5 (1d10). If this effect reduces the target's hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and its soul is trapped in the hag's soul bag. The reduction to the target's hit point maximum lasts until removed by the greater restoration spell or similar magic.
If a hag is a grandmother, she gains a set of lair actions appropriate to her nature, knowledge; and history. A co- ven that includes a grandmother can use her lair actions as well, but the grandmother's will prevails-if one of the coven attempts this sort of action and the grandmother disapproves, nothing happens. A powerful auntie (or her coven) might also have access to lair actions like these, but only at certain times of the year or when the influence of the Feywild is strong. The following lair actions are options for grandmothers and powerful aunties. Grandmothers usually have three to five lair actions, aunties usually only one (if they have any at all). Unless otherwise noted, any lair action that requires a creature to make a saving throw uses the save DC of the hag's most powerful ability. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the hag can take a lair action to cause one of the following effects, but can't use the same effect two rounds in a row: • Until initiative count 20 on the next round, the hag can pass through solid walls, doors, ceilings, and floors as if the surfaces weren't there. • The hag targets any number of doors and windows that she can see, causing each one to either open or close as she wishes. Closed doors can be magically locked (requiring a successful DC 20 Strength check to force open) until she chooses to make them unlocked, or until she uses this lair action again to open them. A powerful night hag might have the following additional lair actions: • One creature the hag can see within 120 feet of her must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be banished to a prison demiplane. To escape, the creature must use its action to make a Charisma check contested by the hag's. If the creature wins, it escapes the demiplane. Otherwise, the effect ends on initiative count 20 on the next round. When the effect ends, the creature reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that one is occupied. • The hag targets up to three creatures that she can see within 60 feet of her. Each target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be flung up to 30 feet through the air. A creature that strikes a solid object or is released in midair takes ld6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet moved or fallen.
A hag's foul nature slowly suffuses the environment around her lair, twisting it to evil. Each hag's lair is the source of three to five regional effects; the home of a grandmother, an auntie, or a coven has more effects than the lair of a single hag, including some that can directly harm intruders. Any regional effect that requires a creature to make a saving throw uses the save DC of the hag's most powerful ability. These effects either end immediately if the hag dies or abandons the lair, or take up to 2d10 days to fade away. The region within 1 mile of a grandmother hag's lair is warped by the creature's fell magic, which creates one or more of the following effects: • Birds, rodents, snakes, spiders, or toads (or some other creatures appropriate to the hag) are found in great profusion. • Beasts that have an Intelligence score of 2 or lower are charmed by the hag and directed to be aggressive toward intruders in the area. • Strange carved figurines, twig fetishes, or ragdolls magically appear in trees. A powerful night hag creates one or more of the following additional regional effects within 1 mile of her lair: • Shadows seem abnormally gaunt and sometimes move on their own as though alive. • Creatures are transported to a harmless but eerie demiplane filled with shadowy forms, waxy corpses, and cackling. The creatures are trapped there for a minute or two, and then returned to the place where they vanished from. • Intelligent creatures see hallucinations of dead friends, family members, and even themselves littering the hag's realm. Any attempt to interact with a hallucinatory image causes it to disappear.
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