Illustration Xan Drake

Night Hag

System Reference Document 5.1
Challenge 5
(1,800 XP)
Robinloft Estimated CR 8
Medium fiend, neutral evil
Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 112 (15d8+45)
Speed 30 ft.
STR
18 (+4)
DEX
15 (+2)
CON
16 (+3)
INT
16 (+3)
WIS
14 (+2)
CHA
16 (+3)
Saving Throws
Skills Deception +9, Insight +8, Perception +8, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances cold, fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Condition Immunities charmed
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal, Primordial
Environments
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.

Hag Eye.

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.

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).

Shared Spellcasting.

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.

Innate Spellcasting. The hag's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
2/day each: plane shift (self only), ray of enfeeblement, sleep

Actions

Claws (Hag Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (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 if the target was evil, 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.

Hags

“From the murkiest depths to the most hidden hollows, beware the cackle that shivers the night. It is the laughter of hags, crones of endless malice.”

Hags often appear as bedraggled old women, but they are malevolent fey beings steeped in deceit and corruption—the very archetypes of the wicked witch.

Mistresses of Deceit. Hags are the twisted embodiment of wickedness, cunning, and malevolent magic. They usually dwell in remote locations—from swampy lairs to desolate mountain caves—jealously guarding their secrets. Their presence is often marked by telltale signs of blight and corruption.

Harbingers of Misfortune. Few creatures are as skilled in the arts of curse-casting and fortune-telling as hags. While their prophecies often prove true, they inevitably lead to ruin and suffering, serving the hags’ own nefarious purposes. They ensnare the unwary, from hapless peasants to corrupt leaders who unwisely seek their counsel.

A Coven’s Strength. Hags become exceptionally powerful when part of a coven—a trio of hags who combine their spells and dark knowledge to formidable effect.

Night Hag

The little girl's limbs begin to stretch and contort, her skin turning purple as she grows into a nightmarish crone with fiendish horns. Cackling, she looses magic from her fingertips before rushing forward with her claws outstretched.

When a hag finds that her quest for power has reached the limits of her fey magic, occasionally she will barter with fiends to gain access to the baleful powers of hell or the abyss. Becoming a fiend herself, she gains the ability to craft some special magic items without the aid of a coven. One allows her to enter the ether, the other giving her the ability to capture souls of the dreaming.

Now able to transform instead of simply create an illusion, she can infiltrate humanoid settlements with ease, and her resistance to magic further protects her even if she is found out.

Intelligence check (DC 10): This appears to be a dangerous fey creature known as a hag.
Intelligence check (DC 15): However, it seems she has made some terrible bargain for power, becoming a fiend known as a Night Hag.
Intelligence check (DC 20): Night hags can change their shape, and have more dangerous magics at their disposal, including a resistance to the magic of others.
Intelligence check (DC 25): Using a special item called a Heartstone, they can step into the Ethereal Plane, and from there can enter dreams, stealing souls and putting them into a magic sack.

Known Relationships

Associations

Oni

Duplication and Templates

Want to make a new design starting from 'Night Hag'? Want to apply a template?