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• May 22, 2020

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Homunculus

  This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

  I think Homunculi are derived from a medieval alchemy concept, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been in the game since AD&D. Here they appear only in the Monster Manual.

  The Lore

  In my post on Helmed Horrors I compared construct creators to real-world programmers. Let’s stretch the analogy a bit further: if golems and greater helmed horrors are big packages of enterprise software, then homunculi are shell scripts.

  These minor constructs are built for the exact same purposes as their beefier relatives: to act as tireless guardians, servants, and muscle. Being low-level, I imagine they’re a lot easier to create, and their programming includes some “shortcuts” that make them particularly adept at a specific kind of guard job.

  Mentally, they’re pretty much like golems: they can understand even complex instructions from their masters perfectly, and execute them without much thought of self-preservation unless specifically ordered to avoid taking damage. Unlike golems, though, ownership of an homunculus can be transferred to someone else with a simple order (“this person is your master now”). This means they’ll often be found in the service of someone who isn’t their creator.

  So a low-level aspiring golem maker can have homunculi as servants, and higher-level casters who would use actual golems as personal guards can mass-produce homunculi and assign them to their underlings. The relative weakness of an homunculus is actually an asset here! If those pesky organic underlings start getting rebelious ideas, your personal guard-bot can easily squash them.

  The Numbers

  We get three quite diverse stat blocks here. They’re all Natural Animates with the Construct and Homunculus keywords, training in Perception, darkvision, and immunity to disease and poison. Everything else is variable.

  Different types of homunculus gain special bonuses when tasked to guard a person, object or area. For rules purposes, objects can weight up to 50 pounds and areas can be up to 5 squares on a side. We’ll see why in a minute.

  Clay Scout

  

  This Small homunculus is probably the one closest to the classic myth. It’s used for, well, scouting, or for guarding small objects. I imagine it makes an adequate menial lab assistant if well-managed.

  Clay scouts are Level 2 Lurkers with 31 HP and all common homunculus traits. They’re also trained in Stealth, and can run at speed 6 or fly at speed 3 (clumsy).

  Scouts attack with a weak venomous bite that allows a secondary attack against Fortitude, which slows on a hit (save ends). They can attack at range using a Mind Touch (Ranged 10 vs. Will) which does adequate psychic damage and dazes (save ends). Mind Touch is clearly their main attack, with the bite being more of an emergency measure.

  When targeted by a melee or ranged attack, they can use Redirect as an interrupt. This target’s the attackers Will, and on a success forces them to redirect their attack to an adjacent creature of the homunculus’ choice. Tricky!

  They cap things off with a couple of interesting passive traits: clay scouts are invisible to dazed creatures and, if tasked to guard an object, gain a +4 to attack anyone adjacent to or carrying that object.

  I think they’d mostly use their attacks to prevent pursuit in case they’re discovered spying on you. They’re big enough to carry most objects they could be set to guard, too. This is the construct you use when you want to carry something to the ends of the earth so it’s never found again.

  Iron Defender

  

  A metal guard dog, for when drakes aren’t enough but you don’t have the budget for a shield guardian. It’s a Level 3 Soldier with 47 HP and all common homunculus traits. It runs with speed 6.

  It attacks by biting, and if tasked to guard a creature it can bite anyone who attacks that creature as a reaction. It can also shift 1 square before or after making opportunity attacks.

  Iron Cobra

  

  An homunculus named for its shape, not its role. As far as homunculi go, this is a high-end model.

  It’s a Level 6 Skirmisher with 75 HP and all common homunculus traits. It slithers with speed 7, and can shift 3 squares as a move action.

  They attack with a venomous bite that also does 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends), and it can poison its enemies’ minds as well.

  Poison the Mind (Ranged 10 vs. Will; recharge 3-6) is an attack that can only target creatures suffering ongoing poison damage. The cobra’s bite is an obvious source of this, but if other venomous creatures are part of the same encounter their attacks also count. A hit dazes and slows the target (save ends).

  When set to guard an area, iron cobras can use Poison the Mind without restriction against any creature inside that area. This means the attack effectively becomes at-will, and can target anyone in the area even if they aren’t taking poison damage.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  The sample encounter is Level 9: 2 iron cobras, 2 snaketongue warriors, and 1 snaketongue assassin. As expected, iron cobras are a hit with snake fanatics everywhere!

  I think homunculi fulfill a necessary role for GMs who want to pit their PCs against constructs from an early point in the campaing. As we’ve seen already, golems and other similar constructs are usually too powerful to be fought by early-heroic tier characters.

  I also like that their existence allows for that “construct-making as a parody of the tech industry” setting element I’ve been thinking about.

• May 21, 2020

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Helmed Horror

  

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

  I first remember seeing Helmed Horrors in Neverwinter Nights, which used the 3e rule set. It’s quite possible they’ve been in the game since AD&D, though. Here, they’re only on the MM.

  The Lore

  Helmed Horrors are one of the many constructs-that-are-not-golems. They’re created by means of an ancient ritual just like golems, but have several practical differences.

  First, the ratio of matter to elemental energy is different. The physical body of a helmed horror is a suit of plate armor, not a solid statue. This suit is filled with a much greater amount of energy pulled from the Elemental Chaos, enough to give the horror a coruscating aura and to infuse its weapon attacks with elemental damage. This also gives them the ability to regenerate.

  Mentally, Helmed Horrors are smarter and have a bit more personality, though they’re still completely loyal to their creators. They can speak, and they have excellent senses (including both darkvision and truesight). They’re typically given greatswords as weapons, and are used for much the same purposes as a golem: guardians, bodyguards, or remorseless muscle.

  Given their greatly enhanced senses and their trained skills, I imagine it’s also possible for a helmed horror to be used as a bounty hunter or city guard, possibly accompanied by organics who handle the more delicate social tasks.

  The Numbers

  We get two helmed horror stat blocks here. Both are Medium Elemental Animates (constructs) with training in Perception and Insight, plus Darkvision and Truesight. They speak Common and Primordial, and have human-level intelligence (one has 10, the other 12).

  Helmed Horrors are immune to charm, disease, fear, poison and sleep, a greater suite of immunities than even some golems get. They also have varying levels of Regeneration and the ability to fly at the same speed they walk, though they do so clumsily.

  Helmed Horror

  The basic model is a Level 13 Soldier with 131 HP and all common traits above. Its regeneration is 5, and its speed is 6 both on the ground and in the air.

  The horror’s Elemental Greatsword does a mix of physical damage and one of cold, fire, lightning or thunder, chosen before each attack is rolled. Its damage is “naturalistic”, but the bonus elemental damage manages to get to just a couple of points less than its correct value.

  Once per encounter the horror can perform a Blade Sweep to attack two different targets, and it has a Tactical Step ability that allows it to shift 2 squares when it hits with an opportunity attack.

  Greater Helmed Horror

  This is a Level 18 Elite Soldier with 348 HP, which at first glance looks like it puts it on a roughly even footing with stone or iron golems. However, that’s not quite true.

  The Greater Helmed Horror is basically a leveled-up version of the basic model. Its Regeneration is 10, its speed 8 in all movement modes, its Tactical Step shifts it 3 squares instead of 2.

  It still gets only one greatsword attack, which due to “naturalistic” design only does 1 point of damage more than the basic model’s. It can also do a Blade Sweep, but still only once per encounter.

  It does get a new attack in the form of Elemental Burst (Close Burst 5 vs. Reflex; Recharge 5-6), which does a bit less damage than the sword and has the same damage type options.

  Greater Helmed Horrors require a bit more work to bring up to the standards of the new math - their damage needs a boost, and I’d also make their Blade Sweep an at-will action. That would put them in the same footing as a golem.

  Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

  We get one sample encounter here. Level 14, 2 helmed horrors, 1 mummy lord and 3 firelasher elementals. I’m guessing the mummy was the thing’s original creator, and summoned the elementals too.

  We’ve already seen at least three different “families” of constructs that are created via ancient rituals and end up getting used for roughly the same purposes: golems, guardians, and helmed horrors. That makes me think of a setting where construct-making spellcasters are a bit like programmers. Each follows a specific school of thought and employs a different “language”, and they bicker constantly about whose is best. And unlike real-world programmers, these people can have their creations beat each other up when their arguments get really heated.

• May 18, 2020

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Harpy

  

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

  D&D Harpies are inspired by the harpies from Greek mythology, with a bit of siren mixed in. They’ve been in the game since pretty much the beginning. Here, they are on the Monster Manual only.

  The Lore

  In ancient times there was an evil elf witch queen. She and her unscrupulous children often took the form of golden eagles to spy on their subjects. A mighty hero defeated them and drove them into exile, breaking the queen’s magic crown in the process. It was the crown that gave them the power to change shape, and when it broke the evil family became stuck as part-bird, part-elf beings. These were the first harpies.

  Modern harpies roost in dismal places where few others can live: swamps, badlands, ruins, coastal cliffs. They fly out to hunt or to attack travelers, pacifying their victims with their magic-imbued songs and tearing them apart with their claws.

  Both male and female harpies exist, but they usually only spend enough time together to produce a batch of eggs. Once the female lays her eggs, the male takes off. Because of this is quite rare for PCs to find a mixed-gender group of harpies.

  The Numbers

  Harpies are Medium Fey Humanoids and have human-level intelligence. This means there’s nothing stopping your setting from containing settlements of unaligned or friendly harpies, but the ones we get here are Evil bandit-types.

  Harpies walk with speed 6 and fly with speed 8 (clumsy), which means they mostly fight on the ground when using their claws, or from some high perch when using their ranged special powers. If you want them to be better fliers, removing the Clumsy keyword is a good start.

  Unlike the elves they used to be, harpies have no special ability to see in the dark.

  Harpy

  The classic model is a Level 6 Controller with 71 HP and the common traits listed above. It also has Resist 10 Thunder.

  Harpies fight in melee with their claws, and prefer to do so from the ground since they’re clumsy fliers.

  Their main special ability is the afore-mentioned Alluring Song (Close Burst 10 vs. Will), which can affect any non-deaf enemy in range. A hit pulls the target 3 squares and immobilizes them (save ends). The harpy can use a minor action in subsequent turns to sustain the power and pull anyone who hasn’t saved yet another 3 squares.

  Once their enemies are all nice and bunched up, the harpy can let loose a Deadly Screech (Close Burst 4 vs. Fortitude; recharge 5-6), which does thunder damage and dazes (save ends).

  Both of the harpy’s damaging attacks are in serious need of a damage boost. This, and removing the Clumsy keyword from their flight speed, should be enough to bring them up to MV standards. The Alluring Song is particularly dangerous in a battlefield full of cliffs or other hazards.

  Bloodfire Harpy

  This one doesn’t bother with nice songs, it just kills you with fire.

  A Bloodfire Harpy is a Level 9 Soldier with 100 HP. It has Resist 10 Fire and sings a Burning Song (aura 20) that slowly boils the blood of anyone in range who can hear it, dealing 5 fire damage at the start of their turns.

  This harpy also fights with claws, which are red-hot and do a mix of physical and fire damage. It can also disgorge a Cloud of Ash (Close Blast 3 vs. Fortitude; recharge 4-6) which does fire damage and blinds (save ends).

  These fiery things could use the same damage boost as the basic model, but they work fine otherwise.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  Judging by the sample encounters in the book, harpies tend to keep some fine company:

  • Level 6: 3 harpies, 2 spined devils. They have a lot in common when you think about it.

  • Level 8: 1 bloodfire harpy, 3 gnoll marauders, 2 cacklefiend hyenas. Just a bunch of bros hanging out, doing some light pillaging and burning.

  • Level 8: 2 harpies, 1 sahuagin priest, 3 sahuagin raiders. Better plug your crew’s ears before you get too close to this reef.

  I like harpies! Mythological monsters are always fun, and these ones have some interesting song effects. It’s also not too hard to come up with new varieties, like a skirmisher harpy with better agility and Flyby Attack, or one that can put people to sleep with their song.

• May 17, 2020

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Halfling

  

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

  Halflings have existed since the beginning of D&D. Though they don’t appear among the original classes, IIRC they were introduced in a very early supplement. Their original inspiration is of course Tolkien’s hobbits. Early halflings were exactly like hobbits, though this changed as editions went on.

  In 4e they appear as a playable race in the PHB, and have entries both in the Monster Manual and Monster Vault.

  The Lore

  Like the halflings of most other editions, those in the implied setting of Fourth have no nation to call their own. The big difference here is that they’re not alone in this, as it’s also true of a lot of others.

  Halflings most often live in other people’s cities. Their own settlements are always built on the margins of rivers, and make extensive use of them for both food and transportation.

  Barges full of nomadic halfling traders are a common sight in any city near a river, which tend to treat them like a mixed blessing because those caravans are also the source of the halfling’s reputation for petty larceny in addition to the usual goods and news from afar.

  Halfling culture places great value in facing the world with a smile. A halfling will present a friendly demeanor when faced even with the most intimidating behavior, and will try to talk their way out of trouble if at all possible. When things get more serious than that, though, so do they. Despite their small size, they’re clever and fearless fighters.

  Judging from the art in the books, halfling fashion tends to diagonal patterns in their clothes and armor. They wear their hair long and often braided, and may sport tatoos with water or fish motifs.

  The Numbers

  Halflings are Small Natural Humanoids with Speed 6. Their signature traits as “monsters” are the same ones for the PC version: a +5 bonus to saves against fear, and a trait called Nimble Reaction which gives them +2 to AC against opportunity attacks. They also get the PC version’s +2 bonus to Acrobatics and Thievery.

  The MM halflings also get the same Second Chance encounter power as PCs, a reaction which forces an attacker that just hit them to reroll their attack and go with the second result. MV halflings lack this.

  The stat blocks we get here all seem to represent rogue-types, with mobile combat styles focused on precision strikes with light blades. As usual for playable races, the ones in the MM have an alignment of Any, and the ones in the MV are Unaligned.

  Halfling Slinger (MM)

  Slingers are Level 1 Artillery with 22 HP and all common MM halfling traits. They’re trained in a bevy of skills: Perception, Stealth and Thievery.

  They fight in melee with a dagger but prefer ranged combat with their slings. Every once in a while they can fire off a Stone Rain (recharge 5-6) which allows them to make three sling attacks at a -2 penalty.

  They deal “sneak attack” damage on ranged attacks if they have combat advantage, and have a Sniper trait that allows them to remain hidden if they miss a ranged attack from hiding.

  A unit of slingers will try even harder to hide itself than a unit of elven archers, and they’ll all open up with Stone Rain from hiding. Combat advantage will mean they attack without penalty and do extra damage if they hit, and Sniper will mean they stay hidden if all attacks miss.

  Halfling Stout (MM)

  This isn’t a type of ale, but rather a Level 2 Minion Skirmisher armed with a short sword and a sling. It has all halfling signature traits, and likely represents an average halfling citizen taking up arms to defend their home.

  Halfling Thief (Both)

  The source of that reputation for petty larceny, or just a veteran combatant from the Stout ranks. Halfling Thieves are Level 2 Skirmishers with 34 HP and all signature traits. It’s trained in Acrobatics, Stealth and Thievery.

  They fight with daggers both in melee and at range, and can execute a Mobile Melee attack that allows them to move without drawing opportunity attacks and attack at any point along the movement. The MM version moves 3 squares in this way, and the MV one moves 4.

  The MM version can perform sneak attacks in melee, and the MV version can perform them both in melee and at range.

  Halfling Trickster (MV)

  This Level 3 Lurker has 35 HP and all MV signature traits. It’s trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, and Thievery.

  Tricksters fight with a shortsword, which does roughly two and a half times more damage if the halfling is hidden from the target when it attacks. If the trickster ends a turn in which it didn’t attack with partial cover of concealment from a creature, it automatically hides from that creature for a turn. That sets up its lurker routine.

  If no cover or concealment is readily available, the trickster can make its own with an at-will Smoke Pellet (Area Burst 1 Within 10; minor action) that lightly obscures the targeted area for a turn.

  Halfling Prowler (MM)

  A seriously elite thief, this is a Level 6 Lurker with 52 HP who should really be a skirmisher. It has all MM signature traits and training in pretty much all thiefy skills.

  The prowler fights with a short sword and a hand crossbow, both of which have secondary attacks against Fortitude that deal ongoing poison damage and slow (save ends both).

  It also has two additional passive traits: Catfall to reduce the height of any fall by an effective 20 feet, and Crowd Shield to give it AC and Reflex bonuses when adjacent to one or more creatures: +2 if only one, +4 if two or more.

  I think the intent here is that the prowler doesn’t get the bonus if the only creature adjacent to it is the attacker, but play it however you want.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  We have no less than three sample encounters:

  • Level 2: 4 halfling stouts, halfling thief, 2 guard drakes, 1 needlefang drake swarm. A patrol protecting the village… or the hideout.

  • Level 2: 2 slingers, 2 thieves, 2 guard drakes. Another one.

  • Level 6: 4 prowlers, 2 human berserkers.

  I like these halflings. They have enough kender in them to be different from your usual Tolkien hobbits, but not enough to become annoying. Most notably they are not compelled to steal from the party and have enough sense to recognize dangerous situations and avoid drawing themselves or the party into them. It won’t prevent a bad player from doing those things anyway, but they can’t hide behind the “I’m just playing my character!” excuse.

• May 16, 2020

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Hag

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

  Hags have been in the game since the days of AD&D at least. Here they are present in both books.

  The Lore

  Hags are fairytale witches. It seems that the more traditional types of D&D hags were each inspired by a specific tale (Black Annis, Jenny Greenteeth and so on), but even the new ones all share in that same aesthetic.

  The original fairy tales aren’t always clear on whether their witches are human or not, but in D&D they explicitly not human. Hags are a type of fey that happen to resemble horrible women. They’re thematically linked to nature’s ugliness, in much the same way dryads are linked to its beauty.

  As befits fairytale witches, hags live in places inhospitable to humans such as haunted forests, dismal swamps or lonely mountain-tops castigated by storms. Their use magic to build lairs fitting their particular sense of aesthetics: huts that walk on chicken feet, giant trees shaped like crucified corpses, and probably the occasional gingerbread house located where a lost child might stumble upon it.

  While I suppose you might find an Unaligned hag that just wants to be left alone, the books present them as typically Evil. They’re greedy, selfish, and dislike beautiful things. These hags usually have one or more sinister schemes going on, which they advance through social manipulation and the use of magic. Their end goals might be a simple as accumulating more treasure, or as esoteric as weakening the metaphysical concept of beauty in the world. Or maybe it’s something in between like exacting revenge on a mortal family for a centuries-old slight.

  All hags see each other as sisters and keep in touch, though mostly to bicker and argue. It’s likely at least some of a hag’s schemes are aimed at her own “family” instead of at unsuspecting mortals.

  As far as evil D&D monsters go, hags are surprisingly amenable to parley. They’ll gladly negotiate with PCs and even give gifts if that would advance their long-term plans. The MV mentions more heroes were ultimately defeated by a hag’s kindness than by their claws.

  The Numbers

  There’s quite a bit of variation between different hag stat blocks, but they do share some common themes and abilities. They’re all Medium Fey Humanoids, and each one is trained in several skills: Bluff is universal, as is either Nature or Arcana. Stealth and Insight are very common as well.

  In 4e effects not directly relevant to combat tend to stay out of a monster’s stat block, so even though every hag is a powerful spellcaster with knowledge of rituals long lost to mortals, in combat they mostly rely on their superhuman strength, claws, and perhaps one or two magical abilities.

  One such ability all hags have is Change Shape. This usually allows them to take the form of a woman of any humanoid race, and lasts until the hag uses the ability again or dies. Some of them have additional restrictions on what forms they can take, but in the end they can always appear as civilians to mortal eyes.

  Like doppelgangers, hags might disguise themselves as specific individuals they’ve observed, in which case spotting the disguise requires beating them in an opposed Insight vs. Bluff check where the hag has a +20 bonus. The MV versions instead give fixed DCs which are a bit more forgiving, but still quite hard.

  Howling Hag (MM)

  This Level 7 Controller has 83 HP, low-light vision, and a lot of sound-based powers. It moves at Speed 6, has Resist 10 Thunder, and constantly mutters a series of Baleful Whispers (Aura 5) which cause a bit of psychic damage to anyone in range.

  The howling hag fights with a quarterstaff in melee, and attacks at range with a Howl (Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude) for thunder damage. It can intensify that into a Shriek of Pain that does more damage, and recharges when the hag is bloodied. The second, bloodied shriek will do even more damage.

  For support skills, it can Change Shape as above to assume the form of an old crone of any Medium humanoid species. It can also use a Fey Step once per encounter to teleport up to 10 squares.

  Unfortunately, this hag’s damage is all over the place. The staff and basic howl attacks suffer from “naturalistic” design and are most in need of repair. The Shriek is closer to appropriate but still needs a tiny boost.

  Bog Hag (Both)

  

  Bog Hags are Level 10 Skirmishers with 107 HP, low-light vision and Speed 8 on both land and water. They’re Aquatic and have Swamp-Walk, ignoring swamp-based difficult terrain. Their Unwholesome Presence (Aura 3) causes enemies in range to only recover half the usual HP from spending healing surges.

  The MV version is the best one. Its basic attack is a Claw that does damage and allows the hag to shift 2 squares as an effect. It also has a Rending Claws special attack, which allows it to use Claw twice (including the shift) and to do 5 extra damage if both attacks hit the same target. This recharges once the hag is first bloodied.

  When the hag charges, its Evasive Charge ability allows it to shift 2 squares immediately after the charge.

  The MM version is the same, but its damage suffers from the early math flaw and it doesn’t have a shift effect on its basic attack.

  In both versions, the hag can Change Shape into a young human, elf or eladrin woman.

  Green Hag (MV)

  Green Hags have a more classically witchy stat block than the previous two. They’re Level 12 Controllers with 124 HP, and all the same senses and movement modes as the Bog Hag plus Forest Walk. All of their attacks are earth- or plant-themed spells.

  Their basic melee attack is Hurl Through the Earth, which does damage and teleports the target 3 squares.

  Their at-will ranged attack is Grasping Roots (Area Burst 2 Within 5 vs. Reflex) which does no damage but restrains on a hit (save ends). On a miss, the targets are slowed for a turn instead.

  Once per encounter they can use Rampant Growth (Area Burst 2 Within 5 vs. Reflex), which must be centered on someone restrained by Grasping Roots. This does damage and creates a zone that lasts the whole encounter, which counts as damaging difficult terrain for anyone without forest walk.

  Slightly more often it can cast Stagnant Miasma (Area Burst 2 Within 5 vs. Fortitude; recharge 5-6), which does poison damage and creates a damaging poison zone that lasts a turn.

  The green hag’s Change Shape power allows it to assume the form of a young woman or a crone of any Medium humanoid race.

  Night Hag (Both)

  

  Terrifying haunters of dreams, Night Hags are Level 14 Lurkers with 109 HP and Speed 8. They have darkvision, and surround themselves in a Shroud of Night that makes all illumination one step darker in its area of effect: bright light becomes dim, dim light becomes darkness. This is an Aura 5 in the MM, 10 in the MV.

  Their basic claw attack also stuns the target (save ends) if the hag has combat advantage. They can also cast a Wave of Sleep (Close Blast 5 vs. Will) that does psychic damage and dazes (save ends). This worsens to unconsciousness (save ends) after the first failed save.

  Once the hag has a target stunned or unconscious, it can use its supreme technique: Dream Haunting (Melee 1 vs. Will). This does an initial chunk of psychic damage on a hit, and allows the hag to enter the target’s dreams. It vanishes from play and begins dealing psychic damage to the target automatically on its turn. The hag stays there until the target is no longer stunned or unconscious, or until it dies! Once either of these happens, the hag reappears on an adjacent square, insubstantial for a turn.

  This is the combat version of the power. You can of course still have adventures where a night hag sneaks into the PC’s dreams in a more subtle manner.

  Night Hags can Change Shape to appear as old crones of any Medium humanoid species.

  Death Hag (MM)

  

  Here’s your basic Baba Yaga wannabe. Death hags are Level 18 Soldiers with 171 HP, Speed 6, low-light vision and Resist 10 Necrotic.

  Monstrously strong, they attack with claws that mark and prevent any healing from working on the target for a turn. They can also employ life-draining blasts (Close Blast 3 vs. Fortitude; recharge 3-6) that deal necrotic damage and heal the hag for 5 HP for every target hit. Their Change Shape is the most flexible variety detailed at the start of the article.

  Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

  We have two of those in the Monster Manual:

  • Level 9: 2 howling hags, 2 gnoll demonic scourges and 2 barlguras. These hags are up to even nastier tricks than usual.

  • Level 10: 1 bog hag, 1 venom-eye basilisk, 2 shambling mounds, 2 trolls. And this one has quite the entourage.

  I like the concept fairytale witches that you can talk to and (cautiously!) deal with. I’m a bit more inclined than the books to make hags Unaligned, though. Like, they’re deeply into their own business and will definitely curse you or kill you if you’re an ass to them, but if you’re courteous and respectful they’ll give you genuine help. So a bit more like a Russian fairytale than a German one.

  Mechanically they end up being a bit simpler and quite a bit more physical than they used to be in previous editions. This is not necessarily a bad thing if it means you no longer have to memorize the effects and frequencies of 14 spell-like abilities. As I said above, ritual casting accounts for most of a hag’s magic now - they certainly have the skills for it.

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