Green hag CR

[Bootlebat]

Are green hags really supposed to be only CR 3? They seem to have a ridiculous amount of HD and HP (11 and 82 respectively) for their CR.

 

[5ekyu]

Are green hags really supposed to be only CR 3? They seem to have a ridiculous amount of HD and HP (11 and 82 respectively) for their CR.

Yes.

A party of four 3rd levels likely has as many hit points more HD similar armor classes and with four characters worth of actions plus likely healing then the hag is almost certainly little threat long term.

The biggest ability is the invisible but that is more escape or delay than offensive.

But faerie fire or web or tasha (iirc) or many other spells can mostly end her romps in short order allowing gang ups on any failed save.

Favorable setup and circumstances can give her more edge but that's the terrain boost to cr sort of thing.

 

[Ymdar]

Had two hags against a group of four PCs, 3 of them were level 4 and one was level 5. They obliterated the hags. Truth to be told one of the PCs had a really powerful magic weapon but still.

 

[Quickleaf]

Are green hags really supposed to be only CR 3? They seem to have a ridiculous amount of HD and HP (11 and 82 respectively) for their CR.

Take a look at capabilities of 3rd level PCs in 5th edition. Also take a look at the 5e DMG page 274 which gets into the underlying maths behind the challenge rating system for monsters. You'll quickly see that the green hag is appropriately rated CR 3.

Generally speaking, monsters in 5e have more hit points than in AD&D or 3e. You can read more about the inflation of monster HP over here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?358455-Does-Anybody-Think-Monsters-Have-Far-Too-Much-HP

Personally, I think the HP is mostly fine. What really matters is not the HP but how many rounds the monster takes to drop. You can't just look at the monsters in a vacuum of theorycraft; you need to compare to the whole game and the PCs during actual play.

For example, a party of four 3rd level PCs in 5e could easily deal ~40 damage per round, dropping the green hag on the second or third round.

 

[Warpiglet]

I actually have a green hag as a main villain right now...she is posing as a good religious figure in exile. I don't plan to make it easy. First, she will have minions. Secondly, she is hard to track! If she goes invisible and runs, the party better have a good plan to catch her! A big greatsword does little to someone who is no longer there. I don't think they are all that tough frankly. In fact, if they have a party ringing them, the hag has already lost. Mine is doing damage through trickery and engineering problems from afar. If the party somehow gets up on her, they will dump three spells right away and likely stop her in her tracks. I don't think green hags are particularly imposing combatants.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

It should be noted that they get a boost to CR 5 when in a coven of 3 hags.

 

[aco175]

I would still add a few minion types to the encounter in going against L3 PCs.