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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Terraism" data-source="post: 3700966" data-attributes="member: 278">I gotcha.  I was just posting from work yesterday, and all three of the online SRDs I know of are blocked by the filter.  I'm constantly amazed that ENWorld isn't.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />That said, now that I'm looking over it with the description of what they benefit from... hrm.  I may consider their covey abilities worth an extra 1.5 EL, bumping them up to 10.  Really depends on the style of the game - will they be a strictly combat encounter, or are they going to be used more as background/preparation/BBEG(gals) for a while?Skimming through their list...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Animate Dead: They can animate up to 36 HD of zombies and skeletons with this ability, and any given undead can have up to 18 HD.  It's worth noting that summoned/animated creatures don't add to the EL of an encounter - they're assumed to be part of the primary creature's CR already - but in this case, since it's unusual, it may be worth considering at least a slight nudge.  Remember, it's a spell-like ability, so they need components as usual, which means 25 gp from their funds per HD of dead things.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bestow Curse: Not really worth any major boost.  It's certainly not a bad spell, but primary casters throw around worse, and the fact that it's really an in-combat (range of touch) spell that requires a full-round action from all three makes it relatively worthless versus PCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Control Weather: More of a situational spell - though an impressive one - than a combat power, they could probably use it to gain some minor battlefield bonus, at least - given their relative strength, compared to humans, they're better able to withstand heavy winds in combat, for example.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dream: No change whatsoever.  Nifty, but not a challenging ability.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Forcecage: This is the biggy.  No save, no SR.  If you've got a normal-sized party, it's well-worth the covey's time and effort to spend the round throwing this thing around them.  It lasts for the better part of the day (18 hours,) and if the covey can't wipe out the party by then, they have a problem.  The only counters to it are teleportation magics or disintegrate, and a party facing these three likely won't have any access to the latter... so they could be completely screwed.  It does cost the covey a lot of coin, though, so it's likely they'll use it sparingly or not have the components on hand.  If they do, though, this would certainly justify an EL hike, given the relative lack of options the party has against it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mind Blank: Irritating, especially if you've got an enchanter in the party who's completely hosed by it.  In all likelihood, all three of the hags will have this active on them at almost all times, so no scrying or any other magical information gathering around them.  Not really an EL hike, just something to watch out for if you've got a mind-affecting caster... they probably won't get to participate much in the encounter.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mirage, Veil, and Vision: Not going to address these separately - they're all situational illusions that, while handy, aren't likely going to change things much as far as the encounter difficulty is concerned, unless they're using them for surprise.  But even then, it's minor enough I'd consider it part of the general EL hike for the covey.</li> </ul>Anyway, enough talking.  I'd say that most of the covey spells warrant the +1 EL that Slapzilla & I recommended earlier, putting them at EL9... but, if you're going to make heavy use of either their Animate Dead or Forcecage abilities, I'd probably peg them at EL10, instead.</blockquote>

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