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Message: <blockquote data-quote="toucanbuzz" data-source="post: 8172151" data-attributes="member: 19270">First, visit <a href="https://www.themonstersknow.com/hags-revisited-part-1/" target="_blank">Hags Revisited, Part 1 - The Monsters Know What They’re Doing</a>. This guy has some great ideas.Second, if you don't like Hags as written, nothing says you can't beef them up. It's a failing of D&D that maybe they didn't get the word out strongly enough that you don't have to play anything "as-is."Whenever I feel like a demon or devil has been "nerfed" relative to prior editions where they were feared terrors, I give them some of their old-school powers. For comparison, the Night Hag. In original design, these were the ruling class of the Grey Wastes, feared by demons and devils alike who trafficked for their larval souls. They're supposed to be badass.<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>5E Ability</td><td>AD&D Ability</td></tr><tr><td>Magic missile (normal) at will. Great ability if you're not in melee. </td><td>Cast with 3 extra missiles, usable 5/day. Beef up her magic missiles by adding a few. These spells are terrors to denizens who are immune to nearly everything except force magic. The older the hag, the more missiles perhaps.</td></tr><tr><td>Sleep 2/day. Weak, by the time players face a Night Hag, this spell is mostly a joke.</td><td>At will (anything 12th level or lower must save, if sleeping victim strangled by hag, soul is taken to Grey Waste as larval currency). Holy crap nasty. So, like magic missiles, buff the level up to whatever HP scares you, same rationale as above. And, add the "steal their soul" option. Make them feared.</td></tr><tr><td>Ray of Enfeeblement 2/day. Weak option, spell was nerfed heavily from prior editions.</td><td>3/day, originally save (no attack needed) or down to STR 5 for duration, magic items like Gauntlets of Ogre Power override effect. No save each round. That's a nasty effect. Scary, and likely to immobilize those wearing armor. Make hags nasty. Let the STR go down to 5. Maybe add a save each round.</td></tr><tr><td>Nightmare Haunting. Pretty strong as-is. No save, no counter other than to catch her in the act. In that aspect, much weaker than its AD&D version.</td><td>Only usable against selfish evil creatures, enter dreams (ethereal form), no save drain 1 CON per night until dead, then take soul as larva. Ok, this won't be of much use against many D&D parties due to the alignment thing. But there was no counter, unlike 5E where she has to touch the creature. If she enters dream in ethereal form, that's really really tough to counter. It's like facing Freddy Krueger.</td></tr><tr><td>Resist cold, fire, non-magical B/S/P attacks not silvered, advantage on spell saves. Not bad, but by this time, your fighters likely have a magic weapon and your casters can still harm her with anything.</td><td>Immune fire, cold, sleep, charm, disease, any weapon less than +3 (they went to +5 in those days, and +3 is a pretty epic deal). Plus, 65% chance magic doesn't work. This was the nasty scary part of those days when on your turn you might be totally ineffective in what you do. D&D didn't like "wasted turns" so much and simply upped HP in favor of having nothing happen. When I ran Out of the Abyss, demon lords were pathetically weak and could be harmed by a run of the mill +1 weapon. I didn't like that, so I changed it to immune to anything below +2, resist otherwise to anything but another demon lord or demigod+ attack. They're nearly demi-gods. One created an entire race (gnolls). So, if you don't like Night Hags being weak, take a page from the old days, or two. Whatever leaves you thinking: demons and devils are scared witless by Night Hags.</td></tr></table>Finally, make up your own Coven spells! These hags have been working together for who knows how long and come up with their own stuff.I'm running a campaign where I expect the PCs to run afoul of a Hag Cult. These 1st level cultists, mostly ordinary citizens, are nothing by themselves. But put 3 or more together, and suddenly they have a pool of spells and become dangerous.</blockquote>

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