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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7389585" data-attributes="member: 6796661">For those of you who have run Curse of Strahd, how do you handle the Old Bonegrinder Night Hags 'nightmare haunting' ability?The party encountered them early in the game and had their first lesson that you need to be very careful about what you pick a fight within Barovia. One member escaped. The others were brought to 0 hit points or put to sleep. I had the party wake up to the hags making each eat a dream pastry. One party member refused. Morgantha first tried to scare him into it but then just smiled and said "well, then, no matter, we'll see you again."I'm playing the Night Hags not only with all abilities in the Monster Manual, but with all the coven and lair abilities in Volos. I'm also giving them a crystal ball. They have taken some hair from each of the party members that they had captured, so they can keep an eye on them, either for giving that information to Strahd or for their own purposes.For the players who ate the pastries, they only try to scry on the party. For the one character who did not hower, they use scry to try to find his location and then try to use their nightmare haunting on him when he sleeps. They've succeeded once already, bringing his max hit points down a bit. After talking to Father Lucian Petrovich, they know it is the witches doing this to him and that magic circle or protection from good and evil will keep them at bay. As for recovering his full max hp, they are told that only the abbot at the Abbey of Saint Markovia is likely to be able to help. But even after a greater restoration, he is subject to continued attacks. I'm wondering if I've made this too difficult to overcome by giving the witches a crystal ball and am thinking that they would instead use spies. That gives careful players another reason to be careful and a means to have some control over avoiding her attacks on their party member. I'm wondering if there are other things that can help -- for example, the party is now at Van Richten's tower with Van Richten. Van Richten could tell the party more about night hags. If he were willing to part with it, would his ring of mind shielding help? From the magic item's description, I don't think it would do anything against scrying. I want the threat of continued attacks to be something that the party must continue to struggle against. It reminds them to be careful in their interactions and also gives them a reason to go back and kill the witches (or steal/destroy the crystal ball). But I worry that this could also ruin the game for the character. On the other hand, there are two Paladins. Requiring them to cast protection from good and evil every night isn't too burdensome, just enough to be annoying that they will want to resolve the issue permanently. But how exactly will they know when to cast it? My thought is just to hand waive it, that they can tell by the reactions of the sleeping character when he is having night mares.Wondering what others thoughts are.  How have you--or how would you--handle this?</blockquote>

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