Hag

Hags look like wretched old women in filthy peasant rags, with frayed hair, warty, blotchy skin, blackened teeth and foul breath. Scrawny as they seem, they can crush a goblin one-handed, bound over logs at a run, and tear foes apart with iron-hard claws.

Every hag has 18/00 or greater Strength, some magic resistance, and can change self whenever she likes. Disguised as a young woman, a feeble crone, or now and then an orc or hobgoblin, she pounces once weak prey comes near; against a strong party she keeps the mask on and uses persuasion or a prepared trap to isolate a target. Her flaw is arrogance, and a clever talker may see through her act.

Hags haunt desolate places, often bone-strewn forest glens, singly or in trios called coveys, mixing any types. Ogres serve as guards and servants; evil giants are respected partners. There is an 80% chance that a covey keeps a guard of 1d8 ogres plus 1d4 evil giants, and the same chance of one or two prisoners held nearby in an earthen pit (watched by a giant or one or two ogres) or an unguarded forcecage.

Once per day each, as a 9th-level caster, a covey can use animate dead, control weather, curse, dream, forcecage, mind blank, polymorph other, veil and vision. Casting requires all three to be no more than 10 feet apart, and they can make no other attacks that round. These powers are never used in battle but in long schemes against nearby towns, typically tricking someone into a vile deed that brings back more victims. Anyone who resists the covey is eaten.

Polymorphed ogre spies often (60%) wear a hag eye, a gem made from a past victim's eye that looks like a 20 gp stone; a gem of true seeing reveals the eye within. All three hags see whatever it faces, and they sometimes give one to a person they want to watch. Smashing it inflicts 1d10 points of damage on every member of the covey and blinds one of them for 24 hours.

Hags can eat a man-sized creature in 10 rounds and prefer human flesh. Humanity, good giants and good dragons all hunt them. They breed by seducing lone men in the guise of lovely maidens, always bearing daughters, and unproven legend says a hag can swap her unborn child into a sleeping woman's womb, killing the mother at birth. They adorn their greatest victims' bones with coins and jewelry, saving gems of 500 gp or more for hag eyes.

Biggest and mightiest of hags, an annis is seven or eight feet tall, deep blue, with glossy black hair, teeth and nails and dull green or yellow eyes. She has 60-foot infravision and keen hearing and smell, and only a 1 on 1d10 surprises her. Landing all three attacks in one round means she has grappled the victim, and every attack hits automatically thereafter until he dies, unless he is stronger, she dies, or magic frees him. She can cast fog cloud three times daily and change self into a tall human, ogre or small giant, both at 8th level. Edged weapons deal 1 less damage to her iron skin and blunt ones 1 more. Annis live about 500 years and speak their own tongue, ogre, evil giant languages and some common.

Green hags lurk in forests, swamps and bleak countryside, with bark-rough green skin, black to olive hair and amber or orange eyes. In forest or swamp their silence and coloring impose -5 on foes' surprise rolls; they have 90-foot infravision and keen senses, and only a 1 on 1d10 surprises them. Their 18/00 Strength adds +3 to hit and +6 to damage with their talons. They can use weakness, water breathing, invisibility, change self, pass without trace, audible glamer, speak with monsters and dancing lights at will, one per round, at 9th level, and mimic any human or demihuman voice, or most animals, often crying for help as bait. They speak an annis dialect, common and all demihuman tongues, and can live 1,000 years.

Sea hags dwell in weedy warm-sea shallows and rarely in choked lakes, with yellow, scaly, warty skin, red eyes and limp, weedy hair, and they hate all beauty. Using change self, a sea hag draws prey to within 30 feet and then drops the disguise; seeing her true form forces a save vs. spell or the viewer loses half his Strength for 1d6 turns. As often as three times daily she can turn her deadly glance on one creature within 30 feet, who must save vs. poison or die of fright (25%) or be paralyzed for three days (75%). She melees only with superior numbers, using a dagger at +3 to hit and +6 to damage. Their lifespan is 800 years, and they know common, annis, the sea elf tongue and their own speech.