Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 168 - Monster Series - Hags

Episode Date: March 26, 2023

In an episode idea from generous donor Tim McKenzie, this week we talk about hags, especially their penchant for deals and their lethal abilities.  What makes hags tick?  What are their motivations and how can GMs use them in their campaign?  Tune in and find out.   #dnd #Pathfinder #opendnd #DMTips #hags   Resources: Monsters Know What They’re Doing - Hag Tactics - https://www.themonstersknow.com/hag-tactics/ The Monsters Know What They’re Doing - Hags - https://www.themonstersknow.com/hags-revisited-part-1/ Volo’s Guide to Monsters

This week on the Taking 20 Podcast. Hags don't go out looking to make bargains. They know that waiting for others to come to them puts the hag in a position of power over the person asking them. It gives the hag more leverage that they can use to make the bargain even more miserable for the person making it. Thank you so much for listening to the Taking 20 podcast, episode 168, picking the monster series back up and this time talking about hags. This week's sponsor, language. We have a person in my hometown who walks around talking to himself in figurative language.

We call him the village idiom. I've not pushed for donations for an extended period of time ever before, but all this month I've asked if you like the podcast, please consider donating to keep it alive. As you may know, producing a high-quality podcast requires significant time, effort, and resources. I am passionate about creating informative and engaging and entertaining content, but I can only continue to do so with your support. If you found value in the podcast and find it informative, humorous, or worth the

time to listen to, please consider making a donation at ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast. Every dollar goes a long way in helping us cover our production costs and ensuring that we can continue to bring you this high quality content-, and hopefully even more interviews in the future. Your contribution, no matter how small, makes a huge difference. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to continuing to share the podcast with you. Once again, Shana Laughlin from VentureForth, Michael Mills, Brenton Galbraith of 3D Crafts and Curios, and Tim McKenzie, thank you for your generous donations this month. Tim's donation included an idea for an episode on hags and reminded me that I hadn't done a monster episode in a while,

so it's time to tee that up. Hag. I beg your pardon? Evil old woman considered frightful or ugly. It's 12 time. I love hags. Not literally, no. I like my mind, body, and soul the way they are now, thank you very much, and getting involved with a hag is just an express ticket to losing one or more of those. So let me correct my statement. I love

hags in my role-playing games. They make for great antagonists for low to mid-level parties and can be played as unrelentingly evil or grossly misunderstood wherever along that slider you would like them to be. They make for great masterminds, tend to have a lot of moving parts and safety nets in case one of their ploys fails, and can be absolutely lethal in close combat. But what are they? What makes them tick? And how can GMs play them effectively? Keep your pants on. I'm getting to it. Hags are a type of fey monster found in Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder and other gaming systems. While there are differences between hags and all these different systems, they have more in common with each other than differences.

In those systems, for example, hags are fey creatures that live abnormally long lives, dwarfing even those of dragons and elves. Back in episode 148, I briefly discussed hags, and I talked about how the two fey courts, the seelie and unseelie courts, neither one of them really welcome hags. In Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 52, under the section called Hags, the Dark Sisterhood, the Seelie and Unseelie court appreciate and revere true beauty among the fae, and hags are almost never found in either one of them. The Summer Queen and the Queen of Air and Darkness recognize that hags have valuable knowledge and impressive magic. They can't abide the stain that

their hideousness would be on the beauty of their surroundings. Therefore, most hags are excluded from both courts. Wherever hags are found, they are typically depicted as older female creatures with a hideous appearance and powerful, dark, sinister, magical abilities. They use these abilities to manipulate and deceive mortals. They likely have their real-world origins, by the way, in naturalistic beliefs dating back probably about as far as you want to go in human history. Imagine an ancient settlement with an older woman who lives at the edge of the wilderness who knows all sorts of obscure natural remedies,

and that's probably where the idea of a magical hag originated. As Christianity spread, hags would inevitably become more and more demonized, giving rise to tales of grisly old demon witches with a taste for human flesh who make painful bargains for their healing arts. The truth on earth probably was much more mundane than that. But the legends of hags appeared in Middle English as a shortened form of the word hegtesa, which was a term for witch. Stories about hags who steal and eat children, made bargains for souls, and other nefarious actions were likely propagated as stories to scare children into staying away from potentially

dangerous areas. One of the most popular English hags was called Peg Powler, who lived in the River Tees that skinned the color of pond scum. Children were warned that if they got too close to the water, she would pull them in with her long arms, drown them, and eat them. There were other hags in English mythology like Jenny Greenteeth, Nellie Longarms, and, of course, Baba Yaga. The hags in D&D were found as far back as the 1975 original D&D book called the Blackmore Supplement. The hag in that supplement was described as having the exact same powers as a dryad, but with one key difference. The hag was so ugly, she could kill you with a look. And you know, reading that, I suddenly feel much better about myself.

I may be ugly, but I'm not kill you to look at me ugly, despite what Crystal said to me a thousand years ago at senior prom. As D&D evolved to basic D&D, advanced D&D, second edition, third edition, etc., the Hag became a unique creature all its own with different stats from dryads and increasing variety as to the types and capabilities close to what we see in current game systems like 5e and Pathfinder. As I mentioned earlier, there are some key differences, but they still are more alike than not. The first and most important fact about hags, yes, they are strong and quick and can use their claws to turn you into shredded beef,

but they are also intelligent and have a very high charisma score despite their ugly appearance. Hags are more likely to choose to try to strike a bargain with you than enter into combat. From the hag's perspective, why kill a character when you can bargain from a position of power for something important to you? Whenever they do socially engage with a party, they are skilled negotiators and manipulators. They are flighty, dangerous, inscrutable, and willing to strike a bargain as long as they perceive they have an advantage. And with their intelligence, they more than likely will have the advantage. They're willing to provide information, safe passage, even trinkets and items they've picked up along the way.

But they will always ask for something in return. That could be something that the party would expect, like a potion or magic item, but it's far more likely to be something that meets the ends of whatever plots the hag is hatching. Examples I've seen used in the past. A newborn child. The character's luck. Credit to Critical Role for that idea. The character's name, meaning either the hag now has power over them or the character no longer remembers who they are. Or my favorite to use, a favor to be redeemed in the future. Remember, a hag is cunning, deceitful, and intelligent. They may even seem helpful to the party at first, making them drop their guard and think, oh, the people in the village were just

superstitious yokels. But when they do strike the bargain, they will enforce what they ask for in the most literal sense and in a way that is not good for the person they're bargaining with. Can you spare a moment of your time? Could mean that the hag takes control of the character for one round in a future fight. Or that moment where the character is sent into a nightmare realm that lasts a second in the real world, but ten years in the character's mind. Asking for the character's firstborn may seem like the characters have gotten one over on the hag. I'm not even married and I'm not even planning on having kids.

But what if the character has, say, fooled around in the past and has a child they didn't know about? A child that is undoubtedly important to someone, and when they're discovered missing, that someone could come seeking revenge. Or, the adventurer retires and after years finds that special someone and either has or adopts a child until that fateful day when an ugly old woman knocks on the door, demanding what she's due. What they may ask for actually makes no sense at the moment.

Why would she want to shave my beard? Sure, for safe passage through the forest, shave my beard, not worried about it. Not thinking that the hag could use the beard shavings to make a duplicate or simulacrum of the character later on when she needed that character, or a facsimile of them for some reason. Another thing to think about hags. Hags don't go out looking to make bargains. They know that waiting for others to come to them puts the hag in a position of power over the person asking them. It gives the hag more leverage that they can use to make the bargain even more miserable for the person making it. And since hags are near immortal,

they can afford to wait until the person is truly, truly desperate. Hags are powerful, but they tend to act like, I'm just a frail old woman. Why are you threatening old Bethany? I mean you no harm, sir. I'm just an old woman who lives at the edge of the wood. Don't be fooled. They may have powerful illusions to appear harmless, and some can even polymorph into other forms. Besides the fey resistances they all have, they also have access to an array of very powerful spells depending on the type of hag that they are. Speaking of which, let's talk about the types of hags. In 5e, there are a myriad of different hags,

like the 8-foot-tall anise hag that lives in mountains and hills, or the cold and winter-loving thin burr hag. I think it's burr. Could be beer-er, or buh. Buh-duh. The dusk hag that feasts on dreams. The amphibious green hag who loves swamps and forests. The Water-Dwelling Sea Hag with their pale fish-like skin covered in scales and glassy dead eyes and haired like lank seedweed.

More than anything, Sea Hags love destroying and defacing things that are beautiful. Or 5e also has the Purple-Skinned night hags that are fearsome, can change form, become ethereal, and haunt your dreams for as long as they want to. Pathfinder also has a wide variety of hags, but they have even more than 5e does. Besides the previously mentioned ones, there's also the blood hag that wears the skins of its previous victim and can take their form perfectly during the day, but can tear off the skin to take the form of a flying ball of fire. The red-skinned grave hag that can appear as a beautiful and innocent creature and prefers to lair in cemeteries and mausoleums. They're more commonly found in like in the nation of Geb on

Galarian where undead are allowed to live freely. Moonhags who know about the transition between living and death, and that's why some mortals seek them out for that knowledge about what that transition is between those two states. These hags will use that desperation to sow misinformation and doubt to those who seek their aid. Rust hags who are knowledgeable about technology, and they love to use who seek their aid. Rust hags, who are knowledgeable about technology, and they love to use abandoned factories as lairs. Storm hags love to wreak havoc on coastal towns where people are protected from the wind and wave, or so they think. Winter hags, subtle monsters, entrapping humanoids in schemes that create mistrust and anger within a village before

picking them off one or two at a time, which creates even more mistrust and anger within a village before picking them off one or two at a time, which creates even more mistrust and isolation and so on and so on. There are legends of small villages being wiped out entirely by winter hags. Pathfinder hags, by the way, the one piece of lore there that I wanted to make sure I included, it said that these hags arise from fae who become too focused on their own selfishness. Now, going back to commonalities though, there are no known male hags that exist, and hags normally appear as an old, wizened female in their true form. They do enjoy their hideous appearance, by the way, and they actually do what they can to make themselves even uglier and scarier, dirtier, and bloodier. They'll mess themselves up and rub mud on their clothing and stick leaves in their hair.

They'll pick at the sores on their skins and make them bleed freely. Hags are vicious predators in multiple ways. They have been known to kidnap, kill, and eat humanoids. Yes, they're predators that way. But they also love to take advantage of humanoids when they're at their most desperate for assistance, preying on that desperation to make deals even more advantageous for the hag. Above all, hags seek knowledge. Volos says this best.

They collect and remember secret knowledge that is often better lost and forgotten. So combining the last two facts, they have secret knowledge and take advantage of humanoids when they're desperate. People of any species may know the old crone living at the edge of the swamp is evil and bad things happen to anyone who makes a deal with her, but some people are so desperate that they turn to her anyway. Their child is sick and local clerics can't cure them and they're willing to endure whatever to make sure the child gets better. Crops have failed, and unless it turns around, the entire family will starve. They're desperate to meet someone to fall in love with them, and they make a deal with a

hag to make that happen. Make no mistake about it. Hags hate humanoids, but humans most of all. Make no mistake about it. Hags hate humanoids, but humans most of all. They're willing to prey on dwarves, halflings, and even centaurs, but they prefer taking advantage of the short-lived human species. Hags, wherever they go, spread misery and suffering. In small or big ways, by the way. They take great delight when, by making a series of deals with the residents,

they turn a small, good-aligned community full of happy people into a dark, gloomy, fearful place full of desperate people who seem to have an alarming amount of misfortune. Hags have years to make that happen, and will do this purely for the joy it brings them. Hags tend to form covens consisting of three hags. They're generally solitary creatures, but will sometimes band together in a coven of three when they share a common goal. Being part of a coven gives each individual hag more magic, more spellcasting ability, and more power. And to her, these benefits offset the inconvenience and bickering that goes with living and working with other hags. The three hags in the coven, by the way, goes with living and working with other hags. The three hags in the coven, by the way, don't have to be the same type either. It doesn't have to be three night hags. It could be a night hag, an anise hag, and a rust hag working together, each one using their strengths and areas of mastery to accomplish the coven's

desired outcome. Hags in a coven will create hag eyes. They sometimes look like gems, but often look like a well-preserved humanoid eye on a pendant or attached to a chain. All members of the coven can look through the hag eye at any given time, and if the eye is destroyed, all members of the coven know about it instantly. There are also unconfirmed legends about hags that GMs can use in their games Hags have been known to replace infants with their own children who are changelings A good adventure idea would be the rumor that a number of the children in the town are different somehow And the PCs are asked to get to the bottom of why The 5e Monster Manual states that hags have daughters by consuming infants

The 5e Monster Manual states that hags have daughters by consuming infants. There's an easy adventure design about finding the thing responsible for snatching babies from the neonatal unit at the local hospital. Come to find out, it's a nurse who is a hag, and the hags are trying to increase their number to carve out their own section of the world for themselves. GMs, if you want to have hags in your game, here are my tips for using them. 1. To low-level parties, hags are unbeatable monsters. At very high levels, hags are trivial contestants for the party. So hags are great antagonists for those mid-level parties that you may be running. 2. Hags make great NPCs at the edge of civilization, whether they are known to be hags or not.

Three, if you're going to have a hag in your game, focus on designing the deals and bargains the hag will offer. You know what the players are going to ask for. You know what the players need. So be ready to make a deal that seems advantageous to the players but might have a ton of loopholes. Because hags will use any and every loophole of a deal. They'll give you what you literally asked for, for example, even if it's not what you wanted. Hags will also use dirty tricks to make it difficult or maybe even impossible for the PCs to meet their end of the bargain.

Suppose you ask the PCs for a certain ingredient like death cap mushroom stems to be delivered back to her by the full moon. The PCs had to travel to a cave outside of town a hundred miles away to find enough of these mushrooms. To make it back, they need to rent a carriage, but it just so happens that there are none available, or bandits are rampaging along the roads, or the local fauna have been knocking down trees close to the bridges. Or maybe the person who is supposed to deliver some of the Sims to the PCs to make sure they had enough dies in a very unexpected and unlikely way. They were robbed and murdered in a back alley. They were kicked in the head by a runaway donkey. They were hit by a bus on a bridge where buses don't even go.

On a bridge. Where buses don't even go. So it's okay, you were late getting old twig shifter her mushrooms. That's fine, that's fine. We can make a new bargain. And it turns out to be so much worse than what you had last time. Four. Hag homes are cluttered collections of magical and mundane items. From the most mundane wood carvings to powerful artifacts.

They tend to collect anything that catches their eye, and mortals that bring an offering that is especially rare or interesting to the hag have a better chance of getting a fair deal. Well, okay, fairer deal. The bad stuff that will definitely happen as part of making a deal with a hag maybe won't be as bad. 5. For inspiration about hags in your game, think about the old woman who tempted Hansel and Gretel with Candy House, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, the three witches from Macbeth, the three witches from Clash of the Titans, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard of Oz,

and Mirri from Game of Thrones. Finally, I want to give a huge thank you to Keith Amon, who has written a number of great articles on hags and hag tactics for the 5e game system. Search for The Monsters Know What They're Doing to find his amazing blog over at themonstersknow.com. I'll put a link in the resources. Hag lore and tactics are extremely deep wells, and I tried to capture some of the most important tips in this episode. But I can definitely see revisiting this monster in the future.

Hags are crafty, intelligent, hoarding monsters that take great joy in seeing others suffer, especially when they were dumb enough to willingly enter into a bargain with a hag. Hags live alone in remote homes or natural features like caves or hollowed-out trees, where they collect rare and dangerous knowledge to be traded at the right moment. If your PCs are stuck for what to do next, consider adding a rumor of an old woman who lives at the edge of the village of Barrowfield who can do amazing things for a price. Let the PCs make a bargain and find creative ways for that hag to get out of the deal or twist it on the PCs, and I bet you and your players would have fun doing it.

Tim, I hope this is an interesting discussion on hags, and thank you again for your generous donation and for the topic idea. Do you have a topic idea for the podcast? If so, reach out to me on social media or send me your idea to feedback at taking20podcast.com. Tune in next week when we're going to talk about social skills like diplomacy and intimidation and how they should not be used to affect player agency. I also want to thank this week's sponsor, Language. In high school, I entered an essay contest that was held outdoors. It was an intense competition.

This has been episode 168, All About Hags. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyrighted by the author. Copyright their respective publishers.