Here's something a little different today. I was thinking about an adventure I had worked on years ago involving a hag killing a village and that got me looking at various versions of these uber-witches in D&D. None of the versions I found quite worked for what I had in mind, so I cobbled this one together from a few sources. It's got a bit of the BECMI rules' version, as well as some Castles & Crusades inspiration. Anyway, here it is in case anyone has some use for it. There's a link to a pdf version below.
AC:
4 (silver or magic to hit)
HD: 8-12*******
Move:
120' (40')
Att: 2 claws or spell
Damage: 2d4/2d4
+ STR drain
No. App: 1 (1)
Save: D10
Morale:
12
TT: C
AL: Chaotic
Night hags appear as tall (7'), ugly, female humanoids. They are
typically dressed in ragged clothes and have jet-black skin that
always glistens as if wet. They have lank, tangled hair, jagged teeth
and jaundiced eyes. Their fingers have long, iron-like nails. They
smell of decay and death.
Night hags are evil creatures
from another plane of existence. As such, spells like Protection
from Evil will keep them at bay physically, but will not stop
their spells or magical powers.
Mundane attacks and
weapons have no effect on the night hag. Even non-magical fire will
not burn them. Silver and magic will affect them normally. Hags are
also immune to charm and hold spells as well as poison and the
effects of undead such as energy drain, ghoul paralysis, or mummy
rot.
Strength Drain: The claws of the hag
are supernaturally cold and if she strikes a victim successfully,
they must save vs spells or lose 1 point of Strength permanently.
Slaying the hag will restore the Strength score at the rate of 1
point/day. A character reaching 0 STR dies.
Night hags cast spells as a cleric of the same
level as their hit dice. They normally choose spells for destructive
and harmful purposes, only using healing on themselves. They also
have the following innate, spell-like abilities 1/day:
-Animate
Dead
-Dark Sleep (Similar to the Sleep spell, but
it affects 2d4 individuals, each equal to or less than the hag's own
HD.)
Dark Haunting: If a character is put
into the Dark Sleep (see above), the hag can forge a magical bond
with the victim. The PC must save vs. spells or for every night afterwards, the hag fills their
dreams with horrid nightmares. The dreams install evil thoughts into
the minds of the victims and they find that the only way to quiet
them enough to sleep at all is acting upon these evil impulses in
their waking hours. Each day they fail their save (see below), their willpower is too weak to resist and they must commit an evil act that causes actual physical harm to at least one person. The DM might have the victim enter a "fugue state" and be unaware of their actions until after the deed is done (coming to over a beggar's corpse with a bloody knife in your hand, etc.).
The victim of the haunting must save
vs poison each day or lose 1 CON permanently. When their CON reaches
0, they fall into a final coma and just before death, the hag appears
in their dreams and rips their soul from their bodies, carting it off
to the dark plane she originates from. Victims who die in such a way
are beyond the power of spells like Raise Dead or Reincarnation to
bring back to life. Even Speak with Dead will not work, for
their soul is unreachable in the hag's realm. Only a Wish or
direct divine intervention can restore a victim to life.
There
is no cure for the dark haunting other than the death of the hag that
caused it.
Dark Company: Hags attract
evil to them. Night hags are found with 3d6 evil creatures in their
thrall. These typically include lesser undead, giant spiders or
scorpions, trolls, and sometimes goblinoids. These creatures will
fight to the death for the hag (no morale checks).
