Homebrew Hag for Halloween

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).

 Night Hag for BX pdf

Fantasy AGE Homebrew monster: The Sea Dragon

I've written about the Sea Dragon in BX before, but here's a version for Fantasy AGE:

Sea Dragons are an aquatic variant of their more famous cousins. While flightless and somewhat smaller on average than normal wyrms, sea dragons are still formidable opponents, especially in their element.

Sea dragons can breathe water or air. They suffer no ill effects from being on land, but they prefer the open water for maneuverability. They are intelligent and most speak at least one land-dweller language. Their cruelty and hunger makes conversations unlikely, though.

Sea dragons hoard treasure. While some will travel onto land to acquire it, most prefer to sink ships and take from the cargo once it slips beneath the waves. Many sea dragons make their lairs inside the hulls of sunken vessels. Sea dragons tend to prefer stretches of coastline instead of the open water. Perhaps the great ocean wyrms are too much of a risk.

A common tactic is for the beast to lie in wait below the surface until a ship passes overhead, then it bursts upward, destroying the rudder before clambering up onto the decks. Once aboard, the dragon smashes the masts and rigging as it breathes its poison on the crew. When the ship is helpless, the creature dives back into the water and shoves the ship onto the rocks. There it smashes the hull or lets the waves do it. 

ACC 2 (Bite)

COM 0

CON 8 (Stamina)

DEX 2

FTG 4 (Claws, Tail Bash)

INT 0

PER 1 (Seeing, Hearing)

STR 7 (Intimidation, Might)

WIL 4 (Courage)

SPEED HEALTH DEFENSE AR

6(15 swim) 120 12 7

Weapon Attack Roll Damage

Bite +4 2d6+7

Claw +6 1d6+7

Tail Bash +6 1d6+7

FAVORED STUNTS:

Mighty Blow (1SP), Tail Bash (2SP), Lethal Blow (4SP), Pierce Armor (1SP)

• Large & in Charge
• Buffet (minor)
• Deadly (-1 SP Lethal Blow, Mighty Blow, and Pierce Armor)
• Tough Hide (7 AR)
• Aquatic
• Breath Weapon: Twice a day, the sea dragon can breathe a toxic mist in a cloud 8 yards long and 4 yards wide. Anyone caught within the cloud must make a CON (Stamina) TN 15 roll to hold their breath or the poison slows and partially paralyzes them. Victims suffers a –3 penalty to Dexterity, Fighting, and Accuracy until the end of the encounter. The poison works underwater as well, but only on creatures breathing the water. For instance, a submerged PC using magic to breathe is affected, but one using a hollow reed is not.

Patronizing Tones

So as long as we’re playing with a homebrew setting for DCC RPG, and I’ve already homebrewed some gods, let’s homebrew a patron!

For those unfamiliar with the system, patrons are supernatural entities (but not necessarily gods) that wizards can enter into pacts with in order to gain power. Some examples in the book include an ancient (possibly immortal) wizard, a pit fiend, an air elemental lord, and the 3 Fates (Maiden/Mother/Crone). Unlike a cleric’s deity, the patron bond is not worship, it’s more like a Faustian bargain. The wizard binds the entity’s power to him (to a degree) and in exchange the patron can demand things of the wizard.

Yay! I made my Spell Check!

Per the rule book (p. 321), there are five (5) steps to follow in designing a patron:

1. Creates the patron’s Theme. Who or what is it? What plane(s) does it dwell on? What is its sphere(s) of interest and influence? Some of the examples in the book include sample binding rituals that a wizard might go through.
2. What are some possible results of invoking one’s patron? A random table is such results is in order here.
3. Contact with this being can lead to Patron Taint. In other words, the wizard can be... affected by his bond to the being.
4. Patrons offer specialized spells (generally one per level).
5. Spellburn: Exactly how does a wizard’s spellburn manifest given his connection to the patron? Another table goes here.

For today’s entry, let’s start with a Name and a Theme.

Elbaphraxis the Oculator

Is believed to be a from a distant world, and the last of a long-dead race that served mighty Cthulhu before the lands of Kelvernia rose from the primordial oceans. Whether “he” serves Cthulhu still –or indeed ever did– is a matter of debate. What is known is that he wields tremendous power, and occasionally takes an interest in the events and denizens of Kelvernia. His appearance is mutable, but he often manifests in visions or dreams as a cloud of eyes. Like the Old Ones, his motives are utterly alien and he seems benignly amoral, but shocking acts of cruelty have been known to have been carried out by his agents.

A wizard or elf seeking to gain Elbaphraxis as a patron must acquire some sort of interplanar substance or object that has felt his touch. He must meditate upon it for a week (patron bond spell) and then act on whatever vision he receives. Often the vision relates some item or piece of information Elbaphraxis desires that will prove the supplicant’s usefulness to him.

Kelvernia: Taking my bearings

OK, so before I delve any further into this mess, I want to take stock and figure out my goals.

What I want:

• To emphasize fun and creativity for myself and my players.
• To provide a setting with enough detail and hooks to give the campaign a real "home."
• To sprinkle some twists, both fluff and crunch, to add to the fun.
• To provide consequences, but not restrictions.
• A game with "grit" but with "gonzo" too.
• I tend to run "realistic D&D" (whatever that means). I think I want a game that takes me a little bit outside my comfort zone.

What I don't want:

• To design a system for sale or publication. This is for my edification and enjoyment.
• To heavily house rule or change the game beyond recognition. 
• To make a world so detailed that the players (and myself) feel overwhelmed by minutiae. 

With all that said, let's take a look at the map again:

I like this map. The coastlines, etc. were based upon satellite imagery of Saturn's moon, Titan (which amuses me terribly for some reason). I was in a Robert E. Howard kind of mood when I made this and I think it shows to a degree in things like the place names. I wanted a Swords & Sorcery feel to the world, hence lots of seas to sail, wilderness to explore, and several nations to potentially be at one another's throats. I deliberately left off a scale or a hex grid, since I didn't want to get into a lot of fine detail about rates of travel and so forth. The place names and so forth are fine, since they impart very little specifics by themselves.

I originally pictured a low-magic world. Now I am thinking of more standard magic/fantasy levels, and maybe adding a little twist of super-science, like Blackmoor or even Mutant Future. (I'll also have to look at Anomalous Subsurface Environment and Savage Afterworld's World of Thundarr again). 

I had written more here, but it quickly degenerated into quite the ramble. To be continued when I yet again reacquire my bearings...