Played in a story about a hag that was forced to don an amulet of opposite alignment. She turned into a tree that bore bitter fruit capable of curing even magical disease. The amulet is still there, waiting to be removed to unleashe the malcontent fey trapped within. Our party were the dumb adventurers that took the amulet because some shady guy in a tavern promised us 200 gold.
So the first d&d campaign I've ever ran was pirate themed. My players left a floating merchant town after joining up with a treasure hunter who won a map from a wicky in a arm wrestling compilation. The map led to a mysterious island that held a rare fruit that alchemist would pay greatly for. When the players got there they we're meet by a hug fog wall that they would soon find out surrounded the entire island. They players made land, battled some raptors and saw a eerie reed hut that when approached sprouted octopus tentacles and squirmed into the ocean. When they tried to leave through the fog with their bounty they arrived back towards the island, they were trapped. After investigating a plum of smoke they assumed was a forest fire they found a whole shanty town full of castaways who possessed the exact same map they had. Worst of all at night the fog would move in land and monsters would come out of it and take some of the towns folk. It was a coven of Sea Hags who mass produced theses maps and sent them out in a bottle to trap would-be treasure hunters to their island and turns them into Sea Spawn to gift em to a Kraken they worshipped.
@@roadmarch0364 they got everyone off the island who wanted to leave (the church of the Fog Mother wanted to stay) and they managed to defeat The hags and their sea spawn minions and saved the crew mates who was dragged off by the sea spawns the first night in town. There were certainly casualties along the way tho lol two of the PCS one of which was eaten by a Allosaurus and one was killed by Sandy the sailor themed sea hag, also some of them had some permanent madness from eating the fruit. That's right the fruit itself causes you to see things.
The internet must've killed my sense of disgust: I finished dinner to the intro and then had ice cream halfway through. That's my best theory as to how.
I actually DM’d a one-shot where the party had to deal with your classic hag coven in the woods for the first time not too long ago, your typical people disappearing and not coming back type stuff. I had never played with or against hags before, and they were actually really fun to both play out in game and also to build a story around. I highly recommend every DM try doing a hag centered story at least once.
This video really has me in my feels as my hag centric campaign is on a permanent hiatus for well over a year now and right before the big reveal that the party has been manipulated by two hags to free their sister from her comic/dimensional prison.
@@angramainyu4599 Thanks for saying so. It definitely made it take longer to produce (and a very long video), but there are so many great hags that I wanted to go over.
@@esperthebard as someone who is currently world building your channel has been a huge help in getting me to think outside of my preconceptions and videos like this expand it even further. Thank you for doing what you do.
Bah! No mention of my favorite. The Bruja, from Ravenloft setting (2E, RL MC3) . A broken hag, and can originally have been any of the other subtypes. A Bruja is a hag who delved so deep into things man was not meant to know, she actually saw something not even a hag mind was was ready to handle, and they've kind of just sunk into despair so great, even evil loses it's allure. They're still not on the good side, but the spark of going out and doing horrid things holds no amusement.
Starting at 3e cuts off the most interesting unique Night Hag of all. Possibly more important than the Hag Countess. Though admittedly from an adaptation, I'm *well* and truly *Puzzled* by her absence.
Thanks so very much once more Esper! Like many here, Hags are one of my all time fave characters. They have so many varieties and so much lore to delve from, that it's a real treat to use them at many different levels of play. I once developed a special magic weapon (Dagger), called a "Hag Nail" that could be created from a scroll recipe, combining different portions of a dead Hags anatomy (e.g. the blade was her longest fingernail and the pommel gem was one of the [shellacked] Hag's eyes), together with x3 silver coins, wrapped in some of the Hags flayed skin, boiled in an iron kettle of salt water for 13 hours, with at least 6 ounces of the Hags blood, 6 ounces of urine from a female virgin humanoid and 6 ounces of Holy Water in the mix. Stats = 2D4 +1, slashing or piercing damage (+2 vs Hags). The blade is "silvered". The 'eye gem' glows ruby red within 66 yards of a Hag or Hag's female child and once per day enables the wielder to cast the "Eyebite" spell. Only useable by Chaotic Good characters (requires attunement). My group LOVED that dagger, especially the Ranger who used it during a Hag focused campaign I wrote. Feel free to steal this idea my friends! :)
Things that attack you on sight aren't that dangerous. They immediately let you know you are their enemy. Things that plan their attack out first, maybe convince some dim witted guards that you started it if they lose the upper hand, much more dangerous.
My favourite character that I have played, and still do, I made during 3.X. Miss Misa was found, abandoned, by a hag. Too old to eat, but old enough to work. For 14 years, Misa lived a life of incredible cruelty. Then, Auntie Sahaga started to send her on errands in to villages and cities to bring, let's call it materials, for the sake of the Domain Bosses. Misa tried to run away on one of those errands, taking up with adventurers to escape. Suffice to say, it didn't work and 50 years later, Misa was still working for Grandmother Sahaga, having set up an orphanage in a small city near the Hag's home.
I've got a hag story for you (* indicates word substitution to keep CZcams bots happy) I once playes a half elven sorceress that believed that her chromatic dragon heritage was slowly turning her into a monster, with more scales appearing on her body every time she leveled up. Eventually it came to a head during a duke's dinner party we were trying to infiltrate. Waves of agony wracked her body, she lost concentration on the illusion magic that was making her appear "normal", and manifested two draconic wings on her back. Panicking she jumped out the closest window and flew directly toward the nearby forest. The rest of the party unanimously decided to abort mission and go after their companion, finding her sobbing in a clearing draped in the tattered remains of her once fine dress and the scales had come to cover her entire body. As the party approached she said "are you here to *banish me?" To which horrified they replied no. This enraged her getting up to face them "Are you all blind! Look at me! I'm a monster!" Roaring out the last word for emphasis. A successful intimidation check caused a couple of the party to instinctively take a step back and put a hand on their weapons. "See! The curse has fully taken hold, please just *do it while I still have my mind; before I do something unforgivable. And if you won't... I will" placing a finger under her chin. Luckily a couple of successful persuasion checks talked her down and she collapsed in tears. Not knowing what else to do the party decided to make camp and figure something out in the morning. That night she had strange dreams depicting her living a normal life free from the curse of her ancestry and a soft motherly voice whispered to her "If you want this, wake up, go outside, and follow the white raven alone" She awoke with a start and out of curiosity left her tent to see a white raven waiting for her. Following it deep into the woods she eventually came across a small hut built into the roots of a giant tree where inside two night hags and a green hag waited to greet her. Knowing it was a bad idea but too desperate to care she asked them if they could anything to help her and they assured her they could "take care of those special qualities of yours". She drank their concoction and endured the worst pain she had ever felt in her life before mercifully blacking out, the last thing she heard the cackling laughter of the hags enjoying her "sweet music" When she came to her head was still spinning but the sight of her own skin unadorned by the scales that marked her ancestry convinced her that it was worth it. She got up, took a step forward to thank them, tripped over and fell flat on her face. She frowned, she had never been clumsy in her life, what's more as she became more aware of her body she realized that she felt hollow and empty inside The hags cackled again and explained to her horror that they had kept their word and removed everything from her that made her special (all attributes higher than 10 reduced to 10, all class and subclass features removed except for skill, language and tool proficiencies) Horrified she tried to protest that wasn't what she wanted but the hags just laughed louder and told her that their business was concluded taunting her with the potion that contained her essence. "Oh one last thing before you go, it's actually a myth that the colour of a dragon's scales means whether it's good or not. The truth is that it's how shiny they are, the more shiny the more good hearted they are. And your scales darling were so shiny you could use them as a mirror. Tata now" and with that the world spun again and the next thing she knew she was lost in the woods at night, alone with no magic, no equipment and no friends to help her Oh and now a coven of hags have the bottled essence of a powerful draconic sorceress, I'm sure that there will be no repercussions from this whatsoever
Had an interesting idea for a campaign story arc: (TL;DR: Midsommer + The Blair Witch + The Crones of Crookback Bog = Cool.) Player's characters grow up in a smallish town/hamlet situated in a war torn no-man's-land with most surrounding lands ravaged by famine and lawlessness. Yet, their hometown is fine; there is more than enough food and water, bandits leave the town alone despite the town lacking guards or any sort of militia, nothing terribly dangerous lurks in the surrounding wilderness and harvests have been quite bountiful for many years. The town isn't without it's quirks though; with some bizarre local customs, superstitions and holidays, a particular stretch of forest outside of town being forbidden to enter for any reason, an annual lottery (with the winning family being showered with gifts and treated to an extravagant feast before "leaving" for the "big city" in the middle of the night), and although not unfriendly to people from outside of town (consisting mostly of traveling merchants and the occasional bounty hunter just passing through), townsfolk tend to politely and insistently encourage said outsiders to be on their way once their business has concluded. Due to circumstances, the players leave town for the great wide world. In their travels, they learn that neighboring towns are not as well off as theirs and that their town has quite the sinister reputation with rumors and speculation being abundant. They also learn why (to their knowledge) no bandits have tried to usurp or ransack the place: Some have actually tried in the past and were never heard from again, the rest have learned to just avoid the place. Even the kooky hermit/hedge mage that most people go to for advice on magical and occult matters even cryptically and ominously states that the town and it's people are "her" property, that "she" does not like competition, that "she" has something big in the works and that incurring "her" wrath is not worth the trouble but does not clarify or say anything more on the subject. Eventually, after many adventures, the players return home for a spell, now seasoned and hardened veterans who have fought goblins, warlords, cults and worse. But they return to a town that has been consumed by paranoia and has turned dismal and bleak. And instead of being welcomed back, they are met with cold stares, rude remarks and basically straight up told that they are no longer welcome here. Even their families tearfully and regretfully tell them that they really need to leave now while they still can. The party soon finds out the reason for all of this: their hometown has been in thrall to an exceptionally powerful green hag for almost a generation that the town mayor made a bargain with in order to spare the town from the hardships that the surrounding region was suffering from. So the hag has protected the town and used her magics to help it prosper but now the time has now come for her to collect what was owed to her (the lottery and the sacrificed families was simply her collecting interest): she intends to sacrifice half of the town's populace in a bloody ritual designed to fuel some sort of dread apotheosis. The townsfolk have been living in constant fear as the date grew closer and closer both because they have no idea which half of the town will be sacrificed or what she intends to do once her transformation is complete. So now the party has a new goal: Storm the Hag's lair (located in the depths of the forbidden woods), take her out and save the town. But it won't be easy: in addition to various minions and countermeasures the hag has in place (traps, puzzles, magical illusions, wights, wickerman golems, living blair witch totems that move and kill people, corpse flowers, bound demons and even a pet dracolisk) before the party can even start making preparations, they'll have to, one way or another, deal with a lynch mob consisting of former friends and neighbors (many believing that the sacrifice is a necessary evil in order to ensure the town's long term prosperity and survival, others believing that the hag might simply sacrifice everyone if anybody interferes) hellbent on either driving them out of town, turning them into fertilizer for the next growing season, or offering them to the hag. And if the party somehow fails to stop the sacrifice, they now have to save what remains of the town from whatever abomination that the hag has transformed into.
I had my party encounter a coven around level 4 or so, but the Green Hag among them got away. Around level 9, I had that same hag kidnap a female NPC (who was with the party when they fought thebfirst time) with intent to reform her coven by feeding her a de-aging potion till she was a baby and then consuming her to birth a replacement. In the meantime, though, the Green Hag was posing as that very NPC and let the party "rescue" her from another hag accomplice. It was a very fun encounter and then springing the second trap after everyone was reveling in their assumed victory. Not sure I'd be able to justify the elaborate scheming with many other monsters, so it was a very fun exercise as a DM.
Earlier stuff by Gygax himself also had the male equivalents to hags be Ogre Magi (Or the alternate dimension ogre demimagi who ruled their whole plane)
Oh man I was looking into the etymology of the word "hag", it's so fascinating to see the evolution, reaching all the way back to proto-Germanic language. A leading theory is that it stems from the word for "hedge," which makes me think of "hedge witch" or "hedge wizard."
Awesome and dynamic new video, Esper! And you gave Siouxsie&theBanshees the flavor list, nice! I mean... Spellbound is a way stronger track than Stargazer is... and we all know that the songs themselves are ranked in the tiers as well !!
I play 5e and I've played AD&D, I have so many of the old TSR books! :) I played the cleric in our AD&D game, I kept us all alive and got him up to 9th level. I DM too and I LOVE hags in my 5e game. My players, despise my hag coven from my game. They where behind a missing arch druid and trying to turn him into a lich. The coven consisted of a pair of green hags and a night hag. I bumped up their spellcasting, they also had to be afraid of the "Deals" the coven had made over time. They sent a powerful fiend warlock half orc and her orcs after them. They also sent two fire giants and a blackgaurd at them too! The party was terrified of any of them escaping. IF EVEN ONE HAD ESCAPED they would have been looking over their shoulders forever!!! I LOVE this monster, they just have so many options and ways to play. Volo's Guide also has a nice section that focuses on Hags as NPC's with lots of hooks and little tidbits it's fantastic I use it all the time!
@@esperthebard probably a classic Annis hag, but that Dune hag intrigued me. I love a good desert themed adventure. Probably because I watched the mummy a ton growing up.
I've always loved the hags. In my games, they are fey witches who aren't really evil, more neutral. They are all ancient, and are concerned with preparing for the end of the world. Their perceived cruelty and contempt for mortals comes from both their age and also their mission - compared to the end of the world, short mortal lives simply don't matter that much to them. I don't use the different hag types either - each one is unique and hand crafted.
In our campaigns, hags aren't necessarily evil, usually chaotic neutral, so selfish, capricious, and dangerously unpredictable, but not outright evil. I've actually used hags as major helpers before, it just depends on how the party approaches them. One of our characters is currently learning magic from an ancient, somewhat long dead green hag witch, through her grimoir. It's a lot of fun.
While in my mind since a (way too) long time, I take this video as a sign to finally get going and create my "Nightmare on Elm Street" themed adventure with Freddy being basically a buffed up version of a certain kind of hag ^^
No one asked me, I know. But I personally would really like a video combining the 5e Spelljammer and Sigil monsters. I feel like you would have a lot to say on Time Dragons.
Great video and rankings, thanks! I'm curious to know, without anyone mentioning spoilers, which Hag type people think is in Baldur's Gate 3? Those who played know the character I'm intentionally being vague about. I have suspicions she is an Annis Hag myself.
@florianw.9545 I'm glad to read this. For like a year, I kept experimenting with delivery styles, because nothing felt quite right to me. There are moments in which I do want to channel the fire, but in general, the calmer, reassuring, warmer tone is winning me over.
@@esperthebard I appreciate this! You are an Artist! As an engineer, I can see the hefty difference between our self reflectioness. (Is this even a word? Dunno, just a little Germans two cents) Thank you for your stunning content!
@@esperthebard I've just found your channel, but I've got to say that I like it and I think your delivery is excellent. You've got a very nice blend of smooth intensity and vary it up now and then, which keeps it interesting and adds character. (And hopefully the fact that I'm an actor and director will lend additional weight to my unsolicited opinion.)
@@AosSidhe Thank you very much. If you'd be up for chatting some time, shoot me an email. I'd be interested to hear some more feedback from someone who has that kind of experience in film or theatre. esperthebard@gmail.com
I was wondering if there could be a male version of a Hag, but then thought about it and gave up, some monsters just don't work in both genders, albeit I could see some bizarre freak of nature happening and a... Geezer? Being born
@@jacopoarmini7889 The hagspawn is the male child born of a hag. Though it has been absent from official D&D since 3e. The 5e hag lore seems to indicate that hags only birth female offspring. But as with all things in D&D, in your own games, you can create your own lore or world.
As far as I could tell, we don't have her statblock in 5e, where she's only mentioned, but it can be found in HB Kobold Press book, Creature Codex. We probably had her statblock somewhere in the older editions, but I don't play them. Also, in Curse of Strahd, we have her copycat, Baba Lysaga, Strahd's stepmother. But she's not a hag, just very powerful human witch, e.g. warlock. Her patron, the Mother of Night, might be Baba Yaga herself.
They are definitely up there among the greatest monsters of all time (in my book). Hags, dragons, vampires, liches, sphinxes, ghosts ... some of the best all around.
@MrRedFoxorMrelzorrorojo no idea what this has anything to do with what I said but... Okay lol. If I wanna look for a date il get a date, but I ain't gonna spend my life looking for someone as actively as others. A relationship comes naturally. The fact you say alot of dates means you expect me to be constantly investing nothing but my time in that lol. The more dates you have if anything the worse it is for you so you shot yourself in the foot if anything buddy
Part of the reason hags come off so well in fifth edition is that lead designer Jeremy Crawford just loves them.
Played in a story about a hag that was forced to don an amulet of opposite alignment. She turned into a tree that bore bitter fruit capable of curing even magical disease. The amulet is still there, waiting to be removed to unleashe the malcontent fey trapped within. Our party were the dumb adventurers that took the amulet because some shady guy in a tavern promised us 200 gold.
So the first d&d campaign I've ever ran was pirate themed. My players left a floating merchant town after joining up with a treasure hunter who won a map from a wicky in a arm wrestling compilation. The map led to a mysterious island that held a rare fruit that alchemist would pay greatly for. When the players got there they we're meet by a hug fog wall that they would soon find out surrounded the entire island. They players made land, battled some raptors and saw a eerie reed hut that when approached sprouted octopus tentacles and squirmed into the ocean. When they tried to leave through the fog with their bounty they arrived back towards the island, they were trapped. After investigating a plum of smoke they assumed was a forest fire they found a whole shanty town full of castaways who possessed the exact same map they had. Worst of all at night the fog would move in land and monsters would come out of it and take some of the towns folk. It was a coven of Sea Hags who mass produced theses maps and sent them out in a bottle to trap would-be treasure hunters to their island and turns them into Sea Spawn to gift em to a Kraken they worshipped.
I literally just drew an island-themed treasure map with my son, then I see this comment. Sounds like a great adventure with a great hag twist.
That’s very creative
@@davidthebarbarian6851 I'm running a pirate-themed campaign myself, might steal some of your ideas.
Did the PC's manage to get off the island, or defeat the Hags?
@@roadmarch0364 they got everyone off the island who wanted to leave (the church of the Fog Mother wanted to stay) and they managed to defeat The hags and their sea spawn minions and saved the crew mates who was dragged off by the sea spawns the first night in town. There were certainly casualties along the way tho lol two of the PCS one of which was eaten by a Allosaurus and one was killed by Sandy the sailor themed sea hag, also some of them had some permanent madness from eating the fruit. That's right the fruit itself causes you to see things.
The internet must've killed my sense of disgust: I finished dinner to the intro and then had ice cream halfway through. That's my best theory as to how.
Next up, drink fine wine and eat cranberry sauce while listening to my vampire ranking 🧛♂
try doing that in the depth of dark side of the internet:)
@@esperthebard What is a man?
I actually DM’d a one-shot where the party had to deal with your classic hag coven in the woods for the first time not too long ago, your typical people disappearing and not coming back type stuff. I had never played with or against hags before, and they were actually really fun to both play out in game and also to build a story around.
I highly recommend every DM try doing a hag centered story at least once.
This video really has me in my feels as my hag centric campaign is on a permanent hiatus for well over a year now and right before the big reveal that the party has been manipulated by two hags to free their sister from her comic/dimensional prison.
Love that you did previous edition creatures. So many more ideas and it's greatly appreciated
@@angramainyu4599 Thanks for saying so. It definitely made it take longer to produce (and a very long video), but there are so many great hags that I wanted to go over.
@@esperthebard as someone who is currently world building your channel has been a huge help in getting me to think outside of my preconceptions and videos like this expand it even further. Thank you for doing what you do.
@@angramainyu4599 Excellent! Enjoy your world building!
Agreed older edtions have some delightfully twisted creatures.
Oooo, the visuals for the different ranking categories have been improved. It's such a little thing, but I appreciate that.
Thank you! It was time for an upgrade.
Not doing a Kraken tier list? Where is your holiday spirit? lol.
When you're a lich's drug dealer, you know you're truly horrifying.
Bah! No mention of my favorite. The Bruja, from Ravenloft setting (2E, RL MC3) . A broken hag, and can originally have been any of the other subtypes. A Bruja is a hag who delved so deep into things man was not meant to know, she actually saw something not even a hag mind was was ready to handle, and they've kind of just sunk into despair so great, even evil loses it's allure. They're still not on the good side, but the spark of going out and doing horrid things holds no amusement.
No 2e means no Bruja, and no Ravel.
@@DIEGhostfish Tragic.
Aren't they Chaotic Good?
Gotta say, these videos are far more interesting when half the run time isn't complaining about which sentences of the book you didn't like
I see Hags as a class of NPC, able to be of the full range of levels with spell lists that only Hags can access.
Esper! You big beautiful bard you! I'm so stoked to watch! Hags are one of my FAVORITES!!!
Starting at 3e cuts off the most interesting unique Night Hag of all. Possibly more important than the Hag Countess. Though admittedly from an adaptation, I'm *well* and truly *Puzzled* by her absence.
Thanks so very much once more Esper!
Like many here, Hags are one of my all time fave characters. They have so many varieties and so much lore to delve from, that it's a real treat to use them at many different levels of play.
I once developed a special magic weapon (Dagger), called a "Hag Nail" that could be created from a scroll recipe, combining different portions of a dead Hags anatomy (e.g. the blade was her longest fingernail and the pommel gem was one of the [shellacked] Hag's eyes), together with x3 silver coins, wrapped in some of the Hags flayed skin, boiled in an iron kettle of salt water for 13 hours, with at least 6 ounces of the Hags blood, 6 ounces of urine from a female virgin humanoid and 6 ounces of Holy Water in the mix.
Stats = 2D4 +1, slashing or piercing damage (+2 vs Hags). The blade is "silvered". The 'eye gem' glows ruby red within 66 yards of a Hag or Hag's female child and once per day enables the wielder to cast the "Eyebite" spell. Only useable by Chaotic Good characters (requires attunement). My group LOVED that dagger, especially the Ranger who used it during a Hag focused campaign I wrote.
Feel free to steal this idea my friends! :)
Things that attack you on sight aren't that dangerous. They immediately let you know you are their enemy. Things that plan their attack out first, maybe convince some dim witted guards that you started it if they lose the upper hand, much more dangerous.
Great video! Hags make for such memorable and terrifying villians!
My favourite character that I have played, and still do, I made during 3.X. Miss Misa was found, abandoned, by a hag. Too old to eat, but old enough to work. For 14 years, Misa lived a life of incredible cruelty. Then, Auntie Sahaga started to send her on errands in to villages and cities to bring, let's call it materials, for the sake of the Domain Bosses. Misa tried to run away on one of those errands, taking up with adventurers to escape.
Suffice to say, it didn't work and 50 years later, Misa was still working for Grandmother Sahaga, having set up an orphanage in a small city near the Hag's home.
I really love how much you acknowledge and appreciate the artists behind the art ❤
I've got a hag story for you
(* indicates word substitution to keep CZcams bots happy)
I once playes a half elven sorceress that believed that her chromatic dragon heritage was slowly turning her into a monster, with more scales appearing on her body every time she leveled up.
Eventually it came to a head during a duke's dinner party we were trying to infiltrate. Waves of agony wracked her body, she lost concentration on the illusion magic that was making her appear "normal", and manifested two draconic wings on her back. Panicking she jumped out the closest window and flew directly toward the nearby forest.
The rest of the party unanimously decided to abort mission and go after their companion, finding her sobbing in a clearing draped in the tattered remains of her once fine dress and the scales had come to cover her entire body.
As the party approached she said "are you here to *banish me?" To which horrified they replied no. This enraged her getting up to face them "Are you all blind! Look at me! I'm a monster!" Roaring out the last word for emphasis. A successful intimidation check caused a couple of the party to instinctively take a step back and put a hand on their weapons.
"See! The curse has fully taken hold, please just *do it while I still have my mind; before I do something unforgivable. And if you won't... I will" placing a finger under her chin.
Luckily a couple of successful persuasion checks talked her down and she collapsed in tears. Not knowing what else to do the party decided to make camp and figure something out in the morning.
That night she had strange dreams depicting her living a normal life free from the curse of her ancestry and a soft motherly voice whispered to her "If you want this, wake up, go outside, and follow the white raven alone"
She awoke with a start and out of curiosity left her tent to see a white raven waiting for her. Following it deep into the woods she eventually came across a small hut built into the roots of a giant tree where inside two night hags and a green hag waited to greet her.
Knowing it was a bad idea but too desperate to care she asked them if they could anything to help her and they assured her they could "take care of those special qualities of yours". She drank their concoction and endured the worst pain she had ever felt in her life before mercifully blacking out, the last thing she heard the cackling laughter of the hags enjoying her "sweet music"
When she came to her head was still spinning but the sight of her own skin unadorned by the scales that marked her ancestry convinced her that it was worth it. She got up, took a step forward to thank them, tripped over and fell flat on her face. She frowned, she had never been clumsy in her life, what's more as she became more aware of her body she realized that she felt hollow and empty inside
The hags cackled again and explained to her horror that they had kept their word and removed everything from her that made her special (all attributes higher than 10 reduced to 10, all class and subclass features removed except for skill, language and tool proficiencies)
Horrified she tried to protest that wasn't what she wanted but the hags just laughed louder and told her that their business was concluded taunting her with the potion that contained her essence.
"Oh one last thing before you go, it's actually a myth that the colour of a dragon's scales means whether it's good or not. The truth is that it's how shiny they are, the more shiny the more good hearted they are. And your scales darling were so shiny you could use them as a mirror. Tata now" and with that the world spun again and the next thing she knew she was lost in the woods at night, alone with no magic, no equipment and no friends to help her
Oh and now a coven of hags have the bottled essence of a powerful draconic sorceress, I'm sure that there will be no repercussions from this whatsoever
Another great video, Esper. I was brainstorming while listening.
Woooo! My favorite bard covering my favorite monsters. Time to grab the snacks
The greatest display of hag knowledge!
No one could have done like Esper.
@squashedeyeball Many thanks for the great comment. By chance, is the squashed eyeball stolen from a hag coven?
@@esperthebard haha it could be. You can never know who was the first to release a random eyeball to the market...
I'm so excited for this video! I've been waiting for it ever since you held the poll for the next vid content 👹👺
Had an interesting idea for a campaign story arc: (TL;DR: Midsommer + The Blair Witch + The Crones of Crookback Bog = Cool.)
Player's characters grow up in a smallish town/hamlet situated in a war torn no-man's-land with most surrounding lands ravaged by famine and lawlessness. Yet, their hometown is fine; there is more than enough food and water, bandits leave the town alone despite the town lacking guards or any sort of militia, nothing terribly dangerous lurks in the surrounding wilderness and harvests have been quite bountiful for many years. The town isn't without it's quirks though; with some bizarre local customs, superstitions and holidays, a particular stretch of forest outside of town being forbidden to enter for any reason, an annual lottery (with the winning family being showered with gifts and treated to an extravagant feast before "leaving" for the "big city" in the middle of the night), and although not unfriendly to people from outside of town (consisting mostly of traveling merchants and the occasional bounty hunter just passing through), townsfolk tend to politely and insistently encourage said outsiders to be on their way once their business has concluded.
Due to circumstances, the players leave town for the great wide world. In their travels, they learn that neighboring towns are not as well off as theirs and that their town has quite the sinister reputation with rumors and speculation being abundant. They also learn why (to their knowledge) no bandits have tried to usurp or ransack the place: Some have actually tried in the past and were never heard from again, the rest have learned to just avoid the place. Even the kooky hermit/hedge mage that most people go to for advice on magical and occult matters even cryptically and ominously states that the town and it's people are "her" property, that "she" does not like competition, that "she" has something big in the works and that incurring "her" wrath is not worth the trouble but does not clarify or say anything more on the subject.
Eventually, after many adventures, the players return home for a spell, now seasoned and hardened veterans who have fought goblins, warlords, cults and worse. But they return to a town that has been consumed by paranoia and has turned dismal and bleak. And instead of being welcomed back, they are met with cold stares, rude remarks and basically straight up told that they are no longer welcome here. Even their families tearfully and regretfully tell them that they really need to leave now while they still can. The party soon finds out the reason for all of this: their hometown has been in thrall to an exceptionally powerful green hag for almost a generation that the town mayor made a bargain with in order to spare the town from the hardships that the surrounding region was suffering from. So the hag has protected the town and used her magics to help it prosper but now the time has now come for her to collect what was owed to her (the lottery and the sacrificed families was simply her collecting interest): she intends to sacrifice half of the town's populace in a bloody ritual designed to fuel some sort of dread apotheosis. The townsfolk have been living in constant fear as the date grew closer and closer both because they have no idea which half of the town will be sacrificed or what she intends to do once her transformation is complete.
So now the party has a new goal: Storm the Hag's lair (located in the depths of the forbidden woods), take her out and save the town. But it won't be easy: in addition to various minions and countermeasures the hag has in place (traps, puzzles, magical illusions, wights, wickerman golems, living blair witch totems that move and kill people, corpse flowers, bound demons and even a pet dracolisk) before the party can even start making preparations, they'll have to, one way or another, deal with a lynch mob consisting of former friends and neighbors (many believing that the sacrifice is a necessary evil in order to ensure the town's long term prosperity and survival, others believing that the hag might simply sacrifice everyone if anybody interferes) hellbent on either driving them out of town, turning them into fertilizer for the next growing season, or offering them to the hag. And if the party somehow fails to stop the sacrifice, they now have to save what remains of the town from whatever abomination that the hag has transformed into.
Awesome video on these awesome monsters. Great work as usual 🔥
Nice job on this! I enjoyed it thoroughly.
My favorite low-level campaign villains!
Please talk about Succubi next, they are also favorites.
This is the tier list I didn’t even know I needed. Thank you!
I had my party encounter a coven around level 4 or so, but the Green Hag among them got away. Around level 9, I had that same hag kidnap a female NPC (who was with the party when they fought thebfirst time) with intent to reform her coven by feeding her a de-aging potion till she was a baby and then consuming her to birth a replacement. In the meantime, though, the Green Hag was posing as that very NPC and let the party "rescue" her from another hag accomplice. It was a very fun encounter and then springing the second trap after everyone was reveling in their assumed victory. Not sure I'd be able to justify the elaborate scheming with many other monsters, so it was a very fun exercise as a DM.
YES, I have been DYING for this video. THANK you.
I’ve been waiting for this ranking! I’m so hyped.
Oh heck yeah. Hags are so cool.
This was my same reaction to this video 😂❤
Perfect timing, my players are just about to start the hags coven arc of my campaign
Earlier stuff by Gygax himself also had the male equivalents to hags be Ogre Magi (Or the alternate dimension ogre demimagi who ruled their whole plane)
The german word for witch is Hexe and in Norwegian it's heks, the same word essentially.
Oh man I was looking into the etymology of the word "hag", it's so fascinating to see the evolution, reaching all the way back to proto-Germanic language. A leading theory is that it stems from the word for "hedge," which makes me think of "hedge witch" or "hedge wizard."
The hags from MCDMs Flee Mortals are just pure Yumm when it comes to mechanics
I love hags. It’s a tradition in my house for me to DM a halloween one-shot and the night hag is my favorite BBEG for these types of adventures.
I always like to draw up Night Hags as a recurring character.
Pathfinder campaign centered in Cheliax.
Awesome and dynamic new video, Esper! And you gave Siouxsie&theBanshees the flavor list, nice! I mean... Spellbound is a way stronger track than Stargazer is... and we all know that the songs themselves are ranked in the tiers as well !!
Thanks! And well done catching the band used for the tiers' flavor text.
I play 5e and I've played AD&D, I have so many of the old TSR books! :) I played the cleric in our AD&D game, I kept us all alive and got him up to 9th level. I DM too and I LOVE hags in my 5e game. My players, despise my hag coven from my game. They where behind a missing arch druid and trying to turn him into a lich. The coven consisted of a pair of green hags and a night hag. I bumped up their spellcasting, they also had to be afraid of the "Deals" the coven had made over time. They sent a powerful fiend warlock half orc and her orcs after them. They also sent two fire giants and a blackgaurd at them too! The party was terrified of any of them escaping. IF EVEN ONE HAD ESCAPED they would have been looking over their shoulders forever!!! I LOVE this monster, they just have so many options and ways to play. Volo's Guide also has a nice section that focuses on Hags as NPC's with lots of hooks and little tidbits it's fantastic I use it all the time!
Fantastic video! It got me wanting to put some Hags in campaign!
@@rockymountainarcanum Go for it! There are so many great ones to choose from. Any idea which you might try first?
@@esperthebard probably a classic Annis hag, but that Dune hag intrigued me. I love a good desert themed adventure. Probably because I watched the mummy a ton growing up.
I've always loved the hags.
In my games, they are fey witches who aren't really evil, more neutral.
They are all ancient, and are concerned with preparing for the end of the world. Their perceived cruelty and contempt for mortals comes from both their age and also their mission - compared to the end of the world, short mortal lives simply don't matter that much to them.
I don't use the different hag types either - each one is unique and hand crafted.
In our campaigns, hags aren't necessarily evil, usually chaotic neutral, so selfish, capricious, and dangerously unpredictable, but not outright evil. I've actually used hags as major helpers before, it just depends on how the party approaches them.
One of our characters is currently learning magic from an ancient, somewhat long dead green hag witch, through her grimoir. It's a lot of fun.
That's the sort of thing the hags want us to believe.
While in my mind since a (way too) long time, I take this video as a sign to finally get going and create my "Nightmare on Elm Street" themed adventure with Freddy being basically a buffed up version of a certain kind of hag ^^
Love your vids
7:50 "I'M OLD GREEEEEG!!!"
A little early for Halloween but who can deny such a alluring apple.
Let's goooo I'm excited!
I just want to say I'm subbed and it keeps not notifying me when you have a new video. I have to come here and check. Unsure what I have setup wrong.
btw bell is selected.
Weird. If you have the bell and "all" selected, you should always get notified.
No one asked me, I know. But I personally would really like a video combining the 5e Spelljammer and Sigil monsters. I feel like you would have a lot to say on Time Dragons.
Great video and rankings, thanks! I'm curious to know, without anyone mentioning spoilers, which Hag type people think is in Baldur's Gate 3? Those who played know the character I'm intentionally being vague about. I have suspicions she is an Annis Hag myself.
'some where in the distance' 'mermaid-man' Evil?... EEEEEEEEvillllllll!!!!!
20:05 I feel like making a mere monster out of the Norns/Fates feels wrong. I guess she could just be a messenger thereof.
In B/X we only have the Black and the Sea Hag:)
36:43 I can't remember the name of the artist who did that image, but he's my favorite D&D artist. He did a lot of the Planescape art.
Tony DiTerlizzi
I love listening to DnD lore, I don't even play it. Annis Hag definitely Serial Killer of the type leaving token behind their wake.
Smash, next question
One of the best monsters indeed
Opening sounds were rough on the ears.
Should make them quieter than the rest of the video so they arent ear murder
13:35 Ehh they add up nicely. A few are too conditional though.
Every century, a witch shall be born.
0:59 so a mother
and after all this?
Avrege Bard: Would~
Where would you place the Hourglass Coven from Wild Beyond the Witchlight, do you think?
This fatherly speaking style ist so much more convenient to listen to than the aggro-bard.
@florianw.9545 I'm glad to read this. For like a year, I kept experimenting with delivery styles, because nothing felt quite right to me. There are moments in which I do want to channel the fire, but in general, the calmer, reassuring, warmer tone is winning me over.
@@esperthebard I appreciate this!
You are an Artist! As an engineer, I can see the hefty difference between our self reflectioness. (Is this even a word? Dunno, just a little Germans two cents)
Thank you for your stunning content!
@@esperthebard I've just found your channel, but I've got to say that I like it and I think your delivery is excellent. You've got a very nice blend of smooth intensity and vary it up now and then, which keeps it interesting and adds character.
(And hopefully the fact that I'm an actor and director will lend additional weight to my unsolicited opinion.)
@@AosSidhe Thank you very much. If you'd be up for chatting some time, shoot me an email. I'd be interested to hear some more feedback from someone who has that kind of experience in film or theatre.
esperthebard@gmail.com
If you could use Heat Metal, Mending, and Chill Metal, all at once fast enough, wouldn't you be able to give metal tools plus 2 qualities?
Hordlings!
11:36 I see me a Megatron
Hi Esper 🗣️🔥
Greetings!
Should have quoted Auntie Ethel in the opener 😉
Ravel Puzzlewell had much better lines.
Hol' up -- "Medusas" plural? Is the race not gorgon, with Medusa simply being the name of one particular gorgon of legend ❓ Legitimately confused.
What is Ferne's "grandmother"? I'm thinking Annis Hag?
I was wondering if there could be a male version of a Hag, but then thought about it and gave up, some monsters just don't work in both genders, albeit I could see some bizarre freak of nature happening and a... Geezer? Being born
@@jacopoarmini7889 The hagspawn is the male child born of a hag. Though it has been absent from official D&D since 3e. The 5e hag lore seems to indicate that hags only birth female offspring. But as with all things in D&D, in your own games, you can create your own lore or world.
I want to make a Hag named Karen.
So no Baba Yaga?
Fey shit constructs is too cool a concept to pass up.
Is there an evil monster like the hag only has a male arctype?
So what type of beasty are hags?
Fae, demon, devil, daemon?
Fey in 5e and 4e, monstrous humanoid in 3e. The exception is the night hag, which is a fiend.
@@esperthebard interesting, cheers
👍
Video popped up as recommended, hoped to have something to listen to. Intro turned me off. Bye, felicia
Meth-Sorbo!
You've left this comment a number of times. What does it mean?
@@esperthebard You look like Kevin Sorbo on meth and I love it.
What about Baba Yaga?
As far as I could tell, we don't have her statblock in 5e, where she's only mentioned, but it can be found in HB Kobold Press book, Creature Codex. We probably had her statblock somewhere in the older editions, but I don't play them.
Also, in Curse of Strahd, we have her copycat, Baba Lysaga, Strahd's stepmother. But she's not a hag, just very powerful human witch, e.g. warlock. Her patron, the Mother of Night, might be Baba Yaga herself.
Hags are easily my favorite monster, so deeply tied to folklore, so much story potential.
They are definitely up there among the greatest monsters of all time (in my book). Hags, dragons, vampires, liches, sphinxes, ghosts ... some of the best all around.
Ah yes my least favorite monster, my wife
Honestly your opening made me think 'modern day feminism' 😆 🤣
yikes
Why snitch on yourself being cringe?
Sorry man, I don’t see it. Try not to jump at shadows.
You don't get a lot of dates, do you?
@MrRedFoxorMrelzorrorojo no idea what this has anything to do with what I said but... Okay lol.
If I wanna look for a date il get a date, but I ain't gonna spend my life looking for someone as actively as others. A relationship comes naturally. The fact you say alot of dates means you expect me to be constantly investing nothing but my time in that lol. The more dates you have if anything the worse it is for you so you shot yourself in the foot if anything buddy
Woaw, a compilation of modern day feminists - how fitting!
Love how Tate's boyfriends think they're so funny for basically saying that any self respecting woman wouldn't touch them with at ten foot pole
Bro was describing the average female today for a second