New Monsters & Spells: Elemental Hags
This content can now be found at its most updated version in The Elements and Beyond, a free 246-page compendium that you can download right here, filled with 23 subclasses, 8 spellcasting feats, 134 spells, 213 spell variants, 85 monsters, 30 magic items, 4 races plus 12 new subraces each with racial feats, and even more goodies for both players and DMs!
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Crimson Hag, Desert Hag, Howling Hag, Storm Hag, Cyclone, Pyrokinesis
Classic fairy tales are rife with witches and sorcerous hags, and Dungeons and Dragons represents these themes in the fey monsters called Hags, which come in many varieties. Hags are monsters that excel as a narrative and worldbuilding tool. They can be patrons of the party, mysterious NPCs, or enemies of all stripes, from side-quest distractions to villainous masterminds themselves. And since hags are so much fun to use in a game, why not have more? We’ve got some elementally-themed hags to preview today from The Elements & Beyond, to go with the Sea Hag, Green Hag, and Night Hag from the Monster Manual, as well as the Annis Hag and the Bheur Hag from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. All of these cast spells, but some of them are more spellcasting-focused than others. They are:
Crimson Hag. The pyromaniacal witches known as crimson hags are enraptured with flame, destruction, and chaos. Crimson hags are the most likely of any kind of hag to consort with elementals, and almost as likely to try to consort with demons as Night Hags are. They will summon fire elementals or demons to cause chaos and destruction, cackling wildly as they do. Crimson hags are among the most spellcasting-focused of all hags, and defense against flame goes a long way when facing one. While some hags are impossible to charm, these hags are impossible to frighten — they’ve seen too many terrifying things in their visions already.
Desert Hag. Desert hags are partially inspired by the Dune Hags from previous editions. These lowly CR2 hags make for perfect desert encounters for lower-level player characters, especially as travel encounters where they can make the most of their disguise and mirage spells. These hags pair well with desert spiders, scorpions, vultures, and other desert creatures, and in some settings they can even be used along with sand worms. The jerky they carry may be tempting for hungry desert travelers who aren’t familiar with a hag’s diet, but those who know of its humanoid origins may choose to steer clear.
Howling Hag. Howling hags are notable compared to other hags for not only their ability to fly, but the fact that they are so often found in urban areas. Howling hags are partially inspired by the Shrieking Hags from previous editions. Watch out for their hugs — both claws together allow the hag to do devastating amounts of damage to a target. Howling hags, besides their ability to fly, can become invisible and even see other invisible things, allowing them to go as undetected as the wind itself.
Storm Hag. Storm hags are the most powerful hags an adventurer might commonly encounter in the Multiverse (more powerful than Death Hags, and much more common than the nearly mythical Timeless Hags that weave the strands of fate). For those who care about alignment, storm hags fulfill a unique role as lawful hags. They take their contracts and deals seriously, and unlike other hags will not simply lie but must trick their victims with fine print or unintended consequences in the same way as a devil. Storm hags are thematically related to both air and water, and the Deep-Sea variant can be used as a powerful aquatic hag with spellcasting abilities (since the Sea Hag is only CR2 and doesn’t use much magic). If you were looking for a stat block for your Ursula, here it is!
These hags use some spells that have been previewed already, such as sand cloak and wind funnel. Two of the new spells they use haven’t been previewed yet, so we’re revealing them now: cyclone & pyrokinesis. Cyclone blasts a target with damaging wind and hurls them into the air, where they remain for a round before suffering falling damage. Pyrokinesis, on the other hand, is a bonus action spell that lights a single creature or object on fire without needing verbal or somatic components! You don’t need these spells to run these hags effectively as a DM (they’ll work fine without them, just relying on the published spells), but they help add a level of completeness to the theming and storytelling possibilities for them, so we recommend it!
All of the new spells these hags use can be found along with the hags themselves in the upcoming compendium The Elements & Beyond (to be finally released very soon), which will feature dozens of other new monsters, twenty-three new subclasses, over a hundred new spells, and new feats, races, magic items, and optional rules as well! All for free, as D&D Unleashed always will be.
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Crimson Hag, Desert Hag, Howling Hag, Storm Hag, Cyclone, Pyrokinesis
