I was looking over the stats for night hags in 3.5 and comparing them to the 2E Planescape version. Most of the stats are the same, although some of them seem to be poorly converted. I noticed that in 2E, they have Exceptional (15-16) Intelligence, but only Int 11 in 3.5. Night hags are good mid-level schemers, not just dumb monsters, so I think the old Int would be better for the Pathfinder version.
2E night hags can use know alignment. Since that spell doesn't exist in 3.5, they have detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, and detect law. It seems an awkward way to convert this ability. Detect good is probably sufficient. Night hags are Neutral Evil; they don't care if you're lawful or chaotic.
2E night hags can use sleep once per turn, but they can affect creatures up to 12 HD (save vs. spells). 3.5 night hags can use sleep at will, but it's just the regular 4 HD sleep, which would have no effect on any party powerful enough to fight a night hag. Perhaps the Pathfinder version should have the regular sleep at will and deep slumber 3/day.
I'm also working on a unique, advanced night hag for a story I'm writing. She is supposed to be CR 13, so I've taken the base night hag and added 4 HD (total 12 HD.) That brings her up to CR 11, so I've also added some extra abilities. The idea is for her to be the "grandma from hell."
Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day — bestow curse, atrophy, wrack.
Those last two are 5th level wizard spells. Atrophy is from Dragon #300; it inflicts 1d8 Dex and Con damage and weakens the target's limbs, cutting the target's base speed in half and causing a 25% chance of failure for any action that requires the use of its arms. These penalties persist until the ability damage is healed. A successful Fort save halves the ability damage and negates the limb damage.
Wrack is from the Book of Vile Darkness and the abishai entry in Fiendish Codex II. It causes a single humanoid target to suffer horrible pain, rendering it blind, helpless, and prone for 1 round/level and shaken for 3d10 minutes afterward (Fort save negates.) Note that a CR 7 blue abishai can use this 3/day.
Gaze of Decay (Su): Granny can fix her gaze on a single creature, causing it to view her as a horrifying apparition of age, decay, and death. This works like the spell phantasmal killer (CL 12th, DC 17), but with a few exceptions. If the target is slain by this power, it appears to age centuries in a few seconds, leaving behind a nearly skeletal corpse covered with bits of desiccated flesh. This does not actually age the target; a resurrection will restore them to full health as normal. In addition, a helm of telepathy cannot be used to turn the effect back on Granny. This is a Necromancy [death, evil, fear, mind-affecting] effect.
Grandmotherly Gaze (Su): Any living creature that meets Granny's gaze and fails a Will save (DC 17) while she is in the form of an elderly female humanoid regards her as a completely harmless old grandmother who must be loved and protected. This works like the spell charm monster (CL 12th). The effect is broken if she changes form or reverts to her true form, even if the targets don't see her change.
The DCs for the gaze attacks are not final since they reflect the base night hag's Cha 12; the advanced version will have a higher Cha. Just to clarify, the first gaze must be targeted on a specific creature, while the second gaze works on any creature that can see the hag's eyes. The range on both should probably be 30 feet or so.
I think the second gaze should possibly work like charm person instead of charm monster. This wouldn't change anything as far as most PCs are concerned, but it seems strange to me that the grandma hag should be able to charm her fellow fiends in this way. The ability is tied to the night hag's ability to assume a humanoid form, after all, and since night hags can only shapeshift into humanoid forms, it seems reasonable for this ability to only affect humanoids.
Does this sound reasonable for a CR 13 creature? I'm mainly comparing it to the pleasure devil in Fiendish Codex II. That also has 12 HD, super-high ability scores, and a boatload of at-will spell-like abilities; it's CR 11. What do you think?
(Feel free to comment on the regular night hag as well.)
Me likee. A smarter hag just makes sense, as do the abilites. She may want to detect various alignments to see who to kill and who to enslave. Evil slaves will do the things she wants them to.
I think the charm monster ability would be fine. She could use it to charm her ogre minions to capture Hansel and Gretel from the local village for her stewpot.
I hope the PCs find them before they're turned into kids meals!
I approve of smart night hags.
While I don't mind smart night hags (they should be decent schemers) is a high Intelligence really needed? I mean normal people can come up with decent stuff too. I really never liked it in eariler editions where 8~10 was an average Intelligence, but most thinking monsters had much more than that.
Anyways I guess my main point would be that you don't have to be really intelligent to come up with a good scheme.
Anyways I guess my main point would be that you don't have to be really intelligent to come up with a good scheme.Prison is full of people who believe that...
And the streets are full of the ones that weren't caught :p
All hail to hags,
my favorite monster.
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And the streets are full of the ones that weren't caught :pAnyways I guess my main point would be that you don't have to be really intelligent to come up with a good scheme.Prison is full of people who believe that...
Yep, they, for the most part, are the ones SMARTER than the ones who went to prison ;)
Yep, they, for the most part, are the ones SMARTER than the ones who went to prison ;)And the streets are full of the ones that weren't caught :pAnyways I guess my main point would be that you don't have to be really intelligent to come up with a good scheme.Prison is full of people who believe that...
Doesn't make them geniuses.
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Doesn't make them geniuses.Yep, they, for the most part, are the ones SMARTER than the ones who went to prison ;)And the streets are full of the ones that weren't caught :pAnyways I guess my main point would be that you don't have to be really intelligent to come up with a good scheme.Prison is full of people who believe that...
Remember, in 1e, "genius" didn't hit until 17-18 Int. Below that was "high", "exceptional" and the like.
I guess I tend to think of a "10" Int as like the idiot who just cut you off in traffic, "scheming" over his jelly donut...
Well I would be alright with a 12 for them. It's just that "normal" people without high intelligence have come up with some great stuff too, if nothing else given enough time someone can come up with a lot.
In the long run I guess it doesn't really matter too much. It's just a couple more skill points and modifiers on skills.
Agreed, the one thing I've always expect from a Night Hag is cunning. After all doesn't their queen rule a layer of heck? That says something about the general abilities of the Night Hag to me.
After all doesn't their queen rule a layer of heck?
Yeah. She's the Princess of Insufficient Light.
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After all doesn't their queen rule a layer of heck?Yeah. She's the Princess of Insufficient Light.
Whoa! She invented the darkness spell? ;)
Well the Hag Countess probably isn't the best example of night hag (given that she's LE rather than NE like the rest of her race). I always assumed that she'd been exiled from the Waste for some reason, or she eventually intended to kill and take the place of Cegilune, the night hags' patron goddess.
In my own campaign I had her in Baator for her own protection, in abject fear of returning home to the Gray Waste, with the implication that she was the only surviving member of the night hag cabal that had created/empowered the unique yugoloth lord Xenghara (who butchered his hag creators as his first act upon the ending of his contractual servitude).
I was looking over the stats for night hags in 3.5 and comparing them to the 2E Planescape version. Most of the stats are the same, although some of them seem to be poorly converted. I noticed that in 2E, they have Exceptional (15-16) Intelligence, but only Int 11 in 3.5. Night hags are good mid-level schemers, not just dumb monsters, so I think the old Int would be better for the Pathfinder version.
2E night hags can use know alignment. Since that spell doesn't exist in 3.5, they have detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, and detect law. It seems an awkward way to convert this ability. Detect good is probably sufficient. Night hags are Neutral Evil; they don't care if you're lawful or chaotic.
2E night hags can use sleep once per turn, but they can affect creatures up to 12 HD (save vs. spells). 3.5 night hags can use sleep at will, but it's just the regular 4 HD sleep, which would have no effect on any party powerful enough to fight a night hag. Perhaps the Pathfinder version should have the regular sleep at will and deep slumber 3/day.
I'm also working on a unique, advanced night hag for a story I'm writing. She is supposed to be CR 13, so I've taken the base night hag and added 4 HD (total 12 HD.) That brings her up to CR 11, so I've also added some extra abilities. The idea is for her to be the "grandma from hell."
Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day — bestow curse, atrophy, wrack.
Those last two are 5th level wizard spells. Atrophy is from Dragon #300; it inflicts 1d8 Dex and Con damage and weakens the target's limbs, cutting the target's base speed in half and causing a 25% chance of failure for any action that requires the use of its arms. These penalties persist until the ability damage is healed. A successful Fort save halves the ability damage and negates the limb damage.
Wrack is from the Book of Vile Darkness and the abishai entry in Fiendish Codex II. It causes...
I like the idea of intelligent night hags myself. Planescape 2e version also hints at their ancestry, "Some lords of the Lower Planes take night hags for wives. From such unions are only born more night hags, equal to others of their race and not partaking of the characteristics of their sire." This is what intrests me most about these hags daughters of Arch Devils, Demon Lords and Princes, Vile nobility running through their veins. I see hags as prize cows of the Lower Planes. Each one unique and carrying a hint of their noble blood. With unique powers,characteristics and physical traits reflecting their powerful fathers. But not so unique that it doesn't resemble a hag anymore. They are needed to harvest larvae for the blood war and other foul purposes they are held in respect for their harvests as well as their knowledge. I see the lords looking at them as not exactly wives but breeding stock to be protected,bought and sold with pedigrees of their ancestry. Make them a hot commodity. In my world Demogorgon has a prized Night Hag "Violexx"(She of the Great Horns) sired by none other than "Asmodeus". "Demogorgon" hadseen offspring from this hag before and they were of excellent quality so he accuired her for his breeding program and sired excellent hags himself "Grelda" and "Blixious". There was one however that took more after "Demogorgon" than the rest. A beast called the Haggoth a large mostrosity about 10' tall a huge right arm with horrible talons on each, the left 4 withered arms gnarled and almost unusable, giant mishapen feet and 3 horrible heads sprouting from one set of shoulders. not as smart as her sisters she is used more as muscle for the covey. She has a necrotic bite and can vomit necrotic bile as a breath weapon 3 x a day.
DAve