Alright, I'm hoping to start up a pathfinder game sometime next month, and I've been going through the setting and statting several prominent NPCs for my campaign (ignoring canon here and there). I'm looking and Irresen, and though I'm fairly confident that Queen Elvana ought to be a high level witch, I have no clue what to use as her base race. None of the hags in the bestiary really seem to fit. Have any precedents been set on this, and if not, does anyone have any suggestions?
Alright, I'm hoping to start up a pathfinder game sometime next month, and I've been going through the setting and statting several prominent NPCs for my campaign (ignoring canon here and there). I'm looking and Irresen, and though I'm fairly confident that Queen Elvana ought to be a high level witch, I have no clue what to use as her base race. None of the hags in the bestiary really seem to fit. Have any precedents been set on this, and if not, does anyone have any suggestions?
I believe that Baba Yaga's get are statted as Human (see the Witchwar Legacy)-- but I don't have a copy at hand. Perhaps someone can confirm this.
Starglim beat me to it, but you could also use the advanced template.
Alright, cool. I'm going with a human with the cold subtype (shouldn't affect CR). Thanks for the tips!
A pre-PRPG idea I had was to use a slightly powered-down version of the Frost Folk from Frostburn.
Baba Yaga was done up as some kind of Monster originally perhaps a night hag in Pathfinder, but an Ogre type in old D&D, but very Supernatural, a one of a kind force of nature had high levels in Druid and Magic User. In Russian folklore she is a kind of force of natue but had sisters also Baba Yagas (Grand Mothers), her Dauthers in the stories were "adopted girls" usually around 10 years of age that she stole from the local villagers that she found wandering to close to her dancing hut. Usually sent there by jelous sisters or such...
Baba Yagas Daughters in Irisen are Human girls that Baba Yaga trained to High Level in either Witch or Wizard or have achieved a high level in Sorcerer and she puts in place ;)
Just saying :) take it as you will my friend :)
The Witchwar Legacy describes a descendant of Baba Yaga.
** spoiler omitted **
Frog God's Fane of the Fallen shows the module author's version of Baba Yaga, stated up for PFRPG as I recall.
Fane of the Fallen
A couple campaigns ago my players ran into Baba Yaga. Actually they needed to ask her a favor. You have to remember that in the tales, she set great stock by politeness and liked to be called "Little Grandmother" (Baba Yaga). There was also a bit of a discrepancy between her being so powerful and terrible and there being this almost constant parade of children who kept escaping her house, sometimes using her own magic items against her.
I decided that Baba Yaga basically, in her retirement, had decided to play "The Most Dangerous Game" but with children armed with magic items. It was sort of like the great trout fisherman deliberately making it more difficult so the sport would be more fun.
When the characters encountered her, she was half furious and half delighted because the latest child had taken the mirror that turned into a lake when tossed on the ground and specifically used it on a hillside so it would wash the hut away. None of them had ever used that tactic before!
She also had a constant feud with Koschei the Deathless which is what kept her amused when she wasn't playing games with children.
Wow thats awesome :) Baba is grandmother and Yaga is well not a virgin, is the best translation... a group of women called yagas would be a derogetory term ;) A woman who has a child would be a yaga. A vergin Baba is just an old woman. So as far as I have been able to dicern Baba Yaga is either a GrandMother because she sired children or because she had those kids climbing around... that she adopted as she seemed to have 2 permenent ones... a dark haired one and a blond. Many people in the west think that Baba Yaga means little grandmother as that is what she is also called :)
Side note the dark haired one became Natasha, then Tasha of Tasha's Hideous Laughter (Hideous Laughter) then changed her name to Iggwilv
all in Greyhawk in the Original D&D with Gary Gygax...
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Side note the dark haired one became Natasha, then Tasha of Tasha's Hideous Laughter (Hideous Laughter) then changed her name to Iggwilv
all in Greyhawk in the Original D&D with Gary Gygax...
Wasn't Tasha=Iggwilv Erik Mona's doing rather than EGG's?
I was sure for a while that we'd known about it pre-EttRoG, but ISTR asking him at Gencon after EttRoG came out and he indicated otherwise -- though there may have been circumstantial evidence for it (eg her room in the Dancinh Hut).
I would go with Ogre Mage. I think she was often refered to as an ogre in old stories and AD&D?
If you read the text in the beastiery, Oni fits perfectly. You could even have it be based off of human rather then giant.
Good Point... Iggwilv was EGG but mabe Mona made her Yaga's daughter...
Ya, Oni or Ogre Mage is good :) But Human supernatural is good too... althougth Nighthag sorta fits the Rus profile of ancient hag that is always around and has lots of abilities that are wierd...
Good Point... Iggwilv was EGG but mabe Mona made her Yaga's daughter...
Ya, Oni or Ogre Mage is good :) But Human supernatural is good too... althougth Nighthag sorta fits the Rus profile of ancient hag that is always around and has lots of abilities that are wierd...
For my own part, I've started stating Baba-Yaga herself as some type of Hag (either night hag or green hag) with an added cold and extraplaner subtype and 20 levels of witch (maybe 22 or 23 using the scant epic rules in core rulebook).
I've just been making her daughters and grandaughters humans with the cold subtpe. I'm toying with the idea of making her male offspring monsters of some sort. Maybe using the stats for bugbears.
Cool
Changeling from Advanced Race Guide w/ 20+ lvls of Witch?
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Considering her place in Slavic folklore/mythology it's possible that Baba Yaga (in Golarion) is (formerly?) one of the Eldest of the First World who forsook the realms of the fey to travel the rest of the multiverse. This speculation, if correct, could explain much about her capriciousness and that she (seemingly) isn't interested in spreading evil for its own sake or actually ruling Irrisen.
Baba Yaga's "daughters" who rule Irrisen have been mentioned several times to be human and their relationship to Baba Yaga as one of adoption and not blood.
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Considering her place in Slavic folklore/mythology it's possible that Baba Yaga (in Golarion) is (formerly?) one of the Eldest of the First World who forsook the realms of the fey to travel the rest of the multiverse. This speculation, if correct, could explain much about her capriciousness and that she (seemingly) isn't interested in spreading evil for its own sake or actually ruling Irrisen.
This makes almost too much sense. :)
Aren't they all adopted daughters ?
Also:
Iuz is the maternal grandson (by adoption) of Baba Yaga, and through Graz'zt, the half-brother of Athux, Thraxxia, and Arzial. He is also related, through his father, to the demon lords Pale Night, Lupercio, Rhyxali, Vucarik of Chains, and Zivorgian.
Here's Baba Yaga's entry from the GH wiki...
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I thought that in Golarion they were her daughters, and if I recall I think Mr. Jacobs once said they were simply humans. Also, though I don't remember my Russian folklore as well as I should, if i remember the stories my grandmother told me, Baba Yaga was essentially human, but cannibalistic and magical and, as a side-benefit, extremely long lived.
Side Note: I enjoy what the paizo team did with Koshei the deathless, instead turning him into a demon lord cursed by Baba Yaga (at least, I thought Kostchitchi was an allusion to Koshei the Deathless). Even more interesting is the fact that they made the Gorynitch a monster...so I wonder if Baba Yaga has one of those...
And here i was just waiting for the next AP to come out....
Aren't they all adopted daughters ?
Also:
Iuz is the maternal grandson (by adoption) of Baba Yaga, and through Graz'zt, the half-brother of Athux, Thraxxia, and Arzial. He is also related, through his father, to the demon lords Pale Night, Lupercio, Rhyxali, Vucarik of Chains, and Zivorgian.Here's Baba Yaga's entry from the GH wiki...
In the new Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter book, it's mentioned that those jadwiga most closely related to Baba Yaga may have some strange physical characteristics, so that would point to them not being adopted.
could be magically altered features, like getting a gang tat, when you join the club?
I'm wondering if Baba Yaga's daughters and grand-daughters possess some sort of longevity, as they seem to be adults when they arrive (being immediately made queen or high-level aristocrat/administrator) and - barring violent death - live long enough to be taken away again 100 years later.
Does the Reign of Winter AP (so far) have any more information on this subject?
And I still wonder if the Changeling child of a male Jadwiga and a Hag would be considered a Jadwiga.
James Jacobs and Rob McCreary implied that this might not exactly be the case. Quoting the latter here on this.
At the same time, if the character is a changeling, then she isn't jadwiga, and might not enjoy all the rights full-blooded jadwiga have in Irrisen.
I can certainly see the jadwiga not considering a changeling to be jadwiga, especially if the changeling traits only appeared when the character came of age.
@Bellona
I never really thought of that myself. Someone should probably ask James Jacobs about that on his thread. Then again, the Paizo crew might just leave it as a mystery.
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Baba Yaga's daughters that end up being queens of Irrisen do live an unnaturally long life, though we don't go into detail as to what exactly causes this.
If I were to make a call on the subject, I would say that it is directly related to them being not only the daughters of an ancient and powerful witch, but also their station in life that mystically lengthens their lives.
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Yeh, I would say they're essentially mechanically human, but with a weird long lifespan that we really don't have to calculate since all the long-lived ones go away after 100 years. Any mechanical benefit (accruing mental age bonuses but not physical age penalties, for example) I assume gets covered somewhere in RoW; if they didn't put it in there, we can just assume the "pure"/high-up Jadwiga function essentially like off-the-rack humans, save with some slight flavor alterations to appearance, and we don't calculate the age stuff (pretend they hit adult age, then age like an elf, basically).