Hags are some of the most wicked, nasty, and vile creatures in all of Dungeons and Dragons. They are evil to their core, and their bodies reflect their despicable nature. Hags look like old crones with withered bodies and matted hair. They have warts and wrinkles that cover their faces, and their hands sport fingers that can slice open a man’s belly.
But despite their profane existence, hags are much more civil than most creatures you’ll find in the Monster Manual. So civil, in fact, that many times they can be dealt with without the need for sharpened steel. But be wary. A hag’s true power lies in her wit. Just when you think you’ve gotten the upper hand, you’ll hear the hag’s cackles as she reveals she was pulling the strings the whole time.
10 Hags Return Spontaneous Favors
A hag’s life revolves around making other humanoids indebted to her. Every deal, pact, or agreement she makes is simply an opportunity for the hag to obtain a measure of control over someone else’s life.
Thus, a hag who receives a favor outside of any such bargain is predisposed to feeling indebted to the favor’s benefactor, and there’s nothing a hag hates more than being in debt. In order to get out of this imagined debt, the hag will return the favor as if she were contractually obligated.
9 Hags Are Arrogant To A Fault
All hags believe that their magic provides them the power to rival the gods and that they possess the supreme intellects of the multiverse. As a result, they see all other creatures as below them.
While a hag might treat another of her kind as somewhat of an equal, it’s a mistake to believe this nicety might be extended to anyone else. Hags who meet adventurers that believe themselves worthy of equal treatment love to string the fools along before pulling the rug out from under them.
8 A Broken Hag Coven Causes Chaos
In order to gain access to their powerful spells, hags must first form a coven. Covens always consist of three hags. This way, if an argument ever breaks out between two hags it can be settled by the third. If a member of a hag coven dies and the others manage to survive, the area where these hags lair is subject to great strife.
The remaining hags will hold trials to fill the dead hag’s spot in the coven. These trials are a competition by which a hag proves herself worthy of the position by performing the most sinister deeds.
7 Hags Have A Vast Social Network
Some researchers believe that every hag knows of every other hag. She may not have spoken with them, but she’s at the very least heard of them from her own hag network. Adventurers can make use of this vast social network if they are ever in search of a particular hag.
In other words, befriending a hag, if you can call it that, might not be the worst idea. Just don’t make any deals with her, no matter how tempting.
6 Hags Reproduce By Eating Human Babies
Hags, by their very nature, feed off of the happiness of other creatures. They derive pleasure from perverting the hopes and dreams of others. It only makes sense, then, that they must reproduce in the same way.
A hag can only give birth to another hag after devouring a human infant. The gestation period lasts a single week, at which point a seemingly normal baby is born. On the child’s 13th birthday, however, she transforms into a clearly identifiable daughter of her hag mother.
5 Hags Were Banished From The Feywild
Hags were originally creatures of the Feywild. Eventually, though, their truly despicable nature led to their banishment from the plane.
Since then, hags have made their residences in the darkest corners of the material plane and night hags, in particular, have even made the outer plane of Hades a home of their own. It’s in Hades that the succulent and priceless souls of the Neutral Evil go when their mortal flesh gives way.
4 Hags Respect One Another
While hags are similar to beholders in that they see themselves as superior to all others, there is one key difference. Where beholders see their individual selves as the apex of all creation, hags see their entire race as the pinnacle of life.
Consequently, hags show a level of respect to one another that’s unbecoming of their foul nature. They will break no oath given to another hag, announce their arrival in another hag’s territory, and, above all, abide by ancient codes of conduct.
3 Night Hags Sell Souls
Remember when we mentioned the night hags’ home in Hades? Other than the places general dreariness, there is a reason that night hags made Hades their home. The night hags harvest the neutral evil souls that arrive here and then sell them to interested parties including demons, devils, and liches.
The reason these souls are so prized is because of their neutral evil nature. The neutrality of the souls makes them malleable and open to change, which is a key trait for newly recruited demons and devils.
2 Green Hags Can Turn Invisible
The most frustrating thing about most hags is their ability to easily escape danger. In the case of green hags, this escape is made through the use of invisibility. As an action, green hags can turn invisible, leaving no physical trace of their passage while invisible in this way.
Even if you never let a green hag out of your sight, she can simply disappear right before your very eyes. One easy counter to this tactic is a casting of the light cantrip on the hag’s body before she tries to make her escape.
1 Sea Hags Can Kill You With A Glare
While sea hags are the weakest of their kind by challenge rating, don’t be fooled. Their horrific appearance trait has the chance to frighten any creature within 30 feet of the hag. The sea hag can then target any frightened creature with her death glare ability.
If the target doesn’t succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw, it immediately drops to 0 hit points. The Monster Manual tells us that sea hags are unforgivably ugly, and it’s true. Talk about looks that can kill.
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