Scottish folklore had the 'hag of ages' which wasnt a typical hag but a creature that appeared as a woman of various ages. She tested the hero by approaching them as a girl, maiden and old woman to see if they were worthy of gaining her favor
1:08 the reason its called the Annis Hag is because its named after Black Annis, a creature in British Folklore that well does what was described within the DND universe as well.
There was a scenario in an old White Dwarf that used novel fey creatures, including Black Annis as the "big bad". Since it was an adventure for very low level characters the stats were weak. The fey content (for 1E) is in issues 37-39 (1983).
This video gave me an idea I'm eager to try on my players - A town or village being troubled by a hag. Introduce a beautiful woman (The town leader or leader's daughter etc), and have people tell the players of the hag in the woods. The real secret is that the beautiful woman is the evil one terrorising the town and she's cursed the local herbalist to look like a hag - who is actually the one trying to help the village. A 'don't judge a book by it's cover' scenario.
Interesting concept, I like the idea of busting out of the stereotype and doing different things with Hags. In my campaign, there's a Green Hag who is both Good and Evil. She's got two personalities, two lairs, two story lines, one Good, one Evil. The Good side lives with the White Stag, and tends a garden, the Evil side lives in a cave in a swamp with a Black Dragon. I haven't tried her out on my gaming table yet. But I'm having fun working out where she fits in to the major plot line.
So… Neutral. She is the balance between good and evil…. Now do a neutral character that is the balance between Lawful and Chaotic…. It’s not good or evil but is Law and Chaos…. Which in and of itself would also be neutral. The same being could play all 4 parts, and have 4 different lairs… and Have a 5th lair, which is it’s true lair and it’s true personality. Neutral.
The movie “Mean Girls” comes to mind, or really snotty women at a perfume stand in a mall - like a Gucci ad. An uber-Karen soccer mom, screams “GIVE ME THE MANAGER!!!”
The idea of the good hag makes me think of Frau Holle from the Grimm fairy tales. She is described as a terrifying and ugly but good natured at heart. She makes people do hard task as a test, if they pass, Frau Holle gives them blessings and boons.
Im getting Stardust vibes from this kinda??? Like the witches from that very much seem beautiful until their power source is removed, causing them to revert to nearly decomposed bodies. I will 100000% be using the good natured hags concept. It makes total sense in a magical world that operates largely on balance, that the evil of typical hags would be mirrored in equally good hags, equivalent to a black hole vs white hole in astronomy. I love the concept of the birth of 'positive' hags being focused on the resillience of the women that are afflicted with becoming hags, that if the child resists enough, they keep their nature into adulthood. I would also have a genesis point of positive hags being concentrated sources of specific 'vibes'; since my setting treats magic and divinity as very physical, evil hags tend to arise in communities where a lot of malice, rage, etc exists. Subsequently, maybe a positive hag arises in locations where theres a massive amount of happiness, love, creativity. In this way, hags become a sort of polyp that forms when the energies in an area grow to strong one way or another, the excess energy is put into creating a hag, who itself becomes a sort of spawn of local energies. You could create entire folktales around how towns that become consumed in family feuds and competition sprout their own demise in the form of evil hags, and how good-natured citizens are rewarded with paragons of their virtue. Which, the word virtue makes me wonder if you could make Virtue Hags - hags that are based specifically off of things like humility, and the reverse of course being Sin Hags - based off of things like pride. Man this video has me thinking a lot more than i have time to write down before work lol
This made me think of the Night Hag called Ravel Puzzlewell from the 90's game Planescape: Torment. She is definitely not good - terrifyingly evil in some instances - but she does good when it's relevent to her, or even sometimes she does evil when she feels it will benefit others. There are two main examples; the first is that she is kind of in love (either romantically or maternally) with the Protagonist and allows him to defeat her in combat and continue his journey, because she can't face truly hurting him, and values him more than she values her own safety. And the other, possibly more interesting example is she attempts to 'Break the Cage' of Sigil. This potentially massively evil act is done, by her own admition, because she does not like seeing things trapped. And she looks upon the Lady of Pain, and sees a being bound by her own responsibility, and wants to 'set her free'. By her standards, this is an act of true benevolence. Her world is evil, so everything she does is stained by that evil - even the good that she does. She also poses as different maternal figures around Sigil and planes, usually inhabiting local healers (notably the Midwife Old Mebbeth in Ragpicker's Square). She certainly shows her evilness in places, but most of how the player character interacts with her in this game is that she shows kindness to the protagonist, where few else have.
Kobold Press actually had something like the beautiful hag concept in their "Tome of Beasts" book. It was a fey creature called the Abominable Beauty, and it's vibe was that it was so beautiful that it's gaze could blind, with a voice so beautiful that it could deafen creatures, and a touch so wonderful that it burned you.
Same thing with the gorgon Medusa. Medusa was actually smoking hot in the myth. And was the only one of the three sisters that could be unalived or she'd this mortal coil by natural means.
Good aligned Hags could bring some interesting story twist, something like the chromatic and metalic dragons or like angels and devils. Example, A good hag that motherly discipline naughty people and creatures, too gives people candy at certain season and always happy to have guest at her home as long as possible, she prob has a few fairy easter rabbits that keeps her company.
There's hag descended characters in Pathfinder 2e. The Changeling is the child of a hag and a mortal, and many of them, particularly women, feel something known as The Call that drives them to become hags themselves.
I've used hags a LOT in early campaigns. Sometimes the players just find the children skins in an abandoned building, Sometimes they wind up getting saved by the Hag and "owe" them a favor to be redeemed later. One time, the hags were recruiting because they lost a coven member. I don't know about good-aligned hags, but a bipolar hag that swings wildly back and forth between evil and good acts on a whim could be a useful and dangerous NPC. After all, what's more dangerous than someone who feels bad about doing evil?
I'd say that kinda muscles in on the Siren and Succubus territory. There are evil creatures that use beauty to ensnare people (Well, if you like hooves and scales i guess), we don't need every creature to fill every niche.
Great video. I've always thought it's more fun if at least some of the time a hag gives a good deal. Even evil hags should be capable of enlightened self interest at times. If those adventurers remember how she helped them out they might repay help the hag in return. It just makes no sense for anyone to ever bargain with a hag if they always betray everyone.
For Good Hags, look at the "Grannies" of the older editions of Ravenloft... The main thing with Hags is that they're main thing isn't actually "Evil", but being contrary to the world that they're in, essentially, with most domains of Ravenloft, they're on the side of good out of, well, pure spite at the dark powers... You also have the Blood/Red Hags from Kobold Press which are more neutral in nature, though rather bloodthirsty
Good hags could work as an interesting faction for lack of a better term. Cegilune their patron goddess used to be both beautiful and to a degree kind. Maybe some of her old temples are able to reverse the greed that transformed both her and her hags but the goddess herself is to weak to reach them and her worshipers to self centred to seek them out for her.
There are a couple creatures from 2e that could fit the bill for some of what you're thinking. The Unseelie Nymph from Monstrous Manual Appendix 4 are fey creatures with a similar world view to the traditional hag whose beauty enslaves those who view them, while their presence corrupts and leeches the strength and beauty out of the world around them. And the Bruja of the Ravenloft MC3 are good aligned versions of the traditional hag, who satisfy their darker hunger cravings with wildlife or creatures of evil alignment. The former would need some work to convert to later editions, but the latter would be fairly straight forward.
Hags are already beautiful! I like their macabre appearance. What I do wish was different, is this monotone evil species, I wish hags were more ambiguous. Always dangerous, yet can be helpful and kind if they want to and if you prove yourself but can also be incredibly cruel if you anger them or if they just feel like it this century. In folklore hags can be ambitious, they may eat you or attempt to sabotage your life, but they also can just as well give you advice or a helping hand.
I like to stick to typical hags but I really love your interpretation of subverting hags in game. I'm not familiar with the play style of hags and I suck at being a DM, but I totally see myself enjoying encountering a non-typical hag
@@feywildfiend I appreciate the encouragement but I most certainly have tried with 4 different campaigns. I know I have good ideas but I'm bad at the storytelling aspect of being a DM
I actually made a hag like that my party defeated ab few sessions ago. I called her the granny hag. She looks like an innocent older woman and has a special ability to charm people who listen to her sing, but only if they already been close to her or her hut for half an hour. She also is strongly tied to her hut and her spell save dc and spell attack rolls increase while she is close to it. Also if the hag dies she reforms in her hut after 24h. for her combat abilities I used the skull lord as template, changed up a few stats and gave fitting spells like dominate person and circle of death. In my game it worked really well because we had a social encounter with her where one party member got charmed and the seemingly nice granny told another partymember something horrible. The resulted in one partymember attacking and one defending the hag causing a cool roleplay sequenz and in party fight, while the hag was feeding on the negative emotions. It resultet in the two charmed partymembers fleeing and even doubting their on concousness, while the charmed one stayed behind and was, at the beginning of the next session, used to convei a cruel message to the nearby village and the party. Also her Hut had giant spiderlegs because it was cool.
I borrowed a lot of my hag lore from Pathfinder 1e... so, all hags are female and the children of hags, called "changelings" are also female. Anyhoo, given that there is no gamerule info at all on what to call the child of a changeling, or that changelings even have children, at face value I think it is pretty clear what causes a changeling to transform into a hag. Changelings are often beautiful, and since they cannot have children without transforming into a monster, it opens some pretty interesting doors for roleplaying and storytelling.
Very late to the party on this one, but I have a few contributions. If you are into videogames you might be interested to know that the expansion for neverwinter nights 2 mask of the betrayer has a great story full of nuanced characters and themes that has very interesting rendition of a night hag. Second, I just so happened to have a beautiful hag npc in one of my short lived games called Horrid Hilda, who awoke to her hag nature but never changed physically to reflect it and grew have an almost elven beuty, something that caused her to be endlessly harrased by her coven sisters and caused her to despise other hags above all other creatures. Finally for the beautiful evil hag you could have a Rot Hag, her alluring appearance not disimilar to the pretty colors and patterns on a poisonous flower which she shares a lot in common with. She has a poisonous aura that inflicts poison damage and the poisoned condition, and a visage that charms creature causing them to walk toward her, her presence despoils the surroundings and spreads rot and disease not unlike Milenia from Elden Ring. A flower that thrives in the rot and corruption it caused.
Well isn't this convenient! I'm already working on a more nuanced take on hags for a fairytale-inspired setting, and this was really helpful. At the moment I'm working on a fairytale-influenced setting where Hags are "the old wise women of the woods", mysterious and dangerous, but also genuinely helpful for the communities around them if you pay the price. They cast horrid curses and swarms of bloodsuckers upon the foreign armies that came to murder and pillage. They brewed potions to strengthen the warriors who stood against them, and while these brews left them crippled afterwards, for a few days they fought like giants. They offered healing and succour, and in the end death or transformation into trees for those who could not be helped. Of course, they did drag many of the foreign invaders off into the woods for gods know what (best not ask), and they obey none but their own covens. So yeah not "evil" as much as powerful, canny and very much disinterested in playing nice. Behave, child, you're in granny's house now.
I have a way of presenting hags in my TTRPG world: They're still things you might consider ugly or unpleasant, at least in their true forms. They represent rot, decay, the transition from life to death, and the resulting breakdown of death into the resources life springs from. In the same way, they have power over disease, infection, and age. They're old women because they are the mothers of rot and death, grandmothers to those who bring life from the remains of their work. But they aren't particularly evil, but an honest truth you don't want to face: we all age, we all die, we all rot, and new life will come from what's left behind when we go. The ones who are more friendly with communities help them ease from life to death painlessly, or even helping with medicines where it helps deal with the pains of age or the suffering of illness. They can foretell the hard choices you might need to make in the future, but not the outcome of those choices; just enough to let you know what's going to make that choice a bad time for you. They can tell you how much time your body has left when you have a wasting sickness, they can even make it suck less as you go, but you're on your own if you want a cure. She can't do that any more than the next herbalist, and she won't pretend otherwise. She's drawn to those who have to put up with a bad truth and don't shy away from it, and while she might not turn your life around, she'll give you perspective. It keeps the vibe without them feeling too flat for my tastes.
I used the hag baby swap but swapped it for changeling fey. My changeling character was human locked until his 16ish birthday and then the fey wanted him to kill his dad. He hated his dad but not that much and ran away. He changed into his ideal hero persona due to his mother's influence and tried to go be a hero as he read in his books in this dark world.
We did miss you! I really enjoyed this take! I like to, in general, wipe the idea that any creature in the Monster Manual must have a specific alignment. Sure, there are things which could influence a monster to be pretty horrible. Especially some of the demonic beings and shadowfell beings and such. But when it comes to the Fey, I like thinking of them as being outside the concepts of Good and Evil simply because those ideas are alien to them entirely. I like the idea that a magical Hag of any type can use their powers to achieve whatever goals they have. If they revel in Ugliness then they embrace that look. But if, like you suggest, they choose to revel in some other aspect then I think they'd lean in that direction. I always try to give my Hags a beautiful Glamour version of themselves which they use as needed. For Baba Lysaga for example in CoS I made her primarily beautiful and had that be the result of her bathing regularly in the blood of the Fane she had captured in her Hut. There are lots of lore examples of Hags being obsessed with Youth and Beauty and doing horrible things to maintain it.
The physicality of the hag concept is part of the entire point of it. The twisted view of these creatures, of the code of right and wrong, is part of where they draw their power from, and the breaking of those rules being what shows the consequences. The form is the game of how they interact with the world of "normal" people... the facade is the game itself, and interacting with it is glimpsing their "true" selves, what in the light of truth is clearly twisted and standing of weak ground in the karmic balance and purity of soul department. The farther away you get from that essence of what makes a hag a hag, you may as well create something new. Just a general spirit, or "good witch". You can have magical women of rage, vengeance, healing, or whatever you'd like... they can be awesome, but needn't be under the Hag umbrella. Eidolons. Basically Fae. Still best kept to whatever game it is that defines them. However it is that their particular aberration, their incursion of the reality and rules thereof they would impose upon "the normal world" being what defines them, and what makes them different from the aesthetic exotica which is quickly becoming the average in modern DnD, and interacting with the metaphysical existential gambit of all that being a riddle solving process in most ways and situations.
So pathfinder has a number of hag types, and one of them is the Blood Hag, whose appereance is that of a young beautiful woman, but unlike others. She literally wears the skin of a young woman. draining the woman of her blood and then literally stealing her skin to use. Sort of as an opposite though is the Ravenloft character type of the Bruja. Bruja are hags but are not evil, almost always neutral but they can be good. But they are still hags and still embody that old witchy crone archtype, closer I think to the fairy godmother trope as the example Bruja in the 3rd edition book included spells like speak with animals, heal, and remove curse. But they are still hags with all the traits of their type.
Awesome video. Idk if it can be helpful but in a 3.5 manual called "Nephandum creature del terrore" (idk if there's an English version) there was a type of hag called "strega della seduzione" (witch of seduction) which was described as a woman with a beautiful upper body and with an horrid alien boy below the waist. She had tentacles in the lower port of her body from which she could suck life essence or something like that
I never like DND creatures that are 'innately' evil (perhaps with the exception of fiends). That doesn't mean I don't have marauding orcs or thieving goblins in my campaigns, but they are just as common as 'good' orcs and goblins. With hags, I like the idea of them holding a neutral space between the Seelie and Unseelie Fey. They're just as tricky as any fey, and may be perceived as evil by those that they oppose, but their interests and motives are alien and hard to understand for most non-fey
so for the player resisting hagdom, The pathfinder setting expressly has a number of ways to go about that, with the changeling ancestry and a number of witch class varients/ abilities (depending on edition)
In defense of hexbloods (which aren't exclusively tied to hags, other fey and/or nature entities can create them too) I'll say that they can willingly look for the hag that made them what they are, and be part of a ritual that will transform them into an actual hag. So... If you want to play with a dramatic antihero figure, you could use a hexblood that needs to become stronger to protect their loved ones, and in order to do that they trick a hag coven into transform them into a hag, then kills said coven (if they are sea hags you can then turn said hexblood into a sea fury) and uses their magical resources to help people and be a force of good!
While listening to you talk about a beautiful hag my mind wandered to the story of Dorian Grey, a man enamoured with his own charm and beauty but self-absorbed and objectively not a good person, but kept young and beautiful by the titular Picture of Dorian Grey that grows ever more ugly as he does more terrible things. Perhaps the beautiful hag could present themselves as a charismatic, charming, and inviting character; instead of the "traditional" D&D hag that hates beauty and loves ugliness they love beauty and do anything and everything they can to remain beautiful and be seen by others in a "good" light. To this end, the hag magically tied themselves to a statue or painting that depicts their inner nature, keeping them outwardly beautiful while they continue their evil ways in secret. The players could find this, revealing to them the NPC's true nature.
I though about this some more. A Hag is a malevolent Fey with the natural appearance of a supernaturally hideous woman, equipped with hardened teeth and claws. DnD partitions monsters tightly into categories like Fey, Fiend, Undead, Monstrosity, or Magic-using Humanoid. Inspirational materials don't do that, so we can create a beautiful Hag simply by relabelling another monster as a Fey. Obvious examples are the Lamia (a creature derived from Greek mythology labelled a Monstrosity) and the Succubus (labelled a Fiend). Hags have the ability to Polymorph, and generally do so to appear benign. If they change their appearance to be alluring, or more so if they are naturally alluring, do we really have a hag at all? Haven't we crossed from the domain of the Wicked Witch into that of the Enchantress? Perhaps the property of physically eating the victim defines the Hag, as opposed to capturing and enslaving which is more typical of the Enchantress? There are some folkloric examples - the Scottish Baobhan sith being one. The Wikipedia entry for this creature has a list of related things from other mythologies. Punishing men who have been unfaithful to their wives is a recurring theme. The movie Under the Skin has an alien creature that is inspired by these. The novel the Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker goes in the direction of a beautiful Hag. For Good (and beautiful) Hags I wonder about Haggard's Ayesha.
The idea of a beautiful hag brought to mind: 1) the 3 witch sisters from Stardust, who used the heart of a star to regain their youth and beauty. These would just be normal hags with a more pleasing look. 2) the evil queen, Ravenna, from "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "The Huntsman: Winter War". This type of hag is more into using her looks to get what she wants, and her magic would be more of the charm / enchantment variety. Again, she needs to do something evil (bathe in the blood of virgins or the such like) to keep her youth. 3) Similar to Ravenna, we have the historical Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1610) who is rumoured to have killed and tortured hundreds of girls and women, bathing in their blood to retain her youth. 4) Morgana le Fey from the King Arthur legends. Again, preferring charms and enchantments to get her way.
The relationship between Morgana, Nimue, and the Lady of the Lake in the various evolutions of the Arthurian story is a complex one (they are likely originally one character). The beautiful Hag is closest to some depictions of Merlin's nemesis Nimue, but even she tends towards capturing with enchantments rather than devouring.
Invoke Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie, stealing beauty from others. But not actually more ugly than anyone who would age, at least not fed on beauty. Maybe the hag is naturally super insecure, and giving into the nature could be unnaturally beautiful. Could even be complex creature that could be good if convinced to not feed on the beauty of others, becoming more aged. But always possible to fall off the bandwagon in being afraid of looking like other hags. Maybe have hags in general not naturally evil, just different from most fey that they age like any humanoid. To avert maybe dying of age they have to give into darker urges, which in turn twist them. The same they have strong maternal instincts, but unfairly unable to have children without committing a great sin. In a way rather than just villains, they represent along the lines of victims of the patriarchy. They can either be graceful in unfair treatment compared to other fey, or become a bitter Karens lashing out at someone living their lives. And the complex middle ground.
In creating a beautiful Hag you are effectively re-inventing the Lamia. That's why I stopped using Monster Manuals decades ago. Hags, Ogre magi, Rakshashas, Lamias, and even the archetypal Arabian Djinni are all flavors of the same monster derived from different mythologies; I called them Fey Ogres and custom-built each one. The description of the hero's encounter with the Witch in Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter is beautiful, and should be required reading before running Hags. This one is more Neutral, inclined to be genuinely helpful while at the same time being dangerous to be around. I always like the idea of individual monsters of typically evil types that turn out to be Good. It keeps the players on their toes and stops them blasting anything that moves.
I have disliked all the heavy definitions found in D&D (rules, too). Treating a wide range of monsters as "trolls," rather than having a dozen more specific creatures, feels like a better opportunity for creativity.
I'm 100% with you! We need a variety of hags not just in terms of appearance, but alignment as well! What's with all the evil hags? Why don't we have more hags with neutral, good, and or other morally complex alignments? This is the stuff my D&D campaigns are filled with. I think WotC got pretty close with Iggwilv from Wild Beyond the Witchlight (great adventure in my opinion). I liked, subscribed, and hit the bell! Please keep up the great work!
Make them. Nothing in any rpg book says you have to use the creature as presented. Tweak their stats and abilities however you want. No such thing as D&D police.
Scottish folklore had the 'hag of ages' which wasnt a typical hag but a creature that appeared as a woman of various ages. She tested the hero by approaching them as a girl, maiden and old woman to see if they were worthy of gaining her favor
1:08 the reason its called the Annis Hag is because its named after Black Annis, a creature in British Folklore that well does what was described within the DND universe as well.
There was a scenario in an old White Dwarf that used novel fey creatures, including Black Annis as the "big bad". Since it was an adventure for very low level characters the stats were weak. The fey content (for 1E) is in issues 37-39 (1983).
This video gave me an idea I'm eager to try on my players - A town or village being troubled by a hag. Introduce a beautiful woman (The town leader or leader's daughter etc), and have people tell the players of the hag in the woods. The real secret is that the beautiful woman is the evil one terrorising the town and she's cursed the local herbalist to look like a hag - who is actually the one trying to help the village. A 'don't judge a book by it's cover' scenario.
Interesting concept, I like the idea of busting out of the stereotype and doing different things with Hags. In my campaign, there's a Green Hag who is both Good and Evil. She's got two personalities, two lairs, two story lines, one Good, one Evil. The Good side lives with the White Stag, and tends a garden, the Evil side lives in a cave in a swamp with a Black Dragon. I haven't tried her out on my gaming table yet. But I'm having fun working out where she fits in to the major plot line.
So… Neutral. She is the balance between good and evil…. Now do a neutral character that is the balance between Lawful and Chaotic…. It’s not good or evil but is Law and Chaos…. Which in and of itself would also be neutral. The same being could play all 4 parts, and have 4 different lairs… and Have a 5th lair, which is it’s true lair and it’s true personality. Neutral.
@@VikingMale Hmmm...I like it.
The movie “Mean Girls” comes to mind, or really snotty women at a perfume stand in a mall - like a Gucci ad. An uber-Karen soccer mom, screams “GIVE ME THE MANAGER!!!”
I prefer hags as old becuase it feles like so much fey are focused on being pretty and I like there being variation.
Let's get some uglier fey in here, too! I'm down for that.
There’s a difference between being old and being ugly! 😭
@@starsnoireart 100% I'm thinking in terms of traditional Western beauty standards, which admittedly suck.
The idea of the good hag makes me think of Frau Holle from the Grimm fairy tales. She is described as a terrifying and ugly but good natured at heart. She makes people do hard task as a test, if they pass, Frau Holle gives them blessings and boons.
Im getting Stardust vibes from this kinda??? Like the witches from that very much seem beautiful until their power source is removed, causing them to revert to nearly decomposed bodies.
I will 100000% be using the good natured hags concept. It makes total sense in a magical world that operates largely on balance, that the evil of typical hags would be mirrored in equally good hags, equivalent to a black hole vs white hole in astronomy.
I love the concept of the birth of 'positive' hags being focused on the resillience of the women that are afflicted with becoming hags, that if the child resists enough, they keep their nature into adulthood.
I would also have a genesis point of positive hags being concentrated sources of specific 'vibes'; since my setting treats magic and divinity as very physical, evil hags tend to arise in communities where a lot of malice, rage, etc exists. Subsequently, maybe a positive hag arises in locations where theres a massive amount of happiness, love, creativity. In this way, hags become a sort of polyp that forms when the energies in an area grow to strong one way or another, the excess energy is put into creating a hag, who itself becomes a sort of spawn of local energies.
You could create entire folktales around how towns that become consumed in family feuds and competition sprout their own demise in the form of evil hags, and how good-natured citizens are rewarded with paragons of their virtue. Which, the word virtue makes me wonder if you could make Virtue Hags - hags that are based specifically off of things like humility, and the reverse of course being Sin Hags - based off of things like pride.
Man this video has me thinking a lot more than i have time to write down before work lol
This made me think of the Night Hag called Ravel Puzzlewell from the 90's game Planescape: Torment.
She is definitely not good - terrifyingly evil in some instances - but she does good when it's relevent to her, or even sometimes she does evil when she feels it will benefit others.
There are two main examples; the first is that she is kind of in love (either romantically or maternally) with the Protagonist and allows him to defeat her in combat and continue his journey, because she can't face truly hurting him, and values him more than she values her own safety.
And the other, possibly more interesting example is she attempts to 'Break the Cage' of Sigil. This potentially massively evil act is done, by her own admition, because she does not like seeing things trapped. And she looks upon the Lady of Pain, and sees a being bound by her own responsibility, and wants to 'set her free'. By her standards, this is an act of true benevolence. Her world is evil, so everything she does is stained by that evil - even the good that she does.
She also poses as different maternal figures around Sigil and planes, usually inhabiting local healers (notably the Midwife Old Mebbeth in Ragpicker's Square).
She certainly shows her evilness in places, but most of how the player character interacts with her in this game is that she shows kindness to the protagonist, where few else have.
Kobold Press actually had something like the beautiful hag concept in their "Tome of Beasts" book. It was a fey creature called the Abominable Beauty, and it's vibe was that it was so beautiful that it's gaze could blind, with a voice so beautiful that it could deafen creatures, and a touch so wonderful that it burned you.
Might want to look up the folklore behind "La Belle Dame sans Merci"
Same thing with the gorgon Medusa. Medusa was actually smoking hot in the myth. And was the only one of the three sisters that could be unalived or she'd this mortal coil by natural means.
Good aligned Hags could bring some interesting story twist, something like the chromatic and metalic dragons or like angels and devils.
Example, A good hag that motherly discipline naughty people and creatures, too gives people candy at certain season and always happy to have guest at her home as long as possible, she prob has a few fairy easter rabbits that keeps her company.
There's hag descended characters in Pathfinder 2e. The Changeling is the child of a hag and a mortal, and many of them, particularly women, feel something known as The Call that drives them to become hags themselves.
We are all first when new Feywild content drops like a gram of live resin in a hitter.
Wake up babe new feywild fiend video droped
"or worse...allergens!" lol
I love the content in this video. Lots of wonderful ideas.
I've used hags a LOT in early campaigns. Sometimes the players just find the children skins in an abandoned building, Sometimes they wind up getting saved by the Hag and "owe" them a favor to be redeemed later. One time, the hags were recruiting because they lost a coven member.
I don't know about good-aligned hags, but a bipolar hag that swings wildly back and forth between evil and good acts on a whim could be a useful and dangerous NPC. After all, what's more dangerous than someone who feels bad about doing evil?
So, live action Maleficent
Gotta be honest, I have not seen it!
@@feywildfiend It's a fun movie. I gotta kick out of it.
This was something I had added in my latest Campaign. I wanted various types of Hags and Witches. But not all are evil. So fantastic.
I'd say that kinda muscles in on the Siren and Succubus territory. There are evil creatures that use beauty to ensnare people (Well, if you like hooves and scales i guess), we don't need every creature to fill every niche.
Great video.
I've always thought it's more fun if at least some of the time a hag gives a good deal. Even evil hags should be capable of enlightened self interest at times. If those adventurers remember how she helped them out they might repay help the hag in return. It just makes no sense for anyone to ever bargain with a hag if they always betray everyone.
For Good Hags, look at the "Grannies" of the older editions of Ravenloft...
The main thing with Hags is that they're main thing isn't actually "Evil", but being contrary to the world that they're in, essentially, with most domains of Ravenloft, they're on the side of good out of, well, pure spite at the dark powers...
You also have the Blood/Red Hags from Kobold Press which are more neutral in nature, though rather bloodthirsty
Good hags could work as an interesting faction for lack of a better term.
Cegilune their patron goddess used to be both beautiful and to a degree kind. Maybe some of her old temples are able to reverse the greed that transformed both her and her hags but the goddess herself is to weak to reach them and her worshipers to self centred to seek them out for her.
Love the idea of pulling in the goddess!
There are a couple creatures from 2e that could fit the bill for some of what you're thinking. The Unseelie Nymph from Monstrous Manual Appendix 4 are fey creatures with a similar world view to the traditional hag whose beauty enslaves those who view them, while their presence corrupts and leeches the strength and beauty out of the world around them. And the Bruja of the Ravenloft MC3 are good aligned versions of the traditional hag, who satisfy their darker hunger cravings with wildlife or creatures of evil alignment. The former would need some work to convert to later editions, but the latter would be fairly straight forward.
Hags are already beautiful! I like their macabre appearance.
What I do wish was different, is this monotone evil species, I wish hags were more ambiguous. Always dangerous, yet can be helpful and kind if they want to and if you prove yourself but can also be incredibly cruel if you anger them or if they just feel like it this century.
In folklore hags can be ambitious, they may eat you or attempt to sabotage your life, but they also can just as well give you advice or a helping hand.
I like to stick to typical hags but I really love your interpretation of subverting hags in game. I'm not familiar with the play style of hags and I suck at being a DM, but I totally see myself enjoying encountering a non-typical hag
Try it! And I'm willing to bet you DON'T suck as a DM.
@@feywildfiend I appreciate the encouragement but I most certainly have tried with 4 different campaigns. I know I have good ideas but I'm bad at the storytelling aspect of being a DM
I actually made a hag like that my party defeated ab few sessions ago. I called her the granny hag. She looks like an innocent older woman and has a special ability to charm people who listen to her sing, but only if they already been close to her or her hut for half an hour. She also is strongly tied to her hut and her spell save dc and spell attack rolls increase while she is close to it. Also if the hag dies she reforms in her hut after 24h. for her combat abilities I used the skull lord as template, changed up a few stats and gave fitting spells like dominate person and circle of death. In my game it worked really well because we had a social encounter with her where one party member got charmed and the seemingly nice granny told another partymember something horrible. The resulted in one partymember attacking and one defending the hag causing a cool roleplay sequenz and in party fight, while the hag was feeding on the negative emotions. It resultet in the two charmed partymembers fleeing and even doubting their on concousness, while the charmed one stayed behind and was, at the beginning of the next session, used to convei a cruel message to the nearby village and the party. Also her Hut had giant spiderlegs because it was cool.
I’d argue that you have other fey, also just regular sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards to fill that role. Hags are a particular thing in D&D.
Awesome video! Gave me loads of inspiration for my games.
I borrowed a lot of my hag lore from Pathfinder 1e... so, all hags are female and the children of hags, called "changelings" are also female. Anyhoo, given that there is no gamerule info at all on what to call the child of a changeling, or that changelings even have children, at face value I think it is pretty clear what causes a changeling to transform into a hag. Changelings are often beautiful, and since they cannot have children without transforming into a monster, it opens some pretty interesting doors for roleplaying and storytelling.
Very late to the party on this one, but I have a few contributions.
If you are into videogames you might be interested to know that the expansion for neverwinter nights 2 mask of the betrayer has a great story full of nuanced characters and themes that has very interesting rendition of a night hag.
Second, I just so happened to have a beautiful hag npc in one of my short lived games called Horrid Hilda, who awoke to her hag nature but never changed physically to reflect it and grew have an almost elven beuty, something that caused her to be endlessly harrased by her coven sisters and caused her to despise other hags above all other creatures.
Finally for the beautiful evil hag you could have a Rot Hag, her alluring appearance not disimilar to the pretty colors and patterns on a poisonous flower which she shares a lot in common with. She has a poisonous aura that inflicts poison damage and the poisoned condition, and a visage that charms creature causing them to walk toward her, her presence despoils the surroundings and spreads rot and disease not unlike Milenia from Elden Ring. A flower that thrives in the rot and corruption it caused.
Definitely writing this NPC into my campaign!
Well isn't this convenient! I'm already working on a more nuanced take on hags for a fairytale-inspired setting, and this was really helpful.
At the moment I'm working on a fairytale-influenced setting where Hags are "the old wise women of the woods", mysterious and dangerous, but also genuinely helpful for the communities around them if you pay the price. They cast horrid curses and swarms of bloodsuckers upon the foreign armies that came to murder and pillage. They brewed potions to strengthen the warriors who stood against them, and while these brews left them crippled afterwards, for a few days they fought like giants. They offered healing and succour, and in the end death or transformation into trees for those who could not be helped. Of course, they did drag many of the foreign invaders off into the woods for gods know what (best not ask), and they obey none but their own covens.
So yeah not "evil" as much as powerful, canny and very much disinterested in playing nice. Behave, child, you're in granny's house now.
I have a way of presenting hags in my TTRPG world: They're still things you might consider ugly or unpleasant, at least in their true forms. They represent rot, decay, the transition from life to death, and the resulting breakdown of death into the resources life springs from. In the same way, they have power over disease, infection, and age. They're old women because they are the mothers of rot and death, grandmothers to those who bring life from the remains of their work. But they aren't particularly evil, but an honest truth you don't want to face: we all age, we all die, we all rot, and new life will come from what's left behind when we go. The ones who are more friendly with communities help them ease from life to death painlessly, or even helping with medicines where it helps deal with the pains of age or the suffering of illness. They can foretell the hard choices you might need to make in the future, but not the outcome of those choices; just enough to let you know what's going to make that choice a bad time for you. They can tell you how much time your body has left when you have a wasting sickness, they can even make it suck less as you go, but you're on your own if you want a cure. She can't do that any more than the next herbalist, and she won't pretend otherwise. She's drawn to those who have to put up with a bad truth and don't shy away from it, and while she might not turn your life around, she'll give you perspective. It keeps the vibe without them feeling too flat for my tastes.
I used the hag baby swap but swapped it for changeling fey. My changeling character was human locked until his 16ish birthday and then the fey wanted him to kill his dad. He hated his dad but not that much and ran away. He changed into his ideal hero persona due to his mother's influence and tried to go be a hero as he read in his books in this dark world.
We did miss you! I really enjoyed this take! I like to, in general, wipe the idea that any creature in the Monster Manual must have a specific alignment. Sure, there are things which could influence a monster to be pretty horrible. Especially some of the demonic beings and shadowfell beings and such. But when it comes to the Fey, I like thinking of them as being outside the concepts of Good and Evil simply because those ideas are alien to them entirely. I like the idea that a magical Hag of any type can use their powers to achieve whatever goals they have. If they revel in Ugliness then they embrace that look. But if, like you suggest, they choose to revel in some other aspect then I think they'd lean in that direction. I always try to give my Hags a beautiful Glamour version of themselves which they use as needed. For Baba Lysaga for example in CoS I made her primarily beautiful and had that be the result of her bathing regularly in the blood of the Fane she had captured in her Hut. There are lots of lore examples of Hags being obsessed with Youth and Beauty and doing horrible things to maintain it.
THANK YOUUU
Great video
The physicality of the hag concept is part of the entire point of it. The twisted view of these creatures, of the code of right and wrong, is part of where they draw their power from, and the breaking of those rules being what shows the consequences. The form is the game of how they interact with the world of "normal" people... the facade is the game itself, and interacting with it is glimpsing their "true" selves, what in the light of truth is clearly twisted and standing of weak ground in the karmic balance and purity of soul department.
The farther away you get from that essence of what makes a hag a hag, you may as well create something new. Just a general spirit, or "good witch". You can have magical women of rage, vengeance, healing, or whatever you'd like... they can be awesome, but needn't be under the Hag umbrella.
Eidolons. Basically Fae. Still best kept to whatever game it is that defines them. However it is that their particular aberration, their incursion of the reality and rules thereof they would impose upon "the normal world" being what defines them, and what makes them different from the aesthetic exotica which is quickly becoming the average in modern DnD, and interacting with the metaphysical existential gambit of all that being a riddle solving process in most ways and situations.
So pathfinder has a number of hag types, and one of them is the Blood Hag, whose appereance is that of a young beautiful woman, but unlike others. She literally wears the skin of a young woman. draining the woman of her blood and then literally stealing her skin to use.
Sort of as an opposite though is the Ravenloft character type of the Bruja. Bruja are hags but are not evil, almost always neutral but they can be good. But they are still hags and still embody that old witchy crone archtype, closer I think to the fairy godmother trope as the example Bruja in the 3rd edition book included spells like speak with animals, heal, and remove curse. But they are still hags with all the traits of their type.
Awesome video.
Idk if it can be helpful but in a 3.5 manual called "Nephandum creature del terrore" (idk if there's an English version) there was a type of hag called "strega della seduzione" (witch of seduction) which was described as a woman with a beautiful upper body and with an horrid alien boy below the waist. She had tentacles in the lower port of her body from which she could suck life essence or something like that
So... we're making game-over Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie? xD
There are a number of siren like creatures who use beauty to lure their victims to their deaths. It's like the other side of hags
Off topic but the channel name is very cool
I never like DND creatures that are 'innately' evil (perhaps with the exception of fiends). That doesn't mean I don't have marauding orcs or thieving goblins in my campaigns, but they are just as common as 'good' orcs and goblins.
With hags, I like the idea of them holding a neutral space between the Seelie and Unseelie Fey. They're just as tricky as any fey, and may be perceived as evil by those that they oppose, but their interests and motives are alien and hard to understand for most non-fey
Big yes to a level of neutrality! I always imagine hags living in wild spaces outside of courts. Their natures might as well be just as unpredictable.
so for the player resisting hagdom, The pathfinder setting expressly has a number of ways to go about that, with the changeling ancestry and a number of witch class varients/ abilities (depending on edition)
Hmmm.......now I need to think of why my hagspawn PC Bruxo is true neutral instead of neutral evil.
In defense of hexbloods (which aren't exclusively tied to hags, other fey and/or nature entities can create them too) I'll say that they can willingly look for the hag that made them what they are, and be part of a ritual that will transform them into an actual hag. So... If you want to play with a dramatic antihero figure, you could use a hexblood that needs to become stronger to protect their loved ones, and in order to do that they trick a hag coven into transform them into a hag, then kills said coven (if they are sea hags you can then turn said hexblood into a sea fury) and uses their magical resources to help people and be a force of good!
That's a REALLY cool idea omg
@@feywildfiend Thank you! So glad you like it!
How about a balance coven? Beautiful maiden good, plain matron neutral, and hideous crone evil.
While listening to you talk about a beautiful hag my mind wandered to the story of Dorian Grey, a man enamoured with his own charm and beauty but self-absorbed and objectively not a good person, but kept young and beautiful by the titular Picture of Dorian Grey that grows ever more ugly as he does more terrible things.
Perhaps the beautiful hag could present themselves as a charismatic, charming, and inviting character; instead of the "traditional" D&D hag that hates beauty and loves ugliness they love beauty and do anything and everything they can to remain beautiful and be seen by others in a "good" light. To this end, the hag magically tied themselves to a statue or painting that depicts their inner nature, keeping them outwardly beautiful while they continue their evil ways in secret. The players could find this, revealing to them the NPC's true nature.
I though about this some more. A Hag is a malevolent Fey with the natural appearance of a supernaturally hideous woman, equipped with hardened teeth and claws. DnD partitions monsters tightly into categories like Fey, Fiend, Undead, Monstrosity, or Magic-using Humanoid. Inspirational materials don't do that, so we can create a beautiful Hag simply by relabelling another monster as a Fey. Obvious examples are the Lamia (a creature derived from Greek mythology labelled a Monstrosity) and the Succubus (labelled a Fiend).
Hags have the ability to Polymorph, and generally do so to appear benign. If they change their appearance to be alluring, or more so if they are naturally alluring, do we really have a hag at all? Haven't we crossed from the domain of the Wicked Witch into that of the Enchantress? Perhaps the property of physically eating the victim defines the Hag, as opposed to capturing and enslaving which is more typical of the Enchantress?
There are some folkloric examples - the Scottish Baobhan sith being one. The Wikipedia entry for this creature has a list of related things from other mythologies. Punishing men who have been unfaithful to their wives is a recurring theme. The movie Under the Skin has an alien creature that is inspired by these.
The novel the Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker goes in the direction of a beautiful Hag. For Good (and beautiful) Hags I wonder about Haggard's Ayesha.
How did I miss Buffy's Anya, who definitely fits the redeemed Hag model.
The idea of a beautiful hag brought to mind:
1) the 3 witch sisters from Stardust, who used the heart of a star to regain their youth and beauty. These would just be normal hags with a more pleasing look.
2) the evil queen, Ravenna, from "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "The Huntsman: Winter War". This type of hag is more into using her looks to get what she wants, and her magic would be more of the charm / enchantment variety. Again, she needs to do something evil (bathe in the blood of virgins or the such like) to keep her youth.
3) Similar to Ravenna, we have the historical Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1610) who is rumoured to have killed and tortured hundreds of girls and women, bathing in their blood to retain her youth.
4) Morgana le Fey from the King Arthur legends. Again, preferring charms and enchantments to get her way.
The relationship between Morgana, Nimue, and the Lady of the Lake in the various evolutions of the Arthurian story is a complex one (they are likely originally one character). The beautiful Hag is closest to some depictions of Merlin's nemesis Nimue, but even she tends towards capturing with enchantments rather than devouring.
Invoke Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie, stealing beauty from others. But not actually more ugly than anyone who would age, at least not fed on beauty.
Maybe the hag is naturally super insecure, and giving into the nature could be unnaturally beautiful. Could even be complex creature that could be good if convinced to not feed on the beauty of others, becoming more aged. But always possible to fall off the bandwagon in being afraid of looking like other hags.
Maybe have hags in general not naturally evil, just different from most fey that they age like any humanoid. To avert maybe dying of age they have to give into darker urges, which in turn twist them. The same they have strong maternal instincts, but unfairly unable to have children without committing a great sin.
In a way rather than just villains, they represent along the lines of victims of the patriarchy. They can either be graceful in unfair treatment compared to other fey, or become a bitter Karens lashing out at someone living their lives. And the complex middle ground.
In creating a beautiful Hag you are effectively re-inventing the Lamia. That's why I stopped using Monster Manuals decades ago. Hags, Ogre magi, Rakshashas, Lamias, and even the archetypal Arabian Djinni are all flavors of the same monster derived from different mythologies; I called them Fey Ogres and custom-built each one.
The description of the hero's encounter with the Witch in Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter is beautiful, and should be required reading before running Hags. This one is more Neutral, inclined to be genuinely helpful while at the same time being dangerous to be around. I always like the idea of individual monsters of typically evil types that turn out to be Good. It keeps the players on their toes and stops them blasting anything that moves.
I have disliked all the heavy definitions found in D&D (rules, too). Treating a wide range of monsters as "trolls," rather than having a dozen more specific creatures, feels like a better opportunity for creativity.
I'm 100% with you! We need a variety of hags not just in terms of appearance, but alignment as well! What's with all the evil hags? Why don't we have more hags with neutral, good, and or other morally complex alignments? This is the stuff my D&D campaigns are filled with. I think WotC got pretty close with Iggwilv from Wild Beyond the Witchlight (great adventure in my opinion).
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You get it!! And thank you 🤗
Make them. Nothing in any rpg book says you have to use the creature as presented. Tweak their stats and abilities however you want. No such thing as D&D police.
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