Skip to main content

Breadcrumb

Winter Hag

Challenge
Terrain
str
18
dex
16
con
16
int
16
wis
16
cha
18

AC 17 (natural armor)

HP 120 (16d8 + 48; bloodied 60)

Speed 30 ft.


Proficiency +3; Maneuver DC 15

Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +6

Skills Arcana +6, Deception +7, Insight +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances cold

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16

Languages Common, Draconic, Sylvan


Curse. A creature that accepts a gift from the hag is magically cursed for 30 days. While it is cursed, the target automatically fails saving throws against the hag’s charm person , geas , and scrying spells, and the hag can cast control weather centered on the creature.

Icy Travel. The hag is not hindered by cold weather, icy surfaces, snow, wind, or storms. Additionally, the hag and her allies leave no trace when walking on snow or ice.

Innate Spellcasting. The hag’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: charm person , dancing lights , invisibility , minor illusion , passwall (ice only)

1/day: control weather (extreme cold), geas , scrying


ACTIONS

Multiattack. The hag attacks with its claws and uses Ice Bolt.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage.

Ice Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one creature. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) cold damage, and the target makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw . A creature under the hag’s curse automatically fails this saving throw. On a failure, the creature is restrained as it begins to turn to ice. At the end of the creature’s next turn, the creature repeats the saving throw. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified into ice. This petrification can be removed with greater restoration or similar magic. 

Shapeshift. The hag magically polymorphs into a Small or Medium humanoid or back into its true form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Equipment it is carrying isn’t transformed. It retains a streak of white hair in any form. It returns to its true form if it dies.

Invisibility (2nd-Level; V, S, Concentration). The hag is invisible for 1 hour. The spell ends if the hag attacks or casts a spell.


REACTIONS

Ice Shield. The hag adds 3 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it made by a creature it can see. If the attack misses, the attacker takes 14 (4d6) cold damage.

Combat

If the hag has allies to protect it, it uses Ice Bolt from a distance. If alone, it attacks melee combatants with its claws while using Ice Bolt against a ranged attacker. When the hag is reduced to 40 hit points or fewer, it turns invisible and tries to escape.


Names

Auntie Dear, Baba Chickenbone, Cousin Appleworm, Grandfather Widdershins, Grandmother Blackteeth, Granny Cradlecap, Mother Foxglove, Nana Longfinger


Legends and Lore

With an Arcana or Nature check, characters can learn the following:

DC 10 Despite their resemblance to humanoids, hags are fey creatures that can adopt a variety of forms, both male and female.

DC 15 Different types of hags exist, including green hags, sea hags, night hags, and winter hags. To increase their magical abilities, some hags gather together in covens.

DC 20 A hag may gain power over a victim by making a bargain with them, or by tricking them into various obligations or transgressions.

Description

Once fey rulers, winter hags are now exiled to the frozen fringes of the Dreaming and the material world. Although a winter hag often chooses a younger appearance than most hags, it bears in all its forms a streak of white hair.

Fabulous Fortresses. Living as they do in a pitiless wasteland, winter hags must exert significant effort to lure creatures to their lairs. A winter hag lives magnificently among icy spires, crystalline caves, or cheery winter carnivals, all warmed by torches and flickering bonfires. Travelers are often stuck between the dangers of freezing to death and the perils of accepting the winter hag’s hospitality.

Icy Generals. Winter hags remember their glorious past and long to regain the realms they have lost. Some employ intrigue, using illusion and deception to extend their power. Others become martial conquerors, bringing blizzards and armies of snow into warmer lands. Fey gossip has it that winter hags are allied with Frostflame, a white great wyrm, and share its goal of enveloping the world in cold, dead winter.

Behavior

1 Baking gingerbread men. The gingerbread men are alive and have the statistics of skeletons

2 Churning butter in a talking churn

3 Crooning and fondling some ordinary trinket, such as a spoon

4 Looking for help against a stronger monster

5 Eating sweets from a squirming bag

6 Greets you as royalty and promises the crown you deserve if you follow its advice

7 Jarring preserves: brains, black pudding, hope, and so on

8 Making a pot of tea

9 Sharpening its teeth on a millstone

10 Speaking to its mirror

11 Sweeping with a broom of flying

12 With a human child (kidnapped? a young hag? the spitting image of a prince or princess?)

Signs

Wilderness Signs

1 A beautiful cozy cottage

2 A tumbledown shack on stilts

3 Frogs, ravens, and rodents seem to be watching you

4 A house made of something strange, like bones or swords


Settlement Signs

1 People worried that their businesses are under a curse

2 Paranoid people who live in fear of something they won’t name

3 A black cat seeming to lead you somewhere

4 Certain people insist you visit a specific potion seller


Underground Signs

1 The whistle of a teakettle

2 The smell of boiling soup

3 Cackling or chanting

4 Cozy furniture

Encounters

Many hags live in the dangerous wilds near settled lands, preying on those who venture too far from home. Green hags prefer forests and swamps, while sea hags live underwater and winter hags dwell in mountains or tundra. Night hags can be found anywhere, from populous cities to the depths of Hell.

CR 0–2 sea hag

Treasure 60 gp, 3 hard candies (each acts as potion of water breathing )

CR 3–4 sea hag with coralfish (see cockatrice), giant crab , merrow , or reef shark ; green hag ; green hag with cat , giant frog , giant owl , grimalkin , or scarecrow ; coven sea hag

Treasure gold and mother-of-pearl monocle (250 gp), talking iron cauldron (its advice grants advantage when cooking or crafting potions), 3 potions of healing

CR 5–10 sea hag with chuul , killer whale , merrow mage , water elemental , or will-o-wisp ; green hag with basilisk , corrupted unicorn , peryton , scarecrow harvester , or will-o-wisp ; night hag ; night hag with doppelganger , imp , malcubus , phase monster , or shadow demon ; coven night hag ; winter hag ; coven winter hag

Treasure pearl earrings (250 gp), 13 signet rings from different noble families (50 gp each), set of 16 tiny animated chess pieces (casting dispel magic on one returns it to its true form, a humanoid guard , knight , mountain dwarf defender , noble , or priest ), potion of water breathing , 2 philters of love in heart-shaped bottles

CR 11–16 night hag with chain devil , gorgon , invisible stalker , ogre mage , or 2 malcubi ; winter hag with frost giant , troll , tundra chimera , or wyvern ; 3 coven sea hags ; 3 coven green hags ; coven sea hag , coven night hag , and coven green hag

Treasure 1,500 gp, fiendish gold idol (750 gp), expert miniature portrait of a young woman (250 gp), living yarn ball (acts as rope of entanglement ), potion of poison , broom of flying

CR 17–22 winter hag with 5 elktaurs (see centaur), ogres , skeletal champions , snowmen (see scarecrow), or winter wolves ; 3 coven night hags

Treasure 20 rare books (250 gp each), gold bird cage (2,500 gp) containing 3 cockatoos ( polymorphed humans; can speak and ask for help), 6 potions of animal friendship , spell scrolls of contact other plane and mass suggestion , winged cloak (acts as combined mantle of spell resistance and wings of flying but requires only 1 attunement slot)

CR 23–30 3 coven winter hags

Treasure diamond ring (7,500 gp), diamond necklace (7,500 gp), diamond earrings (7,500 gp), 3 brooms of flying , crystal ball , mirror of life trapping , frozen wishing well (if the water is thawed, it acts as a ring of three wishes )

Monster Type Description

Fey are creatures that are native to Fairyland, also called the Dreaming. These creatures live in a verdant realm of heightened natural beauty and combine grace and danger. Sprites and pixies are fey.