Hag

Hags were horrible creatures with origins in the Feywild whose love of evil shaped their very physical image into a horrible ugliness. All hags had the appearance of old female humanoids, at least in form. Some hags usually had a strong resistance to magic.

Description
Hags resembled withered and emaciated crones, with long ragged hair, spotty skin covered in warts and moles, and long and thin fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws. Their teeth were blackened and their breath was foul. They wore simple clothing that was always worn out and filthy.

Despite their decrepit appearance, they were surprisingly agile and supernaturally strong.

Subspecies

 * Annis:
 * They were the most physically powerful of the hags.


 * Bheur:
 * Hags who lived in cold regions. They had the power of winter at their disposal.


 * Green hag:
 * They were hags that used their magical powers to lure innocents into their traps.


 * Hagspawn:
 * The male product of hags mating with humans.


 * Night hag:
 * Hags hailing from the fiendish planes.


 * Sea hag:
 * Hags found in and along the shores of the sea.


 * Shrieking hag:
 * Monsters that roamed desolate plains and wastelands and loved to deceive travelers.

Personality
The very personification of evil, hags were extremely selfish and arrogant. They saw their magic as a challenge to the gods themselves and view themselves as the world's most cunning creatures, treating everyone else with disdain.

Despite their arrogance, they were not above selling the experience and knowledge they accumulated over their long lives, as long as the customers showed proper deference. Striking a bargain with a hag was always dangerous, since the prices they charged usually included corrupting one's ideals or giving up something held dear, often diminishing the value of the piece of knowledge for sale.

Hags' taste for the macabre showed in their decoration and self-grooming preferences. They often adorned their houses and clothing with dead animals and picked on their own wounds to inflict festering infections. They were naturally disgusted by beauty and often disfigured and deformed attractive creatures under the pretense of helping them. Hags took great pleasure in seeing the reactions their gruesome creations evoked in other creatures.

Combat
Different types of hags had different abilities, but all shared their supernatural strength and some resistance against magic. All hags possessed innate magical abilities, while some hags actively studied spellcasting. They were all capable of hiding their true appearance, either through illusion magic or by polymorphing into a new shape, and were capable of inflicting horrible curses upon their opponents. Their extremely sharp claws were capable of rendering flesh open with a mere touch.

Society
Hags could be most frequently found alone or working in covens if they shared a common purpose. The number of hags in a coven was always three, so that disputes between two members could be settled by the third. All hags in a coven were equal in the organization, although they constantly strove for more personal power. With their combined powers in a coven, hags gained access to additional magical capabilities and could craft scrying devices known as hag eyes.

Although hags usually disliked each other, they maintained a vast and complex social network that spanned their entire species. They frequently kept in contact with each other, sharing news and knowledge. Through this vast network, it was conceivable that every hag was aware of all hags in existence.

Hags dealt with each other through a complex code of conduct that they all honored, although those practices did not apply to outsiders. They always announced their presence and brought gifts when entering other hags' territories. Promises made to other hags were always kept, as long as they were not made with crossed fingers.

Their typical dwelling locations consisted of bleak and oppressive landscapes, such as dark swamps, dark forests, and stormy seas. Often, the hags' presence turned the vicinity of their dwellings into aggressive and virulent environments.

Ecology
Hags reproduced by a horrid ritual that involved capturing and devouring a human infant. Within one week, the hag gave birth to a seemingly normal human daughter. The offspring retained her human appearance until her thirteenth birthday, when she suddenly transformed into a hag identical to the one who birthed her. Some hags raised their offspring personally, while others returned the child to their parents and sadistically watched her growth and horrific transformation.

History
Hags originated in the Feywild and later migrated into the Prime Material plane, with the exception of night hags, who were exiled from the Feywild and relocated to Hades, from where they later spread to all the Lower planes.