Hag, Ash HagThis spindly, hunched crone’s skin is a sickly gray color, as is her stringy hair, which is peppered with globs of what appear to be ashes.Ash Hag CR 5Source Cheliax, the Infernal Empire pg. 57
XP 1,600
LE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14DefenseAC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+1 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 52 (7d10+14)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +9
Immune fire; SR 16OffenseSpeed 30 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d6+2), 2 claws +9 (1d4+2)
Special Attacks choke on cinders
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +11; save DCs are Int-based)
Constant—pass without trace, tongues
At will—alter self, beguiling giftAPG (DC 14), burning hands (DC 14), detect magic, infernal healingISWG
3/day—burning gazeAPG (DC 15), feast of ashesAPG (DC 15), inflict moderate wounds (DC 15), invisibility (self only)
1/day—ash stormUM, cup of dustAPG (DC 16), inflict serious wounds (DC 17), phantasmal killer (DC 17)StatisticsStr 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 15, Cha 13
Base Atk +7; CMB +9; CMD 20
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Deceitful, Iron Will
Skills Bluff +6, Diplomacy +5, Disguise +10, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Perception +14, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +8 (+12 in burned or ash-covered environments)
Languages Aklo, Common, Giant; tongues
SQ ash affinityEcologyEnvironment any urban or ruins
Organization solitary or coven (3 hags of any kind)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesAsh Affinity (Ex) When an ash hag is in a burned environment, such as a building that has been torched, it gains fast healing 2. An ash hag in a burned environment also receives a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks.
Choke on Cinders (Su) Three times per day as a standard action, an ash hag can fill the lungs of a single target within 30 feet with thick, ashy cinders. If the target fails a DC 16 Fortitude saving throw, it is staggered for 1d4 rounds while it attempts to cough up the cinders. Once it stops coughing, it must successfully save again at the start of its turn or fall unconscious due to a shortage of air. Creatures that do not breathe are immune to this ability. The save DC is Intelligence-based.DescriptionDespicable, flesh-hungry creatures, ash hags favor areas that fire has cleansed, such as husks of burned buildings or smoldering fields. They particularly prefer charred urban spaces, for such areas allow them to live among the ashes they love while they lure local residents to their doom. Ash hags often disguise themselves as beautiful, vulnerable maidens who just survived a devastating fire, or as charitable old women who show up at such disaster sites offering assistance. Once they have lured victims back to their lairs, ash hags sometimes toy with their captives for weeks, feeding them ashes until they eventually perish. An ash hag typically stands between 5 and 6 feet tall and weighs 140 pounds.
The changelings who result from ash hags’ wicked work often have one distinctly gray eye; alternatively, they may have perpetually dry, almost desiccated skin and chronic psoriasis. The daughter of an ash hag can take the following as her hag racial trait.
Pyrophile: The changeling gains a +1 racial bonus on damage rolls when using spells with the fire descriptor. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 levels the changeling has beyond 1st.Customizing Hag CovensSource Blood of the Coven
Any group of three hags can form a coven, but realistically, many types of hags will never cross paths or deign to work with one another. Blood hags are loath to form covens that are not under their control. Annis hags are likewise domineering, rarely working with more powerful hags. Storm hags usually prefer allying with other storm hags, but they will occasionally form covens with green hags or sea hags. Sea hags sometimes seek out a green hag to lead them. Mute hags—among the most powerful of mortal hags—relish the destruction of relationships, and their involvement in a coven is typically transient, lasting only as long as whatever barrier prompted them to seek sisters in the first place. Night hags and dreamthief hags are outsiders that wander the planes in search of victims. These cautious schemers do not hesitate to involve mortal hags in their machinations, readily joining covens when it proves expedient. Their immortality grants them great patience and enough time to plan contingencies so that betraying them becomes a risky proposition.
A typical hag coven can cast the spells listed in the green hag’s monster entry (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 167). Blood hags, storm hags, and winter hags always grant the spells and abilities listed in their bestiary entries. To reflect the diversity of powers hags can invoke, Game Masters can customize the spell lists of covens based on their membership; each type of hag makes specific spells available to cast as coven magic.
All covens can cast the following spells, regardless of the hags that comprise them: animate dead, baleful polymorph, bestow curse, clairaudience/clairvoyance, commune, dream, forcecage, mind blank, reincarnate, speak with dead, veil, vision
The Ash Hag adds the following spells to the coven: ash storm, fire storm, solid fog, volcanic stormCreatures in "Hag" CategorySource Classic Horrors Revisited pg. 35
If dryads, nymphs, and sprites represent the grace and beauty of unspoiled nature, then surely the annis hag, green hag, and sea hag embody its savage, destructive side. Though not fey themselves, hags appear to be somehow tied to nature, even if no more than as a distorted reflection of it. Hags are foul, wicked creatures, warped with cruelty and evil. Uniformly female and invariably repulsive, these misshapen crones plot dark deeds over bubbling cauldrons, either singly or in sinister triads known as covens.
|