UA-cam just now have me this notification thank you aj I love your videos. I genuinely have binged through so many it's hard to find ones I haven't seen
Idk whether it's an uncanny valley effect or what but, for me, hags directly stimulate that primal "hit it with a stick and set it on fire" response on a level even aberrations can't match.
It's a corruption of the feminine. In particular, the matriarch feminine. They remind you of somebody's grandmother, except gone all wrong. That's why the creepy old witch is so effing creepy, it intrudes on sacred territory in our subconscious
Well said. Although I find hags fascinating for some reason, they are also despicable, not only for their nature, which is so horrible and nasty, but they are so hideous. Seriously some of them are really hard to look at lol!
I searched for hags. At least a dozen videos came up. I clicked on A.J. Picketts because I know his information is thorough, official and he doesn't stray off into a million other off topic things. If you want information, this is the channel to sub to.
I see witches and hags as distinctly different beings. At it's most simple, witches are magic-using humans, with or without a diabolic connection, and hags are not human. And there is a folkloric precedent for hags being fey beings. A good representation of a hag in my opinion is Meg Mucklebones from the movie Legend, which I happily see has two appearances in this video. There are also great appearances in the Dresden Files graphic novel Welcome To The Jungle, and the animated children's special from the early 80's called Faeries(which was based on Brian Froud's book Faeries, which also has good images of hags). An excellent example of a hag's modus operandi is the movie The Witch, although the villainous character(s) in that movie seem to be witches as I define them, but the way in which they torment and destroy the family, and turn it's sole survivor, seems to be very much in the style in which hags operate.
I have used a Night Hag for a Freddy Kreuger style villain in a game once... roll played the Nightmare Haunting as an adventure where the hag had supernatural control of the environment. One of the players was a gnome illusionist with a Deck of Illusions, and he kept freaking out whenever his illusions turned against him while the rest of the group slowly figured out that the Ravenloft-like setting was just a dream. That was a very memorable villain, and the hunt for the hag after the nightmare ended was personal for the whole group. I have also used a hag coven with their Evil alignment reinterpreted as selfish and self-serving instead of pure Evil, and put them in charge of a "school" of fey-bound Warlocks that offered training and resources to a player character group.
Definitely. Most fighters can’t take a bullet to the chest, and dragons don’t like the sting of a .338 lapua magnum...especially with a range of 1000meters.
I feel like this has to be said...This is the best d&d lore channel i have had the pleasure to view...i have watched every single monster ecology on this channel and each is unique and well thought out...my personal favorites are the exploring series...your able bring the planes to life in a way that is fully awesome...thanks so much for what you do.
In myth and D&D the hag and the power of 3 is of supreme importance. In D&D according to volo hags claim to have invented the motif that 3 is an important number from their covens. Well there’s 3 game mechanics based around the number 3 that hags should use. Death saves Legendary resistance Legendary actions. Mmm I like where this is going. A hag coven that shares legendary actions and legendary resistance between them and uses a unique mechanic for death saves to prolong how long the coven lasts in a fight. That sounds so interesting! Sounds like a really cool boss fight. I recently ran a hag coven where the coven had legendary actions the 3 hags shared, legendary resistances the 3 hags shares and via weird magic had one collective health pool the 3 hags shared, which was much easier to keep track of. One of the legendary action was “selfish motherhood” that made one of the hags immune to damage until the end of their next turn. Flipped the script on the structure of a hag fight focusing the closest one then cleaning hut. My Players call it the most fun and frustrating boss fight they ever had. Hags are a perfect opportunity to flex your game designer skills with weird magic items and unique game mechanics. Volo’s guide even encourages you to do so. Also, buff parts of the hags that don’t make sense. They shouldn’t have intelligence 13 if they’re going to be an 11th level caster between them and archetypical mastermind villains
For any interested, I'm pretty sure the first song is a modified version of Peter Gundry, second song might be as well. Not sure which song exactly, possibly "She Who Watches", but if you like it, they are an amazing artist worth listening to.
One concept that I thought of either to make Ravenloft a darker setting, or simply to add to anything, is a pair concepts I call "Arcane Reaching" & "Arcane Corruption." With Arcane Reaching a spellcaster of any class can cast a spell if even if they are out of spell slots, or attempt it if it's a higher level than they can ordinarily cast if they have a written record of it such as a scroll or another wizard's spell book. While called "Arcane" this can work for any form of magic. The problem/price of Arcane Reaching is Arcane Corruption. Arcane Corruption drives the spell caster a bit more into being something ... else I call "The Wizened." The Wizened look like ancient wrinkled versions of their former selves and are basically Hags but in either gender. Why are there no tales of male hags in much of D&D, I'd say with this option you can make Corruption of Offices & Misogyny a thing in your campaign setting. Imagine a High Priest of Pelor, now evil & corrupt but shielded by his office & reputation. A great cinematic example is Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. Use of magic for selfish reasons tends to cause a higher chance of a blackout event when Arcane Reaching. This can serve as a constant temptation for spell caster characters, but every time they do it, they must roll a percentile die to avoid slipping temporarily or permanently into a blackout state in which their alignment shifts to Evil, the more often this happens the more ancient they start to appear as until they are fully Wizened and in the blackout state (read have the player roll a new character) full time.
@@praisemeheathens2265 A derange male wizard that Baneful Polymorph themselves into a male looking like a hag. Like 3.5e Star Wars, .. you have a limit of darkside points equal to your PC wisdom score. Once the total of darkside point equals the wisdom score, the PC is now total evil.
This is still my favorite video of yours! If it's in Australian cinema still, I'd recommend seeing The Witch, it keeps very well to the lore of green hags, one of the best movies of the year.
night hag: "best leave me alone or i shall inflict weird creepy dreams on you!" my players: "i mess with the night hag, then then get black-out drunk so i don't remember my dreams." had to watch this one after seeing the "infernal soul trade" video. excellent fun. thanks. looks like you figured out what that soul bag was good for after all, haha.
I actually have a gruesome way that Hags reproduce in my campaigns. Many sages say that some humans, even elves and humanoids, as they grow old and somehow stronger, lose their minds and get cursed to transform into Hags. The only thing they all have in common is that they were once infants captured by Hags, only found later as the Hag somehow kept the child alive. Most are rescued while still babies, some as teens. The truth is, that is only what was observed in rare instances of the reproduction of the Hag. When a Hag captures a female infant, it is usually gobbled up on the way to its lair. It gets pregnant that way and with a short gestation time of a mere month, it gives birth to an exact copy of the captured and eaten infant. It even has the baby's personality and memories, some say spirit (corrupted). Growing up, the child thinks it's of the copied race and she feels happy the Hag(s) don't kill her. It grows up as a member of that race, until it starts showing age (suspiciously, even an Elf shows old age around the time a half-elf would). The "Hagling" starts to seem to lose its mind, becoming cruel and starting to hate most things a Hag would. It leaves society in self-exile. Then, as a bent old person, it comes to a realization of what it really is... a Hag... and suddenly it's excited to find out what it really was, realizing all the mortal infirmities and powerlessness were a ruse to fool non-Hags while it matured.
Funny how much commonalities myths can be found across the world. Like how we all come to AJ Pickett for this lore. Great God's Below this music is good.
Really like the new format of showing the art while the description is playing, it's more inspiring (Im totally stealing the toads and fish skewed image for my next hag encounter). Where do these monster request take place? In the comment section? Cause if they do gremlins, and quicklings please.
Now give them a motivation beyond being evil - Ravel Puzzlewell comes to mind. Things get so much more interesting when you can't be sure what your opponent actually wants you to do, or maybe even are genuinely trying to be decent but failing.
favorite words used in this video: "hoogie-boogie" (0:45), which i had never heard before and i'm stealing, and "witchy-poo" (3:45), which i had not heard in a very long time and had apparently lost, but am now stealing it back again. man, lots of great ideas in this one. one of the images near the end gave me the idea that underneath a hag's skirt could be a horde of holocaust-thin half-human half-spider creatures, perhaps who were once children that have been sewn together by the hag herself resulting in quick-moving, mewling abominations. when the PCs approach the hag and her strangely shifting, undulating skirt those small scuttling creatures explode out from under her crawling up the walls and all over the PCs. you're in top form, AJ. really like the music too. very impressed with your re-creation of that.
Right on man! I'm pagan and have many witches in my family, so I appreciate you taking the time to put up that disclaimer on the video. That said, hags can add a fun element to a game. I'm about to put the 3 sister hags on the Darklake to mess with the party.
This video is great take on hags, like a perversion of magic and witchcraft, a twisted side that has given magic, particularly hedge mages, druids and so forth. It's a treat to roleplay in game, particularly when peasants and inexperienced folks don't get that witches and hags are night and day. Ka Pai, AJ
It took me forever, but here we are! Artist: Peter Gundry Song: "The Elixir of Life" Album: "The Elixir of Life"! Do enjoy, and thank you again, AJ for fantastic content over these years! Keep up the great work :)
Meg Mucklebones from Legend. That is one nasty green hag. Pops out ov the foul waters and talks about eating Jack as if he were a piece ov cake or such. Love that part. "Foul tasting faery!" She screams as she spits out Brown Tom. Just the way she looks & speaks at Jack is so beautifully creepy. Glad you had a picture ov her at 8:20
Man I almost took offence there. Ha! Thought ya said no such thing as a good necrophiliac 😤 But you said Necromancer! And yes. Yes I agree. Weird, sick bastards.
My group has made strong use of hags twice over the years, more than just the monster of the month. One of our DMs started up a Dread Adventures game, going for the dark and creepy vibe and a hag simply known as Tapper was a recurring problem for us. She was heavy into the soul trade and kept an ever-growing retinue of creepy servitors and catspaws around. The other was a homebrew setting of mine where I played up the fey/elemental connections of hags and had a green hag called Meg of Many Laments slowly tormenting the town the PCs are based out of for almost a year.
5D6 BestOf3 , Yeah, you don't want an actual practitioner of Wicca sending hexes and curses your way. You also don't want an army of homeless women throwing cats at you.
I appreciate the disclaimer at the start of the video. It really shows a high level of awareness and sensitivity. That said I'm not particularly defensive of my religion and find the old Christian propaganda to be a fantastic source of inspiration for evil covens of all sorts. I will be running a 3.5 campaign soon and I will have a coven of cancer mages (book of vile darkness) using there base city as s playground before they even get there. See how long it takes for them to work out what Is going on, if ever. Also, remember reading somewhere. Not sure where or if it was even D&D. About a coven of hags, one of whom had the body of an attractive 25+/- year old woman. And not a magical effect either. And she was a well know and liked member of her community and it was a great cover for her unsavory actions. Oh and 3 edition had a witch class in the dungeon masters guide as the example for how to build and customize your own classes. It was like a wizard with a focus on enchantment and illusion.
(Obligatory apologies for tardiness.) Your comment on "dms can use hags to fully trick people with permission" is very true. A stereotypical lawful good paladin is unable to simply walk away from the encounter, so a trick is needed to prevent combat with 1) a recurring villain, and 2) an obviously deadly encounter for the rest of the party.
We appreciate your disclaimer in the beginning, but we pagans take no offense to it. Keep up the great vids. I'm working on an adventure for my party where a coven of Hags plots to take over a nearby settlement with an army of nature monsters.
What would you suggest as some extra spells to give a green hat? Or like a foul ritual she might do to create some powerful magic effect and what might that effect even be? I’m thinking like a jar that collects the souls of children and as a bonus action she can consume a soul for temporary hp, a boost in AC and a higher spell save DC. Is that a little much?
Nice of you to make that distinction at the start as many are oblivious to it especially around Halloween time. Nonetheless very cool creepy/nasty creature D&D creature.
i actually really like the 5th edition version of reproduction the hole eating a baby girl and rebirthing them and waiting for them to mature and at apoint they turn into hags
I’m going to make a shipwreck dungeon with a sea hag as the boss at the end of the dungeon. Her minions are aquatic Banderhobbs that look more like Angler fish than toads, and their lures have a hypnotic effect if you look at it, kinda like Umber Hulk eyes.
I just got around to listening to this video. I was looking for some inspiration for our halloween session, but going to be honest, I would love to see you redo this one. You sound a little congested, so pretty sure you were sick or just not feeling good, but it just seems like you didn't take this one as serious as you did your other videos. As always, love your content. Thank you for your dedication, minus one video. :)
I probably was, at that time I was working full time in a genetics lab and making youtube videos in my spare time, so yes, certainly on my remaster list!
What about a hag that is found by a flamboyant male elf who sees her and is like "bitch you ever seen a comb before?" and takes her back to his salon were it takes more than one elven hairdresser's magic to fix those split ends, after some majorly strong anti-aging moisturiser, a push-up bra and a dream he takes her to some talking spiders who sing a disney-esque song while weaving her a beautiful dress. Now looking at his beautiful hag project he enters her in a beauty pageant full of all the most beutiful characters and monsters in the lore. The beautiful hag seemed like she would win but in the end a succubus won :(.... the flamboyant elf ran on the stage screaming she was using magic to cheat, all was not lost though as the beautiful hag was crowned miss congeniality. :D Little did anybody know but God was watching over the whole beauty pageant and saw how far the hag had come and shed a tear that fell on her head, as soon as this tear touched her she ascended to Godhood become the Goddess of Congeniality and as Goddess she brought about a new and eternal age of love
In our Tomb of Annihilation game, my Bugbear has been making deals with a hag. Not sure yet where it is going to lead him yet, but he just seems to have this weird fascination with it, as if the Hag were some kind of mother figure to him. The rest of my group is weirded out by it. Love the beak-nosed hag at 9:20 :)
Hags mate with humans (either through deception and guile or through force) and feed the child a special liquid in order to turn them into a hag. Otherwise, they just have a normal kid.
I don’t see why there shouldn’t be “good necromancers”. Necromancy is traditionally a religious position, with no associations with evil prior to Christian influence. Communicating with the dead as a medium, summoning guardian/ancestral spirits for protection/divination, helping spirits move on, and banishing evil/vengeful ghosts; all fall under necromancy.
Where do you get your music from if you don't mind me asking? Would love to use this during a game for flavor and atmosphere. Love your videos please keep it up.
I don't mind you asking, but I can't be much help, youtube has these very efficient algorithms at work, or perhaps the music industries numerous third party legal leeches created the systems they use to sift through any of the thousands and thousands of videos uploaded daily.. my method for thwarting them is simple, I just alter the sound files so that they don't match the original music files, and where do I find the music? Pretty much all of it is already on youtube.
I always like to think of hags as being a guy who is the "female changeling" who believes hes supposed to be a female then goes on his quest to turn into a hag and become a woman aka the hag rebirth
Hurray! Thanks AJ =) The ones in mine are extraplanar nasties anyway not humans, (mostly, kind-of) so no real-life witches have been harmed in the making of this campaign. Thankyou.
+Rp Sketchbooks I watched a horror recently simply titled "Clown" where a man transforms into a child eating cannibal after putting on a clown suit actually made from a clown demon's skin.. not a great movie, but a fantastic idea for a role playing game!
let us weave a tale of woe. there once was a bard, his name long lost to the ages, a fair young elf of great talent, haunted by a most cruel misfurtune. where ever his path lead him, calamity followed, plague and war, desaster and corruption. and worst of all, his most beautiful ballads of love and hope could not soothe the suffering. soon he became so struck with grief, all his song could do was to make people weep. slowly the poor elf, still pure at heart, succumbed to depression and madness. he hid by day, and traveled and sang for the dead at night. his graceful statue more and more resembling that of a skeleton. locals started chasing him away, calling him a ghoul. one night, he rested under a gallows tree, the bard had a dream that gave his life a new purpose, it was perfect! the next day he set out to write the saddest ballad of all. every who would hear it, would see the world for how cruel it truely is, and embrace the mild relief of death on theyr own behalf. nobody would have to suffer like him anymore. seeking inspiration in the most desolate of places, he came across a deep swamp, said to be forsaken by all good and pure - it was perfect! naturally the cruel mistress of that once lush forest heard the tormented elve's heartwrenching songs, and saw him weeping over his lute ...
I need you to tell me what music did you use in this video at 7:00? 'Tis most disturbing when I can't find some quality music I just heard. Please get back to me as soon as you can, this is of utmost importance, because I can't have my gothic themed wedding without this. It is such a delicious melancholic piece of art that I just can't proceed without it.
Ho boy, there are a LOT of notable hags in published D&D campaigns: (BIG SPOILERS AHEAD) -In the _Tomb of Annihilation_ campaign, there are actually _four_ notable hags - a green hag and a coven of night hags. The green hag is named Nanny Pu'pu, and she is the only being on the entire planet of Toril that can perform the Rite of Stolen Life, having formed a pact with Mykrul, Lord of Bones. First, the campaign is notable because you can't bring back dead characters - upon death, their souls are being drawn into a mystical artifact called the Soulmonger upon death, and the point of the campaign is to find and destroy the artifact, which is somewhere in the jungles of Chult. However, Nanny Pu'Pu has a workaround - by sacrificing a humanoid, their soul can be implanted in a gem and given the memories and knowledge of a dead character, and said character can be brought back as an undead with everything effectively intact, albeit until their corpse rots away, which is represented by a gradual loss of maximum hit points. As for the three night hags, they are the Sewn Sisters, and helped the archlich Acererak (yes, THAT Acererak) develop the Soulmonger by using the soul bags they carry as a base. They are as wicked as they come, and even took three children and forcibly implanted their souls into small magical constructs. -The _Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus_ campaign has two night hags of note. The first is Mad Maggie, who is looking for the ultimate tale of despair and misery. When she learns that the hollyphant Lulu was the now-archdevil Zariel's war mount, she is eager to learn the truth, and helps the PCs dig through Lulu's memories. When they succeed, Maggie is elated with the story, and will provide aid to the PCs, especially if they helped her other companions, including a fiendish flesh golem with a bone devil shard stuck in his foot and a talkative flameskull that's missing a tooth (which is being held by the redcaps that work for Maggie), she will provide PCs with weapons, supplies and even infernal war machines and some soul coins to power them, basically teaching the PCs that if they give a fiend what it most desires, they'll receive assistance quite readily. The other night hag is Red Ruth, a seer and prophet of great renown - so much so that fiends from all over the Lower Planes (except maybe The Abyss) come to her for advice. The PCs will likely seek her out at the behest of a dao named Ralzala, who promises to provide the PCs a means to get an audience with Bel, the former ruler of Avernus. Red Ruth actually agrees to help the PCs as long as they do a little house-sitting while she goes to the Wandering Emporium for her once-per-century bath. If they agree, she leaves, but they are soon accosted by a pair of ghostly dryads that are basically banshees, and an undead treant. If they defeat the attackers and prevent damage to her house, Red Ruth keeps her word and uses her divination powers to truthfully give the PCs the information they need, but also reveals that the grove she lives in was once a beautiful grove on the Material Plane that she poisoned and then dragged into Avernus. She also sells potions in exchange for soul coins. -The _Out of the Abyss_ campaign has one or more green hags that can be randomly encountered in the Darklake region of the Underdark. They can provide information on the Darklake in exchange for their lives if subdued. -An annis hag named Mhaul is a shopkeeper in the underground city of Skullport. She can be met in _Dungeon of the Mad Mage_ if the PCs go to Skullport, but she is cordial and is very focused on business. She is notable for creating most of the undead laborers in the city. In addition, a coven of sea hags live in the River Sargauth that runs through the third level of Undermountain. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Hey AJ! Prepping old bonegrinder for cos. Great content. Love your Videos. And i also like the music of this one. Can you tell me what it is and where to get? Thanks and all the best! Uli
hello AJ I'm new to your channel (this is my first vid, and i checked out soem of your other work recently and i really like it.) originally i was going to ask about the name of the music, but as i searched the comments i found that it wouldn't be found else where. but would mind perhaps up loading the music onto your channel? it's so dreadfully atomospheric. Hope you see this and thank you for your time.
Oh I see everything :)Hmmm, some music yes, I can, but UA-cam has notorious automated systems that nab people's adapted work and hand over all proceeds to thieving media companies and third party groups, so they way I handle music is very careful and deliberate. What I could do, is make a video about exactly how I make the music intros for the videos. Due to feedback though, I no longer run music in the background, as viewers don't care for the distraction, also, it saved me a lot of editing time, so, I was happy to comply.
I think there can be good necromancers as long as you aren't creating legions of undead. You can just use the withering and debilitating necromancy spells on evil creatures rather than raising the dead.
The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix plays with the idea of a good Necromancer. Instead of raising the dead, the characters lay them back to rest, sometimes forcefully if something won't stay dead. Kinda like the Grave Cleric in 5e, now that I think of it.
@@brianroberts783 exactly. Animating skeletons and zombies is evil, at least in the context of D&D due to the processes involved in the use of the spell, but necromancy as a whole school isn't all evil.
Major major major points for acknowledging the problematic aspect of holding hags and witches as synonymous with one another. Easy subscription from me. Good video. (had a difficult time hearing you over the music at times though)
Where is this music at I need it in my games? Anyone have a source?
music.ua-cam.com/play/OLAK5uy_k3xLPLBHNXPipxqFEdcel_2s__gSKTLQ4.html&feature=share
UA-cam just now have me this notification thank you aj I love your videos. I genuinely have binged through so many it's hard to find ones I haven't seen
peter gundry elixir of life
Idk whether it's an uncanny valley effect or what but, for me, hags directly stimulate that primal "hit it with a stick and set it on fire" response on a level even aberrations can't match.
Agreed, they give me the heebie-jeebies.
It's a corruption of the feminine. In particular, the matriarch feminine. They remind you of somebody's grandmother, except gone all wrong. That's why the creepy old witch is so effing creepy, it intrudes on sacred territory in our subconscious
Well said. Although I find hags fascinating for some reason, they are also despicable, not only for their nature, which is so horrible and nasty, but they are so hideous. Seriously some of them are really hard to look at lol!
I searched for hags. At least a dozen videos came up. I clicked on A.J. Picketts because I know his information is thorough, official and he doesn't stray off into a million other off topic things. If you want information, this is the channel to sub to.
The highest praise!
I'm from the future, this is still the best sub for lore.
Half a decade later this is still absolutely true.
Bros terrified of getting cursed by a witch😂, love the work man keep it up
I see witches and hags as distinctly different beings. At it's most simple, witches are magic-using humans, with or without a diabolic connection, and hags are not human. And there is a folkloric precedent for hags being fey beings. A good representation of a hag in my opinion is Meg Mucklebones from the movie Legend, which I happily see has two appearances in this video. There are also great appearances in the Dresden Files graphic novel Welcome To The Jungle, and the animated children's special from the early 80's called Faeries(which was based on Brian Froud's book Faeries, which also has good images of hags). An excellent example of a hag's modus operandi is the movie The Witch, although the villainous character(s) in that movie seem to be witches as I define them, but the way in which they torment and destroy the family, and turn it's sole survivor, seems to be very much in the style in which hags operate.
I have used a Night Hag for a Freddy Kreuger style villain in a game once... roll played the Nightmare Haunting as an adventure where the hag had supernatural control of the environment. One of the players was a gnome illusionist with a Deck of Illusions, and he kept freaking out whenever his illusions turned against him while the rest of the group slowly figured out that the Ravenloft-like setting was just a dream. That was a very memorable villain, and the hunt for the hag after the nightmare ended was personal for the whole group.
I have also used a hag coven with their Evil alignment reinterpreted as selfish and self-serving instead of pure Evil, and put them in charge of a "school" of fey-bound Warlocks that offered training and resources to a player character group.
thanks for the beginning there may be hags in pagan lore , but it is nice that you made that distinction, thank you
I'm very impressed with the care you used for this video. Baba Yaga might be the most dangerous Hag ever.
Definitely. Most fighters can’t take a bullet to the chest, and dragons don’t like the sting of a .338 lapua magnum...especially with a range of 1000meters.
@@epiccthulu wait Baba Yaga uses modern firearms? Weird...
@@SlimeBlueMS reference to John Wick. 😁
@@kierwen dang it I was hoping for a Hag that uses an AK47 lol
The fact that there fay and not fiends makes them scarier to me because they can make there own rules when it comes to dealings.
I feel like this has to be said...This is the best d&d lore channel i have had the pleasure to view...i have watched every single monster ecology on this channel and each is unique and well thought out...my personal favorites are the exploring series...your able bring the planes to life in a way that is fully awesome...thanks so much for what you do.
This backing track is amazing! It is the perfect embodiment with eerie, weird, magic and foul
Even in DnD the saying should hold "A Hag is a Witch but a Witch is not always a Hag."
In myth and D&D the hag and the power of 3 is of supreme importance. In D&D according to volo hags claim to have invented the motif that 3 is an important number from their covens. Well there’s 3 game mechanics based around the number 3 that hags should use.
Death saves
Legendary resistance
Legendary actions.
Mmm I like where this is going. A hag coven that shares legendary actions and legendary resistance between them and uses a unique mechanic for death saves to prolong how long the coven lasts in a fight. That sounds so interesting! Sounds like a really cool boss fight.
I recently ran a hag coven where the coven had legendary actions the 3 hags shared, legendary resistances the 3 hags shares and via weird magic had one collective health pool the 3 hags shared, which was much easier to keep track of.
One of the legendary action was “selfish motherhood” that made one of the hags immune to damage until the end of their next turn. Flipped the script on the structure of a hag fight focusing the closest one then cleaning hut. My Players call it the most fun and frustrating boss fight they ever had.
Hags are a perfect opportunity to flex your game designer skills with weird magic items and unique game mechanics. Volo’s guide even encourages you to do so.
Also, buff parts of the hags that don’t make sense. They shouldn’t have intelligence 13 if they’re going to be an 11th level caster between them and archetypical mastermind villains
Good bit of reasoning there.
For any interested, I'm pretty sure the first song is a modified version of Peter Gundry, second song might be as well. Not sure which song exactly, possibly "She Who Watches", but if you like it, they are an amazing artist worth listening to.
One concept that I thought of either to make Ravenloft a darker setting, or simply to add to anything, is a pair concepts I call "Arcane Reaching" & "Arcane Corruption." With Arcane Reaching a spellcaster of any class can cast a spell if even if they are out of spell slots, or attempt it if it's a higher level than they can ordinarily cast if they have a written record of it such as a scroll or another wizard's spell book. While called "Arcane" this can work for any form of magic. The problem/price of Arcane Reaching is Arcane Corruption. Arcane Corruption drives the spell caster a bit more into being something ... else I call "The Wizened." The Wizened look like ancient wrinkled versions of their former selves and are basically Hags but in either gender. Why are there no tales of male hags in much of D&D, I'd say with this option you can make Corruption of Offices & Misogyny a thing in your campaign setting. Imagine a High Priest of Pelor, now evil & corrupt but shielded by his office & reputation. A great cinematic example is Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars. Use of magic for selfish reasons tends to cause a higher chance of a blackout event when Arcane Reaching.
This can serve as a constant temptation for spell caster characters, but every time they do it, they must roll a percentile die to avoid slipping temporarily or permanently into a blackout state in which their alignment shifts to Evil, the more often this happens the more ancient they start to appear as until they are fully Wizened and in the blackout state (read have the player roll a new character) full time.
This is an awesome idea! May I make use of it? It sounds truly spectacular.
@@praisemeheathens2265 A derange male wizard that Baneful Polymorph themselves into a male looking like a hag.
Like 3.5e Star Wars, .. you have a limit of darkside points equal to your PC wisdom score. Once the total of darkside point equals the wisdom score, the PC is now total evil.
This is still my favorite video of yours! If it's in Australian cinema still, I'd recommend seeing The Witch, it keeps very well to the lore of green hags, one of the best movies of the year.
+Igor Samzodoff Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out.
"welcome to the D&D analogue of witches. no not the warlock class, the other one."
You mean the witch from pathfinder?
Hags definitely give off a worst of the witch folklore vibe. The Gingerbread House or Mag Mucklebones sort of being.
Witch folklore... not population :)
@@AJPickett Sorry definitely misspoke there
I dated a witch once. She put her hand on my knee and I turned into a motel :D
LOL.. you got me with that one.
YES!!! :D
It took me longer to get that than it should have.
Bill Berndtson I don’t think I get it.
huh?
I've always thought of Freddy Krueger basically being a night hag.
I am really digging this background music. It sound amazing for setting an atmosphere. Does anyone know what it's called?
Has he ever revealed the song? Lol, I want to know now!
Reminds me of a girl I daited in Jersey.
You dated all the girls in Jersey?
Definitely looking forward to the remastered version of this. I hope you’re able to find more Hag lore for us.
night hag: "best leave me alone or i shall inflict weird creepy dreams on you!"
my players: "i mess with the night hag, then then get black-out drunk so i don't remember my dreams."
had to watch this one after seeing the "infernal soul trade" video. excellent fun. thanks. looks like you figured out what that soul bag was good for after all, haha.
Yeah! I forgot about the soul bag.
I actually have a gruesome way that Hags reproduce in my campaigns. Many sages say that some humans, even elves and humanoids, as they grow old and somehow stronger, lose their minds and get cursed to transform into Hags. The only thing they all have in common is that they were once infants captured by Hags, only found later as the Hag somehow kept the child alive. Most are rescued while still babies, some as teens. The truth is, that is only what was observed in rare instances of the reproduction of the Hag. When a Hag captures a female infant, it is usually gobbled up on the way to its lair. It gets pregnant that way and with a short gestation time of a mere month, it gives birth to an exact copy of the captured and eaten infant. It even has the baby's personality and memories, some say spirit (corrupted). Growing up, the child thinks it's of the copied race and she feels happy the Hag(s) don't kill her. It grows up as a member of that race, until it starts showing age (suspiciously, even an Elf shows old age around the time a half-elf would). The "Hagling" starts to seem to lose its mind, becoming cruel and starting to hate most things a Hag would. It leaves society in self-exile. Then, as a bent old person, it comes to a realization of what it really is... a Hag... and suddenly it's excited to find out what it really was, realizing all the mortal infirmities and powerlessness were a ruse to fool non-Hags while it matured.
Thanks AJ! This video inspired me to use a hag warlock-druid as my final villain. It turned out super-creepy, and my players loved it. Nightmare fuel!
+Kurt Terfloth Most welcome and excellent news Kurt.. tell you players AJ says "Bwuahahahahahahaaaa!"
that sounds awesome
Late I know but, why the disclaimer to not offend witches? Are even modern day witches cancelling people.
Funny how much commonalities myths can be found across the world.
Like how we all come to AJ Pickett for this lore.
Great God's Below this music is good.
Hags are one of my most favorite monsters!!
+Christian Oliver Considering they have been around since the start of D&D, everyone should encounter one at least once.
Really like the new format of showing the art while the description is playing, it's more inspiring (Im totally stealing the toads and fish skewed image for my next hag encounter). Where do these monster request take place? In the comment section? Cause if they do gremlins, and quicklings please.
+trevor eichel Thanks Trevor, good feedback! Oooo I love quicklings and darklings, and hey, why not Gremlins!
Now give them a motivation beyond being evil - Ravel Puzzlewell comes to mind. Things get so much more interesting when you can't be sure what your opponent actually wants you to do, or maybe even are genuinely trying to be decent but failing.
What's the song that started off this episode? Its incredibly eerie and I wanna use it in my campaign.
favorite words used in this video: "hoogie-boogie" (0:45), which i had never heard before and i'm stealing, and "witchy-poo" (3:45), which i had not heard in a very long time and had apparently lost, but am now stealing it back again.
man, lots of great ideas in this one. one of the images near the end gave me the idea that underneath a hag's skirt could be a horde of holocaust-thin half-human half-spider creatures, perhaps who were once children that have been sewn together by the hag herself resulting in quick-moving, mewling abominations. when the PCs approach the hag and her strangely shifting, undulating skirt those small scuttling creatures explode out from under her crawling up the walls and all over the PCs.
you're in top form, AJ. really like the music too. very impressed with your re-creation of that.
Right on man! I'm pagan and have many witches in my family, so I appreciate you taking the time to put up that disclaimer on the video. That said, hags can add a fun element to a game. I'm about to put the 3 sister hags on the Darklake to mess with the party.
The baground music is simply beautiful
This video is great take on hags, like a perversion of magic and witchcraft, a twisted side that has given magic, particularly hedge mages, druids and so forth. It's a treat to roleplay in game, particularly when peasants and inexperienced folks don't get that witches and hags are night and day. Ka Pai, AJ
Cheers :)
“Seek to offend any witches” LMAO okay
Don't mess with the voodoo
Your videos really get my creative juices flowing
Careful, you'll go blind.
loved the music. very vaguely reminded me of legacy of kain
It took me forever, but here we are! Artist: Peter Gundry Song: "The Elixir of Life" Album: "The Elixir of Life"!
Do enjoy, and thank you again, AJ for fantastic content over these years! Keep up the great work :)
Meg Mucklebones from Legend. That is one nasty green hag. Pops out ov the foul waters and talks about eating Jack as if he were a piece ov cake or such. Love that part.
"Foul tasting faery!" She screams as she spits out Brown Tom. Just the way she looks & speaks at Jack is so beautifully creepy.
Glad you had a picture ov her at 8:20
Man I almost took offence there. Ha! Thought ya said no such thing as a good necrophiliac 😤
But you said Necromancer!
And yes. Yes I agree.
Weird, sick bastards.
My group has made strong use of hags twice over the years, more than just the monster of the month. One of our DMs started up a Dread Adventures game, going for the dark and creepy vibe and a hag simply known as Tapper was a recurring problem for us. She was heavy into the soul trade and kept an ever-growing retinue of creepy servitors and catspaws around. The other was a homebrew setting of mine where I played up the fey/elemental connections of hags and had a green hag called Meg of Many Laments slowly tormenting the town the PCs are based out of for almost a year.
I'm sure Hags would very much like the Aztecs since both used organs and hearts for their rituals
that was very cool of you to say what you did at the beginning. much respect. music is a bit loud though.
5D6 BestOf3 , Yeah, you don't want an actual practitioner of Wicca sending hexes and curses your way. You also don't want an army of homeless women throwing cats at you.
I appreciate the disclaimer at the start of the video. It really shows a high level of awareness and sensitivity.
That said I'm not particularly defensive of my religion and find the old Christian propaganda to be a fantastic source of inspiration for evil covens of all sorts.
I will be running a 3.5 campaign soon and I will have a coven of cancer mages (book of vile darkness) using there base city as s playground before they even get there. See how long it takes for them to work out what Is going on, if ever.
Also, remember reading somewhere. Not sure where or if it was even D&D. About a coven of hags, one of whom had the body of an attractive 25+/- year old woman. And not a magical effect either. And she was a well know and liked member of her community and it was a great cover for her unsavory actions.
Oh and 3 edition had a witch class in the dungeon masters guide as the example for how to build and customize your own classes. It was like a wizard with a focus on enchantment and illusion.
Meg Knucklebone from the movie Legend was definitely a Green Hag
Smart preamble. Better not provoce the witches.
Would trolls and hags interbreed?
Yes, the offspring is always a Hag though.
(Obligatory apologies for tardiness.) Your comment on "dms can use hags to fully trick people with permission" is very true. A stereotypical lawful good paladin is unable to simply walk away from the encounter, so a trick is needed to prevent combat with 1) a recurring villain, and 2) an obviously deadly encounter for the rest of the party.
We appreciate your disclaimer in the beginning, but we pagans take no offense to it. Keep up the great vids.
I'm working on an adventure for my party where a coven of Hags plots to take over a nearby settlement with an army of nature monsters.
Proud heathen here ;-) I agree. AJ you keep being awesome, friend.
What would you suggest as some extra spells to give a green hat? Or like a foul ritual she might do to create some powerful magic effect and what might that effect even be? I’m thinking like a jar that collects the souls of children and as a bonus action she can consume a soul for temporary hp, a boost in AC and a higher spell save DC. Is that a little much?
Nope, sounds just right, check in with your players before introducing baby torture themes at your table though.
old school mighty glue stick
Nice of you to make that distinction at the start as many are oblivious to it especially around Halloween time. Nonetheless very cool creepy/nasty creature D&D creature.
Jenny Greenteeth- could adapted as an undead Greenhag
i actually really like the 5th edition version of reproduction the hole eating a baby girl and rebirthing them and waiting for them to mature and at apoint they turn into hags
that sort of thinking changes once you have kids.
I’m going to make a shipwreck dungeon with a sea hag as the boss at the end of the dungeon. Her minions are aquatic Banderhobbs that look more like Angler fish than toads, and their lures have a hypnotic effect if you look at it, kinda like Umber Hulk eyes.
There in the moonlight
Just an hour after midnight
See the swamp woman dancing with the devil
These are the creatures from the Hansel and Gretel movie!
I just got around to listening to this video. I was looking for some inspiration for our halloween session, but going to be honest, I would love to see you redo this one. You sound a little congested, so pretty sure you were sick or just not feeling good, but it just seems like you didn't take this one as serious as you did your other videos. As always, love your content. Thank you for your dedication, minus one video. :)
I probably was, at that time I was working full time in a genetics lab and making youtube videos in my spare time, so yes, certainly on my remaster list!
What about a hag that is found by a flamboyant male elf who sees her and is like "bitch you ever seen a comb before?" and takes her back to his salon were it takes more than one elven hairdresser's magic to fix those split ends, after some majorly strong anti-aging moisturiser, a push-up bra and a dream he takes her to some talking spiders who sing a disney-esque song while weaving her a beautiful dress.
Now looking at his beautiful hag project he enters her in a beauty pageant full of all the most beutiful characters and monsters in the lore. The beautiful hag seemed like she would win but in the end a succubus won :(.... the flamboyant elf ran on the stage screaming she was using magic to cheat, all was not lost though as the beautiful hag was crowned miss congeniality. :D
Little did anybody know but God was watching over the whole beauty pageant and saw how far the hag had come and shed a tear that fell on her head, as soon as this tear touched her she ascended to Godhood become the Goddess of Congeniality and as Goddess she brought about a new and eternal age of love
Hi.
Good show, kind Sir
Shall ye could tell me the name of the magnificent composition for the background of this video?
Pretty please?
Great video, maybe less volume on the background music though
Love the music!
+Jonathan Grant Thanks :)
In our Tomb of Annihilation game, my Bugbear has been making deals with a hag. Not sure yet where it is going to lead him yet, but he just seems to have this weird fascination with it, as if the Hag were some kind of mother figure to him. The rest of my group is weirded out by it. Love the beak-nosed hag at 9:20 :)
Second Song: The Gift of Sight, same artist Peter Gundry
Hags mate with humans (either through deception and guile or through force) and feed the child a special liquid in order to turn them into a hag. Otherwise, they just have a normal kid.
If you want them to in your games, sure.
I don’t see why there shouldn’t be “good necromancers”. Necromancy is traditionally a religious position, with no associations with evil prior to Christian influence. Communicating with the dead as a medium, summoning guardian/ancestral spirits for protection/divination, helping spirits move on, and banishing evil/vengeful ghosts; all fall under necromancy.
Where do you get your music from if you don't mind me asking? Would love to use this during a game for flavor and atmosphere. Love your videos please keep it up.
I don't mind you asking, but I can't be much help, youtube has these very efficient algorithms at work, or perhaps the music industries numerous third party legal leeches created the systems they use to sift through any of the thousands and thousands of videos uploaded daily.. my method for thwarting them is simple, I just alter the sound files so that they don't match the original music files, and where do I find the music? Pretty much all of it is already on youtube.
AJ Pickett I really enjoy the music @ 6 mins. Thanks for responding 👍🏽
What is the background music called? I want it for my Curse of Strahd campaign.
7:49, that’s my favorite thing to do too:
I always like to think of hags as being a guy who is the "female changeling" who believes hes supposed to be a female then goes on his quest to turn into a hag and become a woman aka the hag rebirth
There's plenty to work with in this video, but could we get a bheur hag update whenever your admittedly stacked schedule allows for it?
AD&D2e Ravenloft: VanRichten guide to Hags
it is a must read.
Seriously! A great one.
great music
Hurray! Thanks AJ =) The ones in mine are extraplanar nasties anyway not humans, (mostly, kind-of) so no real-life witches have been harmed in the making of this campaign. Thankyou.
+Dom Ranson ... i really like that "extraplanar" idea ... they could be a freakish analog to the "alien greys" even ... cool idea, Dom.
+Rp Sketchbooks Ever seen Killer Klowns from Outer Space? =D
+Dom Ranson -- LOL! its been a long time, but actually yes. right on. =)
+Rp Sketchbooks I watched a horror recently simply titled "Clown" where a man transforms into a child eating cannibal after putting on a clown suit actually made from a clown demon's skin.. not a great movie, but a fantastic idea for a role playing game!
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) ... wow. creepy and wonderful! that idea is going into the notebook. thanks, AJ!
=)
let us weave a tale of woe.
there once was a bard, his name long lost to the ages, a fair young elf of great talent, haunted by a most cruel misfurtune. where ever his path lead him, calamity followed, plague and war, desaster and corruption. and worst of all, his most beautiful ballads of love and hope could not soothe the suffering. soon he became so struck with grief, all his song could do was to make people weep. slowly the poor elf, still pure at heart, succumbed to depression and madness. he hid by day, and traveled and sang for the dead at night. his graceful statue more and more resembling that of a skeleton. locals started chasing him away, calling him a ghoul.
one night, he rested under a gallows tree, the bard had a dream that gave his life a new purpose, it was perfect!
the next day he set out to write the saddest ballad of all. every who would hear it, would see the world for how cruel it truely is, and embrace the mild relief of death on theyr own behalf. nobody would have to suffer like him anymore.
seeking inspiration in the most desolate of places, he came across a deep swamp, said to be forsaken by all good and pure - it was perfect!
naturally the cruel mistress of that once lush forest heard the tormented elve's heartwrenching songs, and saw him weeping over his lute ...
Was the Elf eaten by the Lady of the Swamp, or did his Three Daughters end their father's pain ?
What is the music being used here? It's gorgeous!
Great video!! Music is a little loud though
Thanks AJ...no you prolly won't see this but I've been a pagan over 20 years and would just like to say good looking out bro
No worries Steven :)
I need you to tell me what music did you use in this video at 7:00? 'Tis most disturbing when I can't find some quality music I just heard. Please get back to me as soon as you can, this is of utmost importance, because I can't have my gothic themed wedding without this. It is such a delicious melancholic piece of art that I just can't proceed without it.
Peter Gundry I think, Mimir's Elixir on the Discord server recognized the musicians sound.
The music is too loud, I can hardly hear you over it. :(
Thanks for the vid sir.
Didn't know my ex was in d&d.
Ho boy, there are a LOT of notable hags in published D&D campaigns: (BIG SPOILERS AHEAD)
-In the _Tomb of Annihilation_ campaign, there are actually _four_ notable hags - a green hag and a coven of night hags. The green hag is named Nanny Pu'pu, and she is the only being on the entire planet of Toril that can perform the Rite of Stolen Life, having formed a pact with Mykrul, Lord of Bones. First, the campaign is notable because you can't bring back dead characters - upon death, their souls are being drawn into a mystical artifact called the Soulmonger upon death, and the point of the campaign is to find and destroy the artifact, which is somewhere in the jungles of Chult. However, Nanny Pu'Pu has a workaround - by sacrificing a humanoid, their soul can be implanted in a gem and given the memories and knowledge of a dead character, and said character can be brought back as an undead with everything effectively intact, albeit until their corpse rots away, which is represented by a gradual loss of maximum hit points. As for the three night hags, they are the Sewn Sisters, and helped the archlich Acererak (yes, THAT Acererak) develop the Soulmonger by using the soul bags they carry as a base. They are as wicked as they come, and even took three children and forcibly implanted their souls into small magical constructs.
-The _Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus_ campaign has two night hags of note. The first is Mad Maggie, who is looking for the ultimate tale of despair and misery. When she learns that the hollyphant Lulu was the now-archdevil Zariel's war mount, she is eager to learn the truth, and helps the PCs dig through Lulu's memories. When they succeed, Maggie is elated with the story, and will provide aid to the PCs, especially if they helped her other companions, including a fiendish flesh golem with a bone devil shard stuck in his foot and a talkative flameskull that's missing a tooth (which is being held by the redcaps that work for Maggie), she will provide PCs with weapons, supplies and even infernal war machines and some soul coins to power them, basically teaching the PCs that if they give a fiend what it most desires, they'll receive assistance quite readily. The other night hag is Red Ruth, a seer and prophet of great renown - so much so that fiends from all over the Lower Planes (except maybe The Abyss) come to her for advice. The PCs will likely seek her out at the behest of a dao named Ralzala, who promises to provide the PCs a means to get an audience with Bel, the former ruler of Avernus. Red Ruth actually agrees to help the PCs as long as they do a little house-sitting while she goes to the Wandering Emporium for her once-per-century bath. If they agree, she leaves, but they are soon accosted by a pair of ghostly dryads that are basically banshees, and an undead treant. If they defeat the attackers and prevent damage to her house, Red Ruth keeps her word and uses her divination powers to truthfully give the PCs the information they need, but also reveals that the grove she lives in was once a beautiful grove on the Material Plane that she poisoned and then dragged into Avernus. She also sells potions in exchange for soul coins.
-The _Out of the Abyss_ campaign has one or more green hags that can be randomly encountered in the Darklake region of the Underdark. They can provide information on the Darklake in exchange for their lives if subdued.
-An annis hag named Mhaul is a shopkeeper in the underground city of Skullport. She can be met in _Dungeon of the Mad Mage_ if the PCs go to Skullport, but she is cordial and is very focused on business. She is notable for creating most of the undead laborers in the city. In addition, a coven of sea hags live in the River Sargauth that runs through the third level of Undermountain.
Those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Hey AJ! Prepping old bonegrinder for cos. Great content. Love your Videos. And i also like the music of this one. Can you tell me what it is and where to get? Thanks and all the best! Uli
Sorry. Found it. Read comments first.
Btw great choice in music. Is this tune from the creators library?
nope, swiped it off youtube and changed the pitch, speed, added reverb and such.
AJ Pickett Oh nice
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) wow, really cool re-purposing of the found music. that's cool.
Say AJ, any thoughts on the new Hexblood race for 5e?
not yet, no.
At 18 strength they could do you real bad without magic.
hello AJ I'm new to your channel (this is my first vid, and i checked out soem of your other work recently and i really like it.) originally i was going to ask about the name of the music, but as i searched the comments i found that it wouldn't be found else where. but would mind perhaps up loading the music onto your channel? it's so dreadfully atomospheric. Hope you see this and thank you for your time.
Oh I see everything :)Hmmm, some music yes, I can, but UA-cam has notorious automated systems that nab people's adapted work and hand over all proceeds to thieving media companies and third party groups, so they way I handle music is very careful and deliberate. What I could do, is make a video about exactly how I make the music intros for the videos. Due to feedback though, I no longer run music in the background, as viewers don't care for the distraction, also, it saved me a lot of editing time, so, I was happy to comply.
alright, thanks for you time
personally i prefer the music, it makes everything more weighty and dramatic in my opinion, but hey if it's easier on you not to, then i understand.
could you do a video on stirges?
+trenton maloney Adding it to the list!
+trenton maloney What is a stirge?I don't think I have ever heard of that creature.
think of a big pink fleshy mosquito a foot long.
trenton maloney Oh damn.I'm glad those arent real.x D
Music of this episode?
I think you will find the answer in the comments feed
dangerous manipulative and cruel what more could you not want?
+trenton maloney Ha ha! Totally.
I think there can be good necromancers as long as you aren't creating legions of undead. You can just use the withering and debilitating necromancy spells on evil creatures rather than raising the dead.
The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix plays with the idea of a good Necromancer. Instead of raising the dead, the characters lay them back to rest, sometimes forcefully if something won't stay dead. Kinda like the Grave Cleric in 5e, now that I think of it.
@@brianroberts783 exactly. Animating skeletons and zombies is evil, at least in the context of D&D due to the processes involved in the use of the spell, but necromancy as a whole school isn't all evil.
Please oh please cover Styrix from 2nd ed ad&d Ravenloft Campaign Setting. Please.
There are 666 likes on thos video. I'm just going to keep it the way it is.
The mighty glue stick!
Major major major points for acknowledging the problematic aspect of holding hags and witches as synonymous with one another. Easy subscription from me. Good video. (had a difficult time hearing you over the music at times though)
Thank you Michael, the videos get better as I improve my audio throughout the year, I upgraded my equipment and cut the background music out.
What is the title and composer of the music playing in the background?
+shadowcop75 sent you a message about it (via your youtube account)
@@AJPickett
do you still let people know what the music is? because it's amazing and i really want it.
@@vinx.909 Try this ua-cam.com/video/_iF7lkXKHlA/v-deo.html
I've always viewed hags as twisted corrupt witchs