Hello fellow DMs, in my campaign my players are coming up to a swamp, in this swamp im planning a hag or witch encounter, its mostly for her to make a deal with the players, standard monkeys paw wish mentality, get great power but lose something big, only thing is i want to plan for a possible fight in case my players decide to attack the hag instead of bargain, my players are level 8 and theres a possibility that they might hit level 9 before encountering said hagand there are 6 of them and i want this to be a deadly fight, not to kill them by any means, in fact if they do loose the fight it wont be lethal more just a knock out and re awaken in the swamp, so im looking for hag like creatures to use, im thinking baba lysaga and her creeping hut but i want to know if theres any other suggestions that im not seeing or thinking of, any suggestions? Im also open to tweaking other types of creatures to suit my idea

A Night Hag coven will be a credible challenge for that party, particularly if you switch the spells around (the default coven spell list isn't all that scary).

Two CR 11 creatures, namely Baba Lysaga and her Creeping Hut, are actually quite literally a perfect deadly encounter for 6 level 9 characters. Exactly 14,400 xp. I'd tweak and reflavor both stat blocks a bit, but you could probably just use them.

perfect, thank you

Sound like you already have your answer already but let me throw out an idea as a thought exercise.

I like to use hags with a heavier mix of illusion spells than the books give them.  Given they are mostly hideous creatures that nevertheless like to wheel and deal (and baby steal) with non-monstrous humanoids it always made sense to me that they have a lot of tricks for hiding the worst of their appearances.

So to make an encounter more dangerous, the party may think they are dealing with a single hag in her lonely hut in the swamp... but perhaps in reality there is a coven of three there and both the other hags and some of the terrain is disguised or altered by magic.  If the players decide, "Hey lets' just kill this old monster," then WHAM the trap is sprung and the players discover they are in fact surrounded by powerful spellcasters who have the drop on them.  This could be played up for atmosphere, with the players hearing creaking floorboard and rustling sounds (atmosphere?  or the invisible other hags getting into the best position to cast something nasty?).

And if you really want to get nuts, give the hags a melee servant, something like a goatman or an awakened tree.   Something to fit the theme and keep the party's tanks busy for a round or two while the hags get their best spells off.

Something I've wondered about and the rules don't say: if a night hag goes ethereal, can the rest of the coven continue casting as long as her ethereal form remains within 30'?

Another thing to spice up hag encounters: Grafts. Annis hags love grafts. You could have one who's grafted enough troll flesh to her body to gain regeneration herself. Or perhaps she cut off a flind's arm and replaced her own with it, allowing her to wield its flail? Maybe she replaced her heart with a lich's phylactery, allowing her to extend her life by consuming souls? Annis hags are the best.

these are all interesting ideas honestly, i am spinning this hag as having the title of mother of the swamp AND the moment my players enter the swamp there going to encounter a servant/slave of this hag, a gnome who came to the hag looking to have his wish fulfilled wanting to become a king, so she made him the king of the swamp but he was driven insane due to the hags magic and now serves as her eyes and messenger, hes a gnome who thinks hes a goblin, boblin the goblin, king of the boglin who rules from his loglin, ya the poor boy is nuts lol so with this in mind it wouldn't be far fetched for her to have other servants in or around her hut lol

Quote from TheHumbug >>

Two CR 11 creatures, namely Baba Lysaga and her Creeping Hut, are actually quite literally a perfect deadly encounter for 6 level 9 characters. Exactly 14,400 xp. I'd tweak and reflavor both stat blocks a bit, but you could probably just use them.

 This is very good.