Looking for suggestions for creating a fun ambush of the players by a trio of Green Hags.
Context: My players have made a trio of Hags their enemy. Afraid of facing all three together they have concocted a plan to ambush one of the Hags by itself.
Unfortunately for the players, they made their plans in a public place while one of the Hags was spying on them while invisible.
Now the Hags will be turning the tables and ambushing the ambushes.
The players plan to disguise one character as an herbalist from a nearby village that meets one of the Hags and trades with her once a month in a clearing in the swamp. When the Hag approaches the rest of the group will attack from hiding.
Hags are supposed to be devious and tricky, right now I plan to have all three Hags there, and invisible, ready to blast the party with a trio of lightning bolts to start off their surprise attack, but what else could I have them do - how would you take advantage of the situation and put the players in a tough spot?
I will also mention, despite the players' fears, the 3 Hags aren't really a terribly deadly threat for the group, its a party of 4 level 8 characters that are all pretty well optimized and work well together.
I'm guessing from the use of lightning bolt that these hags are in a coven. If that's the case, you might want to reconsider this scenario. A green hag in a coven has a challenge rating of 5 (1,800 XP), which makes this a deadly encounter (10,800 XP) for 4 level 8 characters. Even worse if the hags have the upper hand.
I don't know the composition of your party, but assuming each character is hit more than once by the initial lightning bolt salvo, and fails at least one save, this encounter could very well be over before it even starts.
Hag Eye (Coven Only): A hag coven can craft a magic item called a Hag Eye, which is made from a real eye coated in varnish and often fitted to a pendant or other wearable item. The Hag Eye is usually entrusted to a minion for safekeeping and transport. A hag in the coven can take an action to see what the Hag Eye sees if the Hag Eye is on the same plane of existence. A Hag Eye has AC 10, 1 hit point, and Darkvision with a radius of 60 feet. If it is destroyed, each coven member takes 3d10 psychic damage and is Blinded for 24 hours. A hag coven can have only one Hag Eye at a time, and creating a new one requires all three members of the coven to perform a ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour, and the hags can't perform it while Blinded. During the ritual, if the hags take any action other than performing the ritual, they must start over.
Right off the bat they can shut down the lightning with a counter spell then just have a magic lightning reverse ambush.
Or looking into Hag Eye you could have a minion (perhaps polymorphed into a simple forest creature such as a bird) carry the eye and spy on the party entering the forest. Leading the party into some illusory traps involving Phantasmal Killer, Hold Person+ Minor Illusion to impersonate (no speaking of course). Heck maybe even lead the party to a hag attacking a traveling merchant and their bodyguard only to drive off the hag (for the time being) to reveal that the bodyguard/merchant are the other two hags to stab them in their back. It really depends on how mean you want to be with hag tactics.
The party staked out the meeting place about 4 hours early. With an hour to go I had one of the Hag's invisibly tack a note to a tree near the meeting place. The eagle eye'd druip in the party noticed it immediately but everyone held position. They sent their disguised bard forward at the appointed time and he read the note...
Which indicated the Hag would be late to the meeting as they had found a lost child and needed the "help" it first. Also mentioned being back after "lunch".
The players went crazy! They couldn't believe after all their planning that things didn't go as expected. I'm sure they all suspect a trap but it appears the characters aren't willing to risk the child's life (as I had hoped).
Session had to come to a close, next week they should be approaching the Hag's cottage, where the Hag's lie in wait.
Was so fun.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Looking for suggestions for creating a fun ambush of the players by a trio of Green Hags.
Context: My players have made a trio of Hags their enemy. Afraid of facing all three together they have concocted a plan to ambush one of the Hags by itself.
Unfortunately for the players, they made their plans in a public place while one of the Hags was spying on them while invisible.
Now the Hags will be turning the tables and ambushing the ambushes.
The players plan to disguise one character as an herbalist from a nearby village that meets one of the Hags and trades with her once a month in a clearing in the swamp. When the Hag approaches the rest of the group will attack from hiding.
Hags are supposed to be devious and tricky, right now I plan to have all three Hags there, and invisible, ready to blast the party with a trio of lightning bolts to start off their surprise attack, but what else could I have them do - how would you take advantage of the situation and put the players in a tough spot?
I will also mention, despite the players' fears, the 3 Hags aren't really a terribly deadly threat for the group, its a party of 4 level 8 characters that are all pretty well optimized and work well together.
I'm guessing from the use of lightning bolt that these hags are in a coven. If that's the case, you might want to reconsider this scenario. A green hag in a coven has a challenge rating of 5 (1,800 XP), which makes this a deadly encounter (10,800 XP) for 4 level 8 characters. Even worse if the hags have the upper hand.
I don't know the composition of your party, but assuming each character is hit more than once by the initial lightning bolt salvo, and fails at least one save, this encounter could very well be over before it even starts.
Looking at the Hag sheet we have
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At will: Dancing Lights, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery
• 1st level (4 slots): Identify, ray of sickness
• 2nd level (3 slots): Hold Person, Locate Object
• 3rd level (3 slots): Bestow Curse, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt
• 4th level (3 slots): Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph
• 5th level (2 slots): Contact Other Plane, Scrying
• 6th level (1 slot): eye bite
Hag Eye (Coven Only): A hag coven can craft a magic item called a Hag Eye, which is made from a real eye coated in varnish and often fitted to a pendant or other wearable item. The Hag Eye is usually entrusted to a minion for safekeeping and transport. A hag in the coven can take an action to see what the Hag Eye sees if the Hag Eye is on the same plane of existence. A Hag Eye has AC 10, 1 hit point, and Darkvision with a radius of 60 feet. If it is destroyed, each coven member takes 3d10 psychic damage and is Blinded for 24 hours.
A hag coven can have only one Hag Eye at a time, and creating a new one requires all three members of the coven to perform a ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour, and the hags can't perform it while Blinded. During the ritual, if the hags take any action other than performing the ritual, they must start over.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right off the bat they can shut down the lightning with a counter spell then just have a magic lightning reverse ambush.
Or looking into Hag Eye you could have a minion (perhaps polymorphed into a simple forest creature such as a bird) carry the eye and spy on the party entering the forest. Leading the party into some illusory traps involving Phantasmal Killer, Hold Person+ Minor Illusion to impersonate (no speaking of course). Heck maybe even lead the party to a hag attacking a traveling merchant and their bodyguard only to drive off the hag (for the time being) to reveal that the bodyguard/merchant are the other two hags to stab them in their back. It really depends on how mean you want to be with hag tactics.
Thanks all!
The party staked out the meeting place about 4 hours early. With an hour to go I had one of the Hag's invisibly tack a note to a tree near the meeting place. The eagle eye'd druip in the party noticed it immediately but everyone held position. They sent their disguised bard forward at the appointed time and he read the note...
Which indicated the Hag would be late to the meeting as they had found a lost child and needed the "help" it first. Also mentioned being back after "lunch".
The players went crazy! They couldn't believe after all their planning that things didn't go as expected. I'm sure they all suspect a trap but it appears the characters aren't willing to risk the child's life (as I had hoped).
Session had to come to a close, next week they should be approaching the Hag's cottage, where the Hag's lie in wait.
Was so fun.