Bheur Hag
Volo's Guide to Monsters p. 160
- Size
- Medium
- Type
- fey
- Alignment
- chaotic evil
- AC
- 17 (natural armor)
- Hit Points
- 91 (14d8+28)
- Speed
- walk 30 ft.
- Saving Throws
- Wis +4
- Skills
- Nature +4, Perception +4, Stealth +6, Survival +4
- Immunities
- cold
- Senses
- darkvision 60 ft.
- Passive Perception
- 14
- Languages
- Auran, Common, Giant
- Challenge
- 7
- Environment
- arctic
Traits
Graystaff Magic
The hag carries a graystaff, a length of gray wood that is a focus for her inner power. She can ride the staff as if it were a broom of flying. While holding the staff, she can cast additional spells with her Innate Spellcasting trait (these spells are marked with an asterisk). If the staff is lost or destroyed, the hag must craft another, which takes a year and a day. Only a bheur hag can use a graystaff.
Ice Walk
The hag can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn't cost her extra moment.
Hag Coven
When hags must work together, they form covens, in spite of their selfish natures. A coven is made up of hags of any type, all of whom are equals within the group. However, each of the hags continues to desire more personal power.
A coven consists of three hags so that any arguments between two hags can be settled by the third. If more than three hags ever come together, as might happen if two covens come into conflict, the result is usually chaos.
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.
Innate Spellcasting
The hag's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
- At will: hold person*, ray of frost
- 3/day each: cone of cold, ice storm, wall of ice*
- 1/day each: control weather
Shared Spellcasting (Coven Only)
While all three members of a hag coven are within 30 feet of one another, they can each cast the following spells from the wizard's spell list but must share the spell slots among themselves:
- 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 slots): eyebite
For casting these spells, each hag is a 12th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as her spellcasting ability. The spell save DC is 12 + the hag's Intelligence modifier, and the spell attack bonus is 4 + the hag's Intelligence modifier.
Variant: Death Coven
For a death coven, replace the spell list of the hags' Shared Spellcasting trait with the following spells:
- 1st level (4 slots): false life, inflict wounds
- 2nd level (3 slots): gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement
- 3rd level (3 slots): animate dead, revivify, speak with dead
- 4th level (3 slots): blight, death ward
- 5th level (2 slots): contagion, raise dead
- 6th level (1 slots): circle of death
Variant: Nature Coven
For a nature coven, replace the spell list of the hags' Shared Spellcasting trait with the following spells:
- 1st level (4 slots): entangle, speak with animals
- 2nd level (3 slots): flaming sphere, moonbeam, spike growth
- 3rd level (3 slots): call lightning, plant growth
- 4th level (3 slots): dominate beast, grasping vine
- 5th level (2 slots): insect plague, tree stride
- 6th level (1 slots): wall of thorns
Variant: Prophecy Coven
For a prophecy coven, replace the spell list of the hags' Shared Spellcasting trait with the following spells:
- 1st level (4 slots): bane, bless
- 2nd level (3 slots): augury, detect thoughts
- 3rd level (3 slots): clairvoyance, dispel magic, nondetection
- 4th level (3 slots): arcane eye, locate creature
- 5th level (2 slots): geas, legend lore
- 6th level (1 slots): true seeing
Actions
Slam
Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d8 + 1) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) cold damage.
Maddening Feast
The hag feasts on the corpse of one enemy within 5 feet of her that died within the past minute. Each creature of the hag's choice that is within 60 feet of her and able to see her must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of her for 1 minute. While frightened in this way, a creature is incapacitated, can't understand what others say, can't read, and speaks only in gibberish; the DM controls the creature's movement, which is erratic. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the hag's Maddening Feast for the next 24 hours.
Spells
hold person, ray of frost, cone of cold, ice storm, wall of ice, control weather, identify, ray of sickness, hold person, locate object, bestow curse, counterspell, lightning bolt, phantasmal killer, polymorph, contact other plane, scrying, eyebite, false life, inflict wounds, gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement, animate dead, revivify, speak with dead, blight, death ward, contagion, raise dead, circle of death, entangle, speak with animals, flaming sphere, moonbeam, spike growth, call lightning, plant growth, dominate beast, grasping vine, insect plague, tree stride, wall of thorns, bane, bless, augury, detect thoughts, clairvoyance, dispel magic, nondetection, arcane eye, locate creature, geas, legend lore, true seeing
Spell Slots
0,4,3,3,3,2,1
Other data
description
Bheur hags live in wintry lands, favoring snow-covered mountains. They become more active during winter, using their ice and weather magic to make life miserable for nearby settlements.
A bheur hag's skin is blue-white, like that of a person who has frozen to death. Her hair is pale white, and she is emaciated, as if she were a person who had survived winter by eating bark and leather. Her eyes are pale and surrounded by dark, bruise-colored flesh. A bheur carries a twisted gray wooden staff, which she can ride like a flying broom and augments her magical powers.
Cold Hearts: Bheur hags are attracted to selfish actions justified by deadly cold, such as murdering a traveler for a winter coat, chopping down a dryad's grove for firewood, and so on. These actions are especially sweet to a bheur if they are unwarranted, such as a greedy merchant hoarding more food for the winter than he could possibly eat while others starve. Bheurs love to seed such ideas and thoughts in mortals. They use their ability to manipulate weather to batter villages with snow and freezing cold, hoping to instill despair that turns the villagers against each other.
A bheur hag loves watching unprepared people suffer and die for their mistakes during the winter. She is delighted when mortals make petty, pathetic attempts to survive, such as eating boots and leather scraps when no real food is to be found.
Awful to Behold: When a bheur hag is fully in the throes of combat and has recently slain one of her foes, she often forgoes a direct attack on her remaining enemies and instead takes a moment to feed on the corpse, dismembering it and tearing meat from bone. The sight of this savagery is enough to render witnesses temporarily insane.
Covens: A bheur hag that is part of a coven (see the "Hag Covens" sidebar in the Monster Manual) has a challenge rating of 9 (5,000 XP).