General Rules: Monsters - Hag, Brine

Brine Hag (adapted from the Creature Collection)
Large or Huge Giant (Aquatic, Hag)

Hit Dice: 10d8+60 (105 hit points) or 10d8+80 (125 hit points)
Initiative: +2 or +1
Speed: 40 feet, swim 80 feet, climb 10 feet

Armor Class: 20 (-1 size, +2 Dexterity, +9 natural); touch 11, flat-footed 18 or 21 (-2 size, +1 Dexterity, +12 natural); touch 10, flat-footed 19

BAB/Grapple: +7/+15 or +7/+23

Attack: Bite +10 melee (1d10+4, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) or bite +13 melee (2d8+8, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2)

Full Attack: Bite +10 melee (1d10+4, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) and 2 claws +5 melee (2d8+2, piercing and slashing, 20 x2) or bite +13 melee (2d8+8, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) and 2 claws +8 melee (3d8+4, piercing and slashing, 20 x2)

Space/Reach: 10 feet by 10 feet/10 feet or 15 feet by 15 feet/15 feet
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Breathe water, darkvision 60 feet, low-light vision, scry, shift size, wild empathy +5
Saves: Fortitude +14 or +16, Reflex +6 or +5, Will +4
Abilities: Str 19 or 27, Int 15, Wis 13, Dex 14 or 12, Con 21 or 25, Cha 14
Skills: Craft: Alchemy +4, Handle Animal +10, Intimidate +10, Knowledge: Nature +15, Spellcraft +13, Swim +20 or +24
Feats: Brew Potion, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness
Environment: Any aquatic

Organization: Solitary or covey (3 hags of any kind plus 1 - 8 ogres and 1 - 4 evil giants)

Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: -

Brine hags are creatures of the deepest oceans, where they squat in lairs made of sharp stones, whale bones, and sea shells. These gaunt monsters stand nearly twice the size of a man, with dark greenish-gray skin. Their noses and chins are cruelly pointed, their arms are disproportionately long, and their webbed , clawed hands and feet are unnaturally large. A brie hag often decorates the sea floor near her lair with rocks, bones, the wreckage of ships, and anything else she can find to mark her territory. Brine hags with covens and other allies tend to pick caverns with air pockets or isolated islands that their companions can survive on.

Reclusive in the extreme, brine hags rarely come to the surface, preferring the remain in the depths away from the hated mortal races. From time to time, a brine hag may swim up to the surface, climb the side of a passing ship and drag a victim down to her lair as a means of putting variety into her diet. other times, a hag might rise to the surface to frolic and ride the violence of a particularly fierce storm or enter into battle with a storm hag. Innocent bystanders can and do get caught in the middle of the vicious battles between brine and storm hags. Some believe the had deliberately fight where there are mortals at hand as a way of introducing an interesting random element into the conflict.

Brine hags frequently keep sharks as pets and guards for their demesnes. They may boast other marine creatures as allies and pets as well.

Combat
Brine hags fight intelligently, using their element to best advantage. They often open a combat by trying to hurl armored opponents into the water to drown, then attacking less heavily armored foes with their terrible teeth and claws. Brine hags tend to use their spells to whittle down their foes' strength before combat or to execute last-minute escape; brine hags prefer to taste blood on their tongues in combat and do not like fighting from a distance.

Spells: Brine hags are accomplished spellcasters, functionally the equivalent of 10^th-level sorcerers. Individuals may range higher or lower by up to five levels. They favor spells that control water and weather, as well as summoning spells.

Breathe Water (Ex): Brine hags can breathe in water or air, through they are more comfortable breathing the cold, dense water of the deep ocean.

Scry (Su): When brine hags do take an interest in the surface, they are able to watch from a distance in their scrying shells, the iridescent shells of giant oysters that the brine hag has prepared for her own use. The scrying is sight only, and can be maintained for up to an hour a day; the hag may divide this time into multiple scrying sessions if she chooses.

Shift Size (Su): A brine hag can change her size to size Huge and back to size Large at will. Shifting size is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. When a brine hag is Huge, she gains a +8 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and +3 to her natural armor, and has a 10-foot reach, but suffers a -2 to Dexterity and a -1 to Armor Class and attacks. These modified statistics are listed above as a secondary set of statistics. Most hags prefer to remain in their smaller form, but will shift size if forced to enter melee or if they desire a more imposing appearance.

Skills: A brine hag has a +20 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Hag Covey
From time to time, a trio of hags gathers as a covey. Usually this foul triune consists of three hags from three different types, but this is not always the case.

Combat
Hags in a covey rely on deception and their boosted magical abilities in combat.

A covey of hags is 80% likely to be guarded by 1d8 ogres and 1d4 evil giants who do their bidding. These minions are often disguised with a veil spell to appear less threatening and sent forth as spies. Such minions often (60%) carry magic stones known as hag eyes (see below).

Spell-Like Abilities: Three times per day: Animate dead, bestow curse (DC 17), control weather, dream, forcecage, mind blank, mirage arcana (DC 18), veil (DC 19), and vision. Caster level 9^th. The save DCs are based on a Charisma score of 16. To use one of these abilities (which requires a full-round action), all three hags must be within 10 feet of one another, and all must participate.

Once per month, a covey that does not have a hag eye can create one from a gem worth at least 20 shillings (see below).

Hag Eye
A hag eye is a magic gem created by a covey. It appears to be nothing more than a semiprecious stone, but a gem of seeing or other such effect reveals it as a disembodied eye. Often, a hag eye is worn as a ring, brooch, or other adornment. Any of the three hags who created the hag eye can see through it whenever they wish, so long as it is on the same plane of existence as the hag. A hag eye has hardness 5 and 10 hit points. Destroying a hag eye deals 1d10 points of damage to each member of the covey and causes the one who sustained the greatest damage to be blinded for 24 hours.

Home     Three Worlds     Monsters