General Rules: Monsters - Hag, Swamp

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

Hit Dice: 7d8+28 (59 hit points) or 7d8+42 (73 hit points)
Initiative: +3 or +2
Speed: 40 feet, swim 40 feet

Armor Class: 17 (-1 size, +3 Dexterity, +5 natural); touch 12, flat-footed 14 or 18 (-2 size, +2 Dexterity, +8 natural); touch 10, flat-footed 16

BAB/Grapple: +5/+14 or +5/+23

Attack: Claw +7 melee (1d6+3, piercing and slashing, 20 x2) or claw +10 melee (1d8+7, piercing and slashing, 20 x2)

Full Attack: 2 claws +7 melee (1d6+3, piercing and slashing, 20 x2) and bite +2 melee (1d8+1, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) or 2 claws +10 melee (1d8+7, piercing and slashing, 20 x2) and bite +5 melee (2d6+3, bludgeoning, 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: Low-light vision, camouflage, poison immunity, disease immunity, shift size, wild empathy +5
Saves: Fortitude +6 Reflex +5, Will +7
Abilities: Str 17 or 25, Int 17, Wis 15, Dex 16 or 14, Con 19 or 23, Cha 11

Skills: Climb +10 or +14, Craft: Alchemy +7, Handle Animal +5, Heal +5, Hide +4 or -1, Intimidate +4, Knowledge: Nature +10, Listen +5, Move Silently +10 or +9, Spot +10, Survival +10, Swim +7 or +11

Feats: Brew Potion, Track, Skill Focus (Craft: Alchemy)
Environment: Warm marsh

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

Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: -

Swamp hags lair in the deep bogs, swamps, bayous, and marshlands that civilized creatures avoid. They are the smallest of their kind, rarely reaching nine feet in height. Their skin is typically a greenish brown, and the eyes are a bright, sickly yellow. A hag typically likes to "enhance" her appearance with whatever materials are at hand - moss, crocodile skulls, iridescent beetle shells, twigs, teeth, bones, skins, and baubles are all likely adornments. The more bones a swamp hag wears, the more power over life and death she displays. Like their cousins, swamp hags enjoy the company of beasts. These hags tend to have the largest menageries of any of their ilk. A swamp hag is rarely found without a contingent of monstrous vermin, reptiles or other swamp beasts as pets and bodyguards. Swamp hags are strangely domestic and build huts that they guard ferociously.
Combat
Swamp hags are wily opponents. Their deadliest advantage is their knowledge of the swamps they inhabit. By using their camouflage abilities, swamp hags can track a party for hours or days, harrying and weakening them if necessary. When the hag decides to enter combat, she always does so on her terms. A swamp hag will typically have her beasts enter battle first to scatter or weaken a party, then the hag herself will enter the fray. Swamp hags despise clerics. While stalking a group, a swamp hag will identify the priests and healers in the part and make sure that they are poisoned by spiders, crushed by snakes, or eaten by crocodiles before she turns her attention to any other opponents.

Camouflage (Ex): Swamp hags have greenish-brown skin that makes them had to spot in a swamp, but they can also change color to blend even more perfectly with their surroundings. When in swampy terrain, they gain a +15 bonus to Hide checks as long as they remain perfectly still.

Shift Size (Su): A swamp 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 swamp 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.

Spells: Like their sisters, swamp hags are quite talented in the magical arts. A swamp hag has the spellcasting power and spells of a 7^th-level druid. They prefer spells that convince animals ad plants to attack, ensnare, or otherwise overbear their foes.

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.

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