I have renamed these series of posts as “Monster of the month” as I think “Monster of the week” assumed I would be a bit more prolific in my writing. 😉

Before I move on to monsters from adventure and campaign setting books, I thought I should continue first with monsters found in the Monster Manual.

I do love monsters that lend themselves to a mixture of combat, strategy and role play and the monsters from the Feywild fit this bill perfectly. Perhaps the best introduction are the Hags. A wonderful creation from Grimm’s fairytales of Hansel and Gretel.

Perhaps the most iconic Hags from Dungeons and Dragons are those found in Curse of Strahd that are making cookies from, ahem, unusual ingredients. Hags also allow for a wonderful opportunity to role play, bargain, double-cross, and finally combat. They provide the ultimate opportunity for whatever type of encounter you wish your party to have. They could be a legendary mystery, asking riddles, or be the kind, elderly grandmother that has fallen on hard times. The Hags lend themselves to whatever diabolical intentions the Dungeon Master has.

Finally in battle they are worthy adversaries with vicious claws, spells, and deadly actions. They also lend themselves to recurring battles with other sisters from the Hag coven. They provide an excellent opportunity to flesh out their colourful names, backstories, and depth of characters to have fun with.

But overall, I love what Hags do for setting the scene of shocking scenes and evil actions. This elevates the Hags from being just an opponent to a memorable encounter that can provide a challenge, advance the story, and develop the plot. One of my favourite uses of Hags are servants for the greater, deeper evil. They are excellent lieutenants of evil and a great introduction into the Feywild.