Hag 5e
Guide by Sam West, @CrierKobold
Hags have crept through different cultures’ stories globally; they’re dark crones who eat babies, steal youth from beautiful women, and trick gullible people into selling their souls and their children. D&D takes inspiration from these iconic fairy-tale villains and presents them as masterfully evil, plotting fey driven by hatred and jealousy.
For my money, these are the best villains in Dungeons & Dragons.
These witches are a diverse bunch, with new ones trickling into the game as time goes on. Here, I’ll rank all the hags printed as of The Book of Many Things for D&D 5th Edition: Annis, Bheur, Dusk, Fate, Green, Night, and Sea Hags.
For more on each specific kind of hag, you can check out the partner pieces to this that do a deep dive on each type- you’ll find plot hooks, minions, lairs, combat tactics, countermeasures, magic items, and more! Each is linked at their respective ranking in difficulty.
Additionally, we’re going to do a deep dive into the special rules Hags share across their stat blocks; what Covens are, how Shared Spellcasting works, what special Lair Actions they have access to, and more.
Ranking Dungeons and Dragons Hags by Difficulty
Each hag is a threat in its own right; they can make excellent individual villains for short adventures that focus on classic fairy and folk tale tropes. Each is linked to their full guide should you want to dive deeper into building Hag encounters or find tips for beating them yourself. Generally, the more you add to the encounter via bonus minions, Lair, and Legendary actions, the harder the fights will naturally be.
#7: Sea Hags
Of the seven, Sea Hags are the lowest challenge. They’re frail, have low DCs on their abilities, and rely on multi-attack on their claws more than anything else to reliably kill their opponents. Their Death Glare may seem intimidating, but in practice, it will rarely take lives, at least when it’s independent of a coven.
They make fantastic villains in the low to mid-tiers; I’d expect some 2nd level parties that come with tactics in mind to have no issue taking one down. More casual tables likely could handle one no problem when characters can take two of their attacks and stay standing, normally around 3rd level.
#6: Fate Hags
Fate Hags are the newest Hag type as of The Book of Many Things; these come with three Legendary Actions out the gate as well as Legendary Resistances, making them a monster designed to be a centerpiece villain for a climactic ending to a series of adventures.
Even with these resistances and special actions, in isolation, they aren’t more threatening than any of the higher CR variants, nor even that much more threatening than Sea Hags; most of their core challenge comes with their supporting kit imposing disadvantage on the party’s attacks paired with defensive Legendary Actions to help keep them alive. Their challenge is majorly dependent on their supporting cast; the more dangerous their minion, the better her supportive suite will perform.
It's hard to put an exact level on these; I’d say their encounters will be at their best around 4th level, as their minimal shear attacks won’t contribute much damage to higher-tier fights, and their buffs are predominately low-tier spells you’d expect them to use on lower tiered enemies.
#5: Green Hags
Green Hags are the most iconic of the bunch; they’re green-skinned witches who can use an illusory veil to appear as a beautiful woman to lure travelers to their end as dinner in a horrific cabin in the woods. They also have some mechanics that make them great learning tools to both run and fight against.
They hit harder than Sea with their claws, have a higher AC than Fate, and while they lack the Legendary Resistances and Legendary Actions, in isolation these are far more likely to take down characters over a turn or two, especially if they are getting an ambush off with the help of their Invisible Passage.
I wouldn’t expect most parties lower than 5th level to have that great of a shot at taking it down without casualties, especially if they’ve got minions at their disposal.
#4: Annis Hags
While they boast the second-highest challenge rating of the bunch, I don’t think Annis Hags are all that challenging compared to their competition. An AC of 17 is par for all of the hags outside of Sea and Fate, and they have fewer hit points and resistances than almost all of the hags above them.
Without Shared Spellcasting they only come with two 1st level spells, Disguise Self and Fog Cloud, and while they do the most damage in melee combat with three attacks in place of the two most get, they don’t get the much-needed utility to add an extra challenge to their fights.
Their raw damage output makes them more challenging in a vacuum than Green, but I still think 5th-6th level parties likely can take one down without any casualties with a minimal amount of prep needed.
#3: Night Hags
Night Hags boast the most hitpoints out of all the hags at a whopping 112. Twice per day Plane Shift and Etherealness make them challenging to actually kill, as the moment they’re at risk of death they can pop off to another world for safety. At-will Magic Missile also can make them pesky to deal with, as they can fire three missiles that can’t miss out every round from safety while their minions lay into the party first.
Stack on top of this a decent slew of damage resistances and advantage on all saving throws against magic and you’ve got a hard-to-kill hag that parties past 6th level should be able to take on consistently. Earlier than that, you’re setting them up to get massacred.
#2: Dusk Hags
Added in Eberron, Rising from the Last War, Dusk Hags mirror their predecessor, Night Hags, but come with more juice in terms of magic in combat. The have fewer hit points than Night and lack any of Night’s resistances and an at-will Invisibility or Etherealness for easy escapes. The trade-off, though, is that they come with a bonus high-damage attack roll in Nightmare Touch alongside a debilitating spell, Hypnotic Pattern.
These two elements are majorly what set Dusk Hags apart from the night. Both get Sleep, but Dusk weaponizes it better with their Dream Eater reaction, using it to bolster their smaller and more frail hit point pool. Hypnotic Pattern can easily knock half of the party out of the fight at once, giving the Dusk Hag and her lackeys plenty of time to obliterate whoever remains standing.
Night Hags are likely going to outlive an average Dusk Hag, but I’d consider a Dusk Hag more dangerous in terms of taking out party members. Groups starting at 7th level likely still can take it down.
#1: Bheur Hags
Topping off the list is the Bheur Hag; these claim the top spot because of their chillingly lethal spell suite.
At will Hold Person sets up their frost wolves or other minions with free food, and they can follow it up with devastating area damage laid out with multiple uses of Cone of Cold and Ice Storm. Graystaff Magic gives her a fly speed to boot, making her tricky to pin down from the ground while doubling as an easy tool for escape.
Parties will likely need to be able to take multiple hits from Cone of Cold to stand a chance; Cone of Cold dishes out an average of 36 damage on a failed save, meaning even 7th-level parties usually can’t take more than one without dropping. I’d recommend 10th-level characters for Behur Hag encounters, which is a notable leap up from the rest of the Hags.
What Is a Hag Coven?
When three hags join forces, they form a magical unit called a coven, offering them spells they’d otherwise lack. These are core to what makes Hags compelling villains in the mid and upper tiers.
Hags have a coven variant that empowers them while all three are within 30 feet of each other; this usually adds a Hag Eye ability and Shared Spellcasting abilities to their stat block.
These abilities radically empower hags, as it wildly opens up their options with spells that go up to 6th level. It also makes them have a distinct weakness; killing any single hag, or even removing it temporarily, guts their powers as it disrupts their shared spellcasting. It's a fantastic dynamic that makes these monsters some of the most iconic D&D has to offer.
Notably, the Shared Spellcasting and Hag’s Eye Coven Rules are presented for five of the seven hags; Dusk and Fate don’t innately have Coven variants listed, but could easily use the rules as presented for the other five.
How Shared Spellcasting Works
Shared Spellcasting, sometimes referred to as Coven Casting or Coven Spellcasting, uses straightforward rules:
“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”.
This functionally gives them a shared resource pool; once one casts a Hold Person using a 2nd level slot, the entire coven will only have two 2nd-level spell slots remaining.
Casting Spells At Higher Levels. They can up-cast spells normally- a Hag can spend a 4th-level slot casting a Ray of Sickness, benefiting from the “At Higher Levels” improvements.
Concentration. Each hag maintains concentration on spells cast from the shared list independently. This allows the group to have three concentration effects from their spell options going simultaneously.
What Is a Hag Eye?
A Hag Eye is a magic item a coven crafts from a real eye; at any time, any member of the coven, over any distance, can see through the eye so long as it is on the same plane of existence.
These tools allow hags to exert control over larger areas with the aid of minions, but at a risk- should the eye be destroyed, each hag takes 3d10 damage and is blinded for a day. Players may want to hunt down an eye and destroy it before engaging a coven to majorly disrupt their ability to fight back.
What Are the Different Hag Covens?
Volo’s Guide to Monsters added three variants to the Shared Spellcasting Coven rules presented in the Monster Manual detailing three specific kinds of covens. This resulted in four types of Covens DMs can pick between: General (presented in the Monster Manual), Death, Nature, and Prophecy.
The only mechanical difference between each is what spells Hags share with Shared Spellcasting. DMs can choose between these four types of covens when crafting their encounters. Each still has the same total spell slots, but has various spell options that change the dynamics the party would face.
Monster Manual Covens
The default coven presented in the Monster Manual presents what you’d expect an “average” coven to have; some divining tools to spy on their enemies, protective magic to keep themselves alive, damage to obliterate their foes, and hexes and curses befitting of their mentality.
General Spells
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Identify, Ray of Sickness |
| 2nd | Hold Person, Locate Object |
| 3rd | Bestow Curse, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt |
| 4th | Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph |
| 5th | Contact Other Plane, Scrying |
| 6th | Eyebite |
Without extra specificity, the default coven option offers a diverse kit of tools.
The most powerful and notable abilities here come with their 3rd level spell selection- Counterspell is a massive asset that gives any trio of hags a major advantage against most adventuring parties. Lightning Bolt stacks them with a big damage option, and Polymorph can debilitate the most threatening party member or turn an ally into a threatening beast in a pinch.
This list does a serviceable job of giving a Coven everything you’d expect them to have; divination tools, damage, protection, and curses.
Death Covens
If you want more undead at the table, a Death Coven is the perfect option for you. They offer boons of life to those who bargain, but may just as quickly and wickedly take it and create unlife instead.
Death Spells
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | False Life, Inflict Wounds |
| 2nd | Gentle Repose, Ray of Enfeeblement |
| 3rd | Animate Dead, Revivify, Speak with Dead |
| 4th | Blight, Death Ward |
| 5th | Contagion, Raise Dead |
| 6th | Circle of Death |
The big notes here are Animate Dead and Death Ward. I’d expect a 5th level slot and a 3rd or two dedicated to maintaining a battalion of skeletal archers or bog zombies to protect the coven’s machinations. Death Ward similarly provides a layer of protection to keep Death Coven Hags alive and well the players may not expect.
False Life bolsters their defenses further, padding each out with extra hit points to start fights with. Their attacks are typically going to do more than an Inflict Wounds, so it’s easy for them to stick spell slots into False Lifes for the squad.
This batch of spells won’t challenge spellcasters as much, as without Counterspell, they’re ripe to have their minions blown to pieces by area-of-effect damage spells.
Nature Covens
Nature offers a twisted, dark woodland feel to hags; these aim to torment foes with twisted thorns and persistent damage. They want to lock down a space and pick apart their enemies.
Nature Spells
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Entangle, Speak with Animals |
| 2nd | Flaming Sphere, Moonbeam, Spike Growth |
| 3rd | Call Lightning, Plant Growth |
| 4th | Dominate Beast, Grasping Vine |
| 5th | Insect Plague, Tree Stride |
| 6th | Wall of Thorns |
This list is a downgrade from both Death and the original offerings in terms of flexibility; it is instead aimed at making a unique kind of encounter that can utilize basically every spell on it, as they all tend to play well when cast alongside each other. Few are dedicated to affecting the world outside of combat beyond Speak with Animals, leaving this coven feeling more combat-centric to me.
Spike Growth stacked on top of a Plant Growth and then paired with a Grasping Vine will torment players' dreams for years to come; getting trapped in there can be painful, and getting out can feel impossible for an immobile character like a Paladin.
Dominate Beast offers an option for entering a fight with some higher CR beasts as lackeys; like Animate Dead for Death Covens, I’d expect a 4th level slot to be dedicated to maintaining control over a massive crocodile or bear to protect the hags from harm.
Prophecy Covens
Bringing up the rear is the Prophecy Coven; if nature is primarily combative, Prophecy is the other end of the spectrum with close to no combat spells, leaving it as an option you’d only consider if you didn’t want to majorly up the threat of a coven compared to the hags independent of it.
Prophecy Spells
| Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Bane, Bless |
| 2nd | Augury, Detect Thoughts |
| 3rd | Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Nondetection |
| 4th | Arcane Eye, Locate Creature |
| 5th | Geas, Legend Lore |
| 6th | True Seeing |
I think these would shine best not as an antagonist, but more as a twisted accomplice to greater evil or force the players could strike a dark bargain with to obtain information the hags can divine with Clairvoyance, Detect Thoughts, Augury, and Arcane Eye.
This list does close to nothing in a fight; Bane and Bless should always be up, but beyond that, they’ve got zero meaningful spells to help kill their foes. This is easily the weakest list in terms of adding challenge to a coven.
What Lair Actions Do Hags Have?
Similarly to the expanded Coven rules, Volo’s Guide to Monsters also expanded Lair Actions, adding unique options for the three Hags from the Monster Manual and two added there, Bheur and Annis.
In addition to the unique lair actions, two general lair actions were added any hag can use to give it the feeling of a classic fairy witch seamlessly moving through its home while trapping interlopers with tricks and traps. They are the two following options:
“Until initiative count 20 on the next round, the hag can pass through solid walls, doors, ceilings, and floors as if the surfaces weren’t there.”
“The hag targets any number of doors and windows she can see, causing each one to either open or close as she wishes. Closed doors can be magically locked (requiring a successful DC 20 Strength check to force open) until she chooses to make them unlocked, or until she uses this lair action again to open them.”
They obviously play well together; she locks all the doors she can see, yet can still pass through it in a pinch. It gives all hags an extra defensive layer to aid in escapes. Tactical hags can use them further; she locks the room one round, and in the next fills the room with dangerous magic or activates a trap and steps out through a wall while the players struggle to break out on their own.
Sources
The statistics for Sea, Green, and Night Hags all can be found in the Basic Rules with their Coven Variants located in the Monster Manual.
Volo’s Guide to Monsters presents fantastic lore and roleplay expansions for hags alongside having a ton of the variant mechanics we explored.
Annis and Bheur Hags were originally printed in Volo’s and have since been updated in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
Dusk Hags can be found in Eberron: Rising from the Last War.
Fate Hags are in The Book of Many Things.
The Complete Guide to Hags
Thanks for checking out this ranking and deep dive into hags, their differences, and their challenge. For more on each, you can check out their specific pages with deep dives all about them!
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