Demon, Night Hag
- Armor Class
- 9 [10]
- Hit Dice
- 8
- Attacks
- Claw (1d6+2)
- Special
- silver weapons to hit, disease, magic, fear, nightmare riding
- Move
- 12
- HDE/XP
- 10/1,400
Description
Infernal beings are monstrosities with otherworldly or extra-dimensional origins. These beings are universally vile and at odds with the powers of goodness. There are several distinct races or groups of infernal beings, generally grouped by their origin. They might be called demons, devils, or other related terms. If reduced to 0 Hit Points in the mortal world, an infernal is not destroyed but disappears in a pall of greasy black smoke and terrifying scream, banished back to its home dimension or plane. Once banished, it cannot return to the mortal world for an entire year. To truly destroy one it must be reduced to 0 Hit Points while in its home dimension.
A Night Hag appears to be an aged woman of horrific appearance, hunched and bent, with devilish facial features, taloned hands and feet, with blue-black skin and hair. They are about the same height and weight as a human female. They are found only singly on the material plane where they search out victims to be slain, taken to the lower planes, and turned into larva (page 152).
In combat, night hags are tougher than they appear. They can only be hit by silver, iron (but not steel), or magical weapons, and are immune to both normal and magical forms of fire and cold as well as Sleep, charm, and fear magic.
Night hags prefer the most cruel and selfish of human men as prey, though they will take a woman if she is more cruel and selfish than any man available. When a victim is located, the night hag casts a powerful form of Sleep which can affect any creature or character up to 12th-level or 12 hit dice unless a successful saving throw is made. Creatures who would be affected by a normal Sleep spell do not receive a saving throw but are automatically affected. A victim who falls asleep will be strangled by the night hag and thus killed automatically, unless someone intervenes to stop her.
Any victim who resists the Sleep spell is not "in the clear" just yet, for the night hag will visit the victim once they fall asleep normally. The night hag will be in an ethereal (invisible and intangible) state, and after causing the victim to become ethereal she will climb on the victim's back and ride them until dawn. The exhausted victim awakens after such a night having lost one point of Constitution permanently.
Naturally, any character reduced to a Constitution score of 0 is slain. Monsters are not normally chosen as victims, but should such a thing happen to a monster with no given Constitution score, assume it has a score of 10 plus its normal hit dice. Ethereal creatures can only be seen by other ethereal creatures or by means of Detect Invisibility, and can only be harmed by magic weapons; most spells or magic will not affect such a creature but gaze attacks can do so. Once on the back of her victim the night hag can only be removed by killing her, but any strike against the night hag which misses has a normal chance to hit the victim being ridden.
A night hag hates almost all creatures, and will often attack on sight so long as she believes she can win. Though her physical attacks are not particularly fearsome, night hags have several magical powers. As previously mentioned a night hag can become ethereal at will, and can resume material form in the same way; her movement rate remains the same while she is ethereal. She can also polymorph at will (as the spell Polymorph (self only)). Three times a day a night hag can cast a form of Magic Missile which launches a single missile that inflicts 2d8 points of damage. Worse, three times a day she can project a ray of Light (Dark) (Dark only) from her fingertip which can strike one character; the target must make a saving throw or suffers weakness that reduces damage done by all melee attacks by half for 2d8 rounds.
A night hag can summon an ally once a day. Roll 1d% on the table below.
Night Hag Summoning
| 1d% | Result |
|---|---|
| 01–25 | A vrock appears. |
| 26–50 | A barbed devil responds to her summons. |
| 51–00 | The attempt is a failure. |
If the attempt fails, the night hag can try again as often as desired (once per round maximum) until she succeeds. If she does this, the night hag must pay the summoned creature (if it survives) in the form of a larva from her collection, so she will only use this power if in dire need of assistance.
When encountered on the material plane a night hag will always have a magical gemstone, a periapt, which will cure any disease contracted by the bearer, as well as granting a bonus of +2 on all of that character's saving throws. When carried by a non-infernal, the periapt has a 10% cumulative chance of decaying and crumbling when used; that is, 10% the first time it cures a disease, 20% the second, and so on.
See Also
Other creatures in the Demon category: Demon, Balor, Demon, Imp, Demon, Lemure, Demon, Succubus, Demon, Agares, Demon, Arachnea, Demon, Barbed Devil, Demon, Baubas, Demon, Bone Devil, Demon, Creoboros, Demon, Dread Horseman, Demon, Eldri, Demon, Erinyes, Demon, Fiend, Demon, Glabrezu, Demon, Hezrou, Demon, Ice Devil, Demon, Larva, Demon, Malacoda, Demon, Malebranche, Demon, Manes, Demon, Marilith, Demon, Nalfeshni, Demon, Nightmare, Demon, Pazzu, Demon, Quasit, Demon, Rubicante, Demon, Shadow Fiend, Demon, Spined Devil, Demon, Vega, Demon, Vrock.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.