Hag covey [3.5]

[faceroll]

I want to run an encounter for my ECL8 party that has 3 hags. I am using hags for the following reasons:
Baba Yaga folklore is badass and terrifying.

Old, decrepit women possessed of superhuman strength, nails as strong as steel and a hunger for manflesh is metal. To that end, at least one hag will be using ToB material. I want to throw the monk off a cliff. :smallcool:

They have awesome abilities, like control weather, animate dead, and the ability to make hag eyes. This means that a lot of what is going on in an area (walking dead, unseasonable weather, monsters attacking) can be due to them.

Their physical appearance makes them appear weak, when in reality they are pretty tough. Not super tough, but tough. Their abilities, like disguise self and polymorph, lets me confuse the players.

The green hag is going to have levels in swordsage, maybe 5 levels. That should get her 5th level maneuvers. Will focus mostly on setting sun and tiger claw. The Green Hag is going to surprise the party by being an extraordinarily capable melee combatant, despite looking small.

I am undecided on what the other two hags are, and what their roles will be. Maybe an Annis Hag that is polymorphed and disguise selfed to look like a very heavily armored melee brute, then opens up with some brutal blast spells? Duskblade would actually be kind of interesting.

Another hag that looks interesting is the marzanna from Frostburn. She is about equal to a green hag or annis in melee, but also comes with some SLAs. Maybe she could be a cleric of a frost witch deity, come to spread winter to the lowlanders? She could be the archetypical witch with a cauldron casting curses, etc.

What are your thoughts? Are there any creatures out there that could be adapted into being a hag?

[Kol Korran]

i am not sure it could help, but i've done some work on hags. look at my link, the monster compendium. go to the second page and search down till you see pics of hags. i hope it would help.

good luck to you, i think hag can be amongst the most interesting creatures in the game. :smallwink:

[Eldan]

I think it's important to not just throw the hags into combat with the party. That seems to be a waste of an interesting encounter. Their spell-like abilities mean that they can infiltrate a society, if they need to, or trick the PCs into thinking they are harmless. Sure they are melee brutes, but they are also tricksters. Use that.

[faceroll]

i am not sure it could help, but i've done some work on hags. look at my link, the monster compendium. go to the second page and search down till you see pics of hags. i hope it would help.

good luck to you, i think hag can be amongst the most interesting creatures in the game. :smallwink:

Interesting, but I don't want to make hags a major campaign diversion. Their inclusion here is going to be as monsters in the woods.


I think it's important to not just throw the hags into combat with the party. That seems to be a waste of an interesting encounter. Their spell-like abilities mean that they can infiltrate a society, if they need to, or trick the PCs into thinking they are harmless. Sure they are melee brutes, but they are also tricksters. Use that.

Maybe I'll subvert the "help the old lady" trope. :smallamused: I'll definitely be taking advantage of their illusion and transformative abilities.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Eberron has a pretty cool covey of hags called the daughters of Sora Kell, there's a couple of articles here; Daughters of Sora Kell 1 (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041018a) and here Daughters of Sora Kell 2 (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041025a)

[Starshade]

Maybe borrow an idea from Starwars, and use them in same way as the sith, just as a trio instead of a master and an apprentice?
Have one as cannon fodder ala darth maul, replace with an Dooku/Darth Tyrannus like infiltrator, recruited to replace the one they lost, etc. If the party instead of the novice, is killing one of the "master" hag's, have the novice move up a rank, and aquire a new newbie hag for the coven, as Siths would have. :smallsmile:

[WinWin]

Have you seen the SLA's a covey gets? They are brutal.

Every member should be mind-blanked. They and their minions should also have an active Veil if they are expecting trouble. They can also animate dead...So they should have minions. Giving each member of the covery and their undead minions all the same appearence makes targeting them more difficult.

Control Weather 3/day could allow for repeated casting in order to ensure their lair is either bright and sunny or dark and misty. Mirage Arcana futher ensures the area around their battlefield is suited to their tactics.

Oh...Forcecage 3/day. Divide and conquer. Bestow curse actually works well if your Greenhag swordsage unleases it via a melee attack. Finally, Deam can be used to call in re-inforcements if they have to flee and regroup. They are certainly smart enough not to underestimate opponents, even if they are CE.

This does not even cover the SLA's and other abilities of each individual hag. Be very careful you don't go overboard here.

As for a setting or disguise, I can remember a short story from an old Gord the Rogue novel. It involved a very popular brothel called Rosie's where a hag covey had set up shop. They only ate the occasional customer so as to attract repeat business. Veil and Mirage Arcana can work wonders here.

[faceroll]

I'm thinking mirage arcana to make the desolate, windswept crag they call home look like a forest with a gingerbread house. They will be hiding in their house, but able to see through the illusion. Any characters that make their saves will get forcecaged. The rest will go in the house. At that point the hags will be hiding inside illusions. The Annis will grab whoever comes near the chimney and fly up it. The cold witch will open up with spells, and the green hag will break out the kung fu and throw people off cliffs they didn't know where there.

The problem is, the party has no way to break a forcecage. I'm basically going to remove three people from the fight, permanently.

Are there any items or something I could put in the loot of a prior encounter? I'm going to have them fight some gauth beholders on a bridge, maybe they could have something.

[Eldan]

I wouldn't do gingerbread house. The PCs will automatically scream alarm and draw their weapons if they have even heard of the concept of fairy tale. Even just "small cottage" will set off paranoid players.

[Eurus]

Even a simple Anklet of Translocation can circumvent a forcecage pretty well. And yeah, gingerbread house is likely to tip off anyone even remotely genre-savvy. You could disguise it as a druid/faerie glade, maybe.

[faceroll]

It's D&D. Everything is full of monsters. What's it matter if it's a gingerbread house or a cave or a dungeon? Genre-savvy = kick in the door, acquire loot. The only reason I'm drawing any of this on the battle map is because there's going to be a battle.

"oh gee, that place looks suspicious, I bet there's danger in there! let's go be dirt farmers!!!"

Yeah, I don't think so.

[Eldan]

Yes, it looks suspicious. Everything does.

However, the key with illusion monsters is to make the players suspect the wrong thing. Cottage or gingerbread house? Witch. Your players will prepare for a magical enemy disguised.

Calm pond surrounded by mighty, old oaks? Fey. That catches your players off-guard when they expect the wrong enemy.

Bonus points if they retreat first to prepare spells and battle tactics against that wrong enemy.

[WinWin]

The nice way to play Forcecage may be to use the barred version. It won't block line of sight or effect, but will allow the passage of ranged and melee (with cover). Teleport has already been mentioned.

This way, the Hags would be able to reach in and attack, but characters may still be able to attack out of the cage with certain abilities. Only melee types and charger would be compromised.

A nasty trick may be for a hag to reach in and attempt to grab a hero, then dispel the forcecage if a hold is esablished.

You could always play the Hags as overconfident when they trap half the party, then make a few tactical mistakes in their rush to eat the heroes before their sisters to join in on the meal. They start the battle working together, then get competitive and start bickering when they think they have won. I have genuine sympathy for any character caught between two hungry, psychotic monsters.

[faceroll]

Sorry, that was rude of me.

My player's aren't smart enough, to be honest. If I'm using force cages on them, I don't want it to be a wipe. I want rumors of Baba Yaga Bony Legs, really hype it up. They just don't have the grasp of the rules to know what's going on, which is good. Plus I'll pass notes. They don't metagame.

[faceroll]

Ok, so I haven't run the encounter yet, but I will next week.
Here's what I came up with:
green hag swordsage 5
annis duskblade 5
Marzanna (frostburn) with the casting of an 8th level dread necromancer and access to spells from the corruption and cold domains. Hopefully some Morality will be Undone. :smallamused:

The party is traveling into the hills to kill some giants that are causing problems. It's part of a module with Lolth stealing cities or something, and this is just a random overland encounter.

They are traveling west, into the mountains, and they find that they know nothing about snow. They find a shell of a village, with hardly anyone remaining. Two nights before the winter solstice (this is late spring time), "Mother Winter came down and took all our children. Winter came and she stayed." Those who didn't perish chasing after their children either left or were eaten by wargs. Wargs and goblinoids have begun to filter down into the snow covered land, as they are still very much in the middle of winter down there. Party has ascertained that something is controlling the weather.

On their travels, they keep encountering ravens (one of which is the Annis' familiar, so they are being spied on). At night, a horrible aurora crackles overhead, like green clutching claws coming from the mountains. They also have horrible dreams of the sun being snuffed out and a giant wolf eating all life as the world freezes.

The green hag has spider climb, move action teleport, standard action "hurt a bitch", and swift action invisibility. My first encounter is going to be with the corpses of the children + green hag. All the children skeletons are going to start piling down on the party, wielding knives. Anyone know a suitable monster that would make a good mob? Something undead and creepy. Must be child sized.

Meanwhile, the green hag is going to be spidercrawling down the wall, very creepily, when all of the sudden she pounces with some tiger claw **** and opens up on a party member. Followed by going invisible. Followed by some setting sun hurl-off-a-cliff and a teleport away to refresh/retreat, depending on the damage she takes.

This should get the party going "wtf wtf wtf" adequately, yeah?

[Lord Loss]

Heroes of Horror has an interesting and twisted encounter dubbed "Granny's House" or something to that effect. Perhaps you could give it a look?

[Daftendirekt]

Ok, so I haven't run the encounter yet, but I will next week.
Here's what I came up with:
green hag swordsage 5
annis duskblade 5
Marzanna (frostburn) with the casting of an 8th level dread necromancer and access to spells from the corruption and cold domains. Hopefully some Morality will be Undone. :smallamused:

The party is traveling into the hills to kill some giants that are causing problems. It's part of a module with Lolth stealing cities or something, and this is just a random overland encounter.

They are traveling west, into the mountains, and they find that they know nothing about snow. They find a shell of a village, with hardly anyone remaining. Two nights before the winter solstice (this is late spring time), "Mother Winter came down and took all our children. Winter came and she stayed." Those who didn't perish chasing after their children either left or were eaten by wargs. Wargs and goblinoids have begun to filter down into the snow covered land, as they are still very much in the middle of winter down there. Party has ascertained that something is controlling the weather.

On their travels, they keep encountering ravens (one of which is the Annis' familiar, so they are being spied on). At night, a horrible aurora crackles overhead, like green clutching claws coming from the mountains. They also have horrible dreams of the sun being snuffed out and a giant wolf eating all life as the world freezes.

The green hag has spider climb, move action teleport, standard action "hurt a bitch", and swift action invisibility. My first encounter is going to be with the corpses of the children + green hag. All the children skeletons are going to start piling down on the party, wielding knives. Anyone know a suitable monster that would make a good mob? Something undead and creepy. Must be child sized.

Meanwhile, the green hag is going to be spidercrawling down the wall, very creepily, when all of the sudden she pounces with some tiger claw **** and opens up on a party member. Followed by going invisible. Followed by some setting sun hurl-off-a-cliff and a teleport away to refresh/retreat, depending on the damage she takes.

This should get the party going "wtf wtf wtf" adequately, yeah?

This sounds like an epic situation. I wish my DM would do something like this. Also, why not just do halfling skeletons/zombies for the children?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Anyone know a suitable monster that would make a good mob? Something undead and creepy. Must be child sized.

The slaymate, perhaps? They're undead children from Libris Mortis; they have 4 HD, a necromancy-enhancing aura, and a Str/Con poison bite, and they look like this:

http://69.8.198.251/dnd/images/libris_gallery/84772.jpg

[Arbane]

This sounds like an epic situation. I wish my DM would do something like this. Also, why not just do halfling skeletons/zombies for the children?

When they beat the skeletons and have time to examine the remains, mention how well-chewed the bones look. :smalleek:

[WinWin]

There are a few composite monsters made up from several corpses. They could supplement a force of skeletons. The following are all creatable via Animate Dead.

Necrosis Carnex (MM4) is a low CR undead healer/debuffer.

Bonespur (MM5). A shambling pile of bones that can 'transform' into a rhinoserous-like form. Decent at bull rushing.

Serpentine (MM5). A snakelike undead made from the bones of several creatures.

None of these would be a challenge for a level 8 party, but they would be a decent speed-bump.

[Mayhem]

Sounds awesome man. I also suggest the use of halfling skeletons. You could also use slaymate from libris mortis, and have them turn into bones on death.

Good luck, hope all goes well for ya :smallwink:

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Prime32]

Maybe borrow an idea from Starwars, and use them in same way as the sith, just as a trio instead of a master and an apprentice?
Have one as cannon fodder ala darth maul, replace with an Dooku/Darth Tyrannus like infiltrator, recruited to replace the one they lost, etc. If the party instead of the novice, is killing one of the "master" hag's, have the novice move up a rank, and aquire a new newbie hag for the coven, as Siths would have. :smallsmile:There's already an archetype for this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheHecateSisters).

Also faceroll, that is epic. Don't forget to have the green hag making animal noises as or before it attacks.

[TheCountAlucard]

IIRC, Stormwrack has an adventure involving a hag covey. :smallsmile:

I ran it for my PCs; it was pretty decent, though I ended up tweaking it a bit to make it more challenging due to the number of PCs I had...

[Lord Loss]

I'm seconding the slaymate idea. I used them once in a forest, it was fairly creepy at the time. However, the real moment of satisfaction was when, in an unrelated adventure, the PCs heard the ghost of a young girl crying and one of them said... oh god. I think it's one of those zombie girls we fought before and then they got scared...

[faceroll]

This sounds like an epic situation. I wish my DM would do something like this. Also, why not just do halfling skeletons/zombies for the children?

Thanks. :smallsmile: I love hags. The witch archetype is so badass.
Because I want something more than "the children attack. the children attack. the children attack." Needs abilities. I'm thinking of putting the wight template on em or something.


The slaymate, perhaps? They're undead children from Libris Mortis; they have 4 HD, a necromancy-enhancing aura, and a Str/Con poison bite, and they look like this:

http://69.8.198.251/dnd/images/libris_gallery/84772.jpg

I was thinking the slaymate. I'd love to show them that picture, cause it's freaking creepy, but the particular mechanics aren't exactly what I'm looking for. I don't know where my real life copy of libris mortis is, so I couldn't hold the book up.

The party is also super melee heavy. The fighter could easily great cleave through a mob of them with his glaive, and their AC is pretty high, I think. I'd like them to pose a little danger. Maybe just have them reanimate a couple times?


When they beat the skeletons and have time to examine the remains, mention how well-chewed the bones look. :smalleek:

Eeeewwwww yeah. :smallamused:


Also faceroll, that is epic. Don't forget to have the green hag making animal noises as or before it attacks.

Thanks. :smallsmile: I'm thinking clicking noise from the monsters in signs or the descent.


Sounds awesome man. I also suggest the use of halfling skeletons. You could also use slaymate from libris mortis, and have them turn into bones on death.

Good luck, hope all goes well for ya :smallwink:

EDIT: Ninja'd

Thanks. Looks like slaymate is a consensus, so I think I will use them as a template. Maybe buff them up a bit, give them a level draining attack like a wight and increase their durability by giving them a flat miss chance or something. I don't have the stats of them in front of me. What's their CR?

[Mayhem]

They're only CR 2 and work best in the presence of a necromancer who can buff them, since at 4HD with strength they only have +4 attack.

You could also apply the mummy, wight, or ghoul template to halfling(or downsize one of those respective creatures to small). The mummy template's CR is base creature+3 so I think it's weaker than the actual monster. Other than that, someone might dig up a demon/devil or something that might fit. Some kind of spirit such as ghost could work maybe.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

The party is also super melee heavy. The fighter could easily great cleave through a mob of them with his glaive, and their AC is pretty high, I think. I'd like them to pose a little danger. Maybe just have them reanimate a couple times?
[...]
Thanks. Looks like slaymate is a consensus, so I think I will use them as a template. Maybe buff them up a bit, give them a level draining attack like a wight and increase their durability by giving them a flat miss chance or something. I don't have the stats of them in front of me. What's their CR?

If you want to buff them up a bit, I'd suggest giving them the spellstitched and evolved templates. They have Wis 13, so spellstitched gives them up to level 3 spells to work with, 2/2/2 per day and 4/4/2 known. Give them chill touch, mage armor, false life, and vampiric touch, and they get two nice touch attacks, 10+ temp HP, and +4 AC, and that's just looking at PHB sor/wiz spells. Evolved gives them a Str and natural armor boost for increased offense and defense, fast healing for longevity, and one SLA (haste is a good one if you don't want to make them too good). Ta-da, undead kiddies that pack a punch with only two templates.

[Mayhem]

Oh yeah feel free to mix up the appearances of idividuals, one might be covered in blisters as if boiled alive, another with deep claw marks across the face and arms and holding it's entrails, another with a spit still sticking out from mouth and rear end, another with thick nails sticking out of its head/fingers etc , peeled skin still hanging on, black skeletal arm as if held in a fire, and so on.

[faceroll]

I'm just going to template stack and advance the slatymates. There's a template that gives them rend, one to make them cold subtyped, and then I'll give them some extra HD. They'll also be corpsecrafted in a desecrated area for +4 HP/level, get extra cold damage, and nimble bones for speed. Oh yeah, and a template to give them more speed and a climb speed.

With the evolved template, I'll be able to get their strength high enough to be threatening, and the spell like abilities could definitely spice things up.

I want these things to be fast and hit hard. Do slaymates have int scores? Cause if they could tumble, that'd be great.

[Mayhem]

The only score they don't have is constitution, so you're good. I just noticed they have 15 charisma, so you might want them to cry or something as maybe intimidate or some bardic music? Could be interesting.

[faceroll]

The only score they don't have is constitution, so you're good. I just noticed they have 15 charisma, so you might want them to cry or something as maybe intimidate or some bardic music? Could be interesting.

A non-stacking fear aura? That's a pretty good idea. I want them to debuff, but not debilitate or have a save-or-die effect. They're going to be accompanied by the green hag which is going to be hard for the party to detect/counter, and she's smart enough to coup d'grace party members that are helpless.

[Mayhem]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/intimidate.htm
That's intimdate, it's not debilitating but could bridge the gap in powerlevels maybe? They can aid another on the intimidate too. That site also has variant paladin auras and stuff which you could look into.

[faceroll]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/intimidate.htm
That's intimdate, it's not debilitating but could bridge the gap in powerlevels maybe? They can aid another on the intimidate too. That site also has variant paladin auras and stuff which you could look into.

Ooh, I like that. Mass aide another and they could be downright terrifying.

[Daftendirekt]

Ooh, I like that. Mass aide another and they could be downright terrifying.

Have one of them appear at first, making some dirge-like sound. Then another joins in, then another, till you have this crowd of horrifying children advancing on the party and making this cacophony of horror.

[PetterTomBos]

In one of my campaigns I have thought of having a small (type 3) druidic circle as the BBEG, but this has led me to concider hags instead..

Plot insofar: huge storm (control weather) has been terrifying the land, and suddenly monstreous <whatever> creeps out of the forest. Their bites spread zombie-disease...

Any ideas on statting hags as bad guys for this?

[WinWin]

If you can scale up to panicked, the PC drops their weapon and either runs away or cowers. Cowering is like stunned but worse, due to the saving throw penalties from fear.

Gravetouched ghoul might be a decent template. From LM, the same book as the slaymate. Their claw paralysis is easy to save against, but the target has a few penalties, then it can become deadly. They also transmit disease, though it is not going to come up in the fight.

[faceroll]

I ended up just homebrewing the monsters. See the spoiler at the end for their stats. Would like to know what their CR should be.

The party was traveling along a dwarven trail carved through a forest of stalagmites/tites that had formed pillars. Along the sides, floor and ceilings were small openings. The ceiling, likewise, was covered with stalagtites. I described it as like walking through a forest of stone trees where the trunks grew so close they would not permit passage.

Prior this, they ran into the green hag, hearing her make calls, and catching a glimpse of her. That spooked them, knowing they were being followed/watched by a ceiling monster.

The monk, with greater luminous armor, was their light source, with the pixie rogue//warlock using devil's sight and improved invis as a forward scout. The party was strung out in a column about 100 feet long. The pixie arrives on a small child with its back to the party, sitting, clutching its little legs. The party begins catching up, and the cleric immediately begins putting up buffs while the pixie starts using detects (magic? no. evil? yes. detect a mind? no). When detect thoughts goes off, the pixie gets a glimpse of the green hag's mind 60 feet out on a massive stone pillar, but that was it.

After maybe 15 minutes of OoG discussion, the polearm fighter approaches the child. Which immediately begins keening and dozens of the creatures begin dropping out of the ceiling, scurrying out of a deep pit, and wiggling out of the cracks in the walls. Roll initiative. Described them as gnawed on, torn apart, hideous, pitiful, in tattered clothing, clutching at the remains of toys, etc etc.

I rolled well on initiative, so the kids went first. I spent about 3 rounds using intimidate + aid another + never out numbered to get any approaching party members to freak out (frightened) and move back down the hallway. I ruled that they had to retreat at least 30 feet and break line of sight with the kids. Pixie hid in the ceiling, warblade/fighter hid in a crevasse, monk ran farther back. Polearm fighter has a few levels of Hellbreaker or Hellreaver from Fiendish Codex II, so was immune to fear.

My plan was to have another party of kids show up from behind and fear them, then get them isolated and mauled while hag ran interference. I quickly realized that it only took 4 kids to always inflict fear, and I had 12 of them on the map. I could AoE auto-cower, so I decided against another party of kids.

On the third round, frightened warblade/fighter looks up to see hag creeping down the wall at him, her steely claws scratching on the stone like nails on a chalkboard. Then BAM some tiger claw pounce, miss with first claw, critical with second. Warblade uses wall of blades and gets a 37 vs. my 36. No damage. Hag looks at him and disappears in an inky cloud (move action teleport).

Some kids get killed, I replace them with more crawling up. Monk is hiding now, across the hallway from the warblade, when the hag appears from behind her and setting suns her into the wall for 8d6 damage (that was wicked fun to roll), followed by turning invisible and scurrying out of sight. Monk can hear her behind the wall, though, which was cool and creepy. Monk also decided it would be best not to follow the hag (oh well).

Pixie just plinks away with eldritch chain, some more kids go down. I decide now that the fight will be easy, as auto-cower lock down would wipe them unless pixie wised up, retreated, and fireballed. And pixie is always doing everything thanks to being tier 4 and using UMD in a party of tier 5. Hag retreats, and the kids attack (in a big, pouncing swarm. I let them occupy the same squares). The kids did some pretty nasty damage, but between a maximum damage greater turning and a melee heavy party, it was a routine mop up.

The encounter was really great, and I feel like the party learned a lot. I saw them use power attack for the first time routinely, getting sort of a feel for how it works (cool, you got a 35 vs. an AC 23 monster, maybe you should turn some of that into extra damage), the polearm fighter, after about 6 months of playing once a week, is catching on, the cleric used buffs that were effective, and the warblade/fighter started to really like ToB.

On my part, I really enjoyed a dynamic encounter that kept the party on their toes but without feeling like I was going to wipe them.

The next encounter will be the hag covey. The fighter/warblade player is going to have a sorc1/wiz4/UM1 in addition to his 10th level character, and the party is getting smarter. I'm not going to hold back on them. There will be strong winds to keep the pixie down, lots of noise to prevent the party from hearing spells being cast, environmental traps, and the hags using mobility & subterfuge to the utmost. Forecage is ok with me, seeing has the hags are outnumbered 2-to-1.

Kids stats:

HD: 6d12+14 = 51 HP
Init: +10
Speed: 40', climb 40'
AC: 23 (6 nat, 1 size, 6 dex)
BAB/Grapple: +3/they lose
Full Attack: 2 claws +12 melee (1d6+1d6cold+2), bite +7 (1d3+1d6cold+1)
Saves: +1/+7/+5
Abilities: 14 str, dex 22, con -, int 6, wis 11, cha 15
Skills:
intimidate +11, tumble +11
Skill trick: never outnumbered

Feats: Improved initiative

Special abilities:
Pounce
Rend 2d6+1d6cold+3 (totally forgot I gave them this, never used it)
Slight build and let them squeeze into each other's squares like it was no big deal.

DM fudging:
I arbitrarily gave them +2 HD/level and like +5 to hit, as well as more skill points than they should have. However, I figured that I could have used a combinations of feats I never assigned to them, racial bonuses that I didn't mess with, corpsecrafting, a desecrated altar, and templates, etc. to get desired results. I suppose weapon finesse would have worked just fine. I was in a rush, didn't have books, and knew what I wanted. And I played them exactly as I wrote them down (minus the rend cause I forgot). Interested in what you'd rank their CR as. I used 14 total

[Someonelse]

I'm thinking mirage arcana to make the desolate, windswept crag they call home look like a forest with a gingerbread house. They will be hiding in their house, but able to see through the illusion. Any characters that make their saves will get forcecaged. The rest will go in the house. At that point the hags will be hiding inside illusions. The Annis will grab whoever comes near the chimney and fly up it. The cold witch will open up with spells, and the green hag will break out the kung fu and throw people off cliffs they didn't know where there.

The problem is, the party has no way to break a forcecage. I'm basically going to remove three people from the fight, permanently.

Are there any items or something I could put in the loot of a prior encounter? I'm going to have them fight some gauth beholders on a bridge, maybe they could have something.

This is a rather obscure piece of folklore, but as I understand it, the reason witches live in gingerbread houses is because of fairies. Fairies don't like witches and seek to harass them as often as possible. However, a fairy cannot pass a barrier made of bread. If you're going to build a house out of bread the best bread to use is ginger bread because it's actually pretty sturdy and doesn't crumble when it gets stale. So making an illusion of a gingerbread house is kind of pointless because fairies will most likely see through the illusion.