Paintraina's post is 9 yrs ago, what DragnaCarta used to get his stuff going, so I think it's more vanilla, which I probably need:
Arrive in Vallaki.
1. Will the guards let the party in?
- climb over 15 foot wooden stakewall, AKA palisade?
- CHA check argue with guards, or not possible?
- Deal with Burgomaster...? Meh.
- The church->bones quest or just skip to coffin maker?
- Can my players take down a Hag in one turn? If so they break the Coven, and the Hags are pretty easy targets.
- Will the Hags be on separate Inititiatives?
- What happens if all 3 Hags win Initiative (more likely if you roll once for all of them) and all cast lightning bolt on that turn. Average damage 28, a character who makes 3 saves will still average 42 lightning damage. But the Hags can only do this whilst all 3 are still alive.
Later they will find they have helped kidnap children from the orphanage, and make half a town dependent on evil hag magic cannibalism. Then they can go fight the coven (level 6 or 7 I’d say…)
Edit - DragnaCarta’s “Reloaded” chapter on Bonegrinder has the best strategy guide for running the coven in combat. 5th level Bestow Curse? Absolutely.
They wanna use all level 3 for counterspell, sounds like.
Make sure to remember that the hags share their coven spell slots. If Morgantha casts Counterspell at 3rd-level, Bella and Offalia only have two 3rd-level spell slots remaining.
When facing a larger group of enemies, two hags will open with Bestow Curse at 5th-level, if feasible, to curse one PC’s Wisdom score. The third will follow up with an Eyebite attack at 6th-level, aiming to infect the most threatening PC with the Sickened condition. They will then use Polymorph together at 4th-level, attempting to turn all hostile PCs into toads. If that fails, two Hags will cast Hold Person at 2nd-level, while the third casts Ray of Sickness at 1st-level or uses her action to Change Shape, dealing critical-hit claw attacks on paralyzed PCs. A 3rd-level Lightning Bolt is a panic button - if a dying hag sees an opportunity to kill multiple PCs at once with it, she’ll cast it from pure spite.
Once the hags begin to run low on resources, they turn to their innate spellcasting abilities. Two hags will focus-fire a PC with their at-will Magic Missile, after which the third will cast one of her two daily Sleep spells in an effort to render that PC unconscious.
If any hag dips below 30 HP, she uses her action to slip into the Ethereal Plane. Note that this doesn’t break the coven - due to the Material and Ethereal Planes’ proximity, ethereal hags still count as present for the purposes of maintaining the coven. If two hags go below 30 HP, any member of the coven dies, or the coven runs out of spell slots and daily innate spells, however, the remaining members use their action to flee into the Ethereal Plane.
The PCs can learn more about the hags in Vallaki. Rictavio, Ezmerelda, Urwin Martikov, or a book in Baron Vallakovich’s library (DC 15 Investigation check) can give the party information on the history and interests of night hags (should the coven reveal their true forms, or hint at their true nature); their damage resistances; their haunting ability; and the heartstone and soul bag.
An Intelligence (Arcana) check can allow any PC to attempt to recall information about night hags. This information is gained at the following DCs:
DC 15: Night hags are demonic creatures of nightmares. Like other hags, they can form covens with exactly two other hags, which vastly increases their power.
DC 20: Night hags thrive on corruption and fear. They are tempters and dealmakers, and consume the souls of evildoers for pleasure and nourishment. Their skin is hardened against elemental forces, and they fear no mortal metal save silver. So long as the members of a hag coven remain nearby to one another, their arcane power is greatly increased.
DC 25: A night hag is said to have passage through the Ethereal Plane, slipping away into the realm of spirits to better haunt her prey. It is said that the touch of a night hag from the Border Ethereal can torment her victim with terrible nightmares and exhaustion. Night hags are fond of devouring children, and must do so to produce their foul offspring.
DC 30: A night hag keeps two artifacts that are precious to her. One is a heartstone - a lustrous black gem allows a night hag to become ethereal while it is in her possession. The touch of a heartstone also cures any disease. The second is a soul bag. When an evil humanoid dies as a result of a night hag's haunting, the hag catches the soul in a black sack made of stitched flesh. A soul bag can hold only one evil soul at a time, and only the night hag who crafted the bag can catch a soul with it.
The PCs can also learn more about the hags in Vallaki. Rudolph van Richten knows all the information in the above table, while Ezmerelda knows all of the information up to DC 25. A book in Baron Vallakovich’s library (Intelligence (Investigation) DC 15) can be found that contains all information up to DC 20 of the table, while Urwin Martikov knows the information at DC 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment