The last member of our wicked covey of hags, the Keening Crone is that most horrible of things, a bard. It’s highly recommended that you use her with several minions she can buff and heal (or with at least one of the other hags). Her ability is to make other monsters stronger, rather than to be a major foe on her own.

The Keening Crone (CR 9)

Female Green Hag Bard 4
CE Medium Monstrous Humanoid
Init +7; Senses Darkvision (90 feet); Perception +19

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AC 27, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (+3 Dex, +13 natural, +1 dodge)
hp 109 (9d10+4d8+39)
Fort +7, Ref +15, Will +13
SR 16

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Spd 30 ft., Swimming (30 feet)
Melee Sickle +18/+13/+8 (1d6+6/20/x2) or
Melee Claw x2 +13 (1d4+3/20/x2)
Special Attacks Bardic Performance (standard action) (14 rounds/da, Bardic Performance: Countersong, Bardic Performance: Distraction, Bardic Performance: Fascinate (DC 16), Bardic Performance: Inspire Competence +2, Bardic Performance: Inspire Courage +1
Spell-Like Abilities Alter Self (At will), Dancing Lights (At will), Ghost Sound (At will), Invisibility (At will), Pass without Trace (Constant), Pyrotechnics (At will), Tongues (Constant), Tree Shape (At will), Water Breathing (Constant), Whispering Wind (At will)
Bard Spells Known (CL 4, +18 melee touch, +15 ranged touch):
2 (2/day) Cure Moderate Wounds (DC 16), Hold Person (DC 16)
1 (4/day) Expeditious Retreat (DC 15), Disguise Self (DC 15), Hideous Laughter (DC 15), Cure Light Wounds (DC 15)
0 (at will) Open/Close (DC 14), Read Magic (DC 14), Mage Hand, Light, Prestidigitation (DC 14), Ghost Sound (DC 14)

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Abilities Str 22, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 19
Base Atk +12; CMB +18; CMD 32
Feats Bard Weapon Proficiencies, Combat Casting, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Armor (x3), Lightning Reflexes
Skills Acrobatics +13, Appraise +8, Bluff +20, Climb +15, Diplomacy +15, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (Arcana) +22, Linguistics +10, Perception +19, Perform (Sing) +20, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +19, Swim +14, Use Magic Device +20
Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Giant, Infernal
SQ Bardic Knowledge +2 (Ex), Mimicry (Ex), Versatile Singing +20 (Ex), Weakness (DC 20) (Su), Well Versed (Ex)
Combat Gear Sickle; Other Gear Boots of the Winterlands

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Mimicry (Ex) A green hag can imitate the sounds of almost any animal found near its lair.
Weakness (DC 20) (Su) A green hag’s claws sap strength from those she strikes. Each time a green hag hits a foe with her claw attack, the victim takes 2 points of Strength damage unless he resists the weakness with a DC 20 Fortitude save.
Well Versed (Ex) +4 save vs. bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects.

That’s it for Mother, Maiden, and Crone! Have some creepy fun with them.

-The Gneech

The text is open content using the OGL. “The Keening Crone” was created by John “The Gneech” Robey. Stat blocks created by Hero Lab®.

I gave my regular group the “Player’s Handbook” for my new campaign yesterday, and it’s a whopper: 24 pages of house rules, cultural and linguistic notes, carefully-selected full-color illustrations, lovingly-rendered photoshop maps, and an appendix that goes all Silmarallion. In short, this is not a beer-and-pretzels game, this is a heavy-duty RP campaign.

Alas, the first thing I had to do, was nix a player’s character concept, which is something I really dislike doing, but in this case had to be done. This particular player loves to play outliers, but is an excellent player and usually makes them work, so I try to accommodate him when I can. For a regular dungeon-crawling game I would have allowed the character without blinking an eye. But this time the concept in question was kind of a “three strikes” problem: I just couldn’t reconcile it with the “facts” of the setting, the underlying philosophy of the game, or the themes of the campaign.

This game, with its detailed background and carefully-crafted world, is in some ways a return to my gaming roots. Once upon a time, the only kind of games I ran were set in detailed homebrew worlds usually used The HERO System, so characters were carefully built with custom abilities and hard-wired disadvantages (“Psychological Limitation” was always one of my big favorites). And really, that’s the kind of game I love best… but it’s been a long time since I was able to pull one off. It takes a lot of prep work, and a lot of concentrated mental energy, but when it works it really works well.

I have for the past several years been working in more or less the opposite mode of that, trying to minimize my prep time and do as much “off the shelf” as possible, and the results have sometimes been just fine, but have tended to leave me unsatisfied, which led to my decision last year to drop gaming. So when the itch to do a really immersive, Big Damn Campaign, I was initially resistant… but the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. So I finally decided that if I was going to do it, I was gonna go the Full Monty, as they say. There’s no point in putting in the amount of work required to do half the campaign I want, and not putting in the amount of work required to do the whole thing.

I found it very interesting, therefore, when Gnome Stew this past week posted a piece called No More Average Campaigns, which echoed my own thoughts very closely.

I think that if you looked at the table play alone, you would have agreed the campaign was average. There was laughing, there was action and drama, and people were paying attention. At the same time, there were no raised voices in excitement, no long term character plans, no in depth role playing. It was quite average.

I realized that I was putting a lot of effort into this game, and getting very little return in terms of increased player engagement and excitement. It was frustrating, and after one of our hangouts one of my players asked me, “Why do you want to run an average game, when the next game could be great?”

He was right. If I was going to invest my time to run something, why not run something great? Run a campaign that everyone is going to be excited to play. A campaign that has everyone talking between games, and dying to get back to the table to play the next session. So the next morning I killed my All For One game and announced that I was running Corporation (again).

Of course, there’s a big risk here; I might be the only one in the group who’s excited by this idea. Or the group might just not gel. Or having to come up with histories and lineages and proper elvish terms for things all the time might wear me down. There’s any number of things that could kill this new game.

On the other hand, it could be awesome… and that’s my target. We’ll see if I can hit it.

-The Gneech

Second in our covey of hags, the Cold Woman. In my campaign, she also had some non-combat ritualistic abilities to bring about an unnaturally early, long, and cold winter over a large region that are not reflected in the statblock, as they were purely story-related. She also had a white dragon as her animal companion, but this was treated as another creature in the XP budget (and was an NPC in its own right).

As before, this writeup was done before there was an official “Annis hag” for Pathfinder, so it’s my own version. It’s probably pretty close, but I haven’t compared it. Either one should work.

The Cold Woman (CR 10)

Female Annis Hag Druid 5
NE Large Monstrous Humanoid
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +16

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AC 20, touch 10, flat-footed 19 (+1 Dex, -1 size, +10 natural)
hp 121 (7d10+5d8+60)
Fort +13, Ref +7, Will +13
DR 5/bludgeoning; SR 17

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Spd 40 ft.
Melee +1 Unholy Sickle +16/+11 (1d8+7/20/x2) or
Melee Bite +10 (1d6+3/20/x2) and
Claw x2 +10 (1d6+3/20/x2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks Grab, Storm Burst (7/day)
Spell-Like Abilities Alter Self (3/day), Fog Cloud (3/day), Storm Burst (7/day)
Druid Spells Known (CL 5, 15 melee touch, 10 ranged touch):
3 (2/day) Summon Nature’s Ally III, Call Lightning (DC 17), Sleet Storm
2 (3/day) Barkskin, Resist Energy (DC 16), Heat Metal (DC 16), Fog Cloud
1 (4/day) Hide from Animals (DC 15), Obscuring Mist, Cure Light Wounds (DC 15), Cure Light Wounds (DC 15), Cure Light Wounds (DC 15)
0 (at will) Resistance (DC 14), Read Magic (DC 14), Create Water, Detect Magic

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Abilities Str 23, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 19, Cha 14
Base Atk +10; CMB +17 (+21 Grappling); CMD 28
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting, Druid Weapon Proficiencies, Great Fortitude, Intimidating Prowess, Natural Spell
Skills Appraise +8, Bluff +9, Climb +10, Diplomacy +10, Fly +10, Handle Animal +10, Heal +10, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (Arcana) +12, Knowledge (Geography) +10, Knowledge (Nature) +12, Perception +16, Ride +8, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +10, Survival +10
Languages Common, Draconic, Druidic, Giant, Sylvan
SQ Druid Domain: Weather, Nature Sense (Ex), Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex), Spontaneous Casting, Trackless Step (Ex), Wild Empathy +7 (Ex), Wild Shape (1/day) (Su), Wild Shape (Beast Shape I: Small – Medium animal), Woodland Stride (Ex)
Combat Gear +1 Unholy Sickle, +2 Cold Resistance Hide; Other Gear Staff of Healing

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Natural Spell You can cast spells while in Wild Shape.
Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex) +4 save vs. effects from Fey and effects using plants.
Spontaneous Casting The Druid can convert stored spells into Summon Nature’s Ally spells.
Storm Burst (1d6+2) (7/day) (Sp) 30′ Ranged touch attack deals 1d6+2 nonlethal damage and inflicts a -2 to hit penalty for 1r.

Next week: The Keening Crone.

-The Gneech

The text is open content using the OGL. “The Cold Woman” was created by John “The Gneech” Robey. Stat blocks created by Hero Lab®.

The trio of hags known collectively as “Mother, Maiden, and Crone” are a powerful covey of terrors in the service of a great and sinister evil. In my Revenge of the Giants game, they were actually at the front of an army of giants who invaded the campaign city, but the giants little knew that the hags actually had a greater agenda of their own. While the giants were looking to conquer, the hags were only interested in slaughter and sacrifice and were channeling souls to Acererak, the demilich of the Tomb of Horrors.

The three hags are Mother, an annis matron; The Cold Woman, an annis hag druid with affinity for frost (the “maiden”); and The Keening Crone, a green hag bard. These stats were created before the official Pathfinder conversion for annis hags, so it’s my own writeup. I haven’t compared my stats to the official version, but I would guess they’re fairly close and either one should work.

Mother (CR 9)

CE Large Monstrous Humanoid (female Annis Hag Matron)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +21

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AC 25, touch 10, flat-footed 24 (+1 Dex, -1 size, +15 natural)
hp 126 (12d10+60)
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +10
DR 5/bludgeoning; SR 20

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Spd 40 ft., Flight (30 feet, Average)
Melee Bite +19 (1d6+8/20/x2) and
2x Claw 19 (1d6+8/20/x2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities Alter Self (3/day), Bestow Curse (3/day), Charm Monster (3/day), Create Greater Undead (1/day), Create Undead (3/day), Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass (3/day), Cure Serious Wounds (3/day), Dominate Monster (1/week), Fear (3/day), Fog Cloud (3/day), Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass (3/day), Vampiric Touch (3/day)

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Abilities Str 27, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +12; CMB +21; CMD 32
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting, Great Fortitude, Intimidating Prowess, Multiattack
Skills Bluff +17, Diplomacy +11, Fly -1, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (Arcana) +10, Knowledge (Planes) +10, Knowledge (Religion) +10, Perception +21, Sense Motive +4, Spellcraft +17, Stealth +10
Languages Common, Draconic, Giant
SQ Rend (Ex)

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Rend (Ex) Causes 2d6+9 damage if you hit with both claws.

Next week: The Cold Woman.

-The Gneech

The text is open content using the OGL. “Mother” was created by John “The Gneech” Robey. Stat blocks created by Hero Lab®.

Enormous, vicious beasts who terrorize underground passages, these umber, hulking creatures are the bane of dwarves and goblins alike. And have no resemblance whatsoever to certain copyrighted beasts that didn’t make it into the OGL. Really. We promise.

Tunnel Reaper (CR 7)

CE Large Aberration
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 feet), Tremorsense (60 feet); Perception +13

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AC 19, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+1 Dex, -1 size, +9 natural)
hp 95 (10d8+50)
Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +7

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Spd 20 ft., Burrowing (20 feet)
Melee Bite +13 (2d6+6/20/x2) and
Claw x2 +12 (1d6+6/20/x2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

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Abilities Str 23, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 13
Base Atk +7; CMB +14; CMD 25
Feats Improved Natural Attack: Bite, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Toughness +10, Weapon Focus: Bite
Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +14, Intimidate +6, Perception +13, Stealth +9, Survival +10, Swim +10
Languages Common, Terran (can’t speak)
SQ Confusion Gaze (DC 16)

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Confusion Gaze (DC 16) Gaze attack 30′. Effected targets become confused (as per the spell).
Tremorsense (60 feet) Sense non-flying things and creatures without seeing them.

Umber Hulk by !greystudio on deviantART

Because they have no speech other than clicking and stridulating noises, tunnel reapers are often taken for dumb beasts, but in actuality they are intelligent and crafty (if brutish and cruel) creatures, capable of laying elaborate ambushes or figuring out complex traps. Drow and other creatures of the underworld sometimes make mutually-beneficial agreements with tunnel reapers, exchanging the reaper’s muscle for regular sources of food or other benefits.

One should never make the mistake of believing the tunnel reaper is a friend, however. More than one goblin keeper has learned the hard way that the reaper it raised from an egg will one day decide that goblins are tasty.

-The Gneech

The text is open content using the OGL. The illustration was created by !greystudio and shared under their agreement with DeviantArt. The Tunnel Reaper was created by John “The Gneech” Robey, inspired by the original creation of Gary Gygax and/or Robert J. Kuntz. Stat blocks created by Hero Lab®.

So for the first Monster Monday post, I’m actually going to post a Pathfinder update to a critter I created in 3.5 for the Kobold Quarterly blog.

This writeup uses my original text, but the KQ text works just fine. Go with the one you prefer!

Grimdaw (CR 1/3)

N Tiny Magical Beast
Init +3; Senses Darkvision (60 feet), Low-Light Vision; Perception +12

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AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +2 size, +2 natural)
hp 5 (1d10)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +2
Immune paralysis, disease, energy drain, fear

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Spd 10 ft., Fly 60 feet (Average)
Melee Talon x2 +6 (1d4-3/20/x2) plus disease
Space 2.5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

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Abilities Str 5, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 6
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 9
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +7, Perception +12, Stealth +11
SQ Disease (DC 11) (Ex)

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Disease (DC 11) (Ex) Any creature struck by the claws of a grimdaw must make a Fortitude save vs. DC 11 (Constitution-based) or become nauseated by infectious bacteria attacking their nervous system, causing symptoms ranging from numbness to phantom sensations and extreme pain. After 1d4 rounds the victim becomes slowed (as per the spell). The secondary attack of the disease happens after 24 hours and causes paralysis for 1d4 days.

Grimdaw Immunities (Ex) Grimdaws are immune to disease, drain effects, supernatural fear, and paralysis, making them uniquely suited to existing among the undead. (Their immunity to fear doesn’t make them recklessly brave— in fact, they tend to be quite cowardly creatures— it simply prevents them from fleeing in supernatural terror from a mummy’s despair ability, or instance.)

The Grimdaw, or “ghoul crow,” tends to nest and flock around graveyards, abandoned churches, swamps, or other unwholesome places and resembles a large and shabby crow or raven with a gruesome, skeletal-like head. Despite their appearance they are not undead, but actually scavengers and carrion-eaters that can coexist among the undead and feed on the remains of those the undead slay.

On their own, grimdaws retreat from larger creatures and will only attack if their mates or young are threatened; however, they are occasionally known to form into large swarms, commonly known as “riots,” which become very aggressive and will attack any creature of size Large or smaller size on sight. The exact reasons for the forming of a riot of ghoul crows is unknown.

Grimdaws are bright and, if tamed, can make good pets. They have been known to become the Arcane Familiar of necromancers (acting as a raven except without the ability to speak), or may be taken as an Animal Companion by clerics with the Death domain in place of the Bleeding Touch ability as if the cleric were a druid of the same level. While not terribly fearsome in combat, grimdaws make excellent spies or couriers.

Grimdaw Riot (CR 2)

N Tiny Magical Beast (Swarm)
Init +3; Senses Darkvision (60 feet), Low-Light Vision; Perception +16

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AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +2 size, +2 natural)
hp 16 (3d10)
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +3
Immune Grimdaw Immunities, flanking, staggered, critical hits, precision damage, Swarm Traits
Weakness Vulnerability to Area Effects

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Spd 10 ft., Fly 60 (Average)
Melee Swarm 1d6 plus disease
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks Distraction (DC 11), Swarm Attack (1d6)

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Abilities Str 5, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 6
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 11 (can’t be Bull Rushed, Grappled, or Tripped)
Feats Skill Focus: Perception, Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +11, Perception +16, Stealth +11
SQ Disease (DC 11) (Ex)

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Disease (DC 11) (Ex) Any creature struck by the claws of a grimdaw must make a Fortitude save vs. DC 11 (Constitution-based) or become nauseated by infectious bacteria attacking their nervous system, causing symptoms ranging from numbness to phantom sensations and extreme pain. After 1d4 rounds the victim becomes slowed (as per the spell). The secondary attack of the disease happens after 24 hours and causes paralysis for 1d4 days.

Grimdaw Immunities (Ex) Grimdaws are immune to disease, drain effects, supernatural fear, and paralysis, making them uniquely suited to existing among the undead. (Their immunity to fear doesn’t make them recklessly brave— in fact, they tend to be quite cowardly creatures— it simply prevents them from fleeing in supernatural terror from a mummy’s despair ability, or instance.)

Distraction (DC 11) (Ex) A creature with this ability can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save negates.

Swarm Attack (1d6) Creatures with the swarm subtype don’t make standard melee attacks. Instead, they deal automatic damage to any creature whose space they occupy at the end of their move, with no attack roll needed. Swarm attacks are not subject to a miss chance for concealment or cover. A swarm’s stat block has “swarm” in the Melee entries, with no attack bonus given.

Enjoy!

-The Gneech

Open content using the OGL. The Grimdaw was created by John “The Gneech” Robey. Stat blocks created by Hero Lab®.