Monster Manual: Hag to Invisible Stalker

We are done with the 'G' section, and we're halfway through the book now. They really front-load the monster names, don't they? Anyway, we move on to the 'H' section, and possibly further tonight, depending on how many monsters there are in this letter.

We start with the Hags, of which there are three, all Monstrous Humanoids. First is the Sea Hag (Large and Aquatic, 3 HD, CR 4). These are the weakest of the three, and are found anywhere aquatic. They are so ugly that just looking at them causes 2d8 points of temporary Strength damage (Fort save to avoid, DC 11). And they have the Evil Eye, which means that if you fail a Fortitude save at DC 11, there is a 25% chance you literally die of fright; even if you make that roll, you're in a state of whimpering catatonia for three days. And all of that works underwater, too. And don't forget their spell resistance of 14.

The Annis Hag (Large, 7 HD, CR 6) has a nasty pair of claws, and a massive 25 Str to boost the damage. Their spell resistance is 19, and they can rend you to pieces if they grab you with those nasty claws. Their tough skin gives them damage reduction of 1 point against slashing and piercing weapons, but they take one additional point from bludgeoning weapons. And they can change self or create a fog cloud three times a day, cast as an 8th-level sorcerer. They are the toughest of the hags despite having fewer hit dice than...

The Greenhag (Medium-size, 9 HD, CR 5). While not as physically powerful as the annis, they have a lot more magic at their disposal, with several spell-like abilities to confuse and stalk their prey. And the can do the weakening thing the sea hag can do, although it's a touch attack instead of just glaring at you like your soon-to-be ex-wife.

All of these hags advance as character classes, which makes them even nastier. But once in a while, you will encounter three hags together, one of each type. This is known as a covey. Now, since the sea hag is found in aquatic territory, the annis can be found anywhere including underground, and the greenhag hangs out in forests and marshes, it seems logical to assume that the only place you have to worry about running into a covey is in a swamp or marsh, since that's the only place all three can appear. If you do run into one, it is going to hurt; their CRs all jump to 12, they are almost certainly guarded by a pack of ogres and evil giants, and they can collectively use a bunch of new spell-like abilities as a 9th-level sorcerer. These include animate dead, bestow curse, polymorph other, and other fun stuff.

Next up are the halflings. Once again, just like in the Player's Handbook. There are a couple of subraces here: Tallfellows and deep halflings, but they all have the same CR of 1/2, and their special abilities are only slightly different from the bog-standard halfling.

Then we have the Harpy. I was surprised to find out that the harpy, despite being a very well-known mythological creature, didn't appear in the original box; it first appeared in Greyhawk the following year. These are Medium-size Monstrous Humanoids with 7 HD and a CR of 4. They can be found anywhere that isn't cold, and they can fly pretty fast (80 ft. per round with average maneuverability). They can use clubs or claw their targets, but their most important ability is their captivating song, which makes any creature within 300 feet succeed at a Will save or be effectively charmed. Not only will the charmed creature walk toward the harpy, but once they get within 5 feet of the harpy they'll just stand there while the monster rips them to shreds. You'd better hope you've got a bard handy who can countersong that, because otherwise it's going to result in being eaten. And for some reason, harpies advance as per character class. I wasn't expecting that.

Moving on, we come to the Hell Hound. Originally (from the Greyhawk supplement), this creature had a hit die range to show smaller and larger specimens. Now, they just have 4 HD and a CR of 3. But they can advance to 8 HD and become Large, so I guess that's pretty much the same thing. They have the fire subtype and can breathe a cone of fire for 1d4+1 damage and setting flammable things on fire. Other than that, there's not much else about them that sticks out.

The Hippogriff is an original 1974 monster; it's a Large Beast with 3 HD and a CR of 2. They are found in temperate and warm hills and plains, and they look like a combination of a horse and an eagle. They can be trained (preferably when young) as mounts. And they can advance up to 9 HD (Huge size). Otherwise, not much else to say about them.

Hobgoblins, on the other hand have a lot to say. They're Medium-sized Humanoids with the Goblinoid subtype, have 1 HD and a CR of 1/2. They are basically bigger, tougher goblins that wear studded leather and use longswords and javelins. Like almost everything else that starts with H, they advance by character class. Their favored class is fighter, and their clerics worship the goblin god Maglubiyet with the Evil, Destruction, and Trickery domains at their disposal. However, most of their spellcasters are just adepts, the NPC class from the DMG.

The Homunculus is a Tiny Construct that first appeared in...Greyhawk, I believe. Hang on, I'll check. Yep, it's Greyhawk. So, this little thing has 2 HD and a CR of 1. They're basically servants that a wizard animates to spy or send messages to their allies; they aren't combat monsters at all, although they do have a poisonous bite that puts victims to sleep for a short period. They are cheap enough to make, and require a 7th-level character with the Craft Wondrous Item feat. They can advance to 6 HD (they stay Tiny), but otherwise there's not much else to them.

I thought the Howler was a new creature, but I was wrong. Can you tell that I never even looked at Planescape before? Because they're yet another Planescape creature that made it into the core of the new edition. Skip Williams must have had a real romance with that setting, since he's grabbing a whole bunch of its monsters for this edition. Anyway, the howler is a porcupine/dog combo and a Large Outsider with 6 HD and a CR of 3. They can shoot their quills, which hurt, and they can also produce a shrieking howl that, after an hour (yes, they can howl that long) does 1 point of temporary Wisdom damage. It's not much of an ability, really. However, they can be trained by Small or Medium-size fiendish creatures such as quasits and succubi to serve as mounts, or as hunting dogs for larger demonic beings. I wouldn't recommend trying it, though. They can also advance to 18 HD and Huge size.

Finally, we have the Hydra. And apparently they are listing as separate entries all the multi-headed versions of this monster, from five-headed to twelve-headed. And there are a crap-ton of different CR ratings, so I'm not going to bother trying to list them all. The number of heads equals the number of hit dice for a hydra, so there you go. And their CR is one lower than the number of hit dice. But, it gets better. There are three variant hydras: Lernaean, pyrohydra, and cryohydra. All of these have eight variants based on their number of heads, too, which means we just quadrupled the number of hydra variants. No wonder they claimed 500 monsters; I've got thirty-two right here in this one entry.

Anyway, hydras are the classic monster from Greek mythology (and the original 1974 box); cut off one head, and two more will appear. Wait, sorry, that's the Lernaean hydra (and the Red Skull, but I digress). It takes a hydra about a month to regrow a severed head, so don't think you can just chop one off and come back later for seconds. The pyrohydra and cryohydra are pretty much the same as a normal hydra, except for their breath weapons. And their CR is 1 higher than the number of hit dice. The Lernaean hydra gets a +2 to its CR. And...you can have a Lernaean pyrohydra or cryohydra, too. These are CR HD+3, which makes quite a bit of sense; they're tough as hell. Oh, and we're up to 64 different hydras. Should I count them all individually?

That's it for the H monsters; there's only one 'I' creature: The Invisible Stalker. Another 1974 original, this is a Large (Air) Elemental with 8 HD and a CR of 7. They are naturally invisible; even see invisibility or true seeing doesn't give much an impression. Basically, they are exceptional trackers that will hunt down any target their summoner points them at. However, they hate being summoned, especially for jobs that will take a long time, and they'll waste time and otherwise pervert their mission instructions (always sticking to the letter, not necessarily the spirit).

And that will do it for tonight; sleep is calling me. Counting the gazillion hydra variants, that's 75 more monsters, bringing us to a grand total of 246. Well, that's just shy of halfway to 500, so we're on the right track.