Buy me a coffeeWinter Hag, the Crone of Endless Frost
“Beware the chilling curse of the Winter Hag—an ancient witch who freezes your blood and your soul with a single icy touch!”
“She is the storm that walks. Her breath steals warmth, her eyes know your fears, and her laughter carries on the howling wind.”
The Winter Hag resembles a withered crone carved from frostbitten nightmares. Her skin is a mottled, icy blue veined with dark frost lines, and her joints crack like breaking icicles with every move. Long, stringy white hair clings to her scalp like windblown snow, and her eyes glow pale blue, devoid of warmth or mercy. Her fingers are elongated into claw-like talons, encrusted with rime, and her teeth are jagged shards of ice.
Behavior
Winter Hags are sadistic, cunning, and patient manipulators. They delight in suffering born of cold, isolation, and broken trust. Rather than attacking outright, they often psychologically torment their victims—whispering from the wind, leaving frozen effigies, or cursing food to spoil just before starvation sets in. They are territorial and vengeful, treating any intrusion as a slight worthy of a slow, icy demise.
Habitat
These hags dwell in desolate, snow-covered regions—glacial caves, abandoned villages swallowed by ice, or forests where winter never ends. They often manipulate the local weather, sustaining supernatural blizzards to keep prey from escaping and keep intruders disoriented and vulnerable. Their lairs are often adorned with frozen trophies of previous victims, cursed relics, and powerful fey charms.
Modus Operandi
A Winter Hag prefers manipulation and illusion to brute force. She lures travelers off-course with phantom lights or false cries for help, then isolates and harasses them with frost magic and hallucinations. When her victims are weak, frostbitten, and terrified, she strikes—draining their warmth with a freezing touch or shattering their sanity with fear-based enchantments. If faced with resistance, she vanishes into a blizzard, only to return when the time is right.
Motivation
The Winter Hag’s heart is as cold as her touch. She thrives on the slow unraveling of hope, feeding on mortal fear, despair, and misery. Many Winter Hags are born from ancient curses or corrupted fey who embraced the endless winter as a form of power. Some seek to expand their influence, turning entire regions into eternal frostscapes ruled by cold and fear. Others are more personal—fixated on vengeance against those who wronged them in life.
Winter Hag 5e
Winter Hag, Pathfinder
Winter Hag
Medium Fey, Chaotic Evil
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3
Armor Class 17 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 136 (16d8 + 64)
Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 (+3) | 13 (+1) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 15 (+2) | 17 (+3) |
Saving Throws
Wis +5, Cha +6
Skills
Arcana +5, Deception +6, Insight +5, Stealth +4
Damage Resistances
Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Condition Immunities
Charmed, Frightened
Senses
Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 12
Languages
Common, Sylvan, Infernal
Fey Cunning
The hag has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Traits
Innate Spellcasting
The Winter Hag’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: Ray of Frost, Minor Illusion, Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation
3/day each: Hold Person, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Ice Knife, Disguise Self
2/day each: Cone of Cold, Fear, Blur, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force
1/day each: Wall of Ice, Greater Invisibility
Frozen Aura
At the start of each creature’s turn within 10 feet of the hag, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) cold damage and have its speed reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn. This area is difficult terrain for enemies.
Horrific Visage (Recharge 5–6)
The hag reveals her terrifying true form. Each creature within 30 feet that can see her must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. A creature that succeeds is immune to this hag’s visage for 24 hours.
Icy Step
The hag may leave a trail of slick black ice behind her when she moves. This trail remains for 1 minute. Creatures that move through it must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone.
Actions
Claw
Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage.
Winter’s Grasp (Recharge 5–6)
The hag targets a creature she can see within 60 feet. Frosted claws erupt from the ground and attempt to seize it. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be restrained by ice for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. Only one creature may be restrained by this feature at a time.
Ice Mirror (1/Day)
The hag targets a reflective surface (ice, water, glass) within 60 feet. She steps into it and emerges from another visible reflective surface within 120 feet. Each creature that witnesses this must succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
Combat Tactics
The Winter Hag is a cunning, patient ambusher who uses weather, fear, and misdirection to divide and break enemy forces:
- Opens with Mirror Image or Greater Invisibility to avoid damage.
- Uses Fear, Phantasmal Force, or Hold Person to disable and isolate targets.
- Controls the battlefield with Wall of Ice or Winter’s Grasp, then punishes with Cone of Cold or Ray of Frost.
- Escapes or repositions with Misty Step or Ice Mirror.
- Lingers in close range, leveraging Frozen Aura and Icy Step to punish melee attackers.
Lair Actions (Optional)
When in her lair, the Winter Hag can use the following lair actions on initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties). She can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- Freezing Fog. A 30-foot radius becomes lightly obscured. Creatures in it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 9 (2d8) cold damage and have disadvantage on ranged attacks until the end of their next turn.
- Jagged Ice. Choose three 10-foot squares. Each becomes heavily obscured difficult terrain. Creatures moving through them take 5 (1d10) piercing damage.
- Whispers of the Storm. Ghostly voices echo throughout the lair. Creatures of the hag’s choice within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to take reactions until the start of their next turn.
Winter Hag
This woman has black, frostbitten skin, white hair, and a black ice staff decorated with bones and gems.
Source Bestiary 4 pg. 279
Originally posted in Archives of Nethys
Winter hags are sadistic crones who haunt winter-blasted plains and rime-covered forests. They’re exceptionally arrogant, and often use their magic to subjugate entire tribes of evil humanoids so they can rule over them as queens. These arrangements rarely last more than a few seasons, because no creature is truly safe from a winter hag’s irrepressible appetite for warm, raw flesh. An ambitious winter hag might extort a village by causing constant snowfall until they give her children to eat or adults to become her slaves.
A typical winter hag stands between 5 and 6 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds.
When a winter hag joins a coven, the coven adds sculpt simulacrum and simulacrum to its spell-like abilities, and any member within 1 mile of the winter hag gains icewalking and snow vision.
| Winter Hag CR 7 |
| XP 3,200 CE Medium monstrous humanoid (cold) Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., see invisibility, snow vision; Perception +18 |
| DEFENSE |
| AC 20, touch 11, flat-footed 19 (+1 Dexterity, +9 natural) hp 85 (10d10+30) Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +8 DR 10/magic; Immune cold; SR 18 Weaknesses vulnerable to fire |
| OFFENSE |
| Speed 30 ft. Melee +2 frost quarterstaff +15/+10 (1d6+6 plus 1d6 cold) or 2 claws +13 (1d4+3) Special Attacks breath weapon (30-ft. cone, 4d6 cold and blinded for 1d6 rounds, Reflex DC 18 partial, usable every 1d4 round) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th; concentration +14) Constant – pass without trace, see invisibility At will – chill metal (DC 16), detect magic, fog cloud, frostbiteUM, whispering wind 3/day – alter self, charm monster (DC 18), invisibility (self only), major image (DC 17) 1/day – cone of cold (DC 19; see ice staff), control weather (windy or cold weather only), wall of ice (DC 18), waves of fatigue |
| Statistics |
| Strength 17, Dexterity 13, Constitution 16, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 13, Charisma 18 Base Atk +10; CMB +13; CMD 24 Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting, Deceitful, Great Fortitude Skills Bluff +18, Craft (alchemy) +11, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +11, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Perception +18, Ride +9, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +9 (+13 in snow); Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth in snow Languages Aklo, Common, Giant SQ ice staff, icewalking |
| SPECIAL ABILITIES |
| Breath Weapon (Su) A creature that successfully saves against the hag’s breath weapon takes half damage and is not blinded. Ice Staff (Su) Once per week, a winter hag can perform an hour-long ritual to create a staff made of black ice that is as hard as steel and functions as a +2 frost quarterstaff. A winter hag holding her ice staff can use cone of cold once per day as a spell-like ability. The staff melts after 1 week. Icewalking (Ex) This ability works like the spider climb spell, but the surfaces the hag climbs must be icy. The hag can move across icy surfaces without penalty and doesn’t need to make Acrobatics checks to run or charge on ice. Snow Vision (Ex) A winter hag can see perfectly well in snowy conditions and doesn’t take any penalties on Perception checks while in snow. |
| ECOLOGY |
| Environment cold forests or plains Organization solitary, patrol (1 plus 1 winter wolf), or coven (3 hags of any type) Treasure standard |