Green Hag 5e: Illusions, Mimicry and Hunting a Hag You Can't See

A green hag is a CR 3 Medium fey with AC 17, 82 hit points and claws that hit for 13. Her real weapons are deception: an illusion that makes her look like anyone of her size and shape, the ability to mimic any animal sound or human voice, and Invisible Passage, which turns her invisible and leaves no tracks that anything but magic can follow. She's the hag who lures you into the bog with your sister's voice. The 2024 green hag casts those tricks as spells (Disguise Self, Invisibility), attacks twice with poison-laced claws, and adds Ray of Sickness.

Table of Contents

• •Green Hag Stat Block (2014)
• •Green Hag in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Green Hag Fights
• •Running a Green Hag Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Green Hag
• •Green Hag vs Sea Hag
• •Green Hag Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Green Hag Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 green hag.

She's tougher than she looks for CR 3: AC 17 and 82 hit points outlast a sea hag by a long way. Her tricks:

• •Illusory Appearance. She looks like another creature of her size and humanoid shape until she ends it as a bonus action. Touch gives it away. Otherwise, seeing through it takes an action and a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check, which few low-level characters can make.
• •Mimicry. Any animal sound or humanoid voice. A listener needs a DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check to tell it's fake.
• •Invisible Passage. She turns invisible until she attacks, casts a spell, or loses concentration (it works like concentrating on a spell). She leaves no physical evidence of her passage, so only magic can track her.
• •Innate spells. Dancing Lights, Minor Illusion and Vicious Mockery at will (DC 12).

Her attack is a single claw, +6 for 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing. She has no Multiattack in the 2014 rules, so she's weaker in a stand-up fight than her hit points suggest.

Green Hag in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps her size, AC, hit points and CR, and turns her into a real melee threat.

The trade: the 2024 hag hits much harder (about 22 damage a turn if both claws land, versus 13) and has a ranged option, but her disguise is far easier to see through. A DC 12 check is something a curious rogue makes most of the time; DC 20 is something they almost never do. 2024 Invisibility is a spell, so it ends right after she attacks, deals damage or casts a spell, just like the 2014 trait.

How the Green Hag Fights

She doesn't want a fair fight. A green hag that has to stand and trade claws with a party has already made a mistake. Every encounter with her should start with a lie.

Lure. Mimicry can call for help in a lost child's voice, bark like the ranger's dog, or reproduce a party member's voice shouting from the wrong direction. Each listener gets a DC 14 Insight check, but only if they think to question it. Combine it with Dancing Lights to make "lanterns" moving deeper into a marsh.

Strike from invisibility. She approaches invisible and attacks with Advantage. Against AC 16:

Then vanish again. In the 2014 rules, Invisible Passage is an action, so her pattern is attack, then next turn go invisible and move, then attack again. That's one claw every other round, which is slow but nearly impossible to pin down. The 2024 hag casts Invisibility as an action too, then attacks twice on her next turn: the first claw has Advantage, and the spell ends right after it.

Use the swamp. Amphibious, and in 2024 a swim speed, lets her fight from water. She drags a victim under while the party searches the reeds. Her 82 hit points mean she can afford to take a few hits while doing it.

Run when it turns. When she drops below about half, she goes invisible and leaves. Without magic, nobody can track her. She'll come back in a week wearing the face of someone the party trusts.

Running a Green Hag Encounter

A green hag is worth 700 XP. For four characters under the 2024 rules:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), she's Medium for four level 3 characters (600 to 900 XP) and Hard for four level 2 characters.

Pairings that suit her: a few swamp beasts she has befriended, a charmed villager, or other hags. In the 2024 rules, a coven of three hags unlocks Coven Magic, a once-per-Long-Rest casting each of Augury, Find Familiar, Identify, Locate Object, Scrying or Unseen Servant at DC 11. A green hag, a sea hag and a night hag together are 2,950 XP, a Moderate encounter (just inside the 3,000 budget) for four level 5 characters. The older coven rules (shared spells, hag eyes) come from the 2014 Monster Manual, not the SRD.

How Players Beat a Green Hag

• •Faerie Fire beats invisibility. Faerie Fire outlines her, and she can't benefit from being invisible while it lasts. Cast it on the spot where the claw came from; she still gets a Dexterity save, but it's only +1.
• •Break her concentration. Both the 2014 Invisible Passage and 2024 Invisibility work like concentration. Area damage that covers where you think she's standing, such as Thunderwave cast from beside her, forces a Constitution save to keep it.
• •Question every voice. Make the Insight check whenever a voice calls from the dark. A party that agrees on a password before entering the swamp beats Mimicry outright.
• •Touch the suspect. Her illusion fails physical inspection. A handshake, a hug or bumping into the "villager" gives it away in either edition.
• •Use magic to follow her. Invisible Passage leaves no tracks for a mundane ranger to find. Ask whether anyone has a spell that finds creatures or reads minds; Detect Thoughts can sense the presence of a thinking creature within 30 feet even when it's invisible.
• •Don't cast Hold Person. She's Fey, so Hold Person and Charm Person can't target her. Her Dexterity and Intelligence saves (+1) are her weakest.

Green Hag vs Sea Hag

Both are SRD Fey hags who look human until they choose not to. They play opposite ways:

The green hag is a mystery the party has to solve. The sea hag is a fight they have to survive.

Green Hag Encounter Ideas

The midwife. A village's midwife has delivered every baby for thirty years and never seems to age. She's a green hag, disguised, and she has quietly swapped one newborn each decade. The party is asked to find a missing infant and keeps getting "help" from the kindly midwife, who knows the answers because she hid the child.

Voices on the causeway. A raised path through a swamp is the only road between two towns. Travelers who walk it at night hear their names called from the water. The first one to step off the path vanishes. Mimicry, Dancing Lights and Invisible Passage make the whole encounter a perception puzzle before it's ever a fight.

The friendly rival. An herbalist competing with the party's patron is always one step ahead, because she's a green hag who listens invisibly to their plans. The tell: the herbalist's shop always smells of bog water. A Faerie Fire in the right room at the right time cracks the case.

A disguised hag works best when the players remember who said what across several sessions. Loreify can record your sessions and keep NPC notes so the clues are there when they go back to look.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a green hag in 5e?

A green hag is CR 3 (700 XP) in both editions, with AC 17 and 82 hit points.

How does Invisible Passage work?

The 2014 green hag turns invisible until she attacks, casts a spell, or her concentration ends, as if concentrating on a spell. While invisible she leaves no physical evidence of her passage, so she can only be tracked by magic. The 2024 hag casts Invisibility on herself at will instead and also leaves no tracks.

What is the difference between a green hag and a sea hag?

A green hag (CR 3) relies on illusions, mimicry and invisibility and wants to stay hidden. A sea hag (CR 2) wants to be seen: her appearance frightens people, and her Death Glare can drop a frightened creature to 0 hit points.

Can you see through a green hag's disguise?

Yes. Touching her reveals it, because the illusion fails physical inspection. In the 2014 rules a creature can also take an action and make a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check. In the 2024 rules it's a Study action and a DC 12 Investigation check against her Disguise Self.

Is a green hag evil?

Yes, green hags are neutral evil in both editions. They're Fey, not Fiends, so effects that target Fiends won't work on them, but Protection from Evil and Good and Dispel Evil and Good do.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.