Hi folks,
I'm a long-time gamer, but recent community member. I'm currently running a campaign set in a mystical land (almost Slavic) and came up with a great idea for my sorcerer player that their bloodline is actually related to hags. The wild magic and draconian bloodline didn't suit the flavor of the setting, and my player loved the idea.
So i've done some brainstorming for how to build this sorcerer bloodline, but I've not been especially happy with what I've come up with so far. It may be because I'm questioning if the ideas are too bland, or underpowered, but I've become self-doubting and figured I'd try to get some advice from other DM's.
So please let me know what you have in mind, if the idea inspires you. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas so I could build the bloodline well and do it justice.
Thanks for any input you may have!
Sorcerers gain abilities by blood line at 1st, 6th, 14th and 18th level. Warlock patrons grant them at 1st, 6th, 10th, and 14th. If Archyfey, fiend or Great Old One feels closer to Hag than the sorcerer choices you could probably swap in the warlock abilities, either skipping 10 and using a sorcerer or homw grown one for 18th or just letting your sorcerer get a power "early" at 10th in exchange for nothing at 18th.
What the gist of the features you were considering?
I'm thinking like collective casting, remote viewing, mind control, fear, good unarmed attacks, maybe a temporary bonus to speed and strength. Spells should include Polymorph, mind control (like Suggestion), fear-related effects, probably some ritual casting. Maybe something to do with devouring enemies or collecting components/essence from their bodies. Maybe a larva familiar, that would be cute.
We know how Hags reproduce, so using that story would be something I'd use for the fluff of how the PC got the blood.
For 1st level, Disguise Sef at will seems like a good place to start. Or possibly extending the duration to 4, 6, or 8 hours and limiting it to Charisma modifier number of times per day? You can use it to great effect, but it doesn't have enough oomph by itself, so something else would be needed. Possibly a d6 or d8 unarmed strike? Maybe proficiency in Intimidation checks due to their appearance being changed by the Hag blood when it awakens? Which would also be a reason to use Disguise Self, because people would be able to tell you had their blood and would be wary of them at best.
The Sea Hag's Death Glare is pretty bad ass and could make for a powerful ability.
A frigtful presence when not under Disguise Self would definitely be something I'd go with.
Depending on how gruesome you want to go, eating humanoid flesh for healing could be an ability. It's not something that Hags get, but it could be a good feature to emphasize the dark nature of their blood. The PC could revel in it, or could be totally disgusted by it but see it's benefits.
I had a similar challenge, but, it was focused on creating a bloodline for fey, rather than draconic. The player wanted wings on the character. I ended up using the draconic blood like as a go by. The results, from memory, were something like: 1st level - Magic Resistance replaced armor ability, Elemental affinity was modified to use several of the fay from World of Darkness, Wings were kept, Fear / Charm aura was kept. I set the Elemental affinity damage type to associated with the feel of the Fae. Hags were not in White Wolf so they were not listed on my table, but I might associate them with poison.
I also allow the creation of new spells by substitution of damage type if a player provides a good explanation as to why they have a different spell and where they got it from. For instance Fireball was replaced with Cryoblast. The hag may have a poison spray rather than a flamewave.
Here's my take on it. Will be updating it from my phone, so hopefully it looks ok.
Hag's Corruption
Your innate magic comes from the mingling of your blood or that of your ancestors with a vile Hag. Through some miracle, the transformation that should've turned you or an ancestor into the horrible creature never took place. Though the female child escaped their cruel fate, the Hag's blood will forever taint their bloodline.
Horrid Visage
When you gain this origin at 1st level, the magical activation of your blood has left you mildly disfigured. You take on some physical traits of the Hag, most notably their withered frame and warty skin. This transformation has made you an opposing sight to behold. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill and can double your proficiency bonus when you're not disguised in any way, or against creatures that can see through your Illusory Apperance (see below).
Illusory Appearance
The magic in your blood has allowed you to cloak yourself in illusion to hide your disfigured form. Starting at 1st level, you can cast Disguise Self with an increased duration of 8 hours. You can use this feature a number of times per long rest equal to 1/2 your Sorcerer level (rounded up) + your Charisma modifier.
Blood Magic
Starting at 6th level, as a bonus action, you can ingest a small amount of blood from a living creature to establish a magical link between you and the creature. If you don't have any of its blood already, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack against the creature and on a successful hit draw some its blood. The magical link remains so long as you maintain concentration (as if you were casting a concentration spell) on it. Your spell attack rolls against the creature have advantage and the creature suffers disadvantage on saving throws against your spells as long as the link is maintained. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Nightmare Presence
At 14th level, your appearance temporarily shifts to that of the grotesque Night Hag when you use your Sorcerous powers. Whenever you spend sorcery points to use your Metamagic, this change takes effect. Any creature that sees the transformation and is within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be caught in the grip of a horrible nightmare. A creature can use their reaction to avert their gaze when they see you casting a spell. Creatures that fail their saving throw are incapacitated for 1 minute, and can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns. A creature that succeeds on a saving throw is immune to your Nightmare Presence for 24 hours.
Death Glare
By 18th level your tainted blood has awoken one of the Hag's most deadly abilities, the Death Glare. As an action, you can spend 5 sorcery points to target a creature that you can see, is incapacitated by your Nightmare Presence, and is within 30 feet of you. The target's nightmare intensifies and it must succeed on Wisdom saving throw or be reduced to 0 hit points as its mind is consumed by the horrifying dream. Any creature immune to psychic damage is immune to this ability. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you complete a long rest.
Can't imagine anything more horrible than a hag's taint.
I still think collective casting deserves consideration. Using your reaction to apply Metamagic to an ally's spell would be interesting.
Or you can use an action to start some spell/ability, allies can move to you and take an action to assist, and the damage/effects depend on the amount of assistance.
Or when you cast a spell, adjacent allies can use their reactions to pump it up and get a little bonus for themselves (extra elemental damage on attacks, temp HP, advantage on next attack, etc).
Or you can choose one ally and whenever you have to make a concentration save, they make one too, and the spell is only lost if you both fail.
Or having allies within a certain range increases your spell save DC.
I like it, its flavourful and competent.
Regarding the illusoury appearance - Im thinking you might as well just have it be an at will power, at first level most would be able to have around 32 hours of disguise self each day anyway.
Is the blood magic good for only one spell? or it is good for several spells, but only one creature? what happens with with creatures with no physical forms like ghosts?
It would be cool if the hag could create the hag eye item- add it on as a ribbon effect, with the same drawbacks.
Regarding the collective casting- what if the hag tainted could let her party members use some of her own spellslots?
Cost 1 meta magic point- you grant one of your allies the ability to cast cast one of your spells, using your own spellslot and your own save DC/attack modifiers.
The kicker would ofcourse be that suddenly the restrained out of melee reacj barbarian could cast lightningbolt and hit more enemies from his position than you could yourself.
Alternatively allies would be able to cast on of the spells from the hags coven spelllist, even though you dont know them yourself, you would still have to use one of your own spellslots and grant them permission first.
It would be like the expanded spell lists of the favoured soul or the storm sorcerer, but with a twist 
Macv12 wrote:
I've posted and updated it in the Player's forum. Including a name change. I'll update it here, too.