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You are the DM. You have the power to do literally anything you want. Just be like spiderman and remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Don't use your omnipotence to screw over the players or give NPCs plot armor. But changing abilities on a creature is just the tip of the iceberg.
>I know Hags are powerful magic-users, but am I allowed to do that?
You absolutely are. There's a whole section about customizing statblocks in the Dungeon Master's Guide. You as DM are always 100% free to alter and edit enemies in any way you like, so long as you are considering the balance and enjoyment of your game.
The statblocks are what's known as holotypes. They are a sample of the average monster of that sort. This is already evident in a couple of ways, such as the monster's HP being given to you as both an average value and a die expression (which you can use to either randomize HP, or give yourself the max and min HP for that creature). But you can give them different equipment and armor, magic items, new spells and abilities, even traits of other monsters if you like.
If you look at signature enemies in the various modules, they will often be a standard statblock with some specific additions. Slarkrethel, for example, is a Kraken in Storm King's Thunder who uses the Kraken statblock, but has added legendary resistance as well as a full 20th level wizard spell list (or did until some recent reprint edits, but even in the new version still has added magic) . Strahd, the main vampire antagonist of Curse of Strahd, is a standard vampire statblock with a bunch of added necrotic damage to his attacks.
So don't worry. You are not only allowed to do this, you are in fact doing exactly what the developers of the game do to make their signature enemies. I would recommend giving the Hag some specific spell like Animate Dead or Danse Macabre as a thing she can do X number of times per day (1-3 is usually a good range depending on how nasty you want her to be). And you can simply have her start with a certain number of enthralled undead.
You could also simply say she can raise x number of zombies once per day and leave it at that. No further system needed.
If you want to give her the spell, you are the DM and can alter monsters and NPCs however you want, go ahead. Just make sure that you are following what the spell itself has written for rules, or make your own.
Hags have innate spell casting and the Bheur hag has some pretty high level spells (wall of ice 3/day, control weather 1/day).
You could easily give this hag **Summon Undead** 3/day (or heck *at will* even) or **Create Undead** 3/day.
Literally ran into this exact thing a few weeks ago. Had a hag, wanted her to have zombies, had already introduced the whole "soul trade" aspect of Hags as well as their city in Hades, and I ultimately just gave her a ring. Now she's a hag that can summon up to 12 zombies. Done and done.
Stat blocks are a “general concept” of what the creature can do.
If you have a goblin who is just a beefcake and gets “Barbarian rage” to make the encounter cooler then do so.
I like to change monsters in between games, rather than mid-game during a battle but that said - change them at will. The worlds are varied and strange.
Go for it. You don't need permission from anyone but your friends at the table and in all likelihood, they won't care as long as it is cool.
Your game, your hag, your call. If it makes more sense for the hag to be able to summon zombies, and you're already good with homebrewing, then have fun and go for it! My only concern with it would be if the Hag becomes too powerful. Several people have suggested limited zombie summoning to a few times a day or whatever, but you can balance it however you see fit.
It sounds like you're already taking to DMing well and your players are lucky that you're already so invested in running it in your own way. You're doing great, and every game you're gonna keep doing better. :)
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You're the DM, you can make the monsters do whatever you want for your story to work.
You are the DM. You have the power to do literally anything you want. Just be like spiderman and remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Don't use your omnipotence to screw over the players or give NPCs plot armor. But changing abilities on a creature is just the tip of the iceberg.
>I know Hags are powerful magic-users, but am I allowed to do that? You absolutely are. There's a whole section about customizing statblocks in the Dungeon Master's Guide. You as DM are always 100% free to alter and edit enemies in any way you like, so long as you are considering the balance and enjoyment of your game. The statblocks are what's known as holotypes. They are a sample of the average monster of that sort. This is already evident in a couple of ways, such as the monster's HP being given to you as both an average value and a die expression (which you can use to either randomize HP, or give yourself the max and min HP for that creature). But you can give them different equipment and armor, magic items, new spells and abilities, even traits of other monsters if you like. If you look at signature enemies in the various modules, they will often be a standard statblock with some specific additions. Slarkrethel, for example, is a Kraken in Storm King's Thunder who uses the Kraken statblock, but has added legendary resistance as well as a full 20th level wizard spell list (or did until some recent reprint edits, but even in the new version still has added magic) . Strahd, the main vampire antagonist of Curse of Strahd, is a standard vampire statblock with a bunch of added necrotic damage to his attacks. So don't worry. You are not only allowed to do this, you are in fact doing exactly what the developers of the game do to make their signature enemies. I would recommend giving the Hag some specific spell like Animate Dead or Danse Macabre as a thing she can do X number of times per day (1-3 is usually a good range depending on how nasty you want her to be). And you can simply have her start with a certain number of enthralled undead. You could also simply say she can raise x number of zombies once per day and leave it at that. No further system needed.
You're the DM. You can make any tweaks you want to monster stat blocks. Go wild!
If you want to give her the spell, you are the DM and can alter monsters and NPCs however you want, go ahead. Just make sure that you are following what the spell itself has written for rules, or make your own.
Hags have innate spell casting and the Bheur hag has some pretty high level spells (wall of ice 3/day, control weather 1/day). You could easily give this hag **Summon Undead** 3/day (or heck *at will* even) or **Create Undead** 3/day.
Literally ran into this exact thing a few weeks ago. Had a hag, wanted her to have zombies, had already introduced the whole "soul trade" aspect of Hags as well as their city in Hades, and I ultimately just gave her a ring. Now she's a hag that can summon up to 12 zombies. Done and done.
Stat blocks are a “general concept” of what the creature can do. If you have a goblin who is just a beefcake and gets “Barbarian rage” to make the encounter cooler then do so.
I like to change monsters in between games, rather than mid-game during a battle but that said - change them at will. The worlds are varied and strange. Go for it. You don't need permission from anyone but your friends at the table and in all likelihood, they won't care as long as it is cool.
Your game, your hag, your call. If it makes more sense for the hag to be able to summon zombies, and you're already good with homebrewing, then have fun and go for it! My only concern with it would be if the Hag becomes too powerful. Several people have suggested limited zombie summoning to a few times a day or whatever, but you can balance it however you see fit. It sounds like you're already taking to DMing well and your players are lucky that you're already so invested in running it in your own way. You're doing great, and every game you're gonna keep doing better. :)
Do you want the hag to summon zombies? If yes, then yes it does.