Hag

The Wizened Hag/Hag/Hag Witch is a Human boss that appears in the Weald.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Hag
"I had collected many rare and elusive volumes on ancient herbal properties and was set to enjoy several weeks immersed in comfortable study. My work was interrupted, however, by a singularly striking young woman who insisted on repeated calls to the house.

Her knowledge of horticulturalism and its role in various arcane practices impressed me greatly. My licentious impulse gave way to a genuine professional respect, and together, we began to plant, harvest, and brew.

As time wore on, her wild policy of self-experimentation grew intolerable. She quaffed all manner of strange fungi, herbs, and concoctions, intent on gaining some insight into the horror we both knew to be growing beneath us. The change in her was appalling, and no longer able to stomach it, I sent her to live in the weald, where her wildness would be welcomed.

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- The Ancestor

Behavior
The Hag always appears taking up rank 3 and 4, while her pot takes up ranks 1 and 2; neither she nor her pot can be moved from those positions. When empty, the pot cannot be damaged unless you only have one character left.

During the first turn of the battle, she will use Into the Pot! on one of your heroes. This places them in the Cauldron, where they cannot do anything and take constant HP damage every time you or the Hag makes a move. The Hag has multiple moves per turn.

The filled Cauldron has substantially less HP and can be attacked down to 0 HP to tip it over, which releases the trapped hero. The pot immediately respawns, however, and the Hag will duly put another hero in on her next move (possibly the same one). The pot automatically tips over when the hero inside reaches death's door. The pot doesn't have a lot of HP in this stage and doesn't cause a huge amount of damage to the trapped hero per tick (but it will mount up). Therefore, it's worth maintaining DPS from all your heavy hitters on the Hag and getting her down as soon as you can whilst whittling down the pot with your smaller guns.

It is worth noting that a hero currently inside the pot will not retreat with the rest of the party, but will instead count as having died. Furthermore, if three of your heroes die and the fourth is in the pot, you lose the battle and the hero in the pot is counted as dead.

Whilst a hero is inside the pot, the Hag uses Seasoned to Perfection, Meat Tenderizer, and Taste the Stew on the rest of the party, concentrating mostly on building stress. None of them do much damage, but since the Hag gets multiple turns and Meat Tenderizer hits the whole party, they are extremely dangerous to heroes at death's door. If there's only one hero left alive, she will only use Meat Tenderizer.

Strategy
The Hag permanently sits in slots 3+4 and will not be moved, so hitting these slots is required for the fight. She also has a high resist to stuns and blights, but is quite vulnerable to bleeds. With 2 actions per round, DoTs will tick quickly. Slots 1+2 are always taken up by the pot, which doesn't need to be attacked to win the fight. It mainly just gets in the way.

You must be prepared to fight her with 3 heroes, as 1 will spend the fight in the pot. Even if they get out, she will promptly chuck someone else in. When someone is taken, whoever was behind them will move forward. Since you can't predict who will get thrown in, you must also be prepared for everyone to move up a slot. If for example your slot 1 hero is taken, then whoever is at slots 2-4, will now be 1-3.

Breaking the pot open is not ideal because she will simply throw someone else in there, wasting all the time you spend attacking it. Whenever the hero in the pot reaches 0 health, they will pop out at death's door, so be ready to heal them right away. While the Hag does little damage on her own, even 1 point of damage is enough to kill a vulnerable hero. Her strategy is to boil a hero down to 0 health, then try to finish them off herself. A heal is very important to prevent this from working.

Naturally, the best strategy is to rush her down as quickly as possible before whoever is in the pot is boiled. Depending on who is grabbed, it's quite possible to take her down before the first hero is boiled. If not, then heal them off death's door and keep right on fighting. The Hellion excels at this fight. Targeting the Hag is easy and she can bleed as well. 2 Hellions in the front can make quick work of the Hag, while also ensuring that if 1 is grabbed, you have a spare to handle the fight. For other classes, be wary of skills that may be disabled by the hero moving forward, such as with the Jester. The Man At Arms, despite not having high damage, can always hit the 3rd slot, and riposte will be activated frequently. The Shieldbreaker can easily reach the Hag, but piercing is of no use for the fight, and block will not protect from her being thrown into the pot. The worst heroes to bring would be ones which can't reach the Hag at all, such as the Leper.

When the Hag is slain, the pot will immediately release whoever is trapped and end the fight.

Preferred Heroes
These can reliably damage the rear ranks and aren't terribly hindered by shuffles when a Hero enters the pot.
 * Hellion
 * Bounty Hunter
 * Man-At-Arms
 * Occultist
 * Abomination

Reasonable Choices

 * Vestal - Keep her from being pushed up too far front, and you should be fine.
 * Arbalest/Musketeer - Good damage to the back. Can quickly recover once dumped out of the pot.
 * Jester - Great mobility can deal with shuffles, but be careful if he's specialized to operate almost exclusively from rank 3.

Discouraged Heroes

 * Leper - In no way can he hit the back.
 * Crusader - The only skill that can reliably hit the back is Holy Lance, and he struggles to use it frequently when the party's shuffled forward.
 * Plague Doctor - Her one rear attack skill can be made unusable if shuffled too far forward.

Trophy
After completing the Hag's champion quest, she will drop her ladle as a Trophy.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

* While a hero is in the cauldron it won't be able to attack and will take damage each turn.

** Used only if a hero is in the pot.

Weald

 * Fungal Scratcher
 * Fungal Artillery
 * Crone
 * Unclean Giant
 * Hateful Virago
 * Necrotic Fungus

Bosses

 * Cauldron