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.

Narration_load_weald_01.ogg Narration_load_weald_02.ogg Narration_load_weald_03.ogg"

- 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 into the front spot of your group. 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 or all party members are at death's door, she will only use Meat Tenderizer.

Strategy
The Hag will sit in Rank 3+4 for the entirety of the fight, making attacks that can hit her very important. She has high Stun resist, has above average resist against Blight and about average Bleed and debuff resist. She has about average Dodge but very low HP and no Prot.

Main Threat of Hag
The only way Hag will set up a kill on someone is by killing them after the hero exits the Pot. She herself has some of the lowest damage of any Boss in the game, meaning Hag's attacks won't be a big threat if the fight doesn't go on for too long. Similarly, the Pot deals %-based damage to heroes, so heroes will always have 12 actions until they automatically exit the Pot on Deaths Door. This is a little more than 2 turns because of Hag's two actions plus the three actions of the remaining heroes. The Pot has about 1/4 of the Hag's health, so putting too much damage into the Pot will likely mean Hag could be in a much worse shape if the Pot was just ignored.

How to ignore the Pot
Putting damage into the Pot is usually a horrible idea, since attacking Hag with those attacks will usually end the fight before the Hero exits the Pot. That's why it's important to have a party that deals huge amounts of burst damage against Rank 3 or 4. The Party also needs to be relatively safe against both someone exiting the Pot and losing one of its members. If someone exits the Pot, they will always be at the very front of the party and lose their action for the turn. Having more than one Healer is crucial for this scenario, since if your only healer gets thrown into the Pot, they will be very vulnerable without a way off of Deaths Door after exiting the Pot, exposing them to multiple possible deathblows from the Hag. Heroes that have to be in one specific position also get worse from this. For example, if Abomination is in Rank 2 and someone exits the Pot, Abomination will be moved back into Rank 3, disabling Rage and needing to use Slam to get back into position, so if someone exits the Pot he will be dealing no damage against Hag until he can get back into Rank 1 or 2. Since the Hag throws one of your heroes into the Pot, the rest of the party has to be able to still work and either be able to free that Hero from the Pot or deal enough damage to kill Hag quickly. For example, having only one Mark available on a Mark team makes that team very vulnerable to the one person with the Mark getting thrown into the Pot, making the team lose a huge chunk of its damage.

Burst strategies
1. Marking: Using Marks can prove useful against the Hag; even though it requires some set up, it enables very high damage against a single target. Although a Bounty Hunter cannot attack the Hag with Collect Bounty, he can still be a great support, applying Marks and increasing the damage output by using Caltrops. Both the Houndmaster and Arbalest can utilize the Marks to deal massive damage to the Hag.

2. Focusing her down: Heroes like the Hellion and Abomination can be used in a party to ignore the cauldron and simply focus down the Hag with Iron Swan and Rage respectively.

3. Dancing party: The Graverobber's Lunge deals significant damage to Rank 3. Trying to set up a team around her usually includes other heroes that can enable her to use Lunge multiple times in a fight to deal massive damage to the Hag. Do keep in mind that the creatures in the Weald bear a high resistance to blight, which might hinder the Graverobber's efficacy.

Other strategies
Aegis Scales will not prevent being thrown into the pot, but will block the first hit a hero at death's door would get when thrown out of the pot, giving you a bit more time to heal them. Since Into The Pot! is the first skill the Hag will use, it would be best to activate the Scales on all four heroes before entering the boss's room, as being put in the pot will not remove the buff.

Damage over time effects, namely bleed and blight, are able to get their full value quickly because of the Hag's two actions per turn, but keep in mind that the Hag has high blight resistance.

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

Good choices

 * Abomination - The highest base damage against Rank 3 with Rage. Very unlikely to be moved out of position if he starts the battle in Position 1.
 * Arbalest/Musketeer - With Marking support from other party members, she can deal very high damage to the Hag. However, because she can only do so from the back ranks, she struggles to recover from being placed in the pot, as she will exit the pot in Position 1.
 * Bounty Hunter - He can Mark the Hag for other party members, deal direct damage with Finish Him, or inflict Bleed and increase the damage she receives with Caltrops.
 * Grave Robber - If you can enable her with the right party, she will deal massive damage against Hag.
 * Hellion - If it Bleeds is actually more effective against the Hag than Iron Swan. Since the Hag will take full damage from the DoT, If it Bleeds deals more damage on average, and unlike Iron Swan, If It Bleeds can be used from any of the positions the Hellion may occupy while someone else is in the pot.
 * Highwayman - Both Duelist's Advance and Pistol Shot can deal good damage against the Hag. His Riposte triggers frequently, since only 3 heroes can be targeted and the Hag often attacks the entire party with Meat Tenderizer. Pistol Shot also deals a bit of extra damage against Marked Targets, which is a nice small bonus for Mark teams. He has to start in Rank 4 though, since the Hag will throw someone into the Pot and he will move forward, for a total of 2 spaces forward. To still be able to Pistol Shot after that, he has to start in Rank 4. If the Highwayman does end up in Rank 1, he can use Point Blank Shot to reposition himself and free an ally from the pot at the same time.
 * Houndmaster - Can deal huge damage against the Hag with Hound's Rush, especially after using a Dog Treat, and provide support with his Mark. His Guard isn't great for saving Heroes that exited the Pot since the Hag can bypass his Guard with Meat Tenderizer, but it's better than letting that Hero sit on Death's Door without any defenses. Because he is relatively fast, his Guard can also be used before someone gets thrown into the Pot to prevent a specific hero from being taken, and since his Guard raises his Dodge, it improves his chances of dodging the attack altogether, significantly increasing the amount of time it takes for the Hag to put someone on Death's Door.
 * Jester - Slice Off can deal good damage to the Hag, and Finale can be used on Turn 3 to deal the final burst of damage. Battle Ballad can also be used to increase the party's offensive power, but only if the Jester manages to stay in the back ranks.
 * Occultist - Unlike most other healers, he can heal from any position for a good chunk, although the chance of healing for 0 (and possibly even a Bleed!) still makes him a bit unreliable. He can deal decent damage with Sacrificial Stab, but most of the time, his turn is better spent Marking the Hag so that other heroes can attack her instead of using up their own turns Marking her. Dark Strength, a Camping skill, can also be used to greatly increase another hero's damage.
 * Shieldbreaker - Her abundance of movement skills allows her to easily fix the positions of other heroes, and she deals decent damage to the Hag.

Need a suboptimal plan/Slightly outclassed

 * Crusader - Holy Lance is not a great move to hit Hag with. Since it requires that the Crusader be in the backline, setting it up can be a bit hard, and it provides little upside over simply bringing someone else. He has the most consistent heal, but his slow speed hinders his ability to use it at the right time.
 * Flagellant - His damage over time attacks can start ramping up quickly, but other chars will usually deal more damage. He can't really use his >40% HP moves, since the Hag does little damage to single targets. They are useful after he exits the Pot, though, allowing him to heal himself and another character for a big chunk of their HP. Reclaim is largely ineffective for saving heroes from Death's Door because the healing happens when the character takes their next action, and in the case of someone who just exited the Pot, that will not happen until the next round of combat.
 * Man-at-Arms - Like the Highwayman, he can use Riposte to get frequent counterattacks against the Hag, but his damage output is still not very high. He can also Guard a key party member to save them from the Pot, but his lower Speed and Dodge make him worse for this purpose than the Houndmaster. However, his Command can be used to buff the party's offensive capabilities from any position, unlike the Jester's Battle Ballad.
 * Plague Doctor - Due to the Hag's high Blight resistance, the Plague Doctor struggles to consistently damage the Hag. She can still provide a heal to get someone off of Death's Door, Emboldening Vapors to buff someone else's offense, and Stuns to limit the Hag's actions.
 * Vestal - Very low offensive power, and if she gets put in the pot, she will be left unable to use her healing skills after being dumped out in Position 1. However, she is the best at outhealing the Hag's damage and getting someone back to high HP after they exit the Pot.

Outclassed/Don't do anything

 * Antiquarian - Very low offensive power. Her Dodge buffs take too long to ramp up to reliably dodge "Into the Pot!" and do not affect anyone in the Pot.
 * Leper - The only move he has that can reach the Hag is Intimidate, which barely does any damage and does nothing to reduce the damage caused by the Pot. Furthermore, he can only use Intimidate in Position 1, which he will be pushed out of as soon as someone else exits the Pot.

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