Monster Lab: Frost Witch Queen for D&D 5e
This week on the Campaign Trail I wanted to share some monster stats for a Frost Witch Queen, that my players just battled against and won. If you’re looking for a powerful final boss witch or fey with lots of ice and snow powers, this might work for your game.
My current 5th edition D&D campaign is set in 4th edition’s default setting, the Nentir Vale. I like how this frontier realm provides civilized points of light against the dangerous wilderness. For me, it’s a Goldilocks setting with just enough detail to provide an interesting locale without getting buried under a massive pile of lore. One of the factions of the Vale that I have thrown at my players are the Frost Witches.
About the Nentir Vale’s Frost Witches
The evil Frost Witches of the Winterbole Forest wield powerful winter magic. While the witches are relatively few in number, they use cold-based magic to frighten, fight, and manipulate anyone they come in contact with. They are ruled by the powerful elf witch Clenderi, but all Frost Witches are servants of Cryonax, the elemental prince of cold.
Most Frost Witches are female and come from a variety of races including elves, humans, harpies, and gnomes. While a new witch is born into the group from time to time, the majority come from like-minded individuals they recruit or by kidnapping young females who have shown an aptitude for magic. The witches’ bodies radiate an unnatural iciness, their skin glistens like a light morning frost, their breath can be seen as if on a cold day, and their touch is frigid.
The residents of Nenlast and others who reside near the Winterbole Forest live in fear of the Frost Witches and the horrifying thought of their children being snatched away in the middle of the night.
About this Homebrew Monster
- This homebrew monster is inspired by the 4th edition stats for the frost witch Clenderi from Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (2011) and Bhuer Hag from Volo’s Guide to Monsters (2016)
- Like all hags, you can send it against your players alone or as part of a coven with shared spell slots for a higher Difficulty Challenge.
- Adding regional and/or lair effects powered by the cold are a must have as well such as slippery terrain and blinding blizzards.
- The witches in my campaign were freezing people to turn them into a frozen army of the undead, so Icy Tomb worked pretty well thematically and I was able to trap 2 PCs with it.
- This frost witch queen’s body radiates an unnatural iciness. If you wanted to make it a little tougher for PCs to make melee attacks, you might want to add a 5′ radius cold aura that deals like 2d6 cold damage to anyone who ends their turn in the aura.
FROST WITCH QUEEN
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| Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 130 (20d8+48) Speed 30 ft. |
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| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 13 (+1) | 18 (+4) |
| Saving Throws Wisdom +4 Skills Nature+7, Perception+7, Stealth+9, Survival+7 Damage Immunities cold Senses darkvision 60′, passive Perception 17 Languages Common, Elven, Primordial Challenge 13 (10000 XP) |
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Actions:
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Legendary Actions:The witch can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The witch regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
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This monster isn’t perfect, but it has been playtested. It was a good challenge for my group of five level 10 PCs, when she was combined with significant lair effects and two other witches to make a coven.
Let me know what you think of this monster and how you’d make it better in the comments below.
I’m hoping to get back to the random dice and improvisation series next week.
