Hagmalgams for Valentine’s Day
You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!
Do you like the valentine of the hagicorn above? What about the hagbear below?
Or the hag-rin?
If you like these Valentines, you can get more at printable quality from Kayla Cline’s Patreon!
What the Heck are Hagmalgams?
Hagmalgams is the title of a product I wrote and Kayla Cline illustrated that is now available on DMs Guild.
The product was inspired by this tweet from Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer for D&D.
Jeremy Crawford isn’t wrong. When he first shared this thought on Twitter, my mind raced with ideas. Hags riding unicorns was such a fun, out-there idea. Could it go further? What if a hag was a unicorn? What would this horned witchy centaur look like? How did this hagicorn come to be? How would the monster act? Where would it live? Is such a creature good or evil?
As these questions bounced in my brain, I was working on another project called Abyssal Incursion with Kayla Cline, who just happens to be the single greatest hag artist ever. When our project wrapped, I pitched this idea: Would she like to work on a series of hagmalgams, creatures that were half-hag, half-celestial. The hagicorn was the first idea we kicked around, but that quickly grew into the hag-rin, hagasus, hagyphant, hagbear, and, Kayla’s personal favorite, the hagtopus. Kayla’s art floored me. I was expecting a lot. She overdelivered. Her unique style and interpretation of the hagmalgams will inspire Dungeon Masters and players everywhere.
While the idea of hagmalgams started out as silly fun, these creatures took a turn for the serious and sympathetic in large part due to Kayla’s art. The hagmalgams had character, pain, and a story to tell written in their faces. Inspired by Kayla’s images, I crafted story and mechanics to make what I believe are sympathetic creatures. Two souls that abhor one another twisted together in a gross paradox.
Did it work? Playtesters were amused, terrified, and pitying the creatures all at once. That’s exactly what a designer wants to happen. I hope these creatures inspire great stories at your table.
Here’s a link to the product!
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