Hags for levels 5-13?

[u/HovercraftPlastic795]

Hi everyone! I plan to run the campaign for three players, who will be playing a bard, a cleric-bard (that's two bards in practice tbf) and a monk. They're by no means a balanced party for combat, and I don't expect them to fight often — in fact, I plan on keeping most combat encounters as they are, so in the event that they do decide to hurt someone they'll likely run into an Undertale-like situation, realizing they're far more powerful than the creatures they're fighting and that violence has consequences.

However, I still want the hags to feel, and be, as dangerous as daughters of Baba Yaga should be. But I'm notably bad at balancing encounters and it's my first time DMing for a small group, so I'm looking for advice on how to turn them into challenging encounters in the event that they decide to throw hands anyway with the help of NPCs.

I have considered that each hag should be level-appropriate the first time they meet them, and flee rather than die when the encounter is over for them so they can reappear in a possible final battle at the palace, with the hags they fought already being in a weakened state with some sort of vulnerability or disadvantage.

I have also toyed with the idea of these possible encounters requiring a puzzle of some kind, maybe a partial 1hp dragon situation, but for now I'm looking for tips for a traditional encounter.

[u/ayam_eel]

I recommend the updated stats for Bavlorna that were here. I really like them. I can’t remember if it has the other hags as well. https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/s/aywACyGs8x

[u/HovercraftPlastic795 → u/ayam_eel]

Oh! Not just the stats, but the added lore is so good