Post/Author/DateTime	Post
high_king_gilgalad 02-21-06, 04:32 PM	Hello everybody, To begin with this is the first class I've attempted to design, and I know it will probably be a bit pants, but that's why I'm putting it on here. I want to make a witch character with a very Terry Pratchett feel about it, and didn't think that any of the core classes could do them justice; so there fore I designed one that would. I am not a power-gamer and do not want an over powered character, so could veterans please give me some suggestions to finish the class off... here goes. The Witch Role: The variety of spells the witch can choose from is arguably her greatest strength. She can cast a selection of divine and arcane spells several times a day; augmented with her skill at borrowing. Her weakness lies in her lack of actual damaging power, she has neither the physical aptitude of the cleric or druid nor the artillery spells of the sorcerer or wizard. She has almost no spells that inflict actual damage to her opponents. Magical weapons are the stuff of wizards, says a witch; wizards make fire, witches clean up the mess. She makes up for this by her wide selection of skills and greater scope than that of her sorcerer counterpart, and more class abilities to boot. Abilities: Wisdom determines how powerful a spell a witch can cast, how many spells she can cast per day, and how hard those spells are to resist (see Spells, below). Many of the witches spells involve the manipulation of others, so a high Charisma score would also be useful. Like other armour-less spell casters, the witch also benefits from high Constitution and Dexterity scores. Alignment: Any non-lawful. Hit Die: d6 Class Skills: The witch’s class skills are: Autohypnosis, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (psionics), Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft and Survival. Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int Modifier) x 4 Skill Points at Each Additional Level: (6 + Int Modifier) Spells Known: See Sorcerer. Class Features: All the following are class features for the witch. BAB and Saves: Good Reflex and Will, poor Fortitude and BAB. Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Witches are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow and quarterstaff. They are not proficient with any type of armour or shield. Armour of any kind interferes with a witch’s movements, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail. Spells: Witches cast spells drawn from the witch spell list (see below). These spells combine some of the powers of the arcane spell casters (such as bards, wizards, sorcerers and wu jen) with those of the druid, reflecting a witch’s ties to both the earth and the mind. She casts her spells in the same way that a sorcerer or bard does (without prior preparation) but uses her Wisdom rather than Charisma to determine the power of her spells, how many spells she can cast per day, and how hard those spells are to resist. The amount of spells a witch knows at a given level is identical to that of the sorcerer, as is her ability to swap spells at certain points of advancement in the class. A witch counts as being an arcane spell caster, even though she casts a selection of divine spells. Witch Spells per Day Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1st 3 0 2nd 4 1 3rd 4 3 0 4th 4 3 1 5th 4 3 2 0 6th 4 3 3 1 7th 4 4 3 2 0 8th 4 4 3 3 1 9th 4 4 4 3 2 0 10th 4 4 4 3 2 1 11th 4 4 4 4 3 2 0 12th 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 13th 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 0 14th 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 15th 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 0 16th 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 17th 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 0 18th 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 19th 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 2 20th 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 Familiar: A witch can obtain a familiar in the same way a sorcerer or wizard can, but does not gain the ability to ‘scry on familiar’ (see ‘Borrow Familiar’ below). Magic Item Affinity (Ex): Due to the narrow and heavily traditional education that witches receive, they have special connections with certain magical items. If a witch creates a ‘Broom of Flying’, a ‘Crystal Ball’ (the basic variant) or any ‘Elixir’, she counts as knowing any prerequisite spells even if she does not. The witch must still meet all other prerequisites for creating the item, including having taken the ‘Craft Wondrous Item’ feat. They also gain a +5 competence bonus to any attempts to disguise a magic item as something else. Wild Empathy (Ex): The witch gains this ability at 1st level as a druid does. Herbology (Ex): Upon reaching 2nd level, a witch gains a +2 bonus to all Craft (e.g. poison-making), Survival and Knowledge (nature) checks regarding locating and/or using plants. Borrowing (Su): An offshoot of a witch’s mixture of naturalistic and psychological powers, borrowing is a magical skill that allows a witch to ‘ride’ the mind of an animal, hearing its thoughts, using its senses and affecting its actions. Once per day, upon reaching 4th level, a witch may attempt to enter the mind of any non-magical animal within 100ft. This counts as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. The subject takes a Will Save to resist the witch’s intrusion, and if it succeeds the attempt fails and the witch is dazed for 1 round. If the subject fails the save, the witch transfers her consciousness into the mind of the animal without the animal’s knowledge, ‘riding’ it. The witch’s own body falls unconscious and all easily read life signs (such as breathing) cease, making it possible for other characters to perceive the witch as dead. Once a witch is borrowing an animal, she gains access to all of its senses, special abilities, and its surface thoughts and memories for the past 24 hours. She must however, make a Knowledge (psionics) check (DC15) to make sense of the animal memories if she wishes to gain any useful information from them. The witch can also make a Handle Animal check (DC20) to ‘suggest’ to the animal that it might be inclined to do certain things, effectively gaining control of its movements and other actions from the time she passes the check onwards. It the witch fails this check by 5 or more however, the animal gets another Will Save with a +10 modifier to expel the intruder and the witch cannot retry the check. A witch can choose to end the borrow at any time, but if the animal is not within 100ft of the witch’s body when her mind leaves the mind of the animal, or the animal dies outside of this area, the witch dies with no save allowed. A witch’s borrow can last up to one hour per caster level, but every hour after ½ this amount the witch herself must make a Will Save (DC20) or suffer 2 points Wis damage. This reflects the disorienting effect of sharing an unfamiliar body with another mind. A witch can attempt a borrow twice per day at 9th level, thrice at 13th and four times per day at 17th. Headology (Ex): At 5th level, witches get a +2 bonus to Autohypnosis and Sense motive checks. Borrow Familiar (Su): At 6th level, a witch can ‘ride’ her familiar without it attempting to either resist or expel her. She can also transfer herself from a borrowed animal to her familiar (but not vice-versa) at will providing that the two are within 100ft of each other, without using a second borrow attempt, as long as she has time remaining on her current borrow of at least 1 hour. Glare (Ex): At 7th level, a witch becomes able to strike fear into her foes with her mere presence. She gains a +4 bonus on intimidate checks and can demoralize an opponent within 30ft that she has a line of sight to. Enhanced Borrowing (Su): From 10th level onwards, a witch can use her borrowing powers on magical beasts and non-magical swarms (such as bees or locusts; borrowing the collective ‘hive-mind’ of the swarm itself) as well as animals. Also, a witch can take a Concentration check (DC20) every round from the first onwards to maintain partial control of her own body. If she passes the check, the witch can perform up to one move action per round with her own body, as well as continuing to affect her subject. If the witch fails the check she cannot take it again during that borrow. The range that a witch’s mind can return to her body in increases to 200ft during any round in which she has passed her Concentration check. Mass Glare (Ex): At 11th level, a witch has sufficient presence that she can cow multiple foes. Using an Intimidate check, a witch can demoralize all opponents within 30ft with a single standard action. Improved Glare (Ex): At 15th level, even a glance from the hard eyes of a witch is enough to give her foes pause. The witch can demoralize opponents within 30ft as a move action, not a standard action. Witch Spell List: O Level (Cantrips): Arcane mark, cure minor wounds, daze, detect magic, detect poison, inflict minor wounds, ghost sound, open/close, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue, virtue. 1st Level: Aura against flame, camouflage, cause fear, charm animals, charm person, command, comprehend languages, cure light wounds, delay disease, disguise self, dispel ward, distort speech, distract, doom, ebon eyes, endure elements, familiar pocket, hawkeye, healthful rest, hide from animals, hypnotism, identify, inflict light wounds, inhabit, insight, low-light vision, luminous gaze, moon lust, nightshield, phantom threat, shock & awe, silent image, sleep, speak with animals, updrafts, ventriloquism. 2nd Level: Alter self, animal messenger, augment familiar, binding winds, blindness/deafness, calm emotions, chain of eyes, circle dance, close wounds, countermoon, cure moderate wounds, curse of ill fortune, daze monster, delay poison, delusions of grandeur, detect thoughts, ectoplasmic armour, enthral, entice gift, invisibility, knock, know vulnerabilities, mage armour, mesmerising glare, minor image, mirror image, miser’s envy, one with the land, phantom foe, protection from negative energy, protection from positive energy, reflective disguise, resist energy, scare, see invisibility, shroud of undeath, spell immunity – lesser, whispering wind 3rd Level: Bestow curse, clairvoyance/clairaudience, confusion, contagion, deep slumber, dispel magic, downdraft, enhance familiar, fortify familiar, hold person, know opponent, magic circle, major image, mind poison, protection form energy, quench, rage, remove blindness/deafness, suggestion, spell vulnerability, tremor sense, unluck, weather eye, wind wall 4th Level: Assay spell resistance, charm monster, crushing despair, discern lies, dispelling screen, divination, fear, giant vermin, good hope, mage armour – greater, neutralise poison, polymorph, remove curse, ruin delver’s form, scrying, spell immunity 5th Level: Baleful polymorph, control winds, curse of ill fortune – mass, draconic polymorph, dream, duelward, false life, feeblemind, fireward, greater command, hold monster, magic jar, mirage arcana, nightmare, panacea, permanency, seeming, sending, shadowfade, spell resistance 6th Level: Animate objects, antimagic field, bestow greater curse, dreamcasting, eyebite, geas/quest, greater scrying, greater dispel magic, guards and wards, imbue familiar with spell-like ability, imperious glare, legend lore, mass suggestion, opalescent glare, phantasmal disorientation, probe thoughts, repulsion, resistance – superior, shadow image, Tenser’s transformation, true seeing 7th Level: Antimagic ray, control weather, creeping doom, dispelling screen – greater, energy immunity, evil glare, finger of death, hiss of sleep, insanity, prismatic eye, sequester, shifting paths, spell turning, symphonic nightmare, transfix 8th Level: Antipathy, demand, horrid wilting, maddening whispers, mind blank, moment of prescience, polymorph any object, protection from spells, spell resistance – greater, sympathy, temporal stasis, trap the soul, whirlwind 9th Level: Earthquake, forethought, greater reaving dispel, hindsight, shape change, storm rage, time stop, wail of the banshee, whirlwind
SilvercatMoonpaw 02-21-06, 07:55 PM	:shocked: Wow. I wanted to be the one to do this. I can't comment on mechanics, but you've got the flavor right down. I'll let you off with having damaging spells, even though I think that Granny and the others don't do that stuff too often. Just one thing: Headology (Ex): At 5th level, witches get a +2 bonus to Autohypnosis and Sense motive checks. I think you missed the possibility that this would work much better if Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Gather Information were somehow part of this. I mean, isn't headology also about thinking around people so that they trick themselves into doing what you want?
high_king_gilgalad 02-22-06, 11:04 AM	Yes possibly (in terms of Bluff/Diplomacy bonus) but again I didn't want to overpower the class by giving too many skill bonusses. Note also that Intimidate gets a boost later on as well. The damage spells given are generally so minor (only the first two inflict spells) that they are really for flavour if anything... and of course you can choose not to pick them as your known spells. I've tried to be diverse. As for the whole concept of borrowing... I realise that it takes a lot of explanation for a seldom used ability but I thought it would be a cool role-play skill rather than a hugely powerful ability. I may be wrong however.
legowarrior 02-22-06, 01:07 PM	Now that sounds great.
high_king_gilgalad 02-22-06, 03:51 PM	Witch - Background Wizards like to live in the same huge building, eat big dinners together, and occupy positions in an intricate hierarchy. Almost entirely opposite, witches don't have ranks, and don't gather except for a potluck during a necessary meeting to discuss boundaries. These are boundaries not of power but of duty, for a witch is generally the midwife, doctor, life advisor, and moral police of a village. These duties are more properly fulfilled using headology, herbal medicine, chiropracty and other physical therapy techniques, and simple talking (or, in some cases, bossing). Witches rarely do magic of the type that people usually think of when they hear that word: the fireball, transmutation, personal-gravity-upset sort of specific spells that wizards can do through their staffs. Most witches can read and write, but place no particular value on books. The vast majority of witches are women, due to the craft being passed from woman to woman with few other oppurtunities to learn. Some male witches do exist however, but they rarely receive the same cultural status as their more traditional female counterparts do. Most witches wear long black dresses and a black pointy hat. The younger witches tend to wear shiny black while the more traditional witches tend to wear drabby black, described by some as looking like a bedraggled crow. Traditional witches, being village witches, like to use ordinary household items for magic purposes for two reasons: they do not have the money to buy magical accessories nor anyone to buy them from, and once upon a time rulers and ignorant villagers attacked witches and it was not a good idea to advertise. So, a saucer of water with ink can be used to see the world, bits of things can be used to detect magic, and a bread knife is much better than a knife with mystical runes. Some of the younger witches tend to wear a lot of unmagical occult jewelry and buy a large collection of knives with mystical runes. There is no concept of white/black magic for witches as there are for other practitioners of ‘the art’. There is simply magic, in whatever form, which may be used in whatever way the user decides. Suggesting to a witch that there is any type of magic which is intrinsically good or bad would make as much sense to them as suggesting that there is good and bad gravity. Adventures: A typical witch may adventure as part of her training from another witch. Witches pride themselves (sometimes wrongly) for being the most knowledgeable and well travelled of the inhabitants of their villages, and if they live near a wizard they make it a point of principle to experience more than they do. Witches may also travel simply because they are bored, want to find new challenges or possibly more ways to spread discord and strife. Alignment: Witches act as solitary members of a community or as complete loners. The only laws they follow are those that they have devised themselves. They often share the neutral tendencies of the druids with whom they have so much in common with, but tend heavily towards chaos. In any case they cannot be lawful. Contrary to the stereotype, most witches are not inherently evil; in fact many strive to better the lives of those who rely on them so. The craft can however seem obscure and dangerous to those who do not understand it, and it can be used for selfish and destructive means, but this is in no way mandatory. Religion: Urban artists and writers (especially prejudiced wizards) have always had a rather exaggerated idea about the religious preferences of witches. This comes, in the witches’ opinion, from spending too much time in small rooms with the curtains drawn, instead of getting out in the healthy fresh air. For example, there’s the dancing around naked. In the average temperate climate there are very few nights when anyone would dance around at midnight with no clothes on, quite apart from the question of stones, thistles, and sudden hedgehogs. Then there’s all that business with goat-headed gods. Most witches don’t even believe in gods. They know that the gods exist of course. They even deal with them occasionally. But they don’t believe in them. They know them too well. It would be like believing in the postman. Those few who do take to the holy side of their calling may dedicate themselves to deities such as Wee Jas, but few do, and many believe the gods are pleased to be free of the extra hassle and nagging. Races: The majority of witches are humans, due to their social networks being broad enough to allow such cultural oddities as witches. Half-elves often find that the life of the witch suits their outsider nature particularly well, and many of the most powerful witches have been half elves. Half elves are able to draw on their magical blood without the cultural stigma that the pure elves associate with witches. The sporadic nature of the halflings also lends itself well to the witch’s craft, and most halfling nomad clans tend to boast at least one witch. Gnomes and goliaths may have the occasional witch, but the rarity of teachers is the biggest thing that would hold members of such races back. The rigid social structures of dwarves, illumians and raptorians make witches of their races rare at best, and the elves preference of wizard magic leads also to few light-elf witches, although they can be found among the drow. Other Classes: Witches find that they get on best with members of other self-taught, non-lawful classes such as the bard, druid, rogue, ranger or spell thief. They generally find themselves at odds with disciplined classes such as monks, paladins, samurai and war mages. They tend to view clerics as people with no free will that spend too much time thinking about life after death and not enough time thinking about life before it. For witches, divine favour pales in comparison to a witches favour. Even religious witches give little heed to clerics, because the gods obviously can’t be bothered with those who demand divine help rather than helping themselves. Witches treat sorcerers with a wide birth, not understanding where that type of power comes from, and generally not wanting to know either. The stark contrasts between witches and wizards has led to an unspoken disapproval of each other’s view on magic; wizard magic comes from the sky, witch magic from the ground. Wizards attempt to use magic to change the world; witches leave the world alone and change the people… at least in theory. Most witches disapprove of the pacts made by warlocks that give them their power, and too often get associated with witch magic, and the very idea of a witch and a wu jen being in the presence of one another is laughable at best. Surprisingly (or possibly not) witches tend to get on well with members of the psionic classes. While they do not actively use psionic power themselves, witches spend more time focussing on what they call ‘headolgy’ than any of the other magical classes, and generally respect their self-awareness, even at times to the point of envy.