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Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Witches
- Thread starter das_roog
- Start date
Neonchameleon
Legend
If she's a villain, you use a monster statblock - going right the way through PC creation for a villain is 3e only. What level do you want her to be? And what does being a witch mean in the gameworld? (Which should give you an idea of the sort of powers you want).
jbear
First Post
You don't have to make your main villain with PC class creation rules.
Even your main boss monster can and should use monster creation guidelines.
Do you have access to the monster builder? That really does simplify monster creation by 100000%. An elite or a solo controller of 2-4 levels above the pcs level should do it for your base. Then just scan through some of the monsters that you think might be thematically similar using key word search, and cherry pick the powers you like the sound of and that you think make sense for the kind of witch you have in your head.
I have run an NPC built using proper class creation rules. It was very complicated to keep track of everything he could do. It was a very memorable encounter to be sure. He is to this date the most hated NPC in my players minds. But this should be the exception, and not the rule.
If you are aware of this and want to go ahead and build your villain this way anyway then I'd build a house ruled (to beef up the defenses a bit) druid/shaman hybrid because I think the shapeshifting and talking to her spirit would be visually very evocative and could make for a very memorable character. A warlock would be fine as well.
Even your main boss monster can and should use monster creation guidelines.
Do you have access to the monster builder? That really does simplify monster creation by 100000%. An elite or a solo controller of 2-4 levels above the pcs level should do it for your base. Then just scan through some of the monsters that you think might be thematically similar using key word search, and cherry pick the powers you like the sound of and that you think make sense for the kind of witch you have in your head.
I have run an NPC built using proper class creation rules. It was very complicated to keep track of everything he could do. It was a very memorable encounter to be sure. He is to this date the most hated NPC in my players minds. But this should be the exception, and not the rule.
If you are aware of this and want to go ahead and build your villain this way anyway then I'd build a house ruled (to beef up the defenses a bit) druid/shaman hybrid because I think the shapeshifting and talking to her spirit would be visually very evocative and could make for a very memorable character. A warlock would be fine as well.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
If you join EN World as a community supporter, you can download the War of the Burning Sky adventures. I mention this because the third adventure (Shelter from the Storm) has an encounter with a trio of witches, who are flavored as a druid, a cleric and a wizard. I just ran that encounter last week, and it was a lot of fun. You might use those for inspiration if you have access to them.
frankthedm
First Post
A way to start is by looking at the various hags in the monster books to get ideas of possible powers and such. Elevate a hag to Solo status might work, but making her elite status with allies is probably the better idea.
I'm a fan of the Fomorian Witch (link requires DDI account). It showed up in a Dungeon article - we've got an evil eye that cursed people as a minor action, plus a standard hex that slowly shape-changes enemies into different animals I converted it to a higher level epic solo, but you could easily plunder similar powers for a lower level enemy.
As others have said, I wouldn't stat her using standard classes. You might swipe some appropriate abilities, but otherwise treat her as a monster with unique (and hopefully memorable) abilities. What level do you plan for her to be?
As others have said, I wouldn't stat her using standard classes. You might swipe some appropriate abilities, but otherwise treat her as a monster with unique (and hopefully memorable) abilities. What level do you plan for her to be?
This is what I would suggest as well.
Think up some cool powers/abilities (ignoring numbers for damage at the moment) you want her to have. Figure out if she is going to be a heavy hitter, long-range blaster or whatever. Grab a monster of the appropriate level for the challenge you want your party to face, and then start grabbing powers. Edit them to get the flavour of powers you want, and there you go. Much, much easier than trying to make your villain from scratch with a PC class. That is, IMO, one of the strengths of 4E. Monsters do not need to follow the same rules as PCs.
moxcamel
Explorer
If you have a DDI account, the Compendium comes back with a lot of search results on "witch." A search on "hag" returns some good results too. (filter on "creatures" of course) You can use one of those or just use them as a guideline on creating your own. Or you could take just about any humanoid caster, throw a pointy hat on her and call her a witch. 
A witch is mostly just a female caster with flavor anyway.
A witch is mostly just a female caster with flavor anyway.
