Witch Class
Brian,
Your latest update is a work of art in itself. The artwork is splendid - I love the wolperdinger. I'll have to bring a copy of this with me on my next trip to South Dakota. There's a bar or twenty-three in SD with a taxidermied "jackalope" head gracing the wall(s) that might appreciate the entry.
The flaws "I don't hide my bodily functions" and "I don't trust anyone clean" will definitely get some play at my gaming table, although I hope those two are kept at the imaginary level.
Thank you again for wonderful work.
RT
Your latest update is a work of art in itself. The artwork is splendid - I love the wolperdinger. I'll have to bring a copy of this with me on my next trip to South Dakota. There's a bar or twenty-three in SD with a taxidermied "jackalope" head gracing the wall(s) that might appreciate the entry.
The flaws "I don't hide my bodily functions" and "I don't trust anyone clean" will definitely get some play at my gaming table, although I hope those two are kept at the imaginary level.
Thank you again for wonderful work.
RT
bmcdaniel
Adventurer
Thanks for all the kind words. I've just uploaded a new update with some substantial changes, mostly from 6 months of playtesting. I've also substantially reorganized the presentation to make it clearer, and added a few new traditions, potions and spells. Hope you enjoy.
Cheers,
Brian
Cheers,
Brian
tuxgeo
Adventurer
I noticed in the latest update that this WITCH class includes spells from the Elemental Evil Player's Companion.
Could you provide a link to where that is on the WotC site, since those spells aren't included in your .PDF file? Ideally, of course, the link should go into the .PDF file as plain text of the URL; but here in the thread might also work.
Could you provide a link to where that is on the WotC site, since those spells aren't included in your .PDF file? Ideally, of course, the link should go into the .PDF file as plain text of the URL; but here in the thread might also work.
Neyd
First Post
This has got to be one of the best homebrew works I have seen so far for this edition.
I really really like the feel of your writing and nothing screams "overpowered" to me.
Great read, seriously. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed reading it back and forth. It is one of those rare "oh my god I want to play this class so badly" moments for me. Well done, well done indeed.
I really really like the feel of your writing and nothing screams "overpowered" to me.
Great read, seriously. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed reading it back and forth. It is one of those rare "oh my god I want to play this class so badly" moments for me. Well done, well done indeed.
Hungryghoast
First Post
This is really cool and amazing work on this in general, especially the format.
My main problem is that it seems a bit too powerful? I suppose the best point of comparison would be the other D6 class, the Wizard.
The Witch seems about on par with the Wizard in terms of how many spells they will get to learn. The problem is that the Wizard must select from those spells and prepare them per day. The Witch will surpass all other classes in the amount of spells it can pull from, making the Witch the most versatile spell caster. I would feel like this is balanced by the fact that the Witch, like the Bard, has no means of regenerating spell slots except on a Long Rest but the Witch is given a host of other abilities too. Perhaps you meant to include a section within Spellcasting on Preparing Spells (the ritual portion refers to "as long as you have that spell prepared")?
Problem number two, balance-wise: The Witch gains powerful and useful class abilities from both its general class (its Familiar and Implements) as well as its Tradition. The Implements and Familiar grant a witch (over the course of its levels): a striking implement, access to flight without a known spell or used spell slot (granted with restrictions, but still), Mage Armor without a spell slot or known spell, magic resistance, Artificer abilities, Find Familiar without needing a known spell or spell slot, a more powerful familiar than any class except MAYBE some varieties of Warlock*. This is already a lot! Combined with the traditions it really feels like too much. I know the shawl, stick, and potions are all very witchy things, but honestly if you intend on keeping all the traditions as well and all their bonuses and abilities I might make the Witch choose which implement they want: Stick, Shawl, or Cauldron. In this case you may need to change the Cauldron to apply in some way at lower levels and then upgrade (similarly for the Shawl and then other higher level bonuses for the Stick), but I think this would be a better way to balance the class.
*I have some confusion regarding the Familiar. This ability is granted at 7th level "When you reach 7th level, you can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence" ... But the Find Familiar spell already grants this ability?
My main problem is that it seems a bit too powerful? I suppose the best point of comparison would be the other D6 class, the Wizard.
The Witch seems about on par with the Wizard in terms of how many spells they will get to learn. The problem is that the Wizard must select from those spells and prepare them per day. The Witch will surpass all other classes in the amount of spells it can pull from, making the Witch the most versatile spell caster. I would feel like this is balanced by the fact that the Witch, like the Bard, has no means of regenerating spell slots except on a Long Rest but the Witch is given a host of other abilities too. Perhaps you meant to include a section within Spellcasting on Preparing Spells (the ritual portion refers to "as long as you have that spell prepared")?
Problem number two, balance-wise: The Witch gains powerful and useful class abilities from both its general class (its Familiar and Implements) as well as its Tradition. The Implements and Familiar grant a witch (over the course of its levels): a striking implement, access to flight without a known spell or used spell slot (granted with restrictions, but still), Mage Armor without a spell slot or known spell, magic resistance, Artificer abilities, Find Familiar without needing a known spell or spell slot, a more powerful familiar than any class except MAYBE some varieties of Warlock*. This is already a lot! Combined with the traditions it really feels like too much. I know the shawl, stick, and potions are all very witchy things, but honestly if you intend on keeping all the traditions as well and all their bonuses and abilities I might make the Witch choose which implement they want: Stick, Shawl, or Cauldron. In this case you may need to change the Cauldron to apply in some way at lower levels and then upgrade (similarly for the Shawl and then other higher level bonuses for the Stick), but I think this would be a better way to balance the class.
*I have some confusion regarding the Familiar. This ability is granted at 7th level "When you reach 7th level, you can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar's senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence" ... But the Find Familiar spell already grants this ability?
bmcdaniel
Adventurer
Hungryghoast,
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Taking your two concerns in order:
1. Although at any one given time, the witch will likely have access to many more spell choices than wizards (or other spellcasters), in my view, it doesn't actually have much more versatility. This stems from two reasons. First, wizards (and clerics) can switch spells known easily overnight, while a witch takes a month to switch a spell. As a result, wizards (and clerics) can customize their spells known for an adventure or even mid-adventure quite easily. Second, the witch is drawing from a much small, and less versatile pool of spells. The tradition spells all closely follow a particular theme, while the common spells are actually fairly narrow. To take a simple example, its likely that 10th level wizard is going to have many different combat options, including different types of damage (fire, lightning, cold), summoning, illusions, etc. while a witch is probably only going to be able to do one or two things (e.g. a winter witch can cause cold and piercing damage, an infernal witch can do fire damage or summon demons, a beguiling witch can cause psychic damage or charm effects).
This actually worried me quite a bit, but after playtesting for almost a year, I actually feel pretty confident that in fact witches tend to be much less versatile than wizards or clerics (we don't play with warlocks or sorcerers so I can't compare).
2. Except at the very highest levels, I actually don't think the witch abilities are really all that powerful. The witch's strike is intended to be a last resort if the witch's ordinary cantrips and spells are useless against a creature. Since it requires the witch to be engaged in melee, I would guess it is very rarely used. The witch's armor, as you indicate, is intended to give the witch some AC boost, but it is less powerful than mage armor (although the witch does save a spell slot). The cauldron abilities are mostly useless for adventuring witches (the cost to create potions and poisons is the same as the purchase price, so it is mostly there just to encourage the witch to use potions and poisons). This is really intended for witches as villains. The overland flight is useful, but again it is mostly out of combat. It is certainly less useful than teleport, wind walk and tree stride (and while the witch doesn't need to memorize the spell, again other spellcasters can swap the spell in and out as needed). Similarly, the familiar is mostly like a standard familiar. I feel the tradition abilities are on par with the wizard school abilities and cleric domain abilities (and in some cases were explicitly modeled on these abilities).
At the higher levels, I do think the witch abilities are fairly powerful, although in many cases I would argue that they are less powerful than wizard spells gained at lower level. For example, a 20th level sea tradition witch can use a 9th level slot to call a hurricane once a year. In comparison, an 18th level wizard can cast wish on a daily basis (as long as he casts no other spells the same day).
In any case, the class seems to be working for my group in my campaign. If you do decide to use the class, I'd love to hear your feedback.
BMM
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Taking your two concerns in order:
1. Although at any one given time, the witch will likely have access to many more spell choices than wizards (or other spellcasters), in my view, it doesn't actually have much more versatility. This stems from two reasons. First, wizards (and clerics) can switch spells known easily overnight, while a witch takes a month to switch a spell. As a result, wizards (and clerics) can customize their spells known for an adventure or even mid-adventure quite easily. Second, the witch is drawing from a much small, and less versatile pool of spells. The tradition spells all closely follow a particular theme, while the common spells are actually fairly narrow. To take a simple example, its likely that 10th level wizard is going to have many different combat options, including different types of damage (fire, lightning, cold), summoning, illusions, etc. while a witch is probably only going to be able to do one or two things (e.g. a winter witch can cause cold and piercing damage, an infernal witch can do fire damage or summon demons, a beguiling witch can cause psychic damage or charm effects).
This actually worried me quite a bit, but after playtesting for almost a year, I actually feel pretty confident that in fact witches tend to be much less versatile than wizards or clerics (we don't play with warlocks or sorcerers so I can't compare).
2. Except at the very highest levels, I actually don't think the witch abilities are really all that powerful. The witch's strike is intended to be a last resort if the witch's ordinary cantrips and spells are useless against a creature. Since it requires the witch to be engaged in melee, I would guess it is very rarely used. The witch's armor, as you indicate, is intended to give the witch some AC boost, but it is less powerful than mage armor (although the witch does save a spell slot). The cauldron abilities are mostly useless for adventuring witches (the cost to create potions and poisons is the same as the purchase price, so it is mostly there just to encourage the witch to use potions and poisons). This is really intended for witches as villains. The overland flight is useful, but again it is mostly out of combat. It is certainly less useful than teleport, wind walk and tree stride (and while the witch doesn't need to memorize the spell, again other spellcasters can swap the spell in and out as needed). Similarly, the familiar is mostly like a standard familiar. I feel the tradition abilities are on par with the wizard school abilities and cleric domain abilities (and in some cases were explicitly modeled on these abilities).
At the higher levels, I do think the witch abilities are fairly powerful, although in many cases I would argue that they are less powerful than wizard spells gained at lower level. For example, a 20th level sea tradition witch can use a 9th level slot to call a hurricane once a year. In comparison, an 18th level wizard can cast wish on a daily basis (as long as he casts no other spells the same day).
In any case, the class seems to be working for my group in my campaign. If you do decide to use the class, I'd love to hear your feedback.
BMM
Hey, I really like this class it feels very distinct while also clearly being connected to some of the others. I do have a couple of questions though.
First, when it comes to traditions, at level 3 it says that you can choose to become a member of another tradition instead of the tradition you chose at level 2. The cost to this is you lose the spells you learned from the first tradition and replace them with spells from the new one, and that after doing so you may not change traditions again. So my question is, what about the features from the tradition? If I was to say choose the Nature tradition at level 2 granting me Wild Shape and Nature's Stride, and then at level three choose to take the Beguiling tradition at level 3, would I lose the features granted by the Nature tradition? And do I gain the Beguiling feature granted at level 2?
Secondly, you never addressed the question regarding the 7th level familiar feature. Am I right in assuming that the familiar acts the same as in the standard spell (meaning you can sense through their senses while losing your own and speak telepathically and cast touch range spells through them so long as you are within 100 feet) and that the 7th level feature means that now you can do this without the 100 foot range limit, so instead you can do it from any distance so long as they are on the same plane of existence? The only thing is the feature doesn't mention if the other aspects of the familiar bond are also enhanced, can I cast spells, do I lose my access to my own senses while using theirs still, dismiss them etc. no matter the distance between us?
Also as a side note I feel like for wild shape the item that should be required should be the shawl. I know you don't have access to the shawl until level 3, but it feels more inline with the item. Also when I run a game most shape changing spells do not transform your equipment (which usually includes clothing, though the shawl being part of the requirements of the spell would be an exception) so the idea of holding onto a stick and turning into a little bird just sticks out to me. But that's just my personal predilections colouring my view. I might have more questions, but I really like the class and some other stuff in the setting really meshes with how I do things.
Good job!
First, when it comes to traditions, at level 3 it says that you can choose to become a member of another tradition instead of the tradition you chose at level 2. The cost to this is you lose the spells you learned from the first tradition and replace them with spells from the new one, and that after doing so you may not change traditions again. So my question is, what about the features from the tradition? If I was to say choose the Nature tradition at level 2 granting me Wild Shape and Nature's Stride, and then at level three choose to take the Beguiling tradition at level 3, would I lose the features granted by the Nature tradition? And do I gain the Beguiling feature granted at level 2?
Secondly, you never addressed the question regarding the 7th level familiar feature. Am I right in assuming that the familiar acts the same as in the standard spell (meaning you can sense through their senses while losing your own and speak telepathically and cast touch range spells through them so long as you are within 100 feet) and that the 7th level feature means that now you can do this without the 100 foot range limit, so instead you can do it from any distance so long as they are on the same plane of existence? The only thing is the feature doesn't mention if the other aspects of the familiar bond are also enhanced, can I cast spells, do I lose my access to my own senses while using theirs still, dismiss them etc. no matter the distance between us?
Also as a side note I feel like for wild shape the item that should be required should be the shawl. I know you don't have access to the shawl until level 3, but it feels more inline with the item. Also when I run a game most shape changing spells do not transform your equipment (which usually includes clothing, though the shawl being part of the requirements of the spell would be an exception) so the idea of holding onto a stick and turning into a little bird just sticks out to me. But that's just my personal predilections colouring my view. I might have more questions, but I really like the class and some other stuff in the setting really meshes with how I do things.
Good job!
Your notion has a nice "makes sense" feel to it. A simpler fix may be to rule that the lowest CR level wildshaping can be done without the shawl, but the shawl is required when wildshaping into the higher CR level beasties.
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