D&D 5E (2014) 5e witches, your preferred implementation?

[grimslade]

The new UA for Strixhaven Witherbloom College subclass seems pretty Witchy. Potions, cauldrons, and life/death magic all seem to be in a hedge wizard/ wise woman vein. Throw in Hexblood lineage and you have a more haggish, (not haggis spellcheck)

 

[Parmandur]

I'm a little boring, I tend to just use the term witch as one of those used for women spellcasters, typically those out on the edge of civilisation. They could be wizards, druids, warlocks, bards, or clerics.

Yeah, this, more a question of Ba kground and RP.

 

[Steampunkette]

I made a Warlock Pact called the Cursemother. All the class features either improve your curses, make new and bold curses available for use, or cause your curses to spread to multiple targets.

It also came with Invocations and a Pact Boon "Maledicta".

Everything else witches generally do, a Warlock can do just fine.

 

[Vaslov]

I wanted my latest caster to have some witch like themes. Most of it is how you approach playing the fluff of the character. Decided to go with Sorcerer/Divine Soul. Some build highlights ...
Black Dragonborn - (She goes by the Seer of the Swamp)
metamagic - Extend, Twin, Quick
Feat Ritual Caster - gave me a few more spells to get the flavor right. So she has a raven familiar, Phantom Steed, unseen servant and contact other plane when needed. Also, the party lacked any other arcane or divine casters so had to fill in for both roles.
Some Spells - Acid Splash (weak spell, but in the flavor of the black dragon) Chill Touch (Throwing spectral hands around as i cackle is great flavor), Aid, Haste, Polymorph, D-Door, Whirlwind. (Extended Aid and Twinned Polymorph always fun to use).
Recently hit level 14 recently which means I can fly per class power.

I purposely didn't go after the Hex spell as it seemed too easy. Given some lore about witches being local healers and wise council it works for me. The DM threw me a cloak of displacement at some point which also helped with the creepy feeling of making people uneasy at just a glance. Ideal as a class with named features in various flavors? No. But it works within the frame of the system, which can be true of a lot of roles (e.g. pirate, knight, healer, etc...).

 

[Sithlord]

IMO, the best way to implement witches would be as a druid subclass. Druids hit most of the key themes for witches; shapeshifting and transformation (both of themselves and of others), animal allies, control over the natural environment, connections to the fey.

All the subclass needs to do is provide access to illusion and mind control spells, and some kind of potion-brewing power, and you've got yourself a grade-A witch.

I kinda agree. But we need to throw in curses, hexes, the evil eye.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Never thought of it, but maybe just use the Warlock class, but in stead of "wizard spells" just use Druid spells, and choose the most appropriate Patron for the particular 'type' of Witch you are going for. As a DM, I'd likely work with the Player and sub-out a couple of the normal Warlock 'powers n such', for something unique that says "I'm not your normal Warlock(PatronOfWhatever)" that made sense for my Campaign world.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Dausuul]

My problem with using warlocks is that all their witchy flavor is just painted on; underneath the paint is a plain blaster with a very limited supply of magic tricks. So much of the class's power is tied up in eldritch blast/Agonizing Blast. Rolling to hit and laying down damage, round after round, just isn't witchy to me, no matter how you skin it.

The druid chassis is far better equipped to do the kind of things a witch wants to be doing, and the places it falls short can be fixed by adding a few spells to the druid list.

 

[Sithlord]

My problem with using warlocks is that all their witchy flavor is just painted on; underneath the paint is a plain blaster with a very limited supply of magic tricks. So much of the class's power is tied up in eldritch blast/Agonizing Blast. Rolling to hit and laying down damage, round after round, just isn't witchy to me, no matter how you skin it.

The druid chassis is far better equipped to do the kind of things a witch wants to be doing, and the places it falls short can be fixed by adding a few spells to the druid list.

Yup. I wish the warlock was mechanically centered around their patron rather than eldritch bolt. Heck I would rather see the eldritch bolt ability go to the sorcerer and give the warlock other things to really play up their patron. Instead they are a ranged blaster class.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd rather see eldritch blast become a single shot cantrip like fire bolt (as in at level 5 it fires a single bolt dealing 2d10 force damage) and the various eldritch blast evocations were something that could be applied to all warlock cantrips. So many people seem to focus on eldritch blast that people feel like they're playing it wrong if they choose anything else.

 

[Charlaquin]

My problem with using warlocks is that all their witchy flavor is just painted on; underneath the paint is a plain blaster with a very limited supply of magic tricks. So much of the class's power is tied up in eldritch blast/Agonizing Blast. Rolling to hit and laying down damage, round after round, just isn't witchy to me, no matter how you skin it.

Just build a different warlock. Eldritch Blast is one, very limited, type of warlock. You can easily make a warlock that actually feels very witchy if you just let go of Eldritch Blast and explore more of what the class has to offer.