How do you prefer your WITCH?

[Defender_X]

Other, falling out of a tight black dress.

 

[Robert Ranting]

Which Witch?

Since I run Arcana Evolved, "Witch" is a gender-neutral class name. I tend to portray witches as "mutants" in the X-Men sense, in that they are born with their powers, which in some way reflect a fundamental aspect of their personality (usually) or environmental factors/triggers that give those powers shape. Sea, wood, wind, and winter witches have obvious elemental ties to the natural world. Iron witches generally come from mining communities and industrialized cities where the earth is given form. Mind witches are generally introverts who spend much of their time in contemplating a mental landscape, rather than a physical one.

Attitudes about witches vary from place to place. In general, most witches can find acceptance by working for a community rather than against it. Their powers are strange, but ultimately quantifiable and often beneficial to the community. Even in the slightly mage-phobic Giantish Hegemony, witches can practice their arts, so long as they obtain a license and abide by local laws. In general, a person born with a small amount of magical power is far less scary than the person who can read a few books and figure out a way to open a gate to hell and dump it's contents into the material plane.

Robert "Wide, Not High, Magic" Ranting

 

[delericho]

All of the above.

 

[BryonD]

Other for a combination of 2 and 3, though without the assumed "petty" or "low quality".
I don't use new age/wicca/goddess/whatever any more than I use Christianity or Islam. There's some influence in terms of style, but only spotty superficial pieces.

I really like the GR Witch and use that. Though the term isn't restricted to that character class.

 

[Shemeska]

Anything but the 1st: the neopagan influence wouldn't really mesh well for anything I run, and it'd stand out as a sort of garbled neologism. So no book of shadows using goddess worshippers.

 

[Piratecat]

Other, "weighing the same as a duck."

An appropriate comic.

 

[exile]

Witches in my game fall somewhere between evil sorceress consorting with fiends and rural petty magic-user brewing low-quality potions.

Chad

 

[WayneLigon]

Vaguely Goddess worshipper, though 'worshipper' has connotations that I don't think belong to the Witch. Student, is perhaps more apt. Depending on the flavor for the specific campaign setting I want, any or all of the above could also apply.

I like the Green Ronin witch class the best of any I've seen over the years.

 

[Aeolius]

Witches in my game fall somewhere between evil sorceress consorting with fiends and rural petty magic-user brewing low-quality potions.

the old witch class was described thusly: "Witches use herbs for healing and magic, somewhat in the manner of druids (to which witches are distantly related). Witches combine cleric and magic-user, forms of magic, since they are essentially worshipers of forbidden religions (generally evil in nature, but not always so). They specialize in spells involving nature, the changing seasons, and sympathetic magic (i.e., magic based upon the similarities between a spell-casting ritual and the spell's effect), and they are knowledgeable about spells involving humans and humanoids. The manipulation and control of other beings is one of the hallmarks of witch magic - a necessary step on the way to achieving greater and greater power. Evil witches often specialize in curses and destructive spells."

 

[Marchen]

Fiend loving evil magic user, male or female. That and generally any spellcaster that people do not understand or like they will refer to as a witch.