D&D 4E making a witch in 4e

[Lackhand]

Define "witch", first. It's a name steeped in tradition.

They could be proto-druids, pagan priests, wise women in rural areas, demon worshippers, female followers of a hag cult, elementalist or animist or spiritualist occult lore experts and so on.

Tipping the hat into Monte Cook's direction, I'd say that my favorite implementation of the class comes from Arcana Unearthed. I like its flexibility (could go toe to toe with melee oppoenents in addition to providing decent controller abilities), variety (class features depended on template applied) and distinctive, nature-themed orientation.

regards,
Ruemere

Oh man I hated the montewitch. I liked the design of the class well enough, but nothing says witch to me like, um, being able to create a flaming sword at the drop of a hat.

I'd say the witch got divvied up between the wizard, the druid, and the warlock -- which should surprise no one. Multiclassing her back together or, equivalently, cobbling together a version of the witch at the intersection of those abilities, would be my suggestion.

Assume you're not houseruling, but are writing a witch class. What would its power source be? What would its role be?

I could see a nature leader or a nature striker. Leader when they heal, striker via status effects (curses, sensory illusions, charms). So I'd say a multiclass of varying proportion of cleric and warlock would be a pretty good approximation.

 

[FadedC]

Looking at the pregen warlock I'd say eyebite and curse of dark dreams seem very witchy. Witchfire ironically not as much, nor eldritch blast and of course ray of frost is a wizard power. But probably something built around the warlock is the way to go for a witch.

I even thought about using a fey powered warlock to simulate my spirit shaman, though I suspect I will go a different directoin there.

 

[Incenjucar]

I'd just assume a Warlock with lots and lots of rituals and maybe some Druid abilities when those become available.

Maybe a touch of Bard.

 

[SadisticFishing]

I'd build a bridge out of her!

Yes, but cannot bridges also be made out of stoooone?

 

[Herobizkit]

IMO, The pagan style of witches (or at least, the European/Celtic-inspired ones) should definitely be any combination of Bard or Druid.

In 4e, this means jack.

Ergo, I'd vote for a conversion of the Cloistered Cleric from the 3e Unearthed Arcana, and slap on some Divination-specialized Wizard for good measure, banning Evocation and Necromancy. Pagans aren't about hexing, cursing, blasting, or raising the dead. They heal, teach, worship, and are generally quite eclectic.

And by the by, the tenets of the FR drow Goddess Eilistraee is pretty darn close (IMO) to what a D&D "pagan" might follow.

 

[zoroaster100]

I pretty much assumed the warlock class is the same thing as witch, and they just went with the male form as the name of the class. It has all the traditional elements associated with modern view of medieval withcraft, where the witch gains supernatural power as a result of a pact with dark powers or fey powers.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yes, but cannot bridges also be made out of stoooone?

Who are you who is so wise in the ways of science?

 

[TwinBahamut]

A Warlock seems like a perfect Witch class to me, and Wizard is a good alternate. I am not exactly sure what definitions of "witch" don't work well with either of those two classes.

 

[Scrollreader]

I'd like to see a Witch/Shaman/Hexxer as a primal leader, personally. But with a mix of buffs and debuffs. Would that make it a hybrid? Especially as the druid seems to be going away from spellcasting, I think this a perfect role/power source combination for the witch.

 

[pukunui]

When I first got into 3.5, I wanted to make a witch with abilities like the ones Granny Weatherwax has - especially her ability to "borrow" the minds of animals (some sort of nature-oriented magic jar?). That sort of witch would be fun to play. It would probably be much easier to do with the 4e rules, as her abilities would all just be class powers. It might work just to do some crazy multiclassing thing, too.