D&D 5E So Where my Witches at?

[Remathilis]

This is why I tend more towards gating things behind random dice rolls where both I and the players have to live with the results. For example, Gnomes are not a chooseable race in my current game (largely due to my own preference!) but they're on the random-race table; and if the dice suddenly decide to put three of the little buggers in the party then so be it.

Dice, when rolled honestly, don't play any favourites.

Ymmv and all that, but hard no for me. Nothing is worse than Coming up with a concept and then having the dice tell you no. Esp if you wanted to play a bard, druid, ranger, or paladin and the dice didn't generate the multiple high scores needed for those classes moreso if they weren't generated in the right order. The same holds true of racial min/max, where low Con halflings and wise half-orcs don't exist.

Played that way for 8 years before 3e; all I found is a lot of incredibly lucky players who just happened to role exactly what they needed to play thier chosen race/class combo while the DM wasn't watching every roll...

Given a choice, I'll stick with asking the DM to play concepts over gambling to play an elf ranger and getting the rolls that only support a human fighter.

 

[Lanefan]

Ymmv and all that, but hard no for me. Nothing is worse than Coming up with a concept and then having the dice tell you no. Esp if you wanted to play a bard, druid, ranger, or paladin and the dice didn't generate the multiple high scores needed for those classes moreso if they weren't generated in the right order. The same holds true of racial min/max, where low Con halflings and wise half-orcs don't exist.

We fixed the racial min-max bit by just altering the 3-18 bell curve to suit each race and stat - it's complicated to explain, but it works.

Beyond that, it's a question of approach: concept first, or dice first? Me, I'll usually have a personality concept in mind going in but unless I'm after something dirt simple e.g. a Human Fighter I'll leave things like class and-or race selection until after the dice have had their say.

Played that way for 8 years before 3e; all I found is a lot of incredibly lucky players who just happened to role exactly what they needed to play thier chosen race/class combo while the DM wasn't watching every roll...

Which is why all such rolls are done in the open with someone else watching, or able to watch. Roll that up without anyone watching? Good. Now tear it up and start again.

 

[cbwjm]

Ymmv and all that, but hard no for me. Nothing is worse than Coming up with a concept and then having the dice tell you no. Esp if you wanted to play a bard, druid, ranger, or paladin and the dice didn't generate the multiple high scores needed for those classes moreso if they weren't generated in the right order. The same holds true of racial min/max, where low Con halflings and wise half-orcs don't exist.

Played that way for 8 years before 3e; all I found is a lot of incredibly lucky players who just happened to role exactly what they needed to play thier chosen race/class combo while the DM wasn't watching every roll...

Given a choice, I'll stick with asking the DM to play concepts over gambling to play an elf ranger and getting the rolls that only support a human fighter.

That's why back in 2e, I always bumped up stats to the minimums if a player wanted to play a specific class, I'd just require them to put their best roll in the stat that they need to make up so if a player wanted to play a paladin and their highest roll was a 16, that would need to go into charisma, even if they were hoping to have it in strength. It let players choose any class but there was a slight trade off. Now I think if I played 2e, I just wouldn't worry about the stat requirements since there isn't really a great need for them to make a class playable beyond things like min/max spell level.

 

[Minigiant]

I was thinking.
Originally, all the classes were highly represented from a certain background. It wasn't alwaysthe case but it was often so. So if all the backgrounds were classes.

Acolyte
Charlatan
Criminal/Spy
Entertainer
Folk Hero
Guild Artisan/Merchant
Hermit
Noble/Knight
Outlander
Sage
Sailor/Pirate
Soldier
Urchin

Which one is the witch? Hermit?

 

[Blue Orange]

Dumb question: there are rules for converting from 3.5e to 5e, no? So why not take the Pathfinder witch and turn it into a 5e witch?

 

[steeldragons]

I was thinking.
Originally, all the classes were highly represented from a certain background. It wasn't alwaysthe case but it was often so. So if all the backgrounds were classes.

Acolyte
Charlatan
Criminal/Spy
Entertainer
Folk Hero
Guild Artisan/Merchant
Hermit
Noble/Knight
Outlander
Sage
Sailor/Pirate
Soldier
Urchin

Which one is the witch? Hermit?

I would say Hermit is a good fit. As is Outlander...or Folk Hero... or Sage... or Acolyte.

 

[cbwjm]

Looked at the pathfinder witch the other day, looks a lot like a warlock in that their hexes are essentially a form of invocation. Maybe they'd have regular spellcasting instead but using the warlock class as a base for conversion I think would work.

 

[cbwjm]

I would say Hermit is a good fit. As is Outlander...or Folk Hero... or Sage... or Acolyte.

Or sailor/pirate for those sea witches.

 

[Remathilis]

Looked at the pathfinder witch the other day, looks a lot like a warlock in that their hexes are essentially a form of invocation. Maybe they'd have regular spellcasting instead but using the warlock class as a base for conversion I think would work.

Thematically, a PF to 5e conversion would mostly be a base sorcerer, metamagic replaced by hexes, and subclass based around paton lists. Some hexes might become subclass features instead, and a few might become base witch features as well.

While similar, I don't think you could use invocations as hexes or vice versa. Warlocks are built around a small selection of at will abilities punctuated with pact magic bombs. You'd have to make sure invocations are balanced when added to a 0-9 caster chassis. Some would be, others might not.

It's not exactly the route I would go, but it is doable.

 

[Remathilis]

I was thinking.
Originally, all the classes were highly represented from a certain background. It wasn't alwaysthe case but it was often so. So if all the backgrounds were classes.

Acolyte
Charlatan
Criminal/Spy
Entertainer
Folk Hero
Guild Artisan/Merchant
Hermit
Noble/Knight
Outlander
Sage
Sailor/Pirate
Soldier
Urchin

Which one is the witch? Hermit?

Hermit, which is the default background to druid, monk, and sorcerer, even if it doesn't completely fit the feel of any of them.

That said, misreading your initial post made me think an interesting option might be a witch background, esp if you use the Ravnica model of granting a handful of spells added to the spell list of casters. Not sure exactly how it would work, but it's a brainstorm.