Vigilance Press releases Clash of History: Witch Trials

[Vigilance]

In the Middle Ages, a witch panic swept Europe, holding many nations in its thrall for centuries. Men and women believed in divine magic without doubt, miracles given as a gift from on high. If these were real, then evil must have agents in the world as well. Agents known as Witches.

Between 1200 and 1792 AD, when the last witch was executed in Europe, conservative estimates place the number of executions at between 50 and 100,000.

Clash of History: Witch Trials, brings this time of panic into your historically-themed OGL fantasy games. Providing a new core class, the Witch, along with a new Prestige Class, the Inquisitor.

Clash of History: Witch Trials also gives a complete overview of the witch trial period, the most popular witch hunter manuals and ways to bring a witch hunt into your ongoing campaign.

Whether your players are the hunter or the hunted, whether your campaign is set in Europe or is straight from your imagination, Clash of History: Witch Trials is for you.

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=21945&

 

[FraserRonald]

This sounds pretty interesting. It's kind of funny, I just finished listening to an old episode of In Our Time all about witchcraft. I'd suggest to those people interested in including some witch trials/witch hunting in your game to check out "Clash of History: Witch Trials" then listen to this episode of In Our Time. Should give you lots and lots of inspiration.

Chuck, in the podcast, they mention "Maleus Mallificarum." Did you run across this book in your research?

Thanks and congrats on another quality release.

 

[Vigilance]

Chuck, in the podcast, they mention "Maleus Mallificarum." Did you run across this book in your research?

Yep, I devote a fair amount of coverage to that most popular and infamous of Witch Hunters' manuals, I also cover its predecessor, the Formicarius, though in less depth.

Maleus Mallificarum is pretty funny in a twisted way. It has helpful little tidbits for witch trial judges like "if the woman doesn't cry, she's definitely a witch".

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

You keep giving me fodder to use in future podcasts, Chuck.

Definitely picking this up.

 

[Voadam]

So what is the flavor of this witch class?

Demonic servants?

Midwives with folk charms?

Full spellcasters?

Spontaneous/Book Preparation

Divine or Arcane?

 

[Vigilance]

So what is the flavor of this witch class?

Demonic servants?

Midwives with folk charms?

Full spellcasters?

Spontaneous/Book Preparation

Divine or Arcane?

The class is based on the sorcerer, so spontaneous, arcane spellcasting.

The class also gains a couple of miscellaneous abilities (familiar, Brew Potion as a bonus feat, a thousand faces Druid ability). At 1st level the Witch has to swear allegiance to a supernatural entity. This could be a demon, or some pagan creature, such as a Satyr, to serve.

At 5th level, based on alignment, the Witch begins to learn abilities as either a White Witch or a Black Witch. White Witches are folk healers, Black Witches are able to invoke powerful curses and make harmful potions and poisons.

The class' abilities are part Grimm fairy tale and part history of what witches could purportedly do.

 

[Voadam]

Hi, I picked this up and have a follow up question now that I've read the witch class. It seems entirely a sorcerer with power ups. 4 skill points, same spellcasting as sorcerers (spells known, cha, spell slots, spell list) and familiar. The only things it does not have are swapping out old spells and knowledge arcane. The presence of the patron as a prereq to levelling in the class is a possible detriment too but is there anything I'm missing for why somebody might choose to play a sorcerer instead of a witch?

Is it a deliberate straight power up of the sorcerer?

 

[Vigilance]

Hi, I picked this up and have a follow up question now that I've read the witch class. It seems entirely a sorcerer with power ups. 4 skill points, same spellcasting as sorcerers (spells known, cha, spell slots, spell list) and familiar. The only things it does not have are swapping out old spells and knowledge arcane. The presence of the patron as a prereq to levelling in the class is a possible detriment too but is there anything I'm missing for why somebody might choose to play a sorcerer instead of a witch?

Is it a deliberate straight power up of the sorcerer?

The supernatural patron is something that will often be a disadvantage. It's also assumed that the witch will be viewed with suspicion and occasionally targeted by church Inquisitors.

But I consider those things to be very minor limitations on the class. Yes, it's a conscious power-up of the sorcerer, attempting to bring it in line with the Wizard.

Obviously this is just my opinion, but I always found the sorcerer somewhat bland and have seen very few players choose it.

On the other hand the witch class has seen a lot of use in my D&D homebrew, despite the fact that the campaign is undergoing a full-blown witch-hysteria complete with torture and execution.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

An historic version of the witch class sounds interesting - I run a game set in an alternate 1600s, about the time that King James is making a nuisance of himself. (Not my favorite king, no, not at all.) Since the book has some historic information on the role it was worth getting, regardless of whether I end up using this version of the witch or not.

Hmmm, is it just me or is Witch the most often minted non-Core base class? I think that there are more than a dozen of them, and that is only counting Unorthodox Witches as one class rather than the proper number.

The Auld Grump

 

[Vigilance]

An historic version of the witch class sounds interesting - I run a game set in an alternate 1600s, about the time that King James is making a nuisance of himself. (Not my favorite king, no, not at all.) Since the book has some historic information on the role it was worth getting, regardless of whether I end up using this version of the witch or not.

Hmmm, is it just me or is Witch the most often minted non-Core base class? I think that there are more than a dozen of them, and that is only counting Unorthodox Witches as one class rather than the proper number.

The Auld Grump

Yeah, I thought of that, but I wasn't aware of a book that gave a background of the witch trials, a witch class, and an Inquisitor in one small, cheap package, so I decided to run with it.

Also, I had already done a noble class, a cavalry class and a guildsman class, so I felt entitled

Honestly though, I probably would have been better off leaving out the history from a reviews standpoint. If you read the staff reviews at RPGNow, I am frequently damned for including a little background. Apparently my options are none at all, or a 40 page book.

Back on topic, as someone who runs a historical game like me, what would you like to see?