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The Witch

by Roger LV Girtman II

I like the idea, but not the implementation. As written, it makes the witch class assume an evil role, even if the character isn't intended to be evil... additionally, it also presumes that all witches are female. While this is a common understanding of European witches, I would tend to argue to say that "witches are typically female and considered evil by the frightened common populace". That way, the stereotype can be preserved without restricting player-choice.

If I were to design a witch class for BECMI, I'd take inspiration from the 3.5 DMG example of creating new classes:

Alignment: usually Chaotic
Prime Requisite: Wisdom and Charisma
Experience Bonus: 5% for either Wisdom or Charisma of 13 or more, 10% for both Wisdom and Charisma of 13 or more.
Hit Dice: 1d4 per level up to 9th level. Starting with 10th level, +1 hit point per level, and Constitution adjustments no longer apply.
Maximum Level: 36.
?Armor: None; no shield permitted.
Weapons: Athame (dagger), boleen (dagger-sized sicle), short sword, staff, flaming oil, holy water, net, thrown rock, sling.
Special Abilities: clerical, druidic, & magic spells.

Attack Rolls: As cleric
Experience advancement: As magic-user
Saving Throws: As magic-user
Spells/Day: as Cleric

Required General Skills (if used): Ceremony (choose specific Immortal)
Recommended General Skills (if used): Alchemy, Knowledge (cosmology), Nature Lore

Witch's Familiar
Something akin to the 3e's Wizard familair. I'm not sure how I'd impliment it yet.

Book of Shadows
The witches' spell book. This jealously guarded item is passed down from teacher to student for generations. The book, which is meticulously copied from the master's book, contains all of the witch's religious lore, spells, charms, and herb-lore. The witch must study it daily to prepare spells, much like a magic-user's spellbook. However, unlike the magic-user, a witch contains all of the spells available to the class from the start, and does not require new spells to be learned through research or scribing. The witch is still restricted by the number and level of spells per day, she simply does not have the power to cast all of her spells until she reaches the appropriate level.

Reversable spells: Reversable spells must be prepared in their reversed form.

SPELL LIST
1st Level: Analyze, Charm Person, Cure Light Wounds*, Detect Danger, Detect Magic, Faerie Fire, Light*, Locate, Predict Weather, Remove Fear*, Resist Cold, Sleep, Ventriloquism
2nd Level: Bless*, Detect Invisible, ESP*, Hold Person*, Invisibility, Knock, Locate Object, Mirror Image, Obscure, Resist Fire, Silence 15' Radius, Speak with Animal, Wizard Lock
3rd Level: Call Lightning, Clairvoyance, Cure Blindness, Cure Disease*, Fly, Growth of Animal, Hold Animal, Hold Person*, Invisibility 10' Radius, Locate Object, Phantasmal Force, Protection from Poison, Remove Curse*
4th Level: Charm Monster, Clothform, Dispel Magic, Growth of Plants, Hallucinatory Terrain, Neutralize Poison*, Polymorph Other, Polymorph Self, Protection from Lightning, Remove Curse*, Speak with Plants, Summon Animals, Wizard Eye
5th Level: Anti-plant Shell, Commune, Confusion, Control Winds, Conjure Elemental, Contact Outer Plane, Dissolve, Feeblemind, Geas*, Hold Monster*, Insect Plague, Massmorph, Truesight
6th Level: Animate Objects, Charm Plant, Lower Water, Move Earth, Projected Image, Speak with Monster*, Stone to Flesh*, Stoneform, Summon Weather, Survival, Travel, Metal to Wood, Weather Control
7th Level: Create Normal Monsters, Dance, Earthquake, Immunity, Lore, Magic Door*, Mass Invisibility*, Mass Charm*, Mind Barrier*, Polymorph Any Object, Power Word Blind, Shapechange, Timestop