Friday, May 2, 2014

Witch!

For my current Labyrinth Lord campaign I wanted a witch class. There are several you can find online for various editions of D&D. My favorite was the B/X witch by StuartRobertson. But I needed something with that same aesthetic, simple and direct, that also included mechanics for summoning. So here's my own take on the class. You can also get a PDF here.

WITCH

Requirements: Wis 15, Cha 13, Int 9
Prime Requisite: Wis, Cha
Hit Dice: 1d4

A witch is a female practitioner of ancient magic. Witches tend to live alone or with other witches. They can commune with natural spirits, create magic potions, and cast a variety of spells using natural ingredients, often cobbled together on-the-spot.

Witches may not wear armor and may only use the staff, dagger, and other small weapons (sling, blackjack, etc.).

Witches progress in saving throws, attack values, spell progression, and levels as magic-users. They are able to learn magic-user, cleric, or druid spells of the following types: summoning, divination, charming people or monsters, and transforming living things into different forms.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Skyclad: A witch who is skyclad (wearing nothing, including rings and jewelry) is protected by the aura of nature itself and subtracts her level from AC. For every 3 levels of experience the skyclad witch gains +2 on all saving throws vs. elemental and natural forces, such as wind, cold, and fire. However, a skyclad witch takes +1d4 damage from all successful physical attacks.

Potions: A witch can create a number of potions per month equal to her level + Wisdom modifier. The player may select potions from the Labyrinth Lord Potions table, or from other sources made available by the LL. A witch has a 10% chance per level of being able to identify any potion.

Commune with Spirits: Witches have a 10% chance per level (+ Charisma score) of summoning a supernatural entity. If successful, an entity will appear in the witch's magic circle in 1d4 turns. The creature is trapped in the circle and cannot affect anything outside it. The witch may ask a question, which the entity is obligated to answer. The witch may only summon one entity per day. If she attempts to ask a second question it is up to the LL how the entity will answer, if at all.

Upon reaching the 9th level of experience a witch may compel a summoned entity to perform a task before it is released from her charm. The entity may then travel freely but only toward completion of the command. The entity is allowed a saving throw vs. spells to resist the witch's command.

It is up to the LL to determine what kind of entity is summoned.


Familiar: Witches possess the ability to cast the spell summon familiar once per year per level at no gp cost. A witch's familiar gains 1 additional Hit Die per 3 levels of the caster. Therefore the familiar of a 1st level witch will have the normal 2HD while the familiar of a 3rd level witch will be a 3HD creature.

1 comment:

  1. Andy here. Yep, that looks pretty fair. I wonder if a typical LL game world would have a stigma against witches, given all the spell-casting and thing-summoning all the other classes do.

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