[DF] Idea for the Witch as a monster type

[b-dog]

The witch in popular culture is an ugly old hag that casts magical spells. She often has a black cat as a familiar and rides a broom in the night looking for children to eat. So this is the type of monster I want to make as a DF monster. So I am trying to derive a reason she came to be. The reason I am using is that the witch used to be an enchantress sho enthralled men with her beauty and seduced them. She used both her magic and her appearance to get what she wanted. But as time went by the magic that sustained her beauty and youth began to fade so she turned to darker magic to enable her to sustain herself. She had no desire to become undead and thus that is the reason she did not become a lich. She wanted to remain living and beautiful not an undead skeleton. But even the dark magic from the Devil or demon lords she turned to could not longer keep her young and beautiful and she began to age, albeit unnaturally. She ended up with a hideous face of a hag with a withered body. But she kept hoping to find a way to reverse her aging so she eats children to steal their youth by boiling them in her cauldron to produce an elixir or nourishment to regain her youth. It is thought that the Devil tricked her with false promises that he could help her ward off old age but she still grew old but she is between life and death desperately doing horrible acts to try to become beautiful and youthful again. So now she performs evil acts of vanity which satisfies the evil forces just fine. What do you think about this idea for a witch?

[Astromancer]

It fits the archetype of the evil crone (as opposed to the wise crone). It makes the witch a dangerous desperate and vain creature of great skill and deadly uncontroled passions. But remember archetypes and easily become stereotypes.

[Dwarf99]

I'd probably take Restricted Diet: Boiled Children and a limitation on Unaging and Appearance set to the same negative percentage as the Restricted Diet point break.

[Dwarf99]

Although I realize that probably won't help much if you're not doing it by points.

[The Colonel]

As a monster, you are probably looking at both the Crone archetype, and the Hag - which are often conflated as both being similar in appearance to ugly old women ... of course, the hag is an anthrophagous monster (viz. Jenny Greenteeth, Black Annis), possibly with fae connections, that just happens to look human rather than a transformed human. Unless, of course, you decide that that's precisely where hags come from: evil female magicians that have sacrificed a lot of their humanity to become an immortal monster.

And then we get Baba Yaga knock-offs. And Baba Yaga is another scale of entity altogether - possibly the relic of a pagan deity, as much as a witch or hag.

[Anders]

Lots Afflictions of various kinds.

[Astromancer]

Find a copy of Fables. Read Frau Totenkinder's storyline. That should give anyone lots of ideas for deadly but complex witches.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Find a copy of Fables. Read Frau Totenkinder's storyline. That should give anyone lots of ideas for deadly but complex witches.

Specifically you want the prequel collection 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

[b-dog]

The idea was to have a magic user that has escaped death but is different than the lich. The lich is undead while the witch is still unnaturally alive. She needs life to sustain herself. The witch is just a different path to immortality that a magic user can follow.

[b-dog]

So why would witches be in a dungeon?

Here might be some ideas. A witch can easily maneuver through a monster infested dungeon by magic. She could transform herself into a bat or monster and leave the dungeon to do what she desires. The other monsters might not even know there is a witch in the dungeon. The witch might like to live in the dungeon because in order for witch-hunters to get to her lair they would have to navigate through a dungeon and defeat many monsters to get to her lair.

The monsters might know the witch is in the dungeon and they may do her bidding because they fear her . The monsters may perform raids on villages for her to find babies for her rituals. In return the witch would help to defend their lair. She could scry on intruders and alert the monsters that delvers are in the dungeon. With her ability to scry she can coordinate attacks and even surprise the delvers. The witch may aid dark temples serving demon lords as well. She may not worship the demon lord in question but she may make bargains with it and help to defend the dark clergy in return for various magical secrets. Thus the witch can have reasons for being in dungeons.