DF: Witch Template

[mlangsdorf]

Something I'm coming up with for my online DF game. Comments appreciated:


Witch (250 points)

Like the wizard and the scholar, you are a learned delver. But unlike those two, you didn't gain your knowledge from dusty tomes in stone buildings: you went out into the world and experienced things. Some of those experiences including making deals with natural spirits, improving and amplifying your natural magical talent. Your magic isn't advanced as the wizard, but your breadth of skills, mundane and magical, make you a powerful addition to a delving band.

Attributes: ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 15 [100]; HT [11]
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 14 [-5]; Per 15 [0]; FP 11 [0]; Basic Speed 6.00 [5]; Basic Move 6 [0].
Advantages: Magery 0 [5], Magery 3 (Witchery -20%) [24], and Energy Reserve (Magic) 3 [9]. • 30 points chosen from Witch Abilities (below) or among DX +1 [20], IQ +1 [20], Will +1 to +5 [5/level], Energy Reserve (Magic) +1 to +10 [3/level], Eidetic Memory [5] or Photographic Memory [10], Healer 1 or 2 [10 or 20], Intuition [15], Luck [15], Magery 4, 5, or 6 [8, 16, or 24], Mind Shield [4/level], Signature Gear [Varies], Spirit Empathy [10], or Wild Talent 1 (Retention, +25%; Focused, Magical, -20%) [21].
Disadvantages: Disciplines of Faith (Witch Rituals) [-10]. • Another -30 points chosen from Bad Temper [-10*], Clueless [-10], Combat Paralysis [-15], Cowardice [-10*], Hard of Hearing [-10], Klutz [-5] or Total Klutz [-15], Loner [-5*], Low Pain Threshold [-10], Nervous Stomach [-1], Oblivious [-5], Phobia (Crowds) [-15*], Phobia (Fire) [-5*],Post-Combat Shakes [-5*], Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5], Skinny [-5], Social Stigma (Excommunicated)† [-10], Stubbornness [-5], Unfit [-5] or Very Unfit [-15], or Unnatural Features 1-5 [-1/level].
Primary Skills: Esoteric Medicine (Witch) (H) Per[2]-15; Hidden Lore (Spirits) and Occultism, both (A) IQ [2]-15; Alchemy and Herb Lore, both (VH) IQ [4]-14; and Naturalist (H) IQ [1]-14.
Secondary Skills: Animal Handling (any), Hidden Lore (Elementals, Faeries, or Demons), and Weather Sense, all (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Pharmacy (Herbal) (H) IQ-2 [1]-13, and Meditation (H) Will-2 [1]-12. • Either Shield (Buckler) (E) DX+2 [4]-14 and Main Gauche (A) DX+1 [4]-13, or Staff (A) DX+2 [8]-14. • One of Thrown Weapon (Dart) (E) DX+2 [4]-14; Throwing (A) DX+1 [4]-13; or Sling (H) DX [4]-12.
Background Skills: Six of Fast-Draw (Potion) (E) DX [1]-12; Climbing or Stealth, both (A) DX-1 [1]-11;First Aid or Gesture, both (E) IQ [1]-15; Animal Handling (any other) or Hidden Lore (any other) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Physiology (monster type) or Research, both (H) IQ-2 [1]-13; Hiking (A) HT-1 [1]-10; or Scrounging (E) Per [1]-15.
Spells: Choose 30 witch spells (see below), which will be either(H) IQ+1 [1]-16 or (VH) IQ [1]-15 with the +3 for Magery.

Customization Notes
Witches are strongly customized by their Shortcuts to Power already.

Witchery

This power depends on pacts with nature spirits. All of its powers have the witchery limitation.

Power Modifier: Witchery (-20%)
Witch abilities depend on being on good terms with fickle nature spirits. The user must take the disadvantage Disciplines of Faith (Witch Rituals) [-10] to reflect this. Each day, roll 1d; this is how many hours less he has for sleep, standing watch, etc. Moreover, he must buy miscellaneous goods worth $6/day for incense, food, and trinkets used to bribe the spirits. If deprived of these things, or if he fails to sacrifice the necessary time, he must take a day out to negotiate with the spirits. His entire power will immediately burn out for 1d days if called upon before he does this. Also, in areas where nature is weak, witch abilities take the same penalties to success rolls that druidic spells suffer. Witches are also subject to the local mana level.

Witch Abilities
Allies (Nature spirit of equal points; 12 or less; PM, -20%; Summonable, +100%) [18] or (15 or less) [27]; Channeling (PM, -20%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [3]; Medium (PM, -20%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [3]; and Mind Control (PM, -20%) [40].

Witch Spells
Witches can learn any spell that requires Magery 0. In addition, you may learn the following spells. If a spell on this list requires a prerequisite that you can't or don't wish to learn, you may take a 1 point Perk (called Shortcut to Power) to learn the spell anyway. You may only take 10 Shortcuts to Power, and once you take a Shortcut to Power, you may not get rid of it.

* Any spell from the Air, Earth, Healing, Knowledge, Movement, or Water college or the Weather sub-college that requires Magery 1 except for Missile spells. You are treated as having Magery 1 for the prerequisite purposes of these spells.
* Alter Body, Charm, Counterspell, Curse, Death Touch, Flying Carpet, Madness, Pentagram, Permanent Shapeshifting, Remove Curse, Scryguard, Sense Spirit, Shapeshift Others, Strike Barren, Summon Demon, Summon Spirit, Steal Beauty, Steal Youth, Throw Spell, Turn Spirit, Ward. You are treated as having Magery 0 for prerequisite purposes and must take a Shortcut to Power to learn any of these spells that require Magery 1+.
* You may not learn any Enchantment or Gate spells, and may not take Shortcuts to Power to learn them.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conceptually and by design, the witch is a mix of wizard and druid with a smidgen of cleric thrown in. A focused wizard, cleric, or druid is more powerful in their specific areas than a witch, but the witch has more breadth of talent than any one of them. A witch is very useful in a 2-3 member party, though less so in a larger party where his abilities may be redundant.

The biggest limitation for a witch is the general lack of missile spells. Throw Spell and Deathtouch, taken as Shortcuts to Power, are a clumsy way around this limitation.

[martinl]

DF is not a good mesh with my conception of traditional witch roles - none of them really focus on physical mayhem or robbery. This is why a DF priest doesn't really look like a RW clergyperson of any era. (Some Crusaders maybe, but that's because they were focused on physical mayhem and robbery. ;) I see you've tried to do this with the witch, and it seems like a decent job. Still looks witchy, but DF capable.

Quick nits:

Buckler and main gauche? Not that I have a lot of mental images about witches in melee combat, but if I was to make one up, that wouldn't be in the top 10. Staff is good, as are clubs, farm implements and knives.

Also, if Pterry has taught me anything, Psychology, Intimidate and Fast Talk are primary skills.

I'm now imagining the DW Wyrd Sisters on a traditional DF adventure. The dragon is looking hangdog and sorry for only devouring female virgins (after all, isn't this the century of the fruitbat?), the orcs are involved in a rousing round of the Hedgehog song, and the poor burrowing owlbear would like those tasty loggers to come back.

[Stormcrow]

Just at a brief look, I can't help but wonder why all witches would be geniuses. IQ 15 seems too high to me. Geniuses would be more likely to be book-learned. I'd say lower IQ and raise IQ-based skills a little.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Witch Abilities
Allies (Nature spirit of equal points; 12 or less; PM, -20%; Summonable, +100%) [18] or (15 or less) [27]; Channeling (PM, -20%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [3]; Medium (PM, -20%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [3]; and Mind Control (PM, -20%) [40].

There should be at least a couple more abilities to choose from. The list isn't particularly interesting as it is now.

In addition, offering two versions of Mind Control, one weaker (more Limited) version and then the current 40 CP one, would be good. That way the player can shell out 15-25 CPs to buy the weaker version, the later pay the cost differnece to upgrade.

[Mailanka]

Hey, this could actually be a really neat template.

As others have said: Buckler and main-gauche? What? How about we change that for knife, as I can see a witch wielding a sacrificial dagger or something. Also, Peter's right, you need more powers.

But my biggest complaint is that the Witch looks like a cross between a druid and a wizard. I could do most of what you're doing here just with the Druid Template. A witch needs to carve our her own niche. For example, she can summon "nature" spirits, but so can a druid. She can grab from a specific list of spells without following the prerequisites (but she has to pay extra points), including elemental spells, but so can a druid (and they don't need the perks).

You seem to be following a more modern, psuedo-wiccan approach to magic, and that's great, but wiccans greatly resemble pagans, who are essentially the inspiration for Druids. I think you'd do better to more closely mix wicca with old-school puritan horror at witchcraft. Let the witches dance the between wild tree-talker and dark, hook-nosed curse-slinger. Ponder what a male witch (a "Warlock") would look like. That should give this template the additional flavor and uniqueness it needs to really stand out on its own.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Just at a brief look, I can't help but wonder why all witches would be geniuses. IQ 15 seems too high to me. Geniuses would be more likely to be book-learned. I'd say lower IQ and raise IQ-based skills a little.

1) IQ is not a book-learning statistic - it includes book learning, but also many other features, including worldly experience.

2) All DF templates (and all templates in general) are point optimized - otherwise the expert who "hand rolls" his character does better than the new person who uses a template, and then templates get the reputation of being "lame".

Dungeon Fantasy games are explicitly about exceptional people doing crazy things (like storming an underground fortress full of hostiles), so this template is not intended for a campaign with limitations on "realistic" attribute levels.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Hey, this could actually be a really neat template.

As others have said: Buckler and main-gauche? What? How about we change that for knife, as I can see a witch wielding a sacrificial dagger or something. Also, Peter's right, you need more powers.

A main-gauche is a knife. Really. It's just a knife wielded with flare and style.

As far as carving out a niche goes and thinking about what a male witch looks like... the entire template is written up using masculine pronouns. The niche is versatile but low-powered magical generalist. I could have added more demonology, but I wanted to keep the witch more on the side of non-evil than that.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Bruno

1) IQ is not a book-learning statistic - it includes book learning, but also many other features, including worldly experience.

I didn't say IQ equals book-learned; I said geniuses (high IQ) would be more likely to be book-learned. However, IQ does not represent worldly experience. It represents "brainpower, including creativity, intuition, memory, perception, reason, sanity, and willpower." Almost everything to do with experience is a skill.

2) All DF templates (and all templates in general) are point optimized - otherwise the expert who "hand rolls" his character does better than the new person who uses a template, and then templates get the reputation of being "lame".

Yes, yes, if mlangsdorf were to lower IQ, he would obviously have to reevaluate the other parts of the template to make it cost-effective.

Dungeon Fantasy games are explicitly about exceptional people doing crazy things (like storming an underground fortress full of hostiles), so this template is not intended for a campaign with limitations on "realistic" attribute levels.

My comment wasn't about realistic attribute limitations. I just pointed out that with this template all witches are geniuses, and that seems wrong for the genre.

4) Responding to solicited criticism with numbered lists is rude.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

My comment wasn't about realistic attribute limitations. I just pointed out that with this template all witches are geniuses, and that seems wrong for the genre.

Normally I'd agree with the whole IQ deal here, but this is Dungeon Fantasy we're talking about. The land where every Heroic barbarian is SM+1 and every wizard is a genius. It's how the genre works. Don't try to do stat normalization here, DF will happily throw dozens of Arch Magus at the party if it is a suitable challenge, DF doesn't really care much about where all these genius are popping up from.

Hybrids of Dungeon Fantasy and more regular roleplaying is of course possible, but seeing as this is a thread about creating a template for DF I think its safe to say that Vanilla DF is what is being discussed.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Bruno

2) All DF templates (and all templates in general) are point optimized - otherwise the expert who "hand rolls" his character does better than the new person who uses a template, and then templates get the reputation of being "lame".

One could even argue that templates in DF shopuld not be optimized for the here and now, but for the longer term, i.e. raise IQ or DX (or PR or WL or CH) by 1 and lower skills hanging off it, even if it causes the immediate loss of a few points, because it'll pay off in the long run.

It depends a lot on how likely the lowered skills are to be raised, though. Probably best done only if they are core skills for the template.