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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Crag on Fri, August 19, 2005
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    About the "witch mark" this could also be tailored to the "sponsor" power as a further unique way to penalize the witch for breaking the pact.

    Example: A witch who's sponsor is Wee Jas could since breaking the pact begin to age rapidly to correspond with her real age with all it's negative effects since her portfolio includes vanity.

    Other "sponsors" could have equally inventive punishments for breaking their pacts to reflect their personalities and portfolios.

    Just an idea...


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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        I will be posting an addendum to The  Witch, with additional spells from sources other than the PH 3.5.  

        There is not enough space here to address your other comments, so I'll respond to them one at a time hereafter.

       


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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    Here we go.


    1. Nature Sense is what it is.  Think of it more as how an herbalist or hedge wizard comes to know of nature, rahter than how a druid does.  Some of the ability is supernatural in origin as well; the witch is "told things" by minions of her patron.  You might say that its the "voices in her head", or the unseen things she occasionally speaks to that nobody else can see.  Witches are just odd that way.  

        Nature Sense serves the witch in two ways.  It helps keep her alive by her being able to identify drinkable water or edible plants, or tell her which animals are deadly dangerous.  It also serves to help the witch in knowing about herbal regents and rare animal bits useful in her ritual magic and for spell components.     


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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    2.  The "witch's mark".  This is represented by the effect explained under "Hindrances of the Pact".  In hindsight, I should have explained it more fully, and given an example of it as well, and I'll do that now.  

        The "unnatural presence" exuded by a witch manifests in ways that are connected with the power that she serves.  There is a storm witch in my campaign.  Her presence is often preceeded by dark clouds, rolling peals of thunder, or far off flashes of lightning.  Her clothing and hair is occasionally stirred by nonexistent winds.  The blowing wind in her presenece may sometimes almost sound like it is made up of voices.  These effects are all supernatural in origin and are linked with The Pact.  The witch's patron and its servants and allies inherantly know that the witch serves their cause.  The witch is in effect "marked".  A storm witch's affiliations are obvious to the powers of or those serving the plane of air or a related plane, such as the quasi- and para-elemental planes related to the plane of air.  This still doesn't mean that they will neccessarily get along well with the witch, but they might be more disposed to treat with her non-violently.   I leave that to the DM's discretion.   


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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    3. Coven requirements.  There are requirements, but the answer to this question will be dealt with in the addendum, as it is a bit too complex to get into here.  The Coven has been smashed, but it is still functional.  The destruction of The Coven was a side event in my campaign.  The main reason I chose to include the destruction of The Coven in the other article was for a simple reason: anybody who wants to make use of it can rebuild it in their own image, should they choose to do so.   


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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    4. The fascinate ability.  Clerics and paladins of equaivalent level to the witch have little or nothing to fear from this power.  A 16th level cleri for instance has a +10 Will save bonus base, not including what will probably be another +4 for an 18 or 19 wisdom score.  And this doesn't include any other bonuses from the magic items such a high level character will probably possess as well. The paladin has a +5 Will save bonus base, and will probably have minor bonuses to add to that from both Wisdom and Charisma scores, not to mention any magic items.  

       Think of the fascination ability as the ultimate means of seduction , or as "the Jedi mind-trick" if you prefer, though it goes a bit farther than that.  It is best employed by a witch against henchmen and other low-level creatures.  using this ability to cause a "fall from grace" would be a questionably evil act in any case.  It all depends on the DM's judgement on a case-by-case basis.     

     


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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    5. Longevity.  

       First off, if any campaign has a surplus of 20+ level witches running about, then well, fudgerific for you!  ;)    That being said, very few people have the inborn ability to channel other planar powers in the way that a witch does.  Witches are rare.  Extremely rare.  Lets say that for every 10 wizards in existance there is 1 sorcerer(presuming that sorcerers are slightly rare in your campaign).  For every 10 sorcerers there might be one witch, ergo for every 100 wizards, there is 1 witch.  Nobody is running to sign up to be a witch; its done in-utero.  And besides, who lives long enough in a campaign to actually make use of this ability?  It is more obviously intended as a tool for the dm to facilitate making available in the campaign some rather old witches.  Iggwilv and Baba-Yaga come to mind, though these two have probably already founds means to go beyond the 440 year limit.

    As a final note, the longevity ability as presented in the Dragon #114 article "The Witch" caused the witch to age from that point on at one tenth of the regular rate.  I actually toned it down by more than half.    


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    Re: The Witch (Score: 1)
    by Cebrion on Sat, August 20, 2005
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        I hope that the above comments help further explain some of my intentions regarding how and why this class was constructed as it was. 
    Thanks for you questions and comments.

    ---Cebrion


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