Class Struggles: What Should a 5e Witch Be?

This post is an odd one for the Class Struggles series.  Instead of looking at different expressions of the same class or class-idea, I want to figure out what a 5e Witch class could be via the same sort of research and analysis.

Why do this?  Well the news came out yesterday that the 5e SRD is now released under the OGL.  While I had not really seriously contemplated the idea of a 5e witch.  I had been playing around with an idea I was calling The Coven for 5e.  Where I took established classes and tried to make them more "witch like" by working within the rules. I am still going to do that since it informs my own play and how the rules work for the various magic using classes.

I want to start by looking back to these posts, What Should an OSR Witch Do or Be? and Tom Moldvay on Witches.  Why? Well, this post represents my thought process when I was working on The Witch.  I like to walk through the same exercises for each version.  Start with the assumptions and then add in the game specific assumptions and see where that takes me.

Let me start by looking at the Moldvay Criteria again for 4e, Pathfinder and my Basic witch.  Why keep 4e? Well if WotC does their own witch it will be informed by the work they did in 4e.

Ability	4e Witch	Pathfinder Witch	Basic Witch
1. Ability to use Herbs	skills	skills	ability check
2. The Power of Fascination	powers	spells	spells
3. Clerical and Magic-User magic	Yes	Yes	Yes
4. Sympathetic Magic	limited to powers	limited to spells	new spell mechanic
5. Worshipers of forbidden religions	yes	yes	yes
6. Powers based on natural cycles	"Moon" builds	no	spells
7. Covens	Yes	only with hags	Yes
8. Ritual Magic	In PHB I only	limited	Yes

All 8 of these points must be met in order to create a new witch class.  Thankfully, this can be done in 5e.

So the ability to use herbs can be a Medicine or Nature check, depending on how it is used.
Fasicnation can be a power or spell or some combination (which also puts a vote in favor of Charisma as the prime stat).
Clerical & Magic-user magic. Not an issue.  I have a well-established list of spells.
Same with Sympathetic magic.
Covens, Powers based on the natural cycles, and worshippers of forbidden religions will need to be dealt with.
Ritual magic is well covered by D&D5.

Ok. So the framework is there and I have some ideas how to put the witch class on this framework. Time to start thinking about how 5e plays.

Covens as Builds/Archetypes
Each class has a "build" involved with it.  The Druids have Circles, the Sorcerers have their Origins, Warlocks have their Pacts and Wizards have Arcane Traditions.   Witches could have Covens.  In other books and games I have used "traditions" to cover this same basic idea.  But Wizards have that word now.   The Druid Circles struck me as being very coven like in truth.  Though the Warlock pacts could also be redone slightly to reflect some of the same ideas I have about covens and traditions.

Ability Scores
What ability score should I use?  I have, over the years, used Wisdom, Charisma and Intelligence.
The Witch uses Charisma.  Eldritch Witchery uses Wisdom and Inteliigence.  Pathfinder uses Intelligence and Charisma.  I used wisdom for both my 2nd and 3rd edition witches.  I can come up with reasons or justifications for any of them to be honest.  I prefer Charisma with Wisdom in a close second.  Trouble is D&D 5 already has two magic-users that use these abilities each.

I think I want to take a look at the 5 basic magic using classes in terms of how well they address the Moldvay Criteria.

Ability	Cleric	Druid	Sor	Warlock	Wizard
0. Ability Score	Wis	Wis	Cha	Cha	Int
1. Ability to use Herbs	Med	Med/Nat	No	Nat	Med
2. The Power of Fascination	spell	spell	spell	spell	spell
3. Clerical and Magic-User magic	Clr	Clr	MU	MU+Pact	MU
4. Sympathetic Magic	spell	spell	spell	spell	spell
5. Worshipers of forbidden religions	no	yes/no	NA	yes	NA
6. Powers based on natural cycles	no	yes	no	no	no
7. Covens	no	yes	no	yes	no
8. Ritual Magic	yes	yes	no	yes (pact)	yes

Looking at the list is seems that the best "witch" is either a druid or warlock.  This actually tracks with my playing of these two classes as wtiches.

In fact.  The Warlock is very much like what I would want for a witch, but only less "blasty".

Maybe a "Witch" is a warlock that has a "Goddess/God" Patron and instead of evocations there are spells.   I will have to experiment more to be honest. And certainly more time with the 5e Warlock.

I like the idea of of some powers (Occult Powers in previous editions) and spells.

I think IF I were to do a witch I would have to be very, very selective of her spells and make sure they balance out compared to the other classes. It is possible, even liekly that the Witch and the Warlock have similar lists, but who knows right now.

5e players. What do you think a 5e witch should do?

D&D 5th Edition SRD and OGL. Oh..and you can now write for the Forgotten Realms too.

Well no one suspected THIS I can tell you that.

Wizards of the Coast released the D&D 5th edition SRD along with the OGL 1.1 today.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd

They have also opened up something they call The Dungeon Master's Guild.
https://www.dmsguild.com/index.php?affiliate_id=10748

You can now release material under the OGL for 5e using the SRD.  OR if you want to say, write Forgotten Realms material, then you can do that too.

The SRD is nearly 400 pages of D&D 5th ed rules.

If you are a publisher and have something ready to go, you might want to consider your D&D5 options now.

So I have to ask.  Anyone interested in a 5e version of The Witch?

Weekend Gaming

The Order of the Platinum Dragon picked up a new character this weekend.  Crowley, a tiefling warlock had been captured by the Slavers in A1, he decided to stay with the group as they journeyed up the Drachenslab hills to A2.

So far the Order has done well. They have killed Markessa and are about to encounter the Ogre Mage.

The maps from the new Against the Slave Lords PDF came in very handy!

They have all already looted close to 50,000gp worth.  I might need to adjust the treasure for future modules.

Satisfied with Alpha Blue

Alpha Blue is the latest release from Kort'thalis Publishing and +Venger Satanis.

Alpha Blue is a Space Station where the party never ends.  The book is 111 pages (114 if you count covers and extra page). The art is what you would expect from Venger; good and on the creepy side.  Some I *think* I have seen before, but I can't be sure really.  But all of it really comes with a nice vibe of late 70s/early 80s sci-fi cheese.  Basically if you grew up in the 70s and 80s watching any sci-fi you will recognize something here. If you are like me then something you will like.  They layout is clean and easy to read. I also appreciate the color and b/w versions of the character sheet.

The book has a basic system attached to it, mostly, as the author describes to set the tone for a game.  The character generation system actually would well as an additional bit of character information for your standard OSR game.  There is some good material here that can be used for something like White Star or Starships & Spacemen.  Print out your game's regular sheet and an Alpha Blue sheet back to back.

The rest of the book is the reall meat of the book and might not really be most people's cup of tea.  Alpha Blue is a Space Brothel.  The obvious nod here is to the old adult movie The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue.  I will happily admit I have seen and enjoyed the movie.  Actually the movie is an interesting social commentary that all the best sci-fi movies have. But that is for another discussion.

Alpha Blue, the book, is thankfully devoid of social commentary.  I am not trying to say the book is nothing but sleazy encounters, but there is a lot here that can be great setting material...and some sleaze.

I think that Venger missed a good opportunity here to call the game master a "Blue Dungeon Space Master" or a BDSM.  A little awkward? Yeah.  No worse than Dungeon Master I guess.

I mentioned in the past that this premise reminds me of the +Shon Richards' story Pleasure Station Sigma.   The comparison still holds, but there is more to Alpha Blue than just that.

Honestly there are so many hidden gems and easter eggs here that I am still finding them weeks in to reading this game.  Which brings up a point.
The one thing this book lacks, and really could use, is it's own "Appendix N". A collection of late 70s early 80s B and C grade Sci-Fi movies and TV shows.  Off the top of my head I saw influences of Logan's Run, Barbarella (ok 60s), Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek (TOS), Star Wars (the first trilogy only), Doctor Who (explictly mentioned), Galaxina, Cherry 2000, Westworld, Heavy Metal, Weird Science, the Buck Rodgers RV series, the Flash Gordon movie and of course, Satisfyers of Alpha Blue.

There are a lot of random tables in this book too.  Personally I am not a fan of a bunch of random tables, but here it works.  After all this is a space station with a lot going on. Plus it fits not only the Gonzo-Sci-Fi style VS has going here, but also the Gonzo-OSR style all his books have.

Alpha Blue is not for the easily offended.  It is also not really for anyone that did not grow up in the 70s or 80s; too much of the content will be lost on anyone that hears "Starbuck" and thinks coffee or Katee Sackhoff.   There is the right group out there for this book, and for that group it will be a lot of fun.  Some reviews have called this an "adult" title.  Maybe.  Personally I would say it is R-rated at the worst.  Though now I do know how much damage a jelly-double headed dildo will do if used in combat.

ETA: Just learned of the death of David Bowie.  I think some stats for Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane or The Thin White Duke are in order.

The stars look very different today.

Friday Night Videos: Happy Birthday Elvis & David Bowie!

Happy Birthday to two great kings of rock, Elvis and David Bowie.

Birthday Witches

Today is a special day for two of my friends. Not only do they have new witch books out but it is also their birthdays!

Amber Benson's new book in the Witches of Echo Park series came out this week.  "The Last Dream Keeper" continues the story of the Echo Park coven and the discover that one among them, Lizbeth, is the last Dream Keeper.  In this book their enemies outnumber their friends and the coven will need to protect Lizabeth no matter the cost.

+Elizabeth Chaipraditkul also has a birthday today.  Her new game is "WITCH: Fated Souls".  I am still reading this one, but enjoy what I see so far.  I supported her Kickstarter for the book and I am quite pleased to have done so.  From the book:

You are a member of the Fated. An entire new world has opened up to you. This new world is filled with different planes to explore, each more beautiful and terrifying then the next. It has magical creatures, beasts woven from dreamstuff and monsters wrapped in nightmares. It is filled with a deep and beautiful history, some which only seems like a fairy tale. Your world will never be the same.

Together with your coven, other witches and warlocks who have been Fated, you will explore all the world and planes have to offer. Your coven will protect you, share in your joy, but also be the group of people who understand the harsh realities the life of being Fated brings. You’ll deal with the society, other Fated who have formed groups and government, ruled over by a group of Fated called the Council.

It *seems* like to me you could use Elizabeth's game to play in Amber's world.  I need to read more of each book to know for sure.  But I do know I will have a great time trying to find out!

Please wish these wonderful ladies happy birthday today by buying their books.  I consider them both to be freinds and I know the time, energy and love they put into their writing.

Happy Birthday to you both!

Game of the Year 2015: White Star

For me it really is no contest what last year's biggest and best game was.

It was +James Spahn's White Star.

Not that it is faux-Star Wars in a year of Star Wars (but that helps).
Not that it is a Swords & Wizardry reskinned (but that also helps).

No, it is because it is just so damn fun.  You can tell that James must have been having a great time writing this. It shows in his work.  Plus it is such a good seller on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG others must find it fun as well.

I also give it this nod for all the great supplements that have been coming out for it. You can find some of them in this nifty little guide, The White Star Catalog.

White Star isn't just a cool set of rules, it is also a nice sandbox with some minor assumptions on a game universe.   The best elements are left open for others to play with and develop further.

Between Star & Void is a great example.
This book covers the Star Knights and their enemies, the Void Knights, in greater detail.  +Matthew Skail has done a great job of showing us what both groups of Knights can do.  I came away not so much wanting to run "Jedi" or "Sith" but something more akin to the Green Lantern Corps.  At 109 pages it is a pretty full (101 pages of content) of material for Star Knights and Void Knights.  This book also includes Mystics, Star Pilot, Way Adapt and Alien Star Knight, and of course, Void Knights and an extra special group, the Eclipse Knights.
There are plenty of new Meditations for the Knights and Mystics and new Empowerments for Void Knights.  The Void Knights really kind of steal the show here a bit.  I think everyone loves a  good bad guy.  Though the Star Pilot will get a lot of love in some game groups I am sure.
We also have a chapter on Star Knight Martial Styles and a chapter on Star Sword construction.  They really put the "Tao" in "Way" here.  I have to admit reading this feels just like playing games in the late 70s early 80s when sci-fi was king and everywhere. I had toys from various franchises and freely mixed them all together is a crazy, and mostly incoherent, whole.  But I didn't care, it was fun.
This book is like that.  Not crazy and incoherent, but certainly a lot of fun.
There are some great Appendices here too. There is an alternate Meditation system in Appendix A.
Appendix B includes some "Fantasy Conversions" for Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Adventurer Conqueror King, or higher level White Star games.  This includes higher level Meditations

The art is a mixed lot, but I love the cover.
There are some obvious typos and the text needs some cleaning up here and there, but nothing that impacts readability or use.  There is a lot of fun in this book and I can't wait to try it out.

Even given my long complicated relationship with Sci-Fi RPGs, I think I may have found my game.