Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition came on the scene to much anticipation back in the Spring of 1989. I was in college at the time but I still managed to get the books very close on release day. The game was largely an update and cleanup of the AD&D 1st Ed rules. Gygax had been gone from TSR for a while at this point and the rules lacked his "voice" but they were a significant improvement in many ways.
But today no one talks about the 2nd ed rules as much as they talk about the settings.
The Game: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition
There is no doubt that the 2nd edition made many improvements to the AD&D ruleset. While Basic-era D&D moved on with the BECMI series, AD&D came here. With the streamlined, but not simplified, rules in place TSR focused on what they believed to be their cash-cow, settings. And to be fair the settings are what we all recall today. There were also tons of splat books and eventually an update that was called AD&D 2.5 by some, but never by the company.
This was also the edition that caved under the pressure of the religious right and bowdlerized demons and devils right out of the system. It would not be till later with Planescape that we got them back in the forms of Tanarri and Batatezu.
Since the Splats and Settings are so important to the identity of 2nd Edition it behooves me to mention a couple and my relationship with them. Not to mention the witch options they gave me.
The Complete Wizard's Handbook
Among 2nd Eds features were the "Kits" or archetypes you could apply to various classes to customize them. Sadly like many splat books you see power creep in these. The Complete Bard's Handbook was one of the worst offenders along with the Elves book. But today is not the day to discuss those. Today I want to talk about the Witch Kit.
The Witch-kit appeared in the Complete Wizard's Handbook and was a mere 3 or so pages, but it was the first official witch class in AD&D. She got powers every odd level and had a lot of role-playing potential. This might seem more powerful than your average wizard, but at the time everyone was assumed to have a kit of some sort.
Ravenloft
My world of choice in the 2nd Ed era was Ravenloft. The gothic horror tropes were too much of a lure to avoid. Interestingly enough it would not be until Spring of 2000 when Ravenloft would get their first witch class/kit and by this time they were owned by Wizards of the Coast.
This class/kit gave us the Witches of Hala, which is a kit that any non-magic using class could use, so only Fighter and Thief. But the witches did gain some spell abilities. To differentiate between the two witches Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol 3 calls the Complete Wizard Witch Kit the "Sorcerous Witch." To further distinguish them I took to calling the Witches of Hala "Hedge Witches."
Forgotten Realms
During the 2nd Edition years, Forgotten Realms was the undisputed King of the Campaign Worlds. I largely ignored it. I have made up for lost time since then and been spending more time in the Realms, but that is another post. I did however know all about the Witches of Rashemen and Spellbound was one of the first Realms products I ever bought. This setting also uses the wizard kit and the Witches of Rasemaar kit.
Due to the amount of material I have here I am also going to do two characters.
The Character: Sinéad
Following my Celtic-influenced witches, I give you Sinéad. Of course, she is named for Sinéad O'Connor whose album "The Lion and the Cobra" pretty much changed everything for me in 1988/1989.
Sinéad is built using the Witch Kit from the Complete Wizard's Handbook. Now the witch kit says they can't be multi-classed, but the concept I want to try is. So I am going to do it anyway, but not choose a kit for the Bard class. Some of the restrictions on this kit feel the same as the removal of the demons and devils; giving the players in-game reasons not to use it.
Sinéad is not a character I played back then, but this build is pretty close to what I would have created back in 1989 while living in Room 109 of the Wright I Hall Dorms.
Goodwife Sinéad
(Goodwife is how you address a witch whose marital status is unknown)Half-elf 7th level Wizard (Witch Kit)/7th level Bard
Chaotic GoodSTR: 12
DEX: 16
CON: 15
INT: 17
WIS: 14
CHA: 16
AC: 1 (Bracers of Defence)
HP: 50
THAC0 (Base): 17
Saving Throws
Paralyzation, Poison, Death: 12
Rod, Staff, Wand: 9
Petrification, Polymorph: 11
Breath Weapon: 13
Spells: 10
Weapons
Dagger
Proficiencies/Skills/Languages
Herbalism, Spellcasting, Artistic Abilities (Singing)
Climb Walls (30%), Detect Noise (40%), Pick Pockets (25%), Read Languages (90%)
Special Abilities
Half-elf: Resist Sleep (30%)
Bard: Spells, knowledge
Witch: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Secure Familiar (3rd), Brew Calmative (5th), Brew Poison (7th)
Spells
Bard: (1st) Light, Faerie Fire, Protection from Evil (2nd) Charm Person, Hold Person (3rd) Dispel Magic
Wizard (Witch): (1st) Audible Glammer, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Identity (2nd) Continual Light, Spectral Hand, Ray of Enfeeblement (3rd) Lightning bolt, Fly (4th) Dimension Door
The Character: Nida
Nida is a character I have been playing around with for my War of the Witch Queens. She is supposed to represent the "other" witches of 2nd Ed, the ones I didn't use but the ones everyone else did. That is the Witches of Hala and the Witches of Rashemen. She is not a starting character because I need her to have some history.
Nida was a Rashmi girl born to poor parents. She was playing when she was taken into the Mists and found herself in the lands of Ravenloft. She became a thief to survive the world on her own until she tried to pick the pockets of a Witch of Hala. For the next ten years she trained with this witch and learned the secrets of Hala and her magic. One night she was hunting a particularly nasty Annis Hag when she found herself back in her homeland of Rashemen. Unable to return, she tried to pick up her life before she left only to discover her family had long since died. She began training as a Wychlaran, or a Witch of Rashemen. Like the witches of her homeland she adopted a mask and changed her name to "Nida" which means "voice."
Note: Since Nida is a dual classed character, a Thief/Mage, there is no reason to assume she can't be a Thief (Witch of Hala) / Mage (Witch of Rashemen) even though the Witch of Hala can't be taken by a spellcaster (she is a thief at the time) and the Witch of Rashemen has to be a spellcaster (she is a mage at the time).
Lady Nida
Human 4th level Thief (Witch of Hala Kit) / 9th level Wizard (Witch of Rashemen kit)
Chaotic Neutral*(Witches in Ravenloft can't be chaotic, but this is the character concept I have.)STR: 11
DEX: 16
CON: 16
INT: 17
WIS: 13
CHA: 18
AC: 1 (Bracers of Defence)
HP: 48
THAC0 (Base): 18
Saving Throws
Paralyzation, Poison, Death: 13
Rod, Staff, Wand: 9
Petrification, Polymorph: 11
Breath Weapon: 13
Spells: 10
Weapons
Dagger
Proficiencies/Skills/Languages
Herbalism, Spellcasting, Artistic Abilities, Ancient History
Pick Pockets (35%) Open Locks (35%), Climb Walls (30%), Detect Noise (40%), Read Languages (90%)
Special Abilities
Witch of Hala: Spells, knowledge
Witch of Rashemen: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Secure Familiar (3rd), Brew Calmative (5th), Brew Poison (7th)
Spells
Witch of Hala: (1st) Combine, Reveal the Weave, Luck (2nd) Arcane Insights, Master Coven Magic (3rd) Water Walk
Wizard (Witch of Rahemen): (1st) Circle, Alarm, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp (2nd) Dazzle, Protection from Poison, Blindness, Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter (3rd) Firelance, Lightning bolt, Suggestion (4th) Negate Magic Weapon, Magic Mirror (5th) Teleport
I like these builds. I certainly want to use Nida somewhere. Maybe see what she is like with another system. Both are 14th level and have a similar range of abilities.
Character Creation Challenge
Tardis Captain is the originator of this idea and he is keeping a list of places participating. When posting to Social Media don't forget the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag.
RPG Blog Carnival
This month's RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Plastic Polyhedra. They are doing Characters, Stories, and Worlds, so that fits right in with everything we are posting this month.
Check out all the posts going on this month at both of these sources.
