A while back, when I was talking about my witch Elowen Hale, I said that the Daggerheart playtest witch played a big role in who she is and what her character was like. I also said then, "When the new Dread add-on for Daggerheart is out, I'll come back to this and detail a bunch of witches."
Well. It is out now. And it's not just witches; it has warlocks as well.
Elowen Hale
I have posted Elowen once before, but I wanted to check how well the playtest matched the final version. So far I have not noticed much difference, but granted, Elowen is only first level. Elowen really typifies what I think of when someone says "Hedge Witch." She is not about power, or flashy magic. She like tea, a pastry, dancing in the rain with her friend Dori, oh, and figuring out why she returned from the dead. The new Daggerheart: Hope & Fear has a "returned" character type that almost, but not quite, fits her. Maybe I'll adapt some of it later on for her. She isn't a reanimated corpse nor is she a ghost or a vampire. She is...well, she is Elowen, and she is fairly unique among my witches.
Level 1
Class & Subclass: Witch (Hedge)
Ancestry & Heritage: Loreborn human
Pronouns: She/Her
Agility: 0
Strength: -1
Finesse: 0
Instinct*: +2
Presence: +1
Knowledge: +1
Evasion: 10
Armor: 3
Minor Damage: 7 Major Damage: 14
Weapons: Wand. Trait and Range: Knowledge Far. 1d6+1 (Magical)
Armor: Leather 6/13 +3
Experience
I See Dead People +2
Fate Always Has a Price +2
Hex
Commune (with ghosts only)
Talisman (the spoon she was holding when she died.)
Dagger (she rarely uses it)
Spells (Spell casting: Instinct)
Blightning Strike, Level 1 Dread
Umbral Veil, Level 1 Dread
For her experiences. "I See Dead People" should be pretty obvious. She sees ghosts. Everywhere and all the time. Even the harmless ones. She sees them, and they see her. This can given her clues as to something going on. She can look at an ancient burned building and see it filled with tavern patrons and know that it was a tavern at some point in the past. When? Well, that depends on her rolls.
Her "Fate Always Has a Price" is there to help me find creative ways to deal with the fact that maybe she didn't really come back in one piece. There is something strange still going on. This lets her tap into her strangeness.
Skylla
Skylla is not always my go-to Warlock, but in this case she works very well. Especially if I am planning to use my Iriandor setting. She is largely the same as her AD&D/D&D counterpart down to my idea that she is somehow a clone, duplicate, or something related to Charmay. Daggerheart has enough flexible weirdness for me to explore this more. Giving her the Pact of the Wrathful is my way to represent her own internalized anger issues. I also have worked up my other warlock, Taryn, a little, and she is also Pact of the Wrathful, but in her case it is because her father is a warrior defending a realm.
Level 3
Class & Subclass: Warlock (Pact of the Wrathful)
Ancestry & Heritage: Loreborn human
Pronouns: She/Her
Agility: +1
Strength: -1
Finesse: 0
Instinct: +1
Presence*: +2
Knowledge: +0
Evasion: 12
Armor: 3
Minor Damage: 9 Major Damage: 16
Weapons: Dual Staff. Trait and Range: Instinct Far. 2d6+3 (Magical)
Armor: Leather 6/13 +3
Experience
I Will be a Master of Magic: +2
I am More then Charmay's Shadow: +2
More Power: +2
Patron's Pact
Favor (3)
Talisman (the spoon she was holding when she died.)
Dagger (she rarely uses it)
Spells (Spellcasting: Instinct)
Blightning Strike, Level 1 Dread
Umbral Veil, Level 1 Dread
Voice of Dread, Level 1 Dread
Hideous Retribution, Level 2 Dread
Invisibility, Level 3 Grace
Skylla has some anger issues and a huge case of imposter syndrome. She thinks she knows who she is, but is plagued by nagging self-doubt. This causes her to throw herself into her magic. She has to be better, more powerful, and then and only then can she feel like she is truly herself.
Her experiences reflect this. She craves more power, she craves validation, and she can't help but do the things she needs to do to survive and become more powerful.
Daggerheart is nothing if not a great place for some really good conflicted characters. Maybe she needs therapy and not an adventuring career.
Larina Nix
I have not worked out all the details yet of the Larina of Iriandor, save that I know she is powerful. Did she fight in the Last War? Certainly. This would be a reflection of her D&D version that Unmade an Archduke of Hell. I think, given the nature of Iriandor she would be part of the group that seeks to rebuild the world into someplace better. That is very much her.
Also, her focus would be protecting witches and warlocks. Post-war, these spell casters are mistrusted and thought to have sided with the fiends who had controlled everything. While many did, not all, and Larina is here to make sure they are protected, though there are still some witches who conspire to bring back the fiends and return to power.
Level 10
Class & Subclass: Witch (Moon)
Ancestry & Heritage: Loreborn human
Pronouns: She/Her
Agility: 0
Strength: -1
Finesse: 0
Instinct*: +5
Presence: +2
Knowledge: +3
Evasion: 11
Armor: 3
Minor Damage: 16 Major Damage: 23
Weapons: Dual Staff. Trait and Range: Instinct Far. 4d6+3 (Magical)
Dagger. Trait and Range: Finesse Melee. 1d8+1 (Physical)
Armor: Leather 6/13 +3
Experience
Scholar of the Occult +5
Affinity for Languages +4
Commanding Presence (Witch Queen) +3
Witches are Everywhere (Contacts) +2
I have seen Horrors +2
Hex
Commune
Talisman (Book of Shadows)
Handcrafted Besom
Spells (Spellcasting: Instinct)
Blightning Strike, Level 1 Dread
Natural Familiar, Level 2 Sage
Terrify, Level 3 Dread
Healing Field, Level 4 Sage
Spectral Mists, Level 5 Dread
Dire Strike, Level 5 Dread
Darkness, Level 6 Dread
Sage Touched, Level 7 Sage
Rejuvination Barrier, Level 8 Sage
Eldritch Flesh, Level 8 Dread
Fane of the Wilds, Level 9 Sage
Avatar of Terror, Level 10 Dread
This feels right for a scholar-turned-warrior witch-turned-healer sort of Larina. Iriandor is a world after the Last War, and it needs healers more than warriors. She is 10th level, so she is not likely to be a PC but rather an important NPC.
But so far, I really like these characters, and they bring something a little different to the table. I might also build versions of Étaín Moonshadow and, of course, Taryn. Étaín is easy enough, to be honest; the hardest part is translating her quest to discover an ancient religion tied to the moon goddess. Or maybe not...after all, during the rule of the Arch Fiends all other religions were stamped out, and maybe Étaín's Threefold Goddess was something only passed down via an oral tradition.
Though...there is a lot with each character here, but especially Étaín, that ties them directly to their own worlds and not Iriandor. Maybe I need a new bunch of witches just for this world. Wouldn't hurt that is for sure.
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