We now come to what be the most popular version of D&D ever published in terms of units sold and public discussion. While the debate can be held on the relative popularity of 1st ed vs. 5th ed one thing is certain that 5e has outsold all other versions of D&D and has introduced a new generation to the game that has been unprecedented.
The Game: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
I have described D&D5 as being something akin to the "Greatest Hits" of D&D. I see bits of 1st ed here, 2nd Ed there, lots of 3e, and even bits of 4e.
Released in August of 2014 we (my family and I) were not originally going to pick it up. I still had a ton of 4e material and my sons were looking seriously at 1st Ed to give it a try, but we starting hearing more so I grabbed the "D&D Next" playtest materials and thought, ok, let's give it a try. When August 8, 2014, rolled around the boys and I went out at midnight to get our copies (and tacos).
5e quickly became the home system here. My oldest ran games for his friends from high school and then college, he even ran games with his gaming group that has been together since they all met in pre-school. My oldest played and eventually started the Table Top Club at the local high school. Between the two of them, they must have gotten somewhere around 40-50 new players to the game. Of course many had heard about it via Critical Role first but remained players to this day.
The Characters: The Coven
right away I was asked if I was going to do a witch for D&D 5. Certainly, there are a lot of good reasons for me to do one, but in truth I was pretty happy with a lot of the options that D&D 5 already gives me. Plus I wrote my Old-School witch only after years of playing, writing and playtesting. Even when I published my first OSR witch book in 2012 I had over 30 years' worth of playing under my belt and a few published books. I didn't want to just knock together something and slap a 5e label on it.
Plus with the advent of the DMsGuild (and 5e adopting the OGL) there were and are plenty of witch options from others for 5e. I spent all of October detailing them.
So instead of making a witch class, I worked on characters that were RAW but I could make witchier.
I worked out some ideas and called them "The Coven." The idea here was to take a very basic old-school idea. Take a class and play it how I like. In each case, I took a by-the-book spellcasting class and took the options to make them feel more like a witch. The idea behind this group of witches is they all met in The Library, each searching for a particular tome. All six managed to end up at the same place at the same time and each one wanted the same book, the infamous Liber Mysterium. As it turned out the author of the Liber Mysterium, my iconic witch Larina, was present. She took all six under her tutelage. Each class is a magic-using, spell-casting class, and each one has some connection to learning or deeper mysteries. They all adventure and make appearances in my games as information brokers.
Since I am doing six characters today I am going to link out to their sheets on D&DBeyond.
Tayrn Nix
Half-elf Warlock (Fey Pact)
Taryn was the first "witch-like" character I tried. She is Larina's half-elf daughter. She is a warlock, fey pact, and is my "embrace the stereotype" witch character.
Celeste Holmes
Human Wizard (Sage)
Celeste was a character I was planning on creating when I was going to go back to 1st ed before 5th ed came out. She would have been a Magic-user but playing as a witch. She was the first character I imagined going to The Library. Felica Day is my model for this character.
Cassandra Killian
Human Sorcerer (Divne Soul)
With a backdrop of The Library, Cassandra became a no-brainer. She is very obviously modeled after Cassandra Cillian from the Librarians played by the lovely Lindy Booth. She is also a nod to another character in my shared world. When my High School DM went off to college he created more of his world and a character named Killian. Killian was major figure in his world and he created many adventures to go with it; Killian's Tower, Killian's Maze, Killians Dungeon, and so on. True old-school Gonzo affairs.
For my Cassandra, I wanted someone whose magic felt like second nature to her. She didn't learn it so much as live it. So the Sorcerer seemed like the best route. Know of the great wizard Killian she took his name as her own. She was the second character to enter the Library.
Jassic Winterhaven
Gnome Bard (College of Lore)
Jassic is a character I have used off and on since my 3e days. I will admit he was created as a response to so many people I have gamed with saying how much they hate gnomes. Jassic is a great guy. He is a bard but I play him like a Benandanti witch. He is also best friends with Taryn.
Sasha
Cleric (Knowledge Domain)
Sasha is an interesting one. She is a tiefling and claims to be the daughter of Glasya and is Taryn's Half-sister (same father, different mothers). She is a cleric, but again I play her like a witch priestess. I would suppose that the closest analogy would be if Sabrina (from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) was Rowena's (from Supernatural) daughter instead of Lucifer's. She is wanted by all the key players in Hell's Hierarchy but she herself has no power or pull beyond what she gets from her Goddess Cardea/Hecate (clerical). Cardea led her to the Library.
Áedán Aamadu
Human Druid (Circle of the Land)
Áedán is a druid pagan who is the son of my two druids from OSE, Asabalom and Maryah. They were great friends with Larina (that is they were all part of my OSE playtests and games in summer of 2019). Áedán is a circle of the land druid that I play as a pagan. Yes his name is Irish, but he looks like Will Smith. I am pretty sure that he and Taryn are going to have a thing.
Each one brings something different to the table for me. I can't wait to convert them back to Basic/OSE for my War of the Witch Queens!
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.
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