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Carl
2013-08-16, 12:29 PM
Lore: There are countless types of witches in the many worlds that exist. Some evil, other not. Many are of limited magical power, and most that are not are really wizards, or sorceresses of some kind using an alternate title on account of their feminimity. True Whitches however gain their power in a different but more direct mean’s. Usually it is through some form of magic ritual, though it may not be of the dancing without your drawers on variety. Others gain it through some affinity with a place or location, or a connection of a similar kind. Though some argue these are more technically a form of druidess without the animal specifics or shape-changing abilities. In most cases witches start with only a very limited and basic amount of true magical power, enough to woo an ignorant peasant or inconvenience a few town guards, but nothing on par with a true magic user. Only experienced witches have what others would consider true spellcasting capabilities.

Amongst the more evil forms there are the Hag’s. Hag’s revel in blood sacrifice, and unusually for Witches have a more directly Martial tendency to their methods. Though like all witches they do posses initial minor magic that soon grows to more overt methods. Like nearly all witches they have littlie tolerance for outsiders in their affairs. Though they have no special hatred for them in passing contact. As a result of this few have any ability to call on them for aid, and their desecration of the dead in sacrifices tends to leave limited useful remains for the creation of undead. As a result their magic, whilst strongly bent towards the use of negative energy has virtually no ability to call upon outsiders or create undead.

Author Note: This class is strongly inspired by the Witch elves of Warhammer fame. So consider the above bit of lore in light of that.


Requirements:

Alignment: Any evil

Race: Any Female

BAB: 6+

Feats: Spring Attack, Two Weapon Fighting

Class Skills: Balance, Concentration, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Religion), Move Silently, Perform (Dance), Spellcraft

Skills Points: 6 + Int

Hit Dice: D10

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|Special

1st |+1|+2|+2|+0|-|-|-|- |Ambidextrous, Superior Two Weapon Fighting, Frenzy
2nd |+2|+3|+3|+0|-|-|-|- |Venom, Channel Spell
3rd |+3|+3|+3|+1|-|-|-|- |Sneak Attack 1D6
4th |+4|+4|+4|+1|-|-|-|- |Furious Pounce
5th |+5|+4|+4|+1|2|-|-|- |Blood Frenzy
6th |+6|+5|+5|+2|4|2|-|- |Plague, Sneak Attack 2D6
7th |+7|+5|+5|+2|6|4|2|- |Improved Channel Spell
8th |+8|+6|+6|+2|8|6|4|2 |Creature of the Night
9th |+9|+6|+6|+3|8|8|6|4 |Sneak Attack 3D6, Evisceration
10th |+10|+7|+7|+3|8|8|8|6 |Bloodied Blades
[/table]

Weapon & Armour Proficiencies: A Witch Hag is proficient with Light armour all Simple, and Martial One handed Melee weapons and Double Weapons, Bastard Swords, Orc Double Axe, Dire Flail, and Two Bladed Sword.

General Note:

Spellcasting:

A Witch Hag is a Spontaneous Divine Spellcaster with a Caster level equal to her Witch Hag level. However a Whicth Hag does not require a Focus even if the spell in question normally would. In addition Meta-Magic Spells cast via the Channel Spell class feature become swift actions as per the ability description despite being meta-magiced, this is an exception to the normal metamagic rules for spontaneous spell casters.

A Witch Hags primary spellcasting stat for bonus spells is Strength and her spells have a save DC of (10 + Spell Level + Strength Modifier).

The Number of Spells a Witch Hag may cast at each level is given above and her Spell list is given below. A Whicth Hag knows all spells on her spell list by default. See below table for any spell specific notes, (Spells with notes are marked by an * symbol in the table).

{table=head]1st Level Spells|2nd Level Spells |3rd Level Spells |4th Level Spells
Align Weapon*|Acid Arrow|Antipathy*|Black Tentacles
Bane|Bestow Curse|Confushion|Dark Might*
Cause Fear|Blight|Crushing Despair|Enervation
Chill Metal|Blindness/Deafness|Inflict Serious Wounds|Lesser Eyebite*
Chill Touch|Deeper Darkness|Keen Edge|Feeblemind
Darkness|Desecrate|Scare|Freedom of Movement
Daze Monster|Ghoul Touch|Vamparic Touch|Haste
Death Knell|Inflict Moderate Wounds||Inflict Critical Wounds
Diminish Plants*|Lesser Confushion||Mind Fog
Doom|Lesser Geas||Slow
Endure Elements|Nightmare||Spell Resistance
Greater Touch of Fatigue*|Ray of Exahustion||Stoneskin
Inflict Light Wounds|Scare||Unhallow
Ray of Enfebelment|Sepia Snake Sigil||Geas
Sleep|Silence||Unholy Blight
Spider Climb|Touch of Idiocy|||
True Strike|Web||| [/table]

Align Weapon: May only be used to Align to Evil.

Diminish Plants: Only Stunt Growth option may be used.

Greater Touch of Fatigue: This functions as per the spell Touch of Fatigue except the duration is 1 minute per caster level.

Antipathy: You may only choose to exclude Good Alignment when using this spell.

Dark Might: This functions exactly per the spell Righteous Might.

Lesser Eyebite: This functions as per the spell Eyebite, but with a maximum of 1 target affected per casting.


Class Features:

Ambidextrous (lv 1 Ex): A Witch Hag treats the off hand end of a double weapon as a One-Handed melee weapon instead of as a light weapon. A Witch Hag using a one handed melee weapon in both her main and off hands ignores the normal penalties for wielding two weapons. Her main and off-hand attack’s are made at her full base attack bonus, (with normal reductions for sequential attack’s of course). In addition so long as she is wielding a one-handed melee weapon in her off hand it will gain a bonus from her strength modifier equal to the full modifier instead of half as is normally the case.

Superior Two Weapon (lv 1 Ex): A Witch Hag Immediately gains the Improved Two Weapon fighting feat, even if she does not posses the pre-requisite’s, though only whilst wearing light or no armour, and not whilst wielding any form of shield. Upon acquiring a Witch Hag level that raises her Base attack bonus to 11+ or higher she immediately gains the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat for free, though only whilst wearing light or no armour, and not whilst wielding any form of shield. Upon acquiring a Witch Hag level that raises her Base attack bonus to 16+ or higher she immediately gains the Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting feat, (see Epic Feat list for details), for free, though only whilst wearing light or no armour, and not whilst wielding any form of shield.

Frenzy (lv 1 Ex): As a free action declared at the start of her round only a Witch Hag may enter or exit a state of Frenzy. Whilst in this state she loses an amount of AC equal to, (4 + Her Witch Hag level), and gains an equivalent bonus to her Attack Rolls, Damage Rolls, Saves, and Concentration Skill Check’s. She also gains Fast Movement equal to 5Ft per Witch Hag level. A Witch Hag who is Frenzying may not utilise the Power Attack feat, nor may she utilise any of the following skills: Appraise, Bluff (with the exception that Feints are allowed however), Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Knowledge, Move Silently, Open Lock, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Use Magic Device, Use Rope. Unless forcefully ended via an outside force or special condition a Frenzy lasts a minimum number of rounds equal to the Witch Hag’s strength modifier. Until this many rounds have elapsed she may not voluntarily end it.

Venom (lv 2 Su): A Witch Hag may utilise the following Supernatural ability at will as a Swift Action. There is no limit on how many times per day it may be utilised. To utilise this ability the Witch Hag must make a successful Touch Attack. If successful the Target may be affected by any poison listed in the Core SRD. The Save DC to resist both the initial effect and to resist the secondary damage is, (10 + Witch Hag level + Strength Modifier). In addition, a Witch Hag is now immune to all Poisons, mundane or magical.

Channel Spell (lv 2 Ex): Once per round as a Swift Action a Witch Hag may Cast any one spell, (utilising the normal spell slot it would occupy, including modifications for meta-magic), Supernatural Ability, or Spell Like ability she posses that affects enemy creatures. Doing so stores the spell or ability in any One-Handed melee weapon she is currently wielding. No weapon may hold more than one spell in this fashion. A spell so stored persists until the weapon leaves the Witch Hag’s hand or 10 rounds have passed. So long as the spell is stored the Witch Hag may voluntarily discharge it any time she strikes a valid creature. She does not however have to discharge it upon the first creature struck. The spell when discharged affects the creature struck and if it has an area, the area is centred upon the creature struck, the Witch Hag herself is never affected by such an area spell however, even if she falls within it’s area. If the area is a cone or cylinder the Witch Hag may choose the direction it emanates in. No attack roll is required upon the creature struck, though area spells that catch others within their area and that would normally require an attack roll upon those targets still require one upon said targets.

Sneak Attack (lv 3 Ex): This functions exactly as per the Rouge Feature of the same name, with the damage amounts and progression shown in the class table above.

Furious Pounce (lv 4 Ex): At 4th Level a Witch Hag gains the Pounce ability whilst in a Frenzy.

Blood Frenzy (lv 5 Ex): A Blood frenzy is entered and exited in the same manner as a normal Frenzy and you may switch both from an un frenzied state to a Bloody Frenzy State (and back again), as well as from a normal Frenzy to a Blood Frenzy, (and back again). You may not enter a Blood Frenzy if you have 10 or less HP remaining. A Bloody Frenzy Grants all the normal effects of a Frenzy, in addition it has the following further effects. At the end of any round in which she is in Blood Frenzy a Witch Hag looses 1 hitpoint per Witch Hag level. If this reduces her to 10 or less HP’s the Blood Frenzy immediately ends, (the Witch Hag may voluntarily reduce it to a normal Frenzy instead). She also gains a bonus to her Caster Level and Spell DC equal to her Witch Hag level, and a Bonus to all melee damage equal to double her Witch Hag level. A Witch Hag in a Blood Frenzy is also now immune to all Mind Affecting Effects.

Plague (lv 6 Su): A Witch Hag’s Venom Ability is upgraded to the Plague Ability at 6th level. In addition to all Prior effects a Witch Hag may now inflict any Disease from the Core SRD instead of a Poison. She also Gain immunity to all mundane and Magical Diseases.

Improved Channel Spell (lv 7 Ex): A Witch Hag my now cast and store in her weapons two spells, supernatural abilities, spell like abilities, or any combination thereof totalling 2 instances. The limit of 1 spell per weapon applies and all other limitations, etc remain unchanged.

Creature of the Night (lv 8 Su): So strong has the Witch Hag’s connection to negative energy become that she begins to take on aspects of creatures directly empowered by it. Whenever struck by a Negative Energy effect that would affect a Negative Energy creature differently she may choose to treat herself as a Negative Energy creature for the purposes of it’s affects. In addition the Witch Hag becomes immune to all death effects.

Evisceration (lv 9 Ex): Any time an enemy suffers Sneak attack Damage it must in the next round pass a fortitude save with a DC equal to, (Sneak Attack Damage Done + Witch Hag’s strength Modifier), or suffer the same damage again, bypassing all DR or Energy Resistance that may apply in the process.

Bloodied Blades (lv 10 Su): Over time the Dark Sacrifices performed by a Witch Hag and the blood thus spilt in the name of power with them begins to affect them as well. Starting at 10th level a Witch Hag’s melee weapons ignore all DR and Energy Resistances, as does any spell Channelled through them. In addition her Weapons Gain the Unholy Property in addition to any it already possessed.



Author Notes:

The Basics: Many of the choices in terms of skills where informed by both the background and inspiration material. The decision, (again from the inspiration martial), to make this a dual wield type with a strong martial focus also dictated a good hit die and drove much of the other pre-requisites. I also handed out proficiencies in every relevant weapon so as to open more stylictic options beyond what might be easily available from a base class.

Class Features:

Ambidextrous and Superior Two Weapon fighting are really there to make sure you get the necessary feats without the complication of assuming they take the class the instant its available and progress in only the class till they max it. At the same time it keep a certain minimum number of levels required to get the full benefit. If anyone can suggest a better way of doing this though I’m open to it as it’s rather clunky atm.

Frenzy is another call to the inspiration material. It provides a significant increase in a number of useful area’s at the cost of a large amount of AC, the save bonus may be a bit OTT but the rest I’m happy with as they cover important dual wield bases of more damage and better sequential attack hit rate whilst having an appropriate downside not easily bypassed.

Venom is the very last of the call backs to the inspirational material, from this point on the Witch Hag is largely developing from my own lore piece at the top after this. This ability is largely flavourful, but it does have some nice applications, particularly for reducing stats for other spells, and it gives me an excuse to introduce the next capability that much earlier.

Channel Spell is initial quite weak with only really Venom to work with for a few levels, (unless a racial template or class is granting another suitable capability), however it quickly grows into it’s own at later levels as spells come in, and until then it can still be an excellent way of delivering a Venom effect as it can be pre-prepared rounds in advance if need be. Later as the spells do come in it’s the perfect way to smack someone over the head with a nice melee hit whilst still beating them around the head with spells as well.

Sneak Attack needs no real introduction, it’s another flavour capability that also aides with one handed damage some more.

Furious Pounce throws some much needed focus on the mobility side of things without encouraging silliness with stormtrooper. It’s also a nice melee damage helper.

Blood Frenzy does a few important things. First and foremost it gives a Witch Hag access to a much higher caster level, and it raises her spell DC’s to nearly unbeatable levels. It also adds yet another large bunch of damage to her martial capabilities. All whilst hitting her with an even bigger downside.

Plague is a simple an natural upgrade to Venom, though I can see easily how it’s utility will be more for an NPC enemy than a PC.

Improved Channel finally lets the Witch Hag take full advantage of her dual wield and her expanding synergy options amongst her spells. She can now drop some powerful one two combo’s on people, all while wailing away with melee damage.

Creature of the Night finally gives her self healing access beyond potions; it also grants her a fair degree of immunity to a lot of common nasty tricks, and even the odd beneficial effect. Death immunity on top is a nice extra.

Evisceration is yet another solid damage dealer that avoids adding any more front loading to things, though the maximum effect without a sneak attack granting class is minor at best. TBH it was mostly a way to avoid a dead level.

Bloodied Blades is very powerful however, giving you enormous amounts of bonuses to simple damage dealing spells and the benefit to your melee attacks is non-minor too. But it deals with every Dual Wielders main issue, DR.


Spellcasting:

The spellcasting has largely focused on various spells with negative energy, cold, or curse like associations, though I threw a few others in that I felt gave important capabilities, because of blood frenzy I was careful to drop SoD’s from the list after I decided to add it, (if I missed any shout), though a huge range of debuffs, and damages remain. Still I admit the list feels a littlie short on spells sometimes, especially 3rd level ones and there’s a lot of sameyness about the effects. (If anyone wants to suggest some non-cores spells to add, send me a link). I also created a few new variant spells along the way or added thematic limits to existing ones. Spell level isn’t always in line with other spellcasters, but this is necessary IMO as the spellcasting comes much later, so some 2nd and higher level spells become much more appropriate at a lower spell slot due to defences and countermeasures being more prevalent than would be normal.


Overall my general thought are that I’ve maybe slightly overdone the melee damage and that the spellcasting maybe needs some more work in terms of spells available to feel truly complete. I also don't feel like the mobility side of things has been sufficiently touched upon.

Your thoughts?

Carl
2013-08-17, 01:07 PM
So anyone going to say anything :smallyuk:, or am i really that boring?

Zakaroth
2013-08-17, 02:06 PM
Ok, I'm going to give my honest critique. To me this PrC feels like a collection of existing abilities munched together, not really bringing that much new or unique to the game. You can pretty much accomplish what this PrC does with existing PrC's (mostly the Daggerspell Mage (http://dndtools.eu/classes/daggerspell-mage/)), making this somewhat redundant.

If you are new to homebrewing classes, I would like to advice you to read this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137641). Its a great guide/article about creating your own classes, written by someone who is really knowledgeable about the game.
I find it pretty hard to make a good PrC, in the way that they are often hard to justify (there are so many already). However, don't be de-motivated, just try to find a way to make it into something a bit more unique.

Hanuman
2013-08-17, 03:00 PM
Have to agree, not a fan of flat TWF and I'm not really sure how anything but the spell prog. fits the hag at all.

The spell progression is probably where you want to start flavoring.

Seems you want to go with a mix of arcane and tome of battle here.

Use standard spell progression for half casters, half-cast spell slots are actually 1 number lower than they would normally be, like a paladin may have the same spell as a cleric but it would be listed as Cleric 2 and Paladin 1.

Include what version it's from, Pathfinder or 3.5

Carl
2013-08-17, 04:22 PM
All right first thing to bear in mind is that unless someone has linked it to me previously i'm only aware of 3.5 core, (meant to put 3.5 in the title, sorry), so i'm not always going to be aware i'm aping an existing class or PrC.

That said the link to the daggerspell mage made me realise that maybe i haven't laid out what i was going for very well.

I'll throw a pair of image links in first in case your unfamiliar with the source material, though i figure mos here know it in passing at least.

1 (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120823031405/warhammer40k/images/f/fd/Statue_of_Khaine.jpg) (Note despite the source it is a fantasy image not a 40K one)

2 (http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lob9cyLvJF1qbtvllo1_500.jpg)

The basic info behind them is that they're blood crazed sadists worshipping the god of murder and who conduct blood sacrifices to maintain their eternal youth, and love bloodshed in all it's forms, reviling in it. When they come for you it will be with both their iconic hooked blades swinging aiming to rip you open in the bloodiest way possible. The most powerful go even further mixing deadly magic with blades of deadly power.


Now for a D&D PrC i wanted something a bit more distinct from the source material and with a bit more spellcaster focus. So Witch Hags changed a bit. Blood Sacrifice changed from a way in which they acquire youth to the source and font of their magical might. They literally rip the power from their sacrificial victim's, stealing their essence, their lifeforce to gain the power required to cast their spells. I chose not to throw in sacrifice mechanics with steep penalties for not sacrificing a victim every few day/week/e.t.c. simply because such limits tend to get looked down on as overly restrictive from a rules PoV. At the same tiem i didn't want to lose that blood crazed feel from them, it's an important part of the inspiration, and they don't become power leeching blood sacrifice'rs just for the power, their are quicker and surer paths to power than this, they do it this way because they have a love and a joy of spilling blood and watching the sweet juice of life trickle and flow. The mere though of a chance to spill yet more of the precious liquid drives them into a furious state where the destruction of their opponents means more than their own self preservation. Eventually they'll come down off their "high" (As it where), and can again dedicate themselves to their defences if they wish. Over time this becomes a more controlled effect that they can enter and exit more wilfully and they can push their limits in weaknesses further to gain ever more power.


On a mechanical level this dictated a fairly varied range of abilities. The latter section of my description above threw a real emphasise on allowing frenzied heedless attacks. As you progress up this grows in power until it becomes really devastating. I went for the dual wield for a few reasons. A) Sacrifices with a great big broadsword, e.t.c. don't make sense, and i'd expect the weapons to be similar if not the same, (hence Bloodied Blades) . B) if your going for a really overbearing super fluid attack style a faster to swing weapon than a 2-hander makes more sense thematically. It encourages the barrage of blows effect i want to see.

At the same time i start handing out spells at later levels to bring in the spell-casting, which i want to emphasise a bit more than the base material, and i brought in channel spell and it's improved variant to let them make full use of spells whilst still beating things bloody with their blades.

On another mechanics level this is meant to provide both some martial progression and some spellcasting alongside, it's aimed more at martial classes that want a dash of spellcasting, rather than existing mages who want more martial.


That said i think somewhere along the way i got so focused on the martial aspect i forgot the spellcasting. I think going to a 6th level caster like a bard would work MUCH better. AT the same time i think i need to really re-look at how a verity of other aspects work to throw some emphasis back on the spellcasting. Bear in mind that i'm also deliberately handing out a few too many spell slots in the first draft explicitly because mos low level effects are rather weak by the time you get them and because they need a lot of spells with a typical two a round being expended, (though there therefore a need to keep everything under control power wise).

Hope that lot helps understand my thought processes better.

Hanuman
2013-08-17, 08:44 PM
Hags are a very specific thing, I see this being more of a drow coven or similar.

I would still go with tome of battle, making sort of a mix between a swordsage/duskblade PRC with a custom maneuver list.

"Something Pact" or whatever.