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Chaotix
2016-06-28, 01:50 PM
This is a class me and a few of my friends have worked on. We felt that even though you can make a reasonable witcher in the pathfinder system there was reason to make a class dedicated to it.
For those of you who don't know, the witcher is a series of books that was made into games where you play essentially a monster hunter.
For those who have played the games or read the books this class may seem underwhelming compared to someone like Geralt. We felt that he was not too great a comparison because he is the main character and one of the best witchers to ever live. This is my very first attempt at creating a completely new class so it is probably flawed. Now without further delay, our attempt at a witcher class:

*edit: fixed some minor mistakes in the ability descriptions
*update: thanks to Antariuk for spotting these

Handle Animal added as a class skill
Trial of the grasses: changed the penalty to disguise from -5 to -4 to make it more uniform
Witcher blade: cleared up what weapons can be used with this and the last line regarding enchantment bonusses
Spellcasting: this was incomplete at the time of posting. I screwed up and the full information is now available.





Level
BaB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
1st lvl Spells
2nd lvl Spells
3rd lvl Spells
1st lvl Extracts
2nd lvl Extracts
3rd lvl Extracts


1
+0
+2
+0
+2
Trial of the Grasses, Witcher School, Witcher Code, Brew Potion, Witcher Blade (Silver)
1
-
-
1
-
-


2
+1
+3
+0
+3
Track
1
-
-
2
-
-


3
+2
+3
+1
+3
Bombs 1d6, Throw Anything
1
-
-
2
-
-


4
+3
+4
+1
+4
Witcher Blade (Magic)
1
-
-
3
-
-


5
+3
+4
+1
+4
Contracts +1
1
1
-
3
1
-


6
+4
+5
+2
+5
Bombs 2d6
2
1
-
3
2
-


7
+5
+5
+2
+5
Witcher Blade (Cold Iron)
2
1
-
4
3
-


8
+6/+1
+6
+2
+6
Contracts +2
2
1
-
4
3
-


9
+6/+1
+6
+3
+6
Bombs 3d6
2
1
1
4
3
1


10
+7/+2
+7
+3
+7
Witcher Blade (Ghost Touch)
3
2
1
4
4
2


11
+8/+3
+7
+3
+7
Contracts +3
3
2
1
5
4
3


12
+9/+4
+8
+4
+8
Bombs 4d6
3
2
1
5
4
3


13
+9/+4
+8
+4
+8
Quarry
3
2
1
5
4
3


14
+10/+5
+9
+4
+9
Contracts +4
4
3
2
5
5
4


15
+11/+6/+1
+9
+5
+9
Bombs 5d6
4
3
2
5
5
4


16
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+10
Witcher Blade (Adamantine)
4
3
2
5
5
4


17
+12/+7/+2
+10
+5
+10
Contracts +5
4
3
2
5
5
4


18
+13/+8/+3
+11
+6
+11
Bombs 6d6
4
4
3
5
5
5


19
+14/+9/+4
+11
+6
+11
Improved Quarry
4
4
3
5
5
5


20
+15/+10/+5
+12
+6
+12
Master Witcher
4
4
3
5
5
5



HD: d8
Alignment: Any
Skills: 6+int mod / lvl
Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Planes), Knowledge (Religion), Perception, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Stealth, Survival, Swim

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies:
Witchers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons as wel as with bastard swords. They can wear light or medium armor but are not proficient with any sort of shield. Witchers do not suffer arcane spell failure chance for any armor they are proficient with from their schools.

Trials of the Grasses:
A witcher undergoes a painful mutation at an early age and only a few survive the process.
The witcher gains low light vision, if he already had low light vision he gains darkvision 60ft instead. If he already had darkvision the range
is extended by 30ft. Because of the mutations many view witchers as monsters. The witcher gains a -4 penalty on perform, and on diplomacy against civilized races. The witcher apperance also gives away his nature. The specific traits change from person to person but every witcher has a physical trait that cannot be hidden with magic and gives away who he is. This trait can be hidden with mundance means though he still gains a -4 on disguise checks if he is attempting to hide his profession.

Witcher School:
A witcher is trained by a specific school, each have their own specialization.
Depending on the school you choose there will be changes to your character.

Wolf school
This is a school of generalists and uses the default class progression. Wolf witchers do gain appraise as a class skill. Wolfschool witchers gain bonus feats from this list on the following levels:
Acrobatic, Alertness, Athletic, Big Game Hunter, Conceal Scent, Endurance, Diehard,
Great Fortitude, Improved Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Improved Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes,
Improved Lightning Reflexes, Magical Aptitude, Persuasive, Run, Scholar, Skill Focus, Toughness
The witcher gains one feat on each of these levels: 1st, 6th, 11th & 16th

Cat school
The school of the cat focusses on agility and blows to vital organs. Witchers of the Cat school are only proficient with light armor and not with bastard swords. They gain proficiency with the hand crossbow. Cat school witchers gain a rogue talents on the following levels treating witcher levels as rogue levels.
3rd - Talent
9th - Talent
15th - Advanced Talent
These witchers switch the progression of their Fort and Ref saves.

Griffin school
The school of the Griffin is a magically oriented school. They do not gain any extracts though they have spells known and spells per day as a bard of their witcher level. They use the magus spell list. Their bomb progression is also halved:
1d6 at 6th level
2d6 at 12th level
3d6 at 18th level

Viper school
The viper school is a school of assassins. They do not gain proficiency with medium armor or with the bastard sword. Nor do they gain any bomb progression. These witchers gain 1d6 sneak attack when they would normally gain this in bombs. Viper witchers gain sleight of hand and knowledge (local) but do not gain knowledge (planes), survival Viper witchers do not gain the track feature but gain poison use instead. They gain slayer talents on the following levels treating witcher levels as slayer levels.
3rd - Talent
9th - Talent
15th - Advanced Talent
These witchers switch the progression of their Fort and Ref saves.

Bear school
The Bear school prefers a strong suit of armor over avoiding attacks and is a martial focussed school. These witchers have one less spell and extract per spell level per day. If this would put them at 0 they can only cast them if their stat bonusses are high enough. Witcher of the Bear school are proficient in heavy armors and with hand crossbows in addition to the normal witcher proficiencies.
1st - Weapon Focus (Bonded Weapon)
6th - Weapon Specialization (Bonded Weapon)
11th - Greater Weapon Focus (Bonded Weapon)
16th - Greater Weapon Specialization (Bonded Weapon)

Manticore school
Witchers of this school do not gain the ability to cast spells. They gain extracts know and extracts per day as an alchemist of their witcher level.
They also gain an alchemist bomb discovery at every 5th class level. They do not gain a grand discovery at 20th level though they do get a 4th bomb discovery.
Manticore witchers gain appaise as a extra class skill.

Brew Potion:
The witcher gains brew potion as a bonus feat at 1st level. He can only make potions of extracs he has in his formulea tome.

Witcher Code:
A witcher does not take contracts upon humanoids. He should use the best of his abilities to reach a peaceful solution with any intelligent monster.
(Witchers of the viper school do not have to follow the code)

Witcher Blade:
A witcher creates a bond with a weapon. This bonded weapon gains the following benefits:
At 1st level a witcher bonded weapon is treated as silver for overcoming damage reduction.
At 4th level a witcher'sbonded weapon is also treated as magic.
At 7th level his bonded weapon is also treated as cold iron.
At 10th level his bonded weapon gains the benefits of ghost touch.
At 16th level his bonded weapon is also treated as adamantine but only for overcomming damage reduction as noted above.
If the bonded weapon is lost or destroyed, it can be replaced after 1 week in a special ritual that costs 200gp per witcher level.
The ritual takes 8 hours to complete, if the previous weapon had any enchantment bonusses not resulting from class features and the like these are not transferred to the new weapon. The new weapon does keep it's own enchantment bonusses however. (You lose a +2 bonded weapon and the weapon you want to bond with is a +1 weapon. This means your new bonded weapon will have the +1 enchantment bonus it had before the ritual.)

Spellcasting:
A witcher is a spontaneus caster using wisdom as his casting stat.
He uses the Bloodrager spell list for his 1st to 3rd level spells and the Magus spell list for his 0th level spells.
(This is the case because the bloodrager does not have 0th level spells)

Spells Known:


Level
0th
1st
2nd
3rd


1
4
2
-
-


2
5
3
-
-


3
6
4
-
-


4
6
4
-
-


5
6
4
2
-


6
6
4
3
-


7
6
5
4
-


8
6
5
4
-


9
6
5
4
2


10
6
5
4
3


11
6
6
5
4


12
6
6
5
4


13
6
6
5
4


14
6
6
5
4


15
6
6
6
5


16
6
6
6
5


17
6
6
6
5


18
6
6
6
5


19
6
6
6
6


20
6
6
6
6




Alchemy:
A witcher gains bombs and extracts as a alchemist though the progression is according to the table above.
A witcher starts with a number of extracts known equal to 1+int mod. He gains 1 new extract known for every level he gains in the class.

Track:
At 2nd level the witcher gains a bonus on survival checks to track equal to half his class level.

Throw Anything:
At 3rd level the witcher gains throw anything as a bonus feat.

Contracts:
At 5th level whenever the witcher takes out a contract on a monster he gains the bonus indicated on the table on the following:
Attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, knowledge checks about the monster, survival to track the monster, perception vs the monster.

Quarry:
The witcher gains the quarry ability as a slayer, though instead of against a studied target he may only use it against a target he has a contract on.

Improved Quarry:
As per the slayer ability of the same name.

Master Witcher:
As per the master slayer ability from the slayer class though he can only use it against targets he has a contract on instead of on studied targets.

Digitalfruitz
2016-06-28, 11:25 PM
First off this is a beautiful class. The crunch is extremely well executed and the fluff that goes with it is awesome. I do however think that this class can be pretty complicated. I certainly wouldn't want a novice player to select this class.

Antariuk
2016-07-04, 11:57 AM
An interesting take on the witcher, I like it!
I've tried myself at writing a Witcher class a few years ago, using the magus as a template, but I never finished it.

Comments and criticism:


Why not grant Handle Animal as a class skill? I don't know what the PC games are like beyond the 1st title but I read all the books and I'd say that witchers can certainly make nice with beasts if they have to.
Trials of the Grasses: the improvement of vision seems a bit strong. I don't mind that this class grants something that's traditionally the territory of racial bonuses and feats and such, but granting +30 ft. to existing darkvision is extremely good. YMMV, though. Also, the differences between the Diplomacy/Perform penalty and the Disguise penalty seems quite random. I'd prefer a uniform value, like -4 for everything.
Witcher School: the changes between schools are quite fundamental, I feel reminded of the playtest version of the Vigilante class. I'd recommend scrapping everything from the general class table that's not granted equally by all schools, because right now one looks at the table and thinks "Hey, I get spells and extracts? Wohoo!" and then the fine print says otherwise, but only for one school.
Witcher Code: love it!
Witcher Blade: can it be any weapon? Right now it seems I could make a composite longbow my Witcher Blade - is that intentional? And what does the last line mean exactly? It seems to me like it's meant to apply to any additional magical enchantments bought or crafted by the character and not the bonuses granted by the class itself, but it reads a bit weird right now.
Spellcasting: not sure if bard spells are the way to go for a witcher, the magus list seems a bit more appropriate? You gave it to the Griffin school only, but it feels pretty witcher-y to me.


Final question: no magical signs? Aard, Yrden, and the like? I always thought they were a pretty iconic part of witcher magic, and I'd love to see them as class features similar to rogue talents that can be enhanced and unlocked, but not all at the same time.

Chaotix
2016-07-07, 12:44 PM
An interesting take on the witcher, I like it!
I've tried myself at writing a Witcher class a few years ago, using the magus as a template, but I never finished it.

Comments and criticism:


Why not grant Handle Animal as a class skill? I don't know what the PC games are like beyond the 1st title but I read all the books and I'd say that witchers can certainly make nice with beasts if they have to.
Trials of the Grasses: the improvement of vision seems a bit strong. I don't mind that this class grants something that's traditionally the territory of racial bonuses and feats and such, but granting +30 ft. to existing darkvision is extremely good. YMMV, though. Also, the differences between the Diplomacy/Perform penalty and the Disguise penalty seems quite random. I'd prefer a uniform value, like -4 for everything.
Witcher School: the changes between schools are quite fundamental, I feel reminded of the playtest version of the Vigilante class. I'd recommend scrapping everything from the general class table that's not granted equally by all schools, because right now one looks at the table and thinks "Hey, I get spells and extracts? Wohoo!" and then the fine print says otherwise, but only for one school.
Witcher Code: love it!
Witcher Blade: can it be any weapon? Right now it seems I could make a composite longbow my Witcher Blade - is that intentional? And what does the last line mean exactly? It seems to me like it's meant to apply to any additional magical enchantments bought or crafted by the character and not the bonuses granted by the class itself, but it reads a bit weird right now.
Spellcasting: not sure if bard spells are the way to go for a witcher, the magus list seems a bit more appropriate? You gave it to the Griffin school only, but it feels pretty witcher-y to me.


Final question: no magical signs? Aard, Yrden, and the like? I always thought they were a pretty iconic part of witcher magic, and I'd love to see them as class features similar to rogue talents that can be enhanced and unlocked, but not all at the same time.

Thank you very much for the feedback, I'll go into each of your points and update the main post afterward.


Handle Animal is indeed something that the witcher might have. It is not something I though about at the time and seems like a good addition.
Trials of the Grasses: The vision increase was done because a witcher has better senses than the average person. This is how we wanted to represent it and even though it may be strong we felt it should be ok. You are free to disagree and make a very valid point. We just liked it so that is why it is there. The pentaly difference does seem weird in hindsight and I will correct this to be -4 on everything.
Witcher School: I understand it might be confusing but I am not sure how exactly you would see it improved. Removing it from the table and then writing it down in every school except the one that does not grant it seems stranger to me. Since this would make every description very long. It is very possible I am misinterpeting what you said and I do not mean to invalidat it by any means, it is just that I cannot quite follow where you want to go with it.
Witcher Code: Thank you very much.
Witcher Blade: It was indeed meant to be able to be used with any weapon. Witchers traditionally use swords but we did not want to tie a player down to a single pre-defined weapon. The last line is meant to reflect that a +1 bonded weapon that has been destroyed and is now being replaced will not get the +1 bonus your previous weapon had. Ofcourse if you use a +1 weapon to bond with it will keep that enchantment.
Spellcasting: This I did indeed write down very poorly, there is a section missing in fact. The spell list the witcher was supposed to use was the bloodrager spell list spell levels 1 to 3 with the magus 0 level spells. Using the magus list did cross our minds but we felt that making a slight diffrence in the list available might grant some more incentive and flavor to play the griffin school.


The signs were not made a class feature because we gave the class a spell list already. This should grant enough options to emulate the signs somewhat. Here is a list of what we thought could work:


Igni: burning hands
Aard: hydraulic push (possibly reflavored for wind)
Yrden: hold person, hold monster or magic circle against (alignment)
Quen: shock shield
Axii: charm person / dominate person


Admittedly not all these spells are available to the witcher through his spell list, (the boldened ones are and italic ones only to those outisde the griffin school,) though I did not want to mess with a spell list too much out of a fear of possible imbalance.

I hope I have answerd most of your questions. If you still have any please do let me know and I will do my best to answer them.
Again thank you very much for the feedback and I am glad you like it.