The witch in the woods?

[CIDE]

Hey all

We all know the fantasy trope of the witch in the woods. A hermit that lives away from society but just close enough for the nearby village to still know of her and fear her. Maybe those less fearful or more desperate venture out to barter for her services. Sometimes it takes a dark twist and sometimes she's harmless and lonely. There's a lot of takes on this concept and I've even seen it make its way into a few games.

How have you all seen it used? What are some of the most interesting uses you've seen? Maybe, the most powerful versions you've seen? A Succubus in disguise? the avatar to a god? Polymorphed dragon? A wizard fleeing society? How would you implement it or want to see it implemented into a game?

[Psyren]

Despite the thread tag, the Witch class in Pathfinder has some great mechanical abilities that let you represent a woods witch in this way. You can focus on healing, making potions, communing with nature, or even luring children to your cottage and turning them into baked goods which you can eat for bonuses if you want.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Dread Witch is the single best prestige class in the game for fear based casters, seems like a good start for building up an intimidating reputation.

[Luccan]

Hags are basically this trope as a specific monster rather than a human(oid) caster. Definitely the more sinister aspects, though, no helpful woman of the woods or anything (if she is, she's probably also eating your kids as "payment", whether you agreed to that or not). They're also nice because they don't need a tragic explanation for why they're so terrible; being terrible is what being a hag is all about.

[Uncle Pine]

In my case, the "witch in the woods" was a rather burly tibbit Artificer who posed as a dark-skinned dwarf with a mohawk and lots of tattoos. He lived in the husk of a large dead tree and shared traits from both the "solitary mad inventor" and "witch doctor" types. The grove he chose as home was surrounded by willow trees that'd smack trespassers (same stats as a patch of assassin vines). There was a stable annexed to the lab that housed a nightmare, both a (somewhat malicious) friend and curious spectator of the "dwarf"'s shenanigans.
Of course, a stuffed alligator hanged from the ceiling of one of the rooms of the workshop.

[Ruethgar]

If you wanted a 3.5 version, the Anagakok(Dragon 344 p104) is a nature wizard and the first thought that jumped to mind from the title. As to the specific query of the OP, I can’t recall the use of that archetype in a game I’ve been party to.

[CIDE]

Despite the thread tag, the Witch class in Pathfinder has some great mechanical abilities that let you represent a woods witch in this way. You can focus on healing, making potions, communing with nature, or even luring children to your cottage and turning them into baked goods which you can eat for bonuses if you want.


Part of the idea behind the thread was more about the story aspects behind all of this. Kind of in the same thread the Alchemist class from PF also fits going the route you just mentioned. But yeah, more discussion orientated or story telling based but focused more on 3.P era d20 rather than 5e just because of the added options without homebrew.


Dread Witch is the single best prestige class in the game for fear based casters, seems like a good start for building up an intimidating reputation.

Yeah, I do love that class.


Hags are basically this trope as a specific monster rather than a human(oid) caster. Definitely the more sinister aspects, though, no helpful woman of the woods or anything (if she is, she's probably also eating your kids as "payment", whether you agreed to that or not). They're also nice because they don't need a tragic explanation for why they're so terrible; being terrible is what being a hag is all about.

The one thing that's always bugged me about Hags (at least, in 3.5) is that they really don't mechanically fit their own trope. Unless I'm misremembering something (I'm AFB) but at least on the SRD they don't have any real sort of spellcasting. They have a few bits here and there but hardly anything that actually fits the role.


In my case, the "witch in the woods" was a rather burly tibbit Artificer who posed as a dark-skinned dwarf with a mohawk and lots of tattoos. He lived in the husk of a large dead tree and shared traits from both the "solitary mad inventor" and "witch doctor" types. The grove he chose as home was surrounded by willow trees that'd smack trespassers (same stats as a patch of assassin vines). There was a stable annexed to the lab that housed a nightmare, both a (somewhat malicious) friend and curious spectator of the "dwarf"'s shenanigans.
Of course, a stuffed alligator hanged from the ceiling of one of the rooms of the workshop.

That's awesome on so many levels.


If you wanted a 3.5 version, the Anagakok(Dragon 344 p104) is a nature wizard and the first thought that jumped to mind from the title. As to the specific query of the OP, I can’t recall the use of that archetype in a game I’ve been party to.

That's actually what inspired this. It's a trope that I've heard of in a variety of ways but almost never in a game.

[Telonius]

Round 7 of the Villainous Competition featured witches. You might have a look at some of the builds here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444478-Villainous-Competition-VII-Double-Double-Toil-and-Trouble/page2).

[liquidformat]

The one thing that's always bugged me about Hags (at least, in 3.5) is that they really don't mechanically fit their own trope. Unless I'm misremembering something (I'm AFB) but at least on the SRD they don't have any real sort of spellcasting. They have a few bits here and there but hardly anything that actually fits the role.


A single Hag by itself most definitely doesn't; however, when three or more hags come together and form a Covey they gain a decent list of spells. Furthermore, the incantations presented in UA are a very cool alternative magic to leverage for hags or any witch of the woods for that matter. They totally have the right feel for spells cast by a 'helpful' witch, sure you gain some legs but you must trade your ability to speak for them legs, sure everything you touch turns to gold but have fun trying to eat gold...

[Psyren]

Part of the idea behind the thread was more about the story aspects behind all of this. Kind of in the same thread the Alchemist class from PF also fits going the route you just mentioned. But yeah, more discussion orientated or story telling based but focused more on 3.P era d20 rather than 5e just because of the added options without homebrew.

Understood, that makes sense. Couple of other cool options then:

Variant Multiclassing - this lets you trade away half your feats to splash in the features of another class. An Alchemist VMC Witch is a lower-power option that maintains a witchy feel (familiar, hexes) but whose power comes from alchemy rather than spellcasting. You can combine that with:

Archetypes - Preservationist is a fairly witchy one, as you preserve creatures in bottles that correspond to the Summon Nature's Ally list. this will let you whip out various forest beasts to savage your enemies while you interfere from the shadows. You can combine this with a woodsy archetype like Bramble Brewer, whose bombs create hindering vines instead of fire that would be potentially dangerous for the woods. You could also look into the Herbalist, Horticulturalist, or Plague Bringer.

Alternatively you could use Witch as a base, building around their potion-making abilities with the Cauldron Hex and nature-themed archetypes like Beast-bonded, Hedge Witch or Season Witch.

[Pugwampy]

Ummm I had a female Druid employer who lived in a cave in the forest with her pet dire snake which I used to surprise the players when they explored her lair . They smart enough to understand it was her animal companion .

She sent out a tweety bird to find players then lead them to her and sent them on missions usually taking care of evil creatures who encroached the forest .

Does that count as witch In the woods ?

[liquidformat]

Ummm I had a female Druid employer who lived in a cave in the forest with her pet dire snake which I used to surprise the players when they explored her lair . They smart enough to understand it was her animal companion .

She sent out a tweety bird to find players then lead them to her and sent them on missions usually taking care of evil creatures who encroached the forest .

Does that count as witch In the woods ?

Nope clearly a cave witch, we only want examples of wood witch

[Pugwampy]

Nope clearly a cave witch, we only want examples of wood witch

Soooo a spellcasting hobo running around the woods ?

[Luccan]

Nope clearly a cave witch, we only want examples of wood witch

Oh, this reminds I tried running a witch using Wu Jen as the class once (the game was very western fantasy focused, so using the class was contingent on refluffing it). The game didn't get very far, but I felt the "elemental" aspects of their casting, a few of the unique spells, and the focus on much more tangible material components felt more witch-like than wizards or druids.

[liquidformat]

Soooo a spellcasting hobo running around the woods ?

Exactly!

On a side note I once made an evil petal bard/Dread Witch as a campaign villain it worked out really well.


Oh, this reminds I tried running a witch using Wu Jen as the class once (the game was very western fantasy focused, so using the class was contingent on refluffing it). The game didn't get very far, but I felt the "elemental" aspects of their casting, a few of the unique spells, and the focus on much more tangible material components felt more witch-like than wizards or druids.

Incantations from UA have always struck me as very witch like.

[Demidos]

Honestly, the Adept in the Dungeon Master's guide covers them pretty well. You can toss on the druid's special abilties and call it a day.