The Witch (Spellcaster Based Off The Monk)

[Amechra]

The Witch
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Kiki%27s_Delivery_Service_Screenshot_01_Kiki_and_J iji_flying_by_clocktower.jpg

You must have a Charisma of 13 or greater to multiclass into or out of this class.



Level
Proficiency Bonus
Features
Cantrips
Mana Pool


1st
+2
Magical Defenses, Minor Magick
-
-


2nd
+2
Magic Tricks, Witch's Familiar, Witchery
2
2


3rd
+2
Bold Dismissal, Mystical Tradition
2
3


4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement, Magickal Flight
2
4


5th
+3
Potent Magick, Proclaim Curse
2
5


6th
+3
Mystical Tradition feature
3
6


7th
+3
Magic Resistance, Renounce Magick
3
7


8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement
3
8


9th
+4
Combat Flight
3
9


10th
+4
Significant Magick
4
10


11th
+4
Mystical Tradition feature
4
11


12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement
4
12


13th
+5
Language of Creation
4
13


14th
+5
Magickal Ego
5
14


15th
+5
Timeless Body
5
15


16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement
5
16


17th
+6
Mystical Tradition feature
5
17


18th
+6
Major Magick
6
18


19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement
6
19


20th
+6
Perfect Self
6
20



HIT POINTS
Hit Dice: 1d8 per witch level.
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per witch level after 1st

PROFICIENCIES
Armor: None
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: Choose one artisan's tool or musical instrument.

Saving Throws: Charisma, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Religion, or Sleight-of-Hand

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

(a) a quarterstaff or (b) a dagger
(a) a scholar's pack or (b) an explorer's pack


1st - Magickal Defenses
Witchery depends on self-confidence. As long as you are dressed in an ostentatiously "magical" fashion and aren't using a shield, your AC is equal to 12 + your Charisma modifier.

1st - Minor Magick
All witches have access to the following minor magical powers:

You may cast Produce Flame (Charisma is your spellcasting ability). When cast this way, the flame burns in bright, unnatural colors, and deals additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier.
As a bonus action, you may build up your magical power. If you cast Produce Flame on a turn when you've built up your power, the flame deals an additional die of damage.
You can see and hear magic as a glow and hum whose intensity depends on how powerful the magic in question is.


2nd - Magic Tricks
You learn two cantrips that does not deal damage from any spell list. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for those spells.

You learn an additional cantrip that does not deal damage from any spell list at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels.

2nd - Witch's Familiar
You gain the services of a spirit in the form of a Tiny animal. It uses the appropriate statistics for a creature of its type, except it has an Intelligence score equal to your Charisma score and speaks all of the languages that you can speak, as well as one that you don't. It refuses to enter combat. If your familiar dies, it will return to you during your next long rest.

When you cast one of your Magic Tricks with the help of your Familiar, you may extend to casting time to 10 minutes in order to improvise a more potent ritual that is thematically related to the cantrip in question. Work with your DM to determine the actual extent of this ability.

2nd - Witchery
Your training allows you to harness a deep wellspring of mystical power. Your access to this energy is represented by a number of points, referred to as "mana". Your witch level determines the number of points you have, as shown in the Mana Pool column of the Witch table.

You can spend these points to fuel various magick powers. You start knowing three such powers: Abjure Elements, Burst of Power, and Mystical Jaunt. You learn more magick powers as you gain levels in this class.

When you spend mana, it is unavailable until you finish a short or long rest, at the end of which you draw all of your expended mana back into yourself. You must spend at least 30 minutes of the rest contemplating your magic to regain your mana.

Some of your magick powers require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Magick save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier



Abjure Elements. You can spend 1 mana as a bonus action to gain resistance to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage until the end of your next turn.
Burst of Power. When you build up power, you may spend one mana. If you do, the flame deals an additional die of damage, and no longer requires an attack roll. Instead, it explodes in a 10ft radius, dealing its damage to each creature within that radius who fails a Dexterity saving throw against your Magick save DC.
Magical Jaunt. You can spend 1 mana as a bonus action to teleport up to 20ft to a space that you can see.


3rd - Bold Dismissal
Whenever you are one of the targets of a spell, you may spend your reaction to roll a Charisma check against a DC of 10 + that spell's level. If you succeed, you are excluded from that spell's effect, and you may spend 1 mana to negate the initial spell entirely.

Mystical Tradition + Ability Score Improvement
This is what you assume it is. Let's carry on.

4th - Magickal Flight
You have a mundane, inanimate object roughly the size of a broom that functions as a Broom of Flying for you and you alone. It's a little awkward to control, so it can't be used in combat. If you break it or lose it, you may replace it with another suitable object over the course of a long rest.

5th - Potent Magick
When you cast Produce Flame, the flame's damage dice are now d12s instead of d8s, and its range becomes 60ft. If you built up power before casting the spell, it sheds bright light out to 20ft and dim light 20ft beyond that, and creatures within the radius of bright light treat it as if it were sunlight. Any enemy within 30ft that sees you build up power must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Magick save DC or be Frightened of you until the end of their next turn — a creature that succeeds on their saving throw against this effect is immune to that fear for 24 hours.

5th - Proclaim Curse
Whenever you deal damage a creature with Produce Flame, you may spend 1 mana to force that creature to make a Constitution saving throw against your Magick save DC. If they fail, they are Stunned until the end of your next turn. In addition, if you would kill a creature with Produce Flame, you may choose to lay a curse on them instead — while the effects of this curse are up to you and your DM, it should remove that creature from play and be roughly as difficult to reverse as death.

7th - Magic Resistance
You have advantage on all saving throws against spells and other magical abilities.

7th - Renounce Magic
You are now proficient with the Charisma check you make with Bold Dismissal. If you spend 10 minutes working with your familiar and spend 1 mana, you may use Bold Dismissal against any magical effect you can sense — if you succeed, you dispel that effect as if you had cast Dispel Magic.

9th - Combat Flight
You may now use your Broom of Flying in combat. Go you!

10th - Significant Magick
When you work together with your familiar on a Magic Trick or to Renounce Magic, you may spend an expensive component and take a full hour to work your magic. If you do, the resulting ritual has far stronger effects — you may Renounce Magic that can only be removed with Dispel Evil or Good, and your Magic Tricks do something equally as impressive.

13th - Language of Creation
You may read and understand any language. Whenever you speak to a creature, you may have them understand you regardless of what languages you speak — if you do, the effect is obviously magical and unnatural.

14th - Magickal Ego
You are proficient in all saving throws. Whenever you fail a saving throw, you may spend 1 mana to reroll that saving throw, potentially allowing you to succeed instead.

15th - Timeless Body
You know how this works.

18th - Major Magick
When you work together with your familiar on a Magic Trick or to Renounce Magic, you may conduct an elaborate ritual, spend an expensive component, and take a full day, from sunrise to sundown, to work your magic. If you do, the effects of your ritual are equivalent to what could be achieved with the Wish spell.

20th - Perfect Self
When you roll initiative, if you have no mana in your mana pool, you immediately regain 4 mana.

[Amechra]

Reserved for new cantrips and Mystical Traditions.

[Amechra]

What's all this, then?

This is a loosey-goosey spellcaster that's based off the Monk, which should fill the role of a "newbie spellcaster".

In combat, you throw around mini-fireballs (that can stun people, because this is supposed to be Monk-esque), teleport around a bit, and eventually get to fly around on a broomstick/mortar & pestle/carpet/etc. There's also a ribbon that lets you curse people instead of killing them — instead of killing someone, you turn them into a frog or whatever. There's also a sub-theme of letting you counterspell/dispel magic more-or-less at-will — that feels like a very witch-y thing, and it's the kind of thing that you'd miss a lot if your party doesn't have any full casters.

Out of combat, you have a bunch of cantrips to play around with. You also have a purely non-combat familiar who is a) probably smarter than you and b) lets you scale up your cantrips as if they were rituals. Yes, the mechanics for that are purposefully just "hey, DM, what can I do with a ritual based off of Dancing Lights?". At higher levels, you can do longer/more challenging rituals to get bigger and bigger effects.

Oh, yeah, and you get a bunch of the higher level Monk goodies, because they make just as much sense for someone witch-y as they do for an enlightened kung-fu master.

[Greywander]

What an odd coincidence, I was just looking over my own witch class making some final changes in preparation to publish it (it's been mostly done for a while, I figured I may as well get it out the door in whatever state it's in, but I want to see if I can touch it up a bit first). But it looks like your take on witches is very different. Magic monk sounds like a fun class, so I'll have to give this a more thorough read later. My witch is a modified warlock mixed with some druid, and is first and foremost a debuffer with at-will Bane and Hex, and second a healer, support, and utility caster. So very different mechanically, but still some thematic crossover (we both have Timeless Body, for example, but mine has the druid version).


20th - Perfect Self
When you roll initiative, if you have no mana in your mana pool, you immediately regain 4 mana.
I know this is just how the original ability was worded, but I really don't like things that key off of initiative, as it's very meta-gamey. It's also a pretty weak feature and really disappointing as a capstone (not to mention rolling initiative with 1, 2, or 3 mana means you get nothing). I've taken a couple stabs at revising monks, and one of my rewrites for this feature looks something like this:

At the start of each of your turns, if you have less than 4 ki, you regain 1 ki.

This still allows you to recharge up to 4 ki between fights, but also provides a trickle of ki during fights, so you're never truly empty. You're still limited on how much ki you can dump out per turn, and it really only matters if you almost completely exhaust your ki, but it does at least shore up one place where monks are traditionally weak, and that's running out of ki. I'll have to look over your witch class to see if a change like this might cause issues (e.g. Mercy monks would have infinite heals, but honestly at 20th level that's not really that outrageous), but you'd probably know better if this change would work.

[Amechra]

The only reason I kept Perfect Self the same was because I was feeling lazy. The real capstone is Major Magick.

I'll think of a replacement at some point — I have to write up the actual subclasses first. :p

[animorte]

The second I saw that image of Kiki, I was very skeptical. That’s my wife’s absolutely favorite of the Ghibli collection and I felt concerned with how you would approach the concept of making a (very low level) Wizard into some sort of Monk.

I still don’t know that it encapsulates the idea of something resembling a Monk, but then if you really wanted that, you would have just made it a Monk subclass, which would be wildly inaccurate. So that’s completely fine.

The development of her broom is just wonderful and implementing Jiji was pretty nice. I honestly really quite like most of the features, a special nod goes to Witchery.

I want to be clear about this: I love what you’ve done with produce flame… However, I just don’t see where it fits. I want a different class for a different concept to use this exact mechanic because I really do appreciate what you’ve done with it.

I think I would have preferred something to focus on her delivery instead. That became her entire thing and I’m interested in how you might apply that.

Overall, I don’t think my wife would be disappointed. It’s really cool.

[Amechra]

So... this isn't exactly a "play as Kiki" class (I'm not sure that that would work in D&D — the genre expectations are quite different). I hate to admit it, but I basically grabbed art for the first "anime witch" character I could think of, mostly so that people wouldn't look at this and go "ah, a class to play one of the ladies from the Scottish Play". Looking at it again, I'd say that the character that this emulates the most is probably Miriam from Wandersong (that's where the fireballs come from :p), but that was pretty unintentional.

The reason that I say that I based it off the Monk is that I literally took the Monk and swapped some stuff around :p The biggest differences are that I replaced the speed boost with the cantrip progression and swapping them over to one big attack that you can charge up instead of a bunch of little attacks.

---

If I had to implement Kiki's delivery service into a game, I wouldn't do it as a set of class features — I'd probably run it as a one-on-one campaign, and use it as the overall campaign framework. Each adventure would be "someone hires you to make a delivery for them, but there are XYZ challenges in your way", and then focus the challenges around inter-personal stuff and Kiki's self-confidence/independence.

[animorte]

If I had to implement Kiki's delivery service into a game, I wouldn't do it as a set of class features — I'd probably run it as a one-on-one campaign, and use it as the overall campaign framework. Each adventure would be "someone hires you to make a delivery for them, but there are XYZ challenges in your way", and then focus the challenges around inter-personal stuff and Kiki's self-confidence/independence.
Yeah, that’s fair. I like that you pulled from multiple sources to bring your idea to life. It’s effective.

I didn’t realize until you worded it that way just how much Kiki’s Delivery service resembles Dora the Explorer. :smalltongue:

[LibraryOgre]

1st - Magickal Defenses
Witchery depends on self-confidence. As long as you are dressed in an ostentatiously "magical" fashion and aren't using a shield, your AC is equal to 13 + your Charisma modifier.


Why 13+Charisma modifier instead of the more common 10 + Dex + Cha?

[Amechra]

My thought process was that I wanted to encourage you to dress like a spellcaster instead of wearing armor (so some form of unarmored defense was appropriate), but I didn't want to make it so everyone playing a Witch had to grab good Dexterity in order to not crumple like paper.

It might need to be 12+Charisma instead, come to think about it.

EDIT: Changed it to 12+Charisma. There will probably be a "martial" subclass that can boost that further, but that's a decent baseline (AC 15-17 on a ranged character who can teleport out of melee is fine).

[Yakk]

1st - Magickal Defenses
Witchery depends on self-confidence. As long as you are dressed in an ostentatiously "magical" fashion and aren't using a shield, your AC is equal to 12 + your Charisma modifier.

Should mention "unarmored".


1st - Minor Magick
All witches have access to the following minor magical powers:

You may cast Produce Flame (Charisma is your spellcasting ability). When cast this way, the flame burns in bright, unnatural colors, and deals additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier.

Sure, fun.


When you cast Produce Flame, you may spend your bonus action building up power. If you do, the flame deals an additional die of damage.

I get what you are doing here, but bonus actions generally are distinct actions not augments to another action.

Is the idea that you produce flame, build up power, then use it next round? That is much worse.


You can see and hear magic as a glow and hum whose intensity depends on how powerful the magic in question is.

I might split this into two class features.


2nd - Magic Tricks
You learn two cantrips that do not require a spell attack from any spell list. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for those spells.
Do you intend to allow save-or-damage?


Abjure Elements. You can spend 1 mana as a bonus action to gain resistance to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage until the end of your next turn.
Burst of Power. When you build up power, you may spend one mana. If you do, the flame deals an additional die of damage, and no longer requires an attack roll. Instead, it explodes in a 10ft radius, dealing its damage to each creature within that radius who fails a Dexterity saving throw against your Magick save DC.
Magical Jaunt. You can spend 1 mana as a bonus action to teleport up to 20ft to a space that you can see.
Not sure what your intended power budget for a mana is. I'm guessing it is a 1st level spell ish?

Abjure Elements is a worse version of a 1st level spell (bonus action instead of reaction).

Burst of Power ups your damage to 3d8 (?maybe uncertain) 10ft aoe save for half.

Jaunt is a very slightly worse version of Fey Step.


3rd - Bold Dismissal
So a free counterspell (for yourself), or 1 mana to extend protection.


4th - Magickal Flight
You have a mundane, inanimate object roughly the size of a broom that functions as a Broom of Flying for you and you alone. It's a little awkward to control, so it can't be used in combat. If you break it or lose it, you may replace it with another suitable object over the course of a long rest.
I'd break down "awkward to control".

Concentration maybe, checks to lose control, ban from making attacks?

I'm thinking high-stress situations that aren't combat.

If you built up power before casting the spell,
Wait you can do that BEFORE you cast produce flame? That is unexpected.

I think maybe you shouldn't use the cantrip, as the wording of your abilities modifying it are a bit awkward to understand.

5th - Proclaim Curse
This can be an aoe curse -- with dex version, everyone takes damage.

Note that foes immune to fire are immune to your curse.

I'd be tempted, again, to refactor the "produce flame". A curse attack should do psychic damage.

Break Enchantment,
That isn't a spell in 5e.

13th - Language of Creation
While neat, this really does demand a list of warlock like invocations.

I'd split invocations into utility and not, so that stuff like this isn't charop'd away from combat ones.

...

This character has a significant back 10 problem. It gets no new offensive abilities past T2, other than the cantrip getting an extra die of damage.

[Amechra]

To answer more-or-less down the line:


Magickal Defense works if you're wearing armor (as long as it looks "ostentatiously magical")... it's just that it doesn't do anything to boost your AC. I specifically excluded shields because they're one of the few things in the system that modify your AC instead of just giving you a new way to calculate it.
I will admit that the current wording for "boosting" Produce Flame is very loose (because I was lazy) — I'll just explicitly specify that you do it before you cast Produce Flame.
I don't want to write out Produce Flame because, I mean, I'm already asking people to look at cantrips. Might as well make use of that.
Save-or-damage cantrips are something I'm on the fence about... though, now that you bring it up, I can't really see a reason to allow them (especially since the current wording technically allows you to grab SCAGtrips, which is very unintended) I'll probably swap the restriction for Magic Tricks to "cantrip that doesn't deal damage", just for consistency's sake.
One mana is approximately equal to one ki. Burst of Power is calibrated to be roughly equivalent damage-wise to Flurry of Blows (it's actually better than FoB if you can get 3+ creatures into the AoE, but I decided that that was OK because the damage is split across multiple creatures). Abjure Elements and Magical Jaunt were eyeballed as roughly equivalent to Patient Defense and Step of the Wind.
Yep, self-only counterspell is the intent. This is probably the bit that's going to need the most testing, honestly.
Hmm... you're right about trying to use it in high-stress non-combat situations. I'll have to think about that a bit.
The stun AoE was intentional (kinda like how you can punch a bunch of people with Flurry of Blows and then smack 'em with Stunning Strike)... but it looks like I screwed up the wording! It should cost 1 mana per person you're stunning — I'll fix that.
Oops, you're right — I forgot that Break Enchantment got folded into Dispel Evil and Good in this edition.
I'm presuming that you're talking about the "improv a ritual" thing when you're referring to Language of Creation... and nope! The improv rituals are kinda the point — if you don't want to deal with them, don't play/allow this class.


While this class does have a "back 10" problem, that's something I'm planning on addressing through the subclasses.

[Yakk]

To answer more-or-less down the line:

Magickal Defense works if you're wearing armor (as long as it looks "ostentatiously magical")... it's just that it doesn't do anything to boost your AC. I specifically excluded shields because they're one of the few things in the system that modify your AC instead of just giving you a new way to calculate it.

I get it, but it is overly confusing. An ability that "works" by "does nothing" is confusing in and of itself, plus it requires understanding how AC stacks to understand how this ability works.

A simple "if you are unarmored and wearing ostentatiously magical" is 99/100 times the same ability and simpler to understand and apply.

It does mean that if you have magical armor with other properties you'd like, you can't use Magickal Defense. But that is a corner case I don't think you should consider important enough to change phrasing for...

I will admit that the current wording for "boosting" Produce Flame is very loose (because I was lazy) — I'll just explicitly specify that you do it before you cast Produce Flame.
So you are trying to get the martial arts or flurry bonus action damage boost?


I don't want to write out Produce Flame because, I mean, I'm already asking people to look at cantrips. Might as well make use of that.
Sure: but my point is, you are seriously mangling that cantrip in a myriad of ways.

It would be simpler to copy/paste/edit. And making it a class feature also allows for further tweaks.

The curse? Probably should be doing psychic damage. If we revamp their offensive trick into something suited for the class, we can have mechanics for other damage types easier to slide into it.


One mana is approximately equal to one ki. Burst of Power is calibrated to be roughly equivalent damage-wise to Flurry of Blows (it's actually better than FoB if you can get 3+ creatures into the AoE, but I decided that that was OK because the damage is split across multiple creatures). Abjure Elements and Magical Jaunt were eyeballed as roughly equivalent to Patient Defense and Step of the Wind.
1 Ki is amusingly worth about a spell point. ;)


Hmm... you're right about trying to use it in high-stress non-combat situations. I'll have to think about that a bit.
It would be nice if was concrete mechanics here, not "not in combat". Combat is nebulous sometimes. I mean, if someone fires an arrow at you invisible in the sky does that cause you to fall out of the sky?

Probably not.


I'm presuming that you're talking about the "improv a ritual" thing when you're referring to Language of Creation... and nope! The improv rituals are kinda the point — if you don't want to deal with them, don't play/allow this class.

No, I'm talking about the misc features like language of creation. Interesting ribbons like this in a core class feature sort of lock down fluff a lot.

Having a list of non-combat features you can pick from might be more interesting than fixed ones at specific levels (like "language of creation").


While this class does have a "back 10" problem, that's something I'm planning on addressing through the subclasses.
There is no 5e core class that successfully solves the "back 10" problem via subclasses. It is hard to have subclasses that are both sufficiently different and can carry the mechanical weight of up to 50% of your offensive potential.

I say this as a caution. Professional designers who didn't put enough meat into the core class all failed every time they tried this in D&D 5e.

It also makes the class harder to understand for readers, because the subclasses are "off to the side". If they carry the class for half of its levels, then people reading the class don't know what the class does in those levels.