What would a respectable witch-hunting guild consist of?

[HoboKnight]

Hey,
I need to flesh out an outpost of a rather secret organization, that is dealing with hunting of the baddies on Material plane, especially fiends and alike.

So I guess this would be a house in a small town with a secret mark at the entrance. Inside there are beds to rest and a kitchen and armory. There is a small stable next to it. Place is led by a leader and a handyman/cook. Since forces of evil like to attack such places, perhaps a thug and a few dogs.

But I know I'm not thinking big enough/secretive enough here. How do you protect this place vs evildoers(hags) that do not use just brute force?What should I replace/add to this establishment?

[Kol Korran]

Hmmmm... A few thoughts:
# The place has some magical wards that alert/ reveal several kinds of deceitful approaches:
- Charmed/ magically manipulated creatures
- Creatures appearing not as themselves (Through shapeshifting or illusion magic)
- Invisible creatures.

Yes, there are other possbile approaches, but these are fairly common approaches of evil no-gooders.

# More mundane defenses:
- Widespread lead sheeting to prevent divination.
- possible traps specifically againy common creatures, using alcehmical items such as holy water, silver/ cold iron/ other appropriate material.

# The place may have a few back up/ emergency measures, such as:
- Summoning scrolls/ aparatus to summon celestials.
- A connection to a local church, with similar values and goals. Perhaps an emergency device to alert their high priest that there is trouble?

# A few other amenities (Moat likely in a secret part of the compound, not readily available or apparent to the casual visitor):
- A notice board, including any important/curious info the operatives have found in the region.
- A small, highly specialized library, on the main subject matters.
- A small alchemical/ magic item creation workshop.
- A stash of both commonly used and high specialization gear, to deal with the no-gooders. Members can rent/ buy thia gear for a lowered/ base cost, if they are in good enough standing with the organization, the mission is important enough, and they have the needed resources.
- If scrying/ rituals/ other "research/ preparations spells" are a thing on your game, perhaps a room suitable for it.

I hope this is enough. Good luck with your game!

[Greywander]

"What would a respectable witch-hunting guild consist of?"

Not witches, that's for sure.
chuckles nervously

But seriously, this could be an interesting addition, depending of how it fits into your setting. I typically see witches as sitting somewhere on a spectrum between "misunderstood nature magic user" and "evil black magic user", and you can have multiple witchcraft traditions that sit in different places on that spectrum. Again, this will depend on your setting, but I typically envision witchcraft as a form of magic consisting of the witch making pacts and contracts with various spirits. These can range from the mundane, like making a deal with perfectly normal birds to alert you to intruders and in exchange you give them tasty seeds, all the way to the grandiose, like selling your soul to a demon lord for great power. As such, witches are better attuned to dealing with spirits of all kinds, and often possess knowledge that is considered forbidden by polite society.

Basically, it's a case of fighting fire with fire, using forbidden magic to fight evil. Rather than be persecuted (rightly or not) by this organization, they infiltrate it and use their abilities to fight actual evil. Witchcraft would give access to a lot of abilities that could help identify such evils, and misdirect or confound them while the hunters bring them down. Witchcraft might carry an inherent risk, even when used for good, making it society's rejection of witches justified, or it might simply be misunderstood so long as the witch in question stays away from the darker stuff. This also gives the possibility of evil witches infiltrating and working as spies and saboteurs for the forces of evil. A witch might be able to recognize another witch, but might have trouble figuring out if they're a good witch or an evil witch.

As for what additional defenses an outpost like this might have, I think you might need to be a little more specific about the types of monsters they generally face, and what their abilities are. Usually the counters to such things are pretty specific. Fey, ghosts, hags, demons, and so on will probably each have their own individualized methods of warding against them, and can probably be broken down further into subtypes within one of those groups that have different strengths and weaknesses. I know D&D likes to lump everything together, e.g. with a Protection from Evil and Good spell, but I think that demystifies the supernatural, reducing them to a nice, clean box with "supernatural" written on it, rather than being a disjointed collection of unknowable entities that have nothing in common with one another.

[Pauly]

Basic requirements will be communications, security both from physical and magical threats, a library and a weapons cache. From there some additional questions will help you flesh out what you need.

What is the purpose of the outpost?
- surveillance of a known threat
- surveillance of potential threats
- secure a rear area against enemy penetration
- message relay
- recruitment
- training new members in a low risk environment
- safe house

Why has this location been chosen?
- known activity of bad guys.
- bad guys may try to expand their operations in this direction.
- on a communications/logistics path
- to keep an eye on the local
- distance from known trouble spots

What is the staffing requirement?
- How many permanent staff
- How many transients can be accommodated.
- how often do transients come through, how long do they stay

As a secret hideout - what is the cover story to explain staffing levels and transients coming through?
- nobleman’s country house/hunting lodge
- guild house for a guild with itinerant workers
- religious retreat.

How do transients coming and going avoid suspicion?
- secret entrances
- good cover story
- only arrive/depart in the night

[Catullus64]

My main idea would be to simply abandon the hideouts and move shop every month. If these are relatively cheap places the organization has the capital to back it up, that should be quite possible. Maybe the various members all take turns having their own house be the safehouse, with a complex rotational pattern.

It depends a lot on who these Witch Hunters are. Are they an actual guild of professionals with a state-issued charter like Witchers? A religious order in the manner of Warhammer's Templar Witch Hunters? Just a group of like-minded amateurs with lots of resources and spare time, a la the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel? (Not actually Witch Hunters, despite having the appropriate hats). In most of these cases I think that secrecy is a better (and more interesting) defense than lots of magic defenses or armed guards, which are likely to draw attention.

[Anymage]

A large set of scales and a duck.

If this is close to a typical D&D setting (where heroic spellcasters are not all that rare and supernatural baddies are a known threat), I'd expect that low-key safehouses wouldn't see much use. Existing solidly built government and religious structures should be happy to have witchfinders handy. Both for their general anti-evil bent, and because evil supernatural creatures are more likely to have supernatural infiltration tricks like shapechanging or mind control that the local power centers don't want to be subjected to. In fact in any setting other than "authorities tend to paint all magic users with a very broad brush, good magic users have to keep their heads down while trying to keep evil magic users in check", I don't see why controlling the bad magic users wouldn't be a part of normal civic structure.

[Slipjig]

I think the most important thing you need is a cover story for what these people are doing that explains these people coming and going at odd hours, especially if they are doing so while wounded. Depending on the make-up of the party and what they pretending to be doing that isn't hunting hags, all sorts of things could be an option.

[Quertus]

I expect it to look like any other mouse hole. I mean, what do you expect to happen to Witch hunters? They got turned into mice, and are still desperately attempting to matter. Perhaps they live in the witch’s hat, unaware of the reality of their situation.