Witch

[BenTheJester]

I'm searching for some kind of witch class; a class that focuses on curses, fear, and such.

I don't want a melee class, so that rules out Hexblade.


I'd also prefer something charisma based.

[Froogleyboy]

Well, there is a sorcerer varient called "Witch"

[UltraMegaSquid]

Shadowfoot's homebrewed Witch class....

http://shadowfoot.blogspot.com/2004/...ore-class.html

[DamnedIrishman]

I'm searching for some kind of witch class; a class that focuses on curses, fear, and such.

I'd also prefer something charisma based.

Plain old sorceror would do nicely. Just choose theme-appropriate spells...

[SilverClawShift]

Base class?

Because Heroes of Horror has the Dread Witch, a five level prestige class for spellcasters centered around boosting your own fear abilities, turning peoples fear effects back against them, and using your own fear as a power source to gain additional spellcasting or boosts in caster level.

[ghost_warlock]

I have a homewbrew class called the shadowmage that sort of fits that criteria; focuses on illusions, debuffs, fear, and some negative energy damage. Check my sig for details.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Dread Necromancer(HoH).

[Zaq]

"Witch" is an amazingly broad term.

Curses and fear, you say... as previously mentioned, the Dread Witch from Heroes of Horror is about as good as you're going to get for a fear-based caster, especially since they can punch through fear immunity at 4th level. It loses a caster level, but if you want to play a fear-based character, it's totally worth it. I had a lot of fun with my gnomish sorcerer/dread witch. (I interpret "overrides fear immunity" to mean "can affect you with a fear spell NO MATTER WHAT, even if you're immune to mind-affecting," because specific overrides general, and "immune to mind-affecting" is more general while "ignores immunity to fear" is more specific. YMMV.) One warning about the Dread Witch, though... fear is, almost by definition, a save-or-suck effect. You can become REALLY GOOD at slinging around these save-or-sucks. You need to be really careful not to just win encounters with a single spell over and over and over and over, or your party will get bored and your DM will get frustrated. Be careful.

Warlock could be a good choice. They can get Bestow Curse as an invocation, which can be a lot of fun both in and out of combat. The only problem is that it's touch range, so you need to expand your defenses. I can't recall offhand if they get any good fear invocations (I don't have any warlock-related books open right this minute), but I'm sure there's something out there.

I like Spirit Shaman thematically, but I can't think offhand if it gets any good curse and/or fear spells. I just like the concept of a crazy old hag who lives out in the woods, goes on and on about the spirits that surround us, has [strike]an imaginary friend[/strike] a spirit guide that only she can see (and that she talks to and claims helps her "retrieve" spells from the spirit world), and so on... Might be fun.

[woodenbandman]

The DMG has a witch class, check that if you want.

I say Sorceror, though. Beguiler would also work well.

[Mando Knight]

There's also Warlock...

[Goatman_Ted]

+1 to Dread Necromancer. It's what you want and it does the work for you.

Or Sorcerer if you want Arcane Fusion (CM) or other spells from outside the PHB.

Bard could be interesting with Lyric Thaumaturge (CM)/Sublime Chord (CArc) and Doomspeak (CoR)

[The_Snark]

I had a DM who used the witch spell list given in the DMG as the basis for a beguiler-like class—that is, a class that knows all of the spells on its list automatically, and no others. If you just use it as a sorcerer variant, it's not much good, because the list is much smaller than what a sorcerer could pick from, but it worked out rather nicely the way we did it.

If you prefer to use stuff given in the books, a sorcerer with the Dread Witch prestige class Silverclawshift mentioned would do nicely. Warlock and dread necromancer could work too, provided you don't mind the slight focus on magical blasting/raising the dead.

[nefele]

I like Spirit Shaman thematically, but I can't think offhand if it gets any good curse and/or fear spells. I just like the concept of a crazy old hag who lives out in the woods, goes on and on about the spirits that surround us, has [strike]an imaginary friend[/strike] a spirit guide that only she can see (and that she talks to and claims helps her "retrieve" spells from the spirit world), and so on... Might be fun.

Sounds great, fluff-wise, but I don't think Spirit Shamans get the right spells to support the fluff. They get druid spells. Not a lot of fear and cursing there. (I think. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

I'd start with Bard, actually. Bards don't need to be frivolous, they can be really scary. Easy to customize:

1) Inspire Awe instead of Inspire Courage. (Alternate Class Feature from Dragon Magic.) It's a fear effect which makes enemies shaken. It doesn't last long after you stop singing though, so I'd pick up Melodic Casting.
2) Haunting Melody feat from Heroes of Horror. Does basically the same, but by spending a Bardic Music use.
3) Doomspeak feat from Champions of Ruin. Spend a Bardic Music use to seriously curse a single foe. (-10 penalties, save based on character level...)

You can actually go straight bard and be the "witch" you imagine. And there are several general feats that help you make your enemies shaken(-->frightened-->panicked...).

Or you can prestige to Dread Witch or Nightmare Spinner (Complete Mage).

[Oblivious]

Re-fluff a bard and have him give negative instead of positive modifiers, maybe.

edit: oh, the above post says the same thing.

[Myrmex]

Go with Sorcerer.

In the PHB, there's a section that says that, working with your DM, you can have any spell you want.

Now just look through every spell list and take the spells that make sense.

[Wings of Peace]

Monte Cook published a book called "Quintessential Witch" if you don't mind 3rd party material it's pretty good.

[PrismaticPIA]

Master Alchemist from Magic of Faerun gets the potion brewing goodness.