Yuku free message boards

Hmm...come to think about it, to fully develop the witch concept...

Given a start of a force attack which'll be at-will, and given the emotional aspect that's central to witch concepts...I'm thinking of tearing, ripping, rending, unraveling forces.

Blade: given that this is usually the at-will, the ranged attack goes here. I'd probably also allow it to be used as a melee weapon, using the same stats.

Fire: Talons of Fire...half force, half fire. In addition to the damage, there's a pain side effect. To perform strenuous physical actions (that is, move, or make a weapon-based attack), make a Will save, with some kind of penalty. Failure says, the pain of trying that was too great, and you lose that action. For mental actions (casting), it forces a Concentration check with some kind of modifier. In both cases, the rolls get easier over time...the pain lessens somewhat, or you just learn to start ignoring it, or whatever. Usable 1/day.

Song: A targeted form of Unraveling. Can be used against an ongoing spell or effect (such as a summoned critter, or a freestanding effect like wall of sound), or against a single target. The witch picks the defense on the target that is to be unraveled. Usable 1/day.

Spirit: This is usable when the witch makes a Will save. It's a two-stage power.

a) Attacker tries something that forces a Will save by the witch. Witch succeeds at the save.
b) Witch may invoke this power as an immediate reaction. In doing so, the witch's mind 'locks' onto the the attacker's mind.
c) As a standard action on the witch's next turn, he can use the second part of this power, to flay the (original) attacker's mind, doing 1d6 damage to the attacker's casting stat. Attacker must also make a Will save or be Stunned for 1 round. This attack may only be used on the witch's next turn. Usable 1/day per Wis modifier.

Storm: Something similar to Glitterdust, this one:

1. Make invisible critters visible (like Glitterdust) for 1d4 rounds
2. Makes incorporeal critters solid enough to lose their miss chance, for 1d4 rounds.
3. Creates a vague visual marker to indicate the presence of someone (or something) in the ethereal plane, watching.

Area of effect is a 40' burst, centered on the witch.

Word: Word of Rending...like Word of Repair, but doing damage instead of repairing it.

My idea was to make the bolt an emanation from the witch's soul rather than communication with quasi-sentient aspects of the world (which is how and why witches can use spellcasting in my setting, so basically like you said it is emotion-based and force suits it well)

That's all flavor. What you're talking about, is a process that is irrelevant in D&D...gathering the energy and creating the bolt. And, a phrase like "an emanation from the witch's soul" is so totally ambiguous as to be meaningless anyway. No offense, but it sounds like a line from a bad romance novel.

Would the above be sort of like a "force" or "unravelling" witch then?

Force is too nebulous a concept for me; I prefer witches that are more thematic. The effects are more force-related than most, but the theme is rip/claw/unravel.

and to suppress some of their spellcasting to give a rather hefty damaging ability.

I don't think any of us is particularly happy with this idea, or at least, not when it's being planned as a 'witch variant.' I think, from a class perspective, you need to start from a clean slate, and start defining what you want:

1. An at-will force attack.
2. Damage augmentation.
3. ???

This sounds nothing like a witch right now....