Witchcraft in the GLoG

 

There are several renditions of the Witch Class in GLoG. Well here’s a new one! Template C was inspired by Godkillers. This is written for my own hack, so I use a few terms specific to that. I'll explain them as I post more rule excerpts (see this). 

WITCH

A Witch is someone the spirits and demons have taken a liking to. They are often poor and desperate. Then a stranger appears and offers them a deal.

Alternative Progression: Witches do not advance with XP and levels. Instead they gain a new template each time the number of Familiars they command reaches a certain threshold.

Starting Equipment: One small weapon of your choice, frayed peasant cloths, a small family heirloom.

A (1 Familiar): Familiar Bond, Patron, Witch Skills
B (3 Familiars): Cantrip Imps, Effigy, Witch’s Brew
C (9 Familiars): Demonic Animals, Magistellus
D (13+ Familiars): Fetch Follower

A: Familiar Bond
A devil lives inside your body. In return for a home and some of your life force, it grants you magical powers and serves you faithfully. Each Familiar can cast all of the Familiar Spells as well as one spell unique to that Familiar (roll on any spell list). Each Familiar grants you 1 MD. Familiars reside in specific body parts (eyes, brain, heart, hands, specific organs, etc.), decide where each Familiar you acquire dwells inside your body. If that body part is lost or severely damaged make a Save. If you succeed the Familiar moves to a different body part in time. If you fail the Familiar is destroyed. Familiars have 1 HD and Will 13. An Exorcism spell can banish or destroy your Familiars, so it’s best to keep a low profile and not attract the wrong kind of attention.

You can freely trade Familiars with other witches or give them to non-witches. If a non-witch accepts a Familiar they instantly gain the first template of this class and become a witch. Familiars must feed. Lower your Max HP by 1 for each Familiar you have. You regain the point if you lose or give away the Familiar.

A: Patron
Familiars are the serving spirits of powerful demons and otherworldly entities. Possessing a Familiar implies a pact with that Familiar’s master. Your Patron will award you with new Familiars and Boons as you please them by furthering their agenda in the human world. As a new witch you are granted a Boon for entering into the pact. Roll on the Boon table. Each Boon will list a Price. Roll that many times on the Price Table.

Boon Table

d66	Boon	Effect
11	Favor of the Mighty	You have a permanent +2 on all reaction rolls. Price: 2
12	Sorcerous Empowerment	Permanently gain 1 MD. You can take this boon up to three times. Price: 2
13	Luck	Permanently gain 1 Fate Die. You can take this boon up to three times. Price: 2
14	Wealth	You receive 2d6x100sp. Price: 2
15	Buried Treasure	You are told the location of a buried cache of silver worth 2d6x20s. You gain the ability to sense nearby buried treasure with a Wisdom Check. Price: 2
16	Magical Gift	Your Patron grants you a minor magical item. Price: 1-2
21	Black Arts	Your Patron teaches you a Dark Spell. Price: 1
22	White Arts	Your Patron teaches you a Sacred Spell. Price: 2
23	Ashen Arts	Your Patron teaches you an exotic or forgotten Spell. Price: 3
24	Vitality	Gain +2 Max HP. Price: 1
25	Imp	You are granted a new Imp. Price: 1
26	Familiar	You are granted a new Familiar. Price: 2
31	Learning	Choose a field of study (art, music, languages, mathematics, astronomy, botany, theology, morality, history, etc), your Patron grants you knowledge and skill in that subject. Gain 2 Skill Ranks. You can take this Boon three times in each knowledge Skill. Price: 1
32	Tutelary Demon	You gain a demonic advisor. Pick three fields it specializes in. You gain +2F on all Intellect tests to know things about those topics. Price: 1
33	Uncanny Talent	You gain any one Feat for free. Price: 2
34	Spirit Evocation	You can make a Will Check to summon, command, or bind spirits allied with your Patron. The TN of the check should be adjusted according to the power of the spirit and its relationship with the witch. You can also attempt to banish spirits, but at -4F. Price: 2
35	The Sight	You gain 4 ranks in the Second Sight skill. You can perceive things hidden from mortal eyes, ghosts, demons, curses, spells, and many intangible creatures are clearly visible to you, though their exact nature is often hard to discern. You can temporarily share The Sight with another if they place their foot on top of yours and look over your shoulder. While in this position they can see spirits as though they also had your Sight. Price: 2
36	Flying Ointment	You are given a magical salve compounded from dozens of poisonous plants. When you rub it into your skin and recite certain formulae you are able to leave your body and travel as a spirit. While in spirit form you are incorporeal and can fly, but your body is left behind in a trance. One application lasts for d6 hours. You have 2d6+1 applications. Price: 1
41	Elf Darts	An invisible killing curse you can flick from the thumbnail of your left hand. Make a ranged attack check. If you succeed your victim will sicken and die over the course of d6 days. You are given seven Elf Darts. They aren’t physical objects, they crawl around inside your soul until you fire them. Iron and certain holy relics grant complete protection against Elf Darts. Price: 1
42	Fairy Medicine	You are given nine pinches of magical powder. Each pinch will completely heal any injury, restoring the patent to full HP, as well as curing any disease, infection, or poison. Fairy Medicine is one of the only remedies that will save a patient from an Elf Dart. Price: 1
43	Mystical Secret	Your Patron teaches you a magical secret. You gain a random ability from a magical class. Price: 2
44	Witchblood	Gain one Template in a Witchblood Class of your choice. Price: 2
45	Revelation of the Mysteries	Gain Template A in a Class you don’t have. Price: 2
46	Grave Sight	You can see the flames of a creature’s life burning within them. If you can spend an action concentrating on a creature the DM must tell you their HP +/- d4. Price: 1
51	Compel the Dead	You can make a Will Check to command any undead creature with less Max HP than you to obey you for one night. Price: 1
52	Invisibility	You can become unnoticeable at will. +4 Attack and Defense. Getting hit or being in the presence of certain holy relics or counter charms negates it. Price: 1
53	Impervious	Choose one source of damage (swords, arrows, drowning, poison, fire spells, etc.), you are completely immune to it. The DM secretly chooses another source. Attacks of this type deal double damage. Price: 2
54	Invulnerability	You are completely immune to all damage. The DM secretly chooses a gender, nationality, class, or monster species. When they attack you, they ignore your invulnerability and always deal double damage. Price: 3
55	Artifact	Your Patron gives you a potent artifact or major relic. Price: 3
56	Demonic Power	You gain one Demonic Power as an inherent ability. Price: 3
61	Empowerment	Increase one of your Attributes by 1. Price: 2
62	Mastery	Gain 3 Skill Ranks. Price: 2
63	Healing	One disease or major health condition is cured. Price: 2
64	Resurrection	One dead creature returns to life. Price: 3
65	Immortality	You cannot die from old age and are immune to disease and infection. Price: 3
66	Wish	Your Patron grants you a miracle, for a price of course. Tell the DM the exact way you phrase the wish. They will interpret it based on the personality of the Patron. Price: This is a major boon and comes with as many Prices and conditions as the DM feels is necessary based on the magnitude of the request.

Price Table

d20	Price	Effect
1	Small Favor	You owe your Patron a minor favor, to be called in later. It might be to murder someone, complete a mission, solve a mystery, steal something valuable, or assist them in some larger plan.
2	Bloodprice	Offer your own freshly shed blood each time you use the Boon (d2 damage).
3	Black Mass	On each Dark Moon you must preform a blasphemous ceremony, during which the stolen sacrament from a legitimate temple must be defiled. Don’t get caught!
4	Deaths	Kill an enemy and offer their death to your Patron once a month.
5	Large Favor	You owe your Patron a major favor, to be named at their convenience. There’s a significant chance that you and anyone helping you will die in the attempt. Whatever you’ll be facing, it’s stronger than you and probably surrounded by powerful allies. Counts as 2 Prices.
6	The Red Rite	Each time you use the Boon you must sacrifice an animal to your Patron.
7	Red Meal	Offer a ritual meal of bread, butter, meat, and wine (3sp) once a week.
8	Banquet	Offer a lavish feast to your Patron once a month (12sp).
9	Sabbat	During each Full Moon, your spirit is drawn away from your body and you are compelled to join the Spectral Sabbat. This is a ritual dance and feast held in the spirit world, where the souls of witches, demons, fairies, and the dead all gather to worship the ancient Witch Gods. During these ghostly feasts each witch recounts the deeds they have performed in service to the coven and are rewarded if their Patron is pleased or punished if they have done too little (this can include granting Boons and bestowing or removing Familiars). Make a Save. If you pass an Imp follows you home and becomes yours. If you fail one of your Imps leaves you.
10	Witch’s War	Your soul has been enlisted in a ghostly army and each night there’s a 1-in-20 chance you’ll be called to fight. You don’t recover any HP on nights when you must fight. Make a Save. If you pass you get through the skirmish unharmed. If you fail you take d6 damage.
11	Coven	You must recruit or initiate twelve other witches and lead them in the old secret ways. Each Full Moon you must convene in some desolate place to enact the ancient rites. Counts as 2 Prices.
12	Disquiet	Something about you feels wrong. -2 on your first reaction check when interacting with any non-witch.
13	Sacrilegious Vow	You may not pray, use holy items or sacred spells, or attend orthodox religious services. Doing so causes you great pain (d4 damage per round).
14	Oath of Malice	You must never help the pious and always strive to destroy the works of righteousness and all who uphold them. Breaking this oath means you lose 1 Max HP. Striking a major blow against the forces of good restores all lost points.
15	Soul Wound	The strange and dark forces that constantly surround you have warped your soul, it’s no longer entierly human. -1 Wisdom. Counts as 2 Prices.
16	Stolen Life	You lose half a dozen years from your lifespan, taken to fuel the immortality of a more important witch. -1 Might. Counts as 2 Prices.
17	Evil Eye	You gain a Familiar with the Accursed Eye spell. It must live in your eyes. This cursed power is fickle and hard to control. Once per game session the DM can declare that you accidentally cast it on a target of their choosing. You can spend a Fate Die to negate this. Accursed Eye: A creature you make eye contact with suffers a -d6 penalty to the TN of their next roll.
18	Hawthorn	Contact with Hawthorn is dangerous for witches. As long as the thorns puncture a witch's skin, they may not use any of their Boons and they can’t use their Familiars to cast spells.
19	Earth Breaking	If a witch is unable to touch the ground and does not have any dirt or stones on their person, their connection with the telluric force is broken and they cannot cast any spells until it is restored.
20	The Wild Hunt	Each night there is a 1-in-20 chance that the Wild Hunt will ride and your soul will be forced to join. Roll d6, on a “1-5” you are transformed into a spectral horse or hound and awaken exhausted (no benefit from rest and suffer 1d3 damage). On a “6” you are privileged to ride with the Hunt and participate in it’s pleasures. You are given 1d6 Elf Darts to fire at anyone still abroad on a night ruled by the Hunt. Anyone they hit is cursed to die in 1d6 days.

A: Witch Skills
You gain 5 + ¼ Cunning points to spend on the following Skills: Animals, Astrology, Dancing, Fortunetelling, Herbalism, Infernalism, Necromancy, Psychism, Second Sight, and Superstition. You can ignore the Skill Cap for these Skills.

B: Cantrip Imps
Having more than one Familiar invites an unpleasant but useful opportunity. When Familiars breed they lay Devil Spawn in your soul. At the start of every session roll a d20. If you roll under the number of Familiars you possess, an Imp is born. Imps are just like regular Familiars, except they only know one Familiar spell and one random cantrip from any spell list. Randomly determine their parents.

After successfully casting their cantrip nine times they mature and become a regular Familiar. They lose their cantrip and gain either one of their parent’s unique spells or a Mutant Spell derived from both of them.

B: Effigy
Housing Familiars inside your body isn’t always convenient. You learn the rituals needed to craft a vessel to house one of your Familiars. It takes a full day of work, but when it’s finished the Effigy can hold one Familiar or three Imps. While in the object the Familiar doesn’t directly feed off your life force. You regain the point of Max HP, but you must make a offering of your blood each day (d2 damage) or the Familiar will leave you. As long as you are holding the Effigy you can still order your Familiar to cast spells. An Effigy’s magic is weaker but more stable, you may only invest 1 MD.

B: Witch’s Brew
Ritually boiling the unblessed remains of a dead witch and consuming them allows you to gain control of any Familiars still bound to the corpse. If you eat the heart, you gain any Boons the dead witch had as well as all of their Prices. Murdering members of your own coven for power is generally held to be in poor taste.

C: Demonic Animals
You know how to put a Familiar into the body of an animal. It has HP equal to half of yours. It can speak, and is telepathically linked to you. You may see through its senses at any time, though doing so leaves your real body immobile. You can cast any of your spells or use your Boons through your familiar if it would be applicable. You must feed it d2 HP of blood each day it remains in animal form (typically by suckling it on your Witch’s Teat). If it isn’t fed it will leave you. If the animal is killed make a Save. If successful the Familiar returns to your body, on a failure it leaves.

C: Magistellus
You have earned the right to summon a Magistellus and bind it into the body of a goat. It is a powerful demon who acts as both a teacher to your coven and as an emissary of your Patron. As long as you serve the Magistellus well and stay on good terms you gain the Tutelary Demon Boon for free. If you have the Spirit Evocation Boon you gain a +2F bonus to all its uses. The Magistellus can choose to allow you to use some of its MD when you cast spells.

D: Fetch Follower
Each person has a spirit assigned to follow them throughout their life, providing inspiration and protecting them. Just prior to their death this spirit departs to ready the way for their soul. The witch transgresses the normal order of things by seeking to know this spirit long before they are appointed to die. The Fetch acts as a Familiar, but it is stronger and wiser than most Familiars and it always has the witch’s best interests at heart. The only time a Fetch would ever desert its charge is if they become a truly evil and corrupt human being. The Fetch has 3 HD and Will 16. It knows three unique spells and grants 3 MD.

 

FAMILIAR SPELLS

1. Possess Human
R: Touch T: 1 Human D: [Dice] Days

The victim makes a Save, if they fail one of your Familiars temporarily leaves your body and inhabits them. They are charmed and must obey all of your orders. If you order them to do something that violates their beliefs they can make an Opposed Will check against the Familiar to resist. While your Familiar is possessing someone it may only cast its spells on that person (they do not get a Save). The Familiar is still bonded to you so you do not regain the Max HP while it’s away. This spell can be recast to extend its duration.

2. Curse
R: 30’ T: 1 Human

The victim must save or gain [Dice] Doom Dice.

3. Ailment
R: 30’ T: 1 Human D: [Sum] Days

The victim makes a Save or contracts a debilitating disease. -2F on all actions and suffer d6 damage each day.