Another witch build I like is a twilight cleric for 5 levels and druid for the rest, either land (swamp or underdark), spores, dreams, or shepard and have the hexblood Lineage from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Convince your DM to allow to optional rule to let druids cast find familiar as a ritual. Ability to manipulate nature, worship the moon, curse people, bless people, remove curses, animate the dead, use herbalism kit to create potions.
One of my players is playing a Kalashtar Circle of Stars Druid. She focuses a lot on the cosmos and astromancy, but totally has the witch vibe in her design. She does use a Sapphire like a projector for her Star Map and even has divining spells and abilities, as well as a familiar that is a Ghost Owl. Her character believes that the stars have a "song" and she draws her powers from them, giving a bardic angle. We're still fleshing it out, but I like her thought process.
Her character sounds like a lot of fun to play. It's brilliant when players truly make the game's mechanics their own to describe character traits in detail. Thank you for sharing!
Not exactly Wiccan but we were playing a somewhat witchy campaign and I added a few levels of Arcana Domain Cleric to a Ranger build and it worked better than I expected. I also took Magic Initiate to get Find Familiar and now I don't want to play a ranger without a familiar ever again.
This is awesome! I just built a witch character. I went with a more Hag/cosmic like character and made her a druid Circle of Spores with a subclass of Warlock, Archfey patron. I wrote her as a hag's daughter who mysteriously hasn't transformed into a hag or shown hag traits yet. She discovered the true evilness of her coven and killed her hag mother, Granny Pickletoe, before leaving to create a balance in the universe that the hags have tipped towards evil. She specializes in both healing and harming, and her focus is on the balance of life and death, peace and suffering. Although she came from hags, she also has a mysterious connection to the good fey in her patron (who she has yet to discover).
I love it! The new UA Spirit Bard inspired me to come here, and all of these recommendations helped give me some ideas to flavor my Bard-Witch’s spells and background. Great vid
We're grateful to hear that our video was helpful for your character development! There's so much fun to be had when exploring these character flavors.
FYI: If you're playing a campaign in the Forgotten Realms, the Celtic-like "Ffolk" of the southern Moonshae Isles (off the Sword Coast) are a great, fertile ground for witch-class PCs. Ffolk are locals who revere magical "moonwells" scattered across the Moonshaes; a land ruled by a Goddess. She empowers the moonwells with healing magic, and she is served by a "Lord of the Hunt".
Great vid to help me with the Witch I am making for an upcoming campaign. I was initially leaning towards druid, but I am going to give Warlock a second look after this. Thanks!
Love this channel, found it because of the improv video but it was so well made decided to check more out and this one is just as great! Subbed, really hope more people find this channel
Hello witchy listeners! This comment has come up a lot, so I wanted to re-address it and pin it here. I agree that my explanation of Wicca was highly simplistic. While Wicca as a formalized religion originated with Gardner in the early 20th century, my intention with the Wicca build was to encapsulate neo-paganism from the 19th century onward. This particular build is meant to touch on the more benevolent tropes of witchcraft, and given the liturgy of Wicca such as this poem from one founding member, Doreen Valiente in Witchcraft for Tomorrow, "And do what you will be the challenge, so be it Love that harms none", I thought describing the first build as the "Wiccan Witch" was most fitting as a short description of a "good witch." For anyone interested in learning more about the history of Wicca or Neo-Paganism, I highly recommend Margot Adler's 'Drawing Down the Moon.' There's also a pretty good repository of resources here: www.reddit.com/r/witchcraft/wiki/index/resources/ Thanks for watching and commenting!
Really love this! Recently made an Satyr witch, made an homebrew wizard subclass for her, I call it Wicked Toad Witch. She was raised by an Hag and is in a coven, I kinda wanna make a homebrew for The Seer, The Wicca, the sea witch and the cosmic as well and share it😁
YES! That's very cool. I'm currently researching Hags for an article I'm writing, and I learned that Hagspawn typically look indistinguishable from humanoids until they're about 40, but they display evil-ish tendencies during that time, but that would make a cool backstory/campaign plot points to be a hagspawn just discovering her nature! If you do write up these homebrews, I'd love to hear them! :)
YOOOO I JUST FOUND THIS VIDEO!!!!!! I'm going to be using the new Gothic Lineages UA Hexblood along with Alchemist Artificer to make myself a Hag-Witch themed Repunzel. Loved this video! Thanks for all the great tips.
YEESSS! I want to play the Gothic UA all day every day. SO in love with it. And combine that with Artificer, and you're looking at a stellar spooky character not without a myriad of magic items. Hope you got some great roleplay ideas from our video!
@@FlutesLoot the importance of Artificer is also that if you don't flavor it as tech, then you can flavor any of the subclasses as Magic, Armorer? your armor is pelts with talismans tied to it, Artillery? Eye bombs, a whole hecking snake, etc, Battle Smith? bamf, you get a living Cauldron, or some similar creature
@@GoblinLord that's true! I'm playing an Artificer now who is a techy but she'll also be semi-druidic in her inventions since it's Tomb of Annihilation.
Absolutely love it! The first time I heard about Rhiannon was from looking into the history of the eponymous Fleetwood Mac song. Absolutely cool stories from the Welsh Mabinogi (which I know SO little about!), she must have been an awesome character in your campaign.
I remember first finding your article years ago to help someone else’s build, it great timing lol and very creative. Now curious if you might use any of the new subclasses like spirits bard. Also Madam Mim from Sword in the Stone is great inspiration for a druid hag build.
That would be fantastic! I believe that would be a brilliant new class to generate excitement in the coming years. Knowing WotC, they'll probably try to do it with subclasses like they relented with the Mystic.
If you can get a hold of it, Dragon Magazine #114 OCT1986 presented a Witch Class for AD&D 1E that has some neat stuff, like candle magic and different spells available only to witches. Since, AD&D 2E was about 80% similar to 1st Edition I was able to homebrew it as another Wizard Class. From what I've seen of 5E there are already a multitude of ways to mechanically emulate a Witch Class (as covered in this video), but some of the ideas and concepts in Dragon Magazine #114 could be used to add more flavor for homebrew magic items, feats, spells, and witch subclasses.
Always wholesome watching people talk about what they love 😁 I bet you spent hours making this video I'm creating a Grimm-ey witch with charms, illusions... and glamour, making objects look and feel different, just as Cinderella's pumpkin carriage You guys seem pretty comfortable with 5E rules, I wonder if you could help me nail this concept In any case, it could be part of an interesting topic for a video of yours: how to create the spellcaster you really want, following the RAW with just an intelligent reskin
Hey Vianne! We appreciate the compliment :) We actually have been discussing magic a lot recently, and I think you're on the right track with Illusion spells (for any class, but wizards get bonuses with the School of Illusion). At low levels, there are always spells like Minor Illusion, Seeming, Silent Image, Major Image, etc. But the Transmutation school of magic has spells like Polymorph that can change creatures into other creatures, and Alter Self. Another idea is to get proficiencies in artisan tools like Jeweler's or Carpenter's and invest in the Fabricate spell to transform raw materials into glamorous objects: "For example, you can fabricate a wooden bridge from a clump of trees, a rope from a patch of hemp, and clothes from flax or wool." I recommend Wizard, Druid, or Warlock (like I recommended in the video), but I don't mention Bards in this video. You could also be a Bard "soothsayer" that gets spells from any class and use Vicious Mockery as incantations/curses. I hope this helps! Keep the questions coming if you have more!
@@FlutesLoot :D Never played a high-level spellcaster, I didn't know Seeming and Fabricate exist Fits like a glove She is a hexblood, face/controller warlock, level 3 I'll considerate any build idea of yours, as well as any common/uncommon magic items
Thanks morphman30! I wish I had time to do a deep-dive into wicca, but I hope I've given enough information to make people excited to do their own character research! Thanks for watching!
@@FlutesLoot I haven't gotten to yet, and it'll be my first time playing as a bard. Im thinking very fortune teller and medium, and idk about the party yet
I actually just published a video about using the Circle of Spores to play a necromancer! I bet it could work for a witch build, you would just need to think about what your purposes are in shifting life into new forms. I could see this subclass working with the "Wiccan" or the "Hag" play styles. Druids align naturally with Wicca, and as a full-caster, you have several spooky spells available. Plus with Circle of Spores, you now have access to Chill Touch, Cloudkill, and Contagion (among other spells) that are Hag-worthy. It definitely could work!
This is a great question! As a player, you have very limited knowledge about what might happen in a campaign, but there are a few ways you could go about it. First would be to invest in some Divination spells like the Seer (Augury, Foresight, Commune, etc). You could flavor the spells in the form of using mystical means like Tarot cards, as in the answer you get from these spells results in pulling a specific card that you can extrapolate upon. Or, you could see the result in a crystal ball or go into a trance like Trelawney in Harry Potter. The second way to go about this is by boosting your Charisma and trying to read people, sort of like the Mentalist. If you can gather some basic clues about a person in the moment based on their appearance and behavior, you can sort of take some informed guesses at what might lay ahead in their future. I just wrote an article that touches on this, which you can check out here: www.flutesloot.com/roleplaying-charisma/ If you go the second route, remember that even if you aren't skilled in making those educated guesses, your character with high charisma is, and your DM should be able to help you out in what you observe. Talk to your DM about this being your intention and character skill. Hope this helps!
Also, work with the dm. Use a small number of cards. 1 or 2 possible reads, for past/present/future. Then play with his backstory, maybe manipulate his mind, gently. You don't have to stick with pure tarot either. You draw 3 cards. The waiting 🐲 dragon .( Your reading a lesser nobles son, who is a knight- rich family. He will identify with masculine predator images.) Then you " draw", the "sheltering tree".( He likes to see himself as generous to friends, he's with you guys, you have already realized he'd be a good ally, later on. You finish with a "cornucopia" suggesting fruitfulness and prosperity. You have set yourself a small table in his mind. Reinforce that with friendly action, and avoid telepaths, and you are probably in. You can slowly dismantle your manipulation later, as we often can accept friends who have some flaws. Point some of your flaws out, hell realize you are a control freak, but basically kind, to him, at least.
It is a hard world for everyone. And if he sees true loyalty, it should work out. Also, it might be less about drawing cards, and more about deciding what they should be, beforehand. Also, try reversing some readings. Is the welcoming tree reversed? Perhaps that is a sign of a being trapped in a bad romantic or business arrangement. Perhaps a reversed cornucopia means to bank more money first. Perhaps he draws the 4 of happy beavers, which could just confuse EVERYONE.
While largely I liked this I had one issue. Wicca is a living religion so a fairly large health warning applies here. If you are a Wiccan cool but if not it can be problematic. It is the same as if a person that is an atheist makes the D&D equivalent of a white southern Baptist in game. It can work out very poorly and some care should be taken if not ignored in total. By the way I am not saying no Witches should be in the game. They have been in D&D since 1st edition published primarily in Dragon Magazine as a class. Though they did so with a strong focus on the literary tradition.
This is by far the best, most thematic, and comprehensive guide to playing a witch in 5e that I have found so far.
We're pleased to hear that our guide was useful, Doug! We try to stand out with our content. Thanks so much for the feedback. :)
Another witch build I like is a twilight cleric for 5 levels and druid for the rest, either land (swamp or underdark), spores, dreams, or shepard and have the hexblood Lineage from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Convince your DM to allow to optional rule to let druids cast find familiar as a ritual. Ability to manipulate nature, worship the moon, curse people, bless people, remove curses, animate the dead, use herbalism kit to create potions.
That's a lot of witchy coverage! Great concept.
Watching Kikis Delivery Service forced me to retcon my wizard into a witch.
Yesssss, follow that vibe! Everything in D&D 5e can be flavored however you want. :)
One of my players is playing a Kalashtar Circle of Stars Druid. She focuses a lot on the cosmos and astromancy, but totally has the witch vibe in her design. She does use a Sapphire like a projector for her Star Map and even has divining spells and abilities, as well as a familiar that is a Ghost Owl. Her character believes that the stars have a "song" and she draws her powers from them, giving a bardic angle. We're still fleshing it out, but I like her thought process.
Her character sounds like a lot of fun to play. It's brilliant when players truly make the game's mechanics their own to describe character traits in detail. Thank you for sharing!
Great discussion! I let the Witch in my game choose her spells from any of the spell lists - as long as it helped the theme. This worked well. :)
Perfect way to help a player make the character they envision.
Not exactly Wiccan but we were playing a somewhat witchy campaign and I added a few levels of Arcana Domain Cleric to a Ranger build and it worked better than I expected. I also took Magic Initiate to get Find Familiar and now I don't want to play a ranger without a familiar ever again.
That's a clever combination! A Ranger with a familiar feels right.
This was SUPER helpful out of all the vids I’ve found on dnd witches on RUclips !
Glad it was helpful!
This is awesome! I just built a witch character. I went with a more Hag/cosmic like character and made her a druid Circle of Spores with a subclass of Warlock, Archfey patron. I wrote her as a hag's daughter who mysteriously hasn't transformed into a hag or shown hag traits yet. She discovered the true evilness of her coven and killed her hag mother, Granny Pickletoe, before leaving to create a balance in the universe that the hags have tipped towards evil.
She specializes in both healing and harming, and her focus is on the balance of life and death, peace and suffering.
Although she came from hags, she also has a mysterious connection to the good fey in her patron (who she has yet to discover).
Fantastic concept! I wonder what the answers are to her lack of Hag traits. I love that name, Granny Pickletoe.
I love it! The new UA Spirit Bard inspired me to come here, and all of these recommendations helped give me some ideas to flavor my Bard-Witch’s spells and background. Great vid
We're grateful to hear that our video was helpful for your character development! There's so much fun to be had when exploring these character flavors.
FYI: If you're playing a campaign in the Forgotten Realms, the Celtic-like "Ffolk" of the southern Moonshae Isles (off the Sword Coast) are a great, fertile ground for witch-class PCs.
Ffolk are locals who revere magical "moonwells" scattered across the Moonshaes; a land ruled by a Goddess.
She empowers the moonwells with healing magic, and she is served by a "Lord of the Hunt".
Thanks for the tip!
Great vid to help me with the Witch I am making for an upcoming campaign. I was initially leaning towards druid, but I am going to give Warlock a second look after this.
Thanks!
Sure thing! We enjoy helping players to explore what they want out of a character, and bringing that character to life... LITERALLY. *witch cackle*
Love this channel, found it because of the improv video but it was so well made decided to check more out and this one is just as great! Subbed, really hope more people find this channel
You rock Carissa! We're glad you like our channel! Let us know what sorts of topics you're interested in and we'll see what we can crank out!
Hello witchy listeners! This comment has come up a lot, so I wanted to re-address it and pin it here.
I agree that my explanation of Wicca was highly simplistic. While Wicca as a formalized religion originated with Gardner in the early 20th century, my intention with the Wicca build was to encapsulate neo-paganism from the 19th century onward. This particular build is meant to touch on the more benevolent tropes of witchcraft, and given the liturgy of Wicca such as this poem from one founding member, Doreen Valiente in Witchcraft for Tomorrow, "And do what you will be the challenge, so be it Love that harms none", I thought describing the first build as the "Wiccan Witch" was most fitting as a short description of a "good witch."
For anyone interested in learning more about the history of Wicca or Neo-Paganism, I highly recommend Margot Adler's 'Drawing Down the Moon.' There's also a pretty good repository of resources here: www.reddit.com/r/witchcraft/wiki/index/resources/
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Really love this!
Recently made an Satyr witch, made an homebrew wizard subclass for her, I call it Wicked Toad Witch. She was raised by an Hag and is in a coven, I kinda wanna make a homebrew for The Seer, The Wicca, the sea witch and the cosmic as well and share it😁
YES! That's very cool. I'm currently researching Hags for an article I'm writing, and I learned that Hagspawn typically look indistinguishable from humanoids until they're about 40, but they display evil-ish tendencies during that time, but that would make a cool backstory/campaign plot points to be a hagspawn just discovering her nature! If you do write up these homebrews, I'd love to hear them! :)
YOOOO I JUST FOUND THIS VIDEO!!!!!! I'm going to be using the new Gothic Lineages UA Hexblood along with Alchemist Artificer to make myself a Hag-Witch themed Repunzel.
Loved this video! Thanks for all the great tips.
YEESSS! I want to play the Gothic UA all day every day. SO in love with it. And combine that with Artificer, and you're looking at a stellar spooky character not without a myriad of magic items. Hope you got some great roleplay ideas from our video!
@@FlutesLoot the importance of Artificer is also that if you don't flavor it as tech, then you can flavor any of the subclasses as Magic, Armorer? your armor is pelts with talismans tied to it, Artillery? Eye bombs, a whole hecking snake, etc, Battle Smith? bamf, you get a living Cauldron, or some similar creature
@@GoblinLord that's true! I'm playing an Artificer now who is a techy but she'll also be semi-druidic in her inventions since it's Tomb of Annihilation.
I'm playing a witch for our Halloween campaign and this guide has been a massive help! Thank you!
Perfect! Good luck with the Halloween campaign :)
Rhiannon was a Welsh witch. For D&D, I made her a druid class, level 20.
Absolutely love it! The first time I heard about Rhiannon was from looking into the history of the eponymous Fleetwood Mac song. Absolutely cool stories from the Welsh Mabinogi (which I know SO little about!), she must have been an awesome character in your campaign.
I didn't know this video existed, yet I search for it 3 days after it's creation. Must be fate.
The stars aligned, as a witch might say :D
something something things happen in 3's ;D
I remember first finding your article years ago to help someone else’s build, it great timing lol and very creative. Now curious if you might use any of the new subclasses like spirits bard.
Also Madam Mim from Sword in the Stone is great inspiration for a druid hag build.
WOTC needs to make an official Witch Class
That would be fantastic! I believe that would be a brilliant new class to generate excitement in the coming years. Knowing WotC, they'll probably try to do it with subclasses like they relented with the Mystic.
@@FlutesLoot I agree they will probably do that but that is lazy and doesn't do justice to the Witch!
@@PowderKeg3838 Amen
If you can get a hold of it, Dragon Magazine #114 OCT1986 presented a Witch Class for AD&D 1E that has some neat stuff, like candle magic and different spells available only to witches. Since, AD&D 2E was about 80% similar to 1st Edition I was able to homebrew it as another Wizard Class. From what I've seen of 5E there are already a multitude of ways to mechanically emulate a Witch Class (as covered in this video), but some of the ideas and concepts in Dragon Magazine #114 could be used to add more flavor for homebrew magic items, feats, spells, and witch subclasses.
Always wholesome watching people talk about what they love
😁 I bet you spent hours making this video
I'm creating a Grimm-ey witch with charms, illusions... and glamour, making objects look and feel different, just as Cinderella's pumpkin carriage
You guys seem pretty comfortable with 5E rules, I wonder if you could help me nail this concept
In any case, it could be part of an interesting topic for a video of yours: how to create the spellcaster you really want, following the RAW with just an intelligent reskin
Hey Vianne! We appreciate the compliment :) We actually have been discussing magic a lot recently, and I think you're on the right track with Illusion spells (for any class, but wizards get bonuses with the School of Illusion). At low levels, there are always spells like Minor Illusion, Seeming, Silent Image, Major Image, etc. But the Transmutation school of magic has spells like Polymorph that can change creatures into other creatures, and Alter Self. Another idea is to get proficiencies in artisan tools like Jeweler's or Carpenter's and invest in the Fabricate spell to transform raw materials into glamorous objects: "For example, you can fabricate a wooden bridge from a clump of trees, a rope from a patch of hemp, and clothes from flax or wool."
I recommend Wizard, Druid, or Warlock (like I recommended in the video), but I don't mention Bards in this video. You could also be a Bard "soothsayer" that gets spells from any class and use Vicious Mockery as incantations/curses.
I hope this helps! Keep the questions coming if you have more!
@@FlutesLoot :D Never played a high-level spellcaster, I didn't know Seeming and Fabricate exist
Fits like a glove
She is a hexblood, face/controller warlock, level 3
I'll considerate any build idea of yours, as well as any common/uncommon magic items
This was super cool! Now I'm inspired to make a witch character!
- The Innkeeper
Thank you! :)
Not all wiccans are Dianic (female deity) exclusive. There are male wiccans/witches as well. Just clarifying.
Thanks morphman30! I wish I had time to do a deep-dive into wicca, but I hope I've given enough information to make people excited to do their own character research! Thanks for watching!
I'm playing a hag like druid currently. This gave me some great ideas. I think I might add some wiccan witch flavor too.
Fantastic! I'm glad the video inspired your creativity :)
This was fantastic! Fun!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I think a hexblood (UA) spore druid would make a good witch
Absolutely!
I have a build that would be an oracle using a college of spirits Bard and a aberrant mind sorcerer based on Madame Leota
That's awesome! How do you roleplay your character? And what role do you find yourself fulfilling in the party?
@@FlutesLoot I haven't gotten to yet, and it'll be my first time playing as a bard. Im thinking very fortune teller and medium, and idk about the party yet
It sounds like a fun concept to play! We'd love to hear how it goes!
I know this is like, 2 months late but what do you feel about Circle of Spores for a witch?
I actually just published a video about using the Circle of Spores to play a necromancer! I bet it could work for a witch build, you would just need to think about what your purposes are in shifting life into new forms. I could see this subclass working with the "Wiccan" or the "Hag" play styles. Druids align naturally with Wicca, and as a full-caster, you have several spooky spells available. Plus with Circle of Spores, you now have access to Chill Touch, Cloudkill, and Contagion (among other spells) that are Hag-worthy. It definitely could work!
You forgot the blood witch, blood hunter profane soul
That's a great idea for a witch, probably in the Hag category.
Really enjoyed the video :) do you have any tips for a player who wants to rp telling people’s fortunes?
This is a great question! As a player, you have very limited knowledge about what might happen in a campaign, but there are a few ways you could go about it. First would be to invest in some Divination spells like the Seer (Augury, Foresight, Commune, etc). You could flavor the spells in the form of using mystical means like Tarot cards, as in the answer you get from these spells results in pulling a specific card that you can extrapolate upon. Or, you could see the result in a crystal ball or go into a trance like Trelawney in Harry Potter.
The second way to go about this is by boosting your Charisma and trying to read people, sort of like the Mentalist. If you can gather some basic clues about a person in the moment based on their appearance and behavior, you can sort of take some informed guesses at what might lay ahead in their future. I just wrote an article that touches on this, which you can check out here: www.flutesloot.com/roleplaying-charisma/
If you go the second route, remember that even if you aren't skilled in making those educated guesses, your character with high charisma is, and your DM should be able to help you out in what you observe. Talk to your DM about this being your intention and character skill. Hope this helps!
Also, work with the dm. Use a small number of cards. 1 or 2 possible reads, for past/present/future. Then play with his backstory, maybe manipulate his mind, gently.
You don't have to stick with pure tarot either.
You draw 3 cards. The waiting 🐲 dragon .( Your reading a lesser nobles son, who is a knight- rich family. He will identify with masculine predator images.) Then you
" draw", the "sheltering tree".( He likes to see himself as generous to friends, he's with you guys, you have already realized he'd be a good ally, later on. You finish with a "cornucopia" suggesting fruitfulness and prosperity. You have set yourself a small table in his mind. Reinforce that with friendly action, and avoid telepaths, and you are probably in.
You can slowly dismantle your manipulation later, as we often can accept friends who have some flaws. Point some of your flaws out, hell realize you are a control freak, but basically kind, to him, at least.
It is a hard world for everyone. And if he sees true loyalty, it should work out.
Also, it might be less about drawing cards, and more about deciding what they should be, beforehand.
Also, try reversing some readings. Is the welcoming tree reversed? Perhaps that is a sign of a being trapped in a bad romantic or business arrangement. Perhaps a reversed cornucopia means to bank more money first. Perhaps he draws the 4 of happy beavers, which could just confuse EVERYONE.
While largely I liked this I had one issue. Wicca is a living religion so a fairly large health warning applies here. If you are a Wiccan cool but if not it can be problematic. It is the same as if a person that is an atheist makes the D&D equivalent of a white southern Baptist in game. It can work out very poorly and some care should be taken if not ignored in total.
By the way I am not saying no Witches should be in the game. They have been in D&D since 1st edition published primarily in Dragon Magazine as a class. Though they did so with a strong focus on the literary tradition.
Thank you for the considerate comment, Leodous. We always hope to encourage respectful gameplay in an effort to avoid appropriation.