Witch

What is a witch? A female spellcaster?

Absolutely not.

Thaumaturgy is one of the fundamental arts of spellcasting. It is the study and practice of the Law of Sympathy: as above, so below, as without, so within, etc. Parts of a whole have what is called a "sympathetic link" to the whole. This enables such magic as a phylactery: a totem created with a small sample of a creature which can be used to locate them or bind magic to them. All spellcasters use thaumaturgy to some degree.

Witchcraft is the deep study and mastery of both thaumaturgy, and of the fundamental revelation that All is Connected: sympathetic bonds tie together all of the cosmos. No action or individual exists in isolation, and therefore no working of magic goes without consequence. Witches understand their place within the grand cosmic working of magic--a profound and awesome experience, but a humbling one as well. They realize that every spell they casts has an equivalent reaction--it may not immediately rebound upon them, but it will, in its course, take its toll. And thus, they understand that all harmful magic--all of it, always--returns the ill will of the caster back onto herself, in some way, at some point.

This, understandably, has a dramatic impact on the way witches work magic, as compared to others who do not or cannot see this connection.

The study of a magical working's "intent"--i.e. for good, ill, or neutral--is called its Chroma. Likened to a spectrum of colors, Chroma reflects the nuance of nature--it is hardly black and white, so labels such as "black magic" and "white magic" are laughable to true students of witchcraft. A thorough understanding of Chroma allows witches to work magic to their advantage without accumulating too many negative consequences.

Basic Abilities

Brief version:

• Your primary limiting factor is Vitae, which is simply a quantification of life energy. You have some within you, as do all living creatures. Your own is handy for use, but obviously quite precious and shouldn't be expended too much. You can use the Vitae of others, or existing within the natural world--it works just as well to empower your spells.
• Your secondary limiting factor is Chroma, a measure of the moral intent of spellcasting. Harmful magic tends to rebound upon you in time, while helpful magic reduces that effect.
• Things you can learn with talents:
  • Spells: pretty obvious what these are.
  • Bindings: permanent or at-will magical abilities that generally don't cost Vitae to use, but rather reduce the Vitae you have available to power other spells.
  • Felicity: reflections of the harmony you share with the essence of magic.
  • Name TBD: invocations of Chroma itself.

Core skills

Old section, plz ignore

• You use Spellcraft (Int) to cast spells.
• You use Concentration (Wis) to sustain your spells and Perception (Wis) to perceive and understand the workings of Chroma.
• You use Willpower (Cha) to try to work Chroma to your will. Your Charisma also factors into your Felicity powers.

Thaumaturgy

Clarity

You perceive the flow of magic.

• Rank 1: detect magical auras on sight, spend a swift action to analyze one (Spellcraft check) to learn its power level, school, and approximate purpose.
• Rank 2: detect magical auras regardless of concealment, instantly detect level, school, and sphere. etc

Ritual Spells

Rank 1

• Command Undead: At-will, swift, short range; you dominate targeted undead creature (Will ends, 3 strike rule, 10% penalty per failure). May slot reserve to bind until sunrise.
  • Reversed: At-will, swift, short range; you release targeted undead creature from the domination of another. Subject is allowed 3 Will saves to end domination, only 1 success if needed. If all 3 fail, subject cannot be freed by this ritual until after sunrise.
• Death Sight: At-will, concentration; you see through the eyes of an undead minion under your control, and establish a telepathic link through which you may command it; max range 1 mile/level.
  • Reversed: Recharge 33%, swift, medium range; subject undead is blinded (Fort ends).
• Evoke Flame: Free, medium range; targeted blood, freshly spilled within last 3 rounds, burst into flames, providing heat and light and igniting flammable objects as normal. Blood burns as long as you remain in long range, or until the sun rises.
  • Reversed: Free; you suffer medium physical damage, letting your blood flow, which you then cast in a short cone. Any fires in the area, natural or otherwise, are immediately quenched.
• Create Phylactery: 10 minutes, reagent cost (1 sp plus a sympathetic component); you create a - phylactery: being an object that uses sympathetic magic to create a thaumaturgical connection to another creature. The key ingredient is a sympathetic component, such as blood, hair, or even a prized possession. The object's composition does not matter much; usually, it is a simple doll. The phylactery allows the following uses:
  • Locate Creature: at-will; as you concentrate, you sense the direction of the creature, and the rough distance (1 yard, 10 yards, 100 yards, 1 mile, 10 miles, 100 miles, etc).
  • Spirit Link: at-will; you create a mental link to the creature. You may speak to the subject through that creature. You perceive the subject and its most immediate surroundings (a few feet). Lasts as long as you concentrate.
  • Transmit Weal or Woe: at-will; you may cast a spell or use a physical attack against the doll. This transmits the effect of the spell or attack to the subject, over any distance, bypassing all wards. Each such attack has a 25% chance of destroying the doll permanently.
  • Recall Spirit: 1 minute cast, concentration, subject must be dead; you conjure the creature's spirit, allowing communication. If unwilling to cooperate, you may force the subject spirit to answer questions (Will ends effect, one save per question). Destroys phylactery.
  • Steal Visage: 1 minute cast, reserve; you take the form of subject, down to the most minute detail. You know important knowledge the subject would know, such as the names and faces of his close companions. To recall an important detail, such as a secret only he would know, when prompted for it, you may force it from the phylactery (Will ends; a passed save means you can conjure no more secrets this casting). Destroys phylactery.

Rank 2

• Death and Rebirth: 10 minutes, reagent (1 living creature of the same type as the subject, e.g. "natural humanoid"); you sacrifice a living creature, and use its passing to resurrect a subject who has been dead for up to 1 day/level. Reversed: Dead subject quickly decays into dust; in a radius around the subject, verdant life springs forth from the ground, in full bloom. Radius is based on the level of subject (10 yards for minor creatures, otherwise 100 yards per level). Optionally, subject's bones remain.

Rank 3

• Create Hearthstone: 10 minutes, reagent (a stone from the destination hearth, plus 10 gp); you create a stone which allows you to teleport to the destination hearth. A hearthstone has a 1 hour cooldown.
  • Reversed: 10 minutes, reagent (one hearthstone); you destroy the hearthstone, and the hearth to which it is meant to teleport its user, negating the function of any other hearthstones connected to it.
• Create Greater Phylactery: 1 hour, reagent cost (1 gp plus a strong sympathetic component); as Create Phylactery, but requires the strongest of sympathetic components, such as a vial of fresh blood (no more than 5 minutes exposed at start of ritual) or a portion of subject's soul. Allows all uses of a standard phylactery, plus:
  • Transmit Weal or Woe: same as normal, except phylactery can suffer 5 "hits" before being destroyed.
  • Steal Visage: same as normal, but does not destroy phylactery.
  • Steal Spell: at-will; you may cast a spell that the subject knows, as if you knew it. Magnify Harm: constant; any harm you inflict upon subject directly (not through Transmit Weal or Woe) is increased in effectiveness by 50%.
  • Domination: at-will, concentration; you may control subject's actions (Contest of Wills).

Spells

Bindings

Felicity

The path of the Witch is challenging. Upon realization of the reality of Chroma, a witch realizes she is more limited than other casters--or rather, she is simply aware of limitations they too possess, but are too naive to notice. This somewhat reduces the outright usefulness of magic, especially to an adventurer, who might, for intance, find frequent need for harmful magic.

There is an advantage to this inconvenient knowledge. By understanding magic on a more fundamental level, witches find themselves in greater harmony with magic than other practitioners. The Felicity talents express this ability, granting advantages that reflect how magic itself tends to favor you, sometimes more so than its wielder.

Some of these talents reserve Vitae, and some have Chroma requirements. Some have no requirements.

• Absorb Magic: Reaction to incoming magic within melee range; you intercept the magic with your left hand, attempting to absorb its power. Roll Fortitude against the spell's DC. On success, you gain Vitae equal to the spell's effect, and nullify its intended effect. On mixed success, choose one. On failure, you gain no Vitae and suffer the effect.
  • Spellsteal: At-will, std, melee range; you use a variant of Absorb Magic on a spellcaster or active spell, "stealing" it. Roll Spellcraft vs DC; on success, you nullify the effect or steal an appropriate amount of magical energy from a caster, and gain a single, consumable use of that power (which requires whatever action would be normal to cast it). Can also target magic items, draining their power and effectiveness.
• Clarity: At will, you can detect magical auras, discerning the identity and purpose of all effects that you are of sufficient level to have cast (even if not from the Witch list).
  • True Seeing: You can see the true form of any creature whose is obscured by magical or mundane means, even if invisible.
  • Arcane Sight: You know what spells and magical abilities a creature is capable of casting, if they are visible to you.
• Ecstasy: Every time you work magic, you experience the bliss and divinity of the cosmos. In practical terms, this allows you to gain a benefit for each spell cast: heal yourself for light damage, remove a toxin or harmful magical effect from yourself (Spellcraft vs DC), or automatically remove any fear or negative emotion effect from yourself.
• Friend of Magic: All magic that distinguishes between friend or foe (e.g. it says "enemies suffer xyz or allies gain xyz") has a 5% chance per level (minimum 25%) to treat you as whichever is more advantageous, regardless of caster's intent. All other hostile magic has a 1% chance per level (no minimum) to have no effect on you.

Powers

Pestilence

1 action, touch or 60-ft, V/S, inst; you infect subject with a chosen disease. Diseases last 5 rounds; each application of the same disease refreshes the duration.

• '''Blood Boil''': subject suffers light fire damage per round, and when struck for physical damage, causes a burst 1 inflicting light fire damage to enemies.
• '''Frost Fever''': subject suffers light cold damage per round, and is chilled (Fort ends).
• '''Shadow Plague''': subject suffers light necrotic damage per round, and is Weakened (half damage).

Metamagic options:

• For +1 mana, add an additional disease at casting time.
• For +1 mana, you can modify the spell so that it spreads diseases from one target onto others within 2 squares (+1 mana to add +2 squares).

Transfusion

Swift, touch; you transfer any amount of damage from subject to yourself, to a limit of the amount that would reduce you to 0 HP.

Reversed:

Std, touch; you steal subject's life, transferring your damage to them, to a limit of the amount that would fully heal you, or the amount that would reduce them to 0, or heavy damage: whichever is lowest. They are allowed a Fort save for half damage.

Burning Blood

When you have suffered damage, you can call upon the power of your own blood to deliver vengeance upon your enemies.

Std, ranged; inflicts fire damage equal to the amount of damage you have suffered.

• For +1 mana, change to cone 3, or add +3 squares to cone.
• For +1 mana, change to burst 2, or add +2 squares to burst.

Feat ideas:

• Feat that lets you use someone else's blood (maybe not specific to this power)

Blood Calls to Blood

Encounter, swift, medium range; you control subject's physical actions (Will ends). Requires subject's blood; any time a creature suffers physical damage, it spills blood upon the creature, the weapon, and the ground nearby.

Blood Rage

Requires your own blood; grants scaling bonuses to damage and haste based on how damaged you are. You can let your own blood to make this happen. Rules TBD.

Ironguard

You become immune to iron-based weapons. They may as well be incorporeal. Rules TBD

Frozen Blood

You suffer no debilitation from being at or below 0 HP: no disabled, no dying, and no death. That is, until the spell ends.

Presence

Evoke an emotional state in others in an emanation. Can buff or debuff. Rules TBD

Phantasm

Std, ranged; you control what subject senses while you concentrate (Cha ends, but only if they realize the effect is happening; you can use Deception to fool them if your phantasm is suitably subtle).

Emotion

Emotion: Single action, ranged; subject is affected by a single, powerful emotion. Choose one of the following Calm: Subject immediately ceases all action and contemplates life. Wisdom save ends; any hostility against target ends the effect. Can also use on an ally to nullify a negative emotion effect or berserker rage. Desire: Subject is overcome with desire for caster or another of caster's choice, undermining his judgment. Rules TBD. Fear: Subject becomes frightened, ceasing all action but to flee and defend himself. Wisdom save ends after first round. Resolve: Subject's will is hardened; he gains advantage to all saving throws for 1 minute. Rage: Subject immediately becomes hostile to everyone. Wisdom save ends.

Mind Control

Mind Control: Single action, concentration, long range; you control subject's actions while he remains within Long range (Wisdom save ends, max one save per 10 minutes). Any hostile actions by your allies against subject negates the spell.

Soulgaze

• Soul Splint

Reanimate

Reanimate: 1 action, 60-ft, V/S, 5 rounds#### you animate one or more recently-dead (within the last hour) corpses (of humanoids or animals). The cost is one Mana per creature animated. You may control a maximum of 1 + 1 per 2 levels as a bonus action (60-ft range, language-dependent); any others act on your last command, or, lacking such command, act as crazed, starved, wild animals might. The traits of the animated dead are '''Undead:''' immune to death effects, energy drain, etc. Cannot be healed as living creatures would. Vulnerable to abilities that affect undead specifically. '''Clumsy:''' -2 to Dex and movement speed. '''Stupid:''' Int set to 5. They are barely able to understand the simplest of spoken commands, with the aid of gestures and nonverbal communication. They lose any spellcasting abilities, skills, feats, class features, and proficiencies. If wielding martial weapons, they are disadvantaged on attack rolls (but are fine with simple weapons). '''Doomed:''' At the end of the duration of the spell, they die once more, and cannot be raised again with Reanimate.

Necrosis

Necrosis: Single action, medium range; part of subject's body dies, then grows into a new limb, head, or whatever is needed, which wields the subject's own strength against it and its allies. Each round, for 3 rounds, you may choose one of the subject's own maneuvers or spells and execute it, with the subject's own damage statistics.

Frost Block

• 1 mana, std, ranged; subject is immobile, unable to act, and invulnerable, as all attacks strike the frost block first. The block has HP equal to a heavy damage roll. It is immune to frost damage and vulnerable to fire damage. On turn start, the creature inside, if warm-blooded, suffers light frost damage and reduces the ice block's HP by the same amount. They can, as a standard action, attempt to burst free by passing a Strength check against the spell's DC; on success, they inflict medium kinetic damage to the ice block.
  • +1 Mana: +100% ice block HP
  • +1 Mana: change cast time to reaction, target to self. Can end the effect as a free action.