Halloween approaches…. Perhaps you like the idea of certain characters being known as witches, but you want some flavor for them that is distinct from druids and wizards. This is a sub-class for either AD&D class.

Witches learn their magic by inferior means, typically from another witch as well as by experimentation and, as they advance beyond the level of their mentor and books, by appealing to good celestial beings (unicorn, avatar of the gods, etc.), neutral nature spirits, or evil spirits folks call “demons”. As a result, their spells are fewer and less powerful than other spellcasters. Mechanically, they are dual class wizard/druids and often pose as druids. Witches–who may be male or female–rely on potions, hexes, and curses for much of their power.

• At 1st level, a witch may brew common restoratives, tonics, poisons, and other concoctions as a low-skilled apothecary.
• At 3rd level, a witch may cast a hex once per day, visiting bad luck and minor mishaps on the victim for 3 nights (save vs death to reduce it to 1 night).
  • You lose all your current luck.
  • You get -2 to all skill checks and attack rolls.
  • You cannot achieve a critical attack/success. It is merely an ordinary hit/success.
• At 5th level, a witch may begin brewing potions as a low-skilled alchemist, once per full moon, appropriate to the witch’s level, provided he or she has the necessary component, such as the heart of a hell hound to brew a potion of fire resistance or fire breath.
• At 7th level, the witch may lay a witch’s curse once per month under a full moon. This takes the form of a limited wish which the witch makes at the expense of some evil to be visited on another person.
  • Livestock may take ill and die, a house may burn, or some other seeming mishap befall the unfortunate soul, and this in some way more or less directly benefits the witch.
  • For example, perhaps the house that burns down forces the victim off the land, allowing the witch to claim it by some legal trick.
  • Or the death of livestock forces the family to sell some heirloom to the witch for a pittance to survive. Or the illness of an official allows the witch to coerce the council to agree to some request.

In each case, the benefit must be linked in some way that is clear to the witch, so that the curse may be laid adeptly. He or she cannot merely wish ill on an enemy and expect that the misfortune will benefit him or her in some way. Thus, witches may make deals to be paid by others who directly benefit–heirs and enemies of the victim and such–thereby acting as an arsonist or killer-for-hire at a distance.

This behavior is dangerous, of course, since people often look to who benefits from a catastrophe to suspect they had a hand in it. If too many whisper that a particular person is benefiting from calamities, the witch may be identified, publicly accused, arrested, tried, and executed. For this reason, working thru others may be the wisest–and most lucrative–course of action.

Those suspected of witchcraft may also be tolerated if they live quietly at the edge of society and benefit the locals by brewing tonics and potions as requested (posing as apothecary, alchemist, and/or druid). Witches often use these interactions to hint that misfortune might befall the requestor’s enemies for the right price, but only if they sense an inherent weakness, desperation, or evil in the requestor.