Witch
A D&D 2024 Class for the World of Maerin
They call it a gift, as though something gave it to me. I made it. I paid for it. The blood on my hands is my own.
The practice of witchcraft is older than most faiths. Before the new deities grew strong enough to sustain temples and trained clergy, before wizard academies codified the theory of rift-crystal resonance, there were practitioners who simply knew. They knew which roots would draw fever out of a sick child. They knew which words, spoken at the right hour, would turn bad luck aside. They knew that the world behind the world was listening, and that it would answer, if you knew how to ask.
Witches are not a single tradition. They are a broad category of practitioners bound together by method and temperament rather than allegiance. They draw power from spirits, from the deep channels of the natural world, from occult knowledge inherited and hard-won, and from a stubborn willingness to traffic with forces that better-organized magical traditions have decided are best left alone. They study the hidden properties of plants and animals. They carry grimoires full of recipes, symbols, and warnings. And almost without exception, they are accompanied by a familiar, a spirit that has chosen, or been persuaded, to walk with them.
A witch can be a village healer who frightens the local gentry, a wandering practitioner for hire, a keeper of old lore in a community that has forgotten everything else, or a figure of genuine and terrifying power who has spent decades refining a craft that most institutions would rather pretend does not exist.
Core Identity
Witches call on spirits and otherworldly forces to shape magical effects. Where a wizard studies universal laws of arcane physics and a cleric channels divine will, a witch negotiates. She builds relationships with spirits of place, of season, of memory, and of the spaces between the waking world and whatever lies beyond. Those relationships give her access to a range of magic that crosses the boundaries of any single school or tradition, encompassing curses, healing, poison, illusion, divination, and the subtle manipulation of fate.
Witches are Intelligence-based, full casters who prepare spells daily from a broad personal spell list. Their signature abilities are their Familiar, their Witch's Mark, and their Occult Craft, the last of which represents their expertise in brewing draughts, poisons, and concoctions that produce magical effects without requiring spell slots.
Class Basics
Hit Die: d6
Primary Ability: Intelligence
Saving Throw Proficiencies: Intelligence and Wisdom
Skill Proficiencies: Choose 2 from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Persuasion
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple weapons Armor Training: Light armor
Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism Kit and Poisoner's Kit
Starting Equipment
Choose A or B:
(A) Dagger, grimoire (spellbook, 100 pages), component pouch, scholar's pack, herbalism kit, leather armor, 10 gp
(B) 50 gp to spend as you choose
The Witch Features Table
| Level | Prof. Bonus | Features | Cantrips | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +2 | Spellcasting, Witch's Familiar, Occult Craft | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | +2 | Witch's Mark, Veil-Sight | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | +2 | Witch Covenant | 3 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | +3 | Spirit Call | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | +3 | Covenant Feature | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | +3 | Occult Resilience | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8 | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 | +4 | Coven Rite | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 10 | +4 | Covenant Feature | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 11 | +4 | Greater Mark | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 12 | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 13 | +5 | Veil Walk | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 14 | +5 | Covenant Feature | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 15 | +5 | Eternal Familiar | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 16 | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 17 | +6 | Supreme Mark | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | +6 | Coven Apex | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | +6 | Epic Boon | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | +6 | Archewitch | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Class Features
Level 1: Spellcasting
You have learned to call on spirits, rift energies, and the hidden weave of the natural world, shaping them into magical effects through knowledge, will, and the specific vocabulary of the craft.
Grimoire. Your spells are recorded in a grimoire, a personal book of occult knowledge, recipes, and symbolic notation. Your grimoire contains every spell you know how to prepare. If you lose your grimoire, you can recreate it over the course of a week of work, costing 10 gp per spell level of spells rewritten, as you reconstruct your notes from memory.
Cantrips. You know 3 cantrips of your choice from the Witch Spell List. When you gain a Witch level, you can replace one of your cantrips with another from this list. You gain additional cantrips at 4th and 10th level, as shown in the Witch Features Table.
Spell Slots. The Witch Features Table shows how many spell slots you have. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a Long Rest.
Prepared Spells. Each day, you choose which spells to have available. The number of spells you can have prepared equals your Intelligence modifier plus your Witch level (minimum one). The spells must be of a level for which you have slots, and must be chosen from the Witch Spell List.
You can change your prepared spells whenever you finish a Long Rest, spending at least one minute per spell level for each spell prepared.
Spellcasting Ability. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability.
- Spell Save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
- Spell Attack Modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Spellcasting Focus. You can use your grimoire, a wand, or an Herbalism Kit as a spellcasting focus for your Witch spells.
Ritual Casting. You can cast Witch spells as rituals if they have the Ritual tag and you have the spell in your grimoire, whether or not you have it currently prepared.
Level 1: Witch's Familiar
Through a binding rite performed with smoke, blood, and spoken compact, you call a spirit from beyond the veil and offer it a home in the living world. It accepts, for reasons of its own, and takes the form of an animal to walk beside you.
You gain the permanent service of a familiar. Choose its form from the following options: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, owl, rat, raven, spider, weasel, or any Small or Tiny beast with a Challenge Rating of 1/4 or lower that your DM approves. Regardless of form, your familiar has the following additional properties.
Spirit Nature. Your familiar is a Fey or Undead creature (your choice when you first summon it) rather than its normal creature type. It retains its normal stat block otherwise.
Occult Resilience. Your familiar gains bonus hit points equal to twice your Intelligence modifier, and adds your proficiency bonus to its AC.
Telepathic Bond. While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. You can also perceive through its senses (sight, hearing, and smell) as a Bonus Action, lasting until the start of your next turn. While perceiving through your familiar's senses, you are Blinded and Deafened with respect to your own.
Spell Delivery. When you cast a spell with a range of Touch, your familiar can deliver it in your place. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it uses its Reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it.
Resummoning. If your familiar is slain, you can summon a new one over the course of a Short or Long Rest, using a ritual that requires 10 gp worth of incense and aromatic herbs. The familiar returns as if it had never been killed; only the summoning requires effort and cost.
Familiar Advancement. Your familiar grows with you:
- 5th Level. Your familiar can take the Help action as a Bonus Action.
- 11th Level. Your familiar gains a Fly Speed equal to its Walking Speed (if it does not already have one).
- 15th Level. Your familiar regains 1d6 hit points at the start of each of your turns while it has at least 1 hit point remaining.
Level 1: Occult Craft
Your training extends far beyond spellcasting. You understand the hidden virtues of plants, roots, resins, venoms, and the secretions of obscure creatures. You know how to combine them into preparations that produce real effects in the world, without drawing on a spell slot at all.
Craft Knowledge. You have Advantage on ability checks to identify plants, fungi, poisons, venoms, and their effects. You can identify any common poison or disease on a successful DC 10 Intelligence (Medicine) check.
Poison Hardiness. You have Advantage on saving throws against poison and disease, and you have Resistance to Poison damage.
Witch's Brews. When you finish a Short or Long Rest, you can prepare a number of draughts equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). Each draught requires an Herbalism Kit or Poisoner's Kit to prepare and loses its potency after 24 hours. Draughts are mundane items that can be given to others. A draught can be consumed as a Bonus Action by its holder or administered to a willing or unconscious creature as an Action.
Choose from the following list of draughts each time you brew:
| Draught | Effect |
|---|---|
| Witch's Balm | When consumed, restores 2d4 + your Intelligence modifier hit points. |
| Reviving Tonic | When administered to a creature at 0 hit points, it immediately stabilizes and gains 1 hit point. |
| Sleeping Draught | The consumer makes a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC or falls Unconscious for up to 1 hour. The effect ends if the creature takes any damage or if another creature uses an Action to shake it awake. |
| Clearwit Tonic | When consumed, immediately ends one of the following conditions on the consumer: Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned. |
| Witch's Fire | Can be thrown as an Attack (range 30 feet). The target and each creature within 5 feet of it makes a Dexterity saving throw against your Spell Save DC, taking 2d6 + your Intelligence modifier Fire damage on a failure, or half on a success. |
| Ironbark Draught (requires 5th level) | When consumed, grants Temporary Hit Points equal to 2d6 + your Intelligence modifier for 1 hour. |
| Blight Brew (requires 5th level) | The consumer makes a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failure, they are Poisoned for 1 hour and take 1d6 Poison damage at the start of each of their turns. |
| Ghost Lantern Oil (requires 9th level) | Applied to a weapon as a Bonus Action. The next successful hit with that weapon deals an additional 3d10 Necrotic damage, and the target's Speed is halved until the start of your next turn. |
Level 2: Witch's Mark
You weave a thread of occult attention onto a target, drawing the forces you command toward them. The mark is invisible to most eyes, but it pulls at the edges of the world around your target like a hook in soft cloth.
As a Bonus Action, you can mark a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. You can have a number of simultaneous marks active equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). A mark lasts until you end it (no action required), the marked creature dies, or you finish a Long Rest.
While a creature bears your mark:
- When you deal damage to it with a Witch spell, the damage increases by 1d6 (your choice of Necrotic or Psychic when you apply the mark).
- It has Disadvantage on saving throws against your spells of the Enchantment or Necromancy schools.
- You always know the general direction to the creature, provided it is on the same plane of existence as you.
Mark Damage Scaling: The bonus damage increases to 2d6 at 11th level and 3d6 at 17th level.
Level 2: Veil-Sight
The unseen world becomes easier to read. You can cast Detect Magic at will without expending a spell slot. You also gain Darkvision out to 60 feet; if you already have Darkvision, its range increases by 30 feet.
Additionally, once per Long Rest, you can cast Detect Poison and Disease without expending a spell slot.
Level 3: Witch Covenant
Your practice has aligned with a specific tradition, a body of lore, method, and spiritual allegiance that gives shape and focus to your craft. Choose a Covenant from the options below. Your Covenant grants you features at 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 14th levels.
The four Covenants are described at the end of this document.
Level 4: Ability Score Improvement
You gain the Ability Score Improvement feat or another feat of your choice for which you qualify. You gain this benefit again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th levels.
Level 5: Spirit Call
You reach through the veil between the living world and what lies beyond it, not to bind a permanent familiar, but to call a temporary spirit by urgent need. Spirits called this way are not fully tamed. They are presences you have learned to summon and direct, not servants.
As an Action, you perform a brief spoken rite and expend a spell slot of 2nd level or higher. A spirit appears in an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet of you. It remains for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, or until you dismiss it (no action required).
Choose one of the following spirit forms when you call it:
Watcher Spirit. An invisible presence. AC 13, hit points equal to twice your Witch level, Speed 30 ft (fly, hover). It cannot attack. As a Bonus Action, it can take the Help action to assist you on a Perception check or an attack roll. You can perceive through its senses as you can with your familiar.
Harming Spirit. A visible, ghostly shape. AC 11, hit points equal to your Witch level, Speed 40 ft (fly). Once per turn, it can move through a creature's space, forcing them to make a Constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC or take 2d8 Necrotic damage and gain the Frightened condition (targeting you) until the end of their next turn. Success halves the damage and ignores the condition.
Healing Spirit. A faintly luminous, visible presence. AC 13, hit points equal to your Witch level, Speed 30 ft (fly). Once per turn, as a Bonus Action, it can pass through a creature's space and restore 1d6 + your Intelligence modifier hit points to that creature.
At 11th level, you can have two spirits active simultaneously called by this feature.
Level 7: Occult Resilience
Your long commerce with spirits and otherworldly forces has left its mark on your body and mind, warding you against the things you deal in.
You gain the following:
- You are Immune to the Charmed condition.
- You have Resistance to Necrotic and Psychic damage.
- You have Advantage on saving throws against spells cast by Undead and Fiend creatures.
Level 9: Coven Rite
You have mastered a ritual technique that calls on the deep current of your tradition, a practice requiring stillness, specific materials, and precise intention. Performed carelessly, it does nothing. Performed correctly, it reshapes events.
You learn two Coven Rites from the list below and can perform each once per Long Rest. A Rite requires 10 minutes to complete and 5 gp in materials (candles, chalk, oils, or similar supplies appropriate to your tradition).
Blood Binding. You bind a willing creature to yourself by a rite of mutual compact. For the next 24 hours: you always know their precise location; you can send one-way telepathic messages to them at will; and when they take damage, you can use your Reaction to reduce that damage by 2d10.
Curse Weave. You weave a persistent curse onto a creature within 30 feet (Constitution saving throw negates). On a failure, for the next 24 hours, the creature has Disadvantage on all saving throws against your spells, and whenever it attempts to cast a spell or use a magical ability, it must succeed on an Intelligence check (DC equal to your Spell Save DC) or the ability fails with no effect and the spell slot is expended.
Death's Warning. You perform a rite of dire foreknowledge. You and up to five willing creatures within 30 feet cannot be Surprised for the next 24 hours. Additionally, each creature that participated can reroll one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw within the same period (no action required), taking the new result. Each creature can use this benefit only once.
Spirit Feast. You summon a host of minor spirits to commune briefly with those present. For the next 10 minutes, any creature of your choice within 30 feet gains the benefits of a Short Rest and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to your Witch level.
Sealed Eye. You close your perception to the world around you and open it to something else. You enter a trance for the duration of the rite and receive a vision as if you had cast Scrying on a creature you have personally met, without requiring material components or a spell slot.
You learn one additional Rite at 13th level, and one more at 17th level.
Level 11: Greater Mark
Your Witch's Mark deepens in reach and speed. The mark's bonus damage increases to 2d6 (as noted in the scaling entry above).
Additionally, when a creature bearing your Witch's Mark is reduced to 0 hit points, you can use your Reaction to transfer the mark immediately to a new creature you can see within 60 feet. The new creature has no saving throw against the transfer.
Level 13: Veil Walk
You have learned to step partially into the spirit-layer of the world, that liminal space between the living plane and whatever lies beyond it.
Once per Long Rest, as a Bonus Action, you can enter a state of Veil Walking for up to 1 minute. While in this state:
- You are Invisible to creatures without Truesight or Tremorsense.
- You have Resistance to all damage except Force and Radiant.
- You can move through solid objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. You take 1d10 Force damage if you end your turn inside a solid object.
- Your familiar can accompany you into the Veil if it is within 5 feet of you when you activate this feature.
The state ends early if you end it (no action required) or are Incapacitated.
Level 15: Eternal Familiar
Your familiar's connection to the living world has been sealed by years of shared experience. It no longer fears true death.
If your familiar is reduced to 0 hit points, rather than dying it dissolves into smoke and re-forms beside you 1d4 rounds later, fully restored to its maximum hit points.
Additionally, your familiar now acts with full autonomy. It takes two actions per round on your initiative, and it no longer requires your Bonus Action to use its senses.
Level 17: Supreme Mark
Your Witch's Mark damage increases to 3d6 (as noted in the scaling entry above). Additionally, you can now apply your mark to creatures you cannot directly see but whose location you know, such as a creature you are tracking through the mark's direction sense.
When you apply your Witch's Mark, you can choose to also impose one of the following conditions on the target (Constitution or Wisdom saving throw, your choice, negates): Frightened, Charmed, or Poisoned. The condition lasts as long as the mark remains active.
Level 18: Coven Apex
You have reached a point of power and understanding that most practitioners will never approach. Your craft operates at a different register than it did when you began.
You gain the following:
- Your Spell Save DC increases by 2.
- Once per Long Rest, you can cast a spell of 5th level or lower without expending a spell slot.
- Your Witch's Brews now take effect twice as powerfully: healing draughts restore double their normal hit points, and damage draughts deal double their normal damage.
Level 19: Epic Boon
You gain the Epic Boon feat or another Epic Boon feat of your choice.
Level 20: The Supreme
You have become something the spirits recognize and defer to. The craft has changed you at a level that is no longer entirely metaphorical.
You gain the following:
- Your Intelligence score increases by 4. Your maximum for that score is now 24.
- You no longer need to prepare spells. You can cast any spell from the Witch Spell List for which you have spell slots.
- You always know the exact location (not merely direction) of any creature currently bearing your Witch's Mark, regardless of distance or plane.
- Once per Long Rest, as an Action, you can end any curse, hex, enchantment, or similar effect on a creature you touch, regardless of its source or original caster level.
Witch Covenants
Witch Spell List
Cantrips
Chill Touch, Dancing Lights, Druidcraft, Guidance, Mage Hand, Message, Minor Illusion, Poison Spray, Prestidigitation, Resistance, Spare the Dying, Thorn Whip, Toll the Dead, True Strike, Vicious Mockery
1st Level
Bane, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Cure Wounds, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Disguise Self, Entangle, False Life, Fog Cloud, Goodberry, Hex, Hideous Laughter, Identify, Inflict Wounds, Longstrider, Protection from Evil and Good, Ray of Sickness, Sleep, Speak with Animals, Thunderwave, Unseen Servant, Witch Bolt
2nd Level
Aid, Alter Self, Augury, Barkskin, Blindness/Deafness, Calm Emotions, Crown of Madness, Darkness, Darkvision, Detect Thoughts, Enthrall, Gentle Repose, Hold Person, Invisibility, Lesser Restoration, Locate Object, Mirror Image, Misty Step, Pass Without Trace, Ray of Enfeeblement, See Invisibility, Silence, Spider Climb, Suggestion, Web
3rd Level
Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Clairvoyance, Conjure Animals, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fear, Feign Death, Gaseous Form, Life Transference, Nondetection, Plant Growth, Revivify, Sending, Slow, Speak with Dead, Stinking Cloud, Tongues, Vampiric Touch
4th Level
Arcane Eye, Blight, Charm Monster, Confusion, Death Ward, Dimension Door, Divination, Dominate Beast, Freedom of Movement, Greater Invisibility, Locate Creature, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph
5th Level
Commune, Commune with Nature, Cone of Cold, Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Dream, Geas, Hold Monster, Modify Memory, Raise Dead, Scrying, Telepathic Bond
6th Level
Eyebite, Find the Path, Flesh to Stone, Harm, Mass Suggestion, True Seeing
7th Level
Finger of Death, Forcecage, Mirage Arcane, Power Word Pain, Symbol
8th Level
Antipathy/Sympathy, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Mind Blank, Power Word Stun
9th Level
Astral Projection, Foresight, Power Word Kill, True Polymorph, Wish
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