Raceless Classes of Eira – The Blood Witch Revisited

The Blood Witch made its first (known) in play debut at last weekend’s MEPAcon. The gentleman who played her semed to have a good time through out the game with the character (if he is now reading this blog I must once again apologize for my daughter). After the game, however ,when I conducted a little bit of an After Action Review (All you military folks will recognize this) he brought up his concerns.

The Blood Witch was too powerful, especially for a first level magic-user. During play he was able to cast magic-missile and several other spells at least once and make it through the adventure alive despite the hp-sacrificing nature of the Blood Witch. I had to agree, I never figured the character or a player would be that loose with their magical ability. Obviously some sort of limiter was needed and after a few days of thinking I think I have a good one.

I ask that if anyone uses the Blood Witch to let me know after the fact what they thought and how she worked in combat with this new limiter. My e-mail is geniuslocigames&gmail.com.

The original Blood Witch can be found here or as the last entry in +Wayne Rossi‘s Dungeon Crawl 3. I have also highlighted the new information for easy for anyone who knows the original version of the class.

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Blood Witch

The Blood Witch is figure feared and whispered of in the rural lands of Eira. Blood Witches are looked down upon by the people of Eira and are often the subject of fear and violent action by many villager. It is not uncommon in some wilder places of the world to find that a Blood Witch has been put to the fire or burned alive due to their “unnatural” connection to the arcane. To other Magic-Users the Blood Witch is a figure that goes against all that they have learned and know, a figure to them that must have made some arcane pact with the Outside or some other intelligent source.

Unlike the Magic-User who learns of the arcane of the energies of the world through study and training, the Blood Witch comes to it by instinct and personal sacrifice. To the Blood Witch the magic sings inside of her, tells her secrets, and whispers of the glories of the universe. To a Blood Witch the Magic-User seems like a child grasping at air and dead things..

Unfortunately the Blood Witch’s connection to the arcane comes at a grave price for anyone who pursues the path of the Blood Witch soon gets lost in the song of magic and may not see the world for how it is. Furthermore the Blood Witch must use her own body to focus her spellcasting and it has not been unheard of for a Blood Witch to kill herself in the midst of her spells.

Prime Attribute: Constitution 13+ (5% experience bonus

Hit Dice: 1d6

Weapons permitted: Dagger, staff, short sword

Armor Permitted: None

Tough: Constitution scores over 16 grant an additional +1 to HP per level

Shattered Soul: Every day the Blood Witch has a 60% chance of losing herself in the song of magic. If this occurs the Witch will be able to cast 1 level above her level, however, she cannot know what is real or delusion.

Blood Witch Abilities

Spell Casting – Unlike the Cleric who must pray to his god for his power and a Magic-User who must study from a book, a Blood Witch can cast her spells spontaneously. However, to cast her spells the Blood Witch must make a sacrifice of herself to free the magic. This means that essentially the Blood Witch must injury herself to cast a spell. As such, every spell cast by the Blood Witch is dependent on two factors.

The first is that the Blood Witch must roll her constitution score + the spell level or higher in order to cast her spells. If the Blood Witch fails her spell roll the spell is swept away in the song of the magic and will not return to her for a day. The second is that for every spell cast the Blood Witch must sacrifice 1 + spell level of her health in order for the spell to be effective. If the Blood Witch refuses to make the sacrifice the spell and 1d4 other spells will be swept away in the song of magic for a two day period.

A Beginning Blood Witch has access to all first level arcane spells. With every level after first the Blood Witch rolls 1d8, the result is the number of spells of the next highest level that the blood witch can learn.

Saving Throw Bonus – Blood Witches receive a bonus of +2 on saving throws versus magic.

Level	EXP	HD	Saving Throw
1	0	1	16
2	3,000	2	15
3	6,000	3	14
4	12,000	4	13
5	24,000	5	12
6	48,000	6	11
7	96,000	7	10
8	192,000	8	09
9	384,000	9	08
10	450,000	10	07
11+	+66,000	+2	06

Raceless Classes of Eira – The Blood Witch Revisited