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Orignially posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-witch.html
Going to look at some more D&D 5 Witch classes today. These are all just called "The Witch." Since that was also the name of my first witch book back in 2012 I thought I should check them out.
For these DMSGuild classes, I am going to still follow my own rules and guidelines to make sure I am giving these a fair review.
The Witch by Jeroen Boogaard
This pdf is 8 (6 pages content, 1 cover, 1 page of spells) pages at $0.50, so right under my ¢10 per page guideline. The pdf is full color but light on art. Mind you, that is not a big deal here since the art it does have is used to good effect.
Presented here is a full 20 level spellcasting class similar in feel to the Pathfinder witch, including minor (five of these) and major hexes (also five of these). They get a full 9 levels of spell casting slots and Intelligence is their spellcasting ability. These witches also get an herbalism ability. Their subtypes are known as "Covens" so that is a good thing. There are the covens of the dragon, the ancestor, and of the wild. Each coven gets some special abilities and additional spells.
There is a spell list on the last page, but no new spells. There are some minor typos, but nothing that impedes the understanding of the text.
This comes very close to the idea of the witch, but not the ideal witch for me.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-vesper-burjoskis.html
The Witch: 3 New Subclasses
This PDF provides three new witch subclasses. This is 11 pages with a PWYW suggestion of $1.00, so again right at that 10 cents a page. The subclasses are, The Wortwitch (which the author also calls a Hedge witch), the Fatalist, and the Rambler. The DMSGuild page does a great job of detailing the various sub-classes.
Like his previous witch book, this one has a lot of flavor to it. There are also more Kennings in this pdf as well.
Both PDFs together come in at $3.00 and over 30 pages.
The author has other pdfs on DMSGuild too. I might need to check them out.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-vesper-burjoskis.html
The Witch: 5e Class
This is the base witch class. The PDF sells for $2.00 and has 24 pages (1 cover, 23 pages of content) so well over my 10 cents per page guideline. This PDF also looks nice, making good use of layout and art.
This witch is a charisma based caster with wisdom as the ability to cover other powers. She also has a lot of nice background information. This witch casts similar to a warlock but is limited to the 5th level. This makes her similar to the Hedge Witches I have reviewed in the past. This witch also has magical tattoos called kennings that provide powers. I'll give it to this witch class, it has a lot of really cool features.
The archetypes are known as Coven-Keepers, Mediums, and Transmaurge. Each has some neat features including some additional spells. Coven-Keepers draw on their covens which can include other spell casters. Mediums speak with ancestral or fey spirits. It might work well, thematically, with some warlock multiclassing. The Transaurge alters and changes animals around them. A really cool idea to be honest.
Speaking of multiclassing there is even a section on multiclassing this witch.
Next up are the Kennings, or the tattoos with power. Mechanically they work a bit like Occult Powers, Hexes, or Invocations. The kennings have a solid witchy feel to them.
There are no new spells (but not really needed) and five NPC witches.
All in all you get a lot for your $2.00.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-near-witches-and.html
Witch-knight is one of my favorite concepts for witches. An armored knight that is sworn to protect and defend witch covens. I have done it many times as Cowans, Witch Guardians, and Wardens. But this one is a witch knight proper.
This PDF is 14 pages (13 pages content) and is PWYW with a suggestion of $5.00. A bit more than my 10 cents per page guide, but lets see what is inside. The art and layout is great. It looks like a 5e book. The art and layout are all given proper credit, so that is a mark above many titles in the DMSGuild.
The Witch Knight is a full martial class of 20 levels with some limited spell-casting ability. The powers the witch-knight gets look good on the surface. It feels like a good playable class. The sub-classes of the Witch Knight are known as Disciplines and there are five of them. The Spellblade and the Eldritch Guardian are my two favorites and fit best with my own concepts of a Witch Knight.
There is a spell list and even a section on brand new spells. So that is a nice bonus.
All in all the class looks like a lot of fun, but I am left wondering (and not just for this one but for my own and others like it) what does this class do that an Eldritch Knight can't already do? The obvious answers are in the powers, but couldn't this just be a way to role-play an Eldritch Knight? However you decide to do it, this PDF has some great ideas.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-near-witches-and.html
NOTE: Between my review and today this PDF changed it's name to The Shaman.
This one is a 9 page PDF (7 pages content) with a PWYW price suggested at $1.00. So right there near the 10 cents per page guideline I am looking at. My issue with this one is it conflates "Witch Doctor" and "Voodoo" together. Granted, so has Hollywood and western culture for years. In the 7 pages, the class is presented with three different "Occult Practices." The class seems playable, but if this is to replace the various tribal shamans or tribal priests I would have gone a different direction myself.
The layout is good, but the color background will drain your ink. The art is good. The pieces I recognize are from the DMSGuild collection, the ones I don't do not have a credit attached.
I would like to see a Voodoo-like class done right someday.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-near-witches-and.html
Ok, this one caught my eye because it uses the same art as my "The Witch for Basic-era Games" and it offers up a new race; something I have not done a lot of myself.
The PDF is 3 pages (1 cover, 2 pages of content) and is PWYW with a suggestion of $0.50.
The layout is nice and the internal artwork also good. The pdf presents a playable race, a sort of half-hag known as a Witch-born. The material is good and the race seems playable. Only a couple of nitpicks. The race is often described as cursed, but there is little in the way of mechanics behind that. All the traits seem positive and there seems little reason not to play this over a normal human. There is the fact that hags hate them, but hags hate everyone. It's hard to complain about 50 cents, but something to make them stick out a bit might have been nice.
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Originally posted here, https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-wizards-as.html
This pdf is 39 pages and is priced at $5.99. So also a bit more than my ¢10 per page rule of thumb. This one combines four of the author's previous works into one pdf with a witchcraft theme. As themes, they work and I can see where the author is coming from but there is one rather big issue.
There is no witch class within these pages. I am sure that the four different crafts could be layered over the top of other classes, say like the druid or wizard, there is no advice on how to do so. This is a supplement where I don't have the book it is a supplement too.
There plenty of neat ideas here and 20 some odd new spells as well as recipes and poisons.
The author has close to 150 titles on DMSGuild, but this one looks like an early attempt. I searched to make sure there wasn't a book of classes that this might be referring too.
Which is too bad for the size and the price I was hoping for a bit more.
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Originally posted here, https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-wizards-as.html
This pdf is only two pages (no cover). It is listed as PWYW with a suggested price of $1.00.
It is a pretty straight-forward Arcane Tradition (Wizard sub-class) to add a witchy feel to a wizard. IT does offer a stat block for a witch, which is nice, but some new spells would have been nicer or even a list of spells the witch can access outside of the wizard's list. The Warlock's Witch Bolt and the divine/Cleric Cure Wounds would have been good choices.
I had hoped for more.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks for the feedback!
New spells are a good idea. A transmutation spell focused on brewing seems appropriate. I'll keep that in mind if I release an update.
Just to clarify one detail, Witch Bolt is currently available to wizards as well as warlocks. Perhaps you meant another spell, such as Eldritch Blast? |
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-sorcerers-as.html
This one a bit larger at 35 pages. It is also PWYW with a suggestion of $2.99. This falls under my $0.10 per page rule of thumb so we are still good. This book offers a lot of varied content.
There are different sorts of animal-folk (beast folk, bear folk, cat folk), a full witch class (not a sorcerer build as I was expecting) complete with hexes and curses. There are also three Witchcraft "Practices", the Herbalist, the Pact Maker, and the Soulsplitter.
There are also new class options for all the D&D5 classes. There is a new Sorcerous Origin, the Hagborn, and three new Warlock Patrons/Matrons including Mother Nature.
Both the Sorcerer and the Warlock could double as a witch.
What might be fun for this one is choose one of the new races and make a coven of the Witch, Warlock, and Sorceror types here.
This book also doesn't have any new spells which is a bit of surprise given how much else it has. BUT no new spells were promised son that is fine really.
Again, quite a lot of good content here.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-sorcerers-as.html
This PDF is seven pages and is PWYW with a suggested payment of $1.17. Ok, a bit random, especially since the $1.14 makes a little more historical sense.
The author knows his sorcerers, so that is reflected here. The pdf has background information for your witch characters as well as some other useful tables. The Sorcerous origin reads like a "Natural" or "Born" witch archetype so often used. It works well here too.
No new spells, but none were expected to be honest.
This one packs quite a bit into six or so pages of content. I rather like the cover as well.
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Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-sorcerers-as.html
This seven-page PWYW PDF covers five new archetypes for some D&D 5e classes. Of interest to me are the Witch archetype for sorcerers and the Witch Hunter archetype for any martial-type class.
The witch gets some new spells (from other classes) and four new powers. If I were to use this with other witch classes I might call it a Witch-kin or a Witch-blooded.
This one also highlights one of my strong dislikes for DMSGuild. The art on the cover for this comes from the book Four From Cormyr. I could be mistaken, but I don't think that is in any of the approved art packs I have downloaded. Some of the author's other titles also feature art that I know is not part of the approved packs.
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Originally reviewed here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-warlocks-as.html
This 9 page PDF is PWYW with a suggestion of $2.00. It covers four different subclass archetypes that can be used as the witch.
There is Druid: Circle of the Coven, which draws on the natural powers associated with the Fey. Sorcerer: Witch Stigma, which is a sorcerer with faerie blood, or witch blood if you prefer. Warlock: Haggardly Pact which is a pact with hags and finally the Wizard Arcane Tradition: Coven, which is similar to the witch kit found in AD&D 2nd ed or the witch subclass for wizards in D&D 4e.
Each one is like viewing the witch through the lens of the stated class. Each one also provides something unique, but also each one is an incomplete picture. I think what might be fun is to have a coven of five witches, each one represented by a subclass here and one more as a Witch class. OR create a witchy subclass for the cleric.
That would be fun to try.
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Originally reviewed here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-warlocks-as.html
This one is a neat idea. A Warlock with a special kind of patron to become a Gingerbread Witch, ala the witch from "Hanzel and Gretel."
This PDF is a straight sale of $0.75 and you get three pages of class features to the Warlock. There is also a Gingerbread familiar which is a nice touch.
Though I am less impressed with the art; the author uses the Gingerbread man from the movie "Shrek." This is doubly disappointing given the number of public domain images that could have been used or artists out there that would have done art for this.
While the idea has some merit I don't see a lot of people playing this as a class option long term.
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Originally reviewed here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-warlocks-as.html
Hala was the Goddess of Witches for Ravenloft. She was introduced in the late 2nd Edition days along with the Ravenloft Witch.
This PDF is three pages (1 cover, 1.5 content) and sells for PWYW, suggested $0.50.
In this case the warlocks do choose Hala as their patron and we get a Warlock pact that is very, very similar to what we saw in 2nd Ed Ravenloft, Van Richten's Monster Hunter Compendium Vol. 3. It works so well in fact that this could be the model for other witchy-type warlocks.
Easily worth the $0.50.
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Originally reviewed here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/dmsguild-witch-project-5e-warlocks-as.html
This PDF is one page (cover not included in the download). It is a PWYW with a suggested price of $1.00.
While it is called the Warlock Patron The Witch, I am not seeing much to differentiate it from other warlocks. Nor anything about it that is particularly witchy. I was hoping for warlocks that make pacts with ancient witches and Witch Queens like Baba Yaga, or even Tasha/Iggwilv. So some neat ideas here and there, but not pulled together well enough for me.
Which is too bad, the cover art had a lot of promise.
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