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Worlds Beyond Number Witch Playtest version 3.1

This isn’t very revolutionary because I’ve already taken a look at the Witch, but I wanted to touch base on the updates because I’m really interested in this project. If my thoughts aligned with some of the revisions, I might even start to take my ability to analyze these things more seriously again.

Worlds Beyond Number Witch Playtest version 3.1

Concept Design: Erika Ishii, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Brandes Stoddard, Mazey Veselak
Design: Dan Dillon, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Hannah Rose, Brandes Stoddard, Mazey Veselak
Playtester in Chief: Erika Ishii
Layout: Ruby Lavin
Illustrators: Corey Brickley, Tucker
Donovan, Jack Jones, Lorena Lammer, Taylor Moore

Page Count, Layout, and Format

• Pages: 20
• Layout: Two-Column
• Format: Full Color, Accompanying Art
• Content Breakdown: Introduction and Witch Class—6 pages, Witch Spell Lists—3 pages, Covens (Subclasses)—4 pages, New Spells—6 pages

Disclaimer

Review Copy: No
Played: No
Run: No
Played Similar Content: Yes
Run Similar Content: Yes

Diving In

A lot of what I’m going to be doing is looking at the changelog and discussing my previous look at this class. After I touch on those, I’ll pull some thoughts together.

Class Foundations

The witch gets upgraded from a d6 casting class to a d8 casting class. The class does feel like it’s living in a similar space to classes like the druid. Most of their spells aren’t major areas of effect since their magic is more personal, so without wider “controller” abilities, it’s probably a good idea for them to be able to soak up a little more damage. To go along with this, they also get to wear light armor, should the mood strike them.

The concept of curse spells remains but means something different, and a separate list of them is provided later in the document.

Tier 1 Abilities

There is a fallback means of creating a token if you fail your Wisdom check when you make one by spending a spell slot. Kudos for standardizing the class to adopt 2024 conventions without adopting the idea that it just pops into existence when you “craft” something.

Last time around, I mentioned that Erika immediately took an animal for a familiar that wasn’t on the familiar list, so it’s kind of amusing to me that the document now includes a fox, and a few other animals that weren’t there before, and gives examples of existing animals to swap in for those that don’t have stats. The witch also has badgers, goats, and scorpions on the potential familiar list. So, if you really want, this can now be a VVitch class.

If you follow The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One actual play, I think you’ve seen some of the in-play developments that added the following familiar abilities—they have more hit points, but not so much that they’re combat ready, they can talk now, so they can communicate with more than just the witch; the familiar can’t concentrate for the witch now, except when the witch fails a concentration check, and then the familiar “catches” the concentration before it drops. I don’t know that I would have thought about that, but now that I read it, I kind of like the idea that by making this more of a thing that the familiar steps in and helps with, it makes the familiar feel more like a helper than when they can just do it. Sometimes, a slightly less open class feature can help the class express what it does better.

Retributive curses don’t interact with the curse spell list any longer. Now, there is a list of curse effects the witch can choose from when their ability to use a Retributive Curse is triggered. I was a fan of Retributive Curses, not only because curses are part of the identity they are establishing for this class, but because when the witch was squishier, it was a way for them to potentially survive something getting in their face in combat. Seeing the Retributive Curse as a class feature instead of spells, I realize I like this much better. It makes the curses feel more like they “belong” to the witch, rather than the witch having the ability to use spells differently in some situations.

I mentioned in the previous version that the Tier 1 abilities didn’t give a witch player much to play with in more traditional dungeon crawling or combat situations until 3rd level. Standardizing 3rd level as the level where subclases start bumped Retributive Curses down to 2nd level, which feels right now that they made this change.

Tier 2 Abilities

Talismans are moved to 5th level, and they have a “homing beacon” effect, which I like. I also like that witches can now shut down a talisman and recover their spell slot as an action instead of after 10 minutes. It does feel more in line with how other classes function. I don’t imagine you’ll need to yank a spell back from someone who suddenly becomes hostile, but I can see getting down to your last resources and needing that little bit of power back at a critical moment.

Willful Sanctum is the reworking of the Willful Walls ability, which previously didn’t come into play until higher level. Instead of jumping straight to the higher level functions, Willful Sanctum lets the witch set up a sanctum if they spend 8 hours after they’ve taken a long rest in a location, which feels more like an “adventuring” feature. If you know you’ll be adventuring in a location, the witch can help you set up a “base camp.” The Willful Sanctum ability now grants certain spells without the witch needing to prepare those spells, and the spells increase over time. I think the main thing that still makes this feel less like an “adventuring” feature is that it doesn’t gain the ability to grant Private Sanctum until it is at least 7 days old. I feel like it would be more functional if the sequence was more like this:

• Long Rest
• 8 hours to set up Sanctum
• Return to Sanctum
• Long Rest
• Sanctum gains bonus abilities currently reserved for 7 days

Improved Retribution gives the witch more options for her Retirbutive Curses, which I like. Since this is replacing the ability to cast spells, it’s nice to see higher-level choices that can help keep the curses as relevant as higher-level spells would be.

Tier 3 Abilities

Hallowed Sanctum attaches Word of Recall to the Willful Sanctum, which is a great spell to tie into this. Very happy with that idea. Like the previous version of the witch, most of this tier is about expanding what the witch got at lower levels, including higher-level spells for tokens and another set of curse effects for Retributive Curses.

Tier 4 Abilities

Shifting Sanctum expands your sanctum to allow you to use Imprisonment and Demiplane. Like Word of Recall, I love these as spells tied to your ability to supernaturally make a space set aside for your use. It sounds like a big deal to have access to these spells, but also, we’re talking about 18th level now.

Epic Boon is basically standardizing the class to 2024 standards. There aren’t any new Epic Boons included, but I wasn’t expecting that. I’m also still processing how much it really grabs me to have something like this at 19th level, but that’s not an issue with this class.

True Craft got reworded, but it looks like I already understood it to do what it does now, and I’m not sure I can crawl back into my brain to see why I may not have seen why it needed to be reworded.

Covens

Most of the changes with the Coven of the Heart are relatively minor tweaks. Curse upon the Heartless is a little more effective from 10th level on. Overflowing Heart got bumped back to (Wisdom Bonus) a number of times instead of (Wisdom Bonus + Proficiency Bonus). I don’t know if the ability needs to be reduced, but I can see where it also makes sense to bump something slightly more complicated than most features. If the witch is doing what I’ve seen most players doing, they’ll be able to use this 4 times by tier 2 and 5 times by tier 3, at the least.

Coven of the Claw

The Coven of the Claw got more extensive reworking. That was the class that I felt was doing a little more work for adventuring witches than the other subclasses. Curse of the Claw has unique effects tied to it that also act as a mark. If you want to picture me cursing about how Hunter’s Mark should be a class feature of Ranger instead of making a core concept of the class for multiple editions into a spell that isn’t even exclusive to them, you can insert that here.

Instead of getting access to medium armor, Coven of the Claw witches now get a feature that grants them a Wisdom bonus to their armor class in light armor. I think it’s an interesting aspect of the Coven to not make medium armor use the key to any Coven. They lost their ability to use Wisdom for attack and damage rolls, which was one of the big things pushing this one ahead of the other Covens, and it also cuts down on the temptation to have a Monk/Witch for optimization purposes. But fear not, the Coven of the Claw does still get access to claws that they can use their spell attack to attack with, which is probably better as a constrained ability rather than a wide open one.

The Fierce Familiar, which used to be a subclass feature, is now a spell that any witch (or Druid or Ranger) can use. The Coven of the Claw gets to have the spell always prepared, and they can flavor it to transform their familiar into a battle beast. I think that’s a fun twist. It’s nice that other witches can still decide to unleash a vicious beastie if they aren’t Coven of the Claw. The higher level abilities aren’t as tied to setting up the Coven of the Claw witch to enter a cycle of destruction with the Fierce Familiar. 

Red Frenzy doesn’t let the witch throw a cantrip into their attack routine, which seems like a good idea for something flavored as a “frenzy,” and it reframes the Coven of the Claw as “the animal fury witch” and not the “combat witch.” Steady Will got reworked and rolled into On the Hunt, which feels like it fits a little more thematically with “animal powers and hunting” than “too stubborn to be frightened or stunned.” It’s now a subset of other options the Coven of the Claw can pick with this ability. Still, instead of that, they could choose invisibility powers, an attack used as a reaction to being attacked, or increased damage on damage-dealing spells. I like that it has the limit of not working on Undead or Constructs because they aren’t really something one would naturally hunt as an animal.

Coven of the Green

Coven of the Green removed Thorn Whip from available cantrips, and I’m a little sad. I wonder if that was to help differentiate a Coven of the Green witch from a druid, even though they still get Druidcraft as a cantrip. Like the other curse effects, their Curse of the Grasping Green is now a unique subclass feature. Veil of the Green takes advantage of the “new” concept of Emanations to add a list of hindering effects to impose on opponents. I like the Wild Gifts feature, but this ability is interesting to look at in light of 2024 just adding a spell that pops out potions. I like Long Rest > Prepare Spells (Harvest Potions) > use before 24 hours passes as the sequence for this.

Like Fierce Familiar, the Coven of the Green Witch has its “long-term sleep” ability converted to a spell, and I like that since it opens it up for other witches to use as well. My assessment last time around was that Coven of the Green was a little light on the practical adventuring abilities (okay, dungeon crawling), and this feels like it’s retooled features to still feel “green,” but not quite as passive?

Coven of the Wicked

The description of this Coven has been reworked. While there is still some guidance on using this as a Coven for “fallen” witches, it is written more as a Coven that a player might intentionally choose to play when they get their subclass. I wonder if that would mean Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent didn’t take her subclass yet until after . . . that event.

Curse of Cruelty gets renamed and flavored to Curse of Spite, which I like if you’re letting people pick this as their anti-hero archetype instead of as the “fallen to evil” Coven. Loathsome Gift has been reworked a bit to make it less open-ended. Curse-Token can renew on a short or long rest.

A lot of changes to the Coven is quantifying abilities to make sure they’re clearer, but Twisted by Cruelty removes resistance to Poison and Necrotic damage. I will say that even if you want to use this as your “anti-hero” class, by the time you reach this level, you have full-on villain coding. Not many heroic people live in a location surrounded by miles of dead plants that your aura has caused. It mentions the physical changes that overtake witches of the Coven of the Wicked, which has me wondering if “impossible sharp cheekbones” is one of those changes.

Final Thoughts

I liked the previous version of the class, but I think The Coven of the Green is a better adventuring option than it was before. I feel better about the Coven of the Claw. I like that many of the abilities aren’t radically changed, but they do feel more “D&D” because of how they describe their effects, but in a way that doesn’t feel efficient to the point of storytelling sterility.

I really like the new effects for the Retributive Curse. I’m a big fan of these abilities being rolled into unique witch abilities, and I like the ones they have introduced. There aren’t any functions for Curse Spells in the core class, and only a few things trigger with them in the subclasses. I don’t think I would be sad to see the subcategory of Curse Spells just go away. If that’s not in the cards, I think the core class needs to interact with them and the subclasses.

I started putting together a witch character for playtest purposes on Roll20. Now, I think I will work on setting up the class progression in Shard so I can offer it to players who may want to take it for a spin in games where I’m using Shard Tabletop as the venue.

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