‘Worlds Beyond Number’ is About to Make Your D&D Games Much More Witchy
The Witch from the Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One is now a full class that you can playtest, today—here’s how to get it.
If you’ve been listening to Worlds Beyond Number’s excellent The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One, you already know why you’d want to play a Witch. But, for those of you still waiting to get aboard the Brennan Lee Mulligan-DM’d hype train, the Witch is a brand new class for 5E, still being playtested.
In fact, you can listen to the playtest live as it happens, because this is a new class developed for Erika Ishii’s character, Ame, in the podcast. The extent of the playtesting is the fifteen or so episodes that have been recorded so far. But patrons of the Podcast can jump in and playtest the Witch today.
Worlds Beyond Number – The Witch Class Playtest
Standing on moss-covered steps in the path of an advancing ogre, a young shrine maiden carefully pours a hot cup of tea. She whispers a word of thanks into the rising steam, and as she raises the drink, the ogre drops the greatclub from his hand as he sits in wonder, gazing at the offering.
[…]
Witches are powerful mages as well as devoted caretakers, combining patience, insight, and subtlety with extraordinary willfulness. While other spellcasters might use magic in grand gestures that bend the world to their whims, a witch’s power works in harmony with the people, plants, animals, and magical forces around them.
So begins the introduction to the Witch. And already you can see in it the seeds of some of the inspiration. Folks online have suggested Studio Ghibli films as being part of the DNA, but personally, in this class, I see the works of Terry Pratchett’s coven of the greatest witches to ever live: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Agnes Nitt (and formerly Magrat Garlick).
At any rate, it’s an interesting peek into what goes into the development of the class and the podcast. Because the two are so closely intertwined. The result is a spellcasting class that feels a lot more “occult” in that the magic they work feels a little more every day and grounded in the mundane—and in so doing, the mundane becomes magical.
The nuts and bolts of the class are as follows:
- It’s a full spellcasting class
- Class features allow Witches to turn spells into tokens others can use
- At higher levels, magic items
- Familiar that works more independently from normal familiars.
- Reactive curses that allow a Witch to lash out at those who do them harm
- Curses and spells that layer on extra effects as you level up
In addition to the base class, the playtest packet includes four new subclasses (including one for wicked witches), as well as twelve new spells that are rich in occulty-flavor. And because Witches are generous with their magic, not all of these spells are Witch-exclusive—though a Witch has to keep some secrets to themselves. Here’s a look at some of the new spells:
All this can be yours, if you back Worlds Beyond Number on Patreon. Want to learn more about the class? Hear it in action in The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One!
Try the Witch today!
