My daughter and friends wanted to play a Witch and was looking over the class in PathFinder and was totally freaked out. We have Wicca friends and the depiction is totally negative in the way the Warlock and Witch are put together in our opinion.
First, we think the Witch class should be either male of female. Just light wizards can be. The way its depicted - the class needs to be female.
Second, the basic concepts should be at the root. Like understanding god titles Child, Father, Green, Horned, Lover, Sun God, etc.
Concepts of the Coven and the weave. Covens should be defined groups in pathfinder world just like Mage Guilds. The leader of the coven should have their books of shadows that all the witches can use - like a wizards. However, once learned - the witch is like a sorcerer but must frequently come back to review the book - lest the spells be forgotten. Stealing a covens "Book of Shadows" is a major event for the coven.
Hexes are usually used for negative purposes - blessing for positive purposes. Currently implementation lists only Hexes.
Candle magic - similar to potions except these work only while the candle is burning. Once consumed, its gone. For example, a candle that does protection from evil, causes sleep, increase in wisdom, love attraction, inspiration, zone of truth, etc.
Creation of witch items as part of the class- like creating a broom, crystal ball, caldron, or book of shadows.
Feats specifically useful to witches:
Brew Potions, Create Candle, Animal Companionship (gain 1 animal companion), poison resistance, second sight, sense other witch, read omens, etc.
Third, there should be a set of rituals for each witch sub-type that can be performed individually or with a coven.
Fourth, like fighters - there are different types of witches:
The base is more similar to a Magus than a Wizards and each type should have changes per level under SPECIAL for:
Dark or Black Witches : Like warlocks - they revere demons and devils or dark goddesses for their directions and power. Powers fall into, Hexes, Summoning dark creatures, harm spells, life and beauty drains, and other negative effects that bring sorrow, pain, curses and mind control. Like the Wicked Witch of the North or other witches from fairy tales. There are even dark witches who worship succubi and have similar powers stealing youth, ruining love relationships, controlling men and that sort of thing. AKA beautiful dark witches vs hags
Brown or Green Witches: Like druids are the keepers of the forest but should not be mistaken for druids. Green Witches protect the forest - they prefer to live in the forest and have abilities similar to nature senses, alchemy, tracking, shape shifting, lots of woodland allies, speak with animals, healing animals, seeing through their eyes and even weather sensing and control at later levels.
White Witches: The type my daughter wanted to play. These are the good witches like Glenda. They many times hide amongst the people as typically have witch prejudices until they are welcomed. White witches heal those in need, guidance in love, good alchemy, provide fortunes, and blessings. White witches are not to be confused with clerics who gain their powers from the gods. White witches use their powers to reverse what dark witches may do, sometimes fight dark witches and help people by warning them of bad things to come, healing people and animals in need, providing helpful potions/candles and blessings to help the people she lives near.
Lastly, while there are warlocks and witches that rule over a coven. There are also enforcers that the covens can call upon. These are special fighters that specialize in the hunting capturing or execution of witches (all LN) - sometimes referred to as Gray Witches, or Witch Hunters. Typically, the witches would call a tribunal with a Justicar in order to approve the hiring of a Hunter. Once a verdict is provided, the hunter would have his orders that he wouldn't deviate from.
We would LOVE to see an update to the Witch class to accommodate a lot of the above. I've been playing AD&D since the mid 80s and was one of the stock holders when WotC saved TSR and then sold it to Hasbro. Now that they are really messing it up - we've switched totally to Pathfinder but would like some of the above really fixed/replaces.
Please consider it.
