i was just wondering how you guys would create favor/fluff on a male witch. the only thing i could come up with was a witch doctor type of deal or a crazy swamp dude not very creative i know. so forumites what would you do?
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I've had a character concept kicking around in my head that could work for a male witch. A young character who was raised by an old crone in the woods (maybe he was born under a certain star and was given to her by his parents, maybe she abducted him, maybe she found him abandoned, lots of possibilities). He's been sheltered his whole life, but instructed extensively in her arts. Maybe she died, or turned him out, or he ran away, but now he is socially awkward - a hermit thrust into society who doesn't really know how to relate to other people.
i was just wondering how you guys would create favor/fluff on a male witch. the only thing i could come up with was a witch doctor type of deal or a crazy swamp dude not very creative i know. so forumites what would you do?
There are tons of options, really. For inspiration, check out Steven Brust's "Jhereg" series. The main character is a witch and assassin. Has a familiar and everything. You could also just call yourself a "warlock" and have done, but I see nothing wrong with a male witch, as a witch is simply a practitioner of witchcraft. :)
My two-and-a-half cents.
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Here is one:
Someone cultured and sophistcated, very much like a typical James Bond villian. Only he keeps his cat close, and he has wand disguised as a cane. He began to rise in the world with a magical education he could otherwise not afford which he got through communion with otherworldly powers.
Another One which would work for either sex:
The character is kept by wizards as an lab project. Half elf or a half orc are particularly good races for this. Character bargins with something else in the lab in order to escape, which grants their power and facilitate an escape.
All the Best,
Kerney
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Someone cultured and sophistcated, very much like a typical James Bond villian. Only he keeps his cat close, and he has wand disguised as a cane. He began to rise in the world with a magical education he could otherwise not afford which he got through communion with otherworldly powers.
I really like this one. Especially if you can actually somehow get him proficient with a sword cane.
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I wanted to make a male witch that was just a traveling merchant, whose familiar saved him from a deadly situation which he never speaks of. Highly intelligent and charismatic he is half showman half salesman. He is also a nomad, fearing to stay in one place for too long lest anyone discover his secret.
Did I mention I wanted to run him in ravenloft? :)
Go and read through the forums for the playtest, if they are still accessible, as there were threads in there discussing at length the witch class and male versus female, including many posts by people who consider themselves real witches or Wiccans in real life.
Oh, and both for this class and in real life, a male witch is a witch, not a warlock. In gaming terms, a warlock is generally a different class, and in the real world if you were to call a male witch a warlock, you are likely to get punched for insulting them, since in Old English warlock means oathbreaker or traitor.
My current witch is a Grippli (small froglike race) who made hi living pre-adventuring (and hopefully post) as an itinerant potion seller in the Mwangi expanse. Talks with a Russian accent, don't know why.
Oh, and both for this class and in real life, a male witch is a witch, not a warlock. In gaming terms, a warlock is generally a different class, and in the real world if you were to call a male witch a warlock, you are likely to get punched for insulting them, since in Old English warlock means oathbreaker or traitor.
Interestingly, if you go with the oldest etymology, before the negative connotations, warlock broke down to "ward" + "lock," which is to say, a caster who specialized in binding and protection spells, which is an abjurer in D&D/Pathfinder terms.
And the more academic Wiccans will admit that if "witch" can be purged of the negative connotations it's gotten over the years, "warlock" could be as well.
Really any flavor ya can come up with for a female witch works the same for a male witch.
I don't see the big deal about male witches, really. Aside from the class name which is often linked to females, it's not too different from the necromancer thematically.
Someone told me the Witch was a female only class. Is this true or was this person simply mistaken?
Someone told me the Witch was a female only class. Is this true or was this person simply mistaken?
They are incorrect, witch can be male of female just like every other class
Though if he takes the Coven hex, and hooks up with a hag and another warlock, the coven starts to look like the hag and her two boy toys.
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I don't understand why so many people have problems coming up with male witches. Thanks to Hollywood, witches as Females only have been ingrained into the American psyche.
The Crazy, old, male hermit in your game that traditionally a GM might make a Druid? Witch Candidate!
The stereotypical old, male, wizard in the tower? Witch Candidate!
The town herbalist, that walks around muttering to himself and is never seen without his black cat. Sure he could be a NPC with the Expert Class, but hey, he also makes a great Witch Candidate!
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I am actually thinking about using the witch class for NPC's instead of adepts.....
Face it adept blows and the witch will make things more of a challenge for the PC's...........
Goblinoid witches!
I never liked that the Adept class was only divine magic. So when I create one, I decide on the flavor and pick whether its Divine or Arcane right then.
When I think of a male witch I think of the old man from scene 24 of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, also appearing as keeper of the Bridge of Death.
Whenever I make a male witch I just borrow the flavor of the v3.5 warlock (making pacts for power) or the hexblade (curses/hexes). I find that it fits those roles very nicely. I even have a high-level witch/fighter/eldritch knight character right now, which uses said hexblade concept.
Witch 5 Ranger 1 Eldritch Knight 10 = Hexblade ;)
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The name might throw some people off but I see is as just a title. In my games none of the PCs are really labeled as thus anyway.
The dwarf war-priest and his half elf bounty hunter girlfriend have rarely used the terms paladin or ranger more than a handful of times when describing themselves.
The witch to me is much more of a pact making "wild" spellcaster with a dark twist. Doesn't mean to me that they have to be the typical childrens-story witch any more than they can be devil worshipers or dragon cultists.
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Whenever I make a male witch I just borrow the flavor of the v3.5 warlock (making pacts for power) or the hexblade (curses/hexes). I find that it fits those roles very nicely. I even have a high-level witch/fighter/eldritch knight character right now, which uses said hexblade concept.
The name might throw some people off but I see is as just a title. In my games none of the PCs are really labeled as thus anyway.
The dwarf war-priest and his half elf bounty hunter girlfriend have rarely used the terms paladin or ranger more than a handful of times when describing themselves.
I have to agree with you both. Warlock can be offensive to my fellow pagans due to the negative connotation. Witch is just fine for either gender IMHO.
In my games rarely to the players refer to themselves in character by their professions like in Themetricsystem's example. We have two clerics for example. Both are same level, different race, same religion. One is "Brother Douglas, War Priest to the Orthodox Sect" and the other is "Brother Ne'rho, Hermetic Priest to the Orthodox Sect". One is your typical adventuring cleric with heavy armor, mace and Sun + Healing Domains. The other has Knowledge and Good wears no armor and carries a humble staff.
We have a male witch in our party we refer to him as a Man-Witch. :)
It doesn't help that the player's name is Joe.
We have a male witch in our party we refer to him as a Man-Witch. :)
It doesn't help that the player's name is Joe.
+1
Please tell me he is a disorganized schizophrenic or at least a little sloppy!
He could be considered sloppy...
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I have to agree with you both. Warlock can be offensive to my fellow pagans due to the negative connotation. Witch is just fine for either gender IMHO.
Exactly. I just don't get my people are so "All witches are female". Its bugs the hell out of me. I have a fellow GM that I know, that wouldn't let me play a "Male Witch". He said "You'll either refer to your character as a Warlock or you can't have a male PC and play the witch class".
Guess who just lost a player?
I have to agree with you both. Warlock can be offensive to my fellow pagans due to the negative connotation. Witch is just fine for either gender IMHO.Exactly. I just don't get my people are so "All witches are female". Its bugs the hell out of me. I have a fellow GM that I know, that wouldn't let me play a "Male Witch". He said "You'll either refer to your character as a Warlock or you can't have a male PC and play the witch class".
Guess who just lost a player?
There's losing a player and refusing to bend your already constructed world around a player's pet etymology.
If I say, in my world, that all members of the Knight character class have specific titles based on their sex, Sir in the case of gentleman knights and Dame in the case of ladies, it's part of the worldbuilding. If you decide that your female knight is going to call herself "Sir" instead of "Dame," all of the other knights are going to look at her funny.
So you want to play a male witch. There's nothing wrong with saying that in a particular world, male witches are called warlocks, and having your male witch calling himself a witch is the same as your male cleric calling himself a priestess. Why are you using the female title?
i was just wondering how you guys would create favor/fluff on a male witch. the only thing i could come up with was a witch doctor type of deal or a crazy swamp dude not very creative i know. so forumites what would you do?
Why would you need to do anything different?
So you want to play a male witch. There's nothing wrong with saying that in a particular world, male witches are called warlocks, and having your male witch calling himself a witch is the same as your male cleric calling himself a priestess. Why are you using the female title?
Because he may be a mad hermit trying to directly fly in the face of civil conventions?
I've rarely seen a case where female wizard has been forced to be called a witch (the traditional gender counterpart as I understand it), or a 3.5 Warlock give the same treatment.
I guess it's still easier for women to wear pants as it were them for men to wear dresses. :p
Make it a Witchalok? :D
So you want to play a male witch. There's nothing wrong with saying that in a particular world, male witches are called warlocks, and having your male witch calling himself a witch is the same as your male cleric calling himself a priestess. Why are you using the female title?
Because he may be a mad hermit trying to directly fly in the face of civil conventions?
I've rarely seen a case where female wizard has been forced to be called a witch (the traditional gender counterpart as I understand it), or a 3.5 Warlock give the same treatment.
I guess it's still easier for women to wear pants as it were them for men to wear dresses. :p
It's actually wizardess and sorceress for the female gender counterparts, but some are rarer than others.
A female magician is technically a magicienne but no one every uses the term.
unfortunately, an author in the 70's made an unsubstantiated assumption that the word "Warlock" came from an old Scandinavian term for "oath breaker"...so many neo-pagans have seen this copied and pasted over and over, and assume it's correct.
It's actually more likely that Warlock comes from a term that means "spirit singer" or "spirit chanter"....which fit's the term "Witch" pretty well IMO.
When I played Warhammer online, my favorite class was the Zealot. He was a quirky, evil priest for the Chosen. He held a skull in his left hand, and a dagger in his right. To cast spells he would stick his dagger into the skull and almost "flick" out energy... and when you just stood around he would turn the skull to his face like he was having a conversation with it and I LOVED it, here is a pic of the concept art from their website, just to get an idea of what they look like, but IMHO it would fit in perfectly..
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/armiesofWAR/chaos/Zealot /zealot-concept-01.jpg
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When I played Warhammer online, my favorite class was the Zealot. He was a quirky, evil priest for the Chosen. He held a skull in his left hand, and a dagger in his right. To cast spells he would stick his dagger into the skull and almost "flick" out energy... and when you just stood around he would turn the skull to his face like he was having a conversation with it and I LOVED it, here is a pic of the concept art from their website, just to get an idea of what they look like, but IMHO it would fit in perfectly..
The masculine form of witch is ...witch. It's actually a genderless term, derived from the anglo-saxon 'wicca' pronounced 'witchuh' which term referred to followers of the pagan traditions (or the priesthood thereof) rather than converting to Christianity.
The masculine form of witch is ...witch. It's actually a genderless term, derived from the anglo-saxon 'wicca' pronounced 'witchuh' which term referred to followers of the pagan traditions (or the priesthood thereof) rather than converting to Christianity.
Actually it's not a genderless term....Wicca is the masculine, Wicce is the feminine ;)
So here's what you do:
Think up some really good flavourful imagery of a female witch. The iconic witch could make a good starting point for inspiration. Then apply the whole concept to your male witch, including image.
So here's what you do:
Think up some really good flavourful imagery of a female witch. The iconic witch could make a good starting point for inspiration. Then apply the whole concept to your male witch, including image.
My male witch is wondering why he's wearing a crescent moon lunar headdress which hearkens back to the Cult of Isis and assorted other "moon as female" imagery since.
Yes, there is "moon as male" stuff elsewhere in mythology, but that's pretty clearly an Isis headdress Feiya is wearing.
So here's what you do:
Think up some really good flavourful imagery of a female witch. The iconic witch could make a good starting point for inspiration. Then apply the whole concept to your male witch, including image.
My male witch is wondering why he's wearing a crescent moon lunar headdress which hearkens back to the Cult of Isis and assorted other "moon as female" imagery since.
Yes, there is "moon as male" stuff elsewhere in mythology, but that's pretty clearly an Isis headdress Feiya is wearing.
Also why is he wearing a dress and his bodice keeps falling down. ;)
Also why is he wearing a dress and his bodice keeps falling down. ;)So here's what you do:
Think up some really good flavourful imagery of a female witch. The iconic witch could make a good starting point for inspiration. Then apply the whole concept to your male witch, including image.
My male witch is wondering why he's wearing a crescent moon lunar headdress which hearkens back to the Cult of Isis and assorted other "moon as female" imagery since.
Yes, there is "moon as male" stuff elsewhere in mythology, but that's pretty clearly an Isis headdress Feiya is wearing.
perhaps he is a Berdache or Two-Spirit.
:)