My GM sent me here to ask you guys some advice, so that’s what I’m going to do :)
My NG Hedge Witch has decided that she wants to start a place of learning to teach the art of Healing and Herbalism to other likeminded individuals. I do however, not like the idea of a Coven seeing as they tend to include Hags.
My character is, as I’ve said, a Neutral Good Hedge Witch. She used to travel around, living off her herbalism skills until she got dragged into our current adventure.
She is usually pretty peaceful, preferring to shut down enemies through her Slumber hex or other means of crowd control rather than outright killing them, though she has killed a foe or three.
She is also a skilled healer, having picked the healing domain and she has recently reached level 10.
As it is, a hag would not in any way be something she wanted to join forces with, especially not when it comes to a place of learning.
I’m hoping you could give me some advice on how to handle this, to have my character create a school/coven, both from a creative standpoint, and a mechanic one.
Ideas for flavor, and how to actually go about doing it, and what mechanics you would use as substitutes for the existing coven mechanics, without a hag and with a focus on healing and restorative magic.
Purely creative input is also appreciated.
I am of course willing to provide more info as needed :)
TL:DR: Making a NG healing version of witch coven. Help on flavor and mechanics appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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So, first off, you're going to be forming something akin to a coven, so let's begin with the rules for the formation of a coven:
Hag Covens
When three hags of any type gather, they can form a coven to gain increased magical ability. Any combination of hags can form a coven, but green hags are the most common members of such foul gatherings.
Whenever all three hags of a particular coven are within 10 feet of one another, all three of them can work together to use any of the following spell-like abilities: animate dead, baleful polymorph (DC 18), blight (DC 17), bestow curse (DC 17), clairaudience/clairvoyance, charm monster (DC 17), commune, control weather, dream, forcecage, mind blank, mirage arcana (DC 18), reincarnate, speak with dead, veil (DC 19), vision.
All three hags must take a full-round action to take part in this form of cooperative magic. All coven spell-like abilities function at CL 9th (or at the highest CL available to the most powerful hag in the coven). The save DCs are Charisma-based, and function as if with a Charisma score of 16 unless one of the hags has a higher Charisma score, in which case the spell-like ability DCs are adjusted by that hag's Charisma modifier.
At the GM's discretion, certain more powerful hag covens might have additional spell-like abilities.
So I'd start with something like this:
When three or more members of the Hedge Society gather, they can form a mystical bond that gives them access to increased magical energy. Other witches may join the circle, but the circle must have at least one member of the Hedge Society present to function.
Whenever at least three members of the circle are within 10 feet of each other, the three of them can work together to cast any one of the following spell-like abilities: [MAKE HIGH-POWERED HEALING SPELL LIST HERE].
All members of the circle present must take a full-round action to take part in this form of cooperative magic. All of these spell-like abilities function at the highest caster level of the most powerful witch in the circle. The save DCs are Intelligence-based, and the Intelligence score of the circle is calculated by taking the highest Intelligence score of the circle and adding 1 to it for each additional member of the circle participating in the casting.
The spell-like abilities granted by the joining of a Healing Circle can be used once per day by each member of the circle. That member must be present in the circle at the time of casting, and other members of the circle can choose to expend their single daily use of casting to increase the DC of the spell-like ability by +2.
A given witch can only be a member of a single Healing Circle, unless she chooses the Hedge Society hex, therefore becoming a part of the Hedge Society.
Now, for the actual witch Coven ability:
When a witch chooses this hex, she can become a member of a number of healing circles up to her Intelligence modifier. In addition, whenever the witch with this hex is within 30 feet of another witch with this hex, she can use the aid another action to grant a +1 bonus to the other witch’s caster level for 1 round. This bonus applies to the witch’s spells and all of her hexes.
What do you think of that?
I like this alot :)
There is currently another Witch NPC with us.
Granted i know very little about her, but she seems to have a focus on healing as well, so she is a likely candidate, i'll just have to put on my non-existent charm :P
As for a third member, I could possibly have my familier scout the nearby village for someone with potential and then offer to train them, though I suspect it would take some time before they'd be strong enough to participate?
This is all very exciting, i'll be sure to have my GM look this over to get his opinion as well.
Do you have any suggestions for the list of spells?
My Witch can currently cast the following beneficial spells (if that helps):
Cure Light wounds
Remove Fear
Cure Moderate Wounds
Lesser Restoration
Remove Curse
Remove Disease
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Cure Serious Wounds
Restoration
Cure Critical Wounds
Cleanse
Break Enchantment
Reincarnate
EDIT: I also currently have a unused Hex (well a major hex)
While I hate to do this, i'm going to bump ._ .
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A witch in a campaign I played in did something similar. He took the Leadership feat. You don't need to use any special rules for forming a coven of witches - it's just another name for an organization.
The Coven Hex already gives you a benefit for getting several witches together in a group. Namely, it improves your caster level. I think that the requirement for a Hag to get the benefits of extra spell-like abilities of a coven is there for balance reasons.
I would suggest a "Healing Coven" hex that does not allow you to form a coven with a Hag, but that allows you to use aid another to give +2 caster level on your covenmates' healing spells and hexes rather than the usual +1.
If you would really like the extra spell-like abilities and your GM approves I'd suggest Lesser Restoration, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison, Break Enchantment, and a Cure spell. The coven would only be able to use these spell-like abilities if they are at least one spell level lower than the highest-level spell that the highest-level member is able to cast (and the Cure spell available would be of the appropriate level, up to Cure Critical Wounds). If you go to the extra roleplay effort to recruit fellow witches and/or attract a student, the extra benefit provided by this improved hex should be reasonable.
Restoration and Reincarnate are out because as spell-like abilities they'd ignore material component costs.
actually, you could refluff it to change the coven-creature you form it with (instead of a hag). a good fey or something would be proper-sounding.
or open a legit hedge witch/herbalism academy. i know alchemists and druids who'd saw off an extraneous limb to have access to one.
consider taking leadership (with GM's approval, obviously) for recruiting/managing your new coven/school. don't lead them into battle or anything (since that'd take lots of time away from the other players) it'd make both a neat "base camp"--i mean c'mon, it's basically a hospital, magical repository, and health spa all in one!
I was actually considering starting a school of some sorts, but my GM suggested a coven instead since it was more witch-like.
We currently have a fort we can outfit like we want, though there are some rules that must be held so maybe I should look into buying a nice big house in the nearby town instead, that would make it easier for the people to get to it as well.
I don't think Leadership is banned in our game, so i could potentially take it at next level, that could be kind of awesome actually.
Thanks for the advice everyone, i'll look into it and speak with my GM about a way to do it that wouldn't take too much of the other player's time as well.