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Anyone ever done up Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick from Terry Pratchetts Discworld?
I was thinking they could make some excellent NPC's for something...
How would you stat them up?
Granny Weatherwax would be a decent-level witch, at least 10th for Beast Eye. Her hexes would include things like Beast Eye, Evil Eye, maybe Misfortune. She doesn't have any kind of a familiar - witches on the Disc don't seem to, though some of them pick up what could be animal companions, especially Nanny Ogg's Greebo.
Nanny Ogg would be similar and probably the same level as Granny, with more of a focus on buffing and removing negative effects. She's more supportive and helpful than Granny, and is the best midwife in the history of the world (per Thief of Time). Hexes would probably include Fortune, Healing, Ward, and Major Healing.
Magrat I would probably stat up as an herbalism-oriented alchemist rather than a witch.
Agnes would be a lower-mid level witch with some sort of split personality hex you'd have to write up, but pretty normal for a witch otherwise.
Tiffany Aching would be built on the Weatherwax model, and decently leveled already even though she's pretty young.
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Granny definitely has some levels in inquisitor (Possession inquisition, Stern Gaze, Discern Alignment and Lies) ^_^
I think Magrat would be a witch as well, with the Healing hex - Nanny Ogg is the best Midwife, but Magrat is described as being the best doctor.
I think you could use hexes for Granny's inquisitor-like abilities. She certainly has the power or spell to read thoughts and determine the truth, but she's not a specialist in justice.
Magrat's an Hedge Witch who later takes levels in Noble Scion. ^_^
Granny does have a familiar- the white kitten called You.
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She doesn't have any kind of a familiar - witches on the Disc don't seem to, though some of them pick up what could be animal companions, especially Nanny Ogg's Greebo.
Nanny Ogg, with her family, clearly has the Leadership feat. Greebo is her cohort, not an animal companion or familiar.
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A few things to remember about Granny Weatherwax....
She doesn't actually do a lot of magic, in fact she tries to avoid using magic. Yes, she does pull of some impressive magic throughout the books, but most of the time she's relying on skills like bluff, heal, knowledge: everything, perception, and a massively pumped intimidate. 90% of what she does throughout the books could be handled by a Bard.
More than anything Granny just scares people into doing what she wants, and the only times she really gets into trouble in the books is when she runs into someone to crazy or insanely arrogant to be frightened of her. You cannot pump intimidate enough for a character based on her.
She was supposed to be an evil witch. Granny has a twin who was fated to be the greatest good witch while she was fated to become the worst evil witch in the world. But when her twin turned evil Granny's sense of duty forced her to become a good witch to keep the balance, and her pride forbids her from being anything but the best good witch she can despite her natural inclinations. This shows in her occasional "Beware the Nice Ones" moments.
Somewhat riffing off the above, she is also bothered by her appearance. Not that she's ugly, the problem is she thinks elderly witches are supposed to be shriveled old crones with warts and corns sticking out of odd places, while she's actually quite attractive for her age (think Dame Judi Dench or Diana Rigg). Granny is actually self-conscious about this.
Granny doesn't believe in destiny... or better: she believes that one should ignore destiny and create her own. Of course, if she has a strong enough willpower (like hers).^_^
Magrat: LG, Healing patron, levels in Noble Scion
Nanny: CG, Enchantment patron
Granny: LG (!), Wisdom patron (and some inquisitor level- maybe Spellkiller or Iconoclast- many "elf-bane hatpins"!) ^_^
Agnes: CG, probably Spirits patron (and some Possessed Oracle levels)
Tiffany: LG, Portent (or Winter) patron, Improved Familiar (Rob Anybody)
I would be half tempted to say Granny is a psionicist not a witch, but that's kind of how I read her. She knows magic, she just doesn't like it very much and headology seems like psionics.
We're forgetting about Eskarina- an epic-level Dimensional Occultist witch/Evoker Primalist wizard!
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Alchemists and Summoners have their own Guilds- Alchemists just tend to blow up theirs once a day (poor Mr. Silverfish!), while Summoners like young Eric are not well seen by wizards.^^ The Wyrmberg Lords are pretty good Summoners too.^^
Only ONE Sorcerer appeared in recent Discworld history, and that was Coin (a Crossblooded Arcane/Destined Sorcerer), whose coming almost caused the Apocralypse.^^
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Something to consider - witches on the Disc are clearly Charisma or Wisdom-based casters, rather than Intelligence-based. Or they have the option of choosing their casting stat. I wouldn't call any of the ones I can think of Intelligence-based except for maaaybe Tiffany. I wouldn't stat Eskarina up as a straight witch - probably some kind of wizard/dimensional occultist witch/mystic theurge type thing with a mixture of witch and wizard magic (which are the two sides of the magic coin on the Disc, rather than arcane and divine - I don't recall priests getting any magic).
Another thought - Disc witches seem to bond with a TERRITORY rather than getting a familiar or a patron, so you'd want an archetype or something that reflected that change. The powers they get are defined by the type of terrain they live in. The city witch could walk through crowds, ignore fog, and commune with pigeons. Granny gets resistance-oriented powers from the granite strength of her territory, as does Tiffany from the flinty Chalk.
Granny would want some new hexes with fear-oriented stuff - I thought there was a fear witch archetype or something, but I can't find anything now. She should get things like the ability to Intimidate in an area and get into people's heads.
Bardess --- Name of a class is not the same as the profession or the title of a character.
Classes are a set of abilities, question is, what set of abilities will give you the best match for the character in your mind.Or do you think Pathfinder sorcerers can do the things Coin does, while Wizards can't?
I actually agree with her that they're not sorcerers, but not based on the name. They're the setting's academics and are heavily based on D&D wizards, up to the point of specifically preparing spells (in the early stuff, anyway). Rincewind couldn't learn other spells because he had the spell from the Octavo in his head and thus didn't have room to prepare any more. It was VERY wizard-y.
None of them strike me as charismatic enough to be sorcerers, and their magic is all based on book learning, not what they're descended from. That's what wizard magic is on the Disc, I think.
Discworld sourcerers are insanely powerful and give huge benefits to all arcane magic while they're around. They're plot devices, not something that would be suitable as a PC.
Bardess --- Name of a class is not the same as the profession or the title of a character.
Classes are a set of abilities, question is, what set of abilities will give you the best match for the character in your mind.Or do you think Pathfinder sorcerers can do the things Coin does, while Wizards can't?
I actually agree with her that they're not sorcerers, but not based on the name. They're the setting's academics and are heavily based on D&D wizards, up to the point of specifically preparing spells (in the early stuff, anyway). Rincewind couldn't learn other spells because he had the spell from the Octavo in his head and thus didn't have room to prepare any more. It was VERY wizard-y.
None of them strike me as charismatic enough to be sorcerers, and their magic is all based on book learning, not what they're descended from. That's what wizard magic is on the Disc, I think.
Discworld sourcerers are insanely powerful and give huge benefits to all arcane magic while they're around. They're plot devices, not something that would be suitable as a PC.
This. ;) And- yes, Discworld Sourcerers are waaaay more powerful than D&D/Pathfinder Sorcerers, but the way their origins are put, I think that they can have been one of the sources (XD) of inspiration for that. ;) So I was half-joking (about Summoners too). ^_^
Wow, lots of awesome ideas everyone, thank you so much!!
Time for me to get to work statting.....
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I could swear reading in one of the books (an early one, I think) that the wizards at Unseen University ranked themselves by "level."
Pratchett must be a gamer. I do have GURPS Discworld somewhere. But that system doesn't carry over for your research purposes. Truthfully, I think it's actually more amusing to think of the characters as PF or S&W characters.
Actually, the first Discworld books were full of ironic references to roleplaying. ;) A lot of the Disc's history and cosmology is roleplaying-referred in its origin.
I wonder if Perdita could be statted somehow as Agnes' familiar (some invisible mind-possessing fey?) Hmmm...
Well a level 20 sorcerer can reshape reality and cause mass destruction so there not that far off.
Actually Weatherwax's magic could be int based she is incredibly intelligent and uses quite a bit of trickery. But to me it seems like it is mainly force of personality and willpower (wisdom/charisma) I remember in one of the books where she scared/embarrassed a fire into lighting.
I don't think Granny has D&D intelligence. She is actually stubbornly ignorant on a whole lot of subjects. She knows nature and minds really well though, which mostly translates to wisdom. Her charisma could probably be faked by a maxed out intimidate.
I'm currently working on a village elder NPC based off Granny.
I'd say Granny and a few other Discworld characters (like Susan, Carrot or Cohen the Barbarian) are 25 pt characters with the advanced template.
They simply don't have a dump stat.
Other characters may be 15 pt (Nobby Nobbs, Rincewind) or 20 pt (Vimes, Von Lipwig, Tiffany).
I'd say Granny's high int but lacks most int-based skills (which she's dismissed as a waste of her time). Rather, she has maxed out social skills (probably with skill focus in intimidate) and numerous maxed out craft and profession skills.
@ SteelDraco - I can think of just one divine character in DiscWorld with actual power - Brother Mightily-Oats, for whom the entire world is a holy sword. Much to the distress of anything that picks a fight with him in Uberwald.
In feet of clay, near the end, one priest struck at another with lightning, which was deflected. It could be argued that was the priest's god acting, but on the disc it might be the way clerics work