I honestly can't wait to get this out to you all. It seems like I have been working on it forever. I started this blog in fact as a design blog to talk about the development of "Eldritch Witchery" and "The Witch".
A number of the monsters, magic items and spells that appear in the book I have posted here.
My desire to do this book for "Basic Era" games was partially due to my involvment in the old-school game movement, but also because I had been going back to my copy of Moldvay's Basic Book and some of his ideas on what a witch should be. I also wanted this book to capture what I felt were some of the best books on witches from the early days of the game.
My goals were simple.
* Make the book feel like something I would have wanted to buy in 1982/83.
* Make the witch more than just another type of magic-user, but still allow her to be easily added to a game.
* Keep what was best of the old school, but still keep in mind all the developments of the last 30 years.
* Elmore art. I might get grief for this, but ever since Dragon #114 came out I wanted a witch book with art from Larry Elmore in it. I am in a position to do that now. It's not the entire book, but there are some choice pieces in the 120 pages.
So what do you get in "The Witch"?
Well I was reading that selling points that do nothing but list a bunch of numbers turn people off. On the other hand I have had some people ask me what they are getting.
* The Witch class
* Five traditions of Witchcraft with Occult Powers
* Rules for Familiars for Witches and Magic-Users
* New rules for Cantrips for your Basic game
* Over 300 spells
* Witch Ritual magic and spells
* Rules for Covens, Covensteads and example covens.
* New witch related monsters
* Magic items and artifacts
* Plus appendices on
* Using the Witch in your Advanced game
* Demi-human witches for games that have class and race seperate
* The Wizard, a magic-user class that is different from the Witch
All with years of playtesting.
