Witchery School

[GarOfMeridian]

If the Witchery school is enabled, gaining reputation with a tribe
will allow players to buy spells (the higher the rep, the higher
the level, assuming they qualify in %s).

The three tribes' primary demons and attributes are:

• Xaerdun (merchants, some honest / some not, thieves, greedy types)
• Nequzon (witches, witch-worshippers, naturalists)
• Iwodach (battle warlocks, prideful, value strength and knowledge)

I had a serious writeup for this somewhere... will find it asap

Here we go:

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Witchery is a very unique school of spells and skills practiced by the witches of Biskalane. Their magic comes not from the Meridian, but through alliances with demons from realms orthogonal to our very existence. As such, their abilities are unlike anything seen in our lands. It is this fundamental difference that allowed their magic to survive unscathed through the cataclysm centuries ago, while many other lands and magics were forever changed.

Witchery’s spells are all Hexes, which are debuffs that do not do anything themselves. Instead, they react to other conditions on the afflicted target. For example, they may increase fire damage taken, or reduce outgoing damage from melee weapons. Witchery’s skills increase hex duration, increase hex effectiveness, or reduce hex mana costs, reduce hex vigor costs, or offer hex resistance.

Hexes have an inherent 'limit' in number. The default limit is one, meaning a player or monster that already has a hex will lose a random hex if another is cast on him. Max number of hexes and replacement behavior can be modified in Witchery settings.

Hexes tend to have a very high mana and vigor casting cost, and long flat duration. Hexes all scale in effect based on caster ability and bonuses, as well as target Hex Resistance. Hexes inform the whole room when they are cast.

While Witchery magics are accessed through demons, those demons have ancient rivalries, and will not teach students from hated enemies.
Xaerdun, the demon of greed, has no alliances or rivalries. All are offered knowledge and power through Xaerdun - for a price.

Those who draw power from an ancient pact with the demon Nequzon tend to favor magical combat and the untamed elements. Allies of Nequzon may not learn Iwodach magics.

Those who have learned from Iwodach draw their traditions from the ancient Biskalane battle witches. They favor scholarly knowledge employed through physical combat. Iwodach battle witches revile arcane Nequzon cowards.

Not all students of witchery are keen on harming others. The demoness Ventdal protected witches during their persecution, and she still protects those who forsake greed. She won't offer her power to followers of Xaerdun. (NPC humans will use these)

Nobody knows how to ally with the demon of sadism, Raumlar. His hexes are rare and powerful. (generally monster only hexes)

Xaerdun - the core spells and skills of Witchery for players
1:
Fester - victim's regeneration is slowed.
Mute - attempts to prevent victim from communicating.

2:
Leeches - steals health from afflicted target when hit.
Exhaustion - victim's vigor costs increase.

3:
Sap - steals vigor from afflicted target when hit.
Bestill - lowers victim's defense.

4:
Becloud - lowers victim's offense with ranged weapons.

5:
Slow - target's postcast delays increase.
Unhallowed Runes (skill) - you gain increased hex effectiveness.
6:
Blood Runes (skill) - you may inflict an extra hex on your victims at the cost of your own health.

Nequzon - mage path
1:
Barbs - steals mana from afflicted target when hit.

2:
Corrosion - reduces victim's acid resistance.

3:
Rote memorization (skill) - your hex mana costs decrease.
Algidity - reduces victim's cold resistance.

4:
Flammability - reduces victim's fire resistance.
Conductivity - reduces victim's shock resistance.

5:
Vulnerability - reduces target's magic resistance.

6:
Ostracization (skill) - your curses do not expire naturally.

Iwodach -fighter path
1:
Weaken - victim deals less damage with melee attacks.

2:
Arcane knowledge (skill) - you gain hex resistance.

3:
Humility - reduces victim's holy resistance.
Corruption - reduces victim's unholy resistance.

4:
Ancient Pact (skill) - your hex durations increase.
Efficient Casting (skill) - your hex vigor costs decrease.

5:
Frailty - reduces target's weapon resistance.

6:
Black mantle - lowers effectiveness of spell-based heals on victim. Extremely high effectiveness can cause heals to harm instead.

Witchery design discussion
Witchery is a karma-less school designed to pair well with almost any build at a very specific cost: the school’s hexes can be awesome, but that’s all the player gets. There is no vast pantheon of cool abilities; the player just gets hexes to choose from, and related hex skills.

The hex limit of 1 on a victim allows us to create a range of powerful hexes that all have innate tension with each other. Witchery’s end result should actually be battle direction control rather than outright power. For example, if you land Flammability on someone, they’ll equip a resist fire ring and possibly cast Withstand Fire to gear up against that sudden weakness to fire. What do you do then? Use a different element now that their ring/buff time is occupied elsewhere. You’ve encouraged them to direct their resources toward the weakness you inflicted, thereby opening them up elsewhere. If a player does nothing to counter your Flammability, well blast away.

The very high mana and vigor costs of hexes make it costly to switch tactics. The very long duration of hexes contributes to keeping your current tactic in play.

The other unique part of the school is that of path choice. All players get Xaerdun, but then they must choose between Nequzon and Iwodach.

Nequzon is a clear win for mages, as his path offers mana stealing, acid/cold/shock/fire/magic vulns, and a mana cost reduction skill. His level 6 skill allows your curses to last indefinitely, meaning you can land them on one victim or many without worrying about recasting them, assuming no Purifies are involved.

Iwodach is a clear win for fighters, as his path offers a melee damage debuff, holy/unholy/weapon vulns, and skills that increase your hex resistance, increase hex duration, and reduce hex vigor costs. The increased duration is especially important because fighters know they have to switch to robes to cast spells effectively, and it's best not to do that too often. His level 6 skill, Black Mantle, reduces the effectiveness of Minor Heal, Hospice, and Major Heal, even turning them into small harms at very high effectiveness. It’s entirely possible to go Shal 5/Witchery 6 through Iwodach and try to Major Heal your enemy to death.

Hybrid characters will have a very complex choice to face. Witchery has been specifically designed to offer packages at certain levels. For example, each level a player might choose to stop at offers a very different package that may be attractive for different types of characters. A Qor hybrid may only take level 2 for Corrosion’s acid vuln (Nequzon). Or, any type of character may take level 2 for the innate Hex resistance skill (Iwodach). Level 3 Iwodach is great for fighters using holy/unholy enchantments. Level 4 Nequzon is amazing for anyone using fire and shock attack spells. Etc. And of course anyone who goes to level 6 gets some SERIOUS hex-based power.

Finally, Witchery is absolutely amazing for group use (as you can hex someone and your group can blast away if coordinated well), but, unlike Jala, Witchery is horrible if more than one person has it, since your hexes overwrite each other. This isn't just a mechanical nod; witches in Biskalane (and our own world's lore) are solitary creatures.

Optimum Build Guesses
PFs with Iwodach 2 (melee damage lowering hex, innate hex resistance, health leech)
Qor hybrids with Nequzon 2 (acid vuln, mana leech)
Hybrid fighters with Iwodach 3 (holy and unholy vuln, defense lowering hex)
Mages with Nequzon 4 (fire and shock vuln, hex mana cost reduction)
Hybrid fighters with Iwodach 5 (weapon vuln, increased hex effectiveness, Xaerdun’s Slow hex)
Pure mages with Nequzon 6 for Xaerdun’s dual cursing skill (magic vuln + element vuln for mad damage)

Temporary notes:
Ostracization (permanent curses) should probably expire when a victim goes safe.
Efficient casting needs a better name. Probably Ritual practice.
Mute doesn’t do anything yet, and is pretty lame. I’d like a better idea.
I would like to also like to build Ventdal and Raumlar paths for players, but I don’t know if that’s too complicated. Ventdal would offer defensive self-only hexes if you do not learn Xaerdun spells, thereby making the entire school choice-based (Xaerdun/Nequzon, Xaerdun/Iwodach, Ventdal/Nequzon, Ventdal/Iwodach). So it would be entirely possible that you and another witch would both be Level 6 Witchery but share no Witchery spells or skills in common at all. I kind of like the lore feel of that.
If I built Raumlar, he would offer very powerful but costly hexes if you reach level 6 without learning both Ventdal or Xaerdun. AKA just through Nequzon or Iwodach alone, very difficult considering their number of spells and skills. That would basically require you to reach end-game built and get to Biskalane with a character that has no spells and skills (since you’d have to do this first school to get to subsequent levels with just one spell to work). Raumlar is the demon of sadism, after all. [insert evil laugh]. Raumlar would also be a unique path in that you buy level 6 and work backwards. (qualify for level 5 using level 6 %s, etc, back down to level one, with his level one abilities being the strongest). If any level of Raumlar is forgotten, all his spells and skills would go away. Rarity and difficulty of building something are not balancing mechanisms in the final equation, so he would still be balanced with the other paths. I think he’d be more something done for super vets as prestige and achievement satisfaction.

There will be (or should be) items and spells that offer hex resistance, as well as hex vulnerability.