Witch
An aging halfling woman slowly adds ingredients to the cauldron in front of her, and it begins to bubble as an earthy aroma fills the air. A slow smile begins to form upon her face as she lifts a spoonful of the liquid to her lips. Sitting nearby is an impatient half-orc, bloody and bruised from battle. "Soon, friend, soon," the halfling woman whispers.
A tall firbolg strides through a forest accompanied by a colorful bird. Laughing, they approach a small clearing where a disgruntled dire wolf can be seen with her cubs. In a flash, the bird becomes a bear, and the firbolg's hands glow with arcane might.
A small goblin barely dodges the mighty blows of a bandit captain. From the corner of her eye, she sees her tiefling friend lift a small carved idol, followed shortly by a burst of lightning. The goblin feels the last of her spellcasting might leave her frame. While this will make the fight with the bandit tougher, that her friend is safe is a relief.
Witch's are often confused in the world as warlocks, as they both appear to use occult magics to produce their spells. Leeching their power from various sources provides witches with a unique blend of magics, some used to heal friends or injure foes, while other forms mess with their enemies heads or alter their forms. What a witch specializes in and focuses on is further defined by their witch craft. A witch also develops a coven, the members of which gain various benefits and the ability to share some of the witch's arcane might.
Drawn from the Occult
Through deep study of occult rituals and hours of experimentation, a witch masters their spells and craft. Using these powers, some witches plan to develop a powerful coven to gain dominance over an area, while others seek to amass occult power to gain an edge over a foe. Some witches study the occult in order to provide aid to others, or overcome some great evil. While a witch may draw their powers from unsavory sources, what they strive to accomplish is what defines them.
Unusual Connections
A witch will often create a coven from among those they trust. Those who join a witch's coven gain arcane power through shared idols, at the cost of your strengths. Through your craft, your coven gains unique abilities that can provide great benefits or alter the flow of combat.
Cover Image Credits
The Witch
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | Spell Slots | Slot Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Witch's Hat, Occult Magic | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1st |
| 2nd | +2 | Coven, Idols | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1st |
| 3rd | +2 | Witch's Craft | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2nd |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2nd |
| 5th | +3 | ─ | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3rd |
| 6th | +3 | Witch's Craft Feature | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3rd |
| 7th | +3 | ─ | 4 | 8 | 3 | 4th |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 9 | 3 | 4th |
| 9th | +4 | ─ | 4 | 10 | 3 | 5th |
| 10th | +4 | Witch's Craft Feature | 5 | 10 | 3 | 5th |
| 11th | +4 | Coven Spell (6th level) | 5 | 11 | 4 | 5th |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 11 | 4 | 5th |
| 13th | +5 | Coven Spell (7th level) | 5 | 12 | 4 | 5th |
| 14th | +5 | Witch's Craft Feature | 5 | 12 | 4 | 5th |
| 15th | +5 | Coven Spell (8th level) | 5 | 13 | 4 | 5th |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 13 | 4 | 5th |
| 17th | +6 | Coven Spell (9th level) | 5 | 14 | 5 | 5th |
| 18th | +6 | Witch's Craft Feature | 5 | 14 | 5 | 5th |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 5 | 15 | 5 | 5th |
| 20th | +6 | Occult Tenacity | 5 | 15 | 5 | 5th |
Creating a Witch
When creating your witch, it is important to determine what led you down the path of the occult. Were you raised by a coven that taught you occultish magics? Did they discover it themselves through study of strange texts and practice? Did a mysterious wanderer introduce you to the basics?
It is also important to consider why you are adventuring apart from a coven, and what your goals are. Was your coven killed by witch hunters, and you are out for revenge? Are you new to the whole "witch" thing and trying to build a coven filled with friends? Are you looking to start a shop offering magical services, and need a little coin to get started? Or maybe you simply want to see how powerful you can become.
Quick Build
You can make a witch quickly by following these suggestions. First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom. Second, choose the Hermit background. Third, choose the eldritch blast, minor illusion, and poison spray cantrips along with the 1st-level spells witch bolt and armor of Agathys.
Class Features
As a witch, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
- Hit Dice: 1d6 per witch level
- Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
- Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your constitution modifier per witch level after the first
Proficiencies
- Armor: None
- Weapons: Simple weapons
- Tools: Herbalism kit
- Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence
- Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Religion.
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a shortbow and 20 arrows or (b) any simple weapon
- (a) a component pouch or (b) an arcane focus
- (a) a scholar's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
- an herbalism kit and two daggers
Witch's Hat
At 1st level, you learn to enchant your hat with protective runes that enhance your agility and luck in combat. While you are wearing your witch's hat and not wearing armor or wielding a shield, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier. To don or doff your hat does not require an action. If you become separated from your witch's hat, you can use an action to summon it to your hand. The manner in which it materializes is up to you; it could fly to your hand from across the room, materialize in a glowing light, or simply be pulled out from one of various pockets.
This ability is considered unarmored defense for the purposes of multiclassing.
Occult Magic
Through various rituals and study, you have learned to craft spells. Refer to chapter 10 of the players handbook for general rules of spellcasting. The Witch spell list appears at the end of this document.
Cantrips
You know three cantrips of your choice from the witch spell list. You learn additional witch cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Witch table.
Spell Slots
The Witch table shows how many spell slots you have. The table also shows what the level of those slots is; all of your spell slots are the same level. To cast one of your witch spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a spell slot. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a short or long rest.
For example, when you are 5th level, you have two 3rd-level spell slots. To cast the 1st-level spell witch bolt, you must spend one of those slots, and you cast it as a 3rd-level spell.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
At 1st level, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the witch spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Witch table shows when you learn more witch spells of your choice of 1st level and higher. A spell you choose must be of a level no higher than what’s shown in the table's Slot Level column for your level. When you reach 6th level, for example, you learn a new witch spell, which can be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the witch spells you know and replace it with another spell from the witch spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your witch spells, so you use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a witch spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell Save DC
Spell attack modifier
Ritual Casting
You can cast a witch spell that you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.
Spellcasting Focus
You can use an arcane focus (found in chapter 5 of the players handbook) as a spellcasting focus for your witch spells.
Coven
At 2nd level, you can start recruiting others to your coven. To add someone to your coven, you both must complete a one hour ritual which may be completed during a long rest, during which you brew a potion using small amounts of your blood that is consumed by the second party. After the ritual is complete, they are considered part of your coven, and may benefit from coven abilities.
You may only add a number of people to your coven equal to your Intelligence modifier + your Wisdom modifier. This number is not changed due to temporary alterations to ability scores, such as through a spell that decreases your Intelligence. If you perform the ritual to add someone to your coven when you already have the maximum amount, the ritual will fail.
To remove someone from your coven, you must perform another hour long ritual, which may be completed during a long rest, in which you create an effigy of the individual you wish to remove from the coven and burn it in a fire.
Idols
You supply to every member of your coven a small, enchanted idol representative of your bond.
At the end of a long rest you may select one of your cantrips or witch spells to charge every idol with, which must have a casting time of one action, bonus action, or reaction. All idols are charged with the same spell. While charged, the Idols will display the spell they are imbued with in glowing runes.
A member of your coven may hold up their idol and cast the prepared spell, using an action, bonus action, or reaction as appropriate. If the spell requires costly material components they must be on your person and are consumed when the spell is cast, if required. The spell is cast using your spell attack modifier and spell save DC, however the caster must maintain concentration if necessary. Once used, the glowing runes will completely fade from the caster's idol. If you charged the idols with a spell that requires a spell slot, one of your spell slots is used when they cast the spell, and when you are out of spell slots the runes on all of the remaining charged idols will lose their glow and cannot be used to cast the imbued spell until you regain a spell slot.
Witch's Craft
At 3rd level, your study of the occult leads you to select a specialty. Included with this document are three subclasses: Witch of the Cauldron, Witch of the Forest, and Witch of the Night. You gain additional features based on the subclass you select at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
When you select your subclass at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level, you select which feature you wish to learn from a short list.
Included with each subclass are additional spells you may prepare with the "Coven Spells" class feature, outlined further in this document.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Coven Spells
Starting at 11th level, your bond with your coven and study of the occult manifests in the form of Coven Spells. At the end of a long rest, you may prepare one coven spell of 6th level from the Witch spell list or from your expanded subclass list. Once prepared, this spell etches itself across the idols your coven members hold in glowing runes.
You may cast your coven spell once without expending a spell slot. Alternatively, a member of your coven may hold up their idol and cast the prepared coven spell, as long as they use the appropriate action, bonus action, or reaction to do so and are within 50 feet of you. If the spell requires costly material components they must be on your person and are consumed when the spell is cast, if required. The spell is cast using your spell attack modifier and spell save DC, however the caster must maintain concentration if necessary. After the spell is cast, the glowing runes representing the coven spell will completely fade from the idols of everyone in the coven. You must finish a long rest before your coven spell may be cast again, at which time you may choose to prepare a different coven spell from the list that is available to you.
At higher levels, you gain more witch spells of your choice that can be cast in this way: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your coven spells when you finish a long rest, and may choose to prepare different coven spells from the list that is available to you.
Occult Tenacity
At 20th level, your mastery over the occult magics provides you with the drive to fight on even when you'd normally be tapped out. When you roll initiative and have no spell slots left, you regain two spell slots.
Witch's Crafts
A witch is known to specialize in one of several ways, dependent on their personality, tutelage, lineage, or ability. More than just a specialty, their craft impacts their whole coven.
Witch of the Cauldron
The study of potions and poisons often leads a witch to specialize as a witch of the cauldron.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you become a witch of the cauldron at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the poisoner's kit.
Witch's Cauldron
You have bound a magical cauldron to your service, which you can summon and dismiss from a pocket dimension during times of rest to craft potions and poisons or perform other mundane functions. If you craft poisons in this cauldron the cost of supplies is halved, and you make daily progress on both potions and poisons in 25 gp increments. If you place all of the necessary supplies into the cauldron to create a potion or poison, the cauldron will autonomously operate during the course of a long rest, allowing for one day's worth of work to be completed during the course of the long rest.
If you are partway through crafting a potion or poison using your cauldron and the cauldron is dismissed, the partially completed substance will remain in suspended animation while in the pocket dimension, and when summoned again it will be ready to resume cooking. Only partially completed potions or poisons will act in this manner; any other substance will fall to the floor if it is inside the cauldron when it is dismissed.
The rules for crafting potions can be found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything on page 130, and the general rules for crafting poisons can be found in the Player's Handbook on page 187. Examples of poisons can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 257. Note that the rules for both potion and poison creation are modified by this class, as it crafts at a speed of 25 gold per day. Although the cost of supplies for poisons are halved, the time to produce an item should be calculated using the item's full crafting cost.
Cauldron Selection
When you select this craft at 3rd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level, you may select one of the following features to learn. Note that Witch Doctor has a prerequisite that you must be at least 6th level.
- Improved Forage: When foraging, you find components for potions or poisons as well as food supplies. For every pound of food located, you also find one gold's worth of components for potions or poisons. Whether the components are for potions or poisons is up to the DM.
- Potent Brewing: Potions you craft heal an additional amount equal to your Wisdom modifier. Poisons you craft have their save DC increased by your Wisdom modifier. If your Wisdom modifier is negative it will not reduce the amount of healing of potions or decrease the save DC of poisons.
- Coven Vitality: During a short rest you can prepare a quick meal, a restorative salve, or some other material. If you or any coven members regain hit points at the end of the short rest, each of those creatures regains a number of extra hit points equal to your witch level + your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
- Witch Doctor: Prerequisite: 6th level. You add the spell life transference to your list of known spells. It is a witch spell for you, but it doesn't count against your number of witch spells known. You may cast this spell once without expending a spell slot. If you use this free casting to heal a coven member, the damage you take is reduced by half with no reduction to the healing your coven member receives. Once you cast the spell in this manner you must finish a long rest before you are able to cast it in this manner again. (Life Transference can be found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything)
Superior Brew
At 18th level, you learn to craft potions and poisons that have extraordinary potency. When a potion you have crafted is consumed it will heal for the maximum possible amount. When a poison you have crafted is activated, the target of the poison has disadvantage on saving throws against it.
Coven Spell Options
By selecting Witch of the Cauldron as your craft, you are able to prepare the following spells for your Coven Spells. Spells in italics are found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
| Coven Spell Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 6th | Heal, Hurt |
| 7th | Regenerate |
| 8th | Holy Aura |
| 9th | Power Word Heal |
Witch of the Forest
A witch who finds that their studies leads them to nature are likely to become a witch of the forest.
Witch's Familiar
When you select this craft at 3rd level, you learn the spell Find Familiar, which doesn't count against your spells known and has the following modifications:
- The spell no longer requires material components
- You are able to cast the spell as a ritual in the span of 10 minutes instead of an hour
Forest Selection
When you select this craft at 3rd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level, you may select one of the following features to learn. Note that Aggressive has a prerequisite that you must be at least 6th level.
- Durable: Your familiar's maximum health is increased by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier for every level of witch. Additionally, your familiar's armor class is increased by an amount equal to your Intelligence modifier.
- Secondary Form: Upon gaining this trait and on further casts of Find Familiar, you may select a second form for your familiar from those available to you. You may use your action to have your familiar change between these forms, and may summon your familiar from its pocket dimension in either form.
- Coven's Familiar: Every member of your coven can communicate telepathically with your familiar as long as they are within range to do so. Coven members, including yourself, act as though they are under the effects of speak with animals when they communicate with your familiar. As long as a coven member is within range of your familiar, they may also use their action to look through your familiar's eyes and hear through their ears, with no limit to how many coven members may do so at once.
- Aggressive: Prerequisite: 6th level. Your familiar gains the attack action. Your familiar attacks with talons, teeth, claws, or some other type of natural weaponry, with its damage type (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) closest reflecting the natural weaponry used. This attack is considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity. Your familiar adds your proficiency and Intelligence modifier to its attack roll, and your Wisdom modifier to its damage. Your familiar deals 1d6 damage on a successful hit, which increases by 1d6 at 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
Superior Familiar
At 18th level, your familiar gains additional forms which are capable of causing more damage to your opponents.
You may now have your familiar become an ape, a black bear, a deer, a panther, or a wolf. While your familiar is in one of these forms, its damage dice become d8's for its attacks.
Coven Spell Options
By selecting Witch of the Forest as your craft, you are able to prepare the following spells for your Coven Spells. Spells in italics are found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
| Coven Spell Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 6th | Conjure Fey, Transport via Plants |
| 7th | Fire Storm |
| 8th | Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting |
| 9th | Storm of Vengeance |
Additional Forms
While not included in the class description, at your DM's discretion they may allow you to select a form for your familiar from an expanded list. Some suggestions include a Tressym, Flying Monkey, Flying Snake, Pseudodragon, Jackal, Almiraj, or a Vulture. For superior familiars, a Blink Dog or a Fire Snake may be approved for use by your DM. These options do not encompass all possibilities; so long as you work with your DM you can select a familiar's form that fits the character and the world around you.
Witch of the Night
A witch who has studied the darker part of the arts may develop a focus on hexes and curses, and is led towards becoming a witch of the night.
Witch's Curse
When you select this craft at 3rd level, you gain access to the witch's curse. As a bonus action you can curse one target within 60 feet of you that you can see. While a target is cursed, they suffer from the following effects:
- You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
- You have advantage on concentration checks if the spell you are concentrating on targets only the cursed target. (For example, you will have advantage on a concentration check for a witch bolt spell that is targeting your cursed target, but not for the spell hypnotic pattern, as it is an area effect spell.)
Your witch's curse lasts for one minute. If the target of your curse dies while the curse is still in effect, you may use your bonus action to move the curse onto a new target.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Night Selection
When you select this craft at 3rd level, and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level, you may select one of the following features to learn. Note that Sapping Curse has a prerequisite that you must be at least 6th level.
- Fearful Curse: When you curse a target with your witch's curse it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or become frightened of you for the duration of your witch's curse. The creature can repeat the Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened effect early on a success.
- Baleful Curse: The bonus damage against the cursed target becomes equal to your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.
- Glowing Curse: When someone in your coven deals damage to the cursed target, you may use your reaction to add your bonus damage to the damage dealt by your coven member.
- Sapping Curse: Prerequisite 6th level. The target of your curse has disadvantage on saving throws it makes against your spells.
Secondary Curse
At 18th level, you may use your witch's curse ability twice per short or long rest, but you may only have one witch's curse active at a time.
Coven Spell Options
By selecting Witch of the Night as your craft, you are able to prepare the following spells for your Coven Spells. Spells in italics are found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
| Coven Spell Level | Spell |
|---|---|
| 6th | Flesh to Stone, Mental Prison |
| 7th | Finger of Death |
| 8th | Feeblemind |
| 9th | Weird |
Witch Spells
Spells in italics are found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything unless otherwise noted in parenthesis.
Cantrips (0 Level)
- Chill Touch
- Create Bonfire
- Dancing Lights
- Eldritch Blast
- Friends
- Frost Bite
- Mage Hand
- Magic Stone
- Mending
- Minor Illusion
- Poison Spray
- Prestidigitation
- Produce Flame
- Sapping Sting (EGtW)
- Shocking Grasp
- Spare the Dying
- Thaumaturgy
- Toll the Dead
1st Level
- Absorb Elements
- Alarm
- Animal Friendship
- Armor of Agathys
- Bane
- Charm Person
- Command
- Comprehend Languages
- Create or Destroy Water
- Cure Wounds
- Detect Evil and Good
- Detect Magic
- Detect Poison
- Disguise Self
- Dissonant Whispers
- Faerie Fire
- Hex
- Identify
- Illusory Script
- Inflict Wounds
- Magic Missile
- Ray of Sickness
- Sleep
- Tasha's Hideous Laughter
- Tasha's Caustic Brew (TCoE)
- Unseen Servant
- Witch Bolt
2nd Level
- Animal Messenger
- Arcane Lock
- Blindness/Deafness
- Continual Flame
- Darkness
- Detect Thoughts
- Enlarge/Reduce
- Enthrall
- Hold Person
- Invisibility
- Knock
- Levitate
- Locate Animals or Plants
- Locate Object
- Mind Spike
- Nystul's Magic Aura
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- Scorching Ray
- Shatter
- Skywrite
- Suggestion
- Web
3rd Level
- Bestow Curse
- Call Lightning
- Clairvoyance
- Conjure Animals
- Counterspell
- Create Food and Water
- Dispel Magic
- Enemies Abound
- Fear
- Fly
- Haste
- Hypnotic Pattern
- Leomund's Tiny Hut
- Lightning Bolt
- Magic Circle
- Major Image
- Nondetection
- Protection from Energy
- Remove Curse
- Sending
- Slow
- Speak with Dead
- Tongues
4th Level
- Banishment
- Blight
- Confusion
- Elemental Bane
- Fabricate
- Grasping Vine
- Greater Invisibility
- Guardian of Nature
- Phantasmal Killer
- Polymorph
- Shadow of Moil
- Stone Shape
- Wall of Fire
5th Level
- Animate Objects
- Awaken
- Cone of Cold
- Contagion
- Dominate Person
- Dream
- Hold Monster
- Insect Plague
- Legend Lore
- Planar Binding
- Scrying
- Seeming
- Tree Stride
- Wrath of Nature
6th Level
- Drawmij's Instant Summons
- Eyebite
- Guards and Wards
- Heroes' Feast
- Mass Suggestion
- Otiluke's Freezing Sphere
- Soul Cage
- Otto's Irresistible Dance
7th Level
- Dream of the Blue Veil (TCoE)
- Etherealness
- Mirage Arcane
- Planeshift
- Power Word Pain
- Prismatic Spray
- Reverse Gravity
- Sequester
- Simulacrum
- Symbol
- Teleport
8th Level
- Animal Shapes
- Antimagic Field
- Control Weather
- Demiplane
- Dominate Monster
- Illusory Dragon
- Maddening Darkness
- Maze
- Mind Blank
- Power Word Stun
9th Level
- Foresight
- Gate
- Power Word Kill
- Prismatic Wall
- Shapechange
- Time Stop
- True Polymorph
- Wish
Multiclassing
Multiclassing Prerequisites
Wisdom and Intelligence 13
Multiclassing Proficiencies
When you multiclass into the Witch class you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit, and in one skill from the Witch's skill list.