Witches as Characters

Witches in our Chronicle are masters of hedge magic and psychic phenomena. They come in many different varieties, from your shape-shifting swamp witch to your high-school kid with a tarot deck and a book on Wicca.

Item Creation

We will be listing specifically made items for Herbalism, Alchemy, and Enchantment as a guideline, but those Paths are sort of separate from the rest. You do not have to learn each specific recipe for these, it is included in the Path at the price of the Path not having a function other than item creation.

Downsides & the Cost of Truth

Everything has a price. For those humans that regularly dip their toes (or just dive right in) into these abilities, it has an effect on them over time. For some Paths, it is pretty straightforward. For others, it may be more subtle. In general, though, exposure to the supernatural can cause adverse reactions in humans that leave a lasting mark.

MOST effects are temporary. Flaws gained from dealings with the supernatural typically fade in about a month unless aggravated with additional exposure.

Shapeshifting: Learning this Path is dangerous because it causes the user to develop their inner primal nature, often awakening their Beast and causing them to risk Frenzy from that point forward. The difficulty is considered -2 to resist, however, except in the case of a botched transformation. As a side-effect of this, it is actually harder to use Animalism 3 against them, granting a +2 difficulty to the roll.

Creating New Spells

Spells can be based on any Path (or purely Thaumaturgy). Their powers are always less than actual supernaturals and max out (with the exceptions of Shapeshifting & a few Psychic Powers) at being able to mimic a level 3 Supernatural Power.

So even a level 5 spell won’t give you anything more powerful than a level 3 Discipline, Gift, etc. They are still human after all, and this is to the very limits of what they are capable of.

Workspaces

Workspaces are needed in order to use certain paths. Alchemy, Herbalism, and Enchantment all require a dedicated workspace stocked with all manner of components and reagents in order to function. They also require regular maintenance.

“Workspace” is being made available as a Background. NR x 3XP to purchase.

Most of the characters will be able to borrow space from the Institute, which has a full lab, greenhouse/garden, and a library of its own. Considered a Rank 4 Workspace.

This is only required if you want your own, personal space. Due to the costs of this space, your Resources must also be the same or higher to keep it stocked and maintained.

Your workspace must be the same or higher than the level of the item that you are trying to create -1. So you can create level 1 items without a true workspace, simply using your room or whatever. And after that, you need a dedicated space. At level 5, the Workspace is so well kept and stocked that it confers a -1 difficulty in creating things inside that space.

Mortal Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgy can be used to learn spells you do not have the Paths specifically for, but you must have a Thaumaturgy rating equal to the level of the spell you wish to learn.

You can learn to unlock and Manifest certain psychic abilities as well, with the same restrictions.

Casting / Manifest

Secondary Skill required for producing the desired effect. Casting is for Thaumaturgy, and Manifest is for Psychic Powers. Generally, the roll is [Attribute] + Casting, with the difficulty being the level of the spell/power being used + 4.

• Failure: Nothing happens.
• Marginal: It happens, but not quite the way the user intended.
• Complete: It occurs as intended.
• Exceptional: It goes even better than planned, and the caster may get a return on their spent WP.
• Ridiculous: The caster gets back any spent WP, and the difficulty of the Power roll is lowered by 1.
• Botch: You… don’t wanna know.

Power

Secondary Skill which allows the user to manipulate the range and duration of their effects. Used in conjunction with Casting or Manifest, or with any of the other Paths. It is generally rolled as [Attribute] or [Path] + Power with a difficulty of the spell/power being used + 4. Successes must be split between Duration and Range. So if you got 5 successes, you could assign 3 to Duration and 2 to Range.

• Failure: The spell or power works, just only for the user in the immediate moment.
• Marginal: Duration = 1 Hour or 1 Scene & Range = Line of Sight
• Complete: Duration = 1 Day & Range = 1 Mile
• Exceptional: Duration = 1 Week & Range = Same City
• Ridiculous: Duration = 1 Month & Range = Anywhere
• Botch: Yeah, no.

Note: You CAN choose to make any Casting & Power rolls as an extended roll as long as you don’t botch any subsequent rolls after the first, you continue to build successes. But as you are chanting/communing/drawing sigils/etc, that is the extent of your actions.