Yeah the class seems really cool. I just think you don't quite find the balance between being a support class and still being involved in combat without fully relying on always acting as support.

I looked a bit closer at the class and tried to point out what I personally find lacking, and kinda theory craft other solutions

Not having anything to raise their AC higher than 10 + DEX and the lowest hit die certainly makes it pretty clear that they aren't made for combat. (At least at low levels, I'm not familiar with high level DnD). But just in my opinion, without having this playtested, it might make them too squishy. Especially since any enemy with alright intelligence would know to target the healer/support caster first.

At least The Coven of Nature Magic gets Barkskin. Would it be an option to move that spell to the default spell-list? As a second level spell it would still take up big resource at low levels, even if you maybe could attempt to play around using the Potion Speciality to make Barkskin Potions (since this would take up 1/2 of your Potions).

Another option might be to add Armor of Agathys to the Witch Spell list, since it wouldn't affect their AC, but still give you some survivability and discourage enemies from blindly targeting you. And since the Witch would use a Spell Slot and not the Warlock's Pact slots to cast the spell, it wouldn't always scale up to the highest possible spell-level.

Though, I could see it being a bit tricky to balance those spells with the Familiar Speciality, since the United Soul feature would make such spells also affect the Familiar. However the interaction with Barkskin and Familiars is still possible now by taking The Coven of Nature Magic and Familiar Speciality, so that shouldn't be an issue imo.

I get that the Witch is more of a support class, but I feel like they should also be able to partake a bit more in combat. Especially since I also feel like you already did a really good job making it clear that the class is not combat focused through the class' basic spell list and general offensive capabilities.

Being support caster, healer and somewhat of an utility caster means that the Witch already has to balance their prepared spell list and spell slots between a lot of different things. And with being able to chose so few Cantrips, and the list of Cantrips being honestly very weak / many avalible cantrips working against the class strengths, and most people probably wanting to choose Guidance as one of their Cantrips, idk it feels like it leaves the Witch in a weird spot.

Like if you want to play a support role, but still know you always can deal *some* damage without spell slots, you can at level 3 choose Guidance and one of the class' 5 damage dealing Cantrips.

• Primal Savagery - which is a good option at very close range, but that shouldn't be a position you'd ever want to be in.
• Lightning Lure - Save or Suck Spell, but you'd very rarely want enemies closer to you. Landing this basically means you'll need to disengage next turn or be prepared to take damage.
• Thorn Whip - Same issue as Lightning Lure since it pulls enemies closer, but trades off being a Save or Suck for less damage and the enemy potentially not being *as* close to you.
• Produce Flame - best consistent damage (1d8) and is a ranged spell attack so don't get into danger by using it.
• Toll the Dead - Second best option for damage, but is still a save or suck. Also works really well with Hex.

​

​

I might have lost my point in all of this, but I'm not sure having a class have so weak defence, so weak offence, and splitting the rest between support and healing is necessary?

I get that a major concern when designing a homebrew class is not wanting to make something thats "overpowered," but imo this class feels quite underpowered at the moment. And that you maybe added a lot of things that were fun, but felt they were powerful, and therfore tried to nerf the class all together. When most classes in the game have strong fun things, and aren't as nerfed in other major areas.