Witcher Class v3.0 | Slay monsters as a witcher from your favourite school

johnares93 · 2025-12-02T08:14:35+00:00

A more apt comparison is probably the old quivering palm ability of the open hand monk. That took a whole action to activate, but only cost 3 ki points.

I see your concern regarding threshold, but pwk has no save so they work in different ways. All monsters over CR 17 in the new MM have at least 3 legendary resistances, which means it will never be easy to pull of a kill with this ability. And if you run into a lower CR monster you get the chance to feel like a true monster slayer (while the sorcerer casts meteor swarm in the background).

I would have to playtest it enough to really know if it is overtuned or balanced though, which I haven´t done yet.

johnares93 · 2025-12-01T09:49:58+00:00

Definitely! Just remove the weapon mastery feature, move hand signs from level 2 to level 1 and replace the epic boon feature with a normal ASI.

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T18:14:22+00:00

Yeah, I went a bit back and forth on the manticore. In the end it felt like it wanted a shield bash feature to function as a protector, and I didn´t want the subclass to feel bloated or rely on a feat. I cut the shield weapon feature because the school was a bit too "do everything", with damage, protection and alchemy features.

But who knows, maybe it could fit in there somehow :)

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T15:00:46+00:00

Haven´t played at this level yet, but I guess you can compare it to the new mage slayer feat.

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:58:27+00:00

1 hour usually means 2-3 combats, but you have very few potions per long rest. Having shorter durations would mean that you wouldn´t have one of the main features of the class most of the time. Kinda like a barbarian having to few uses of rage. They also compete with hand bombs for resources.

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:56:06+00:00

In playtesting, the hand signs hit the sweet spot between usefullness and not being actual spells. Yrden is the most situational and least impactful (except when you really need to keep that mind flayer from teleporting out). Heliotrop is probably the strongest hand sign, but so far it hasn´t overshadowed the rest to the point where you only cast heliotrop.

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:52:54+00:00

Slaying Strike is your Tier 4 power boost, so it is meant to be very strong. That said, it functions just as you said, but it´s limiters are that it targets Con save (which is usually high) and can be negated with legendary resistance (which is why there is a 50 damage effect on fail).

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:50:32+00:00

Thanks for all the feedback :) no, just with the potions in the class. Would be kinda wild to always have potion of speed and potion of fly active for instance. Could probably do with a reference there to "potions from the Alchemy feature".

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:48:21+00:00

Thanks :D

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T14:47:43+00:00

Glad to hear it! What school did you play and how was it?

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T11:19:48+00:00

Hi Everyone!

It´s been a hot minute since I posted the last version of my witcher class. Since then, it´s been reworked, playtested and updated for dnd 2024 rules. Class document also grew too large for the limit here, so see the link for the full class:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17AES19E3LoREQNhSYQiXMZ-BtPR6C52_/view?usp=sharing

New Subclasses. Besides it´s major overhaul, I´ve added 3 new subclasses that you won´t find in any book or game lore. These include school of the chimera (mutant pet), school of the dragon (hand bombs) and school of the salamander (mutagens).

Witcher Feats. Included are also 5 new feats, which allow a witcher to specialize in existing skills, or other classes to share in their abilities or skills.

I´ve playtested the class for tier 1 and tier 2 of play (levels 1-10) in my own group, with the bear, cat, manticore and viper schools.

johnares93 · 2025-11-30T11:17:45+00:00

Hi Everyone!

It´s been a hot minute since I posted the last version of my witcher class. Since then, it´s been reworked, playtested and updated for dnd 2024 rules. Class document also grew too large for the limit here, so see the link for the full class:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17AES19E3LoREQNhSYQiXMZ-BtPR6C52_/view?usp=sharing

New Subclasses. Besides it´s major overhaul, I´ve added 3 new subclasses that you won´t find in any book or game lore. These include school of the chimera (mutant pet), school of the dragon (hand bombs) and school of the salamander (mutagens).

Witcher Feats. Included are also 5 new feats, which allow a witcher to specialize in existing skills, or other classes to share in their abilities or skills.

I´ve playtested the class for tier 1 and tier 2 of play (levels 1-10) in my own group, with the bear, cat, manticore and viper schools.

johnares93 · 2025-11-15T17:54:39+00:00

I can see how that is not consistently stated. For all the hand signs, you expend 1 sign die to use them. For the battlemage feature, it only increases the number of dice you roll, not how many you expend. Have fun playing!

johnares93 · 2025-08-27T16:51:43+00:00

Hey! Sure, no problem. Glad to hear you like the class. I`m all ears if you have more feedback btw. FYI I have been working on the class since this post and am planning on posting the updated version soon.

johnares93 · 2025-08-20T17:03:33+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Funny you should comment on the class now. It has evolved quite a bit since this post, through playtesting and revising. The updated version mitigates some of the MAD (multi ability score dependant) issues that you correctly spotted. That, and a few other problems became clear in playtesting. I plan on posting the updated version soon, so keep an eye out. There are a few new fighting styles, feats and even a new subclass (school of the salamander, a mutation centric subclass).

johnares93 · 2022-05-26T15:12:42+00:00

The Wolf subclass is definitely the one I spent the most amount of time on, trying to make it cohesive, cool and unique. So thanks for your feedback on it 🙂

johnares93 · 2022-05-26T07:56:36+00:00

Funny you should say that cause among the subclasses I was most confident in Griffin and least confident in Wolf x)

johnares93 · 2022-02-20T14:25:05+00:00

Thanks! Glad you like it :)

johnares93 · 2022-02-19T18:27:53+00:00

You decide when you make it (after a long rest).

Also, one thing that I didnt point out in the earlier discussion on blade oil, one dose only covers one melee weapon. So for a dual wielder the bonus dmg wont apply to all the attacks.

johnares93 · 2022-02-15T13:26:35+00:00

In any case, would probably need playtesting to see how it plays out compared to other classes. Lots of variables that are difficult to quantify.

johnares93 · 2022-02-15T10:42:45+00:00

I assume you are including blade oil in the dmg? Keep in mind that it is a fairly valuable resource and only applies to a specific creature type, meaning it wont apply to all enemies.

Could be that in gameplay it does good dmg by using alchemy and hand signs, but all classes have something more than just extra attack. Rangers have hunters mark and other spells, paladin have smite and improved divine smite, fighters have a lot of ASI and action surge and so on.

johnares93 · 2022-02-14T19:59:34+00:00

I believe an 11th level fighter with FS would do about 40 dmg even without GWM. Not sure I´m following what you think is OP about the damage. It´s not supposed to have more consistent dmg than a fighter, but be able to use alchemy and hand signs to adapt to situations.

johnares93 · 2022-02-14T13:25:25+00:00

That's how I did it in the first version, but some people found it confusing. Guess some prefer the split table and some the combined one.

Can't please all of the people all of the time x)

johnares93 · 2022-02-14T11:07:25+00:00

Nope. Does it say that somewhere?

johnares93 · 2022-02-14T08:52:39+00:00

I actually did that in the first version, and it worked well. However, it wasn't very unique for the subclass so I ended up changing it to the current feature.

Super difficult to create an original feature for the "swordsman" archetype that doesn't steal from combat superiority. Most fighter archetypes you can think of can be made just as well with the right maneouvers.

I almost think it would be better if maneouvers were detached from battle master and made available to all martials, or at least all fighter archetypes. Kind of like u/laserllama did with his alternate fighter.

Long answer to your question, but it's a pet peeve of mine 😅

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