Aubrie Starks
Narrative Designer
Level Designer
"Witcher Class" D&D Homebrew Class
System: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2014)
Class Name: Witcher
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My Witcher homebrew class for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons was largely inspired by Matt Mercer's Bloodhunter class, which he admitted was inspired by the concept of a Witcher from the CD Projekt Red game series. While there is a full TTRPG system for the Witcher published by Talsorian games, I wanted to try to bring the full experience of playing a Witcher into D&D.
Design Goals
Video Game Translation
Class Balance
Fun Factor
I wanted to translate as many familiar game mechanics, tools, and abilities from the video games to D&D as I could. This meant massaging Witcher lore, tools, and abilities to fit within the mechanics of 5e while still being true to their origin.
The class couldn't simply be superior in every way to other vanilla classes, despite how powerful witchers are in their lore. This meant refining mechanics and progression to keep pace with the other classes in the Player's Handbook and expansions.
There would be no point to making an accurate interpretation of a Witcher class if it wasn't fun and engaging to play. While more complex than many pure martial classes, the design was built around the player developing mastery of witcher tactics & abilities.
Video Game Translation
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Creating rules for casting Signs, Mutagens, Potions, Oils, and Bombs required comparing their effects and damage with D&D corollaries.
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Incorporating Vigor, Toxicity, and blade oils meant fine-tuning how the Witcher would progress in damage output and utility through level 20.
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Assigning each Witcher School as individual sub-classes meant that each school could have different strengths, tools, abilities, and play styles.
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Creating rule sets and expectations for the schools of the Crane, Griffon, and Manticore was an interesting challenge.
Class Balance
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Incorporating the Witcher into the 13 classes of D&D meant figuring out what roles and abilities it should cover and which ones it shouldn't encroach on.
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The Witcher can't be a pure martial class because of the use of Signs, but it also requires more planning and strategy than other half-casters like Paladins.
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Giving the base class it's own identity and allowing several of the sub-classes to assume limited features of other D&D classes means that the Witcher can be more versatile than most other classes while still less effective in their specialties.
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The biggest challenges lay in not building the class to steamroll the official classes in their own specialties. Thus, the Witcher class is built around researching and preparing for a target - it will do the most damage when you know what you're facing and have time to prepare.
Fun Factor
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In play tests, the class works best when played slowly - gathering information, planning a hunt or fight in advance, and considering contingencies.
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The Witcher class shines when played by an Explorer/Achievement Bartle-type player, someone who seeks a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the class and game and how to utilize them.
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Signs and bombs work well if the player character is ambushed or doesn't have the chance to fully prepare, but the Witcher doesn't play noticeably better or differently than a Ranger in those situations.
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With certain builds, the Witcher can quickly deal with monsters, dealing burst damage equal or superior to a smiting Paladin or damage focused multi-class. (Example: a Wolf Witcher at level 7 could theoretically do upwards of 6d8 damage plus additional ability and weapon damage per turn [average 27 + extra])
