Sunday, November 26, 2017

Top 8 Reasons the Witch is Best

A little over halfway there.  The Witch is the sixth of the wizard schools we've covered so far, and it might not be the Hedge Wizard that refugees from the Old World might recognize.  No, the Witch of Frostgrave is a different beast entirely.  It can fit the niche of the druid, and for the longest time that's how I meant to model this warband.

Animals never go on strike.
No matter what wizard school you practice,
Inspirobot has memes made just for you.
Then I got the Bones "Wild West Oz" versions of the classic "Wizard of Oz" characters.  Glinda the Good seemed a lot scarier than the other model, which was more druidic in style.  Yes, Glinda's ditched the pinks.  And the Wicked Witch will be her apprentice.  However, this is the first school I officially assembled two warbands for.  One of which, sadly, will have to go to Ghost Archepelago for any love...

The aligned schools for the Witch are Enchanter, Necromancer and Summoner.  The opposed school is Soothsayer.  If you want a swarm of summoned creatures, the Witch is a great place to start.

Top 8 Reasons the VVitch is best!!
  1. Animal Companion
    • This is probably the most useful spell a Witch can grab, being an easy way to add a combatant to your party.  Two things to remember:  you can still Control Animal (the companion doesn't count) and you can have two - one with each spellcaster.  Early on this will be an important method of keeping up the warband.
  2. Brew Potion
    • Another great "out-of-game" spell for the Witch to use.  Just remember that under Dark Alchemy rules, the Apprentice can only create Lesser Potions - only a Wizard can create a Greater Potion.  Remember you can also store potions created with this spell in your Vault, amassing a supply.
  3. Control Animal
    • Useful defensive spell for disruption of other Animal Companions or some of the wildlife in Frostgrave.  Situational, but disruptive.
  4. Curse
    • While the -1 penalty stacks with successive Curses, this is probably something your Apprentice should be doing.  Use it to weigh down your opponent's best fighters, or the enemy wizard themselves if they put themselves in a good position to use it.  The Witch in particular lacks a good combat spell, but Curse steps into that role and actually proves quite nasty in the right circumstances.  Even a -2 can spell doom for enemy soldiers.
  5. Familiar
    • Who doesn't like extra HP?  Pretty much a permanent bonus to Health, so once you CAN cast it, do so and then just make sure you've always got the familiar going.
  6. Fog
    • Fog spells tend to stick around after they are cast, so successive castings can really disrupt spells and missile fire.  A staple defensive spell.
  7. Mud
    • Difficult ground on a 3" blast template.  Successive castings can really mire an opponent down, since the difficult ground penalty in Frostgrave is half movement!
  8. Poison Dart
    • Permanently rob a model of 1 action per turn.  It can be healed with magic, sure - but good luck with that, buddy.  Quite a remarkable offensive weapon, but ultimately like all the Witch spells you'll need some finesse, and adroit control over your soldiers.
The game with the Witch is one of gradually debilitating the enemy to the point he is vulnerable to whatever you want to throw at him - like thugs or animal companions.  The amount of grief a well-placed Witch can cause can seriously damage your opponent's battle plan simply because they stick around longer than spells cast from other schools, which in many cases give saves every turn.  The warband of the Witch is going to need to contain some heavy-hitters, because much of the fighting will be down to them whether the wizard is involved or not.  Combined arms is the way to go.

If it were me (and it usually is) I'd choose Animal Companion, Brew Potion and Poison Dart.  Animal Companion can count for up to 20% of your warband, if you like.  Brew Potion will set you up with a lot of tricks, which you'll need - but it's also a lot better if you're using Dark Alchemy, as the choice of potions is tweaked a bit.  As for Poison Dart - well it's a tough sell between that and Fog.  Too bad we don't have Poison Fog.

1 comment:

  1. I'm new and after all my reading and research this is the same conclusion I came up with. Even the same 3 spells. Though I'm starting in Blood Legacy so my Witch may be a giant. Excited for that giant Barbarian too.

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