an indefinite amount of time and ongoing (“fetch some water”) the they realize that nothing is actual-until it reached the planet’s
their body is held in suspension so golem will continue to perform ly happening to them and take no they don’t age. While in condensed that order until it dies or you order damage. If they fail they think that core and melted. It wouldn’t
form, a target has 1/5th (rounded it to stop.
the damage is real, and must roll a
even stop as it started to melt.
up) their normal Health Points. If Preparation Time: 10 Rounds
Stun save. The damage cannot kill
these points are expended the tar- Difficulty Check: 20
but it can stun.
get dies. If a limb is broken off, ei- Duration: Permanent
Preparation Time: 10 Rounds
ther with a DC:14 Physique check Components: Chalk (x2), A Per- Difficulty Check: 18
Dying As An
or 5 points of damage, the target fect Gemstone (x1), Hardened Duration: Until Dispelled Artifact
is treated as if that limb was dis- Timber (x10), Stone (x10), Infused Components: Perfect Gemstone membered. If the head is snapped Dust (x5), Fifth Essence (x2)
(x1), Fifth Essence (x5), Infused
If a compressed target is be-
off, the target dies. Gluing pieces
Shard (x1), Glass, (x2), Ducal Wa-
headed or is knocked down
back onto a compressed figurine
ter (x3)
to zero health while they are
doesn’t reattach the limb. After a
compressed they die. You
target is uncompressed they are
stunned until they make a success-
cannot at empt to stabilize
ful Stun save.
a compressed target. If the
Preparation Time: 10 Rounds
target is dismembered while
Difficulty Check: 18
compressed they take all of
Duration: Until Reversed
the appropriate effects and
Components: Perfect Gemstone
(x1), Fifth Essence (x5), Infused
damage when they are un-
Dust (x2), River Clay (x4)
compressed.
120
Hexes
Curses are one of the most vicious and in-
scrutable forms of magic in the Witcher
world. Luckily for most people, curses are
very difficult to cast. Most people do not
decide to cast a curse. Curses are magical
phenomena that come about when tension
is high, blood is flowing, and hatred is per-
meating everything. Hexes on the other
hand are much simpler and much more
easily tamed.
Many mages and priests are capa-
ble of casting hexes just like they cast spel s
or invocations. Channeling magic through
their body, the magic user can inflict smal ,
less-dangerous curses on their targets with
the knowledge that the hex will take hold as
long as it’s cast appropriately and against a
weak-willed enough target.
Unlike curses, hexes are formulaic.
They are cast a certain way and can be lifted
with a certain ritual. These rituals are often
strange and esoteric, leading to many folk-
tales and baffling many mages.
Unlike regular magic (spel s, invoca-
tions, and rituals) hexes and curses appear to
draw on magic from somewhere other than
the elemental planes. Some magicians and
scholars have postulated that while standard
magic draws energy from elementals, curses
and hexes draw power from the devils that
live in the vast void beyond the mortal plane.
Of course, this make hexes and
curses much more dangerous than their
tamer cousins. A miscast hex has a percent-
age chance to affix itself to the caster rather
than their target. Many mages have suffered
for weeks with the effects of a hex that they
failed to cast on an enemy.
121
The Hex of Shadows
The night of the ceremony the subject must arrange
STA Cost: 4
the candles in a circle around them, linked by bones,
Effect: The Hex of Shadows creates whispers in the and place the glowing ore under their head. If the How To Lift a Hex
shadows, and silhouettes around corners. The sub- subject is able to sleep through the night they will be ject must make random Awareness checks with an freed of the hex.
Lifting hexes is much easier
unspecified DC, always almost catching a glimpse
than lifting curses. Due to
of something or someone. The awareness checks are
their formulaic design each
never a real threat, just visions.
The Pesta’s Kiss
hexes has an equaly formu-
Danger: Low
STA Cost: 12
Requirement To Lift: The subject must bring a bowl Effect: The Pesta’s Kiss breaks down the subject’s abil-laic dismissal method. Dis-
of clear water, a branch from a white myrtle bush, and ity to fight illness and resist nausea. Anytime the sub-covering that method, how-
a bottle of ink to a clearing under a crescent moon. ject comes in contact with a diseased person they have ever, is difficult. Low danger
When the moon is at its highest the subject must pour a 75% chance of catching the illness. Any time they hexes require an Education
the ink into the water, dip the branch in the mixture, smell something even slightly nauseating they must roll at DC:16 or a Witcher
and shake droplets in a circle around themselves while succeed at a DC:16 Endurance check or be nauseated.
holding their breath.
Danger: High
Training roll at a DC:14. Me-
Requirement To Lift: The subject must gather 3 units
dium danger hexes have an
of river clay, 1 unit of coal, 3 units of resin, and 1 unit
Education DC of 20 and a
The Eternal Itch
of infused dust. First the subject must craft a totem
Witcher Training DC of 18.
STA Cost: 4
from the clay mixed with infused dust and coated
High danger hexes have an
Effect: The Eternal Itch causes enflamed, itchy pus- in resin, with the coal forming its eyes. This takes a tules to grow on the subjects genitals. The itch does DC:14 Fine Arts rol . Then the subject must repeat a Education DC of 26 and a
no damage but is a constant annoyance, causing a -1 series of magic words, infusing the totem with pow-Witcher Training DC of 22.
to all tasks. As well as this -1 the target takes a -5 to er. Immediately after, the totem must be smashed and Seduction once ‘in the bedroom.’
the coal eyes must be powdered and consumed by the
Danger: Low
subject.
Requirement To Lift: The subject must gather a unit
“Hexed” Library
of scleroderm, fool’s parsely, and bryonia. The subject
must light a campfire and bundle up the herbs. With The Hex of the Beast
Hexes, while usualy minor,
everything prepared the subject must light the herbs STA Cost: 12
can be extremely useful. I’ve
and crumble the burning ashes onto the afflicted area Effect: The Hex of the Beast makes the target anathe-told my students that any
while reciting a series of magic words.
ma to animals and beasts. Any time the target comes
with
in 10m of an animal that animal will react poorly
person other than myself who
to the subject, giving them a -3 to Wilderness Surviv-
leaves my personal library
The Devil’s Luck
al for handling animals. Each time they come within
with one of my books with-
STA Cost: 8
10m of an animal there is a 50% chance the animal
out permission wil soon find
Effect: The Devil’s Luck plagues the subject with bouts will attack.
their eyesight failing and their
of bad fortune. In situations of high stress such as Danger: High
combat or when performing any task with a deadline Requirement To Lift: The subject must gather a small sexual organs perpetualy
or a DC higher than 15, the subject rol s a fumble on live animal of some sort, 2 units of mistletoe, 1 unit engorged—and a putrid pur-a natural 1 or 2.
of phosphorus, 2 units of crow’s eye, 3 units of man-
plish green. In order to reverse
Danger: Medium
drake root. Under a full moon the subject must cut
the hex the individual must
Requirement To Lift: The subject must hammer a the throat of the animal and consume its blood. Then copy out the book in ques-silver nail into their door frame and hang 2 units of the animal’s body must be wrapped in bundles of mis-wolvesbane, tied with a lock of virgin’s hair, from it. tletoe, crow’s eye, and mandrake root and placed in tion entirely. It’s all rubbish of
Final y the subject must stand under the silver nail, an open fire. As the scales or fur of the animal start to course, since I can’t use magic
set fire to the bundle of wolvesbane and virgin hair, burn away, the phosphorus must be thrown into the of even the blandest sort.
and breath deeply.
fire. When the fire has burned out the subject must re-
–Brandon of Oxenfurt
move the bones of the animal and wear them on their
person for a full day.
The Nightmare
STA Cost: 8
Effect: The Nightmare forces the subject to relive the
same horrifying nightmare. Every night the subject
must make a Resist Coercion check at a DC equal to
the Hex Weaving roll the caster made to hex them. If
they succeed they manage to get a ful , though rest-
less, night’s sleep. If they fail, they barely sleep and do
not recover STA or HP during the night. If they fail 3
nights in a row they halve their Stamina and take a -2
to all actions until they can get a full night’s rest.
Danger: Medium
Requirement To Lift: The subject must gather 5 can-
dles, 5 units of beast bones, and 1 unit of glowing ore.
122
Using Places of
Power
Places of Power
Places of power are potent magical ruins left
Overdrawing from a Place of
behind by ancient elven mages, construct-
Power is tremendously dan-
Earth
gerous. A Place of Power can
ed at conjunction points. When a magical- Found along fault lines or in the depths of
be utilized infinitely but the
ly-potent person spends a full three turns natural sinkholes and caverns.
risk goes up exponentialy
focusing on the place of power, they gain a Benefit: Your Vigor Threshold for earth each time. The second time
temporary bonus based on the element that magic goes up by 5 and your Spell Casting is
you draw from a Place of
place is tied to, and 10 I.P. to be used only considered 2 points higher for earth magic.
Power you must make a DC:
on learning new magic or raising magical Duration: 1 hour
20 Endurance save or imme-
skil s. Alternately, an invoker can forego the
diately take 5d6 damage and
bonus and extract 5 units of Fifth Essence.
suffer the effects of the mag-
Keep in mind that places of power are very
ic type (See Overexertion).
rare and only found where their associated
Every successful roll raises
Air
the DC by 4.
element is strongest.
Found in areas where tornadoes are com-
mon, and at the tops of high mountains.
Benefit: Your Vigor Threshold for air magic
goes up by 5 and your Spell Casting is con-
sidered 2 points higher for air magic.
Duration: 1 hour
Fire
Found at the tops of volcanic mountains and
in the heart of the desert, where the heat is
most intense.
Benefit: Your Vigor Threshold for fire mag-
ic goes up by 5 and your Spell Casting is
considered 2 points higher for fire magic.
Duration: 1 hour
Water
Found where two bodies of water or rivers
meet and in sea caves.
Benefit: Your Vigor Threshold for water
magic goes up by 5 and your Spell Casting is
considered 2 points higher for water magic.
Duration: 1 hour
123
Learning Magic
Learning new spel s works similarly to the 2. Acquire the I.P. required to learn it. Each
Learning Magic
I.P. system used to gain new skil s and im- magic technique requires improvement
Due to the nature of magic in
prove known skil s. You learn spel s through points based on its level, as listed below.
the Witcher world, only those
knowledge and experience. There are three
born with magic are capable
steps to learn a new spell:
3. Spend a week learning the spel . You must
of learning to perform it. If
make an appropriate number of successful
you did not start with a Vig-
1. Find someone or something to teach you learning rol s for the magic in that week.
or value above 0 you cannot
the spell/hex/ritual you want to learn. This If you fail one of these rol s, you must try
learn magic. Each profession
can be another mage or priest, or a tome of again the next day. For each failure, the time
also learns magic differently.
some sort.
required to learn the spell increases by a day.
Mages can learn spels, ritu-
als, hexes ,and signs.
Magic Level
I.P.
Time To Learn Learning DC
Learning
Priests can learn invocations,
Required
Checks
rituals, hexes, and signs.
Novice/Low
10
4 Days
14
2
Journeyman/Medium
20
1 Week
18
4
Witchers are only capable of
learning signs.
Master/High
30
3 Weeks
22
6
Arch Priest
40
5 Weeks
24
8
124
125
Craftsmen &
Alchemists
“I’ve devoted my life to alchemy, son. Literal y. Spent countless days
and nights with nothing but alembics, choking on fumes, scorching my
skin with acids. If you think I’ll simply betray to you what I learned
through years of sacrifice and toil... then you are mistaken. Deeply.
”
–Gremist, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Craftsmen are hard-working and often there are jewellers and coopers and shoe-
hard-worked professionals. All around makers who work at their trade to bright-
the world people need things fixed or need en the world or just to help the people
someone to build something for them. Es- around them. Some even just because they
pecially now that the world at large is at love their work.
war, the factions of this great war need
craftsmen more than ever. In the North, Why Should I Craft?
woodworkers shore up defenses in rural Craftsmen can be invaluble to a party’s suc-
towns and smiths make cheap weapons cess in the Witcher TRPG. Gear is expensive
for their friends and families. Bowyers and repairing it saves time and money. It’s
make more bows for the Scoia’tael that better to have someone who can make the
raid the forests and human trade routes. sword you need for a third the normal cost
In the mountains of Mahakam the forges and use that money for even more gear. And
work non-stop, pumping out weaponry if that person can also fix the same sword
and armor that put others to shame. In when it breaks, you’ve got a real treasure on the guts of the Nilfgaardian war machine, your hands. Crafting also lets you make the armorers patch cracks in knights’ armor most of any recipes your party finds. There
and carpenters repair siege machines and are new technologies to discover and old
defenses that will be needed again soon technologies lost to the ages to be recovered.
as they burn their way across the North. A skilled craftsman can give a party amazing Craftsmen are so important in this time benefits like alchemical bombs and traps,
of sword and axe that they are often forced poisonous blade oils, and runes to enchant into military service or kidnapped by their weapons. They say a weapon is only as
Scoia’tael commandos. But of course for good as the person wielding it. Well that’s
every military use of a crafter there is a ci- true—but it helps to have a quality weapon.
vilian use. For every armorer in the field
126
Diagrams
Diagrams are sheaves of pa-
Crafting System
per that show you detailed
The process of crafting weapons, armor, enhancements, and traps breaks down into
instructions on how to cre-
three simple steps:
ate a certain item. They wil
The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG Page 29
