Hedgewitch

*Class: Hedgewitch*

Not all spellcasters learn the ways of magic from The Black Tower. Hedge witches were not born with sorcerous blood in their veins, nor are they conduits of the divine power of The White. They are students, dabblers of the arcane arts. Typically hedge witches were first taught their art by a mentor, perhaps an old wizard from the Tower or a druid living on the fringes of civilization. Whether that mentor remains in their lives or they continue to practice on their own, without any natural ability or formal education, and typically being unable to devote themselves fully to studying magic, hedge witches seldom achieve the same magical potency as other spellcasters but make up for it with a healthy sense of pragmatism and an unorthodox point of view.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Hedge witches don't have a singular name for their magic; each is a student of whatever works for them. They are typically similar in the practices they must engage in to use magic, but the type of magic familiar to two hedge witches may vary dramatically. The imperfections of form and ritual practiced by hedge witches can sometimes create surprising, occasionally dangerous results.

**Drawbacks:** Material Casting, Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting, Rigorous Concentration, Wild Magic

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** As Wizard, Witch, Druid, or Shaman. (Choose 1)

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Rebound (Alteration), Constant Link (Conjuration), Limited Creation [Create] (Creation), Shadow Dependence (Dark), Necromantic Limit [Reanimate] (Death), Destructive Touch (Destruction), Limited Divination [Divine] (Divination), Bodily Enhancement (Enhancement), Neutrality (Fate), Personal Illusion (Illusion), Medicinal (Life), Touch of Light (Light), Blatant Side-Effects (Mind), Nature Spirit (Nature), Limited Protection [Aegis] (Protection), Limited Telekinesis (Telekinesis), Altered Time (Time), Battle Manipulation (War), Bender (Warp), Focused Weather (Weather)

**Special:** Starting at level 10, Hedge Witches may "Buy back" any sphere specific drawbacks they possess instead of learning new talents.

If a Hedge witch chooses Druid as their parent class for Sphere selection, they gain the Animal Shaman (Mind) drawback and may not remove it later.

## Backgrounds

Hedge witches by definition lack any sort of organization or community among themselves, but there are certainly trends among them. Hedge witches tend to be strong willed individuals willing to stand up to their peers or social norms; after all, that's why they started talking to the weird old man or went to see the creepy witch in the woods in the first place. As a result, they tend be outsiders, and their continued association with their mentor and sudden strange behaviours and abilities don't typically help their social standing among their nonmagical peers.

Conversely, their lack of training and finesse tends to see them looked down upon by their fully trained spellcaster counterparts. Wizards view their slipshod practices as unrefined, lazy or even dangerous. Witches often look down their nose at them for going through the motions of their craft without making the sacrifices necessary for true power. Druidic orders view them as outsiders who've been shown a glimpse of The Way by one of their own breaking an ancient Taboo, and should the hedge witch's mentor not already be dead or exiled, they will likely move to change one or both of those things.

Shamanistic hedge witches are typically members of Barbarian tribes who are frail, sickly or merely inept in battle and left to care for or otherwise assist the Shaman. Though unable to hear the spirit world, and thus not fit to be a true apprentice, they tend to pick up on some elements of ritual, whether explicitly shown or not. Depending on the nature of their magic, they either augment their ability to fight and thus rise in status among their peers, or intimidate and frighten them with more overt spellcasting. While this doesn't typically net them many friends, it tends to keep their henceforth physical harassment to a minimum.