I have realised after reading the Witch Hunter and the Witch Hunter Captain careers that in the Warhammer 3 they have banished all Witch Hunters which do not belong to the Holy Order of Sigmar (i.e. no Witch Hunters of other cults, neither independent Witch Hunters)

Due to this I have started to design a new career (or career path) for other types of Witch Hunters using the background found in Warhammer 2. I have started with the Witch Hunter Mercenary (I hope I can come with a more original name) based on the stats and skills of the Witch Hunter career from Warhammer 2. Although at the moment I am aiming only for an Intermediate career instead of the high tier Witch Hunter of Warhammer 2.

I am finding some problems to flesh it due the limitation on the amount of characteristics (two) and skills (typically 5, some times 6 some times 4) a career gives access to (I am very bad at synthesizing).

Regarding the traits I am going for Combat, Intermediate, Rogue and fanatic (devout should not be there since this is not a cult tied Witch Hunter, I will correct it later).

For characteristics I think Willpower is a must if the Witch Hunter has to face the horrors of chaos. As for the other characteristic, based on the skills, I would think Intelligence is important, but since they are supposed to be good fighters, Strength or Agility are also relevant. I do not know which one to select, suggestions?

as for the skills, I have selected BS or WS to relfect their continuous training in combat

Discipline to resist the horrors

Folklore since they should be informed of things such as legends about witches or common knowledge about necromancy, chaos etc

Intuition for interrogatories and see through the deception of chaos cultist

Intimidate to represent the awe they inspire on most humans

Probably I could include BS and WS for a total of 6 skills without breaking the game, but I prefer to stick to the average. Any suggestions here?

And finally, for the career ability I have choosen to go along the path of terror inspiring and horror resisting type of Witch Hunter.

any idea would be welcome

Cheers,

Yepes

If playing a WH which isnt a templar … how about just NOT taking the Piety skill?? or if wanting to play a guy relying more on WS than BS …wouldnt that be reflected by simply having a different access career than the usual kind (whatever that is)

Or just say he is a witch hunter … have him claim to be one .. even if he isnt exactly sanctioned …(and thus not actually in the WH career)

just my thoughts - I dont see a reason to overcomplicate matters …

Nice addition to the witch hunter family. I didnt know there were witch humters of other religions? Apart from Sigmar and Solkan. But it seems i was wrong, I read up on it. Ulric has them also.

If you think of it with Morr. he has the followers who hunt necromancry, the other gods likely also had those types of people too.

I always wanted to have a Solkan Witch Hunter, but i havent seen since 1st edition see any spells listed for priests of the law gods. Wish i hadnt sold my realm of chaos books all those years ago. I didnt get the 2nd books, so no idea if they had anything. Think one was to make your sword burn.

Solkan the Avenger is the master of vengeance, an angry god who inflicts retribution upon the enemies of the Gods of Law. Of all the Gods of Law, Solkan can be said to be the most well known and popular, although he and his followers are feared rather than respected. He is worshipped by many Witch Hunters.

Boehm said:

That is definitely a valid option I thought of. Just ignoring the background provided by the career card and asume that the Witch Hunter career represents Witch Hunters from any of the priest cults of the Empire.

Then, as you say for the Mercenary career it could be represented by any Mercenary / Veteran path. The problem I see is that there is no career that picks up the essence. The Mercenary -> Veteran which could be an option are only combat oriented and I think that skills like Intuition, Folklore, and a career ability like the one I have designed give a better flavour.

Cheers,

Yepes

I agree with Boehm, I think you could easily make do with the existing careers for a non-Sigmarite Witch Hunter. Either using the existing career or Mercenary, Roadwarden, etc. The Judgements can be bought in any case. There is always non-career advances to use if the career doesn't quite fit the concept the player had in mind.

In my version of the Old World any Witch Hunter who is not a Templar of Sigmar is a heretic and will be treated as such if he goes around claiming to be a Witch Hunter. For me the Witch Hunters are tied to the Sigmarite faith, the templars of other faiths do not have this focus. But that's just me of course

gruntl said:

Also keep in mind that - the current system offers flexibility in two different ways - 1 how do u access career, ei. what were you before you became a witchhunter …in this sense the difference between a templar and a non-templar witchhunter could simply be whether you have gone through any of the Initiate/Priest/zealot careers first or not ??

Additionally, the skills offered by the witchhunter are options - you dont have to (cant) take all of them and there is nothing stopping you from picking up an out of career skill such as WS for example ?? And again remember that anyone can pick up the 'judgement' action cards.

As an example:

In our current campaign Im playing a would-be witchhunter - originally barbersurgeon, dillitante (both non-completed) - currently duellist …originally envisioned as a rogues character, with trust issues towards authorities especially the officially 'oh so very good shallyans' (he was raised in a shallyan orphanage ….inspired by the stories of the irish catholic orphanages). - but then during the horror of hugedahl the rampent chaos opened his eyes to the even greater depravety of those living behind a thin veneer of respectability (and he gained Paranoia as a permanent insanity). - …roleplaying is one thing - rest is just mechanics.

I'm sure other faiths have "Chaos hunters" of various names and there are likely civil ones as well.

I believe Edition 2 was the one that narrowed "official witch hunters" to Sigmarites (Career Compendium version, with its Witch Finder General idea etc.). This would be most true in places like Middenland where Sigmar no so favoured.

That said, I like the Sigmarite Witch Hunter because it thematically fits with power and corruption of Sigmar's church, and the fear they inspire (I'm going to have first Rank Characters in Enemy Within have to make a Fear Check when meeting a real Witch Hunter - religious and temporal authority all in one).

If in one thing I agree, is that an extra Witch Hunter career to cover the witch hunters which are not devout to a cult is a bit too much, and it falls a bit off from the the career system of warhammer 3.

Still, I do not like the Witch Hunter of the 3rd edition. So, after talking to my player, and reading a bit more the 2nd edition background a bout which hunters, I have decided to fuse the two careers into one, the which hunter.

I modified the career description to include non devout which hunters and to open the door to other cult which hunters like those from Ulric or Morr.

I have also modified the career characteristics towards Toughness and Willpower. I think toughness is arguable, but Willpower is a must for which hunters.

As for the skills, I have swaped Stealth for Discipline, the last is basic to survive the horrors of this profession. I have included BS OR WS to reflect the different fighting styles that apepar within the different which hunter groups. To do so, I have used the "idea" found in the Mystic career so I keep the skills limited to 6 ast in the original which hunter career.

Finally I changed the picture for one that includes a more grim character (imo).

I still have to see if I want to keep the career ability of the which hunters in 3rd ed, +1 damage against chaos followers, or if I go for something like reduced fear rating when from a chaos source or inproved discipline rolls when faced against chaos…

Cheers,

Yepes

I love your idea … I remember actually thinking something simular ..but then got away from it again somehow … still great idea !

Hmmm career ability ideas:

1) "The simple idea" - Once per session add an expertise die to descipline or intimidate

2) "The stallwart against chaos idea" - All descipline checks induced by demons or mutants have difficulty reduced by 1.

3) "The witch sniffer idea" - Add 2 instead of 1 fortune die, when spending fortune pts - on Intuition or Intimidate checks to sniff out curruption.

Boehm said:

Brilliant! but which to choose…

I think 2) fits the bill nicely …cant have witch hunters running away like scared little girls

ofcause now whether its too specific and narrow ?! … alternatively you could say that they just gain an expertise dice on intimidate, plus descipline to resist effects caused by demons and mutants.

I have been thinking and the option 2 is also the one I like. Option 3, though it is nice, due to the bonus on intuition puts a bit of preassure on the Investigator career.

Cheers,

Yepes

With the three ideas you got three rank of witch hunter , the rookie, the seasoned et the veteran witch hunter.