witches

[junagu]

Hi everyone. I've just bought RQII and really like what I see so far. I love the open endedness of it and the magic system is great. Loose, which though it might take quite a bit of work, I think is really good.
Naturally I've got going creating a few characters to begin and would like some clarification of the Witch profession. Am I right in thinking that this is basically a freeform magic character? Even though Priests for instance can end up practicing Spirit magic. What exactly is the point of the witch profession? It is there to fill a gap as it were so what is that? Whereas the Priests/Shamans/Sorcerors all have cult progression specifications the witch doesn't - does that mean that they simply follow the advancement specified by a cult or is it that they are "hedge" - building grimoires or gaining spirits or whatever ad hoc? The only indicator in the book is on p27 where it states "Sorcerers and Witches: Gain a Grimoire appropriate to their cult......If a Grimoire needs developing from scratch, it will contain up to four Sorcery spells appropriate to the sorcery order's nature and teachings."

Any ideas anyone?

 

[Loz]

Its intended to be a freeform, female (though it need not be) magic profession that can be tailored towards any flavour of campaign.

Need a hedge witch/wise-woman? Choose Divine or Sorcery magic.

Need that Evil Witch ala Snow White? The kind that poisons apples? She's a Sorcery Witch.

Need a medium or spirtualist? Spirit Magic.

Of course, the witch profession is interchangable with shaman/sorcerer/priest and so on. But some settings may not actually have this level of magic yet have witches specifically (fairy-tale, low magic settings for instance). So that's the reason for the profession's presence.

 

[TrippyHippy]

If you're in a non-Gloranthan medieval setting, would witches be good to use Common Magic (assuming that nobody else will)?