Witchcraft / Shamanism

[arriel]

Witchcraft (or shamanism) options open up by learning specific skill (Witchcraft), with prerequisites of Plant Lore and Lawspeaking.
Witch can create amulets, enchants and potions useful in the household. Potions can be brewed and amulets made by female and male characters. Chants can be made by female characters only. Spirits can be banned by male characters only. Finally, there can be a special title - Wise Woman, one per village. Wise Woman is able to place enchants on the village claim to influence over the village territory.

Added: Witchcraft is not magic per se, but a power of belief. And potions brewing is basic chemistry. Some herbs scare off fleas, rodents and pests, thus better quality of crops, soil, cattle etc.

Stats influences: INT for potion brewing, CHA for chant creation, PSY for amulets.
Skills influences: Survival.

Witchcraft components

Water
Honey
Bees wax
Clay
Ash
Straw
Nettle
Wheat
Hemp
Poppy flower
Chantrelles
Cones/samara/catkin/acorn
Silk thread
Carved bone (made from bone)
Crushed bear tooth powder (requires quern)
Crushed deer antler powder (requires quern)
Crushed boar tusk powder (requires quern)
Boar Tusk
Bear Tooth
Rabbit paw (made from dried rabbit fur)
Fox tail (made from dried fox fur)
Feathers

Medicine herbs are produced by drying WWW on Medicine table. Medicine table is analogue of Herbalist table. Difference between Herbalist and Medicine table is that the medicine variety produces alternative herbs out of the same old Wild Windsown Seeds. WWW are practicaly obsolete as long as you got all types of seed for your garden, that way they will be in constant demand. Herbs produced:
Mandrake
Thistle
Basil
Mint
Thyme
Rosemary
Lavender
Chamomille
Feverfew

All component qualities directly affect the bonuses of witchcraft staff (i didn`t specify how much of any component is required btw).

Potions

Can be created in small glass jars. When consumed, produce buff-type effect.
Different types provide faster shp regen or hhp regen over time (plus maybe something else).
Specific cattle potions when added to trough raise milk and wool quality, or raise probability of cattle pregnancy.
All potions require cauldron.

Added: some potions are brewed from alcaloid extracts. Alcohol can be made via distillation process using Wheat.

Examples:
Water, Wheat, Honey, Mint - raising milk quality.
Water, Mandrake, Hemp, Crushed deer antler powder - cattle fertility potion.
Alcaloid extracts of Nettle and Chamomille, plus Crushed Boar Tusk Powder - shp regen potion.
Alcaloid extracts of Feverfew and Thyme, plus Crushed Bear Tooth - hhp regen potion.

Amulets

Consist of a number of ingridients (see list above) bound by clay, glass or bark, worn on neck on a string or silk thread.
Different types of amulets can raise specific stat or skill, or defence parameters.

Examples:
Bark, String, Carved Bone, Acorn - raise overall defence rate.
Bark, String, Mint, Lavender, Rosemary - raise Cooking.
Clay, String, Carved Bone, Rabbit paw - raise AGI.
Clay, String, Carved Bone, Fox Tail - raise INT.
Clay, String, Carved Bone, Boar Tusk - raise CON.
Glass, Silk Thread, Thistle, Samara, Feather - raise DEX.
Glass, Silk Thread, Ash, Lavender, Mandrake - raise PSY.

Chants (enchants)

Visually very much like Dream Catchers, but work similar to beehives, ie when placed, produce circular zone effect. Require branches, Beautiful Dream (Dream Catchers can finally be useful) and additional components (see list above). Depending on what additional components were used, different chants provide: minor increase to quality of objects in range, like soil (and grassland), crops, cattle, trees, water; decreased decay rate of built objects; decreased hunger rate for cattle.
Chant zones cannot overlay each other, so only one type of chant can be applied per tile. Chants are subject to general decay.

Examples:
Branch, String, Beautiful Dream, Feverfew, Rosemary, Thyme - soil quality increase.
Branch, String, Beautiful Dream, Lavender, Basil, Mint - cattle quality increase.
Branch, String, Beautiful Dream, Clay, Samara - water quality increase.
Branch, String, Beautiful Dream, Straw, Carved Bone - decreased decay rate of built objects.
Branch, String, Beautiful Dream, Silk Thread, Mint - decreased hunger rate for cattle.

Examples of village chants:
Protect Folk - increases shp regen rate, regens hhp with certain probability to village members.
Protect Haven - reduces decay rate of all things on village claim.

More diversion to the game, extra use for www and dreams, pleasant minor bonuses... I think it can be nice, that with all the folklore stuff talk lately

[giftiger_wunsch]

(a lot)

This would fit nicely with my poisoning well idea: witch poison see my thread.

One question though: why would you need lawspeaking to practice witchcraft?

Also, maybe having night in personal beliefs would benefit your witchcraft.

[arriel]

(a lot)

This would fit nicely with my poisoning well idea: witch poison see my thread.

One question though: why would you need lawspeaking to practice witchcraft?

Also, maybe having night in personal beliefs would benefit your witchcraft.

Not all witches are dark types I thought maybe Nature slider will be more appropriate.
But then, if poisoning idea is added, then Day-Night slider can affect what concoctions that particular witch creates have better quality - benevolent or malevolent.

Witches had always been authority of a sort, often providing advice to the chieftains of the villages. Plus, I haven`t found anything better in current layout of skills. LP amount seemed appropriate, too. Maybe there should be two skills - first one require Plant Lore only, second one require Lawspeaking and allow chracter to become Wise Woman and place chants on village grounds.

[Darkren]

I do recall reading one of the devs state they don't want to add all too much "magic" into the game. Hearth Magic exists merely as a required component to hearth fires, and with Ancestral Worship, we've already got some shamanism.

This looks like a pretty good way to get rid of all those useless animal and tree remains, though.

Protect Haven - reduces decay rate of all things on village claim.

And I may be mistaken, but I think a village claim already reduces the decay rate.

[LOMS]

This is great.

[Junkfist]

How could you forget Frogs, Rats, and Leeches as components?

How could you?

[giftiger_wunsch]

Witches had always been authority of a sort, often providing advice to the chieftains of the villages.

Those designated as "witches" were condemned as satanists. Largely old women who used herbs, etc. (folk medicine) to cure minor ailments and were thus denounced as having evil powers. Those which ( ) weren't killed as satanists weren't called witches. Often crones or the like though. In either case, they weren't lawspeakers in any sense of the word.

But then, if poisoning idea is added, then Day-Night slider can affect what concoctions that particular witch creates have better quality - benevolent or malevolent.

I like the way you think

And I may be mistaken, but I think a village claim already reduces the decay rate.

I'm not sure about that, but either way I think the implication was that it'd have a larger effect.

How could you forget Frogs, Rats, and Leeches as components?

How could you?

Finally, a use for frogs and rats!


I like this idea, except for the lawspeaking needed for witchcraft, and the fact that you can choose which herb you get out of wild windsown weeds: that doesn't make sense to me.

[arriel]

I do recall reading one of the devs state they don't want to add all too much "magic" into the game. Hearth Magic exists merely as a required component to hearth fires, and with Ancestral Worship, we've already got some shamanism.

That`s not magic per se, it is a power of belief. And potions brewing is basic chemistry. Some herbs scare off rodents and pests, thus better quality of crops, soil etc.
I just have a thought, we should disregard wine as a ingredient for potion. Instead, we need alcaloid extracts of other components. Basic alcohol can be made by utilizing weat in some process to produce hooch (sorry if I got this word wrong, in Russian it is самогон/samogon).

How could you forget Frogs, Rats, and Leeches as components?

How could you?

Sorry, I tried to keep to benevolent witchcraft. Frogs and Rats can go into poisons
And Leeches already have their use.

I like this idea, except for the lawspeaking needed for witchcraft, and the fact that you can choose which herb you get out of wild windsown weeds: that doesn't make sense to me.

You don`t have to choose, it`s the same as with domesticated plants - random return from drying www.

[giftiger_wunsch]

Sorry, I tried to keep to benevolent witchcraft. Frogs and Rats can go into poisons

There's nothing poisonous about frogs and rats (unless we're talking about poison dart frogs and the like). Poisons should be (or use) belladonna, foxglove, and the like.

See my thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6184 (please ignore the noob's oh-so-witty suggestion).

[arriel]

Sorry, I tried to keep to benevolent witchcraft. Frogs and Rats can go into poisons

There's nothing poisonous about frogs and rats (unless we're talking about poison dart frogs and the like). Poisons should be (or use) belladonna, foxglove, and the like.

See my thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6184 (please ignore the noob's oh-so-witty suggestion).

I`m not only talking poisons, but curses as well. If we assume that benevolent witch can craft potions and install charms, then evil one should be able to concoct poisons and install curses. Mentioning "magic" and power of belief, loads of illnesses are psy-induced, when a man strongly believes he`s been cursed, he would inadvertently start feeling worse. Thus, rats-frogs charms, metal needles go there also. Nature witchcraft don`t use metal naturally, but evil one can do it. Poisons can be done from beladonna and stuff.