The Witch Hunter

"A curse has a scent. A bargain leaves a bruise upon the soul. A witch hunter learns to see both before the village starts digging graves."
— Kalthar Veylan, Veteran Witch Hunter

Introduction

Witch Hunters are grim investigators, sworn blades, sanctioned inquisitors, and wandering curse-breakers who pursue those who twist magic toward ruin. In Aetheris, where the Old Gods whisper through forgotten rites, evil gods grant power to desperate mortals, and covens gather beneath crooked moons, Witch Hunters serve as one of the last mortal defenses against occult corruption.

Some Witch Hunters are trained by temples, military orders, local magistrates, or the Claret Orders. Others are scarred survivors who learned their craft in the ash of a burned village or the silence left behind by a stolen child. They study forbidden rites not to practice them, but to recognize their signs. They learn the names of fiends, the habits of hags, the language of curses, and the subtle difference between harmless superstition and the first breath of a slaughtering spell.

To become a Witch Hunter is to accept suspicion as a companion. Common folk may welcome you when the cattle sicken, the well turns black, or a midwife dreams in someone else’s voice, but they rarely love what you represent. You are the knock at midnight, the iron charm over the door, the blade beneath the prayer book. You are called when fear has already entered the house.

Description

A Witch Hunter walks the narrow road between protection and obsession. Their work demands courage, knowledge, and an iron willingness to confront powers that hide behind beauty, piety, grief, or desperation. They investigate occult crimes, expose hidden covens, interrupt blood rites, track cursed relics, and hunt those who bargain with fiends, undead powers, fey predators, or the hungering remnants of ancient divinities.

Unlike common soldiers or temple guards, Witch Hunters are trained to read the residue of magic. A smear of ash beneath a window, a cradle charm tied with grave-thread, a circle of salt broken from the inside, a prayer spoken with one missing word: each may reveal the shape of a threat before it fully manifests. The best Witch Hunters survive not because they are fearless, but because they are methodical. They collect evidence, question witnesses, test charms, study patterns, and strike only when the truth can no longer hide.

Their methods vary widely across Aetheris. Some work beside the Claret Orders, adopting blood rites, alchemical disciplines, and brutal fieldcraft to combat supernatural predators. Others serve the temples of lawful or death-aligned gods, rooting out necromancy, possession, and blasphemous pacts. In rural regions, a Witch Hunter may be little more than a weathered traveler with a silvered knife, a satchel of herbs, and a reputation that arrives before they do.

Yet the profession carries a terrible danger. Witch Hunters spend their lives staring into corruption, and corruption has a way of staring back. Some become merciless zealots. Some begin to see guilt where there is only fear. Some learn too much from the things they hunt and cross the line from vigilance into damnation. The wisest Witch Hunters know that the first monster they must master is the one their work can make of them.

Background Ability Bonuses

Your work demands perception, discipline, and enough learning to understand the rites you seek to destroy.

Choose one of the following ability score options:

Option 1: Wisdom +2, Intelligence +1
Option 2: Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Dexterity +1
Option 3: Intelligence +2, Wisdom +1

Wisdom reflects your instincts, awareness, and ability to read people under pressure. Intelligence reflects your knowledge of rituals, magical theory, monster lore, and the history of occult threats. Dexterity reflects the quick hands and quicker reflexes needed when a hidden charm flares to life or a spellcaster reaches for the knife beneath the altar.

Witch Hunter Trinkets

Roll a d8 or choose one trinket from the table below.

d8	Trinket
1	A silver charm shaped like a closed eye, polished smooth from anxious handling.
2	A vial of powdered silver mixed with sanctified salt and dried rue.
3	A torn page from a grimoire written in a language you only partly understand.
4	A bone whistle used by your mentor to signal danger during a hunt.
5	A small glass orb containing smoke that curls toward active curses.
6	A broken blade fragment etched with a name that was scratched out by magic.
7	A worn leather journal filled with field notes, sketches of ritual circles, and witness statements.
8	A blackened coin taken from the hand of the first spellcaster you killed.

Using the Witch Hunter Background

The Witch Hunter background is ideal for characters who investigate occult threats, confront forbidden magic, and wrestle with the moral cost of violent duty. It suits Rangers, Fighters, Rogues, Clerics, Paladins, Blood Hunters, and even Wizards or Warlocks who have turned their knowledge against those who abuse similar powers.

In an Aetheris campaign, Witch Hunters fit naturally into stories involving covens, evil gods, Old Gods, cursed relics, rogue spellcasters, undead rites, fey bargains, fiendish cults, and rural terror. They are especially useful in campaigns where mystery and horror sit beside battlefield action. A Witch Hunter can identify clues, question witnesses, expose hidden corruption, and force the party to ask difficult questions about justice, fear, and certainty.

This background works best when the character is not merely “anti-magic.” A compelling Witch Hunter understands that magic can heal, protect, reveal, and preserve. Their true enemy is the misuse of power: the curse placed on a rival’s child, the pact signed with another person’s blood, the resurrection that traps a soul, the blessing that is actually a hook. The best Witch Hunters are not torches in a mob. They are lanterns in a cellar, held by someone who knows the dark has teeth.

Suggested Classes

Ranger: A tracker of covens, hag lairs, cursed groves, or haunted roads.
Fighter: A disciplined martial hunter trained to close with spellcasters and survive magical ambushes.
Rogue: An investigator, infiltrator, or executioner who exposes cults from within.
Cleric: A temple-sanctioned exorcist or divine agent who purges corruption.
Paladin: A sworn judge of occult crimes, balancing mercy with righteous force.
Blood Hunter: A grim specialist whose own dangerous rites mirror the powers they oppose.
Wizard: A scholar of forbidden magic who hunts those who cross lines that should remain inviolate.
Warlock: A former servant of a patron, now using hard-won knowledge against pact-bound enemies.

"Do not fear the witch because she knows the old words. Fear the one who knows what they cost and speaks them anyway."
— Edran Vale, Witch Hunter of the Black Road

 

 

 

Ability Scores: Your work demands perception, discipline, and enough learning to understand the rites you seek to destroy.

Choose one of the following ability score options:

Option 1: Wisdom +2, Intelligence +1
Option 2: Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Dexterity +1
Option 3: Intelligence +2, Wisdom +1

Wisdom reflects your instincts, awareness, and ability to read people under pressure. Intelligence reflects your knowledge of rituals, magical theory, monster lore, and the history of occult threats. Dexterity reflects the quick hands and quicker reflexes needed when a hidden charm flares to life or a spellcaster reaches for the knife beneath the altar.

Feat: Witch Hunters are trained to recognize danger before it speaks, disrupt hostile spellcraft, and survive encounters with creatures that prey upon the unwary.

Recommended Feat: Mage Slayer
You have learned to close distance with dangerous spellcasters, punish careless casting, and resist the worst effects of hostile magic. This is the signature feat for Witch Hunters who specialize in hunting rogue mages, witches, cult leaders, and pact-bound enemies.

Alternative Feats: Alert, Observant, Skilled, or Tough

A Witch Hunter who focuses on investigation may choose Observant or Skilled, while one hardened by years of violent confrontations may choose Alert or Tough.

Skill Proficiencies: Your training as a Witch Hunter gives you the practical knowledge needed to investigate occult crimes, survive cursed places, and confront those who misuse forbidden power.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation and Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Your training as a Witch Hunter gives you the practical knowledge needed to investigate occult crimes, survive cursed places, and confront those who misuse forbidden power.

Tool Proficiencies: Alchemist’s Supplies and Herbalism Kit

Languages: Your training as a Witch Hunter gives you the practical knowledge needed to investigate occult crimes, survive cursed places, and confront those who misuse forbidden power.

Languages: Common and one additional language of your choice. Many Witch Hunters learn Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Infernal, Sylvan, or Undercommon, depending on the threats they most often face.

Equipment: You begin with the following equipment:

• A long dark coat, travel cloak, or hooded mantle marked with discreet protective stitching
• A set of traveler’s clothes
• Alchemist’s Supplies
• An Herbalism Kit
• A prayer book, field grimoire, or witch-hunter’s journal filled with notes on rituals, charms, curses, and suspected covens
• A small case containing salt, iron filings, chalk, silver needles, dried herbs, sealing wax, and black thread
• A simple weapon of your choice
• A light crossbow with 20 bolts, or a second simple weapon of your choice
• A charm, relic, writ of authority, or old accusation paper tied to your first hunt
• A pouch containing 15 gp

At the DM’s discretion, your equipment may also include a single vial of holy water, a minor protective charm, or a sealed sample from a previous investigation. These items should provide story value rather than major mechanical advantage.

Suggested Characteristics

Witch Hunters are shaped by suspicion, discipline, grief, faith, and the terrible intimacy of knowing what people become when power answers their worst prayers.

d6	Personality Trait
1	I notice small wrongnesses before I notice beauty: mismatched footprints, ash in clean rooms, prayers spoken too quickly.
2	I rarely relax, even among friends. Evil is patient, and I have learned to be more patient still.
3	I keep careful records of every hunt, every witness, and every mistake. Memory is a weapon.
4	I speak plainly when danger is near. Fear grows in silence, and I prefer to name the thing in the dark.
5	I am fascinated by forbidden magic, though I would rather cut off my hand than be ruled by it.
6	I treat superstition with respect. Even foolish customs may remember truths scholars have forgotten.

d6	Ideal
1	Protection. The innocent should never be left defenseless before curses, covens, or predatory powers.
2	Justice. Magic does not place anyone above judgment. The powerful must answer for the harm they cause.
3	Knowledge. A thing understood can be named, resisted, and defeated. Ignorance is the first altar of fear.
4	Mercy. Not every accused soul is guilty. Not every corrupted soul is beyond saving.
5	Vengeance. I remember what was taken from me, and I will make the guilty remember as well.
6	Restraint. A Witch Hunter without discipline becomes another monster wearing cleaner boots.

d6	Bond
1	I carry the last letter, charm, or keepsake of someone I failed to save.
2	My mentor disappeared during a hunt, and I still follow the trail they left behind.
3	A village, temple, or order once sheltered me, and I answer when they call.
4	I spared someone accused of witchcraft, and their fate still shapes my choices.
5	I hunt a particular coven, cult, or spellcaster whose work has scarred my life.
6	My journal contains names that must never be forgotten and names that must never be spoken aloud.

d6	Flaw
1	I see patterns too easily and sometimes mistake fear for evidence.
2	I struggle to trust spellcasters, even those who have proven themselves honorable.
3	I keep secrets from my companions because I believe knowledge can corrupt them.
4	I am willing to use cruel methods when I believe the danger is great enough.
5	I cannot walk away from a suspected curse or ritual, even when the wiser course is retreat.
6	Part of me wants the hunt to end, but I no longer know who I would be without it.

Contacts

Witch Hunters rarely operate without some form of network, even when they pretend otherwise. Your contacts may include frightened village elders, gravekeepers, temple scribes, apothecaries, hedge-priests, informants, magistrates, exorcists, monster hunters, retired inquisitors, or members of the Claret Orders.

Some Witch Hunters are formally sanctioned by religious courts, city authorities, or militant orders. Others are tolerated only because they solve problems no one else can bear to name. A Witch Hunter might work alongside the Claret Orders when facing blood rites, fiends, undead, or supernatural predators. Another might be an independent investigator who trades favors with herbalists, executioners, and archivists. In regions plagued by witchcraft, the arrival of a Witch Hunter may bring relief, dread, or both.

Roll a d8 or choose one contact from the table below.

d8	Contact
1	A temple archivist who preserves old trial records, forbidden confessions, and sealed heresy documents.
2	A village elder who has seen too much and knows which families still leave offerings at the old stones.
3	A retired hunter who lost their nerve but not their knowledge.
4	An alchemist who supplies tinctures, incense, silver wash, and substances best not carried openly.
5	A gravekeeper who notices when the dead are restless, missing, or too quiet.
6	A Claret Order agent who respects your work but distrusts your methods.
7	A magistrate who quietly hires you when legal authority fails against occult threats.
8	A suspected witch who once aided you and may be ally, informant, future enemy, or all three.