Of all the archetypes popularized by Warhammer, the witch hunter is the most notorious. Yes, a witch hunter character can be played right in the context of Dungeon & Dragons, but as today’s RPG Horror Story demonstrates, it’s pretty easy to go full murderhobo.
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I prefer the Solomon Kane witch hunter type myself
Umm, Sir, i don't think Sigmar would aprove shooting unarmed civilians
"Witch Hunters are murder-hobo's by default". Yeah… Not like they're usually more sly and cold and calculating hunters. Who wields deception and authority more so than their pistol… Murder-hobo it is… What a waste.
As a lover of the Empire/Imperiums most zealous, the thing that makes characters who are over the top zealous is the character development. But this was not done right. This guy is an idiot. A good witch hunter and or inquistor takes stock of the advantages of your assests. Tactically utilizing them to your benefit. Learning about them on the way.
As crazy as it sounds, I would have liked to have myself and my best friend play in a campaign with Jack, but only to mess with him and his "original" character. I have a tiefling warlock named Despair, and he'd fit the role of annoying witch hunter perfectly. I also have another warlock who's a variant human named Dorian, who has lawful evil alignment. I'm sure he'd be just as successful as Despair with getting under witch hunter's skin. Then my best friend's character is human ranger/fighter who is staunchly anti-religious due to being abused as a child by the church she lived in. After she burned down the church and escaped with her high elf friend Shelly (and of course killing the priests in the church), she started to live in the woods and was infamously dubbed as the "traveling witch" despite not knowing any actual witchcraft. Even though Teavana can be a passive-aggressive jerk at times, I would still love to see her smack Jack's character into next week. My green dragonborn fighter (who very lowkey has a crush on Teavana) would definitely be buying her drinks at the tavern afterwards. If I was playing my Aarakocra monk character, he would also take the fallen BBEG's hat, just because he can lol
I wanna play vicktor saltspire…. ok you know he works with a fire wizard right?
have they cancelled Goblin Slayer for bein reeecist yet? these people have their way and our only dnd settings will be "Baby stories with Afro-Barney, n sht"
The real reason this campaign ended was because the dm allowed the one character archetype that ruins the game. Jack played a witch hunter. Though Drake explained one type of character story done with them he neglected the other where in the end after killing him the rest of the protagonists realize they are fools and that the witch hunter was right
Den of the Drake that was a great impression of Victor
“Being a witch hunter is not supposed to be a good thing.”
Do you understand what witches are? How’s a witch hunter any different than a vampire hunter or dragon hunter?
While I hate obnoxious powergamers that unironically bash real roleplayers, I feel that WotC has to bear some of this burden as well. They basically never tell players how to properly roleplay in their own damn books and their balance is, frankly, shit. 3.5e had bad balance too, but it had the virtue of having such an absurd amount of splash books that (as long as you had the patience) any player could come up with a viable build for their character concept. But that really is the core of the problem with D&D: you have to fit a round peg into a square hole if you come up with an actual character concept and not "I want to win game with big number ooga booga."
Honestly, if I wrote a campaign after dealing with that literal Jack-ass, I wouldn't make his character the main Villain, I'd make him the super lame one you curb stomp for time padding. At least then it would ACTUALLY be Jack's character, since he's obviously not as smart and strong as he likes to think he is.
Also, on the topic of Zealot characters, I have one that I feel ESPECIALLY proud of and am STILL waiting to get a chance to properly play. He's basically a Templar from a Technocratic society that's basically Christians but Super Scientist and Engineers. He has willingly exiled himself after marrying a Beastwoman/Witch and having a couple of children with her, mostly doing so out of fear of his people threatening her for her beliefs and practices. Thankfully, despite his worries, his Church agreed that he will not be exiled nor banned and even offered to allow passes for their children on certain Holidays, but highly recommends his wife stay away out of their cities out of fear of "Introducing Arcane ideas and outdated thoughts" and while he is permitted to return and stay as long as he wishes, he is DEFINITELY not given the same level of perks as he had before. The excuses ranging from things like:
"I'm sorry, but we just don't have the resources on hand right now" and "I wish I could help, but I'm sure you're already more than capable of handling this with what you've already got"
To
"Why don't you have your heretic Wife conjure something for you?" and "Apologies, but I plan on giving our resources to those ACTUALLY Loyal to our cause"
As you can imagine, he has mix feelings about this. He understands that he's not outright hated or unwelcomed, but he definitely feels like his people are too harsh on his Wife and simply wishes to show them how wrong they are. Regardless, it's half the reason he's an Adventurer and why he stands firmly by his beliefs but with an open mind and considerate heart.
DM – "Okay, why in the hell did you attack one of the party members right out of the gate?"
Jack – "It's what my character would do!"
DM – "Can you make a character that isn't going to attack your party members without hesitation?"
Jack – "A character that works with the party and the game? You trying to take away all player agency?!"
DM – "In other words, you don't know how to make a normal character."
Jack – "… Yeah, pretty much."
It's funny because I'm pretty sure Saltzpyre somewhat likes Sienna nowadays
Everyone drink. Lovecraft came up, and we HAVE to mention the racism; it's a requirement to prove you are better than a previous era's thought process
I feel as though witchunter characters could be massively improved by reading Solomon Kane. Like the dickishness should be directly related to the religion and they should also represent the best parts as well. Call a witch a witch but it's gods job to sort it out unless the witch is doing something nefarious.
The problem with Warhammer is that it attracts the worst kind of neckbeards: religious nuts, closeted (or not so closeted) nazis and other assorted idiots. Also, witch hunters are lame. Their hats look like neckbeard fedoras 😀
OMG Jack sounds like this player I had. I created a mystery noir campaign and was very explicit on this being a mystery campaign. He made a character that beat up or intimidated every person they came across. They were literally at the city morgue next to the police station and tried to intimidate the coroner. It was insane.
To be honest, the Neckbeard Interpretation of a Witch Hunter sounds less like an Inquisitor from Warhammer 40K and more like a World Noble from One Piece.
All Arcane magic is evil prosedes to use arcan magic
if i was playing a witch hunter and learned the ENTIRE town i was staying in worshiped an evil god
id mind my own freaking business until i could get out of said town and able to either get back up or form a plan
why you ask? cause im not brain dead and the action economy is a thing as this neckbeard discovered
I wanna see a witch hunter thats basically just medieval Homer Simpson and isn't even actually THAT irrational or a jerk but instead really cowardly or incompetent
Wait, is Drake one of the insane Covid conspiracy theorists? Man that's disappointing.
Warhammer Witch Hunters are like Commissars from 40k. They have the power to execute almost anyone if they show cowardice in the line of duty but can't get away with just killing everyone based on rank suspicion otherwise, they may find themselves more likely to get shot in the back when the fighting starts. Witch hunters in that sense (or at least good ones) know they can't just go around burning everyone at the stake without substantial evidence of corruption or taint that threatens the stability of the Empire (as I know them largely through the lens of the Old World).
A smarter Witch Hunter in character as mentioned in the story would be likely to openly scoff at these villagers ceremony, rather than openly pulling out a pistol or trying to rob someone without some kind of backup or heavy handed authority of the temple of Sigmar to scare them into giving him information
Though from the sounds of it the player just jumped into the shoes of a WH without knowing anything about them and just threw their weight around as a means just to slaughter things, which wouldn't have been an impossibility of a realistic character as there was Witch Hunters stupid enough to replace silver bullets with regular shot just to save on coin so there'd be ones stupid enough to find themselves in an early grave once they started abusing their power or authority……
Why would the rest of the town be hostile to the other party members? Maybe distrusting since they all arrived together but it’s not like they helped defend the witch Hunter XD Drake’s idea on what a “Witch Hunter” archetype is, is also pretty limited. Not all witch hunters are from medieval Europe or Warhammer lol
Know what? I want to DM just so when a murderhobo goes for this, I slowly make him the BBEG.
"Blood for the blood god and skullz for the skull isn't a-"
CUE SOUND ALERTS
It’s such a small, silly thing to note, but your segues into fanart always make me chuckle.
3:34 That was masterfully delivered sarcasm, right? Because, it most definitely was engendered in a lab. We just got irrefutable proof recently that fauci did indeed lie to congress and was doing gain-of-function research (which all the sane people knew already).
Jack sounds like the kind of person who wanted to play Solomon Kane, but never read any of the actual pulps.
I friggin love your voice acting in this episode.
Another case of Main Character Syndrome, where the player thinks they're the only one that matters, that they are above consequence, and that how hard they hit is the only thing thay counts.
It's almost like the whole appeal of Saltzpyre is the conflict between his upbringing and the fact he understands his order's hypocrisy and is willing to step over his principles for the greater cause. Easy to miss that for someone who doesn't engage with the game on more than a surface level though, I guess.
In my novel I included a Victor Saltzpyre, including him having the nasal school teacher voice, he's more "I have to track down a necromancer that tries making flesh golems" and less "ALL MAGIC IS WITCHCRAFT, AND HERESY!"
Witch Hunter can be many things. Might not like them with their fanatical behavior but having a Witch Hunter when actually fighting evil is awesome.
The fact that the neckbeard is wrong about 90% of the optimization slander he did is also fucking wild!!!
I’m so grateful for my dnd group EVERYDAY when I hear these vids
19:44 no. You consult your DM. You work with your DM to create a story where you end up progressing your and your party's agenda at the cost of your character. Perhaps to achieve your common goals you need to become more ruthless or sacrifice your humanity, until you end up becoming the BBEG on purpose.
Horror stories like this are horrors because they happen due to one party working against everyone's else.
Make so your demise comes about BECAUSE you work together with everyone. That way you can turn horror into tragedy. Turn awkwardness into amazing plot twist.
16:48 no no, letting witch hunter into occult village sounds like an amazing story in hands of at least okay DM and at least okay players. Both parties need to be at least okay, and even though DM, from the sound of it, clears that requirement easily….
We have player.
Well as a warlock, i hate this guy on principle