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Hello Gamernation!
After some unfortunate technical hiccups last week, we are back bringing you another episode of the Small but Vicious Podcast. In this show we take a look at the much feared Witch Hunters and offer advice on playing them and discuss ways to make your Witch Hunters more than one note clichés.

If you like this episode of Small but Vicious why not head over to I-tunes and leave us a revue, we really would appreciate it

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Cake or Death? Cake definitely!

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Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

here are a few after thoughts:

Another almost uber bounty hunter would be Brisco County Jr. Lord Boller is the classic "doing it mostly for the money" kind of bounty hunter.

Here is a potential idea for a campaign, for whatever reason (usually as a matter of pride), two witch hunters are having a contest to see who can burn the most witches. The players can be observers or be caught in the middle.

This works great if there is an unlicensed magic user in the party or a questionable magic item (aren't they all questionable).

This could be a simple matter having the two witchhunter argue over who should burn them. While they are arguing, allow the characters to escape. Depending on how much humor you want, you could create a warhammer version of "Smokey and the bandit".

I haven't listened to the episode yet, but good god man! A warhammer Smokey and the Bandit? That's brilliant! Combine two things I love: Burning witches and Burt Reynolds sweet 1970’s ‘stache!

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Former Co-Host of The City of Doors (R.I.P)
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Half-man, half-amazing

Another good episode gents.

Just a side note, but an interesting scenario involving a Witch Hunter would be said hunter trying to enforce Sigmar's Will... when they're not within Imperial jurisdiction. Marrionburg is an obvious case, but a Witch Hunter in the Border Kingdoms or Bretonnia could wind up in hot water.

In-Game Example: One campaign I was playing in (playing my Bret Knight Errant) had us encounter a Witch Hunter that was hell-bent on putting a local peasant woman to the torch for witchcraft (she was the local village herbalist, and not a lick of magic in her according to the party wizard). The majority of the party were willing to let him have his way (in spite of the wrongness of his actions), however my PC wouldn't hear of it; not only was this woman (a valued part of the community) innocent of the charges, but the village in question (which rested very close to the Emp-Bret border) was within the authority of a minor Bret Lord (who was a third cousin of my PC as it so happened). The party thought I was out of my mind for challenging the hunter's authority. Was about to come to blows (and the likelihood of my PC getting trounced if this guy was indeed in the Witch Hunter career) were it not for one of the peasants running off to fetch the local lord as I asked him to do just prior to confronting said hunter, and said lord coming out personally (with a few Realm knights as honor guard) to attend to the matter, and then vouching for the herbalist.

To take from that, how about an instance where the Witch Hunter PC knows for an absolute fact that they've got a Chaos-infested heretic in need of burning, but their not in the Empire, and thus their judgments hold little to no weight, or there's an annoying band of "do-gooders" that are convinced said heretic is innocent (whether they're right or not is up to the GM) that's willing to go the distance to protect said person. How far do you, an avowed hunter of all things dark and evil, go to see the heretic get their rightful fate? Perhaps made even more fun if the heretic committed various crimes on Imperial soil, but has fled to a place where the Empire has little to no jurisdiction.

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Now I definitely need to get around to building that halfling witch hunter of Esmeralda. Does the guidebook say anything about trial by pie?

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I enjoyed your Witch hunters cast, but it did still leave me with some unanswered questions. Perhaps you could address them here for us.


1. Witch Hunter is a playable career, and as such, players are expected to portray them. In the fiction and source materials, Witch Hunters are presented as being bombastic, larger than life characters who steal the show with their sheer force of personality and intensity of action. This can be a real challenge for even experienced players. What advice do you have for role-playing -as- a Witch Hunter, both to capture some of that intensity, and as well not overthrow or overshadow the rest of the players with spotlight scenes about public trials and executions that may make the others feel marginalized too often? How do you play a Witch Hunter correctly without the rest of the players turning into just the Witch Hunter's posse?

2. I've read at least one house rule somewhere that just seeing that wide-brimmed hat of theirs unexpectedly can provoke a fear test - so fierce is their reputation. Why do the Witch Hunters have the legal authority that they do in the Empire when no other templar faction or cult seems to have unilateral legal power to accuse, try, and burn a citizen (or noble) of the Empire on whatever grounds they deem appropriate? Even priests of Sigmar, theoretically part of the same over-organization under the Grand Theoganist, don't carry any real legal authority that I've seen in the source material. Is there any history documented that has to do with how or why the Witch Hunters have this disproportionate amount of authority?

3. The Witch Hunter is a good example of one of several careers that bring with it a host of in-character responsibilities and affiliations. Furthermore, in character, one cannot just become a Witch Hunter because they want to hunt witches. Initiation into the Order of the Cleansing Flame is a process, as you mentioned in the cast, and the order goes looking for impressive candidates and has a training process a mile long. From a GM's perspective, how do you deal with a situation where a PC is ready to advance into a career with such in-character expectations but has done little to no leg-work to actually initiate themselves or start that process? Do you allow them to take the career without it as they work toward acceptance by the group so they can continue spending advances, and if so, what is the reward for successfully securing admittance? Or alternately, do you rush the process so you can keep the story moving and have a deus ex machina Witch Hunter rep show up and offer membership? The same questions could be applied to any of the Knight orders, Wizards, Priests, even tradesmen and their guilds. How do you stoke the richness of the world by involving the characters in career related organizations without jeopardizing the flow and momentum of the story?

4. Isn't is a little strange that the WFRP Rulebook equipment section has an entry for "Hat, Wide-Brimmed" for 1 gold, but it isn't a trapping of the Witch Hunter career?!

Great questions. Here is my take on them

1) In an odd sort of way, the Warhammer witch hunter is similar to the DnD 3.x Paladin. They both have a primary obligation to an organization other than the gaming group, and they both have to be careful about the group they travel in. To be sure they can both be difficult to play and difficult for other characters to interact with them.

The reasons you listed are additional reasons why this is a great career to retire a character in.

How to avoid it: Have the player act more as a spy than a witch hunter. He has to send reports on a regular interval. He is instructed to not reveal his authority. This is a combination of a test of pride (can he let another witch hunter the take credit) and the lesson of being subtle. The order needs both finders and destroyers of chaos.

Lastly, talk with the player. This can be cool, but it cannot be the focus of the game. Other players need to shine.

2) Peasants are an uneducated and superstitious lot, so I am not surprised to see a house rule like this.

Politics and religion are intertwined. This is why nobles make such great cultists.

I do not claim to be a great historian, but it is my understanding that priests wielded great power within their jurisdictions.

Witch hunters ultimately get their license to for with hunting from the Sigmarian church, so the church can control the number of witch hunters. I am sure that there are other policing measures that insure that there is some level of control.

3) The GM has the final decision on whether a character can advance or not.

4) Feel free to add it as a necessary trapping.