The Witch Hunter

The B/X Blackrazor blog has been discussing Witch Hunters, and even posted an OD&D witch hunter class based on the one from the Compleat Adventurer. I like the witch hunter concept, and in other games have played Solomon Kane-ish witch hunters. I don't quite like the approach of the Compleat Adventurer, which is modeled after the Paladin or Monk, with powers gained at specific levels.

For a looser approach to the witch-hunter, using the alternative class rules I've been posting about, I'd use a Hybrid Fighter/Cleric with a background in "witch-hunter". Possible variants include mixing Cleric with other classes:

• Van Helsing would be a mixed Cleric/Magic-User;
• Solomon Kane would be a mixed Fighter/Cleric;
• Matthew Hopkins in the film Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm) would be a mixed Trickster/Cleric (assuming he has supernatural powers at all,) using the subterfuge bonus for clever tricks to bolster his arguments;
• another possibility for a roguish but not necessarily evil witch-hunter would be a mixed Charmer/Cleric, or for a non-powered Gilliamesque Brothers Grimm version, mixed Charmer/Trickster.