The Which In Us All

Which is a generic term describing a witch with skills nearer that to a warriors. There are a variety of benefits to being a fighting witch. Daiquiri Jr the Witch, has been my test alt in exploring this phenomena.

While a fighting witch is not often considered a traditional witch there is a possibly reference to one in the Discworld novels. From Eric, "In a quiet corner of the Mended Drum tavern where the adventuresses Herrena the Henna Haired Harridan, Red Scharron and Diome, Witch of the Night, were meeting for some girl talk and a game of canasta, all the drinks turned into small yellow elephants (p10)." The Discworld Companion refers to her as, "Probably not a proper witch, brecause real witches would burst out laughing at her name." So taken with a grain of salt, there is apparently a chance a combat witch does stalk the Discworld books.

Advancement

Armour

The talker is a wonderful tool, however, there are only a handful of Whiches who are really Which-like, and these ladies are not always online. I pestered some of them momentarily into disclosing their armour. The question of what armour to wear for battle seems to be one of the most common questions asked on the talker in regards to Whichdom. This is certainly not a list of armour from all the Fighting Witches, but here's merely a helpful start in the collection of armour.

Witch 1: Daiquiri
A leather scale hauberk, a pair of klatchian steel plate boots, a pair of klatchian steel plate gloves, a pair of padded cloth trousers, a leather breastplate, a pair of steel greaves, a pair of steel vambraces, a cobra mask, a klatchian steel link mail coif, a pair of padded cloth socks, a padded cloth undershirt, a pair of padded cloth underwear, two padded cloth shirts, a leather backplate.

Witch 2: Gitta
Kogake tabi, leather robe and gloves.

Witch 3: Sera
A pair of gloves, a Djelian aegis, a pair of priests, a kabuto helm, a pair of steel greaves, an iron protective, a pig-faced bascinet, a mail hauberk and a black widow mask.

Witch 4: Scanger
A heavy face mask, a pair of mail mittens, a kettle helm, a steel breastplate, a pair of steel sabatons and a pair of steel vambraces.

Witch 5: Which
A kabuto helm, a steel bevor, a pair of preists, an Offler-headed mask, a black widow mask, a padded woolen kaftan, a chainmail miniskirt, a pair of kogake tabi, a steel breastplate, iron gauntlets, grflx scale, an iron protective, a leather undershirt, a pair of steel vambraces, a pair of steel greaves, a mail shirt, a pair of mail hose and a mail hauberk.

For further help in armour Moondog has an excellent armour page you may want to check out.

In addition to this in the Djelian Warriors Guild Ug Ogg has taken up residence, a man, who for a hefty price will make you custom designed armour. Custom armour is very impressive in looks as well as quality. If you are so lucky to be able to afford this I highly recommend investing in it. Here is a webpage with more information on custom armour, made byEkko

Commands

This isn't a list of regular commands but other commands that you can get for fighting and fighting related incidences.

Two that I highly reccomend getting are leatherwork and fix (10 levels of cr.sm.black). If you are using armour and weapons they will evantually get damaged and need to be restored to new or they'll break. (This is also a perfect time to get them enchanted to decrease the time you'll need to spend at the forge.) These processes are done in smithy's and leather shops which are available all over the Disc. For a small fee you can use the materials available there. In addition you may want to get a needle and thread or prepare yourself to be making some trips to Gap's altar.

There are also "specials" that you can use such as: bash, beat, chop, hack, pierce, slash, slice, smash and stab though I'm sure I'm forgetting some. These allow you to get an extra powerful hit in though certain weapons can only use certain specials. For more information on these try looking here.

In addition to this you might find a few other commands such as judge and vurdere to be helpful at considering weapons and armour.

Player Killers

This is nothing extraordinarily specific but for most people in their Which life will face the decision of whether or not to become a player killer (PK). Basically you register yourself as PK and can interact with other playerkillers at the highest level possible. This includes sparring, skill checking, etc.

The one thing I do truly recommend though if you choose this is first locate your PK friends or make some. There are some really terrific PKs in the Witches community (such as Sera, Gitta, Which, etc) and from the other Guilds. Friends are helpful not necessarily for revenge but to help you along in PK matters.

When I first was interested in going PK I was told to wait until I could kill a group of soldiers in the Djel on my own. While it was a nice goal it's certainly somewhat misleading. I was somewhat unsure of what to recommend here goal wise but a few things I personally consider musts are at least 2000HP... And beyond that it's really up to you. When you feel comftorable for the leap it'll be your decision.

Scrolls

Scrolls in my opinion seem to be something of a "lost art" in the Witches Guild. I'm not even sure if most Hennes are aware of them. But basically it's that through a scroll a Witch can cast a Wizard's spell that has been written on the scroll. It's very similar to casting a regular spell in that you need the appropriate bonuses, the spell components, and so forth. This comes in very handy for fighting Witches in particular where our guild has a lack of defensive spells.

First you need to actually get the scrolls. They can be supplied by a friendly wizzie but more often than not are easily located in most player shops. Once you have the scroll in your inventory along with the components the syntax for use is: "cast {spell} from {scroll/paper} on {target}". If everything goes succesful the spell will then be cast.

The scrolls I have seen that are more commonly used include:
     Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator otherwise known as TPA which works quite similar to Household Guard.
     Chrenedict's Calcareous Covering also known as CCC which will give you what's commonly known as troll      skin.
     Through scrolls you can also cast portals.

Any Wizard's page will offer more detailed information on this information and I am sure there are more wizzie spells adaptable to Witchy use but these are a handful that a combat Witch may care to take notice of.

Skills

Skills are pretty much the name of the game and for any non strict roleplayer one of the very important aspects of the MUD. To be able to perform any commands or spells or to fight you need skills. The better the skills, or bonus, the better you'll be at the action you wish to perform. I won't get too specific here but if you're going to fight you need to advance fighting. Initially this is hard because it's not a primary and you have limited guild advancement but you should remember TMs are your friend and come quite readily at a young age.

In my personal opinion I advise that you find a fighting.melee to focus on. Your options are dagger, sword, heavy-sword, axe, mace, flail, polearm, and miscellaneous. Brooms, which you'll already have as a Witch, are an excellent polearm weapon and considering that you already have the weapon it won't be necessary to carry an extra weapon or to remember to be holding the appropriate weapon when fighting. Daiquiri uses heavy-sword, so polearm is only a convenient option, it's certainly not mandatory. As well as choosing a fighting.melee also find a fighting.defence to focus on, you're options are parrying, blocking, and dodging.

Besides this there's of course other.health and other.perception which are extremely helpful. There are plenty of other skills which I recommend looking into but these should certainly get you started.

Spells

Here's a quick reference of the spells I commonly use that are more directly related to fighting:
Grammer Scorbic's Household Guard:
This is the Witches defensive spell. A household guard floats around you and blocks hits, hopefully. With a 350 bonus in ma.sp.defensive my guard on average blocks 95% of all hits. However, guard is very easily knocked down with specials. Usually they absorb one hit and then are knocked from orbit. If they remain up, it's a moment to smile. Because of this I highly recommend not relying entirely on this spell. Yes, there are a variety of wizzie spells that can be enscrolled in used in addition but what I mostly recommend is good old fashioned dodge or parry.
Mother Feelbright's Busy Bees:
This is an excellent offensive spell and covers a target in honey so a group of bees will attack.
Gammer Shorga's Helpful Undergrowth:
A growth of vines will erupt and encase your victim draining them of GP and holding them in place.
Certainly other spells can be used in varying ways to improve your fighting capabilities but the three I've listed will be used most regularly.