Eclectic Witch Tradition — A Personal Path

Eclectic Witches build a personal practice from several teachers, traditions, patrons and magical methods rather than inheriting one fixed system. Some work alone; others form covens whose shared rules are deliberately flexible.

Eclectic Witch combining several magical practices into a personal path of Witchcraft

Description: Eclectic witches are either a new Tradition or not a Tradition at all. They take elements from various Traditions, classes and even other religions to form their own path. The members of this Tradition are often looked down upon by other Traditions as being amateurs, pretenders or not even being witches. They have even been accused of simply being kids playing at witchcraft. The Eclectics react to these accusations with the same amount of indifference that often pushed them away from their area’s mainstream religion and towards one another.

Choose the Eclectic Tradition If…

You want to build a Witch whose practice is personally assembled rather than inherited whole.
You like borrowing methods from several teachers, covens or magical schools.
You want unusual combinations of Occult Powers and character influences.
You enjoy playing the outsider who refuses to fit neatly into one tradition.

At a Glance

Play style	Flexible specialist shaped by player choice.
Signature choice	Select powers that match your personal magical history.
Best stories	Conflicting teachers, borrowed rites, mistrust from older covens and building a tradition of your own.
Legacy strength	Broad access to Occult Powers from other traditions.

What it feels like to play: Eclectic is for players who already know the Witch they want and do not want one inherited tradition to define every part of the character. Your challenge is making those influences feel like one believable practice rather than a collection of bonuses.

5.5e / 2024 Tradition

Use these features with the 5.5e Witch. Eclectic Witches trade a fixed lineage of powers for controlled access to techniques learned from several magical traditions.

Level 3: Borrowed Practice

Choose one skill from Arcana, Medicine, Nature, Religion or Survival; you gain proficiency in it. Also choose one cantrip from the Cleric, Druid or Wizard spell list. It becomes a Witch cantrip for you and does not count against your cantrips known.

Finally, choose one level 1 spell from the Cleric, Druid or Wizard spell list. It becomes a Witch spell for you and is always prepared. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

Level 6: Flexible Hexcraft

You learn one additional Hex. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can replace that additional Hex with another Hex for which you qualify.

Level 10: Cross-Tradition Study

After each Long Rest, choose one level 3 or lower spell from the Cleric, Druid or Wizard spell list. Until your next Long Rest, it counts as a Witch spell for you and is prepared without counting against your prepared spells.

Level 14: Many Roads, One Craft

When you finish a Long Rest, choose one level 5 or lower spell from the Cleric, Druid or Wizard spell list. You can cast it once using a Witch spell slot of the appropriate level even if you did not prepare it. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it. Once you cast the chosen spell this way, you cannot do so again until your next Long Rest.

Legacy rules source

Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks, Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches and Warlocks team.

Eclectics tend to be Solitaries, but this is not always so. In fact, it is generally dangerous to assume anything about this Tradition. They can be like or unlike nearly every other type of witch, but yet retain the one thing that makes them the most honest of all the witch

Traditions: they follow their own path to their Patrons. Eclectic covens tend to have a hodge-podge of ideas, myths and ceremonies; They tend to resemble a group of Solitaries that have agreed or compromised on some practices, though it is immediately obvious there is more to the coven than that. A full coven of Eclectics can be as few as three or four, or as many as twenty witches. Generally there is no recognized leader and all have a say in duties.

Eclectic Witches can come from any people or culture. They are especially common where several magical traditions overlap, where formal training is unavailable, or where a practitioner deliberately refuses to be bound to one inherited school. Individual Eclectics may cooperate easily with other Witches or remain fiercely independent.

Role: Eclectics are nearly unique in that they serve no unique role. Many members of the Craft of the Wise speculate that the Eclectics are here to serve those who feel outside of everything, even the comfort of a supportive coven.

Eclectic can be found in other Tradition based covens, but most tend to be solitaries.

Joining this Tradition: To become an Eclectic witch, one merely needs to start practicing and make claims to be an “Eclectic witch”. There are no formal ceremonies, no initiations into family secrets. Usually a witch knows she is an eclectic witch when she hears the Call. Often they may have been practicing as a witch before that.

The Eclectic witch will celebrate any of the other holidays and sabbats the other traditions do. Only within individual covens or as Solitaries will an Eclectic witch determine if one holiday has more importance than another.

Leaving this Tradition: Of all the witch Traditions, leaving the Eclectic is the easiest. One simply has to stop considering herself an Eclectic witch. Often times an Eclectic witch will be accepted in another coven with a more formal Tradition. The Eclectic can alter her own beliefs to fit this new coven as she wishes.

In other ways, this Tradition is also the hardest to leave. When one is known to be a former Eclectic witch and attempts to join a more mainstream Tradition (or even another religion), their former status may continue to haunt them. If this is the case, the former Eclectic will always be treated as having a penalty on Charisma checks of -1 when dealing with her new Tradition, coven or religion. This penalty can persist for up to a year.

Skills & Feats: Eclectic Witches come from such unique background, they may choose a single crossclass skill as a class skill upon creation.

Occult Powers: The Eclectic witch is free to choose any Occult Power for the appropriate power level from another Tradition. The occult power needs to be consistent with the witch’s background.

Special Benefits: None

Restrictions: None.

Equipment: Eclectics are fond of ritual tools and will normally have two or three different ones on them at a time. The preferred ritual tools are totally based on decisions of the player, though they are not limited to common ritual tools. Even so, the Athame tends to be the most popular.

Coven Domains: Any

Preferred/Barred Covens: None. Eclectics tend to be solitaries more so than other tradition.

Patron Relationship: Eclectic Witches define patron relationships individually. One may be devotional, another contractual, another argumentative or distant. What matters is that the relationship fits the Witch’s personally assembled practice.

Source/Views of Magic: Eclectics treat magic as personal practice: a pattern built from experience, teachers, patrons and techniques that the Witch has deliberately chosen to keep.

White/Black Magic: As with most other witches, this distinction is not made. Eclectics though are most likely to use this distinction because their normal surroundings include more mundane people and cowans (non witches) than witches.

Wealth: Standard

Other: Any Eclectic witch is free to multiclass as she sees fit. Because of their mostly solitary nature, this class is attracted to other classes of a solitary nature such as the bard and sorcerer. A sorcerer/Eclectic is a common combination. Eclectics have little to no time or patience with clerics, monks, wizards or anyone that seems too regimented.

Naturally the alignment of preference for many Eclectics is chaotic.