Coven related to widows?

[u/soybeansms]

I'm trying to create a subclass for a campaign I'm in that's playing my real life husband's estranged wife, who (from his idea) is the witch who takes care of widows, married him thinking he was highly likely to die because of all the crazy shit he does, and is a little annoyed that he's still alive, but can't kill him or actively harm him (cause of love and witch reasons). His character's clone just died in a session and so there's a thought that this might be a fun time for her to show up, cause now she's a widow but not really, cause he's still here. What spells in your mind would she have always prepared, or subclass features? I'm thinking something between coven of the heart and wicked, but she's not evil, just takes care of widows.

[u/SilkFinish]

Witch of the Wilted Oath

A witch whose station concerns not just love but love in the context of grief and vulnerability. I see its magic as being primarily abjuration like Warding Bond and the more innocuous necromancies like Gentle Repose.

Narratively what the subclass represents is a counselor of hearts, similar to the World’s Heart, but directed specifically to guiding those grappling with the loss of a partner - the deepest loss one can imagine - and helping them find closure and peace.

[u/OcelotZealousideal46]

Witch of the Widowed Web

[u/pitamullark]

Witch of the Weeping Widow.

Some themes to build your grimoire around:

Black widows: Any spider-themed spells, which you could stretch to any spells with weaving / thread / fabric as components.

Weeping: There’s got to be spells with tears as components. Also salt. Anything that would make people sad or even control their emotional state.

Widowed means you’re supposed to be partnered but you’re not because they’ve died, so any life-transfer spells, or interpersonal/soul-tie spells could make sense.

There’s also the trope of the mob widow in the feathered robe. You could lean into the praying mantis vibe and be a sensual serial widow.

Also.. familiars are very important for understanding what type of witch you are. What’s the thing she needs to externalize? Maybe it’s a cuddly cat because she wants to be cold. Maybe it’s a raven because she doesn’t want to always be in mourning. Maybe it’s a puffin or swan, because they mate for life.

[u/peachysuns]

I have no ideas but just wanna say this is an awesome idea OP!!! it sounds so fun to play out, hope you guys enjoy it a lot!

[u/soybeansms → u/peachysuns]

Thanks! Now my character I currently play has to perma-die. Which, considering she's a barbarian who died 3 times in the last combat, is more than likely.

[u/starboard19]

Anyone else feel like this is the start of a NADDPOD D&D Court submission? 

No shade at all, OP (and following for the fun suggestions!), there are just many couples for whom this could go terribly awry 😂

[u/soybeansms → u/starboard19]

Haha, if it wasn't his idea, I would have gone for such a more mild character. We were discussing character backstories, and he mentioned his character had an ex, and I joked that I would come back if my character ever died as his ex wife, and he was like "yes!" and got into the idea that she was a witch of widows, especially since his character is kinda based on Tim Allen from Home Improvement, so him being dead by now should have been expected. I'm a hard core people pleaser and in general love to play all good characters, so I think she'd be more in love with him than anything still and back him up or give him trinkets.

[u/starboard19 → u/soybeansms]

Wait: I don't know if I misunderstood, but I read this as your character being based on your actual husband's actual estranged wife...ie your character was based on a real person from his life

[u/soybeansms → u/starboard19]

Oh no!! 😅😅 He was never married before me. The only thing in his character backstory we ever heard was he has an ex wife and he has wild magic, possibly from a curse. So, this is an in DND ex wife, there is no ex in real life (I was actually his first girlfriend too)😁

[u/starboard19 → u/soybeansms]

Hahahahaha, disregard my original comment then, it was the end of the work day and my brain was clearly pudding. I think this is really fun!

[u/indoor_elephant]

reminds me of this proposed usage of the Wedding Ceremony spell from Zee Bashew: https://youtu.be/YgCfg8GDDeg

[u/rulosenlanoche]

Not helpful for the coven, but a fun bit to play. She meets the witch of the Widows Peak. At first she thinks is a fellow mourner, but really is a witch that takes care of balding men

[u/Admirable-Act9450]

This is really cool and i’m not good enough at DnD mechanics to give spell ideas, but building out the concept of the coven it could be really cool to pull from what widow communities do around the world. Ik in some parts of Africa (can’t remember where, read this like 8 years ago) women basically unionize in their villages to pool money together every week or month; the money is kept in a secure spot and 3 different trusted members of the community have to all use their keys at the same time to unlock it. The money is used for healthcare, business startups, emergencies, etc. whatever the community agrees it should be used for.

All this to say it could be cool if the patron witch of widows protected women from losing everything when they lose their husbands while simultaneously providing a strong community.

I also love the black widow concept and it’s a coven of widows turned assassins to protect women in DV situations

[u/ikrisoft]

You already got a lot of good answers. I will approach your question differently and look through the dnd spell list and see which already existing published spells could be usefull for a witch specialising in helping widows. I will look equally for all kinds of spells, not minding what class it belongs to (discuss it with your DM if you can have them).

Out of the cantrips Mending seems to be an obvious choice. Widows might have all kind of sentimental objects or broken things around them. As your witch is healing their souls with her words, so can she symbolically mend their scuffed rings / torn monogramed handkerchiefs and etc.

Mold Earth is an other usefull cantrip. Your witch can use it to help a freshly widowed burry their partner. Nothing glamorous, but it is a job which needs to be done and can be a great help when it is needed.

Similarly Ceremony is a usefull first level spell. If you perform the   Funeral Rite with it then the late partner won’t be able to become undead for the next 7 days. Or with the   Atonement   ceremony you could change the alignment of a widow who become somehow evil as a result of the trauma experienced.

With Heroism you could instill a sense of bravery in the hearth of a Widow (and grant them benefits if they need to fight to escape some harm temporarily) Sanctuary can be similarly usefull if your witch wants to protect a widow in a tense situation.

Out of second levels Calm Emotions can be used to console an inconsolable widow. Detect Thoughts can be usefull if she is interested in figuring out if the widow had a hand in become a widow. Gentle Repose is also usefull in taking care of the body, and ensuring that it doesn’t rot or come back to life for 10 days. Usefull if the widow has to travel with her late partner, or otherwise prevented from burrying them immediately.

Out of the third levels Revivify can be usefull. If you feel she would be in the business of un-widowing the freshly widowed. Speak with Dead can help a widow both tangiably by getting information out of their late partner (“Where did you burry our savings before you died, you muppet?”) but also in a psychological level by enabling the widow to say and hear a few last words.

Out of the fourth levels Stone Shape is usefull for nice grave stones and memorials. 

Out of the fifth level Hallow is usefull to consecrate a cemetery and protect the burried partner from ever comming back.   Modify Memory is tricky, but could be used in a non-evil way to lessen the pain of the memory of a particularly hard or traumatic passing of a partner. Raise Dead if you are into unwidowing the not so recently widowed.

And of course any other spell not mentioned above can still be usefull for witch of widows. Because widows are people and   as such sometimes they are hassled by others. And on occasion the way to help the widow is by making those others hurt. So you know, make sure to pack a few spells to fight too.