...or rhabdophobia, or whatchamacallit. Seriously, didn't the ancient Greeks have some kind of proper word for "magic" or "mage"?

So what's with all the non-Knowledge Sims rolling up Fears like "Be a Witch" or "[Sim] Becomes a Witch," anyway, along with those persistent Wants about curing witches?

Out of all the life states (or rather, all the life states that normal Sims can become, so Servos and Bigfoots need not apply), it seems like witches are the only ones who don't come with any drawbacks; they're 100% Awesome and 0% Suck. Vampires? The obvious bogey with daylight, and it's a big one; the last time I sent a vampire college student to her final exam at 11 AM, she almost died. And you can forget about sunbathing on your vacations to Twikki Island. PlantSims? That Sunlight need is a serious hassle, they can't seem to stay outside all the time, and sun lamps are expensive. And Heaven forbid that a grand vampire should ever bite your PlantSim. Werewolves? Not much, aside from the radical personality shifts, the massive Hunger drop with each transformation and the incessant howling which is bound to drive any non-Knowledge Sims on the lot nuts. Making a Neat, non-Knowledge Sim live with a werewolf will cause some tension around the house. Zombies? Well, aside from the whole thing about never aging, everything sucks about being a zombie, even if it is marginally better than staying dead. So I can see why a Sim would be worried about seeing their loved ones--or themselves--get turned into vampires, PlantSims, werewolves or zombies. "Oh, no! Harold won't ever be able to go out in the sun again!" and all that.

So where's the downside with witches? They get to fly on a broom every time they leave the house, they can fly to a couple of magic castles whenever they feel the need to get out of the house and handle their Needs without growing a minute older, and they get to cast a plethora of spells (as long as they have enough witchy skill, the right reagents and the right amount of Good/Evil morality). Need some help cleaning up after that sports party? Appello Servantus. Need to turn that lousy date into a Dream Date? Compello Acceptus. Want to invite someone over but they don't have a phone? Appello Simae. Oh, that someone without a phone is a firefighter? Inflammo right underneath the smoke detector. Your Popularity Sim happens to be a witch with a Need to have X many friends? Go downtown and Mactoamicus at will. Can't get to the toilet in time? Sure you can! Magivestigium. That damned Biotech Station made your roommate sick again? Remedis Simae. Cow mascot's about to set off the sprinklers in your dorm again? Expello Simae. You're tired of being nice to the cow mascot? Apply Heavus Ho, Mellifera Attackum and/or Servantus Attackum until the cow mascot gets fed up and leaves. Need a pet zombie around the house? Head to the cemetery and Vivificus Zombiae. The Grim Reaper's calling and you don't feel like playing the "Guess Which Hand" game? Expello Mortis. And so on.

But aside from startling the odd Sim by casting a spell right in front of her, I'm still not seeing any downside to witches. Is there something bad about witches that I'm overlooking, or do we have to settle for attributing all of these witch-related Fears to the commonfolk's inherent "torches and pitchforks" reactions to anything strange and unknown?

For the witch, there is no downside. For the player, the game dies. I could never resist the temptation to leave my witch skilling on triple time at witch headquarters, interspersed with sitting in the reviving chair, until level 9 was achieved. At that point, new witch would brew up her magic chair, and take it home. There, she would never again need to eat, sleep, wash, or be sociable. The chair fulfils every need.

A player cannot enjoy watching a witch just sitting in a chair, even if she's skilling like mad. Well, I leave witchcraft alone now.

Hmm. You do have a point. I guess that's why my witches still eat food and sleep in beds. I prefer to save the magic chairs for emergencies (like a witch stopping a lightning bolt). Besides, one of my best Atrociously Evil witches is a Cuisine hobbyist. She needs to cook and eat food.

So even that shortcoming can be mitigated with a bit of self-control, I suppose.

Witches are, in my opinion, one of the most versatile supernaturals to play, because they can fit into practically any type of hood. With mods for their skincolor, you can use them in a hood where there's no real magic - or well, hidden magic. They can be used in historical hoods, and for all kinds of storylines, because unlike the other supernaturals, they can truly hide in plain sight. Werewolves could hide too, but they've got the transformation thing going on (and the personality change, although there are mods for that, I think?). Vampires, with their aversion to sunlight and non-aging would be discovered pretty quick too, I think.

I do like the concept of witches in the game. Better than any other supernatural creature, in my opinion. Just like music2ologist, I too get tempted to have my witch/warlock Sims go crazy with the studying and master the skill quickly so that it gets old really fast. I suppose the main reason I get bored is because I have mainly had neutral witches, who can perform hardly any spells compared to the dark/light witches and can make hardly any objects. I think the neutral witches should've been expanded more, because sometimes I just have those Sims who don't feel the need to do good things or the want to do bad things and just want to be a witch for their own purposes.

I think it's just supposed to reflect fear of the unknown and different. And I suppose if you thought that someone you knew might get involved with dark magic then you might be afraid for them or about that. Sims can't really see skin tones etc, so maybe they literally don't know the difference between a good and bad witch.

That's kind of why my magic-based 'hood has witches and warlocks as the "normal" Sims in its population- to quote Syndrome from The Incredibles, "When everyone's super, no one [is]" It keeps one witch or warlock from being set at an unfair advantage over the rest of their 'hood, and then I double-up on life states, so that some Sims have to deal with the disadvantages inherent in vampirism or lycanthropy, in a neighborhood where such supernatural neighborhoods won't raise eyebrows (well, not all eyebrows, anyways! ) As far as keeping from abusing the benefits of witchery, well, that just seems to take a little self control (plus a neighborhood aesthetic in which the thrones would look too out of place)

The knowledge/non-knowledge Sim divide I hadn't really considered, but I guess I actually kind of treat that as the kind of divide that you see with liberal/conservative viewpoints, where the other life states are just too different, and many Sims consider it to be "wrong." I hadn't really thought of it that way before though... I'll have to see if that inspires any new storylines for me!

As an aside, am I the only one who finds the implications of Compello Acceptus a bit... unsettling? To say the least...

The issue of witches making the game too easy is a very real one. Personally I find that the key to having supernaturals without letting them ruin the game is to use them sparingly. For example, I have a strict limit of 5 witches in Heimlichbourg, one shaman for each tribe. The fact that they can easily fulfill their needs is useful because they wind up driving the story, inventing new things and taking steps others wouldn't dream of. As the tribes become less important due to political development and intermarriage making ethnic lines less significant, the role of the shamans becomes unclear, and the choice of who to pass their power to when they die becomes increasingly important. Typical TLNR ahead, here are my five original shamans and how their personalities rubbed off.

Grendel Bequed, Shaman of the Wa Tribe (good magic): Grendel and his sister, Hefonbeacen, were born from a woman who was struck by lightning during her pregnancy, enabling them to become the very first witches in the neighborhood. Grendel stayed with the Wa people by the coast as a kind of mentor and benefactor, healing them and enhancing their moods as often as possible, as well as establishing ties with nearby tribes.

Hefonbeacen Bequed, Grand Sorceress of the Karo tribe (neutral/good magic): unlike her brother, Hefonbeacen was restless and ambitious, and used her ability to fly to cross the ocean to the matriarchal island of Chthonia, becoming one of its main rulers and establishing the first trade routes. She focused on producing magical items for sale, and her floor lamps are becoming a fixture throughout the hood.

Penumbra Pyrmaker, Elder of the Calx tribe (netural magic): A knowledge sim, Penumbra used her throne to support a massive skilling effort and then her impart knowledge ability to share the fruits of her labor with her tribe, giving them a major advantage in skills (remember, bookshelves cannot be used for skilling this early in Heimlichbourg's history, so she had to tinker, cook and jump rope for those points!)

Gonold Grin, Hegemon of the Hamlek Tribe: While other witches saw themselves as guides and guardians, Gonold used his magic to establish himself as absolute master of his tribe, concentrate its wealth in his hands, father children with every woman and brutalize his neighbors with his fire magic. He was the inventor of the cow plant, which he used to extend his life at the expense of his slaves, who would then go on to serve him as zombies. He is currently living on a large farm lot worked by his zombies, working furiously to discover vampirism. Will he establish himself as the ultimate tyrant? (Incidentally, when it comes to vampires, I also plan to establish a strict limit on them- only sims born with both alien skin and alien eyes will be able to become vampires).

Sevata Sheptin, Witch Doctor of the Rod Tribe: in the frigid northern wasteland of Umberwold, where every season is set to winter, Sevata is instrumental in ensuring her tribe's physical survival, curing sickness and producing food to get them through famines. Since their tribe is the second most patriarchal in the hood after the Hamlek, she does not wield power directly, but prefers to be the power behind the throne. Gonold has met her and took quite a shine to her- but Sevata seems to be the only lady sim to remain unimpressed by him.

Well I mean it depends on which kind of witch you're talking about there's
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[/IMG]
or


Perhaps those who want to cure said witch are scared of what a witch could do to them?... Just speculation.

It could be. That Heavus Ho business is pretty nasty.

Now that I think about it, my evil witches have yet to cast Tabula Rasa on anyone. I just haven't found any reason to wipe out all of a Sim's memories yet. Maybe I should give it a whirl, eh?

Be careful. Wiping out memories may cause corruption.

How can it cause corruption?

It's probably something to do with relationships or whatnot. But isn't it odd that Maxis would include the Tabula Rasa spell in the game if it could do something ugly like that?

I haven't cast Tabula Rasa to this day, but I may as well find that Hoodchecker that this Mootilda coded. I think that one of the grand vampires bit Mrs. Crumplebottom, because now she's holding her arm in front of her face and running from the sunrise. As much as I welcome new and exciting ways to shorten Mrs. Crumplebottom's visits, I keep hearing that a vampiric Crumplebottom is a pretty bad thing.

This is very interesting to me. I've had witches ever since getting Apartment Life, I absolutely love them, but I didn't even know they had some of those perks. Like, the Throne of Light, I thought it was just a fancy chair. Never really used it, it takes SO long to make I usually don't. And I don't often use the spells, at least not major ones. I just like having witches/wizards around. Now that I know, I don't think it'll change anything for me, because I never used them that way before, and I won't change the way I play (in this case) just because I can.

But, it is interesting. Maybe I should just play around with it some...

Yeah, well...
The game allows the player to do many "ugly" things. Deleting sims, deleting graves, packaging inhabited lots into the lot bin and a long etc.
I'm afraid you can't trust a feature just because it's in the game.

(Not that I know anything specific about the Tabula Rasa spell, just saying.)

I agree, so here. Have an Agree point.

Witches are definitely fun to play with. It takes a while (and a lot of spellbook studying) to get a witch up to max witchy skill so she (or he, in the case of warlocks) can cast all of the spells for Good magic or Evil magic. Neutral witches don't get any exclusive "Neutral" spells, but they can cast a few more spells from both sides, which more or less makes them useful as multi-purpose "Swiss Army Witches". I have a coven with a max-magic-skill neutral witch as well as two maxed good witches and two maxed evil witches; I'll jot down what spells they can cast and see how big the neutral witch's advantage of versatility is...as soon as they all come home from their vacation in the mountains, that is.

Also, one thing which I discovered myself (because it doesn't seem to be in either of the two Wikis) is that befriending a High Witch and asking her to "Teach Me the Path of Such-and-Such" normally starts you off with next-to-zero morality (making your new witch a "Nice Witch" if the High Witch is Infallibly Good, or a "Mean Witch" if the High Witch is Atrociously Evil). The exception is if you ask the High Witch to convert you at her own palace, in which case you begin at maximum Good (for a new "Infallibly Good Witch") or maximum Evil (for a new "Atrociously Evil Witch"). Of course, your witch-to-be needs a playable witch in his or her family to bring him/her to see the High Witch that way, since non-witches can't go to the Palace of Neverending Light or the Fortress of Eternal Darkness on their own. The witch taking the witch-to-be to see a High Witch for initiation need not be of the same morality as the High Witch; a Good witch can take a non-witch to the Fortress of Eternal Darkness, where the non-witch can befriend the Atrociously Evil High Witch, learn the Path of Darkness and become an Atrociously Evil Witch right off the bat. And the reverse is true too. I'm sure you can come up with your own story-related reasons as to why a witch would give the other team a new member like that.

I've already done this three times with my witch coven family and with the warlock who went through college with them; the coven's head of the household, being Atrociously Evil, took the warlock-to-be to the Fortress and, being a Romance Sim, he earned his Atrociously Evil warlockhood by seducing the pants off the High Witch there. Then one of the coven's Infallibly Good witches had a daughter, took her teen daughter to the Palace and made her another Infallibly Good Witch, the head of the household brought her own daughter to the Fortress to turn her into yet another Atrociously Evil Witch, and as soon as the neutral witch's son hits his teen years, she'll probably take him to the Palace just for the sake of balance. The philandering warlock is the father of all three of those kids, of course. Sure he'll get his comeuppance some day. :P

Starting a new witch off at max morality seems a wee tiny bit pointless to me, though; by the time your new witch studies the Way of Light or the Way of Darkness enough to achieve max magic skill, she's bound to be Infallibly Good or Atrociously Evil anyway. It could give you a head start on those intermediate spells, though (ie. Benemoodus Populus or Servantus Attackum). I'll look into it.

Having read the above discussion, I went off to play the hitherto-neglected Cordial sisters in Belladonna Cove. The blurb over their house says they had such bad sibling rivalry that they were driven out of their previous home. What a nonsense that is! At inception they are good friends, and going their separate witchy ways only brings them closer. It seems that sims are a-moral; Samantha does not mind that Kimberley pursues the path of evil, and Kimberley seems to approve of her sister's virtue. Since Samantha has the LTW to have twenty best friends, I made her quit her nursing job so she would have time to socialise. To the same end, I'm afraid I once more yielded to temptation, and got her to brew up her magic chair, so she wouldn't waste good friend-making time in care of the body. Kimberley expresses her heartlessness by woohooing every male who passes. They each roll wishes to cast a spell, but I'm still being cautious about that. 'Benemoodus populus' is fine; anything else is dodgy.

I'm supernatural creatures fan and i agree with OP, witch/warlock is the best life state to play. Although they are weaker than werewolf and vampire in a fistfight (without thefightclub mod from MATY), their magics can curse them to the death. I've tried Human with Voodoo Doll VS Neutral Warlock with bees spell, neutral warlock still won due to their slowly casting time, and the voodoo man taking too long time to cast and brought his voodoo doll back.

Evil warlock is the most powerful life state, bees spell and poison (vomit) spell will tear down your comfort mood and get rid of you from lot. Storm spell can calls random lightning to shock your sim to the death. They never get backfire even casting failed. A Good witch, the boost mood spell seems only one that can be backfire if casting failed, but rarely to fails and they're still great.

IMO i think witch/warlock is the most powerful life state, the second one is Human with Voodoo Doll. Sim who got Teleport Skill form BV will has more powerful, sometimes they can avoid a magic if they're teleporting and hiding in a smoke when spell casted.

Fistfight : Werewolf > Servo > Bigfoot > Vampire > Witch, Human with VD, Alien, Plantsim, Zombie (Due to Body Skill) > Ghost

Magic : Witch > Human with VD > Plantsim > Vampire, Werewolf (Bite) > Ghost (Scare) > Bigfoot, Servo, Zombie, Alien

Speed : Witch (Teleport) > Servo (When they get mad) > Vampire (Run, better than Bat Form) > Human with VD, Plantsim, Alien > Werewolf (Slower than normal) > Bigfoot > Ghost (Just hover) > Zombie (Can't run)

Powerful Creature without CC : Witch > Human with VD > Plantsim (Blowing Pollen, Boost Moods) > Werewolf (Howling (Bladder), Attack) > Bigfoot (Skills and Badges) > Vampire (Bite, Bat Form) > Servo (When they get mad) > Ghost (Invulnerable) > Alien > Zombie (Slowly Walk)

Powerful Creature with CC that i've installed : Witch (with Pandorasim's spells) > Human with VD (with [Black_Spirit]'s more powerful VD) > Plantsim (Still the 3rd) > Werewolf (with J. M. Pescado's thefightclub) > Vampire (with [Black_Spirit]'s deadly neck bite and fulfill hunger) > Servo (with Simwardrobe's Servo Security System) > Zombie (with [Black_Spirit]'s attack of the zombie and Moon Ha hye tal mask) > Bigfoot > Ghost > Alien (if i can find CCs those improve these 3 creatures)

Voodoo Doll ... right. I read human with VD and thought, why is a human with venereal disease powerful? XD

I think that VD would be powerful...and...dangerous too. I hope this disease would not spread as fast as Flu, WooHoo rate of my neighborhood is 3 times per sim and per day

the two time I've played witches was one of the two sisters in belladonna cove and now i have a witch in pleasantview in the ubermegahood (is that the right name) and nether time have i done anything more then the teleport spell do to needing the regrets, and for how hard it's to get a witch without the creature changer panting (well for a younger me it was). i really should just make a sim focused only on magic instead of having a spouse and sibling or step daughter living in the same house. so my game only has one playable witch the second one ever though the first was lost to computer fixes/upgrades.

Yup - I'm afraid that's going to be a reinstall at some point (probably soon). You need the fix from MATY to stop the vampires from biting her. And make your objects.package read only.

I've found that even a simple Aqua Deletus spell is enough to satisfy that Want. All you need to do is wait for a Sloppy Sim to take a shower, and there you go. Every house has a Sloppy Sim, right?


Vampires and werewolves are not without their strengths either, of course; my vampires and my werewolves are already leaving a spate of soiled pants in the wake of their many "Bleh!!!" and "Grrr!!!" interactions. Fear the mighty Irritate menu! >:]


Booga booga.

I've already downloaded and set up Pescado's Creatures Fix. It seems to have fixed Crumplebutt; she's no longer smouldering when the sun comes up or holding her arm in front of her face. So it appears that Pescado has already addressed that issue. Praised be his name forever and ever, Amen.

And pre-emptively for the peanut gallery: if there is any corruption sticking around, I'll deal with it (and put on my big boy pants and roll up a new neighborhood or reinstall the game if it comes to that, saints forbid) when the time comes. I'm just getting really tired of reading all of this repetitive "You're doooooomed, your neighborhood's gonna burn, they're all going to laugh at you and your car will never get above 25 miles per gallon again" talk from all of the emotionally traumatized sorts who have gotten a tad too attached to their scuttled neighborhoods; if it's all the same, I'd rather chat with the problem-solvers than the heralds of the Apocalypse, thanks.

There's a word for everything; in this case I believe the word is "wiccaphobia." I prefer your "rhabdophobia," myself.

Honestly, I think sometimes people are a little too crazy-paranoid about corruption. Such folks should make their install files read-only and back up their game roughly every 15 minutes even if they aren't playing it and keep archived backups for eternity. Problem mostly solved.

On the other hand, those of us who play long-term neighborhoods and put a lot of effort into them and who aren't as diligent about backing up as we should be...Yeah, there's cause for concern. And we also have to deal with a lot of clueless n00bs who come in saying, "Oh, I delete tombstones all the time and nothing bad has ever happened in my game. Tee hee." And, what those folks don't say is that they don't keep a neighborhood longer than a (real-time) week and so never (or at least very rarely) see the effects of what they do. So, some of us have taken it upon ourselves to be the Heralds Of Ways To Corrupt Your Game. That's the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse Challenge, you know...

Soooo...I try to strike a balance. I'll tell someone, "Yeah, doing that? Bad idea, and here's why." And I'll advise, "Yeah, you might want to check your install files to see if the dates on the objects.package files have changed, and if they have you might want to reinstall now rather than later." But mostly, I think the best advice is to back up and to not do stupid things with the object characters just because you think it's "cool" to marry the Grim Reaper or whatever. But mostly? Back up. Often. I, personally, do it after every play session, and I keep a few archived so that if something got screwed up say, 5 play sessions ago but I didn't realize it until today, I can reinstate the backup from 6 play sessions ago. Et voila! Neighborhood saved from the fiery balls of...fiery balls.