Greetings!
Do you have Witches in your campaigns? How about Witch Hunters?
I have official Witch Hunters that are organized in several nation states and kingdoms in my world of Thandor, which hunt down dark and depraved witches and warlocks. In my world of Thandor, though, I have the standard Warlock/Witch class from the Player's Handbook which seem to be popular in the general sense. I also have a racial template, which creates a very powerful kind of Witch that has all kinds of dark and evil powers, creating evil minions, augmenting new creatures and special servants, and embracing a whole litany of wickedness and debauchery. Such witches have terrifying powers and are a potent threat in a campaign environment, whether to a local village or town, or eventually to an entire kingdom.
Do you have special kinds of witches in your campaigns?
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
yes but i use D6 system with my own customized magic system rather than most of the default spells in D6 fantasy; and charge fate points for casting, so what being a witch or warlock (or even a priest) effectively means is that you carry out the whims of a patron who grants you fate points for your service, above and beyond the 3 points most every living thinking creature has and regenerates daily. (1 for each of mind body and soul unless there is a curse or injury upon one of these that must be removed).
I allow anyone to collect and store an infinite amount of fate points, but only the 3 for mind/body/soul regenerate; 1 point between encounters or fully with rest. So absent using magical items, magical components, completing adventures to build a store of fate points, a witch/warlock/priest can have more than the normal 3 via their patron.
So, stumpy the mage typically has at least 3 on any given day if he doesn't collect and store fate by various methods, just casting costs 1, and an extra 1 if he's wearing armor while trying it, so w/o collecting rare magic herbs or wands or crafting talismans or completing adventures he can cast about 3 spells a day.
But then he goes up against broomhilda the witch, who has that daily 3 plus a handful (maybe 2D) her patron (a giant evil treant of incredible age) granted her for shutting down a logging camp with violence a week ago, so broomhilda will seem to be more powerful or use magic easier than stumpy as a consequence of serving said treant...as an off the cuff example.
Stumpy can still "use magic" freely when out of fate points but cannot "cast a spell", minor effects of telekinesis or pyrokinesis or what have you by virtue of rolling spellcraft in a free form style, with reach tied to his channeling skill and intensity or strength tied to his binding skill (i replaced the default magic skills with spellcraft, alchemy, binding, channeling, and made the original skills specializations of spellcraft).
I will allow a caster to cast spells w/o fate points but they suffer a wound per difficulty level of the spell at the end of the casting, limiting them to the weakest spells or guaranteeing their doom in the process.
The defining aspect though, for me, in the terms witch/warlock, is the patron, the servitude link through which they gain the fate points to cast.
I did for my 1620s France campaign of Honor & Intrigue. Also I had a chance to look at an actual copy of the Malleous Maleficarum. I figure I should get extra points for that. :D
They're not called witches per se, but there are Diabolists who gain power from pacts with demons, Necromancers who rip out a piece of their soul and allow the malicious ichor of the Shadow World to seep into the wound and "Warlocks", Theurges (divine casters of various strikes) who have turned their backs on their pacts with the gods or who entered pacts with various astral powers outside the accepted bounds of the Via Praetorum.
The Via Praetorum has several orders, The Order of Venetrix (goddess of natural death and winter) who hunt undead and necromancers and the Templars of Bellos (god of just war, sport and strength) who hunt apostates and warlocks. EVERYONE hunts Diabolists, but the Malfean (elemental tieflings) Crusaders, are the most zealous and hunt down any who would worship their vile ancestors with extreme prejudice.