witches' road

Witches' Road

The magic is you. Wands and spellbooks only channel it.

Cast with your bare hands, get stronger by using magic, and break your limits on the Witches' Road: a procedural dungeon that opens under your Altar. Walk it with your coven, or alone. Pick one of five witch specialties and learn 70+ abilities and spells. Six bosses wait on the Road, and a cursed mountain waits after it.

Requires: GeckoLib, Curios API and Patchouli · NeoForge 1.21.1 · install on both client and server.

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✨ At a glance

• 5 specialties. Each one fights differently, is the best at something and has a real weakness. Before you commit, a comparison screen shows each one's role, strengths and weakness.
• Magic from your hands. Everyone gets Blast, Hex, Telekinesis and Flight, plus 10 specialty abilities on a radial wheel.
• Level up by casting. Every spell raises your Mastery (0 to 125). When you hit the cap, walk the Road to raise it.
• The Witches' Road. Sing a rhythm-game Ballad at your Altar and a dungeon spirals down beneath it: 5 trials, a hidden route through the mud, and a boss at the bottom.
• An endgame. A castle on a mountain peak, Corruption, and a 1,500 HP elder god.
• A whole witch's life:
  • cauldron brewing with 11 exclusive potions
  • robes with set bonuses, and a backpack of up to 72 slots
  • enchanting past vanilla limits
  • tarot readings, spellbooks, relics, wands, and a broom that seats two
• Modpack friendly. Every number is configurable, and one key turns magic off so your keys never clash with other mods. Nothing pops up when you join, and it's tested on dedicated servers.

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🧭 Getting started

1. Join a world. You get the Witch's Diary. Nothing pops up, so take your time.
2. Open the Diary (right click). The Awakening screen puts the five specialties side by side. Pick one or let fate decide. You can switch later with the Rebirth ritual.
3. Follow First Steps. The Diary opens on eight short steps, from your first spell to the Road. Feeling lost? Press J for the Witch's Journey, a quest map of the whole mod.
4. Cast everything. Every spell raises your Mastery.
5. Build an Altar (a 3×3 circle with an amethyst core). Use it to rank up, enchant, craft and much more.
6. Hit the Mastery cap? Sing the Ballad and open the Road.

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✋ Magic from your hands

Key	What it does
Right click	Blast. Hold to charge. At high Mastery, hold Shift for a beam.
C	Witchcraft. Tap on an enemy to cast your specialty's Hex, or tap anywhere else to pull items and XP. Hold for Telekinesis: grab mobs and blocks, release to throw.
G	Your active ability. Tap to cast. Hold to aim with a preview, release to cast.
V	Ability wheel. Tap to put your next favorite on G. Hold to open the wheel over the game; you keep walking.
Space (mid-air)	Flight. It grows with you: soft fall, glide, double jump, levitation, full flight.
R	Witch's Backpack
J	Witch's Journey (a quest map of the mod)
B	Magic on/off. When it's off, right click and Space go back to vanilla.
Alt + right click	Blast even while holding an item

Every key can be rebound. "Hide hat" and "Free hand" (lock a hotbar slot so picked-up items never land in it) are on the wheel.

Your hands matter. With both hands free you cast at full power. Holding an item cuts your magic to 60%, and with both hands full you can only fly. Torches, lanterns, totems and witch gadgets don't count.

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🔮 The five specialties

All five share the same balance budget, and an automated test fails the build if anyone breaks it.

Specialty	Role	Best at	Weakness
🟡 Divination amber · air	Scout and assassin	Weak-point crits, the Mark of Fate, finding ores and structures, X-ray sight, dodging with Premonition, and rewinding time	No healing, no shield
🟣 Potions magenta · water	Alchemist and area control	The Witch's Cauldron with 11 exclusive potions (Shrink, Gigantism, True Invisibility…), throwable flasks, Transmutation and area heals for the coven	Needs preparation: without potions in stock, she does little
🟠 Protection orange · fire	Counter-attack tank	Parry with Palm, Ward Seal, Dome, an Aegis Lance that releases all the damage you blocked, a permanent anti-spawn ward, and a song that saves allies from death	Little mobility and raw damage
🟢 Green green · earth	Summoner and terraformer	Vine whip and grappling hook, farming at scale, thorn turrets, a pack of root wolves, Shape Earth and a Living Forest	Terrain and summons only work on natural blocks
🟪 Spirit purple · beyond the elements	Power thief	Drain life and Essence, and steal effects, mob gifts (fire immunity, teleporting, wall climbing…) and even spells	Regenerates Essence at half speed, and every drain draws Death closer

Every specialty also has its own Hex: Time Out of Order, Alewife's Revenge, Inverted Circle, Death's Kiss and Purple Siphon. Changed your mind? The Rebirth ritual starts you over in another specialty and keeps your Mastery.

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📈 Essence and Mastery

• Essence is your only resource. It starts at 100 and can grow to 500. It regenerates twice as fast at night and three times as fast under a full moon.
• Mastery goes from 0 to 125 in tiers of 25. Each tier reshapes your base kit, and spells get cheaper as you grow.
• Mastery has a cap. It starts at 25 and rises by 25 with every Road you complete.

That's the loop: cast until you hit the cap, then walk the Road to break it.

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🛤️ The Witches' Road

The heart of the mod. Sing the Ballad at the Altar in a short rhythm minigame, with all five specialties present. Playing solo? Effigies and sacrifices stand in for the witches you're missing. Then the ground opens, and a dungeon spirals down beneath your Altar:

• 5 trials, one per specialty, in random order:

  • a tarot reading under a descending ceiling of swords
  • brewing an antidote in a poisoned room
  • defending a pedestal against waves
  • growing life in a barren room
  • a duel against your own Reflection

• The Tunnels: a harder route through the mud, with better loot.

• A boss at the bottom:

  • a coven of seven specters
  • a vengeful witch's ghost
  • a choir of damned souls
  • Death herself, who can be fought… or bargained with

  After the fourth Road, past bosses come back stronger.

Each Road raises your Mastery cap and rewards pure affinity materials. Die down there and you're out of the run, but your items wait in chests by your Altar. This works with grave mods too.

⛰️ The cursed mountain

A rare castle on a mountain peak holds a throne, the avatar of an ancient elder god and a forbidden grimoire. Its dark rites grant power at the cost of Corruption, and at 100 Corruption something comes looking for you. Defeat the avatar and you can summon the elder god itself: a 1,500 HP endgame boss.

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🕯️ More to discover

• Altar rituals:
  • rank-ups, Rebirth, time and weather
  • rites that last a whole day
  • 6 coven enchantments
  • Transcendence: one level past a maxed vanilla enchantment
• Arcane Enchanting:
  • enchant at the Altar with lapis; shelves and ornaments around it shape the result
  • your rank pushes levels past the vanilla maximum
  • an Altar Reading shows the exact outcome before you commit
• Witch's Cauldron: ingredient sequences, hopper automation, and you can read the next step at a glance.
• Witch's Backpack:
  • 5 tiers, from 27 to 72 slots, worn on your back
  • 10 charms: magnet, auto-refill, crafting, compacting, void and more
• The witch's house:
  • a Crystal Ball that finds items in nearby chests, shows a top-down view and reads tomorrow's omens
  • an Enchanted Watering Can
  • drying racks, herb jars, poppets, a mortar and pestle, ritual chalk, a rocking chair…
• Spellbooks: study 7 grimoire spells, inscribe 10 page spells at the Altar, and bind them into books up to the Supreme Grimoire.
• Witch robes:
  • pointed hat, cloak and long dress (the hat can be hidden from the wheel)
  • 4 fabric tiers up to netherite level
  • embroidery in your specialty's colors, with a 4-piece set bonus
• Relics, wands and boons:
  • 4 wands, 9 relics (a levitation cloak, a portal ring, a time-bending eye…) and 3 boons
  • a broom with a seat for two
• Tarot: 22 hand-drawn arcana. Draw three a day for blessings or challenges.
• The coven:
  • up to 5 witches share Essence and auras
  • their magic never hits a sister
  • rites grow stronger the more specialties stand in the circle
• Mobs: specters that phase through walls, drained witches, hordes of the damned, cultist casters, and neutral Wandering Witches who trade ingredients.

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⚙️ Modpack friendly

• Every number is configurable: costs, damage, durations, radii, cooldowns and boss HP all live in config/bruxaria-server.toml.
• Balanced up to netherite gear. The base Blast only outdamages a netherite sword at high Mastery, and it costs Essence.
• Nothing forced. No screen pops up on join. A player who never opens the Diary plays vanilla, and /magia off (or B) gives every key back.
• Area spells spare villagers, animals and other players' pets. PvP respects server and team settings.
• Multiplayer-ready. Aiming accounts for network lag, and monsters from other mods count as hostile.
• Tested with: GraveStone, Corpse and Fast Item Frames, plus hundreds of automated in-game tests on every release.
• Operator commands: /bruxaria maestria, caminhos, especialidade, rank, essencia.
• Optional integrations, loaded only if the mod is installed:

Mod	What it adds
JEI / EMI	Cauldron, ritual, drying rack, mortar and tea recipe categories
Jade	Altar and cauldron status on hover
Allthemodium	Alternate recipes and extra affinity refinements

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❓ FAQ

Can I play solo? Yes. Effigies and sacrifices replace the specialties you don't have, so you can walk the Road alone. It's just harder.

A key clashes with another mod. Press B (or type /magia off) to turn magic off: right click, jumping and the mod's keys go back to vanilla. You can also rebind every key.

My magic got weaker out of nowhere. You're probably holding an item. Lock a free hotbar slot with Free hand on the wheel (V), and picked-up items will never land in it.

Does it need to be on the server? Yes, on the client and the server.

Fabric? Forge? Other versions? Only NeoForge 1.21.1 for now.

Can I use it in my modpack? Yes, go ahead.

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📦 Requirements

Minecraft	1.21.1
Loader	NeoForge 21.1.251 or newer
Java	21
Required mods	GeckoLib 4.7+, Curios API 9.0+, Patchouli 1.21.1-90+
Side	Client and server

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Witches' Road is an unofficial fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any studio, publisher or rights holder.