Let's start discussing Witches

"TLM08;c-16877676" wrote:
I think it would be cool for witches to have a good/bad meter. It could even tie into the new reputations from GF where using their magic for good makes the meter tip toward good and loosing control of their magic or doing evil ie killing and cursing makes it tip toward evil. It would also be cool if life events affected it. The meter could unlock special interactions as well as give them options with afterlife, like when a good witch dies she could choose to be turned into a special powerful tree(maybe another powerful witch could make a wand from it, or young witches can go study under the tree and it makes them gain skills faster or for adults it raises their power faster) or become a spirit that can positively affect the next generation of witch.

I like the Tree and how helpful it is, but I disagree on the good/bad meter. I think it is very limiting to do that.
Any alignment system or moral point system judges your actions regardless of reasoning or intention. Reputation is something else. It opens up storytelling potential. The reputation is only affected when stuff is seen. Reputation is what people think about you, not what you really are, so behaving one way in public for a show while completely different behind closed doors is possible. And if you commit a crime and there are no witnesses, it doesn't affect your reputation, because nobody knows it has something to do with you.
If a witch curses someone, an alignment system judges it as an evil action. It can't know that she does so because you are writing a story where he tries to steal her child, so she cursed him in self-defense.
I think it would be very annoying if we had to go through 30 minutes of interactions each time when she has to cast a spell the game deems as outside her alignment to adjust it. Every Witch should have access to all spells if she has good enough skills to perform it. How good or bad she is is something the player should decide and play the witch accordingly, not the game tell the player "You cannot cast healing spell lvl 5 because you are too evil to cast such a high lvl good spell" or "You cannot cast toad curse lvl 7 because you are too good to cast such a high lvl evil spell"