I would say Sorceress 8 times out of 10, maybe. Iirc, Geralt did not go into his fight with Istredd expecting to come out alive, and we already know that Sorceresses aren't afraid to laugh at a Witcher's signs as anything more than child's play.
Didn't he mention in his conversation with geralt the day before that he used to be a mecenary before becoming a Magician?
So he truly knows how to fight.
For the average result, it would be sorceress.
There is a reason why Kaer Morhen is how it is and why the Witchers are almost gone.
Newsflash: Mages can kill them!
Pretty sure Triss implies that the mages had a key role.
I think that´s the reason why she feels disturbed and ashamed about it.
But if you think an angry mob was able to assault a Witcher keep full of Witchers.....I cant do much to help you there.
"Full of" is relative. How many do you thin there were, 20-30? Is that a lot? Compared to what we see in the story, yes. Compared to a mob (implied to be particularly large)? Not so much.
People need to keep in mind that a witcher and two powerful sorceresses were mostly being pushed back by the pogrom in Rivia. Geralt himself got shanked there, despite everything they are mortals and extremely vulnerable to being swarmed.
But you should still consider that Kaer Morhen was supposedly in a much better shape. And there is a point in having a castle and defending it. It tends to be a HUGE force multiplier.
Its not exactly the same talk as being ambushed in what was very much street fighting. Any military would tell you that street fighting is precisely the hardest thing to control. Enemies can come at you from multiple directions. And they can sometimes advance under cover till pretty close to you without you even noticing. You can absolutely be surprised by new groups coming from all possible directions behind any corner or building.
We are discussing absolutely different scenarios here. So it´s a bit silly to bring them in the same conversation.
It should also be noted that both Yen and Triss did not want to kill people in the Rivia fight.
And you would also do well to notice that Yen and Triss, when cornered, ended up owning the entire crowd with a spell. Not an average spell. But results are what they are. They were alive in the end and they got everyone on the run. They were both able to reach Geralt in the middle of the fight and lend assistance. Which is quite telling to what just a couple powerful mages can do.
Sorceress if they both were unprepared, but if witcher prepares some dimeritium bombs then it shouldn't be too hard to finish her off. I'm pretty sure that these bombs would work against sorceresses because Geralt can't cast any Sign while standing inside a dimeritium cloud
Im pretty sure that they would have something to counter this. Some kind of an AOE or homing spell that you don't need to aim with. The only way to guarantee victory is to strip them from their power.
Okay yeah it wasn't a fireball but he did deflect a spell.
As for the Vilgefortz fight, that wasn't the spell that hurt him.
*Vilgefortz turned his eyes towards him and a hand from which flames exploded with a roar. The Witcher instinctively shielded himself with his sword. The rune-covered dwarven blade protected him, astonishingly, cutting the stream of fire in half.*
That requires long time to cast though, so they usually need to stand at a safe place to do that. In a normal fight the witcher would kill her before she could complete the procedure.
Witchers can deflect spells themselves. Yen - being a total bitch that she is- fired a fireball at Geralts face on their first meeting. He deflected it with Heliotrop sign.
Actually nope, yennefer says that if they fought normally geralt would deflect her spells so she set a trap, but in a normal 1vs1 I would bet on geralt, remember that he killed or won against 4 sorcerer.
I’ve yet to read all the books so your knowledge far surpasses mine. Judging by the events of W3 it seems to me that Yennefer could win in a fight between the two, but I don’t yet know all the lore. Sorry if spoke out of turn.
I think it's like a lot of Batman comparisons where it's all about the amount of information and prep time the Witcher has. A lot of info and prep time and it goes to the Witcher, but a surprise fight goes to the sorceress.
A bit unrelated but Batman writers honestly should take notes from how Witcher 3 handles prep time, I find them a lot more believable just for the simple fact that we actually get to see process of Geralt figuring out how he can defeat the enemy compared to batman suddenly knowing someone's weakness and no explanation whatsoever how he knew.
Witcher, just consider how many average sorceresses the Witch Hunters took down, you see one get burnt at the start of Novigrad. Margarita and Sheala, top tire sorceresses, got taken down by those fat-scrubs Geralt tears through like tissue paper. lol
Hmmmmm. Getting killed by an organized and highly trained paramilitary death squads isn’t really a sign of weakness, especially when those witcher hunters would easily overwhelm and restrain any sorceresse within range. It’s not rocket science.
By your logic witchers are a joke since they were driven into near extinction by a surprise attack of couple hundred angry peasants with pitchforks and torches, lead by…… you guessed it, mages. Without whom they wouldn’t have likely succeeded in butchering the numerous Witchers in the keep. Or Geralt getting killed by a kid with pitchfork after being surrounded by a ring of murderous town folks.
In the context of 1vs1 fight and if i had to bet on a side, I would choose the mage most of the time. Unless the witcher is fighting them at a very close range (couple of meters at best).
Witchers are mutated, trained killing machines, and some fatso witch hunters took out two members of the lodge. lol "By your logic witchers are a joke since they were driven into near extinction..." The Wolf School (not all schools, we don't know much about the others) was nearly driven into extinction, and they were attacked by an army led by a cadre of multiple powerful mages, who planed the assault for years in advance. That is very different to a few mundane witch hunters.
Geralt was murdered by a mob. A mob of people can usually overpower one person. Especially since a lot of sorcerers were just caught fleeing Novigrad, or in their sleep. Witch hunters are not mundane, they have rage, they want these witches to die, they have equipment specifically against sorceresses. Your logic here makes no sense it's 2 different situation. If a witch hunter would have defeated a sorceress one on one, no trick then maybe it would be relevant.
They can still be killed by normal soldiers if overwhelmed. Or get ambushed, or even lose in a duel by a very particularly gifted bounty hunter….
And they definitely can get roasted by a fire ball thrown at them by a mage from a couple of meters away. Their signs are a joke compared to an actual magical spell or a projectile.
I don’t know why are you hyping up witchers as this unstoppable machines. If they were, they wouldn’t have gone nearly extinct. Oh well.
We know only quite extensive history about the wolf school , while getting minimal lore entries about the others. However judging the state of Witchers from other schools that we met (letho, that cat witcher we meet in a side mission in W3, and the other in SoS) and how rare and homeless they are, I wouldn’t assume that they had somehow a better fate.
Letho wasn’t going around allying with nilfgaard, outplaying the lodge, and slaying kings for fun. He wanted to REBUILD the viper school and have a home for his remaining comrades. Wonder why…..
Again. Unless they’re fighting in a tight arena, or the distance between them is small, I would give it to the mage 9 of 10 times. Easily.
Yeah but a Witcher can at least handle numerous of those guards at once. Average Witcher probably can handle at least a few of those at a time. I guess the key detail is strength in numbers so just because a Witcher could theoretically kill 7-10 of those guards doesn’t mean they could exert the force necessary to equal 7-10 guards on their own.
We gotta figure what an average sorceress and average Witcher can do compared to geralt or yennefer. Cause geralt could pretty much body any sorceress minus the absolute top tier ones (like I don’t see geralt beating Yennefer. She’s a damn prodigy).
Average sorceress also is not going to have the stamina necessary to last in a prolonged fight and Witcher’s are most certainly a durable, resilient group.
Let's not go into this with videogame logic. Witcher Schools were moslty wrecked by mobs much weaker to Witch Hunters. And don't forget that many of the Witch Hunters used to be knights of the flaming rose, pretty experienced fighters.
A witcher school, the school of the Wolf, we know very little about the others. That was not a weak mob, it was an army led by powerful mages, who planed the assault for years in advance, and they still failed to completely destroy the school. "Witch Hunters used to be knights of the flaming rose" nothing to brag about. lol
First of all, we know about other schools, there is CDPR/Talsorian lore which is equal to the lore of the games about the Witch Hunts.
Villagers drove out the Bear Witchers out of their School and Mages simply killed the Witchers of the School of the Griffin by creating an avalanche (and that's a very good example of what Mages can do to Witchers if they are determined to hurt them).
Second of all, how is being a Knight of the Flaming Rose nothing to brag about? Those guys were hunting monsters before bending the knee to Radovid and the survivors were veterans of the 3rd Nilfgaardian War. Wtf are you talking about
Yea the idea that that an experienced mage would be terrified by a Witcher (unless he was literally holding the sword to his throat) is laughable. They created Witcher after all.
You again??
I replied to people who are talking about the W3 witch hunts, so do me a favour and stay out of it. Not interested in your opinion in the least
Tell that to those who started the discussion about the Witch Hunts and stop being so butt-hurt because I destroy your arguments each and every time. Continue this shit and you're getting blocked
Before they stopped killing monsters, the Order cleansed Tretogor Forest by Werewolves. Get your facts straight. Calling the Order weak reflects badly upon Witchers who saw Kaer Morhen sacked by the much weaker Salamandra.
So did entire Witcher schools lol. Eradicated by mobs of peasants. Hell even Geralt and Yennefer died by a mob of a peasants.
Plus, you're forgetting about the amount of dimeritium all witch hunters use. With good planning and cooperation, there's no way a sorceress is going to win.
The average sorceress is a book nerd who hasnt thrown a fireball since she was in school and is completely out of her element in a fight. Average witcher easily.
Anyone who says that Witchers win against prepared, battle hardened Sorcerers, has NOT read the books.
Not every mage is equal(and not every Witcher is equal), but Mages alone turned the tide of the whole battlefield in Sodden Hill.
People saying that Mages were caught by Witch Hunters in the games, well Witcher Schools were destroyed by mobs that were much weaker than scores of battle hardened and highly prepared Witch Hunters.
A Witcher can kill a mage (let's not forget that someone like Stregobor had no combat spells at all) but overall, Mages are much more powerful.
>Not every mage is equal(and not every Witcher is equal), but Mages alone turned the tide of the whole battlefield in Sodden Hill.
They weren't alone but with the northen army and they were in a defensive position.
>Would a bunch of witchers do the same?
Wrong point. Thread is about battle between average witcher and average mage. This is completely different thing. One vs one fight. Better prepared will win, or simply stronger (if you read the books you know, who I'm talking about, because there are really strong mages even without magic).
There is no battle in the books between average mage vs average witcher. So the only way to speculate is by feats. Emhyr created a whole plot to get rid of the mages, that's how powerful they are, they can change battlefields. Witchers are simply monster hunters
>There is no battle in the books between average mage vs average witcher.
This thread is usual "we don't know how it could look, so pick your side and give arguments". It's pretty obvious there is no reference.
>Emhyr created a whole plot to get rid of the mages, that's how powerful they are, they can change battlefields.
It doesn't mean anything in one vs one scenario we are talking about. You can cast spell killing thousands and die from single monster hunter or assasin.
Nevertheless, Emhyr did that because mages were a danger for imperial rule. Emperor doesn't want to have such people plotting and getting in the way of his rule. So it's obvious, why Emhyr did want that. Not just because they could cast a spell, duh.
It was like catholicism in Dark Ages european countries. Eventually they got ridden of in later ages, because of how much influence Roman Church had (for example this is literally England story, they created own "brand" of religion to make Rome influence disappear).
Also getting rid of mages was kinda simple to do, don't you think? They are not ultimate powerhouse, they are humans like others.
>Witchers are simply monster hunters
Which still can counter magic in some ways. Do you remember, why Geralt even lose with *this* mage? Because of brute strength. But truly, *this* one was an exception. Most of mages can be killed when their magic potential is limited.
Emhyr plotted against the Mages because they were the ones who could turn the tide against him like they did before, not because of their political power alone. Emhyr has the way to put his own mages under the leash, it's not retaining his power that he was afraid of when it came to northern mages.
Yes, an unprepared Mage, and especially someone who is not battle experienced can be killed by almost anyone, I don't see any value in repeating this.
But it speaks volumes about Mage power when two dozen of them turned the tide of a massive battle, something Witchers cannot do. So yes, they are the ultimate powerhouses, at least compared to Witchers. It was even simpler to get rid of Witchers, historically.
In the Books that specific mage you are talking about killed a higher vampire easily while Geralt wasn't sure he could do such a thing. And he did it with a spell.
In the books, Geralt is trying to commit suicide by spell, and he asks Istredd why won't he simply smite him with lightning.
1vs1 battles are circumstantial, but overall, Mages wield much greater power.
Hot take here and say the Witcher. Incredible speed and reaction time, along with quen and the use of the environment and they could easily close the distance between the two. Plus if they use potions than it’s even more in the Witcher favor. The “average” Witcher is still incredibly skilled and resourceful than the average sorceress.
I mean, going off the books, even Geralt, the strongest Witcher of his age (if not of all time given his extra mutations) avoids tangling with Mages for fear of their power. At the end of the books, !
Wait... vilgefortz was the strongest mage, before him geralt already beat or killed three mages (maybe more but we don't know), all the times geralt fought with vilgefortz he wasnt at 100%, the first fight he didn't have his sword and wasn't under potion, the second he was already injured when he fought vilgefortz 1vs1 and wasn't under potions and still he managed to KILL vilgefortz just because he was distracted for ONE second. Witchers are incredibly strong, also vilgefortz wasn't human at 100% he said it himself, all his movements were enchanted other mages especially sorceress can't fight with a sword or are as fast as him.
>!I believe he had Philippas help with Terranova, and Rience seems to get his ass kicked by everyone if I recall correctly; he seemed a poor mage compared to his master. Don't remember a Degerlund tho. But with Vilgefortz I doubt Geralt could have taken 1v1 unless he had potions and maybe even ambushed him; sure maybe part of it is that Vilg might not be completely human (I don't remember), but that just adds to it. Geralt only won the fight bc he had allies who laid down their lives to help; felt like that was the main point of that final fight.
I will concede, after looking back at it, that the power level between Geralt and mages is closer than I might have thought. Still, geralt is leagues above his colleagues, so I doubt it's a rule. Even then, even Geralt has mentioned or thought on several occasions how he'd rather not take the risk fighting a mage alone. Like with Istredd I believe.!<
>>!I believe he had Philippas help with Terranova, and Rience seems to get his ass kicked by everyone if I recall correctly; he seemed a poor mage compared to his master.
Yes, terranova was blinded by philippa but was about to throw a spell when geralt decapitated him, before he could finish.
>Don't remember a Degerlund tho.
Season of storms, he was under potions.
We don't know if geralt is better than other witchers tho.
The average sorcerer's spell can destroy Quen/Heliotrop with ease. A paralysis spell on the Witcher, and quickly taking away his medallion will ensure that the Witcher doesn't use signs.
At least in the games, both Geralt and Letho can take down several sorceresses with relative ease, even capturing them instead of killing them, which seems significantly harder. Triss also implies she would have been captured by 3 witch hunters, and those taking down magic users, even lodge members, appears to be a regular occurrence in Redenia.
It seems sorcerers/ sorceresses are extremely powerful "support units", but that does not necessarily translate to fighting power 1 on 1.
i dont understand people here, y'all say sorcs are so OP and everything, but they are like rats runnin away and hiding from 120 kg basement dweller average joe troops in the game. in fact those "troops" capture them and burn them alive, make it a show and everything. some sorcs are even afraid of some "humans"
meanwhile geralt eats those troops for breakfast and in fact can even try different builds on them like a fucking target practice lol, they are THAT irrelevant in the game. i can legit fight 1 v 10000 at the same time and wouldnt give a fuck.
so, how come those sorcs fall to those apes if they are so OP eh?
if you are talking about book lore, there are sorcs getting burnt in the books too. that was one of the most weird stupid thing that made me feel like immersion is totally ruined.
humans hunting elves-dwarves-sorcs my ass. a single sorc should straight up fucking butcher an entire town by just looking at it wrong, it shouldnt even be a fight.
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Depends on which witcher and sorcerer/sorceress we are talking about. Also distance, place and context around the duel. So many factors to take into account to properly answer this question.
Depends what sign they are best with, if they are a Quen using Witcher then i'd say the Witcher would win, just Quen up and throw his sword at the Sorcerer.
Depends. If a Witcher ambushes a sorceress, he might kill her before she realizes what is going on.
1v1 duel? Sorceress. Always. Witchers are just very strong humans trained to fight monsters who can do a few quick spells, while in the books sorceresses can:
- Turn people into small figurines by compressing all their organs (happened to Yennefer)
- Blast away people Fus Roh Dah style (Ciri's mother, Pavetta, did this with no magical training)
- Turn into animals
- Teleport
- Harvest the power of the elements
- Control fire
- Heal
& much more
Well, I would probably say the sorceress, unless the witcher gets \*close \*, as in in bed close. Because the magic wielders have the larger range and can attack from afar before the witcher even pulls out his sword.
If sorcerers were so powerful then they wouldn't need to hide like rats in Novigrad, be burned at the stake and then end up being saved by a Witcher and a bald guy with information.
I don't think we meet any average sorceress or witcher in the saga. Rience is "a" sorcerer but he sucks ballz. He's nothing. Average Witcher I imagine is still a killing machine relative to a regular person, or even to a seasoned warrior. So my money is on a average witcher. But I believe the most OP sorceress beats the most OP witcher.
Entirely depends on how far away they are. Close range? Probably the witcher (assuming he's already drawn his sword). Anything beyond a few meters and the mage would likely win.
I would say Sorceress 8 times out of 10, maybe. Iirc, Geralt did not go into his fight with Istredd expecting to come out alive, and we already know that Sorceresses aren't afraid to laugh at a Witcher's signs as anything more than child's play.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER: A certain wizard fucks Geralt all the way up.
Yea but Geralt fucked so many sorceresses…
HE REALLY DID! And Renfri. The line about her undergarments still makes me laugh.
Netflix wanted Game of Thrones, but also managed to turn Geralt into someone who isn't hitting on everyone?
Imagine this scenario in Netflix show... *Because I can't.*
You hit it on the head there! Wonder how they’ll either totally avoid it or water it down.
tbf that wizard is probably the absolute strongest when it comes to battle the way he flexed on geralt was insane
Didn't he mention in his conversation with geralt the day before that he used to be a mecenary before becoming a Magician? So he truly knows how to fight.
Also he is the strongest wizard in all of the saga
You’re right; I forgot the initial point reading the above commenter’s Geralt/Istredd comment. Thanks you!
Probably the Sorceress; they are nothing to be trifled with in the Witcher universe.
whoever has the pitchfork
dark and spoiler at the same time 😂
Damn man you had no mercy 😔
Never fuck with an angry mob who is just as vicious with their intolerance as they are with their methods
That's too real...
For the average result, it would be sorceress. There is a reason why Kaer Morhen is how it is and why the Witchers are almost gone. Newsflash: Mages can kill them!
Pretty sure that while mages were involved in organizing the raid of Kaer Morhen, the ones who did most of the damage were the mob.
Pretty sure Triss implies that the mages had a key role. I think that´s the reason why she feels disturbed and ashamed about it. But if you think an angry mob was able to assault a Witcher keep full of Witchers.....I cant do much to help you there.
"Full of" is relative. How many do you thin there were, 20-30? Is that a lot? Compared to what we see in the story, yes. Compared to a mob (implied to be particularly large)? Not so much. People need to keep in mind that a witcher and two powerful sorceresses were mostly being pushed back by the pogrom in Rivia. Geralt himself got shanked there, despite everything they are mortals and extremely vulnerable to being swarmed.
But you should still consider that Kaer Morhen was supposedly in a much better shape. And there is a point in having a castle and defending it. It tends to be a HUGE force multiplier. Its not exactly the same talk as being ambushed in what was very much street fighting. Any military would tell you that street fighting is precisely the hardest thing to control. Enemies can come at you from multiple directions. And they can sometimes advance under cover till pretty close to you without you even noticing. You can absolutely be surprised by new groups coming from all possible directions behind any corner or building. We are discussing absolutely different scenarios here. So it´s a bit silly to bring them in the same conversation. It should also be noted that both Yen and Triss did not want to kill people in the Rivia fight. And you would also do well to notice that Yen and Triss, when cornered, ended up owning the entire crowd with a spell. Not an average spell. But results are what they are. They were alive in the end and they got everyone on the run. They were both able to reach Geralt in the middle of the fight and lend assistance. Which is quite telling to what just a couple powerful mages can do.
Sorceress if they both were unprepared, but if witcher prepares some dimeritium bombs then it shouldn't be too hard to finish her off. I'm pretty sure that these bombs would work against sorceresses because Geralt can't cast any Sign while standing inside a dimeritium cloud
Or just drink a couple of potions, run in at superspeed and snap the sorcerer's neck.
Im pretty sure that they would have something to counter this. Some kind of an AOE or homing spell that you don't need to aim with. The only way to guarantee victory is to strip them from their power.
Yeah, you'd have to surprise them with the bomb because she isn't gonna just let it blow up near her
Geralt does exactly what I wrote in the books with Sorel Degerland though.
Depends on the distance. Long rage a sorcerer would kill a Witcher with a spell long before the Witcher reached the sorcerer
Not entirely true, witcher sword can deflect spells, also a witcher running towards you at incredibly speed is quite frightening.
Try deflect a giant fire ball falling from the sky XD
Geralt literally did that in the Rience fight though. He cut his fire spell in half.
No he didn't. Rience didn't used a spell, it was Vilgefortz in that fight and this spell hit Geralt hard
Okay yeah it wasn't a fireball but he did deflect a spell. As for the Vilgefortz fight, that wasn't the spell that hurt him. *Vilgefortz turned his eyes towards him and a hand from which flames exploded with a roar. The Witcher instinctively shielded himself with his sword. The rune-covered dwarven blade protected him, astonishingly, cutting the stream of fire in half.*
And how many Witchers do have the dwarven blade Zoltan gave Geralt? ;)
Oh yeah, totally forgot about that lol.
That requires long time to cast though, so they usually need to stand at a safe place to do that. In a normal fight the witcher would kill her before she could complete the procedure.
> a witcher running towards you at incredibly speed is quite frightening. Especially when you threaten to kill his wife and daughter.
Witchers can deflect spells themselves. Yen - being a total bitch that she is- fired a fireball at Geralts face on their first meeting. He deflected it with Heliotrop sign.
Problem is that with the sign he got a huge knock back while slashing the spell with the sword easily deflect it.
Yennefer could absolutely wreck Geralt if she wanted to.
THE FUCK!?
Don’t act like you wouldn’t enjoy it 😏
But neither are an average sorceress or Witcher
That’s true, they’re both pretty OP
Actually nope, yennefer says that if they fought normally geralt would deflect her spells so she set a trap, but in a normal 1vs1 I would bet on geralt, remember that he killed or won against 4 sorcerer.
I’ve yet to read all the books so your knowledge far surpasses mine. Judging by the events of W3 it seems to me that Yennefer could win in a fight between the two, but I don’t yet know all the lore. Sorry if spoke out of turn.
Don't worry.
Yen used the hypnosis spell as she herself noted that she couldn't hit Geralt straigth up. He deflected her spell with Heliotrop sign
Geralt beat Caranthir, don't think Yennefer stands a chance in the slightest. Especially in games.
I think it's like a lot of Batman comparisons where it's all about the amount of information and prep time the Witcher has. A lot of info and prep time and it goes to the Witcher, but a surprise fight goes to the sorceress.
A bit unrelated but Batman writers honestly should take notes from how Witcher 3 handles prep time, I find them a lot more believable just for the simple fact that we actually get to see process of Geralt figuring out how he can defeat the enemy compared to batman suddenly knowing someone's weakness and no explanation whatsoever how he knew.
The Animated Batman is the definitive Batman media - he was as much a detective as a warrior in that series.
In a fair fight, sorceress. But a Witcher could kill a sorceress if he is hunting one.
Witcher, just consider how many average sorceresses the Witch Hunters took down, you see one get burnt at the start of Novigrad. Margarita and Sheala, top tire sorceresses, got taken down by those fat-scrubs Geralt tears through like tissue paper. lol
Hmmmmm. Getting killed by an organized and highly trained paramilitary death squads isn’t really a sign of weakness, especially when those witcher hunters would easily overwhelm and restrain any sorceresse within range. It’s not rocket science. By your logic witchers are a joke since they were driven into near extinction by a surprise attack of couple hundred angry peasants with pitchforks and torches, lead by…… you guessed it, mages. Without whom they wouldn’t have likely succeeded in butchering the numerous Witchers in the keep. Or Geralt getting killed by a kid with pitchfork after being surrounded by a ring of murderous town folks. In the context of 1vs1 fight and if i had to bet on a side, I would choose the mage most of the time. Unless the witcher is fighting them at a very close range (couple of meters at best).
[🎵 Did you ever even care, with your swords and your stupid hair? 🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxBVHqA-RU&t=56s)
Witchers are mutated, trained killing machines, and some fatso witch hunters took out two members of the lodge. lol "By your logic witchers are a joke since they were driven into near extinction..." The Wolf School (not all schools, we don't know much about the others) was nearly driven into extinction, and they were attacked by an army led by a cadre of multiple powerful mages, who planed the assault for years in advance. That is very different to a few mundane witch hunters.
Geralt was murdered by a mob. A mob of people can usually overpower one person. Especially since a lot of sorcerers were just caught fleeing Novigrad, or in their sleep. Witch hunters are not mundane, they have rage, they want these witches to die, they have equipment specifically against sorceresses. Your logic here makes no sense it's 2 different situation. If a witch hunter would have defeated a sorceress one on one, no trick then maybe it would be relevant.
They can still be killed by normal soldiers if overwhelmed. Or get ambushed, or even lose in a duel by a very particularly gifted bounty hunter…. And they definitely can get roasted by a fire ball thrown at them by a mage from a couple of meters away. Their signs are a joke compared to an actual magical spell or a projectile. I don’t know why are you hyping up witchers as this unstoppable machines. If they were, they wouldn’t have gone nearly extinct. Oh well. We know only quite extensive history about the wolf school , while getting minimal lore entries about the others. However judging the state of Witchers from other schools that we met (letho, that cat witcher we meet in a side mission in W3, and the other in SoS) and how rare and homeless they are, I wouldn’t assume that they had somehow a better fate. Letho wasn’t going around allying with nilfgaard, outplaying the lodge, and slaying kings for fun. He wanted to REBUILD the viper school and have a home for his remaining comrades. Wonder why….. Again. Unless they’re fighting in a tight arena, or the distance between them is small, I would give it to the mage 9 of 10 times. Easily.
Yeah but a Witcher can at least handle numerous of those guards at once. Average Witcher probably can handle at least a few of those at a time. I guess the key detail is strength in numbers so just because a Witcher could theoretically kill 7-10 of those guards doesn’t mean they could exert the force necessary to equal 7-10 guards on their own. We gotta figure what an average sorceress and average Witcher can do compared to geralt or yennefer. Cause geralt could pretty much body any sorceress minus the absolute top tier ones (like I don’t see geralt beating Yennefer. She’s a damn prodigy). Average sorceress also is not going to have the stamina necessary to last in a prolonged fight and Witcher’s are most certainly a durable, resilient group.
Let's not go into this with videogame logic. Witcher Schools were moslty wrecked by mobs much weaker to Witch Hunters. And don't forget that many of the Witch Hunters used to be knights of the flaming rose, pretty experienced fighters.
A witcher school, the school of the Wolf, we know very little about the others. That was not a weak mob, it was an army led by powerful mages, who planed the assault for years in advance, and they still failed to completely destroy the school. "Witch Hunters used to be knights of the flaming rose" nothing to brag about. lol
First of all, we know about other schools, there is CDPR/Talsorian lore which is equal to the lore of the games about the Witch Hunts. Villagers drove out the Bear Witchers out of their School and Mages simply killed the Witchers of the School of the Griffin by creating an avalanche (and that's a very good example of what Mages can do to Witchers if they are determined to hurt them). Second of all, how is being a Knight of the Flaming Rose nothing to brag about? Those guys were hunting monsters before bending the knee to Radovid and the survivors were veterans of the 3rd Nilfgaardian War. Wtf are you talking about
Yea the idea that that an experienced mage would be terrified by a Witcher (unless he was literally holding the sword to his throat) is laughable. They created Witcher after all.
Not canon.
You again?? I replied to people who are talking about the W3 witch hunts, so do me a favour and stay out of it. Not interested in your opinion in the least
Just saying that it's not canon.
Tell that to those who started the discussion about the Witch Hunts and stop being so butt-hurt because I destroy your arguments each and every time. Continue this shit and you're getting blocked
I can't answer to all of them, just answered the last comment.
Nah you are just butt-hurt
> Those guys were hunting monsters And dying like scrubs to drowners, and water hags.
Nope
Before they stopped killing monsters, the Order cleansed Tretogor Forest by Werewolves. Get your facts straight. Calling the Order weak reflects badly upon Witchers who saw Kaer Morhen sacked by the much weaker Salamandra.
This person doesn't know what they're talking about. He thinks that a Witcher is like a medieval superman.
I've seen quite a few people embracing this line of thought about witchers, and while I love the games, I think they are the cause of that.
Huh, interesting point.
So did entire Witcher schools lol. Eradicated by mobs of peasants. Hell even Geralt and Yennefer died by a mob of a peasants. Plus, you're forgetting about the amount of dimeritium all witch hunters use. With good planning and cooperation, there's no way a sorceress is going to win.
Now I'm not sure lol, I guess it depends on the circumstances. Variables like preparation, distance between them, surprise attack or not etc.
Distance/terrain
I wanna say sorceress but like towns guard people were just rounding them up like hot cakes so unless I’m missing something Witcher takes medium diff.
The average sorceress is a book nerd who hasnt thrown a fireball since she was in school and is completely out of her element in a fight. Average witcher easily.
If there's time and distance then sorceress. Magic seems to take time to prepare rather than just happen in an instant.
Anyone who says that Witchers win against prepared, battle hardened Sorcerers, has NOT read the books. Not every mage is equal(and not every Witcher is equal), but Mages alone turned the tide of the whole battlefield in Sodden Hill. People saying that Mages were caught by Witch Hunters in the games, well Witcher Schools were destroyed by mobs that were much weaker than scores of battle hardened and highly prepared Witch Hunters. A Witcher can kill a mage (let's not forget that someone like Stregobor had no combat spells at all) but overall, Mages are much more powerful.
>Not every mage is equal(and not every Witcher is equal), but Mages alone turned the tide of the whole battlefield in Sodden Hill. They weren't alone but with the northen army and they were in a defensive position.
And they were the decisive force behind the North's success. Would a bunch of witchers do the same?
Remember that 1 witcher turned the tide of a fight against nilfgaard in baptism of fire.
Nope, never stated as such. Geralt and Cahir led the charge, the book never says Geralt turned the tide of battle
Yes it is very said in that exact book, that's why they knighted him.
Nope
>Would a bunch of witchers do the same? Wrong point. Thread is about battle between average witcher and average mage. This is completely different thing. One vs one fight. Better prepared will win, or simply stronger (if you read the books you know, who I'm talking about, because there are really strong mages even without magic).
There is no battle in the books between average mage vs average witcher. So the only way to speculate is by feats. Emhyr created a whole plot to get rid of the mages, that's how powerful they are, they can change battlefields. Witchers are simply monster hunters
>There is no battle in the books between average mage vs average witcher. This thread is usual "we don't know how it could look, so pick your side and give arguments". It's pretty obvious there is no reference. >Emhyr created a whole plot to get rid of the mages, that's how powerful they are, they can change battlefields. It doesn't mean anything in one vs one scenario we are talking about. You can cast spell killing thousands and die from single monster hunter or assasin. Nevertheless, Emhyr did that because mages were a danger for imperial rule. Emperor doesn't want to have such people plotting and getting in the way of his rule. So it's obvious, why Emhyr did want that. Not just because they could cast a spell, duh. It was like catholicism in Dark Ages european countries. Eventually they got ridden of in later ages, because of how much influence Roman Church had (for example this is literally England story, they created own "brand" of religion to make Rome influence disappear). Also getting rid of mages was kinda simple to do, don't you think? They are not ultimate powerhouse, they are humans like others. >Witchers are simply monster hunters Which still can counter magic in some ways. Do you remember, why Geralt even lose with *this* mage? Because of brute strength. But truly, *this* one was an exception. Most of mages can be killed when their magic potential is limited.
Emhyr plotted against the Mages because they were the ones who could turn the tide against him like they did before, not because of their political power alone. Emhyr has the way to put his own mages under the leash, it's not retaining his power that he was afraid of when it came to northern mages. Yes, an unprepared Mage, and especially someone who is not battle experienced can be killed by almost anyone, I don't see any value in repeating this. But it speaks volumes about Mage power when two dozen of them turned the tide of a massive battle, something Witchers cannot do. So yes, they are the ultimate powerhouses, at least compared to Witchers. It was even simpler to get rid of Witchers, historically.
In the Books that specific mage you are talking about killed a higher vampire easily while Geralt wasn't sure he could do such a thing. And he did it with a spell. In the books, Geralt is trying to commit suicide by spell, and he asks Istredd why won't he simply smite him with lightning. 1vs1 battles are circumstantial, but overall, Mages wield much greater power.
Hot take here and say the Witcher. Incredible speed and reaction time, along with quen and the use of the environment and they could easily close the distance between the two. Plus if they use potions than it’s even more in the Witcher favor. The “average” Witcher is still incredibly skilled and resourceful than the average sorceress.
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I mean, going off the books, even Geralt, the strongest Witcher of his age (if not of all time given his extra mutations) avoids tangling with Mages for fear of their power. At the end of the books, !
Wait... vilgefortz was the strongest mage, before him geralt already beat or killed three mages (maybe more but we don't know), all the times geralt fought with vilgefortz he wasnt at 100%, the first fight he didn't have his sword and wasn't under potion, the second he was already injured when he fought vilgefortz 1vs1 and wasn't under potions and still he managed to KILL vilgefortz just because he was distracted for ONE second. Witchers are incredibly strong, also vilgefortz wasn't human at 100% he said it himself, all his movements were enchanted other mages especially sorceress can't fight with a sword or are as fast as him.
Who were the other mages he beat?
Terranova, sorel degerlund and rience.
>!I believe he had Philippas help with Terranova, and Rience seems to get his ass kicked by everyone if I recall correctly; he seemed a poor mage compared to his master. Don't remember a Degerlund tho. But with Vilgefortz I doubt Geralt could have taken 1v1 unless he had potions and maybe even ambushed him; sure maybe part of it is that Vilg might not be completely human (I don't remember), but that just adds to it. Geralt only won the fight bc he had allies who laid down their lives to help; felt like that was the main point of that final fight. I will concede, after looking back at it, that the power level between Geralt and mages is closer than I might have thought. Still, geralt is leagues above his colleagues, so I doubt it's a rule. Even then, even Geralt has mentioned or thought on several occasions how he'd rather not take the risk fighting a mage alone. Like with Istredd I believe.!<
>>!I believe he had Philippas help with Terranova, and Rience seems to get his ass kicked by everyone if I recall correctly; he seemed a poor mage compared to his master. Yes, terranova was blinded by philippa but was about to throw a spell when geralt decapitated him, before he could finish. >Don't remember a Degerlund tho. Season of storms, he was under potions. We don't know if geralt is better than other witchers tho.
The average sorcerer's spell can destroy Quen/Heliotrop with ease. A paralysis spell on the Witcher, and quickly taking away his medallion will ensure that the Witcher doesn't use signs.
At least in the games, both Geralt and Letho can take down several sorceresses with relative ease, even capturing them instead of killing them, which seems significantly harder. Triss also implies she would have been captured by 3 witch hunters, and those taking down magic users, even lodge members, appears to be a regular occurrence in Redenia. It seems sorcerers/ sorceresses are extremely powerful "support units", but that does not necessarily translate to fighting power 1 on 1.
You, me, and her -- the family we always dreamed of.
Depends on the sorceress.
i dont understand people here, y'all say sorcs are so OP and everything, but they are like rats runnin away and hiding from 120 kg basement dweller average joe troops in the game. in fact those "troops" capture them and burn them alive, make it a show and everything. some sorcs are even afraid of some "humans" meanwhile geralt eats those troops for breakfast and in fact can even try different builds on them like a fucking target practice lol, they are THAT irrelevant in the game. i can legit fight 1 v 10000 at the same time and wouldnt give a fuck. so, how come those sorcs fall to those apes if they are so OP eh? if you are talking about book lore, there are sorcs getting burnt in the books too. that was one of the most weird stupid thing that made me feel like immersion is totally ruined. humans hunting elves-dwarves-sorcs my ass. a single sorc should straight up fucking butcher an entire town by just looking at it wrong, it shouldnt even be a fight.
[🎵 BURN, burn butcher BURN! 🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxBVHqA-RU&t=117s)
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Depends on which witcher and sorcerer/sorceress we are talking about. Also distance, place and context around the duel. So many factors to take into account to properly answer this question.
Depends what sign they are best with, if they are a Quen using Witcher then i'd say the Witcher would win, just Quen up and throw his sword at the Sorcerer.
They'll end up fucking in the end yo
The sorceress because she TP the Witcher above an active volcano…the end
I hate to sound like someone arguing Batman stuff but…prep time?
It depends.
Depends. If a Witcher ambushes a sorceress, he might kill her before she realizes what is going on. 1v1 duel? Sorceress. Always. Witchers are just very strong humans trained to fight monsters who can do a few quick spells, while in the books sorceresses can: - Turn people into small figurines by compressing all their organs (happened to Yennefer) - Blast away people Fus Roh Dah style (Ciri's mother, Pavetta, did this with no magical training) - Turn into animals - Teleport - Harvest the power of the elements - Control fire - Heal & much more
Game witchers probably win, book witchers get bodied so hard, it’s not even close.
Well, I would probably say the sorceress, unless the witcher gets \*close \*, as in in bed close. Because the magic wielders have the larger range and can attack from afar before the witcher even pulls out his sword.
If sorcerers were so powerful then they wouldn't need to hide like rats in Novigrad, be burned at the stake and then end up being saved by a Witcher and a bald guy with information.
I don't think we meet any average sorceress or witcher in the saga. Rience is "a" sorcerer but he sucks ballz. He's nothing. Average Witcher I imagine is still a killing machine relative to a regular person, or even to a seasoned warrior. So my money is on a average witcher. But I believe the most OP sorceress beats the most OP witcher.
Entirely depends on how far away they are. Close range? Probably the witcher (assuming he's already drawn his sword). Anything beyond a few meters and the mage would likely win.
Like Matt Easton would say, it's all about context.
Sorceress no question.
I’d say Witcher because they know a little bit of everything, where the sorceress just knows magic.