The Witcher 3 Remastered: Witcher Gear Schools and the Reforge System Explained

Most armour you pick up is generic: fine for a few levels, then replaced. Witcher gear is different in kind. Each school set is a matched kit — chest armour, boots, gauntlets, trousers and a pair of swords — designed around one school's way of fighting, with bonuses pointed the same direction. A Cat set is not simply "light armour with better numbers"; everything on it leans into fast attacks, and wearing it commits you, usefully, to a style.

Three properties make the sets the backbone of your equipment for the whole game:

You never buy a witcher set off a shelf. Each begins as a treasure hunt — a quest (often started from a found note, a map bought from a merchant, or a book) that leads you through ruins, caves and battlefields to guarded caches. Each cache holds a diagram: the crafting recipe for one piece of the set, or for its next tier.

A diagram is not the item. You take it to an armourer (for armour) or a blacksmith (for blades) with the required crafting components, and they forge it — better tiers demand more skilled craftsmen, which is one reason the game's two master craftsmen matter long before Reforge enters the picture. Expect the loop to feel deliberate: hunt a ruin, earn a page, gather the components, visit the smith. The treasure hunts double as some of the best exploration in the game, which is why this collection treats the first set as a mid-White-Orchard-to-Velen project rather than a shopping trip.

Seven schools exist across the game and its expansions. Their identities below are the classic-documented ones — stable for a decade — described by playstyle, because that is the decision you are actually making.

Each set climbs the same ladder: Basic → Enhanced → Superior → Mastercrafted, with Grandmaster added for the classic schools in Blood and Wine. Every tier is a new diagram, a higher level requirement, and a better craftsman — Mastercrafted work is, as the name says, master craftsmen's territory, and Grandmaster crafting in Toussaint is an endgame project with its own questline. A practical warning follows from the ladder: a diagram far above your level is a promise, not an upgrade. Craft the tier your level supports and let the set climb with you.

Set bonuses reward commitment. Under the classic-documented structure, wearing several pieces of one school together activates a bonus tied to that school's style, and the Grandmaster tier deepens it into a stronger, more specific effect — the point at which a set stops being "good stats" and starts defining a build. Exact bonus values are deliberately not tabulated here: they are classic-documentation figures that CD PROJEKT RED has not reissued for 5.0, and the item tooltip in your game is the version that counts.

Reforge is the Remastered's transmogrification system, and its rules are admirably simple:

It cannot turn a weak sword into a strong one; a strong sword can, however, wear another sword's face. The hunt for power still runs through diagrams and tiers; the hunt for style is now free to run alongside it.

For eleven years, witcher gear advice contained a quiet compromise: the set that suited your build might not be the set you liked wearing, and players routinely kept weaker, prettier armour for far too long. Reforge deletes that compromise, and three beginner habits change with it:

Take Griffin if you are leaning on Signs, Wolf if you are not sure yet: both are documented as early, forgiving first sets, and both climb the full tier ladder. Start their treasure hunts once you reach Velen, craft the tier your level allows, wear the pieces together for the set bonus, and reforge the result into whatever you actually enjoy looking at. The rest of the schools are second-playthrough joys or endgame projects — Viper's early swords aside, none of them should delay your first complete set.

Is Reforge purely cosmetic? Yes — appearance only. The equipped item keeps its own stats, level requirement and set bonuses; Reforge changes the face, never the numbers.

Where do I reforge weapons, and where armour? Weapons at Hattori, the master swordsmith in Novigrad; armour at Yoana, the master armourer at Crow's Perch. They are also your Mastercrafted-tier craftsmen, so you will know both well before the endgame.

If I dye a set and then reforge it, do I lose the colour? No. Blood and Wine dyes carry over onto the reforged appearance — the dye follows the look, whichever order you apply them in.

Which school should a first-time player pick? Griffin if your skill tree leans Signs, Wolf if you are undecided. Both are available early, forgiving of mixed playstyles, and upgrade through every tier. Cat and Bear are stronger commitments to a specific style; save them for when you know yours.

Can any blacksmith craft witcher gear? No. Crafting from a diagram requires a craftsman of the right trade and sufficient skill — armourers for armour, swordsmiths for swords — and the Mastercrafted and Grandmaster tiers belong to master craftsmen. Hiring the village smith for a Grandmaster diagram will not work.

Does reforging a piece break its set bonus? No. Set bonuses come from the items you have equipped, and Reforge does not change what an item is — only how it looks. A reforged set is still the set.