Just started playing Minecraft today and on my third day, two witches spawned outside my door. Having very little equipment I cannot seem to defeat them. Now I can't go outside my house without getting hit by potions. Also, half my items are now lying outside next to the witch.
Will it just go away with time? What should i do?
Some carefully placed water buckets might be able to hold them just out of range of hitting you with potions long enough for you to get past them (lava works, too, but be careful of drops (like your stuff!)), and then follow general advice for hurrying up the process of them simply de-spawning.
I've been base-blocked by witches and skeleton traps more than a few times early-game, and water buckets came in handy. I tend to settle into the first plains biome I can find, at least early on.
They're much easier to kill with a ranged weapon, but some water might keep 'em out of range. You could also run over, grab your stuff, then use an ender pearl to get out of range in a hurry (but that requires you to have an ender pearl). That way, at least if you die again trying to get your stuff, you die away from the witches.
If you have 3 iron ingots, your best bet is probably a bucket and some water (if getting you stuff before it despawns is super important, and you have no ranged weapons, ender pearls, etc).
It is best to exit your house quickly then attack it and then retreat quickly. Then repeat until the which is dead, and if there are several, take them out one by one. If you get poisoned, hurry back to your house so they cannot throw a splash potion of harming at you. If you do not have milk, you will have to wait it out. But when you exit your house to attack them, be sure not to get too far away. The best way to avoid witch attacks is to seek shelter. If you are a beginner, I would suggest a stone axe because they deal a lot of damage for how cheap they are.
Note: once you hit them once, they will drink healing potions giving you the perfect opportunity to hit them again. The sweep attacks of a sword will also help.
You can grab some food if possible, set your render distance to 9 or higher (on servers the server render distance matters), run more than 128 blocks away from them, then set your render distance to 2 and return to your house.
By going more than 128 blocks away while still having the witches loaded (render distance 9+), you force them to despawn. By then turning the render distance down, you minimise the amount of mobs spawning on your way back.
For the future: Try to get a bow and some arrows and store them in your house. Witches are much easier to deal with from a distance.
When I was encountered by about 20 witches (I was playing a game on a server) I tried to heal myself as much as possible, know you can’t die from poison, and just sword-slashed. I also tried using a bow, as said in the other answer. I did succeed. Try that, it might work.
There was a question like this asked here: How do I kill a witch in minecraft as a beginner.
But according to the source, you should first check to see if your castle is made of wood, if not, set them ablaze, this will force them to drink a potion of fire resistance.
While drinking a fire resistance, deal as much damage as you can until they are finished drinking their fire resistance potion.
