WendyWitch's page

How important is it to your PC that the god/dess be evil? Clerics can be within a step of their god's alignment, so depending on the type of evil the PC wants to be - LE, NE, CE - s/he could pick a god/dess that isn't necessarily also evil.

Using the Pathfinder wiki, I see two of the gods worshipped in Sandpoint may have a flavor of evil cleric - Abadar may have LE clerics and Gozreh may have NE. I would think clerics of either deity would get along relatively fine in this AP, and be able to form some sort of lasting connection to Sandpoint, which is really important for the flow of the story.

Akerlof, that's pretty neat about how Calistria was added to your cathedral! What class was your player's PC that did that? I just can't see my inquisitor doing that for Gorum. He's not from Varisia and only recently arrived in Sandpoint.

I do agree that it makes a certain amount of sense to have Gorum as part of the cathedral, given Shoanti influence. Another player is planning a Shoanti oracle, although she hasn't decided on her god/dess yet. She's leaning towards bone oracle, because she loves the flavor.

I was wondering if any other GM's have switched up the gods worshipped at the Sandpoint Cathedral to match the gods selected by their PCs, and if so, if it had any real impact to the AP?

Although my players all know who the big 6 are as written in the AP, a couple have character concepts that don't mesh with any of those 6, and chose another god to follow. One of these PC's is an Inquisitor of Gorum with a really, really thin reason for being in Sandpoint. I have been unsuccessful in convincing the player to pick a character that will fit better, so I want to reel the character in hook, line and sinker early on, so he will feel like protecting the town. I think that will be easier if I make Gorum one of the 6 gods at the cathedral.

I've read through to about half way through book 5, and so far, I don't see any drawback to changing the gods up as needed to suit my PC's backgrounds, but thought it would be good to seek out the experience of other GM's to see what I might be missing.

We probably won't be starting the AP for another couple of months, so I have time to ponder this and other options.

My group has played Plane Shift, when shifting to something smaller than 5 miles, to drop you randomly within the area of the plane they're going to. The tuning fork is attuned, to, say, a personal demiplane that is just 39 10' cubes big. The fork will get you somewhere on that plane, because it is attuned to it. It's just that the plane is too small for the inaccuracy of the spell to matter as much.

Think of it this way. You try to Plane Shift into a specific 10' space in a small demiplane. The dice indicate you end up 200 miles from there. You get metaphorically spun around in circles within the demiplane until you've traveled 200 miles from your intended target. Only, the plane is so small, you land only 10' over from where you were aiming. And you're probably dizzy, although that's just flavor.

Not an item, but you could befriend a witch with the Ward hex. +1 to AC and saves, and +3 if she's a high enough level. The ward fails once someone gets through your AC or you fail a save, but the witch can reapply the hex; it's not a once per day sort of hex.

The movie iteration is about as Paladin as Paladin can be, especially in Winter Soldier (which is a phenomenal movie regardless of any franchise connections).

I have always enjoyed the scene in the first Captain America movie where, while all of the other recruits are running away, he throws himself on a grenade he assumes to be live, to save those around him from the blast he knew would kill him. It was a test, of course, but I held that up for my son, who was 12 at the time we watched it, as a perfect example of a Paladin (which I had just started playing in our Carrion Crown campaign).

And speaking of female paladins, Feylinn is the aasimar daughter of a Cleric of Iomedae and a Knight of Ozem. She grew up in the court of Mendev, as a diplomat for the queen. When she and her fiancé, a Cavalier who came to Mendev to fight in the Worldwound, were set upon by demons, he was killed while protecting her. She vowed never to be helpless to protect herself, or those she loved, again, and prayed to Iomedae to grant her the strength and wisdom to take up her father's sword in Her name.

On her way to join her father's family in Lastwall, she got sidetracked into Ustalav with the news of an old friend's death. She fell in with a group of adventurers who also knew her old friend, and together they have uncovered a dastardly plot to release the Whispering Tyrant from his prison. Together, they hope to prevent his release. She is the first through a door into the unknown, and comes to the aid of her allies without thought of the risk to herself. She thinks highly of their cleric of Sarenrae, though he follows a different goddess, and hopes to encourage the others of their group to good and lawful behavior by her example. She despairs for one of the elven rangers, though, for he is quick to use any means necessary to accomplish their task, even if it borders on evil. Still, where there is life, there is hope. Their party leaves the relative safety of Caliphas soon, to venture into the forests and mountains in search of the Whispering Way, and Feylinn knows the Light of Iomedae will be needed. She hopes she is strong enough to face what is to come.

...I read somewhere that Pharasma allows the control of existing undead if the purpose of that control is to destroy them, which is what OP is doing with his ability (and destroying other undead while he's at it). I don't have my books with me, so I can't quote the source at the moment...

Okay, so I know OP didn't say which deity his character follows, and I'm straying from the rules question asked, but it was bugging me so I looked this up when I had a moment at home this evening. In Faiths of Balance, page 17, under Taboos for Pharasma: "While necromancy has many beneficial spells that allow you to care for both the dead and the living, you may not create undead, nor control them unless you do so specifically for the purpose of destroying them."

So, there you go. If you worship Pharasma, I think you're following her directives quite effectively. I really like the flavor of the character you've created, Windquake.

OP didn't say which god his character worships, but many necromancers do worship Pharasma. These necromancers choose not to create undead. I read somewhere that Pharasma allows the control of existing undead if the purpose of that control is to destroy them, which is what OP is doing with his ability (and destroying other undead while he's at it). I don't have my books with me, so I can't quote the source at the moment, and I'm not sure where I read it now and would have to dig for it. I read rather extensively over a year ago on Pharasma when working up my witch for Carrion Crown.

Pharasma forbids creating undead or allowing them to exist, and her divine followers are not granted the ability to create undead. However, if you are her divine follower and in combat, and use your abilities to control an undead to prevent it from harming the living, use it to help you destroy other undead, and then destroy the controlled undead at the end of the battle, I think she would be pleased. Just don't start keeping that controlled undead as a pet valet, or something. You might find a dead whippoorwill in your path.

I have to say that I am super excited to have Pathfinder Tales available in Kindle format soon. To appease my hubby, I have had to reduce the volume of paper books I bring into the house (as I typically am VERY reluctant to part with them later), so I try very hard not to buy paper books (no, I'm not perfect, especially when the used book store offers a $10 bag sale. 25 cents a paperback? I'm in!)

Taking the existing e-format and trying to convert it so I can read it on my Kindle is a daunting task I've not felt up to trying, and the one time I looked, I couldn't find a clear how-to guide. That's too much work, especially compared to Kindle's one-click and I've got it in my hot little hands format.

I am relatively new (been playing it for ~2 years) to Pathfinder (but not RPGs), so there is a huge backlog of books I'd like to read and I would love to see the older books available for Kindle. You can be sure I'll be buying the new ones for Kindle as they become available.

As another plus, I can probably interest my teenage son in reading the Kindle editions, where I have had little success getting him to read the paperbacks I have managed to borrow from friends. Kids love their gadgets.

I'll be starting this AP sometime this year, and I'm collecting side stuff for the party. This scenario looks like fun - my group is likely to include PC's that will create some entertaining role play with this one! Thanks!

I'm running a homebrew for my daughter (age 11) and several of her friends. They are ALWAYS trying to talk to things instead of taking them out. It's refreshing, actually, and they have challenged me, as a GM, to come up with scenarios where talking to the NPCs really pays off.

It's a lot easier to just throw drooling monsters at them and let them hack them up. I think the next time they try to talk to a zombie, I'll give him a brain and have him start reciting Shakespeare!

Related to the thread, though, I love all of the ideas everyone has thrown out here. I'm prepping to run this AP for our regular group, which is a mix of adults and our teenagers. We don't have any undead issues in the group, having gone most of the way through Carrion Crown at this point (our youngest in this group is 13, and while I'm not GM'ing it, I know our GM has modified how he describes things in deference to our younger members), but if we decide to invite any of the 11 year olds in our families to join Runelords, I'll be looking to lighten it up some, too. The suggestion to allow the party to "save" many of the victims is a great one.

I am definitely going to make use of these prep sheets, thank you! My group is finishing up Carrion Crown this spring, and I've been elected to GM Runelords. It's been many long years since I've GM'd, and I'm rusty, to say the least. The festival game ideas are awesome!

This class looks like it would be fun to play.

As an editorial note, your Greater Trance and Supreme Trance have the exact same spiritual bonuses. Given that the Haunt Sense at level 19 is +9, Should the Supreme Trance be at a +9, instead of the +6 as listed?

It may be in more than one source, but the 5 things about undead appears on page 5 of the Undead Slayer's Handbook. There, it is prefaced with "The following are a few facts that are considered common knowledge among Golarion's civilized peoples."

One could argue that not all things considered common knowledge are necessarily accurate. There are exceptions to every rule; that's how we get interesting stories.

For what it's worth, I see both sides of this coin as being applicable, depending on your campaign. I can see the spells with the Evil descriptor as being inherently corrupting, just by invoking their energies. I like the flavor of that. But I could also see where the same spells could be used for good ends, which would potentially offset the nature of the spell.

Off the top of my head, I don't have any specific suggestions for class, but if he's the leader of a very successful group, he should have no problems procuring magic items that can mitigate his venerable negatives... like a Belt of Mighty Constitution +6. Heck, there's a Belt of Physical Perfection that grants bonuses to STR, DEX and CON all at once.

Makes you wonder how it survived as long as it did before hitting the broad side of a house. So glad it's being cared for now.

Shroudb, that... is an amazing item.

Paladin, where is that quoted? I could only find where the feat says "This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar."

ryric found the text I was thinking of, so yes, there are some spells that come with the new familiar, but they are more limited than I was thinking.

Below are the relevant bits about your 3rd question:

PRD: "Familiar Teaching Familiar: A witch's familiar can learn spells from another witch's familiar. To accomplish this, the familiars must spend one hour per level of the spell being taught in communion with one another...Most witches require a spell of equal or greater level in return for this service. If a familiar belongs to a witch that has died, it only retains its knowledge of spells for 24 hours, during which time it is possible to coerce or bribe the familiar into teaching its spells to another, subject to GM discretion."

I agree that the rules do not specifically address moving spells from an old familiar to a new one, or for a situation other than one where the witch has died, but I still think that given the time constraints, there's no way for one witch to transfer spells alone. The old familiar loses its knowledge of spells after 24 hours, and the witch cannot replace it with a new one until 1 day has passed. There would have to be another witch with a familiar for the old familiar to teach its spells to, and then the other witch's familiar would be able to teach the spells to the new familiar. Difficult and time consuming.

My thoughts on the Improved Familiar feat don't quite bear out, either, by RAW, because you can only take the feat when you would normally be able to gain a new familiar, although I think I've seen threads where GM's have ruled that all the spells transfer, but that'd really be up to how the GM wants to interpret it.

Basically, if a witch loses her familiar, she has lost her spellbook, and so she cannot prepare spells. She may gain a new familiar as stated in the quote by ryric, with the reduced spell list, as noted. The new familiar may learn additional spells from another witch's familiar, as quoted above, or by learning from a scroll:

PRD: "Learn from a Scroll: A witch can use a scroll to teach her familiar a new spell. This process takes 1 hour per level of the spell to be learned, during which time the scroll is burned and its ashes used to create a special brew or powder that is consumed by the familiar. This process destroys the scroll. At the end of this time, the witch must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If the check fails, the process went awry in some way and the spell is not learned, although the scroll is still consumed."

I just had a truly evil thought. What if the witch's familiar were kidnapped, and just held apart from the witch? She would be unable to commune with it to prepare spells, but it hasn't died, nor has the witch. I don't know of any rules that speak to dismissing a witch's familiar, so in this case, I think she'd be stuck. Rescue the familiar, or not cast spells.

If the animal ceases to function as a familiar, through whatever means, my interpretation would be that it loses its knowledge after 24 hours and returns to a non-magical beast, and all the spells it had been taught while a familiar are lost.

I don't have my APG with me, but if I recall correctly, the witch can replace the familiar after 24 hours with a ritual costing X amount of gp (I think the cost goes up as the witch's level goes up). I think the new familiar comes with all cantrips, the bonus spells gained at each level, plus the patron spells, but not any spells that the witch might have taught the old familiar through ritual.

A familiar retains its arcane knowledge for 24 hours after separation from its witch. If the familiar is willing, it may teach spells to another familiar, subject to the time limitations (I want to say a 6th level spell would take 6 hours to teach, familiar-to-familiar, for instance, but check the APG).

So, I don't think there is a way for a witch to have an old, still living familiar teach her new familiar any spells, since there is the time limitation. The old familiar can only teach for 24 hours, and the witch cannot gain a new familiar until after 24 hours have passed.

If the party kills a witch, but spares the familiar, that familiar may be persuaded to teach spells known to another witch's familiar, though. Similarly, if you have two witches who are friendly with each other, they could have their familiars teach each other spells.

I think that if a witch were to take the Improved Familiar feat, and replace her familiar that way, that all the spells, regardless of source, transfer as a function of the feat.

Not quite immunity, but a paladin with the Warrior of Holy Light archetype, gains 50% immunity to critical hits at level 20, when invoking her aura of holy light. That protection extends to allies within 60' of her, too.

The wallpaper. I have so many things hanging on my walls, I don't see much of them, anyway. Anyone standing at the front window, french or not, is just creepy.

Chocolate, or peanut butter?

Our GM added Carrion Hill into the middle of our Carrion Crown campaign, and it took us 3-4 sessions to get through. I think the best way to shorten it would be to reduce the number of targets the party has to track down, and perhaps reduce the number of rooms at specific locations. The asylum, as I recall, was pretty big, and was almost two whole sessions for our party. If you made it smaller, perhaps one floor instead of two, the party could get through it faster.

I did most of my D&D type gaming in college, and our group was pretty much 50/50. Some were couples, some weren't. We really didn't think much about it.

This article and experiment tickles me no end. I am a mom of a 13 year old boy and an 11 year old girl. Both of my kids showed an interest in my old "red box" last year when I pulled it out of my closet one day, so I sought out a gaming group for my son and me to join last year. My daughter, while she had fun playing with her brother, didn't want to join a group, which was just as well, as the one I found was just starting Carrion Crown. Fine by my son, but not a genre my daughter was interested in.

It made me sad that she wasn't playing, so I asked her one day if she would play with a group of her girlfriends, if I was the GM. She agreed, and we invited three of her best friends to join the group, two of which were a little, "what's this about, now?" and the third being our Carrion Crown GM's daughter. She agreed to let her brother play, too. So I have a party of 11-13 year olds, and our group consists of a bard, a witch, a druid, a sorcerer and a rogue (my son). We occasionally have my son's best friend join in, and when he does, he plays a fighter. I play light and loose with the rules, and the girls all love it.

I found, however, during character selection, that the girls were often swayed for or against a class based on the iconic pictured for it. My daughter is musically inclined and wanted her character to play an instrument, so a bard was a natural choice - but she had to get her head around the fact that she wasn't being asked to play Lem. So, yes, I agree that the iconics are a powerful influence. I'm not passing judgment good or bad, mind you, just noting that I have seen how they influence class selection, especially on those new to the game.

Also, my girls, at least, are not murder hobos in any sense of the word. They don't want to kill anything. They want to talk their way through most encounters, so I have had to adjust my home brew scenarios to account for that preference. I love a good monster slaying as well as the next gamer, so this was a surprising turn of events for me.

I am constantly being asked, "When's our next gaming session?"

Yes, girls play D&D, too.

Not even close to a TPK, but I'm playing a witch in one of the AP's and we had recently recovered a large, magical book while on a side adventure. She and one of our rangers were in our room at the Inn and decided to see what this book was all about. We set off a trap when we opened the book, and the witch and all of the Inn's inhabitants went instantly insane. The witch tried to kill herself, but the ranger made his save and thankfully was able to overpower her (she's quite squishy at a STR 10) and haul her down to Pharasma's temple for some mental healing. As we came back to the Inn, all chaos had broken loose, so we had to pay the temple's clerics to heal everyone at the Inn, too. Thankfully, no one was killed, but the Innkeeper had our horses saddled and ready to go at first light the next day.

The witch is now a little more careful about where she is when she opens an unknown magical book.

If you've all played together before and are friends, I would ask the GM why he wanted characters created in isolation. Maybe there's a story reason that he could explain, at least a little, to give the players some better context and understanding. To get a coherent group from the start, you really need to discuss character generation together.

I second the motion of having the characters learning from each other and changing and growing in their viewpoints. Role play that out and form a cohesive group that can go forward.

I have a Kindle Fire HDX, the larger screen, and it reads and displays pdfs just fine.

What I've been wondering myself, is how do the Pathfinder Tales novels interface with it, and with the Paperwhite, actually. My kids have paperwhites, and I'd like to entice my son to try reading some Tales (he's 13), but I'm not the most e-book savvy person out there.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but does anyone have experience with buying the e-books from Paizo and reading them on a Kindle Paperwhite? Is it difficult to transfer them to the Paperwhite? Amazon does not appear to offer these books, last I looked.

I discovered D&D in sometime in the mid-80s, as an awkward, shy teenager, even around family. Very much trapped within my shell. One summer, during my family reunion, my cousins were playing and I would listen to them play from the next room, being too shy (and a little younger) to ask right out what they were doing. I think one of my aunts realized the game had caught my attention, and asked the cousin who was DM'ing to try to draw me in. He did, and my very first character, a wizard, was born. He gave me far more power and magic items than I should have had, but I was suddenly part of the group, and it was FUN. To this day, I have fond memories of the Castle Amber module.

After the reunion, I couldn't wait to get my hands on my own red box and show it to my friends. My parents were just grateful to see me connecting with my cousins, I think, and didn't seem to bat an eyelash at the game itself.

I only drew my immediate friends into the game, though, once I returned home (NJ), and was already an outsider at school, so it wasn't particularly obvious to those outside of my immediate circle that I played D&D. So, no, I never ran into any problems.

Gaming in college in Cleveland, OH, in the late 80s, early 90s, involved things like Fantasy Hero and Shadowrun, more than strictly D&D, and we had our own happy little group. No, I never had any problems there, either.

I remember hearing the bad press about D&D and just not understanding it. I thought it was pretty obvious that the media had the cause and effect backwards, and that the kids that took the game too far had started out with a weak grasp on reality before they ever even found D&D.

The worst problem I had, which is different but related, was when, after reading Anne McCaffrey's Pern series in 11th grade, I got into dragons big time. My dad took me aside one day and expressed his concern about my obsession with these dark and demonic dragons, and was I getting into satanism? I couldn't help but laugh. I assured him that MY dragons were nothing like that, handed him Dragonflight, and asked him to please read the book before passing judgment. He did, and he read every subsequent Pern book out there. My dad is pretty cool.

Okay, thanks, Voideternal. That makes sense.

I'm a little confused as to why folks are recommending NOT a witch? Can reasons be given without using spoilers? My group is half way through the AP and are level 9. My NG human witch is a follower of Pharasma and is a very valuable member of our party. She has a lot of white necromancy spells (since Pharasma frowns on undead). She has pretty high knowledge skills, healing and spellcraft. With her high Int & Prehensile Hair hex, she's stronger than our paladin for some tasks. Everyone in the party is glad she's part of it. And she hasn't even taken the so controversial Sleep hex.

Didn't the party check Peter's person for stuff before making the difficult decision to kill him? The wizard at least should have detected magic on Peter to determine if he had something magical that could have been the source of his insanity. How cruel it would have been had he been wearing a cursed amulet under his shirt, only to be found after the paladin had completed the mercy killing.

So, I don't understand why the wizard even thought there would be something on Peter at all when he decided to loot the body. He showed brazen insensitivity for the choice the paladin just had to make, and deserved to have a shovel shoved in his munchkinly face.

Alternative course of action could include using charm or sleep spells to keep Peter quiet and incapable of harming the party members or himself while they traveled to the closest temple of Iomedae to turn him over for better care. You could have used divination spells, not just praying to Iomedae, to try to determine what caused his insanity and a route to restoring it.

Like Ubercroz, I honestly wonder if the GM meant for you to take Peter with you as some sort of story hook. In that case, the party missed the hints and the GM might have made the paladin fall in retaliation. Instead, the GM could have chosen to throw out more hints, perhaps have some mumblings/rantings from Peter that gave better indication of what caused his insanity, or the route the party is supposed to take.

Since the spell says immunities still apply, the paladin could have saved either the oracle or the cleric, without suffering ill effects of the spell himself. Certainly a paladin would have used the spell to save an ally. But the phantasmal killer spell can be seen only by the target. How did the paladin know that there was a fear effect spell in play against the oracle and cleric? Is it reasonable that he would have known that his spell would save his ally?

Either way, I wouldn't make him fall. He didn't deliberately choose not to save his allies. Maybe, in character, you could say the paladin was frozen with indecision about which ally to save, if he only had the spell once. Although held to a strict code, paladins are still subject to human (or elven, or dwarven, or whatever) failings. They're not perfect, though they strive to be. He might be eaten up with guilt over failing to save his allies and perhaps he would pray to his god/dess for guidance. You could, as GM, have his deity lay a quest before him to atone for his failing, a quest that would test and stretch his decision making skills, to help him grow in his faith. Good story hook right there.

Out of character, try to come up with ways to help this new player remember what his character can do. Come up with shorthand note cards for his spells with brief descriptions, which he can refer to during the session. Refer to the book and page # for each spell in case the full description needs to be looked up.

Or go back and change the events of the session, allowing him to save one of the other characters, whichever one makes the most sense for the paladin to have saved. Again, I really think this is more of a new player memory/learning curve problem, and not a paladin in danger of falling.

I am playing a NG witch in the Carrion Crown campaign, who follows Pharasma. She has the healing patron. Our party is primarily good, although we have a N elven ranger with some moral ambiguities, in my opinion. My witch has focused primarily on healing and buffing, at lower levels (she's 9th level at the moment), but is branching out a bit as she gains access to some pretty powerful attack spells. She has the Flight, Healing, Ward, Cauldron, Tongues, Prehensile Hair and Evil Eye hexes (took extra hex for a couple of feats). Her hair has saved our plate encased paladin from several potentially deadly falls, and she was the one one who dealt the killing blow to the big bad at the end of the 3rd book, using a lightning bolt. Her Ward hex, which now grants a +3 bonus to saves, has prevented some negative permanent levels on party members, and the party adores having her around (even that N elf).

Because she is a follower of Pharasma, she does not have any of the create undead spells, but there are numerous necromancy spells that have little or nothing to do with actually creating or controlling undead, and she has no qualms about learning them and making liberal use of them, although part of that is the fact that her goddess is the goddess of Death who does not frown upon White Necromancy, so your mileage may vary. Spectral Hand is awesome, as it can deliver touch spells. So many of the spells on the witch's list are touch attacks, and she avoids getting in up close and personal as much as possible, since she is very squishy. She has also taken the Metamagic Reach Spell feat to help with the touch attack problem.

I have had a blast playing this character and would recommend a Good aligned Witch any day.

I am so stealing the hoard of stuffed animals for the homebrew I'm doing for my 11 year old daughter and her friends. I wonder what color/type of dragon would find this sort of hoard desireable?

The only problem with Volcanic Storm is that after the spell's duration, the ash disappears, so it's not a permanent effect.

You could home brew a Hex that is opposite of Blight, which could look a lot like a Bless spell. To keep the power level the same, though, you'd only be able to have one Blessed plot of land at a time, size limited by your level. I like the idea of a good witch being able to do this, though.

There is a major hex, Witch's Bounty, which is thematically appropriate for your build, too.

1. Oldest child is almost 13.

2. Style of Play is definitely merciful, (c), so I fit right in with your experience, OP.

Right now, I am playing both a NG Witch and a LG Paladin, so I kind of feel (c) is appropriate for the characters, too.

I wasn't actively gaming when my kids were <4, so although I'd like to be able to contrast my playing style over the course of my kid's childhood, I can't. Those early years are a blurry haze of parental exhaustion. I've only gotten back into gaming since my son (the eldest) showed an interest in gaming, so we joined a local group together.

My son is playing a CG elf, and likes to play up the C part of that, but he tends towards mercy, too, although probably is not quite as far along on the spectrum as I am.

I am playing a witch in our Carrion Crown campaign, which has a fair amount of undead. She has the healing patron, but that's mostly because our clerics keep coming and going. Right now, the party doesn't have any cleric - just the witch and a paladin.

The Healing hex has come in handy, since it does do damage to undead.

You want to find ways to deliver your spells at range, as I've found most of the witch's are touch attacks. Sometimes, you really don't want to touch an undead that you know is level draining! I recommend getting the spell Spectral Hand (level 2 witch spell) as soon as you may, as it'll allow you to deliver touch spells without putting yourself or your familiar at such risk. Spectral hand will also allow you to make touch attacks on incorporeal creatures (because it is, itself, incorporeal).

Aside from a two-spell combo using spectral hand (which has a decent duration), my witch mostly focuses on using buffs to protect the front line fighters of the party - the Ward hex and the 4th level spell Death Ward are good buffs when fighting undead. She also has spells like Sanctify Corpse, Gentle Repose, & Decompose Corpse to help prevent new undead, but she is a follower of Pharasma and detests even the thought of undead. She has no interest in controlling them, just sending the poor souls on for final judgment in Pharasma's halls. Your witch's motivation may very, of course.

If you're expecting incorporeal undead, the Ectoplasmic metamagic feat is a good one, too.

The CRB suggests awarding XP at the end of the gaming session, so leveling up doesn't take away from gaming time. By and large though, it's left to the groups to figure out how they want to do it.

Our GM does award XP at the end of each session; if we hit the threshhold for the next level, we just don't get to do so until the party is, in game, in a position to take some down-time.

Wow, can I play with you guys? Our GM does not let us level up at all until the party is in a place and has time where we can do extra training, studying, resting, what-have-you. So, I guess to answer the OP, by this method of leveling, we do end up at full HP/rested with full spells.

I made the argument with our GM that the characters are learning and, gee, gaining experience, as they adventure and at least some of the benefits of leveling up should be an immediate thing upon reaching the proper number of points, but that's not how he rules it and the rest of the table seems cool with it. Since I am the only one who has a different take on leveling up, and I otherwise feel the GM is fair and I enjoy the group, I've learned to live with it. I'm glad to hear, though, that it's not the universal method!

Yes, actually, I think it does expend one use of the lay on hands ability. I'm no good at providing links, but the line reads: "She can spend a use of her lay on hands ability to call upon the power of her faith as a standard action." To me, it stands to reason that the Power of Faith ability would have limits; spellcasting has daily limits, too.

We have to wait til MAY??? *sigh*

As already stated, actualy owning the Harrow deck is not necessary to the mechanics of using the feat, spell or class that utilizes them - all can be done with dice. However, I think your character needs to own a deck to use them. Obviously, that can be done with backstory, or coordinating with your GM to have an in-session find/purchase/gift made for your character to gain the deck.

The deck is a nice prop to have, if you like props. I found a deck at my local gaming shop, and picked it up. My group is going through the Carrion Crown AP and my witch is getting ready to take both the feat and the spell, so I'm looking forward to using the deck in game soon. The feat allows the character to draw a card and gain a one time daily bonus to a roll based on the stat the card represents. I think having the card in front of me with my character sheet will help me remember to use the bonus, rather than just making a note somewhere.

I am currently playing a witch with the healing patron, and she has been a boon for our party.

In another thread, someone suggested pairing the scar hex with the healing hex, since scar gives the witch the ability to cast hexes on the scarred subject from up to a mile away. She can heal the fighter even if he's surrounded by adversaries and she can't safely reach him.

I'd personally suggest the siphon poison feat, out of the Faiths of Purity companion (I think), which cures poison with a successful heal check, if administered with 2 rounds of poisoning. My GM has come to hate that feat, but the party adores their witch.

She also uses the Ward hex on our rogue or ranger, when they're off scouting on their own. The witch immediately knows if the ward falls, and so knows when the rogue or ranger is in danger, and can alert the party. There are other ways to accomplish that, of course, but we're still fairly low level.

This thread is fantastic! I found Pathfinder earlier this year when looking for a gaming group for my son to join. I had given him my basic D&D books one weekend, and he devoured them, and was taking his little sister through mini dungeons by the end of the weekend. He and I joined a group running in our local comic shop, which has 3-4 regular adults and 2 kids - my son being the youngest at 12. We are in the 2nd book of the Carrion Crown AP, and he is having an absolute blast playing his elven ranger and wolf companion, and is intent on becoming an arcane archer. It's fun to watch him take such an interest in something I enjoyed through high school and college, and everyone in the party enjoys having him at the table. I admit to being as much of a gaming geek now as I was in college, and am thrilled to have the chance to not only start playing again, but also to do it with my son.

I hope, though, that he will eventually get together a group of his own peers and become a GM for them, and had been wondering how best to "pitch" Pathfinder to the parents, if they aren't already familiar with RPGs, and the thoughts and ideas that have been shared here are really helpful, and I will definitely be using them!