I have several different concepts I want to run in PFS and I'm throwing them up here to get some suggestions before I finally settle on one. So here is my second idea.
Halfling Witch: Shae, the Doe of Kaer Magan.
8, 14, 10, 16, 13, 16
Alternate Racial Traits:
Fleet of Foot
Polyglot
Jinx
Traits:
Reactionary
Magical Flair (Makes all spells have visage of a black rabbit and audio of screaming rabbit, obviously RP related)
Class and Feat selections: All class levels Witch
Familiar: Hare (Black) for Initiative bonus and RP
C1: Malicious Eye
Hex1: Evil Eye
Hex2: Cackle
C3: Iron Will
Hex4: Misfortune
C5: Bolster Jinx
Hex6: Slumber
C7: Lightning Reflexes
Hex8: Beast of Ill-Omen
C9: Great Fortitude
Hex10: Agony
C11: Sluggish Jinx
Hex12: Scar
Simply put, she hangs back hexing things with her evil eye (of course lumping jinx as per malicious eye) misfortune, and cackling (which will be more like a rabbits screech) to extend the durations. Later on she puts larger threats to sleep, sends in her familiar to dole out beast of ill-omen, and agony of course. Scar for the role play purpose of having someone at her whim should they not do as she says. She is obviously built to maximize on jinx, allowing the full -7 to all saves, -3 to attack rolls, and initiative in one use of a skill at level 11. An additional -4 to attack rolls with one more use and all the other things capable with evil eye. All that on top of the double roll of misfortune, beast of ill-omen penalties, and agony. tsk tsk tsk... tough luck friend!
She was born in the Warrens of Kaer Maga between the Pillars of Dream. She was slightly deformed and the pain of her deformity caused her unrest which made her mother need the peace of sleep to bring the child into the world. Random patches of ebony splotch her body, over sized upper central teeth, and her ears are far longer than they should be, drooping from their weight over the years. To any onlooker she might even be a were-rabbit, and in truth the auspicious nature of her birth, deformities, even her calling may yet bring surprises to her. She is in touch with the powers of fate and portents, which help her bring her damning powers to bare on anyone foolish enough to threaten the Magan Doe.
I'd recommend Split Hex at level 11 its very useful
At least it isn't a negative. I don't plan on doing much in the way of melee combat, being a witch and all.
I'd do a few things differently, but your build has plenty of merit. Here are a few thoughts-
get slumber at level 4 and flight at 6, to help keep you out of harm's way. With all your malicious eye related stuff, i feel like misfortune is slightly-overkilly, and slumber will let you capitalize on all those lowered will saves.
Stat wise, why is your charisma so high? Malicious eye ties your jinx to your evil eye, so you can base it all on intelligence and charisma is not needed anymore. I'd lower it and push your intelligence up to an 18. That is of course, unless you intend to be the party face. If that is the case, may i suggest the feat 'taunt' and boost your bluff skill way up- shaken is a very solid debuff!
By the way, i applaud your RP, the magic rabbit theme is very cool. I had a tiefling witch once with hooves and very horse/donkey-like features, and her cackle was a disturbing whinnying sound. I had a lot of fun with that.
Lol, I like the "Nightmare" you have there with your tiefling :)
And did you mean Intimidate rather than Bluff? Unless Bluff does something from a supplement I don't know about. I bumped Cha because I still can slap my Jinx on someone separate from my Malicious Eye and it stays on indefinitely just about. Even when I Evil Eye someone the basic Jinx stays on whoever I tossed it on for 24 hours or whatever and I don't have to worry about refreshing it.
You make a good point about misfortune... BUT IT'S SO FLUFFY!! Pardon the pun, but I guess you are right. Sometimes one has to play to the meta... sigh.
Build edited to reflect loss of misfortune ::tear::
Edit: Never mind, looks like I can't edit my own post. But I'll be playing with the change methinks.
No, I meant bluff. You see, 'Taunt' lets you use bluff to demoralize, and you don't take a penalty for being smaller than the target. Plus you get to RP her being a sneaky little liar.
I think you might want to look over the jinx and evil eye mechanics one more time, because i think you may have some of the details wrong. You can use the evil eye on the same target more than once, and there's no penalty for successful saves, multiple uses, etc. If you have malicious eye, there is no sound reason to not also evil eye them (unless you feel like going easy on them for some reason) And VERY few encounters are going to last longer than 24 hours, so why are you worrying about indefinite debuffs?
The reason i advocate for an earlier entry slumber is that along with your evil eye, it is going to be your go-to weapon. as a witch, you have limited spell slots, and hexes are where you get your staying power. And fly is a fantastic hex- beast of ill omen is slightly rubbish. Why did you pick that one?
Have you looked over the witch spells and chosen the ones you like? if so, consider which saves they mostly target. A debuffer witch should be focusing on save or suck/save or die spells, which usually key off of will saves, and at later levels, fort. There isn't a ton of stuff on the witch spell list that is relex saved (except web, and blasty spells, which in general you should avoid)The reason i ask, is that i know you are taking lightning reflexes to work with bolster jinx, but i'm not sure you need it- (although i do vaguely remember something about how if you debuff all three saves they lose 3 on their attacks and maybe also initiative-memory eludes me.) Are you going to be working in conjunction with another caster? If so, you can 'set' and they can 'spike'.
Didn't know that about Taunt, but that's a feat slot I can't let go sadly.
Cha and 24 hour Jinx: Bringing up 24 hours probably wasn't the wisest thing in the topic. What I was really getting at was that I could drop it and not worry about that one person for the rest of the encounter and they still have a nice debuff.
Slumber and Spell slots: Yeah I figured as much for slumber, I decided not to argue with your wisdom. And oh yeah! I totally forgot I even had spell slots lol, I was totally focused on all my debuffing hexes. I can drop saves, Ac, and all kinds of other stuff so I honestly planned 90% of my rounds to be hexing different baddies.
Beast of Ill-Omen: The RP hex I CAN'T give up, makes my unlucky black rabbit familiar just that much more RPy.
As for lightning reflexes working with bolster, yes... the Sluggish Jinx getting the -3 to Attack Rolls and Initiative when you have all three is my reason for doing it. I can debuff someone with a total of -7 to attack rolls (or -8 if they fail versus my beast of ill-omen) with one standard action and a free mental to send my little black rabbit over. Oh and they will get the -3 to saves and initiative at the same time.
Edit: Oh and I have no clue who I will be playing with. PFS randomness.
Edit Edit: Yes I did plan to play the face a good bit, I planned on spending skill points to learn ALL the languages. I may not be great at it, but I can at least translate. Comes from living in the melting pot that is Kaer Magan.
Oh right! that's what sluggish jinx does. Once you get that up and running, it's killer.
I think your character will perform admirably in the role you have chosen, even allowing for some minor sub-optimal choices. (in my experience optimizing to the 11th degree is usually more than is required to do meet given role)
Evil eye'ing every round get's REALLY dull after a while, so for the sake of your own fun, see if you can't find room in the build for a secondary role.
Maybe summoning swarms of nasty pointy toothed rabbits?
evil rabbit swarm...
Even as they turn a bugbear into a fine red mist in a tornado of fur and lucky feet... this is the only face i can make!
http://cdn.alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/jpg/happy-cuteness-overload.jpg
Edit: Summon Minor Monster it is then!
Hmmmm... as an alternate tactic I could use the spell Beguiling Gift to give someone a "circus swallowing knife". Aka a knife. That I call a circus swallowing knife.
Edit: They eat it. Making sure everyone gets that.
Battlefield control (webs, black tentacles, fog clouds, etc.) is a lot of fun, and you can switch that up with debuffing.
To free up some points to raise your intelligence, consider dumping wisdom. I know it's unpopular to do so, but I always do it. As a witch, you'll have a good will save anyway. You can also dump str down, because as a witch you wont be fighting in melee or carrying much of anything.
Also, what patron are you going to go with? For a debuffer, I reccomend insanity. You get some great save-or-suck spells with that one.
Deviston wrote: At least it isn't a negative. I don't plan on doing much in the way of melee combat, being a witch and all. Sometimes that isn't up to you, especially since most Hexes work on a range of Close (30 ft) .
So let's say you catch the eye of a two-handed greatsword-wielding 18 Str Fighter, who does 2d6+6 damage. That means that when he hits you (not even if), at level one you're automatically in the negatives, and if he rolls two sixes, you die instantly. If he's using Power Attack, then he's doing minimum 11 damage and you'll go into the negatives and have to make a DC 21 fort save to stabilize, which means rolling a 20 for you, or your teammates will have to waste actions stabilizing and healing you.
10 Con just isn't a good idea for anyone.
I like the build. I would dip one level of cleric with Luck or(Curse) and chaos domain. Use Desna or Calistria.
This gives medium armor prof, profiecence with detity weapon. +2 fort and +2 will this free up 2 feats (Iron Will &Great Fortitude)+3 HP
I also like Accursed Bloodline, or Destined Bloodline mixed in via Eldritch Heritage chain.
I would also drop CHA to 13 or 10 to raise INT. (If you skip Eldritch Heritage chain idea.)
I see where you are going with Bolster Jinx... but I do not know if worth 4 feat to do it. That heavy feat tax. If you do go that route
Great Fortitude before Lightning Reflexes you have more Fort Based spell than Reflexed based.
I think you can get simmular effect by taking 1 level of Cleric with Luck(Curse) domian and chaos Domain.
Right now you are going unluck only. Think about both unluck and luck.
This will let you buff the party and give more options.
You'll probably want the accursed hex feat to affect people 2x with your hexes.
I recommend against level-dipping, it's seldom a good idea for casters, and he wants his hexes asap. Also, armor proficiency is all well and good, but he's still going to take a spell failure chance.
In terms of increasing survivability, why not wear an armored coat? he can hex all day with no problems, and when it's time to cast spell, just use a move action to drop the coat. It's even kinda thematic- a witch in a sinister black trenchcoat
themanfromsaturn: I'm going with Portents for obvious thematic purpose. As for dropping wisdom... I've actually considered this in a thought to make myself somewhat insane. I mean, higher Int is obviously better, but for role playing low Wis on this character I figured mild insanity would do just fine. Also, nice idea switching up debuffing with a little battlefield control, I didn't even think about doing a little controlling.
Belryan: an extra 1-2 HP in that scenario is going to save me? I understand what you are saying, but that's where spells, items, and the other party members come in. They know I'm tiny and frail, and for me to keep contributing and not turn into a fine red mist, our big and beefy will have to keep their big and beefy entertained.
Tom: Thanks for the suggestions but I most certainly won't be dipping. I'm dead set on the Jinx chain so there's that. I WILL however take your adive on swapping Fort and Ref feats in order, good point. And the theme of the character is unluck. I could care less about good luck, except to take it away from people >:)
themanfromsaturn: good call on the armored coat! I was actually thinking about wearing that weird item (can't remember details or book right now) where it looks like a suit of full-plate but actually isn't armor at all. I could wear the armored coat over that thing and look like a mini tank! I would stand in the back with a glaring eye, shouting out tactics to my "troops" (aka, pointing out who I have hexed). Kind of try to convince the enemy I'm a strategist or something and not so much a caster. Heck I don't know.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Nice build.
Really I'd give it a go as-is.
You already have two secondary roles as class features.
Full progression arcane caster.
Backup healer.
Maybe, just maybe I'd reconsider some of the feat choices (mainly the save boosters.) Sure you lose the +1 racial luck bonus, but so does every other race.
Patron suggestions:
Agility, Insanity for fluff.
Elements for when you just want to blow things up.
Healing if you want to bump up healing power.
Optimization suggestions:
I'd suggest dropping Beast of Ill-Omen.
Slumber is *the* big gun for witches. Level 6 is a long time to wait.
Ice Tomb is a very very good hex for your first Major Hex.
Nice work!
Oh! Now if I DO in fact drop my Wis down to bump Int, Insanity (Edited, had "Wisdom" patron) patron could work! Then I've got two themes, insanity that comes from a life of bad luck! Daddy like! Also Agility DOES work for rabbit fluff (lol)
I very well may take Slumber at 2 and Cackle after, but I can't see dropping beast, just too perfect for the theme.
What do you mean lose the +1 racial luck bonus? I already lose it by taking Jinx and the save booster feats are there to work with Bolster Jinx.
Thanks for your compliments and advice btw!
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Deviston wrote: Oh! Now if I DO in fact drop my Wis down to bump Int, Insanity (Edited, had "Wisdom" patron) patron could work! Then I've got two themes, insanity that comes from a life of bad luck! Daddy like! Also Agility DOES work for rabbit fluff (lol)
I very well may take Slumber at 2 and Cackle after, but I can't see dropping beast, just too perfect for the theme.
What do you mean lose the +1 racial luck bonus? I already lose it by taking Jinx and the save booster feats are there to work with Bolster Jinx.
Thanks for your compliments and advice btw!
Sorry! I misread your intent with the save boosting feats. I thought you took them to offset losing Halfling's Luck because of the alternate Jinx feature. Having them bump up the penalties with Bolster Jinx is pretty nifty.
Oh by all means keep the Beast of IO feat...I only mentioned it as an optimization choice, nothing wrong with keeping it.
One more thing...later on, there is a magic (chest) item (Cackling Hag's Blouse) that grants you Cackle if you don't have it.
Cackle as a swift 2/day if you do.
And a +2 to intimidate.
Not too bad for 6k, though money is always tight for my PFS toons.
Oooh, that's certainly nice... I've not yet started PFS so I honestly don't know how items work, how do Ii know it will be able to be found/bought?
Yeah the Bolster is pretty nice with Malicious Eye feat. I don't know if you read some of the earlier posts, but at level 9 I'm dropping all saves by -7. Pretty nifty as you say ;)
Again, you will want accursed hex feat. I would recommend it instead of Iron Will, as will saves are your strong saves, even with wisdom as a dump stat. It means that if they fail their save you hex them this round, if they make their save you hex them next round. Its a seriously nice feat. You can flavor it as being an insanity side effect.
Armoured, unfortunately I can't drop any of the save boosting feats. As debuffing with Evil Eye and Jinx is the central theme of the class. Without the save boosting feats, only bestow a -1 via Jinx. With the save boosters (and Bolster Jinx) they tack on a total of -3 IN ADDITION to the penalties of Evil Eye hex, not to mention happen in the same standard action used to bestow Evil Eye.
And as soon as I have of the save boosting feats and Bolster Jinx, the penalty from Sluggish Jinx increased to a -3 as well.
I use Evil Eye hex to say... penalize saves. At full build, that's a standard action that (if they fail) they take a -7 to all saves, -3 to attack rolls and initiative for roughly 7 rounds. So the next round I can hit them with Slumber for example and nearly GUARANTEE they fall helpless.
Edit: Or I can hit them with the penalty to AC which would be a -4 to AC, -3 to all saves, attack rolls,, and initiative, and leave them for the fighter to handle. Which the fighter could Intimidate right then and there for another penalty to attack rolls. Hey, that's like +5 virtual AC for everyone all in one round with nothing expended.
Also, get a corset of dire witchcraft for the armor bonus.
|
