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So I play PFS almost exclusively...I've looked through all of the Witch guides and several different forums but....
Why not just use wand of shield/Mage armor. I understand witches don't have shield on their spell list, but buy a scroll and make the spell craft DC 16. At lvl 2 my witch already has spell craft 9.
Thus between dex and those two spells my lvl 2 witch has AC 20. In PFS money and having enough fame to purchase good items is often a limiting factor. Using 2PP to buy those wands seems like a way more efficient use to boost AC and save for more needed items (int headband). At most you'd be casting Mage armor 3-4 times per scenario (~15 scenarios) and shield maybe 5-6 times (8-10 scenarios). If you're adverse to "wasting" it you could wait until needed to cast.
It seems like spending money on mithral light armor/buckler is more money for less AC.
Also I'm rocking a tiefling witch with prehensile tail so maybe I'm pro wand since I can already hold two and a weapon.
Thoughts?
Shield duration is short, so generally you have to cast it in combat, and you can do better with your actions.
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You cannot use scrolls which have spells not on your list. You would have to use UMD.
You can attempt to teach your familiar the spell after concentrating on the spell for an hour. DC is 15+spell level =16. At level 2 my odds of success are decent. Even if I fail scroll is only 25gold so I could just keep trying. Have to have GM sign off on it. Then it's on your spell list.
Ah, the issue is that you've misunderstood the inherent limitations that prevent you from learning off-class spells.
You can give your familiar more witch spells to learn, but not off-class.
The Witch's spell list is just that: a list of spells that the witch can teach her familiar. If a spell (like shield for example) is not on the list, then you can't teach it.
You can use UMD to read a scroll or use a wand in order to cast a spell in the exact same way any other class can use UMD to cast a spell not on their spell list.
A witch has the same abilities to cast a spell not on his/her list as a rogue does.
In answer to the thread title... Yes, the rules.
Yeah, witches have all the AC disadvantages of a wizard with very few of the defensive spells in their list to be able to deal with it. Some of the patrons may help with that though. One small bright side is that they can still use most of their supernatural abilities when polymorphed, so you can get some small benefit from that with fewer downsides than a wizard.
Yeah, witches have all the AC disadvantages of a wizard with very few of the defensive spells in their list to be able to deal with it. Some of the patrons may help with that though. One small bright side is that they can still use most of their supernatural abilities when polymorphed, so you can get some small benefit from that with fewer downsides than a wizard.
And Witches are some of the best at shutting Enemies down. I was running a game with 2 level 17 witches and 1 level 20 Malefactor (TPK games class based on weakening enemies by giving them bad luck) vs a party of 6 level 20s. Lets just say the party got murdered by a total -20 to all their saves, having to reroll 3 times and taking the worst of the three, and by SoD spells from the witches...
Sorry dude, that was fairly direct!
One of the patrons has mirror image, I always pick that one because you're so vulnerable at low level.
And Witches are some of the best at shutting Enemies down.
Definitely. I suppose for a witch the best defense is a good debuff. They can keep stacking on more debuffs round after round until their targets are hurting bad.
One weakness there is that they have few options for dealing with crowds. They have lots of single target effects (though split hex helps at higher levels). So they are better at locking down one or a small number of targets. But that's still an excellent niche. When it comes to a single really tough enemy, other casters might have trouble getting past their defenses, but a witch can keep chipping away at them until they are vulnerable.
I feel that Slumber, useful as it is, is a bit over rated, as it's very easy for an enemy to wake their ally back up, or stray damage, and it's not entirely trivial to coordinate a good coup de grace against a major enemy. And a ton of the tougher enemies are immune to mind affecting in general or sleep in particular, or may just have particularly high will saves. But there's no denying that it's a powerful option compared to what other casters are working with at low levels. I joined a new party on their second night, and with my addition the party went from a slow retreat from an Ogre they couldn't handle to killing that Ogre with attacks of opportunity while it was standing up from prone. I also took out a boss the next night who had incapacitated one party member and was about to full attack another.
Witch can use mage armor. And I don't think you will need high AC. Just stay out of combat for the first few levels like all good casters do. Normally when I play most casters, I pick things like mirror image, blur or obscuring mist because you will get the same chance of no being hit no matter how good the attackers are at hitting. It force them to roll twice as the chances of beating a decent AC in one roll is not much less than passing two easy roll that will have at less 20% chance of failing. Then I pick all my low level spells that can only be negate by will saves. Let the barbarian do all the smashing and the cleric do the tanking with his heavy shield. You just need to help to group get away from fights they can't will in early levels. Usually will saves spells or mist will do that trick. Then do whatever you like later on because you have powerful magic and no one can stop you. Except for a well fed monk with their all good saves plus speed or paladin with their divine grace with mount. Still, shouldn't be too much problems even if GM throw one at you. That's what I think.