As far as I can tell, a Witch's Familiar works similarly to a Wizard's spellbook in that respect, except it is harder (not impossible) to back up, but on the upside you don't have to worry about counting and potentially running out of pages.
Witches have no limit to the number of spells their familiar can learn.
Hexes are a witches main feature. You want as many hexes as you can get.
Here is what I suggest for First level:
Human Witch
Highest Stat: Int
2nd Highest Stat: Cha
3rd Highest Stat: Dex
4th Highest Stat: Wis
5th Highest Stat: Con
Dump Stat: Str
Traits: Fast Talker, Reactionary
1st Level Feat: Extra Hex
Bonus Human Feat: Extra Hex
Skills: Bluff (from Fast Talker trait), Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), Heal, Use Magic Device
Hexes: Evil Eye, Misfortune, Cackle
Cantrips: Light, Detect Magic, Mending
1st level Spell: Summon Monster I
Bonus Spells from high intelligence/spells to learn next: Cure Light Wounds, Burning Hands, Ear Piercing Scream, Adhesive Spittle, Mudball, Ray of Sickening
Weapons: Crossbow or Sling, Heavy Mace, Dagger, Wooden Stakes (10 of them)
Note: Stay out of Melee. Focus your abilities on debuffing the enemy leader. Witches are weak vs the undead so avoid them. Cackle as a move action to extend evil eye/misfortune and use your standard action to cast a spell or use your missile weapon.
This can vary depending on the build, but generally witches more about the de-buffs.
Evil Eye is a GREAT hex (since it ALWAYS works), another powerful option is Slumber which can shut down enemies pretty effectively (unless they are elves... ugh! elves!) and stays relevant throughout the game.
As for the familiar I would suggest having something that can fly. A hawk/owl/raven or whatever... I played a witch with a fox once. Cute little thing I named Pagan. A barbarian smacked it with a hammer in one combat... Pagan didn't die but I was NOT in the mood to fight after that (the equivalent would be if a NPC took a torch to the wizards library) my priorities shifted and I yelled: "We gotta get out of here" while I hopped on my broom with my fox and LEFT!
Another witch I played had a hawk... Noone EVER hit the hawk. The hawk might as well have been invisible. Witches shine pretty well when you have 2 in a party also... because of the whole: Familiars teaching each other spells- which is WAY better than wizards sharing spellbooks (like... surprisingly better in terms of time and cost).
A hex to invest in (whenever) is Flight. Ability to get OFF THE GROUND! is useful at lvl 5, also the permanent- Protection from falling- is good. I have never used the "levitate" power of this but... sure... there is that.
A witch's familiar begins play storing all of the 0-level witch spells plus three 1st-level spells of the witch's choice. The witch also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to her Intelligence modifier to store in her familiar. At each new witch level, she adds two new spells of any spell level or levels that she can cast (based on her new witch level) to her familiar. A witch can also add additional spells to her familiar through a special ritual (see sidebar).
So there are basically two spell lists you want to keep track of, I would call them:
Base spells (keep even if familiar dies and is replaced, as per quote above)
Extra spells (lost if familiar dies and is replaced-learned from other familiars or spell scrolls).
You can get a spellbook and copy new spells into that for your familiar as well (use the spellbook to get someone to make a scroll, use the scroll to teach the familiar-expensive, but the most effective way to back up your extra spells).
As for advice on Witch-I recommend Slumber feat to start, there are guides for building witches, google it, worth your time.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
There are some "optimization" guides for witches (as well as most of the other classes) available on-line. Note that these guides are somewhat controversial -- they tend to describe ways to make the most powerful character, but not necessarily the most flavorful or playable character.
Witches, in particular, can be really boring if over-optimized. Use the evil eye hex, use the slumber hex, watch your fighter coup-de-grâce the now-helpless BBEG. Repeat as needed.
Sorry, I guess there isn't a DEFINITIVE cost for wizards to exchange spells (there is a recommended cost) but witches make no such notice of money- I guess... sister's are helping each other out?
The time thing is still there tho!
EDIT: There is a cost for Wizards. it isn't much though.
The Orc Witch Doctor looks super fun... Based off Con rather than INT, at lower levels can feasibly melee because of +4 STR...
For backing up your Familiar, use a Stone Familiar when you can afford one (or if you are into Crafting Wondrous Items, make it yourself). You won't be able to afford it for the first several levels, but when you can, it is a sensible insurance policy. It does have a limit on total levels of spells stored, but this is high enough (500) that you will be able to go a long time before you need another one.
And +1 on the Orc Scarred Witch Doctor (can be Half-Orc if not in PFS). This also provides one of the very few remaining ways to make an Eldritch Knight that isn't terrible for the first several levels, now that Spell Like Abilities are no longer allowed (except when explicitly specified in the prerequisites) for gaining early entry into prestige classes (and feats).
* * * * * * * *
There are some "optimization" guides for witches (as well as most of the other classes) available on-line. Note that these guides are somewhat controversial -- they tend to describe ways to make the most powerful character, but not necessarily the most flavorful or playable character.
Witches, in particular, can be really boring if over-optimized. Use the evil eye hex, use the slumber hex, watch your fighter coup-de-grâce the now-helpless BBEG. Repeat as needed.
The guides do tend to focus on the debuffing type of Witch, but this is partly the fault of the list of available Hexes. Hexes for beneficial use do exist and are in fact quite good by themselves, but they just don't work together with each other the way the Evil Eye + Misfortune + Cackle trio does. Yes, Cackle does work with Misfortune, but that's not a trio, and the way Cackle is fluffed, if you keep that up you'll probably wind up sharing the fate of Sir Robin's Minstrels.
|
The reason debuffing witches are favored over buffing/healing witches is that most hexes have the stipulation that a hex can only be used on a creature once per day. So the Healing Hex is your party size time Cure Light/Moderate Wounds per day. Not bad, but not great, considering a wand of cure light wounds could do pretty much the same thing.
Debuffing, on the other hand. You can use a hex on every single opponent you face during the day. As long as you face more enemies than you have teammates, you can use debuffing hexes more often. And aside from that, your hexes use you primary casting stat for the save DCs, which means they should be fairly high. Buffing doesn't require high DCs which means you can get away with scrolls and wands. It's much harder to do the reverse and debuff with wands/scrolls.
There's also the fact that if you're going to go with a buffing/healing character there are other classes that do it better. No class is a better debuffer than the witch.