I've been trying to refine this build, and I'm not entirely happy with the feats as they are, and I'd like a little help in this regard. He's being used with a homebrew race, and the DM is allowing me the use of 3rd and 3.5 feats (which I've linked in the instances where they've been taken).
Trait: Two-World Magic (Create Water)
Trait: Diver
Trait: Bastard
Drawback: Burned
Strength - 14 (2 mod)
Dexterity - 14 (2 mod)
Constitution - 14 (2 mod)
Intellect - 17 (3 mod)
Wisdom - 11 (+2) (1 mod)
Charisma - 12 (+2) (2 mod)
--1st--
Witch (White Haired Witch) 1
Witch Spells (CL 1) - 3|1
Familiar: King Crab
Patron: Water
White Hair
Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike
Early on will probably be the hardest going. He's going to have to act as a base level caster at this point.
--2nd--
Witch 1, Magus (Hexcrafter) 1
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Arcane Pool
Spell Combat
--3rd--
Witch 1, Magus 2
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 2): 4|2
Spellstrike
Feat: Improved Grapple
This is the point where he's going to start acting more like a physical combatant. His planned strategy is to first cast chill touch with spell combat, then deliver it via spellstrike with his hair attack (which should be viable as he's using it as part of spellstrike, not as part of spell combat). The hair makes a grapple attempt, and if successful, he'll reposition the target into an adjacent square - preferably in such a way that he and an ally are flanking it - and deliver the rest of his spell combat attacks. At this point, although he's severely lacking in spell slots, he's able to do this via the brand and arcane mark spells, essentially giving him a bonus attack per turn.
--4th--
Witch 1, Magus 3
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 3): 4|3
Magus Arcana: Accursed Strike
This is the first debatable decision. Accursed strike will be useful, certainly, once I have the ability to cast bestow curse, and there's a pretty wide variety of curse spells in the witch's spell list that I won't ever get to with my magus levels. However, arcane accuracy may end up a better choice due to my low BAB.
--5th--
Witch 1, Magus 4
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 4): 4|3/1
Magus Hex: Evil Eye
Feat: Practiced Spellcaster (Witch)
This one's also slightly iffy, but since I'm relying more on witch spells later on, I need to make my witch caster levels higher. If there's a feat that'll allow me to increase my effective witch level for the purpose of class features by no less than three, however, I'd gladly trade this feat out for it. I have serious doubts there's anything like that available though, even in third party feats.
--6th--
Witch 1, Magus 5
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 5): 4|4/2
Feat: Craft Wondrous Item
I feel like this is going to be necessary. I need to buff my strength and intellect, and grabbing wondrous items as early as I can is the best way to do this.
--7th--
Witch 1, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Magus Arcana: Broad Study (Witch)
Feat: Enlarge Supernatural Ability
Broad study is absolutely, 100% vital to this build, as I plan on delivering chill touches and curses via spellstrike fueled by my witch caster level. The third party feat is also essential, but if such a feat as I was describing by the fifth level thing exists, I can swap this for something else.
--8th--
Witch 2, Magus 6
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 6): 4|2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
--9th--
Witch 3, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 7): 4|2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Malice)
Malice is one of my biggest damage-dealers besides my magic. It's basically like having a small sneak attack, except it's not precision damage.
--10th--
Witch 4, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 8): 4|3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
--11th--
Witch 5, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 9): 4|3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Greater Grapple
This I think is the last of the "essential" feats. This will allow me to keep an enemy locked down while simultaneously fighting a second enemy or casting spells to more quickly take down the one I'm grappling. Or, it could allow me two checks so I can grapple an enemy and then pin it.
--12th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldtritch Knight 1
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 1, Witch 6, Magus 7
Witch Spells (CL 10): 4|3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Power Attack
--13th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 2
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 2, Witch 7, Magus 8
Witch Spells (CL 11) - 4|4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6) - 5|4/3
Feat: Cornugon Smash
--14th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 3
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 3, Witch 8, Magus 9
Witch Spells (CL 12): 4|4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
--15th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 4
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 4, Witch 9, Magus 10
Witch Spells (CL 13): 4|4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Sickening Grasp
This feat is nothing but fluff. :P I can easily swap it out.
--16th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 4
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 5, Witch 10, Magus 11
Witch Spells (CL 14): 4|4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Hurtful
This one, along with cornugon smash and power attack before it, have a chance to give me an extra attack as a swift action. While that's all well and good, that's three feats, one of which lowers my already low attack rolls.
--17th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 6, Witch 11, Magus 12
Witch Spells (CL 15): 4|4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Split Hex
--18th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 7
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 7, Witch 12, Magus 13
Witch Spells (CL 16): 4|4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
--19th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 8
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 8, Witch 13, Magus 14
Witch Spells (CL 17): 4|4/4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Wave of Mutilation
--20th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 9
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 9, Witch 14, Magus 15
Witch Spells (CL 18): 4|4/4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Body Shield
----------
So, I'm looking at a few potential options to replace some of the less essential stuff above. As mentioned, if there's a feat or two I could grab that would increase my effective witch level by at least three, that would be amazing, as it'd give my white hair an extra five feet of range and cap it out as far as the abilities I'm granted with it. However, I have a feeling nothing like that exists, so... yeah. Current things I'm looking at include:
Magus Arcana: Arcane Accuracy - With my BAB being fairly low to begin with and just middling later on, I could use the boost to my attack rolls.
Magus Arcana: Enduring Arcana - This means not having to use as many points from my arcane pool during an extended fight. However, since it's only going to improve the bonus to no more than six minutes, it may not be worth it.
Magus Arcana: Pool Strike - Better than using brand for spell combat. It's also nice that I can choose the energy type I'm going for. Not sure how I feel about it just being 3d6 though.
Magus Arcana: Damage Shield - DR6/- until the end of the round as an immediate action? Not too shabby. It could keep me alive in the early game if the DM throws a lot of foes with multiple weak attacks my way.
Magus Arcana: Familiar - As it is now my familiar only gets 6 Int and +3 natural armor. This would give him 11 Int and +6 natural armor, as well as allow him to speak with other crabby patties and nab him some spell resist. But then chance are he's still going to be spending most of his time in a cage in my character's backpack or stuffed into his hair.
Magus Arcana: Close Range - This would add on ray of frost and disrupt undead as cantrips I can spellstrike with, along with a couple of regular spells like enervation and ray of enfeeblement. It may not really be enough to make it worth it, though.
Rapid Grappler - A third grapple means I could feasibly grapple, pin, and tie up my enemy all in the space of a single round.
Kraken Style - Extra damage plus a bit of a bonus to grapple, always nice.
Magus archetype: Primagus - I can tack this onto my hexcrater archetype to give me spontaneous casting and allow me to spell combat with a 2H weapon (which would be fantastic, as it'd allow me the use of a falchion). However, my magus magic would then be cha based, and because I have no spellbook, I wouldn't be able to teach my familiar anything I've written down in my spellbook that's a common spell between the witch and magus lists.
Wouldn't you be better off just playing a Hexcrafter Magus?
The problem with this build is that Eldritch Knight and (with 1 exception) all other Paizo prestige classes(*) that progress spellcasting of your base classes only do this for one of them. This is in the text of the earlier prestige classes, including Eldritch Knight. So you don't get to progress both Magus and Witch spellcasting -- just one of them (and same deal for Diverse Training, which explicitly specifies just 1 arcane spellcasting class). The only exception is Mystic Theurge, which explicitly progresses 1 arcane spellcasting progression and 1 divine spellcastin progression (and even if you went Shaman or Spirit Guide Oracle instead of Hexcrafter Magus for your Hexing class to qualify for the dual progression, this would be iffy on really doing what you want, and you would have to jump through hoops to remain combat-capable with its d6 HD, 1/2 BAB (same problem as for pure White-Haired Witch, except that you are even more MAD and have to focus on not only your Witch casting, which is Intelligence-based, but also your Shaman or Spirit Guide Oracle casting, which is Wisdom- or Charisma- based). Also keep in mind that you would be restricted to Hexes that do not depend upon effective Witch level, because Eldritch Knight does not progress this (same for all other prestige classes except Winter Witch, which only works with the Winter Witch archetype anyway).
(*)D&D 3.5 had an "Ultimate Magus" prestige class that progressed the spellcasting of both a prepared arcane spellcasting class and a spontaneous spellcasting class. Still won't do what you want, because Eldritch Scion (for spontaneous casting) and Hexcrafter are incompatible archetypes of Magus, and Ley Line Guardian (for spontaneous spellcasting) and White Haired Witch are incompatible archetypes of Witch.
Since what White-Haired Witch gives you other than spellcasting is a Reach grappling weapon but no Hexes, one option would be to play a pure Hexcrafter Magus using a Whip instead of White Hair. Whips take a ton of feats to get good, though -- I don't know anything about the custom race you are playing, but see if it can get Whips treated as Martial (instead of Exotic) weapons -- this will help.
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Wouldn't you be better off just playing a Hexcrafter Magus?
Indeed. Hexcrafter will give you full progression on your hexes, which you otherwise won't have; more pool points; as well as more bonus feats/arcana/hexes. Also, you'll get third-level spells at 7th level (in your build, only at 11th), and so on.
Regardless of what you pick, Enduring Arcana and especially Pool Strike are pretty lacklustre as arcana go. Here's a Magus guide for you.
Wouldn't you be better off just playing a Hexcrafter Magus?
Nope. If I did so, I'd lose the hair, and as such the grapple. I'd also lose a lot of my witch spells unless I took jinx training, which is kinda trash IMO.
Witch with vmc magus.
Even worse. If I did this, not only would I not have spellstrike until 11th, but I'd lose my evil eye hex (and in the process my malice boost), but I'd also lose access to spell combat, which is my means of applying multiple charges of chill touch per round. Not to mention then I'd be running purely off of a witch's BAB, which... well, it's abysmal, andone of the main reasons I took eldritch knight rather than just putting the remaining levels into witch anyway.
The problem with this build is that Eldritch Knight and (with 1 exception) all other Paizo prestige classes(*) that progress spellcasting of your base classes only do this for one of them. This is in the text of the earlier prestige classes, including Eldritch Knight. So you don't get to progress both Magus and Witch spellcasting -- just one of them (and same deal for Diverse Training, which explicitly specifies just 1 arcane spellcasting class). The only exception is Mystic Theurge, which explicitly progresses 1 arcane spellcasting progression and 1 divine spellcastin progression (and even if you went Shaman or Spirit Guide Oracle instead of Hexcrafter Magus for your Hexing class to qualify for the dual progression, this would be iffy on really doing what you want, and you would have to jump through hoops to remain combat-capable with its d6 HD, 1/2 BAB (same problem as for pure White-Haired Witch, except that you are even more MAD and have to focus on not only your Witch casting, which is Intelligence-based, but also your Shaman or Spirit Guide Oracle casting, which is Wisdom- or Charisma- based). Also keep in mind that you would be restricted to Hexes that do not depend upon effective Witch level, because Eldritch Knight does not progress this (same for all other prestige classes except Winter Witch, which only works with the Winter Witch archetype anyway).
(*)D&D 3.5 had an "Ultimate Magus" prestige class that progressed the spellcasting of both a prepared arcane spellcasting class and a spontaneous spellcasting class. Still won't do what you want, because Eldritch Scion (for spontaneous casting) and Hexcrafter are incompatible archetypes of Magus, and Ley Line Guardian (for spontaneous spellcasting) and White Haired Witch are incompatible archetypes of Witch.
Since what White-Haired Witch gives you other than spellcasting is a Reach grappling weapon but no Hexes, one option would be to play a pure Hexcrafter Magus using a Whip instead of White Hair. Whips take a ton of feats to get good, though -- I don't know anything about the custom race you are playing, but see if it can get Whips treated as Martial (instead of Exotic) weapons -- this will help.
Huh. I was under the impression, the way it was worded, that it applied those effective levels to all arcane casting classes under your belt. As in "magus is an arcane caster, so it gets levels, and witch is an arcane caster, so it gets levels."
As I mentioned above, I can use a primagus archetype, as it should be compatible with hexcrafter and gives me spontaneous casting (at the cost of those spells being Cha based, but again, I want to focus on my witch spells), and it'll let me qualify for ultimate magus. I'm not completely sold on it since it's a spellcaster first, and this guy is a grappler first who is more meant to heavily augment his attacks with magic, but it's rather tempting, especially the expanded knowledge class ability that allows me to sacrifice one class's spells to apply metamagic to another. I mentioned not having a lot of concern for magus magic, and converting its stat to Charisma weakens it anyway since I'm focused on Strength and Intelligence, so I could easily sacrifice primagus spell slots for metamagics. I'll definitely think about it.
The custom race is dogfolk, and doesn't provide any sort of racial weapons or anything aside from a 1d4 bite, a bonus feat to drag (which I wasn't entirely sure whether to take or not), and a 1/day reroll on a nat 1 from a d20. Honestly it was taken more for the flavor than anything else, as I immediately got the idea of a Komondor dog man slinging his dreadlocks around. Consequently, though, it's not a race that gives me a whole lot of functional boons with this class and build, but none of the races our DM is allowing do, really.
I'm afraid whips aren't really an option here. Looking into it, I need five feats just to be able to grapple with a whip, and doing so isn't an attack, which means I can't spellstrike with a whip and grapple with it simultaneously. Furthermore, I'd need a sixth to pull an enemy into melee. And this is on top of needing all those grapple feats. This is opposed to taking those witch levels and not only getting a weapon that has 10 foot reach and can grapple, but can also be used to trip instead, and if I do grapple, both my hands are still free unless I'm holding a weapon (although mechanically I still can't spell combat with a 2H or two weapons unless I take the primagus archetype as mentioned above). I do appreciate the suggestion though.
Just wanted to add a note to the above: I also was thinking on the ectoplasmatist spiritualist. Like the option of full hexcrafter, though, this one doesn't give me a grapple with the spellstrike-like part of spiritual combat, I still lose a lot of the spells I want. I still get chill touch and the inflict spells, and the inflicts come earlier than they do to witches, but I don't get any of the mass versions of them. In addition, a spiritualist's "spellstrike" can't retain a spell charge when it misses, whereas I believe a magus can. So unfortunately that's not really an option either.
Primagus archetype of Magus actually looks better than Eldritch Scion. It still has the bug of not replacing Spell Recall with something useful for a spontaneous caster, but in this case it works in your favor since Hexcrafter Magus replaces that. Note that by strict Rules As Written the archetypes are not compatible because they both modify spellcasting, which is not split out into sub-features on the spell table (Primagus and Eldritch Scion both make it spontaneous, and Hexcrafter adds spells to your spell list). But if you are allowed to use D&D 3.5 stuff, chances are your GM will let that slide.
It looks like you won't be able to get exactly the combination you want from currently available Paizo classes or VMC. (By the way, DON'T take VMC Witch -- it's terrible beyond rescue, and doesn't have a VMC White-Haired Witch option either.)
But here's another thought: Monstrous Physique II (4th level Magus spell) and up gets you Grab if you morph into some kind of Monstrous Humanoid (which can still cast spells) that has it natively. So if you can find a Large or larger Monstrous Humanoid form to morph into that has this ability, you're covered as a pure Hexcrafter Magus -- according to this guide, you can use Annis (primary attacks bite + 2 claws with Grab), Girtablilu (manufactured weapon + 2 secondary claw attacks with Grab), or Nependis (primary attacks gore + 2 claws with Grab) for this purpose with Monstrous Physique II, but the higher level spells do't get you larger forms that also have Grab, although Monstrous Physique IV with Annis adds Rend. However, you could cast Long Arm to extend your reach, although it only adds to the effect of Monstrous Physique rather than adding (actually same deal as combining it with Enlarge Person; note that you can't combine Enlarge Person with Monstrous Physique; Longarm Bracers strangely use Alter Self instead of Long Arm to achieve their effect, so they might not be compatible with Monstrous Physique either). Also check the guide for other polymorphing spells that can get you Grab, although keep in mind that some of them won't let you cast spells unless you have Still Spell, Silent Spell, and Eschew Materials (some of these might not be needed for certain spells). Although this option gets online later than being a Hexcrafter-Primagus/White-Haired Witch/Ultimate Magus, it will be more solid, because you will have better BAB and hit points and a better Fortitude save, and the Strength bonus of Monstrous Physique II + Large form (minus the inherent attack roll penalty for Large form) will almost compensate for not getting the Intelligence bonus on the attack rolls.
Alright, I've been looking at ways to improve this build, and found two methods. I ended up ditching the 3.5 abilities since I don't want to only have range on my hair once per day, and while sickening at will is nice, it's just not that important that early on. I also traded improved unarmed strike out for dirty fighting, since I never did have a use for unarmed strikes and that grants me the benefit of not provoking with my trip if I use my hair to do so while flanking an enemy. I also replaced the practiced spellcaster feat with improve spell level, which is basically that for all casting classes, at the expense of it being a 3rd party feat. Same goes for the enlarge supernatural ability feat being swapped for touch spell control. Lastly I added throat slasher as a bonus feat; it seems like it'd combo well with the improved grapple line (through which I could take my full turn to just pluck the enemy up off the ground and tie him up), and the next turn if my enemy doesn't escape my bonds I can deliver a coup de grace. Even if it isn't an outright kill, that's an automatic critical hit with which I might be able to deliver a charge I'm holding via touch spell control.
----------
Strength - 14 (2 mod)
Dexterity - 14 (2 mod)
Constitution - 14 (2 mod)
Intellect - 17 (3 mod)
Wisdom - 11 (+2) (1 mod)
Charisma - 12 (+2) (2 mod)
--1st--
Witch (White Haired Witch) 1
Familiar: 1st (King Crab)
Patron: Water
White Hair: 5 ft Reach, Grab
BAB: +0
F/R/W: +0/+0/+2
Witch Spells (CL 1) - 3|1
Feat: Dirty Fighting
Trait: Two-World Magic (Create Water)
Trait: Diver
Trait: Bastard
Drawback: Burned
--2nd--
Witch 1, Magus (Hexcrafter) 1
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +0
F/R/W: +2/+0/+4
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Arcane Pool
Spell Combat
--3rd--
Witch 1, Magus 2
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +1
F/R/W: +3/+0/+5
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 2): 4|2
Spellstrike
Feat: Improved Grapple
--4th--
Witch 1, Magus 3
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +2
F/R/W: +3/+1/+5
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 3): 4|3
Magus Arcana: Accursed Strike
--5th--
Witch 1, Magus 4
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 5): 4|3/1
Magus Hex: Evil Eye
Feat: Improved Caster Level
--6th--
Witch 1, Magus 5
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 4|4/2
Combat/Item Creation/Metamagic Feat: Craft Wondrous Item
--7th--
Witch 1, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +4
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 7): 5|4/3
Magus Arcana: Broad Study (Witch)
Feat: Touch Spell Control
--8th--
Witch 2, Magus 6
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 2nd
White Hair: Constrict
Patron Spell: Bless Water, Curse Water
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +4/+1/+7
Witch Spells (CL 6): 4|2
Magus Spells (CL 8): 5|4/3
--9th--
Witch 3, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 3rd
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +5/+2/+7
Witch Spells (CL 7): 4|2/1
Magus Spells (CL 9): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Malice)
--10th--
Witch 4, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 4th
White Hair: 10 ft Reach, Trip
Patron Spell: Slipstream
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +6/+2/+8
Witch Spells (CL 8): 4|3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--11th--
Witch 5, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 5th
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +6/+2/+8
Witch Spells (CL 9): 4|3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Greater Grapple
--12th--
Witch 6, Magus 6
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 6th
White Hair: Pull
Patron Spell: Water Breathing
BAB: +6/+1
F/R/W: +7/+3/+9
Witch Spells (CL 10): 4|3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--13th--
Witch 7, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 13th
BAB: +6/+1
F/R/W: +7/+3/+9
Witch Spells (CL 11) - 4|4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10) - 5|4/3
Feat: Magus Arcana (Familiar)
--14th--
Witch 8, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 14th
White Hair: 15 ft Reach, Strangle
Patron Spell: Control Water
BAB: +7/+2
F/R/W: +7/+3/+10
Witch Spells (CL 12): 4|4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--15th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 1
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 14th
Diverse Training: Fighter 1, Witch 9, Magus 7
BAB: +8/+3
F/R/W: +8/+3/+10
Witch Spells (CL 13): 4|4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Rapid Grappler
--16th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 2
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 14th
Diverse Training: Fighter 2, Witch 10, Magus 8
BAB: +9/+4
F/R/W: +8/+4/+11
Witch Spells (CL 14): 4|4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Combat Feat: Combat Reflexes
--17th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 3
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 14th
Diverse Training: Fighter 3, Witch 11, Magus 9
BAB: +10/+5
F/R/W: +9/+4/+11
Witch Spells (CL 15): 4|4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Arcane Accuracy)
--18th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 4
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 14th
Diverse Training: Fighter 4, Witch 12, Magus 10
BAB: +11/+6/+1
F/R/W: +9/+4/+11
Witch Spells (CL 16): 4|4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--19th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 5
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 18th
Diverse Training: Fighter 5, Witch 13, Magus 11
BAB: +12/+7/+2
F/R/W: +10/+5/+12
Witch Spells (CL 17): 4|4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Boon Companion
--20th--
Witch 8, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 6
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 18th
Diverse Training: Fighter 6, Witch 14, Magus 12
BAB: +13/+8/+3
F/R/W: +10/+5/+12
Witch Spells (CL 18): 4|4/4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Combat Feat: Throat Slicer
Strength - 14 (2 mod)
Dexterity - 14 (2 mod)
Constitution - 14 (2 mod)
Intellect - 17 (3 mod)
Wisdom - 11 (+2) (1 mod)
Charisma - 12 (+2) (2 mod)
Deity: Gozreh
--1st--
Witch (White Haired Witch) 1
Familiar: 1st (King Crab)
Patron: Water
White Hair: 5 ft Reach, Grab
BAB: +0
F/R/W: +0/+0/+2
Witch Spells (CL 1) - 3|1
Feat: Dirty Fighting
Trait: Two-World Magic (Create Water)
Trait: Diver
Trait: Bastard
Drawback: Burned
--2nd--
Witch 1, Magus (Hexcrafter) 1
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +0
F/R/W: +2/+0/+4
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Arcane Pool
Spell Combat
--3rd--
Witch 1, Magus 2
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +1
F/R/W: +3/+0/+5
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 2): 4|2
Spellstrike
Feat: Improved Grapple
--4th--
Witch 1, Magus 3
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +2
F/R/W: +3/+1/+5
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 3): 4|3
Magus Arcana: Accursed Strike
--5th--
Witch 1, Magus 4
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 5): 4|3/1
Magus Hex: Evil Eye
Feat: Deific Obedience
--6th--
Witch 1, Magus 5
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 4|4/2
Combat/Item Creation/Metamagic Feat: Craft Wondrous Item
--7th--
Witch 1, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 1st
BAB: +4
F/R/W: +4/+1/+6
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 7): 5|4/3
Magus Arcana: Broad Study (Witch)
Feat: Touch Spell Control
--8th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 1
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 1st
Obedience
Skilled
BAB: +4
F/R/W: +4/+2/+6
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 8): 5|4/3
--9th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 2
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 2nd
Aligned Class: Witch 2
Protective Grace: +1 AC
White Hair: Constrict
Patron Spell: Bless Water, Curse Water
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +4/+2/+6
Witch Spells (CL 2): 4|2
Magus Spells (CL 9): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Malice)
--10th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 3
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 3rd
Aligned Class: Witch 3
Divine Boon: Weather Watcher
BAB: +6/+1
F/R/W: +5/+3/+7
Witch Spells (CL 3): 4|2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--11th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 4
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 4th
Aligned Class: Witch 4
White Hair: 10 ft Reach, Trip
Gift of Tongues
Patron Spell: Slipstream
BAB: +7/+2
F/R/W: +5/+3/+7
Witch Spells (CL 8): 4|3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Improved Caster Level
--12th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 5
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 5th
Aligned Class: Witch 5
Multitude of Talents
BAB: +7/+2
F/R/W: +5/+4/+7
Witch Spells (CL 9): 4|3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--13th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 6th
Aligned Class: Witch 6
White Hair: Pull
Experienced Traveler
Patron Spell: Water Breathing
BAB: +8/+3
F/R/W: +6/+4/+8
Witch Spells (CL 10) - 4|3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10) - 5|4/3
Feat: Greater Grapple
--14th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 7
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 7th
Aligned Class: Witch 7
Protective Grace: +2 AC
BAB: +9/+4
F/R/W: +6/+5/+8
Witch Spells (CL 11): 4|4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--15th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 8
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 8th
Aligned Class: Witch 8
White Hair: 15 ft Reach, Strangle
Gift of Tongues
Patron Spell: Control Water
BAB: +10/+5
F/R/W: +6/+5/+8
Witch Spells (CL 12): 4|4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Rapid Grappler
--16th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 9
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 9th
Aligned Class: Witch 9
Divine Boon: Elemental Ally
BAB: +10/+5
F/R/W: +7/+6/+9
Witch Spells (CL 13): 4|4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
--17th--
Witch 1, Magus 6, Evangelist 10
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 10th
Aligned Class: Witch 10
Rogue Talent: Combat Trick
Spiritual Form: +4 Int, Wings, Fly (40 feet)
Patron Spell: Geyser
BAB: +11/+6/+1
F/R/W: +7/+6/+9
Witch Spells (CL 14): 4|4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 10): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Arcane Accuracy)
Bonus Combat Feat: Combat Reflexes
--18th--
Witch 1, Magus 7, Evangelist 10
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 10th
Aligned Class: Witch 10
Knowledge Pool
Medium Armor
BAB: +12/+7/+2
F/R/W: +7/+6/+10
Witch Spells (CL 14): 4|4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 11): 5|4/3/1
--19th--
Witch 2, Magus 7, Evangelist 10
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 18th
Aligned Class: Witch 11
BAB: +13/+8/+3
F/R/W: +7/+6/+11
Witch Spells (CL 15): 4|4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 11): 5|4/3/1
Feat: Extra Arcana (Familiar)
--20th--
Witch 3, Magus 7, Evangelist 10
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Familiar: 19th
Aligned Class: Witch 12
White Hair: 20 ft Reach
Rogue Talent: Combat Trick
Patron Spell: Elemental Body III (water)
BAB: +13/+8/+3
F/R/W: +8/+7/+11
Witch Spells (CL 16): 4|4/4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 11): 5|4/3/1
Bonus Combat Feat: Throat Slicer
----------
I'm strongly leaning toward the second build of the two. I get a lower witch caster level, but it's better in pretty much every way. The downside is that he's locked into a neutral alignment and, with his obedience taking another hour on top of the hour he's spending on communing with his crab and the hour he's spending studying his magus spellbook, we're looking at 3 hours of prep work per day to get him ready to go. I'm also not 100% sure if they gain spells per day, so if not, I don't think it'd be worth it.
Oh, I've also decided that I'll be attaching a valet archetype to my familiar. It'll make it a little easier to deliver touch spells to allies in the beginning, before I have enough range on my hair to do so, as well as help me out with crafting. I had little intention of using him extensively in battle aside from delivering touch spells anyway.
Multiclassing with White Haired Witch and Hexcrafter Magus seems like a solid way to have your cake and eat it too.
I started a thread that dealt with some of these topics. Wrestling with White Haired Witch
The thing that struck me as really cool about White Haired Witch is that you could take Great Cleave, and Cleaving with White Hair, potentially have ALL your opponents you hit Grappled simultaneously! You are not Grappled yourself, you you are still capable of doing lots of wicked things.
The thing I like doing with Greater Grapple is Tying my opponents Up. I dip 2 levels in Cavalier, Order of the Penitent. The Expert Captor Order Ability lets you Tie Up a Grappled--not Pinned!--opponent and you don't take the usual -10 when you do it. So if you begin the round adjacent to your opponent, you can Initiate your Grapple as a Standard Action then Tie Up your opponent as a Move Action. And it is not too hard to bring your Grapple Mod up shockingly high.
If you have Greater Grapple, Expert Captor, Great Cleave, and White Hair, you might Great Cleave as a Standard Action, Initiate Grapples with many of them as Free Actions, then Tie Up one of them as a Move Action. If you have Rapid Grappler, you might Tie Up a second opponent. If you take 4 levels in WHW, the reach of your hair increases 5', so after Grappling multiple opponents, you might then take a 5' step back, so that if any of them in their rounds make successful Grapple attacks against you, all they can do is escape the Grapple, not Grapple you back.
Man, you're making me wish I could afford to dip into Cavalier XD This is actually a good idea for this character's mother, since she's a more pure-blooded witch (although one who never got to develop her abilities, so it's be more of a "what if" build, or possibly something I could provide for my DM if he wants to have her ghost or a doppleganger of her as an NPC). To be fair though I think the limit here is three creatures if you don't want to risk being trapped by them unless you'd be allowed to pile creatures you grapple into non-adjacent squares or just not move them at all.
It doesn't look to me like you are really taking a lot of 3rd and 3.5 Feats. While I do like the idea of combining WHW and Hexcrafter, the potential of creating truly broken horrendous monstrosity characters by combining Pathfinder, 3rd, and 3.5 Feats is just too good to back up!
Are you allowed to take 3.5 Races?
Ancestral Relic lets you customize a magic item: make yourself a +1 Shatterspike, Adamantine Earthbreaker of the Titans.
Greater Sunder lets residual damage pass through to the wielder.
Deadly Concussion causes again as much damage to hit the wielder when you Sunder his Armor or Shield.
Combat Brute gives you a Free Attack when you Sunder your opponent's weapon or shield.
The 3.0 version of Improved Sunder lets you do double damage when Sundering opponents' weapons.
There is a 3.0 Feat Knockdown which gives you a free Trip attempt whenever you inflict more then 10 points of damage on an opponent.
The 3.5 version of Improved Trip gives you a Free Attack, not an AoO on them as they go down. So then go ahead and take Greater Trip and Vicious Stomp, too, and get those AoOs!
The 3.5 Feat Pushback gives you a Free Bull Rush with every hit.
Greater Bull Rush gives your allies an Attack of Opportunity with every Bull Rush. The 3.5 Improved Bull Rush grants AoOs to your allies.
Paired Opportunist gives you an AoO whenever your Allies get one.
If you have the 3.5 Feat Shock Trooper and you Bull Rush one opponent into another, you get a free Trip attempt against both.
Then go ahead and multiply that by however many opponents you can hit with Great Cleave!
Between the 3 systems, you can have a character making multiple attacks that cascade into multiple free attacks, some of them doing octuple damage! You'll be doing more than a thousand points of damage by level 8.
Afraid the races are locked. While he's happy to allow 3rd and 3.5 feats, we're locked into a specific selection of races in this campaign, none of which really are perfectly ideal for what I wanna do with this character. There is one race that gets the human traits for choosing your bonus score and getting a bonus feat, but none of the other choices for that race appeal to me.
I'm not 100% sure about the sunder range of feats, although it seems pretty fun. It kinda depends on an enemy having equipment, doesn't it? Also I'm unsure if one can sunder with the hair attack (though, considering you're essentially attacking an item rather than a person, it might be possible). I'd have to be sure I'm facing a lot of humanoids reliant on their equipment.
3.5 Improved Trip looks like it'd be a great option, since I get a swift-action trip with my hair. I don't think the hair attack would have the trip weapon trait even when it can trip, though, and with my BAB being so low I really need to focus down on it to make it useful, or at the least use it as the first hit of a spell combat hit after dragging an enemy adjacent to me with my hair and make sure I'm using a trip weapon in the attempt (most likely a sickle or hanbo). Honestly I like great throw since I get to give up my attack from the trip attempt in lieu of putting the tripped enemy anywhere I please. I do love how 3.5 improved trip interacts with vicious stomp and knock-down, though.
Lemme see how that'd work out. My normal full-attack routine would give me five attacks if I happen to be hasted, so. Spellstrike a spell, grapple the opponent with the hair, bring them to me, and it provokes a free trip from knock-down, which then gives me an AoO. Then each successive attack gives me two more strikes guaranteed (the regular hit, which will trip the opponent again, which will provoke an AoO). Again not very good with this build, but on a pure witch, or witch 5 evangelist 10 (Magus/Arcanist/full BAB class) 5? Yeesh. That's... like, 11 attacks.
Anyway. Yeah, unfortunate as it is, most of this isn't going to work so well with this build. However you're giving me a LOT of ways to make WHW or a martial class that dips at least witch 4 really good.
Quick note on the evangelist version of the build: turns out I wouldn't be able to nab that last combat feat at 20th since I can't grab combat trick more than once (Boooooooooo!). None of the other rogue talents available really draw me in, but assault leader, positioning attack, resiliency, and weapon training all seem decent enough, though not really capstone material. Minor magic might work too if there's a cantrip you don't get as either magus or witch that you'd like to try, although I believe only haunted fey aspect is PFS legal, and even the rest aren't that useful at 20th. Chances are the best use would be weapon training (grapple) or weapon training (hair).
Improved Caster Level seems brokenly strong for a single feat, giving you +4 on all your spellcasting classes (and it even stacks with itself) -- based upon Magical Knack being a trait that gives you +2 on one class, I would have said that a feat giving you +4 on 1 class would be fair. With it as it is from Open Design LLC, you could almost make a hypothetical tritheurge prestige class work. But it is what it is . . .
Good find on Dirty Fighting -- looks like Paizo finally gave us a way to trade the Combat Expertise feat tax for a feat tax that is actually useful.
One thing I worry about both builds above is that you go for a long time with a very low-level Witch Familiar, which will be very squishy, but upon which you depend for spell storage. Probably want to move the Magus Arcana Familiar to as early as you can (use Extra Arcana if you have to to make this fit). Also, you should probably make your first level be Magus instead of White-Haired Witch, to get better hit points (maxed d8 instead of maxed d6).
Finally, I think Eldritch Knight Diverse Training was only meant to apply to one arcane spellcasting class (same as with the spellcasting progression), although the wording is not absolutely clear.
Improved Caster Level seems brokenly strong for a single feat, giving you +4 on all your spellcasting classes (and it even stacks with itself) -- based upon Magical Knack being a trait that gives you +2 on one class, I would have said that a feat giving you +4 on 1 class would be fair. With it as it is from Open Design LLC, you could almost make a hypothetical tritheurge prestige class work. But it is what it is . . .
Good find on Dirty Fighting -- looks like Paizo finally gave us a way to trade the Combat Expertise feat tax for a feat tax that is actually useful.
One thing I worry about both builds above is that you go for a long time with a very low-level Witch Familiar, which will be very squishy, but upon which you depend for spell storage. Probably want to move the Magus Arcana Familiar to as early as you can (use Extra Arcana if you have to to make this fit). Also, you should probably make your first level be Magus instead of White-Haired Witch, to get better hit points (maxed d8 instead of maxed d6).
Finally, I think Eldritch Knight Diverse Training was only meant to apply to one arcane spellcasting class (same as with the spellcasting progression), although the wording is not absolutely clear.
Yep, but as far as I know, my DM's allowing 3rd party feats and spells. He's only banning the use of races that don't fit with his campaign and 3rd party and occult classes. He did ban Gozreh as a god for the campaign as well, but we're working together on one that fits both his world and my character, so it's no big deal. Having a deity to worship was mostly tax to take evangelist anyway.
Also I was worried about familiar progression too. I could probably swap out accursed strike, since I'm not really losing much in doing so. There's not a lot of curse spells that aren't touch range, so I'll be able to deliver most once I get broad study anyway.
That said, I'm contemplating putting the 7th magus level before evangelist so he gets knowledge pool, as that seems like an infinitely useful ability to have. It also grants me access to 3rd level magus spells, which means I get haste, air breathing (for my crab), elemental aura (helps if I've grappled multiple creatures and surrounded myself with them), sundered serpent coil, psychic leech, monstrous physique I... so many helpful spells. Even though none seem to be damaging touch attacks that I don't already get with witch.
Another problem is that King Crabs need to be kept in water (and if the water is very confined, you need something to keep it aerated). Unfortunately, I don't see another Familiar on the Witch or Wizard table that grants a +2 bonus on CMB checks or anything else having to do with Grappling.
Another problem is that King Crabs need to be kept in water (and if the water is very confined, you need something to keep it aerated). Unfortunately, I don't see another Familiar on the Witch or Wizard table that grants a +2 bonus on CMB checks or anything else having to do with Grappling.
I believe they can stay out of water for 12 hours (1 hour per point of Constitution, so it's variable), which should be about a full day of adventuring so long as my character doesn't somehow get captured (which, considering he's going the evangelist route, would be something of a death sentence for him when he's unable to perform his obedience for the day). Also, yes, there is a portable fish bowl, but instead I plan on sealing up the air holes in a familiar satchel and using create water to fill it, at least until I can afford to get an aquarium ball. That way my crab gets full cover. During battles he can hide in my dude's dreadlocks (which I would assume gives him full cover unless an enemy specifically aims for his head, though that's something up to my DM to decide). In a pinch, he could overturn a bowl or cup with mage hand and fill it with create water, or dig a hole in soft earth with his hands, cast carry companion, merge with familiar, or polymorph familiar on him. There's a lot of options to keep him from drying out, so long as I have the right spells prepared or the right tools at my disposal. Actually, now that I think of it, would an aquarium ball provide full cover...?
That said, if I can access someone who could cast permanency on an air breathing or polymorph familiar spell, that'll be a goal of mine so my crab won't need to worry about staying in a cage unless he wants the protection.