Its a very risky endeavour, and makes me sometimes want to pass on any ranged touch attacks ie. ray of exhaustion. What are some excellent ways to successfully land ranged touch attacks for a witch? Oh and I was wondering can ranged touch attacks be switched to melee touch attacks if you run up to the enemy and touch them? (Sorry part of this question should probably be in the rules forum).
Last part first, no, ranged is ranged.
The first part, touch attacks are fairly easy to start with, but improving accuracy: boost your dex (good idea for a witch anyway), feat wise you can take weapon focus for ray, and point blank and precise shot to help with firing into melee. After that generic attack roll boosters like prayer or inspire courage.
That's strange because I thought you could make a melee touch attack into a ranged one
Witches have hexes too, so sticking a certain penalty hex on your target first lowers their touch AC and AC by 2 (4 at 8th level) that the cackle hex lets you maintain in trade for your move actions. The AC penalty helps the whole group light the target up, so there's fairly decent odds you won't be worrying about landing a ray of exhaustion overly often.
Melee touch spells are what you're looking for, of which vampiric touch is a particularly nasty one to make extensive use of along with chill touch. Both of which are prime candidates along with ghoul touch to use via spectral hand which lets you deliver up to 4th level Necromancy spells as melee touch attacks by remote device. It's somewhat squishy though.
Normally a Witch doesn't really want to wade into melee. Lacking armor of any consequence without spells forces you to rely primarily on your Dex for defense. Since you're usually only pairing that with mage armor for quite a while ...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
To your last question, no for a witch. A magus can take the close range arcana to do so.
Some useful means to land those ranged touch attacks - be hidden (stealth) or invisible. You don't get invisibility spells on your list but if an elf you do get Blend, or a potion/scroll of vanish is pretty cheap. If you get a means to see thru fog like fog-cutting lenses then fog between you and the enemy has a similar effect, and the barrow haze spell does this inherently. Blinding spells like glitterdust also work for this.
Entangle the enemy with tanglefoot bags or the shadow trap spell, or cold spells with the rime spell metamagic applied.
If you're going to do this a lot get the point blank shot and precise shot feats.
Grapple the enemy with the web, strangling hair or black tentacles spells.
Witches have hexes too, so sticking a certain penalty hex on your target first lowers their touch AC and AC by 2 (4 at 8th level) that the cackle hex lets you maintain in trade for your move actions. The AC penalty helps the whole group light the target up, so there's fairly decent odds you won't be worrying about landing a ray of exhaustion overly often.
Melee touch spells are what you're looking for, of which vampiric touch is a particularly nasty one to make extensive use of along with chill touch. Both of which are prime candidates along with ghoul touch to use via spectral hand which lets you deliver up to 4th level Necromancy spells as melee touch attacks by remote device. It's somewhat squishy though.
Normally a Witch doesn't really want to wade into melee. Lacking armor of any consequence without spells forces you to rely primarily on your Dex for defense. Since you're usually only pairing that with mage armor for quite a while ...
I didn't know the Evil Eye -2 AC applied to there touch AC, that's awesome.
I didn't know the Evil Eye -2 AC applied to there touch AC, that's awesome.Witches have hexes too, so sticking a certain penalty hex on your target first lowers their touch AC and AC by 2 (4 at 8th level) that the cackle hex lets you maintain in trade for your move actions. The AC penalty helps the whole group light the target up, so there's fairly decent odds you won't be worrying about landing a ray of exhaustion overly often.
Melee touch spells are what you're looking for, of which vampiric touch is a particularly nasty one to make extensive use of along with chill touch. Both of which are prime candidates along with ghoul touch to use via spectral hand which lets you deliver up to 4th level Necromancy spells as melee touch attacks by remote device. It's somewhat squishy though.
Normally a Witch doesn't really want to wade into melee. Lacking armor of any consequence without spells forces you to rely primarily on your Dex for defense. Since you're usually only pairing that with mage armor for quite a while ...
It penalizes AC, touch AC and CMD all in one go. Penalties are fun like that. :)
Witches have hexes too, so sticking a certain penalty hex on your target first lowers their touch AC and AC by 2 (4 at 8th level) that the cackle hex lets you maintain in trade for your move actions. The AC penalty helps the whole group light the target up, so there's fairly decent odds you won't be worrying about landing a ray of exhaustion overly often.
Melee touch spells are what you're looking for, of which vampiric touch is a particularly nasty one to make extensive use of along with chill touch. Both of which are prime candidates along with ghoul touch to use via spectral hand which lets you deliver up to 4th level Necromancy spells as melee touch attacks by remote device. It's somewhat squishy though.
Normally a Witch doesn't really want to wade into melee. Lacking armor of any consequence without spells forces you to rely primarily on your Dex for defense. Since you're usually only pairing that with mage armor for quite a while ...
Sadly I just noticed Witches don't get Ghoul touch :( it was the best one of the lot. What's so good about vampiric touch? Am I missing something?
To your last question, no for a witch. A magus can take the close range arcana to do so.
Some useful means to land those ranged touch attacks - be hidden (stealth) or invisible. You don't get invisibility spells on your list but if an elf you do get Blend, or a potion/scroll of vanish is pretty cheap. If you get a means to see thru fog like fog-cutting lenses then fog between you and the enemy has a similar effect, and the barrow haze spell does this inherently. Blinding spells like glitterdust also work for this.
Entangle the enemy with tanglefoot bags or the shadow trap spell, or cold spells with the rime spell metamagic applied.
If you're going to do this a lot get the point blank shot and precise shot feats.
Grapple the enemy with the web, strangling hair or black tentacles spells.
We do have an alchemist in the group, he would make a great candidate for the tanglefoot bags.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Get a hold of any buffs that increase your attack rolls. Bless adds +1 morale, or at later levels Heroism gives +2 morale. Haste adds +1 untyped. Reduce Person will add +2 to your ranged touch attacks (+1 size, +1 Dex). Invisibility adds +2 untyped and denies the opponent their Dexterity to AC. Prayer adds +1 luck. All these spells are available from your teammates or yourself at 5th level or up, and should be something your group is doing at the start of combat. That would total +7 to your touch attacks, not counting boosts to your Dex or debuffs on the enemy like entangle.
Sadly I just noticed Witches don't get Ghoul touch :( it was the best one of the lot. What's so good about vampiric touch? Am I missing something?Witches have hexes too, so sticking a certain penalty hex on your target first lowers their touch AC and AC by 2 (4 at 8th level) that the cackle hex lets you maintain in trade for your move actions. The AC penalty helps the whole group light the target up, so there's fairly decent odds you won't be worrying about landing a ray of exhaustion overly often.
Melee touch spells are what you're looking for, of which vampiric touch is a particularly nasty one to make extensive use of along with chill touch. Both of which are prime candidates along with ghoul touch to use via spectral hand which lets you deliver up to 4th level Necromancy spells as melee touch attacks by remote device. It's somewhat squishy though.
Normally a Witch doesn't really want to wade into melee. Lacking armor of any consequence without spells forces you to rely primarily on your Dex for defense. Since you're usually only pairing that with mage armor for quite a while ...
slumber hex, coup de grace via vampiric touch, get the auto-crit result as temporary hit points. If it survives and awakens as a result of the damage, you've siphoned off a truckload of your victim's hit points and now the poor bugger is prone. Hopefully next to a sneak attacker or the BSF grinning with a pickaxe in hand....
The other thing about ranged touch attacks is to get a feel for which enemies have low touch AC. The bigger the monster, the easier they are to hit. For example, a Purple Worm has AC 26, Flat Footed AC 26, Touch AC 4.
The other thing about ranged touch attacks is to get a feel for which enemies have low touch AC. The bigger the monster, the easier they are to hit. For example, a Purple Worm has AC 26, Flat Footed AC 26, Touch AC 4.
Note that this means ranged touch and fort saves are a poor combo. The biggest creatures can have amazing fort save bonuses.
Or Gnome, gnomes get some fun options as a Witch.
By the time you hit 9th level and have saved up 2500 gp worth of diamond dust, pick permanency and drop a permanent reduce person on yourself the first day after you hit 9th level.
Size Tiny for more attack bonus, Dex bonus, AC, Fly bonus and Stealth bonus!
Dunno about PFS if that's a concern.
To your last question, no for a witch. A magus can take the close range arcana to do so.
Some useful means to land those ranged touch attacks - be hidden (stealth) or invisible. You don't get invisibility spells on your list but if an elf you do get Blend, or a potion/scroll of vanish is pretty cheap. If you get a means to see thru fog like fog-cutting lenses then fog between you and the enemy has a similar effect, and the barrow haze spell does this inherently. Blinding spells like glitterdust also work for this.
Entangle the enemy with tanglefoot bags or the shadow trap spell, or cold spells with the rime spell metamagic applied.
If you're going to do this a lot get the point blank shot and precise shot feats.
Grapple the enemy with the web, strangling hair or black tentacles spells.
Thanks! Just one question. Say I used a scroll of vanish to become hidden how would that give me a bonus to hit from range vs my enemy? And how much would the bonus be?
