Undead are very tricky for a witch. I have only a few suggestions and I'm not an expert by any means.
For hexes, you can use Healing and Major Healing though according to the FAQ I believe the undead would still get a will save for half damage. That said, it is also a touch attack, which you should likely avoid--though this does depend on your build.
The Retribution Hex may serve to deal some damage to undead, but does require the target to make melee attacks and deal damage.
Witches (depending on patron) do get access to spells like Greater Heroism, Righteous Might, Divine Power, and Divine Favor. With spells like that (and buff spells like Bulls Strength), you can make yourself fairly respectable in melee. This is patron and build dependent however.
Looking at Bestow Curse, I'm pretty sure undead are not immune to it. If you combined it with the reach metamagic feat, you can stay out of melee range and give the vampire a a 50% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action. Not too bad.
Greater Curse doesn't even need the metamagic feat, its close range and the DC is higher.
And last, you could always bump Use Magic Device and pick up some scrolls or wands with wizard spells that could work around their immunities.
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a potion of bull's strength, which you drink and whose effects are subsumed by the spell effects)
EFFECT
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level
DESCRIPTION
You become a fighting machine - stronger, tougher, faster, and more skilled in combat. Your mindset changes so that you relish combat and you can't cast spells, even from magic items.
You gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, a +4 natural armor bonus to AC, a +5 competence bonus on Fortitude saves, and proficiency with all simple and martial weapons. Your base attack bonus equals your character level (which may give you multiple attacks).
You lose your spellcasting ability, including your ability to use spell activation or spell completion magic items, just as if the spells were no longer on your class list.
Is it just me or is this spell underwhelming? I want to use it in play, but I can’t bring myself to. Has anyone used this effectively in play? Anyone ever make a build based on Transformation? I’m wondering if it’s possible to make a pure caster who uses this spell in combat effectively.
I'm not sure what feats would be helpful beyond something like Power Attack, or if there is any gear that could make this more viable.
I searched the forum but wasn’t able to locate anything.
Maybe it’s just that lame?
I've given this some thought over the past few days and wondered about some of the hidden ramifications of doing so. One of the benefits, I think is that it would make for a more dynamic maneuver filled combat, since the primary deterrent to many of these is the AoO. Its a given that it will renders some feats useless, or nearly useless. Feats a tier above could simply be moved down to fill the slot of the previous feat. Casting would become easier, reach would be slightly less useful, abilities such as Come and Get Me could still create attacks. I'm wondering if there's anything game breaking that would rear up. Would trip be too good? Perhaps, but as it is now, I find it rarely used at all. Movement would be less restricted and much of the debate on where and when something provokes would be removed. Large advantages in my opinion. Thoughts?
Have you heard of Trailblazer? It bills itself as a 'system optimizer' for 3.5; it presents an alternate to the core AoO rules.
It reduces the instances in which you get an AoO and also limits the number of AoOs a character can make per round based on your BAB.
The big change is that moving into a threatened area does not provoke an AoO. Though some actions still provoke an attack, such as casting spells and similar actions.
If you are interested in a viable system that still uses AoOs in a limited fashion its worth checking out. Our group used it and the sky didn't fall on us.
Basically, it's how many times you 'bounce' back and forth taking damage. I always found the original mishap line confusing, so I cleared it up in my own table.
Thanks. I guess it's the original mishap line that's confused me as well.
First off, I just want to compliment you on an elegant solution to a problematic spell. My group will be using this for certain.
mdt wrote:
Since there's some interest in this, I'll post my full rules.
Teleport requires a specific Teleport Node as the destination. Use the chart below instead of the one in the core book. Each node has a strength rating, from 0 to 10. This rating is added to the caster's effective caster level when casting Teleport while standing on a node and/or teleporting to a node. Memorizing a node requires Detect Magic and a spellcraft check. The DC of the check is 10 plus the node's rating.
This last category, Mishap, when or how is this used? I'm missing something...
Quote:
So, similar to the existing tables. It's safe to teleport to a known node from a node. And the strength of the node adds to your caster level (both nodes do really, it's easier to 'home in' on a strong node) for purposes of distance.
How does the caster level effect the casting, the distance you can travel? Maybe tell us a little more about how the rating of the nodes works?
And creating a Node Stone requires Caster Level 15?
MW weapons increase their damage die by one step. This is because after they become Magical, MW doesn't mean anything. While with armor, it does still give a bonus.
Weapon Finesse is now part of the weapons and you do not need to feat. Any feat that requires weapon finesse no longer needs it.
I really like both of these.
A question about the MW weapons and enchanting: do you keep the increased die size after the weapon has been made magical?
I'm looking to make the bonded object more like the familiar, with abilities that scale as the wizard gains levels. Each familiar grants the wizard a special ability, generally a +2 or +3 to a skill, save, or hit points.
I'm trying to come up with abilities for each of the object types: amulet, ring, staff, wand, and weapon but I'm not really happy with anything I've come up with as of yet.
I'm confused as to what effect this hex has on the target. From the description in UM, I assumed (and I know where that usually gets me) it meant it affected the target as the bane spell.
Ultimate Magic, p. 81 wrote:
Beast of Ill-Omen (Su): The witch imbues her familiar with strange magic, putting a minor curse upon the next enemy to see it. The enemy must make a Will save or be affected by bane(caster level equal to the witch’s level).
No where in the description does it specifically use the word spell, though it does make reference to caster level. So when I looked it up at d20pfsrd.com, the word bane is linked to the magic weapon property of the same name.
If you're willing to delve into 3.X material from a reliable source, Monte Cook's Complete Book of Eldritch Might has the Mage Tuned weapon special ability. It's a +1 enhancement which, when added to a weapon in the hands of a wizard or sorcerer (which I'd extend to include other full arcane spellcasting classes such as the witch) provides a +4 luck bonus to attack rolls. It's made for just what you're considering; providing a BAB deficient class with a bonus to hit sufficient to allow them to contribute meaningfully in melee combat.
Interesting, that's just the sort of thing I was looking for. Thanks!
I'm pretty sure there isn't anything in pathfinder that is similar, but I could be wrong.
I suppose I could use a scroll of Transformation, but they are rather pricey and again, losing your casting ability while in melee is painful.
Indeed it is, but I'm looking for an item or weapon that would do something similar. Sixth level spells will be out of reach for the character in question.
SO what feats should a level 10 cavalier have? Mount Combat, ride-by attack, spirited charge and power attack obviously, but what of the other two? (three if human)
I'd think the Old Spice Man would go Cockatrice all the way, which opens some options for Dazzling Display and related 'I'm better than you feats,' no?
I think the important point here is that the order in which metamagic feats are applied does not matter since they are applied independently.
So, as many would hopefully agree, an empowered maximized burning hands would deal (5d4)x1/2 + 20
Humor my feeble mind for a moment.
I roll 5d4, I get 14. Half of which is 7. I add 14 and 7, bringing the subtotal to 21.
Now I add 20 (for maximized 5d4) to my roll of 21 for a total 41 points.
Tem wrote:
The trick with intensify spell is that it does not add damage. It increases the cap on the number of dice based on caster level. In effect, it makes a burning hands into a second level spell which caps at 10d4 damage.
So, an intensified empowered maximized burning hands does (10d4)x1/2 + 40 as Ravingdork first pointed out. Of course, his math was a bit off and this averages out to 52.5
Which follows from the first example, gotcha.
Thanks to Ravingdork & Tem (and everyone else!) it was the 'apply each metamagic feat to the base spell' that was throwing me off.
I sort of agree with Ravingdork: every metamagic feat is an independent effect, and does not alter other metamagic feats. Therefore:
An intensified burning hands deals 10D4 damage (+5D4).
An empowered burning hands deals 7D4 damage (+2D4).
A maximized burning hands deals 20 damage (5*4).
Therefore, an intensified, empowered, maximized burning hands deals 7D4+20 damage. The 20 damage is from the maximization, while the 7D4 damage is the sum of intensify and empower.
So the Intensified effect doesn't apply?
Wouldn't empowered + maximized = 7d4+20? I don't see where Intensified is calculated anywhere...
I'm guessing there is no official FAQ/Errata anywhere regarding applying multiple metamagic feats to a spell?
I'm trying to figure out how to calculate the damage for an Intensified + Empowered + Maximized Burning Hands spell...assuming a caster level high enough to pull it off.
I'm coming up with 15d4+40...but something tells me I've got it all wrong.
Can someone explain how this is calculated correctly?
in my opion were all adults and we should be a team and play nice. but the chars are enjoying a bit or riverly, and thats fun to them, its fine to me. are there rules in raw to define who wins cause... I dont know.
You might want to look at The Cavalier's Creed. Although it's primarily a book of new feats, it also dissects the Cavalier and gives you some example builds, one of which is a two-weapon Cavalier.
Thanks for the suggestions. I downloaded it and I'm reading it over now.
the scimitar has a high crit chance and the teamwork feats trigger off of crits. twf is to get lots of attacks with your challenge damage bonus.
Aha!
The only Teamwork Feat I'm seeing that has a trigger for a critical is Outflank. Not that crits are bad or anything, just that it only applies to that feat as far as I can tell.
More attacks with challenge bonus makes sense though, I'll have to consider a TWF build.
Take shatter defensesno dex to ac is nice. Consider TWF (you get enough feats for it and mounted)
Shatter Defenses is nice--I missed that one somehow but I'll be sure to take it.
Why TWF?
Ardenup wrote:
Use a Scimitar and your teamwork feats should be paired Oppurtunists and Outflank in that order. Tactician with these and flanking allies creates a lot of free attacks at +4 or +8.
Why a Scimitar? I think I missed something.
I do plan on taking both Paired Opportunists and Outflank, those flanking bonuses are very nice.
I'm looking for both build advice to make the best use of their Braggart order ability (and maybe demoralizing opponents in general), and role-playing advice on how to make him a selfish yet loveable bastard.
Thanks for the reply, looks like you have a very solid outline here. I like it.
I hadn't even realized you could mix and match the alternate class features from APG—nice work. After looking them over THUG is very solid, but I noticed RAKE would work too.
APG p.134 wrote:
Bravado’s Blade (Ex): When a rake hits an opponent and deals sneak attack damage, she can forgo 1d6 points of that damage and make a free Intimidate check to demoralize the foe. For every additional 1d6 points of sneak attack damage she forgoes, she receives a +5 circumstance bonus on this check. This ability replaces trapfinding.
It looks like the THUG's demoralize lasts a bit longer, but the RAKE might be able to land it more consistently.
The SCOUTs charge is really nice. Only question I have is: does it work while mounted? My gut tells me it doesn’t but I could be wrong. If it does—wow, that's nasty. Even if it doesn’t, it's still a reliable source of damage and it plays off of the Cockatrice Cavaliers challenge bonus damage. Generally if you charge an enemy, you're probably the only one threatening it for at least a round.
Cavalier Tactics: I agree completely here and have been wrestling with which one I like best. I think the only other one to consider is Paired Opportunists (especially if you take GANG UP). At 9th level, I'd probably go with Outflank if I don’t take either of the ones you suggested.
Roleplaying I was thinking LE or LN with evil tendencies…and he wants to be the "best knight" or at least the most famous. Seeking fighting, fame, and fortune he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants and makes sure he gets the credit for all of the party's good deeds—and none of the blame for the bad. Kind of a bastard, so I'm still working on making him likable enough that the others won't throw him in the latrine-lair of an Otyugh.
I'm looking for both build advice to make the best use of their Braggart order ability (and maybe demoralizing opponents in general), and role-playing advice on how to make him a selfish yet loveable bastard.
I only looked at the first two levels but that seems to be the exact same list that is in the APG.
Make sure that you look at the spell list in the class section of the witch, not simply the witch section of the spells section of the APG (because in the spell section of the APG they only discuss spells new to pathfinder in the APG).
Don't forget that they also get a patron, which is effectively a domain that opens up their spell selection.
Hope this helps.
Somehow I missed the list in the class description before. Thanks again for all your help.
