Tzimiscar's page

Used counterspell with dispel magic. It worked and stopped a fireball. It worked and probably was worth it in that instance.
If you are sure your opponent is going to cast and if you have dispell (to counter most spells) and if you think your other spells have little chance (say mind affecting against undead) then doing the gamble can be worth it.
Most of the time it's too many if's to make counterspell a viable tactic.

The amount of guards is propotional to the worth of the goods and the risk involved. Someone trading with food won't usual have the need of protection.
Also depends on the guy, the wizard selling magical weapons might not have guards, what he has is a statue from the last guy that tried to steal from him.
I'd say one of the main jobs of the city guard is to keep the marktplace safe. Most would rather trust those they hire permanent than some mercenaries, so why have marketplace mercenaries at all?
*Bodyguard - taxes, pay, luxury goods, discussion with competition
*Thugs - agressive negotiations with competition
*Caravans - profitable but dangerous trade route

High end would be additional protection of magical artifacts, low end would be someone hired to guard the stand while the merchant haggles with the guildmaster about the costs. Mid tier might be the two big guys hired by the guildmaster to get an edge in those haggles.

Most class choices would fit, though marterial classes like fighter or rouge would fit more than the rest.

Battle power might be the most important thing, but don't forget the other core problem in dungeons: Traps. You need to have a way to get through these. Then you'll run into magical effects, without a way to dispell them you'll probably have trouble. Clw-wand takes care of healing HP but you should have a way to heal stat dmg.

'allowing me to get +2 on my typical attacks and getting rid of the -4 malus for shooting into melee.'
Shooting into melee... err... you know do realise you are a caster, right? Your first option are hexes, the next are spells, the third are wards and scrolls. Shooting into meele is a desperate action, when you've tried all your hexes, have all your spells spend and are out of wards/scrolls. At that point running away would probably the superior option.
The trinity evil eye (works thanks to crackle even IF he makes the save), Misfortune and Slumber is a great take down for anything that can sleep. Things that can't still enjoy misfortune which drops their chances to hit and the chance to crit dramatically. As a bonus your Hexes ignore SR and can be used on every enemy that you face.

If you dip into a diffrent class you reduce the DC of your bread and butter spell.

You're not the kind to kill an enemy with damage. Polymorph them into a frog, blind them, turn them against their allies... but not damage.

Tzimiscar wrote:

...

A related question, is there any dedicated buff spell on the witch's spell list that beats summoning an Lillend Azata? +2 competence on to hit/dmg, bonus against fear effects and that's just the move action.

Heroism competes fairly well. +2 on skills and all saves vs +2 to damage and saves against just fear effects.

Of course, Heroism is lower level, great for pre-buffing and they stack, so...why not both?

Of course, if possible at the time. Greater heroism is on the same lvl as SM6, but I find that the increase in effect isn't worth the higher slot in most cases, especially as the duration decreases (1 instead of 10 min/lvl). Also we're in a five character group, and I'd rather help all than just one of the team.

Lvl 1 Enlarge [Mage Armor for myself]
Lvl 2 Delay Poison(stop laughing, it did proove it's worth at the time) [False Life self, Iron Skin for emergencies]
Lvl 3 Heroism and/or Fly
Lvl 4 Death ward
Lvl 5 ... does Overland Flight count?
Lvl 6 . . . SM6
Don't get me wrong, I like that the SM6 is that versatile but shouldn't there be a dedicated buff on it's lvl about as strong?

Anyway the thread was about SM & Smite, was the example of a findish dire tiger correct?
Would be 8d4+ 2d6 + 110 if all attacks hit. Granted they probably won't all hit, but it can attack more than just one round.

Let's make it 3 findish dire lions with smite good attacking three diffrent heroes.
Initial attack with rake/if grabbed: 4x claws +13 (1d6+15), 1x bite +12(1d8+15+grab), else 2 claw attacks less.
(5-32 +75 =)80 - 107 dmg if all five attacks hit, a respectable (3-20+45) 48 - 65 dmg without grab/rake. Fine, even less hit, but then there are three of these. Wait six, the evil summoner just cast the spell again...

Ah, thank you s eems I mixed CR up with HD. +12 instead of +8 in this case, as well as the better template. So the right offense with smite is:
+13(1d8+17 +poison), 8x +11(1d4+13 plus grab)
*Special Attack constrict (tentacle, 1d4+2)- with smite 1d4+12 ?
*Does it something against DR as paladin's smite?

Let's see if I can do it right with diffrent creature, this time a villain summons a findish Dire Tiger.
CR 8 -> CR 9
hp 105 (14d8+42) -> 14 HD, AC 17; Fort +12, Ref +11, Will +5
Template Adds: Resist fire/Cold 15, DR 10/good, SR 14

Melee 2 claws +18 (2d4+8 plus grab), bite +18 (2d6+8/19–20 plus grab)
pounce, rake (2 claws +18, 2d4+8), so has +2 attacks during first attack and if it manages to grab someone. Now it uses it's smite good.
4 Claws +18 (2d4+22), bite +18 (2d6+22/19-20) initial/if grabbed
Quite a bit for the poor Bard, and still a decent threat for the Babarian I'd say. Right this time?

In general smite adds:
*HD to dmg, Cha modifire(if positive) to to hit

'It still only has 90 HP and an AC of18.' - more than my HP, and any dmg on the summon isn't dmg on my allies or myself.

'Its weakest save is Will at +7.It's spell resistance is 14 which is tough but not unbeatable.' Two rolls, one against SR, one against the save isn't too bad. Your 'flesh to stone' is on the same level, both expemd the same ressource. Just that the summon get's a full round of attack in before it's eliminated. Beside it's used against the summon and not against my allies or me. Granted, there are spells like charm monster, but even then 'rather the summon than me' applies. On that note SM6 has it's own charm monster (DC 22) if you summon a succubus.

'when it comes to multiple targets it is useless.' just as flash to stone. The smite itself helps taking out the first target, the summon exists for the rest of combat to block path, tank damage and dish out what it can.

A related question, is there any dedicated buff spell on the witch's spell list that beats summoning an Lillend Azata? +2 competence on to hit/dmg, bonus against fear effects and that's just the move action.

We were attacked by a giant evil octopus. Of course the only sensible thing to do is (not traveling by sea) to summon your own giant octopus. And what do you know, it is possible. Hmm, what's that *

'Creatures on Table: Summon Monster marked with an "*" are summoned with the celestial template, if you are good, and the fiendish template, if you are evil. If you are neutral, you may choose which template to apply to the creature'

Neat, so now it's good giant octopus vs evil giant octopus. So what does it get mechanical?

'A celestial creature's CR increases by +1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD.'
Mhm, so Mr. Octopus CR 9 with 8 HD now.

'The creature gains damage reduction and energy resistance as noted on Table: Celestial Creature Defense.'
Ah 9 HD, so it's 10 resist resist Cold, Acid, and Electricity and dr 5/evil.

'SR The creature gains spell resistance equal to its new CR +5'
Hmm, should be 14, could be 13, will probably not matter anyway.

'Special Attacks The creature may smite evil 1/day as a swift action (it adds its Cha bonus to attack rolls, and a damage bonus equal to its HD against evil foes; smite persists until the target is dead or the celestial creature rests).'
Nice, wait a minute that's one bite and eight tentacles. Nine attacks that get a bonus of +8 (or is it even +9)? And what about that cha 'bonus'? How does the attack score look like?

Melee bite +13 (1d8+5 plus poison), 8 tentacles +11 (1d4+2 plus grab)

A: +13(1d8 +13 plus poison), 8x +11(1d4 +10 plus grab)
B: +13(1d8 +13 plus poison), 8x +11(1d4 +2 plus grab)
C: +9 1d8 +13 plus poison), 8x +7(1d4 +10 plus grab)

Is it just me that this seems a bit too strong? The smite bonus lasts till the target is killed. Granted, in this case it was just 1 round. Still if I look at the reverse 'Smite good' for summons of the bad guys it'll become a matter who draws first. Or is it just because of the many attacks of the Octopus this seems like a bit of a problem?

I always wondered how reknown is handled with everyone else. The guys you help during the adventure will tell stories about you.

Save the caravan and those guys will sing your praise along their traderoute. Save a village and it should increase your reknown in that village. More, all those that interact with that village will notice sooner or later. It depends how visible your deeds are, compare slaying a mighty beast in a dungeon to fighting said beast after it smashed though the city gates.

Even without such reference feats like bringing back someone from the dead should have some impact. Unless of course it is a common occurence in the world.

Infamy is another aspect, by 9th level you might be recognised by the evil guys.[#Do YOU know how to slay a dragon? Me neither but these guys do.# Just a moment, then the road is free again sire. Excuse the inconvinience, but maybe you can tell us the story how you did slay the dragon... or what that thing with far too many tooth is. Bandits, no we are just a group of hunter. Some might have a past, but out here we don't ask questions. We are all equal, just trying to survie in this harsh world right?]

"As part of the action of casting spite, you cast the associated spell" I'd say two, a fourth level slot and a slot for the spell imbedded in spite. Note that the spell needs rare ink worth 250. Costly but can be worth it.

Alchemist - Dwarfs, Gnomes, Goblins. Races that love mechanical things and/or explosions. How about alignment, chaotic?
It needs a certain state of mind to drink untested substances. Of course no one would question the stability of mind of a walking explosive. As an alternative the other extreme, there is no magic, just SIENCE.

Bard - didn't you want a clear split, with your suggestion some bards would be arcane while others would be divine. I'd go with full divine and allow all races. [Twist: The only casters humans have at all are Bards]

* Wizards cannot access spellbooks in any way until prison break begins.
-Why would a prison keep the spell book anywhere in range of a dangerous prisoner?
* Wizards do not have ANY time for spell preparation.
-No spells then, at least you didn't burn the spell components...

*They will spend X rounds after breaking out putting their gear back on and they will not do a single fight without it, because that is, in my opinion, a boring and tiresome amount of bookkeeping on both ends.
-Well, without their gear the gap would not be that big.

Option A: The prison utilizes magic. A teleporter the wizard can hijack, some kind of obstacle only arcane knowledge can overcome, maybe a puzzle. Or make it a race of time - can the rest of the group buy him the time to get the teleport spell? Maybe throw in some gm fiat and allow to make spellcraft checks to come up with a way to remember that one spell faster (use a higher level slot to remember faster, use more slots to remember faster - use your creativity to give him a challenge). Or insist on the hower and see if the group can find a way to hide for an hour.

Option B: A vally of death before he'll turn the table. Two or three encounter without any spells. Then he gets just enough time to remember spells and has to go nova to save the team. For bonus points the guy who burned his previous spell book earlyer in the adventure.

A high UMD, some money and the D team has acess to quite a bit magic.
I'd go into the game with a diffrent mindset.
The world is a lot dangerous, there will be caracter death, a party wipe out may happen over the tiniest mistake.Every encounter is a struggle for survival, for bonus points don't allow any optimisation.
When you saves the world with that bunch of D-list misfits you feel you have earned it. Would play with a group of friends.

Two, one was a rather young black and the other a rather big blue if I remember the campain correct.
Personally I found the encounters a bit too easy. Yes it was a decent fight, but... a fight against a dragon should be an epic clash of survival because well, it's a damn dragon!

It depends on the hex, but most are used like spells with a few advantages:
*Most scale with your lvl
*Most have unlimited use/day
*Most don't need any components
*Most are SU, no pesky spell resistance
*Most offensive hexes can only be cast on a target once in 24 hours
There are ways arround the last one, like the feat accused Hex or the spell hex vulunerability. The feat split hex(lvl 11) also deserves a mention, two hexes in one round.

One word to the sleep hex: Consider it is just sleep, so in your example lizard man #3 can wake up lizard man #2 and #1. (Still very useful as it buys time, time in which McSlashalot has cut down a few of the other)

You can basically get any spell by chosing the right patron. With haste and time stop time is arguably the best patron, though a party without a healer will be glad you took the healing patron for lesser restoration.

My patron is Elements. I know, hardly the best patron but flaming sphere came in handy against swarms, a fireball works targets reflex and works against undead and ice wall has it's uses. Besides I like the thematic, would pick it again.
I neither can nor want to change my patron in the game. Not that it would ever be a good idea to anger the powers that are able to grant supernatural abilities.

@ Cevah:
A ward of hex vulnerability is not a hex.
Ward of hex vulnerability + healing Hex = massive HP
Ward of hex vulnerability + fortune Hex = rerolls for the whole party
Chances of finding a ward of hex vulnerability = Chances of buying one. Such wards are rather rare, would porbably be a comission/side quest once we get to a city.
Speaking about hexes, is there a good major hex to support your party? At this point I doubt taking the ward hex at lvl 12 instead of say retribution or major healing is worth it.

1) Pearl is always a good idea. Can be used for other spells (dispell) and by others (cleric).
2) Good point, rod of extend, lesser should be usefull for quite a number of spells.
The group I'm in has good team work. Even if it had not, using heroism on the big guy that constantly stands between me and the bbeg seems like a good idea.

Ok, what nice can we do for our party?
Hexes:
Fly - Mobility is king
Ward - +2 Ac/saving throws for one guy (doesn't stack)
Ward of hex vulnerability + healing Hex - better than clw
Ward of hex vulnerability + fortune Hex + crackle - rerolls
Scar Hex + Healing Hex/Fortune - ranged healing

Spells:
For others:
Enlarge Person(1) - reach and strength for our big guy
Delay Poison(2) - Against certain enemies
Heroism (3) - +2AC/AT/Saves nice for everyone, even better for your tank
[Haste (3) - if you have the right patron]
Fly(3) - Mobility for Others
Named Bullet(4) - to create a sniper, for your ranged attacker
Death Ward (4) - against evil foes

For yourself:
Youthful Appearance(1) - No bonus whatsoever, but is there any chance any female would not take this? Ok... on to the real things.

Mage Armor (1) - Your AC
Defending Bone(2) - DR 5 and a use of all these skulls
False Life (2) - Extra HP
Blood Armor (2) - AC when hit, for certain caracters
Iron Skin (2) - Ac, short duration
See Invisibility(2) - better on a scroll
Honorable mention: Unnatural Lust(2), no I won't tell you why.
Spite (4) - stored touch spell, 250gp/use
Absorb Toxcity(4) - Eat your own medicin
Threefold Aspect (4) - Changing of Stats and apperance
Greater False Life (4) - More extra HP
Persistent Vigor (4) - against conditions, and fast healing(2)
Rubberskin (5) - buldoging damage becomes nonlethal, strange spell
Dust Form(6) - Miss Chance & More
Ice Body (7) - Immunities, DR and a lot of other nice effects

Marionette Possesion(3) - take over an ally and use personal spells

Questions:
Any other good buff spells on the witch spell list I missed?
Any good major hexes that help your allies?

Can be a bit frustrating if you don't get the downtime to use the feat. I find the idea of creating something unique nice. Instead of a ward of healing light wounds our group has a bottle of healing potions - a round of drinking after a battle seems appropriate. (No one gets drunk from it. No I can't change the taste to something besides beer. At least not yet.)

Item creation can also be used as a plot hook. Player needs to find substance x. Only the old master y knows how to combine these specific effects. Flaws can add to it, like cursed against a specific enemy. Or you could suceed so well it has additional effects/is intelligent...

Great ideas so far, thank you.
Word on hexes:

No scar hex, not that the characters would allow it.
Fortune is great, but a 1/day thing - for a pinch or the bbeg.
Flight Hex - awesome mobility, lifesaver
Healing Hex - live saver, came in handy against undead
Hair - Touch spells at a distant, not really used, but the idea is nice

Hex vulnerability - How did I missed that spell? Combined with fortune it becomes nearly game braking. A free re roll every round of combat, every fight. Though one guess who becomes the focus target?
Ward will be bought next time in town, but used in moderation/combined with healing hex, least the dm drops rocks.

Wards are a good idea, have to raise my UMD a bit. A DC20 check if you don't know the spell, and on a 1 the ward won't work a day, right?
Mirror Image, Barkskin, Shield of Faith, Displacement, Invisibility - all not on the spell list, especially Mirror Image is missed.

Ice Body is nice, as is dust form though I rather had something else in my highest lvl slot. Same reason I hesitate a bit to get greater false life, thought I might do it.

Heroism
The slots are a reason why Heroism can't be up for everybody, all the time. With five characters in our group it would be all my slots, and would covers roughly 2 of 24 ours. That is plenty to rush through a dungeon, not so great when you're in dangerous territory not knowing when the next ambush will be. (hint, just a bit over 2 hours after the first time you buffed) A great spell for someone else - fighter(not to kill us) or scout(survive the 1 on disable trap). Somehow I like greater herosim worse, as it lasts only one fight on one person... might be worth that one time though

Persistent Vigor might be worth it, especially as poison might be a thing. Neutralise is on the same lvl, this is an alternative.

Named Bullet rather high slot and many restrictions, still might be worth it. Not quite as perfect for boss fights if that boss surprises you. Still, a method to help other partymembers, that's what I want.

Defending Bone - perfect. Might be a bit discussion as using the bones of your enemy screams evil but it's stylish too.

Death knell, just as Hex: cook people Awesome, but evil.

Threefold Aspect - Changing Stats and Apperance, don't have the spell quite yet. Probably can not be bought anywhere, getting it might be the problem.

Marionette Possesion - Would not exactly work in our group. Think, would you allow an associate to posses your body?

The party just reached lvl 11 and debuffing becomes great. An unlimited amount of safe & suck (evil eye/misfortune) or save & die (tomb(fort)/sleep(wil) and a nice selection of spells with similar effect. A nice offense, the defense, well... few hp, bad ac, bad saves so all the debuffing will not happen after round two, as a dead witch can't hex. What spells can help you here?

Personal buffs
Mage Armor (L1) - AC, never leave the house without it.
False Life (L2) - For that fireball

Iron Skin (L2) - AC, nat armor, duration could be a problem and not really worth it in a fight. I doubt that AC really is the go to. P.s. of course I overlooked that spell...
Vampiric Touch (L3)- For the spell storing armor, might add the hp to survive that attack. Of course against undead both get hp...
Curse (L3) follows much the same idea. Don't do anything 50% of the time.

Feast on fear (5) - Arguably a buff. Situational, the fear effect has style, the extra life is nice though very situational

Dust Form (6) - Finally an option worth casting during combat. An optoin to gamble that the save or die hits before you're hit
*Swarm Skin(6) - Now you get to be an annoying swarm. You stay alive as long as a single swarm survives, right?

Basically Mage Armor and False Life and Dust Form in a pinch. Thus my first question: What other spells can be used to survive?

Buffs for everyone

What Buffs are worthwhile?

Of course there is the fortune Hex. Always an interesting question when to use it to greatest effect. More suited towards a critical skill check like use (mac guffin) magic divice, sense motives (yes, you are screwed) disarm trap (stop disarming with your face) so you can fail twice as often. Ward might be good at lower level but by know the bonus would not stack.

Used Enlarge (L1) a few times on our fighter, but not too sure where the great advantage is.

Heroism (L3) - Saves, Ac basically everything... oh, goes only of one person and adds to attack. Goes on someone else, wonder if it's good enough to prepare multiple times/day. Is greater heroism(L6) worth it learning next level?

Summon monster:
Latern archon(3)-aid(save vs fear, temp hp, +1at)
Hound Archon (4)-circle against evil - saves/Ac against evil creatures
Azata, Lilin (6)-Inspire Courage (+2 At/Dmg for all) as a move action
Honorable mention: Positive Energy Elemental (Cleric loves the aura)

Am I right that the best buff-spell on the list is Summon Monster(6)?

What other good buffs exist on the spell list?

I would say that we should not forget that all 10 is the average Human. As attributes, I won't deny Charisma is very, but I would argue the value of constitution.
18–19 +4 'Able to stay awake for days on end'
20–21 +5 'Very difficult to wear down, almost never feels fatigue
As for skills, Erinyes have acrobatics, Succubi don't. Though both have fly...

A place that disables your abilities, say a field that switches your main stats. Bonus points if the change is permanent.
A place that curses your items. Do you keep your cursed gear or do your destroy your own magic items?
As the character: Probably NOT inside an adventure, fighting for your life against terrible monster.

I would not say you are screwed. Low level has the healing hex witch can be combined with persile hair for a nice ranged touch attack. Misfortune works, not sure about evil eye... I'd say no. At higher levels you get a greater healing hex or Ice Tomb, which should work just fine.

As this is about hexes:
Do hexes ignore ignore SR? (I think they do but am not certain)
What do you need that hexes can work?
Not too certain of that one. You do need line of sight, so blinding should affect you in some way. No movement necessary, so grapple should not affect you (or does it?). Do you need to speak, I think you don't so silence doesn't do anything(probably?)
Does armor affect hexes?
I don't think so. 'f the spell lacks a somatic component, however, it can be cast with no chance of arcane spell failure.' If a hex can be cast without a word it has NO arcane spell failure chance. It does affact your initiative, as it is a dex ability check(a feat could change that). Goes a bit against the class, though might be a fun idea. Wasn't there a variant that used con as casting stat? (Witchdoctor I think)
High physical attributes, heavy armor, but IS an arcane caster...

A spellcaster without his buffs is a hell of a lot easier to kill than one that has several min/lvl buffs, so try to catch them off guard with everything you got.
If that's not an option, and the spellcaster can prepare you should lose. No really,think what a PC can do with say a wizard that can prepare for a specific encounter. A GM has unlimited ressources. And if you look at the stats, a high lvl spellcaster should outsmart any human being on earth. That guy can bend reality and has time to prepare. Why are you attacking him again? What is this, he is not specifically prepared for you? Right wisdom is a diffrent stat...

Anyway back to the game. In your usual fight always kill the spell caster first. Death temporarly shuts most spell casters up. (Temporarly? Well, there is a thing called ressurection, and a dark god might make an offer to a faithfull follower that met his quota of kicked puppies and sacrificed villages... getting off topic again...)

A gurillia tactic might be worth a shot, casters do not have unlimited spell slots, and not all buffs are for eternity. Can't kill the caster in the first two rounds? Run, and return in two hours to try again.

What about a diffrent target than the spell caster himself?
Can you steal the spell book? Ok it does not shut down the caster, the traps you can do with the book might. (Explosive runes are the brute force variant)
It might be a bit more difficult to cast without components, so why not set the component bag on fire?
Why engage the spell caster at combat? Bluff your way to victory. A merch could warn the mighty warlord that one of his shamans aims to overthrow/mind control him. Convince the temple to summon powerfull aid in your quest agianst the evil devil summoner. Or convince a devil (lawful evil) said devil summoner is working for a powerful demon(chaotic evil) to betray his evil masters. Or if you are evil make an offer the spellcaster can't refuse...

Surviving always depends on your allies and spells. At higher levels as long as the team survives you can come back, even from the dead. (Of course the same might applie to your enemies who may or may not have made a deal with the devils(s). As a witch loosing your familiar at that level is mechanically worse than death.). Arcane casters are a wide field, some of them might even want to be at the frontline though most arcane classes don't want that.

A: Have someone between you and the bad guys - Where would you stand in a group of 6? I prefere somewhere in the middle, the back is great - until someone ambushes you from behind. Stay close and you risk getting hit by area spells, spread and risk that your party is split.

B: Mobility, fly is a great option. Unless your enemies have a ranged attack. Dispell might a problem (unless you use the hex, that feather fall option is great). Not that flying is even possible.

As a caster you look on your spell list, a lot of great spells were mentioned. Then you look at the witch spell list and get the impression they missed mage armor.
Shield & Protection from Evil are not on the list, neither is vanish, Mirror Immage, Displacement, Stone Skin, Invisibility - basically if it increases the chances of survival it is not on the spell list of the witch. Wait Iron Skin is actually on the list? Maybe I missed something else, what spells can witches use to survive anyway?

Permanent
Sometimes you get attacked in the middle of the night, ambushed... at least it's not inside an antimagic field and you can rely on your long time spells. What do you have? (duration days to hour/lvl)

Mage Armor (L1, +4 AC(armor))
False Life (L2, 11-18 extra HP)
*False Life, Greater (L4, 11+ 2-20 HP) - atm rather have an ice wall
*Spite (L4, stored touch spell cost 250gp) - soon
*Ward (Hex, +3 AC/Saves) - doesn't stack with most equipment
...
That's it for spells, mage armor and false life.
Well, what are you looking at?(Evil Eye). Witches are out of luck in long term buffs.(Misfortune) On the bright side you have hexes(Ice Tomb). They ignore SR, their saves increase with level and unlike a wizard a witch can never run out of hexes.

Before a fight
You are smart, so why are you following this group of lunatics into the deadly dungeon? Because you are prepared... how?

Ironskin (L2, +5AC) 1min/lvl ...probably overlookt this one
Heroism (L3, +2 Saves, at) 10min/lvl ...on the big guy in front of me
Death Ward (L4 vs undead) 1min/lvl
Greater Heroism(L5 +4at saves, now with extra hp)min/lvl
Of course smart enemies will stall. Still, great options if you know you're running into a fight.
[Want to destroy an encounter? Fortune + Crackle, bonus points for moving with a broom. As DM I'd drop the dungeon on a witch that uses this for a whole dungeon for 1d6 + 666 damage, but for a final fight/last stand it might be ok.]
There are some options, but to be honest I've got nothing. Rare enough you have the time to set up though...

In a fight
Offense is the best defense, but the wound in your chest says now might be the time to cast something for defense... ah what was it again?

Dust Form (L6, incorporal) 1round/lvl 50% miss and immunities to effects
Swarm Skin (L6, change into vermin) Become a number of swarms. Sadly you can't cast anymore, but on the bright side the swarms start with full hp and are pretty hard to hit. When one gets away you should survive. Least that's my theory...
*Unwilling Shield (L6, stop hitting yourself) a bit more agressive take, there are some drawbacks. 250gp, save, sr...
*Retribution (Major Hex, stop hitting yourself) even better than the Spell, flipped a coin. That, Argony or major healing will be the next hex.
Have not yet used dust form or swarm skin, probably won't use them unless things go south. Summon monster/Hexes/save or suck spells - stop the bastards that want to kill you.

Mobility
You came to slay a dragon. You didn't think it would be quite that big, nor did you think it would come to you. Also Sir Slashalot might have a problem jumping high enough to reach the flying beast...

Fly (L3: Fly Sir Slashalot, Fly. Now 50% more awesome as a hex)
Dimension Door (L4, 400ft+40/lvl might get the princess out here)
Teleport (L5, 100miles/lvl the minimum range you want to be away after realizing it is not one dragon...)

*Storm Step (L3: Short range teleport with 5d8 dmg, points for style)

*Hostile Juxtaposition (L5, change positions)... not used yet, do you change position & share the pain 1x or for the whole duration of the spell? Either way an interesting take on defense

Missed a few interesting spells, but nothing that truly changes the picture. Even the defensive options I found (*) are rather agressive, the witch is a glass cannon.

A witch has poor hitpoints(d6 hd), poor saves, poor bab (hello grapple) and no proficiency with armor (poor AC - unless you want your spells to fail and a bad initiative).

The good news is your hexes are great, the bad news reads '30 feet range' for your hexes. Until the major hexes (picked ice tome), and even then you might want to stay in 30 feet range due to split hex and evil eye/misfortune/sleep (would be nice to meet something not imune to it). Do not rely too heavy on slumber, those guys can be awakend by a slap not to mention your opponents can be immune against it like say drow. Undead drow, SR, good saves AND immune to quite a few effects... does misfortune and evil eye work against undead? Or... does evil eye buff undead like harm does? (bad things happen when a cleric fumbles the knowledge check... granted it looked alive... first time the party is saved because our enemy makes the SR check.)

I am playing a witch myself (lvl 11, elemental patron) and wonder how she is going to survive if something reaches her. The witch has 57 Hp (+11-18 temp), 18 Ac (With mage armor) and with 7(fort)/8(reflex)/10(wil)the saves don't look too good either even with the new-found cloak of resistance. However it wasn't me that died first. Not getting hit is the best way to survive.
Still could use spells or equipment that helps to increase the survivability of the witch. We have a (glass) canon, can we build a tank? At least there should be spells and equipment to make a witch more durable, both low level and mid level. Things that increase AC, HP, Saves give miss chances and immunities. (And the thing that gives all of this and more? Remember the one quest you didn't take? That would have been your's ;)

A list that could be filtert for useful defensive buffs and equipment would be great. Class (mage, wizard, sorceror, witch...), Duration(permanent, lvl/hour, 10min/lvl, min/lvl, round/lvl), effect(Increases AC, HP, Saves, DR, Immunity from ...).

Witch/Ac/hour would get you Mage Armor and ... that's it,
Witch/Ac/min would get you (1) Mage Armor, Iron Skin(2), Blood Armor(2)
Some nice equipment was already mentioned. Mithril Buckler, Silken Ceremonial Armor, Haramaki, Armored Kilt are all mundane and cost less than 1k. Ring of Deflection, Amulet of Natural Armor and Bracers of armor fall in the category.
Question: Do Hexes have a failure chance when cast with armor? Are there other usefull spells that can be cast inside an armor? Does an armor used without proficiency reduce your initiative? (yes)
Regardless I've started to like the silken ceremonial armor, not because of the AC but because of spell storing. I wonder... what happens if you have two spell storing items and spite?