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My witch just hit 9th level, so you what that means... feat time!

I plan on getting Split Hex, but that has a 10th level prerequisite (don't get me started about feats having prereq's of 10th level when you don't get feats at 10). Our DM allows us to retrain one thing a level, so for now, I think I am going to have fun with Quicken Spell and Ill Omen (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/ill-omen). This will help with near guarantees of Misfortune/Evile Eye/Slumber hexes and almost any other SoL spells.

I will play with this combo for at least one level, but in the meantime, are there any other first level spells to consider to apply toward Quicken Spell? Maybe Ray of Enfeeblement, but none of the others jump out right now. Did I miss one?

I am also open to a different feat right as well. Maybe Ability Focus on Misforune or Slumber. DM does allow this Monster feat. My with has a 23 INT right now so saves are already high. Any other feats come to mind? Already have Improved Inititiative and Improved Familiar, but anything else?

So, our GM basically foreshadowed that we will be battling some undead here in the near future (foreshadowing was in game, of course). Using this knowledge, and my witch's high intelligence, she has a knack for doing research and using tactics in order to win a fight.

As soon as she heard we were going against undead eventually, this brought a bit of anxiety to my witch as most hexes are mind affecting, and undead are not affected by mind affecting abilities/spells. Then, when turning to researching spells, my witch got even more anxious because there are barely any spells on the witch list that are effective against undead. There are the general spells to be used of course, such as black tentacles or summon monster. But what about damage, efficiently? Even most debuffs don't work as most of the debuffs are also mind affecting. It just doesn't look like there are many spells/hexes that work really good against undead. Any thoughts? Is there an obvious spell I am overlooking?

Right now we are 8th level, and sounds like we are going to be going against some undead in the near future as well as several levels down the road (vampires - yeesh).

Thanks in advance for the advice.

So, I am going to have a witch level up to eighth level soon, and I was looking at the fun hexes that I could take. My group tends to put itself in social situations, so naturally, Charm hex is drawing my attention. So this brings up some questions that I have, not only about Charm hex, but also Evil Eye, and potentially other hexes.

So, with Charm hex, your target gets a Will save. Let's say my witch is at a guard post and wants to get through. The guard has an attitude of "Indifferent". The witch decides to step forward and "Charm" this guard. Little does the witch know that the guard has a really good Will save, and when my Witch uses her hex charm, and the guard makes the save, does the guard detect this attempt to sway his viewpoint and his attitude goes from "Indifferent" to "Unfriendly"?

I don't think I really understood how hexes come in to play when used in non combat scenarios. For example, could my Witch hang back as the party leader starts talking with the guard and start Evil Eye to reduce the Will save, then start Cackling, then use Misfortune, continue Cackling, then start talking to the guard and then use Charm hex? Obviously the Evil Eye and Misfortune hexes would give a HUGE advantage to making the guard fall prey to the Charm hex. Would the guard feel the Evil Eye creep in? would the guard or some of the lesser guards start looking at the cackling Witch and think something is up, then pull their weapons and attack my party?

As you can see and imagine, this can go on and on. From what I have read, the only hex that really is blatantly detectable is perhaps the Cackle hex as the Witch is just doing that... Cackling. And that could be perceived as somewhat unnerving at the least. But unnerving to the level of considering it an attack? And then retaliating on said attack by brandishing weapons? From what I can tell, using Evil Eye, Fortune, Misfortune, or Charm don't have any somatic of verbal requirements, so if the guard did make the save, would he sense that he just staved off some form of assault? And if he did, would he know who assaulted him?

Or even just using Fortune hex to maybe give the party leader the opportunity to roll twice for the diplomacy check to sway the guard. Would that be detected by anyone?

Any help in the RAW about hexes and their use and consequences would be appreciated. Any general feedback would be welcome too.

Thanks in advance!

I've perused the boards and I couldn't find an answer to this question anywhere.

Can a witch use a hex while they are under the effect of Vermin Shape (or any shapechange effect, for that manner)? I think I am correct that spells can't be cast since you need to speak to cast spells, but I see nothing that says you can't use hexes while in the shape of another creature.

Is this posted somewhere and I missed it? Seems pretty useful if Hexes could be used in this situation.

Thanks!

I have a strong feeling this question has been asked multiple times, and I tried to find it else where in the forums, but I couldn't locate the most simple explanation possible, and I'm not the smartest guy in the world, so hopefully I can get someone to help with the clarification.

I am playing a Ranger of the Guide variant right now. I started to look at the Horizon Walker because not only does it appear to have some great bonuses, but I also feel like it fits in my dude's background. I saw what the Horizon Walker gets at 3rd level, Terrain Dominance, and it made me think...

Since I am lazy, I can only assume others out there are too. Here is the Terrain Dominance ability: At 3rd level, a horizon walker learns total dominance over one terrain he has already selected for terrain mastery. When dealing with creatures native to that terrain, the horizon walker treats his favored terrain bonus for that terrain as a favored enemy bonus (as the ranger class feature) against those creatures. This bonus overlaps (does not stack with) bonuses gained when fighting a favored enemy.

Here is Guide's Focus: At 1st level, once per day, the guide can focus on a single enemy within line of sight as a swift action. That creature remains the Ranger’s focus until it is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points or surrenders, or until the Ranger designates a new focus, whichever occurs first. The Ranger gains a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against the target of his focus. At 5th level, and every five levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +2. At 4th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the Ranger can use this ability one additional time per day. This ability replaces favored enemy.

Ok. Since the bonus granted by Focus isn't a Favored Enemy bonus, and Terrain Dominance specifically says that its bonus doesn't stack with Favored Enemy bonus, then, do they stack together?

I am always good with examples:

I end up going Guide 6/Horizon Walker 3. Here is the Focus ability updgrades and here are all the Favored Terrains with their bonuses that my character picks up...

Guide 1 - Focus +2 once a day
Guide 3 - Favored Terrain: Jungle +2
Guide 4 - Focus +2 twice a day
Guide 5 - Focus +4 twice a day
Horizon Walker 1 - Favored Terrains: add Underground +2, Jungle bumps to +4
Horizon Walker 2 - Terrain Mastery: Jungle
Horizon Walker 2 - Favored Terrains: add Plains +2, Underground still at +2, but bump again Jungle to +6
Horizon Walker 3 - Terrain Dominance: Jungle. Now, he earns a Favored Enemy bonus of +6 against enemies native to the jungle.

So, the party is strolling along through the forest when they are surprised by a group of lizardmen and they are ticked that we stumbled in their territory. First off, my Guide gets a bonus of +6 against all the lizardmen, right?

Then, of the group of lizardmen, one of them seems to be a pretty powerful cleric. The guide sees this and Focuses on this threat and his Focus ability (at +4 twice a day due to Guide 6), kicks in. Does the Guide character get both the +4 from Focus and +6 from Terrain Dominance (aka newly acquired Favored Enemy bonus) for a total of +10 to hit and damage?

Thanks - this stuff is always bewildering and sometimes I read too much into it, so other opinions are always valuable to me.

We are playing in a campaign where my party came across a Raise Dead scroll at an incredibly low level (2nd).

Unfortunately, my character met an untimely end at 3rd level. After debate, I decided to bring him back after the cleric successfully used the scroll to bring my Ranger back.

Now, it doesn't make sense for a 3rd level ranger to come back with 2 negative levels, considering he will get gutted as the front line fighter (which he was being optimized for). Also doesn't make sense because the party isn't any where near the availability for a Restoration (due to geographic and financial limitations).

So, the DM decided to help out and alter the penalty from coming back from the dead. Since my Ranger was killed by a ghoul, he is coming back "tainted" from the experience. Instead of being healed by positive energy and harmed by negative energy, he is now healed by negative energy and harmed by positive energy. This "taint" goes away with a Restoration.

I was wondering from both a role playing perspective what impact this may have, and from a tactical rules standpoint. First, are there any characters or living non-evil type of creatures out there that have something similar going on? Like, a good aligned, living vampire, or something else out there?

Just trying to gauge some thoughts behind this new penalty being applied and see if any of you smart people out there can think of something I am missing other than the obvious of a cleric channeling positive energy to the group will harm my dude.

My group and I are revisiting the Age of Worms campaign and are converting it to Pathfinder. When we left off, I was playing a Changeling Rogue/Fighter/Warshaper. She was basically a spy and master of diplomacy and bluff. Really a fun character to play, but had a hard time keeping her healthy in combat. She got killed once and that was really a bummer.

So, we are doing a reboot since we left the campaign three years ago and we are converting to Pathfinder. We have to remain core with the exception of being a Changeling since the Changeling's racial feature of alter self is the main theme behind the character. Our DM is allowing an additional +2 to any attribute. Here is the starting stats array:

18, 16, 14, 13, 12, 10. This is before any racial or level modifiers.

We are starting at 11th level and this is where you guys come in. Creating an 11th level character isn't easy. After contemplation. I settled on Rog 3/Wiz 3/AT 5. Yes, this is rather different from the fighterish build she was before, but I like the non-combat roleplayiing I did with her. I liken it to a flash sideways (for you LOST fans out there). She is going to really focus on the core characteristics she originally had - the face of the party and spy. Use stealth skills and knowledge skills to gather info is also on the list of responsibilities.

I am struggling primarily with what feats to take, what school to specialize in, and what magic items to get. I am thinking that for combat, she will be a controller and an occasional sneak attacker. The party already has a Cleric and a Paladin, so we have lots covered with those two. We also have an Artifcer as a leftover from the previous campaign.

We have 102,500 gp to work with (additional gp because of the Artificer), and other than a few staple wands and a Rod of Metamagic, Lesser Quicken, I don't know what to get. Sure, some stat boost items will make sense, such as Headband of Intellect or Mithral Buckler. Handy haversack too. What other items are staple?

Shall I focus on illusions? Haven't done so before and it feels right with the AT class. What are some of the better illusion spells for both in combat and out? What is the staple blasty spell? Scorching Ray seems to fit the bill.

How about feats? I like improved initiative and point blank shot. Think spell penetration will be useful for this campaign as well. I am already having her with the Magical Knack trait as well as the Reactionary trait, so she will still be pretty good with some spell DCs and will go first often in combat. What other feats?

So for the rambling post. As aforementioned, creating an 11th character isn't the easiest thing to do. I've always started at level one and progressed, so this has been quite the challenge.

Thanks in advance!

Invisibility states: "The spell ends if the subject attacks any creature. For purposes of this spell, an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe."

Here is Flaming Sphere: "If it enters a space with a creature, it stops moving for the round and deals 3d6 points of fire damage to that creature... The sphere moves as long as you actively direct it (a move action for you)"

So, my wizard goes invisible. Then, he casts Flaming Sphere as a standard action. Doesn't become visible. Next, as a move action, he directs it to move directly south for 30 feet. In its path, happens to be a goblin, 20 ft due south of the sphere. It then enters the square with the goblin, stops, and deals 3d6 damage.

The million dollar question... is this an attack to end invisibility? If you read the spells, it technically isn't an attack to end invisibility. This is a move action to direct the ball to go from point A to point B. If the goblin gets in the way, then make it needs to make a reflex save, or get burned. According to invisibility, it isn't an attack if you cut the rope on a bridge and cause the enemies to fall. This, to me, is the same thing.

My wizard should still be invisible, to skulk around the battle field and summon monsters or enlarge his allies to his heart's content, all without becoming visible.

What say you?