miniatureian's page

Great, I'll chalk the whole thing up to houserule if required.

I personally like permanent transfer, I think it fits the archetype. I also like the suggestion to use the mechanics for Marionette Possession, and only jump to unconscious or willing targets. Keeps a witch in a familiar from OHKOing anything.

Sorry, I felt I did provide context below, but perhaps it was not enough. I've read quite a bit of discussion about Twin Soul, in part the links you provided, the ability itself, but what other people on the Internet usually provide is an alternate perspective in topics I'm not so widely read on.

If a beast-bonded witch is dying and transfers to her familiar, she can later transfer to another creature. Is that transfer permanent, and uses the words of 'magic jar' to adjudicate the transition, or have you cast the spell 'magic jar', and need to hop back to your familiar's body at the end of level hours?

The other questions pursue an interesting potential subplot, but that is the gist of the question, and is unanswered by many links, houseruled in others.

1. Is a beast bonded witch's transfer permanent? (Will DC 15+INT)

2. Can an outsider be transferred too, since their body and soul is one? (reading the spell Trap the Soul)

3. Could a creature be called via Planar Binding to be transferred into?

4. Would the called body revert back to its original location after the duration of the binding ends?

5. Could a wish reveal the true name of a creature to help bind it?

6. Could you engineer a plan to bust out of a binding circle yourself if you end up in one in your new body?

So one option for a Beast Bonded Witch is to hunt and subdue a creature, inflict it with as many penalties to saves as possible, carefully suicide, and take over the body. This would provide a different way to do that.

If everyone's min-maxing that isn't an issue. If it is only 1-2 people at the table it is a HUGE problem. Min-maxing doesn't make a "good character" by any stretch. A poorly constructed by mechanics character can still be a good character.

Depending on the table, there is one playstyle I like where this fits well, a shepherd. An alchemist would certainly work for it. I build powerful characters but play them at about 25-50% capacity to match the power curve of the rest of the table. It allows me to 'pull out all the stops' when it's dramatic to do so, or when there's actual danger.

(background: i consider myself half tactician, half storyteller, and play with lots of casual gamers or method actors. i also communicate this to the GM, who tends to give me hints how he wants the drama to happen, so ymmv.)

Or use 'Chosen Child' or 'Rich Parents' to start with 900 gp and buy a masterwork scimitar for your heirloom weapon?

remember min damage is 1 nonlethal, which is why I suggest magic missile. The only way out of that is to become immune to nonlethal damage.

perhaps hit them with splash from every type of element? they'll have to expend resources to become immune to all of it. sonic, force, neg energy, positive energy are all fairly difficult to become resistant or immune to.

I would reference the rules of diplomacy. Let's say this dragon starts out as Hostile. It's difficult to make him your friend because a diplomacy action takes a while and the DC is 25+Cha. But, you're a magic sorcerer, so you cast charm monster. Now, he's not attacking you, and the DC is 10+Cha because we 'treat the target’s attitude as friendly'. When you succeed diplomacy checks, you're improving the actual attitude towards you, and 'Any attitude shift caused through Diplomacy generally lasts for 1d4 hours but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion)'. So, we rely on GM discretion (the writer of this post). Lots of psychology here, so bear with me.

If all the diplomacy happens during downtime, I'll use dating as the model here, and say the amount of time it takes to go from 'indifferent' to 'friendly' is about 6 months, but that says more about me than the game. From my experience, in the normal back and forth of life, 6 months is about the time it takes for relationship status to change permanently.

If all the diplomacy happens while adventuring, we do a strange thing and get more attached to people more quickly. Think of summer camps, missions abroad, college ski trips, or whatever experiences you've had that forced you in close proximity to others during intense events, and how quickly bonds form, and how deeply they go, simply because those involved are doing more strenuous activities each day. In my experience, a week is enough to permanently change an attitude one way or another. Again, perhaps reveals more about me than the game.

In this perspective, if your character is similar to me, there are three 'jumps' from hostile to friendly, so three weeks of adventuring or a year and a half of living. Other people might have different timings than that, depends on the character.

Vary the way you're dealing tiny amounts of damage to keep it interesting.

Use SLA or level1 wands of magic missile.

Have lots of little enemies 'aid other' to hit actual AC with attacks, combat maneuvers, etc.

Evil Eye effects for one round regardless of the save being made. Clans of little witches increase caster level, while Hex DC's are based on caster level (and some bump up in power at certain levels, see Evil Eye). Add a few bards, clerics, and fighters, and you've got some things that will hit way above their level. Eight level 1 witches, bardsong, bless, magic weapon and your fighter hits at +16 (2d6+6): +5(str)+1(m.weap)+1(bab)+1(w.focus)+1(bless)+1(bardsong)+4(evil eye)+2(flank)

Intimidate the PCs to shake them. Enlarged Tiefling sorcerer with skill focus is around +18 vs 10+lvl+wis on medium sized PCs.

Evil clerics casting inflict wounds (touch spell, will save to half damage, not many sources of resist neg energy)

Invent creatures that have a 5' aura of antimagic to turn off player's usual tools (use sparingly).