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How come there isn't much talk about it? I understand cackle, misfortune and evil are amazing, but Ward isn't that bad either. Ward is a pretty damn good Hex in my eyes. Armor and Saving throws in one buff? pretty good stuff. Make a tank with crazy high ac that much more impossible. Am I the only one selecting this Hex? I would like to know why you guys over look it.
Not at all, there are others who consider it, and it is on my top 5 list, the question is just one of priority.....
Lets say you make a witch
Cackle
evil eye
slumber
healing
misfortune
flight
ward
I think the one ward in effect at one time is one reason people might pause to consider it.....On the other hand it seems to work across any distance or plane.
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How come there isn't much talk about it? I understand cackle, misfortune and evil are amazing, but Ward isn't that bad either. Ward is a pretty damn good Hex in my eyes. Armor and Saving throws in one buff? pretty good stuff. Make a tank with crazy high ac that much more impossible. Am I the only one selecting this Hex? I would like to know why you guys over look it.
I think it also depends on how people want to contribute, rather than buffing their teammates for some effect, people may want to feel that they're doing something to the opponent. The increased chances of your teammates hitting and killing the big bad can be a more satisfying feeling.
Ring of Resistance and Cloak of Protection are two of the most common magic items in the game, and Ward does not stack with them.
Ward ends up being cast on the same character most of the time, since there's probably a best strategic choice, and you don't want to wait until combat has started to spend an action putting it on someone. After a while, everyone else in the party who needs AC or Save bonuses has bought the appropriate items. Your hex eventually reads, "Save the barbarian 8,000 gold".
I think that Ward is a great idea for a hex, straight out of legend and literature, but the execution was poor.
Where does it say it doesn't stack?
The fact that both Ward and a Ring of Protection give deflection bonuses, and both Ward and a Cloak of Resistance give resistance bonuses.
Where does it say it doesn't stack?
Deflection and resistance bonuses dont stack from multiple sources which is what this provides.
It is a MEH hex as once they get smacked one time or fail a save it disappears. Leaving them 10% more likely to get hit or fail saves from that point on for that round at the very least. if you are getting hit regularly you begin forcing the witch into a bad spiral of spending the standard action every turn to reapply the buff rather than do something else, or leave you to fend for your self.
Yeah I suppose, just seems something like a Hex shouldn't be effected. But at higher levels it adds more. Still think in our games might allow it to stack anyways. Otherwise the hex at higher levels as mentioned loses much of it's appeal.
TBH Houseruling it seems to me to be the only way to make this appealing. To make it a Profane/Sacred bonus would seem to be a viable fix as few things give those types of bonuses.
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Yeah I suppose, just seems something like a Hex shouldn't be effected. But at higher levels it adds more. Still think in our games might allow it to stack anyways. Otherwise the hex at higher levels as mentioned loses much of it's appeal.TBH Houseruling it seems to me to be the only way to make this appealing. To make it a Profane/Sacred bonus would seem to be a viable fix as few things give those types of bonuses.
Yeah that makes sense and would work well for it I think.
I like it as a "save the party money" -- bouncing the Hex around to when it goes down and leaving the party needing party size - 1 copies of the ring of protection and cloak of resistance.
Meleer's in the party will just about kiss you for taking it since it leaves their shoulder slots open for wings of flying, and hands open for rings of evasion or rings of freedom of movement.
I like it as a "save the party money" -- bouncing the Hex around to when it goes down and leaving the party needing party size - 1 copies of the ring of protection and cloak of resistance.
Meleer's in the party will just about kiss you for taking it since it leaves their shoulder slots open for wings of flying, and hands open for rings of evasion or rings of freedom of movement.
And how do you cope with: once they get smacked one time or fail a save it disappears. Leaving them 10%+ more likely to get hit or fail saves from that point on for that round at the very least. If you are getting hit regularly you begin forcing the witch into a bad spiral of spending their standard action every turn to reapply the buff rather than do something else, or leave you to fend for your self?
edit: bolded for emphasis
I like it as a "save the party money" -- bouncing the Hex around to when it goes down and leaving the party needing party size - 1 copies of the ring of protection and cloak of resistance.
Meleer's in the party will just about kiss you for taking it since it leaves their shoulder slots open for wings of flying, and hands open for rings of evasion or rings of freedom of movement.
And how do you cope with: once they get smacked one time or fail a save it disappears. Leaving them 10%+ more likely to get hit or fail saves from that point on for that round at the very least. If you are getting hit regularly you begin forcing the witch into a bad spiral of spending their standard action every turn to reapply the buff rather than do something else, or leave you to fend for your self?
edit: bolded for emphasis
Tell them they shouldn't have gotten hit and wait until after combat? After all it's not like you forced them to accept the Hex instead of buying the equipment. Also I've had several cases where my party members with the ward are in "automiss" and "autosucceed" range with their AC and Save so it just offers the little bit left to make it so -- Having a paladin in the party helps with this though since if he loses it he can simply smite to get the deflection bonus back and swift action heal.
Must like any buff that can be lost in combat it's a bonus when you have it and you live with it when you don't (since any buff can be dispelled anyways).
Also: Very useful on your familiar if you don't want to put it on another party member.
To make it a Profane/Sacred bonus would seem to be a viable fix as few things give those types of bonuses.
I like that idea. It wouldn't make Ward good enough that I'd choose it, but it wouldn't be useless anymore.
We dont really allow buying lots of magic items in our game.
things that can be made easily like scrolls and potions yea.
But buying magic items isnt an open book test where you find what you find because well the book says i can buy it.
we like to make the buying the magic item thing a role playing experience in and of its self, rather than "you have 'x' gold, hurry up and buy your stuff while i go to the bathroom"
as a result we dont always take a lot of time to buy magic items, because it takes away from what we already want to get on with, the adventure.
also the "cloak of resitance/ring of protection" gambit gets a little old when every character has one.
the only time that really happened with us was in the second darkness campaign where it seemed like ring of protection were with every loot.
that was back in the beat days, and i remeber my fighter having like a 43 AC or something hideous.
We havent actually completed an AP since then (always TPKd) before finishing,
but we all died with many slots available for shoulders, necks and fingers.
currently, we have a party now in serpents skull, that bought two +3 shields in eleder! Rare but they were rolled up randomly as available.
Somewhere along the line we picked up two +1 scimitars, potions galore (as usual) and i think we might have bought the gloves of dexterity +2.
By and large our 5th level party does not have alot of stuff. There is a +1 buckler floating around..ill be darned if i know whos got it.
a +1 mithral dagger, cant for the life of me remember where that came from. A ring that i think we have overlooked and not identified (duh)
no cloaks.
an amulet or nat armor...
gosh not a heck of alot more.
thats the way we like it tho. makes the magic items magic, and not
"hey i need a new pair of sneakers"
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I think I'm planning on using my Ward mostly on my familiar, as a safety measure. Unless a party member desperately needs it. But my Witch is a bit of a word-that-rhymes-with-Witch that way. :)
BTW, any word on the range of the Ward hex as of yet?