My group is starting Serpent's Skull tonight and I am planning to play a "Witch Doctor" style character, with the aim of taking the Mystic Theurge PrC at level 7. He would not be a "blaster" but do lots of summoning and buffing/utility stuff.
I know MT has some potential power issues but still want to give it a go as much for RP potential as anything else. My DM says I can take the Magical Knack trait twice to boost my caster level of both classes to help compensate for the slower access to higher level spells.
I am starting as a Druid (Saurian Shaman from UM). But I am not sure whether to have my arcane class as a Wizard (Divination or Conjuration) or Witch.
The other members of the party look like being an Elf Alchemist and a TW Fighter or Ranger (not sure of race - though me and the TW player are thinking of having "pygmy" like characters - basically small humans - to fit in with the jungle theme).
A Witch feels more flavoursome, but with an animal companion already I'm not sure a familiar is what I want. Given I'll probably initially only take 3 levels of each class (levels 17+ not really in my thoughts at the moment), what do you think?
A wizard gets scribe scroll and bonded item.
A Witch gets two hexes and a familiar.
With Boon Companion my Triceratops companion will become large at level 7 but not progress beyond that unless I keep taking some levels of Druid (which I probably will do anyway to get basic wildshaping).
Have you considered a bard/ cleric yet?
Other than that perhaps you should check out the ultimate magic book -- it has a sorcerer bloodline that uses wisdom for its casting stat.
If you were to go with that bloodline (perhaps crossblooding it to get the serpentine bloodline) and then mixing in the druid you should be in good shape.
I would almost suggest going sorcerer 4/druid 6/mystic theurge 10 -- in whatever combination that makes you the happiest.
If you took the fey (sylvan) bloodline, you could use your sorcerer levels toward your animal companion. In addition, Boon Companion and Shaper Focus feats would boost the appropriate druid abilities.
I was thinking a Bard would be natural as a witchdoctor. Bards start out with more spells known than Sorcerers, and especially if you are going Druid as your divine class, the Bard class would allow you to spontaneously cast healing spells.
For my 17th Century game, I was considering making a Witchdoctor archetype for the Bard class. Something about them being portrayed as dancing around all the time. Maybe your GM will let you make a useful masterpiece or two. Plus, Bards get 6+ skill ranks per level, allowing you to keep up essential skills.
The downside is that Bards are nowhere near as good at blasting things as Sorcerers are.
At 2nd level, Bards get a Versatile Performance ability. For a Witchdoctor, I'd probably pick Oratory (Diplomacy and Sense Motive), although depending on how you want to focus your abilities, Percussion (Handle Animal and Intimidate) or Wind (Diplomacy and Handle Animal) might work. (You could use a hand-made bone flute if you go the Wind route.)
Or, since you're going the Druid route, you could pick up Dance (Acrobatics and Fly) and when you get Wild Shape, you can use your Dance perform bonus when you fly.
Another thing you could do, is take just one level of either Wizard or Sorcerer before going into Mystic Theurge, and then you can use your Mystic Theurge levels to advance the more powerful arcane spellcasting ability.
The benefits are having tons of low level arcane spells available to you, and being able to use Mystic Theurge levels to get more arcane spellcasting boost than increasing bard spellcasting levels would get for you.
The drawback is that you don't gain the high level arcane spells.
I am still thinking about this. I've always been under the impression that one function of the witchdoctor was to fight against the witches, i.e., against evil uses of magic.
Thus, the Detective archetype from the Advanced Players Guide might fit, if you're going the Druid/Bard route. As a "Detective", you'd:
* replace Inspire Courage with Careful Teamwork, which makes your party more alert.
* replace Inspire Greatness with True Confession. This allows you to use your performance check to learn secrets from your target, including whether your target is under a magical compulsion, the nature of the compulsion, and who placed it (if known).
* replace Inspire Heroics with Show Yourselves. This forces creatures to reveal themselves.
* replace Bardic Knowledge with Eye for Detail. This gives you a bonus to Perception, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy checks.
* replace Well-Versed with Arcane Insight. This lets you find and disable magical traps, and gives you a bonus to see through illusions, disguises, and protections against divination.
* replace Versatile Performance with Arcane Investigation. This adds interesting divination spells to your Bardic spell list.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
I am definitely going to be a druid for the divine side of MT - for flavour as much as anything else.
Bard sounds good (masterpieces, chanting and all) but in our other KM campaign my Duke has a kobold bard cohort so I don't want to play another one in this campaign.
Sorcerer would be good (in part to reduce the bookkeeping required for having two spell lists to choose from!). I'll have to look at how the sorcerer's limited spell choice would mesh with the druid spell list. At least Wizards aren't limited by what they can put in their spellbook. The Empyreal bllodline (Wis-based casting) looks really good too.
Getting the right balance right will be tricky because as soon as I take MT all the non-spell aspects of the two base classes stop (feats like Boon COmpanion notwithstanding).
Ask your GM for the Juju Oracle. Combine with the Hedge Witch archetype Witch from Ultimate Magic. Go into Mystic Theurge after Witch 4 / Oracle 4. Instead of combined spells, ask about partial improvement of your revelations and hexes. Also worth looking at from UM are the trifecta of Eldritch Heritage feats, with an eye towards a thematically appropriate bloodline.
To keep it simple, I would highly recommend the Juju Oracle for a witch doctor. They even get access to ganjii dolls!
If you don't want to do a Bard, how about a Diviner? A Witchdoctor seems like a class that would excel in divination type magic, and I don't think anybody can out divination a Diviner. (Except maybe the Cleric.)
I think an inquisitor might make a neat witchdoctor. They have a neat selection of spells, and a lot of their class abilities could be re-skinned to match witchdoctor flavor. They can use bows and spears, wear hide or leather armor and maybe a wooden shield, and have a wide selection of social and knowledge and wilderness class skills.