I'm a little worried about my witch.
His stats are fine I think (we got the 25pt buy) :
Str: 10
Dx: 16
Wis: 10
Int: 20
Con: 12
Cha: 7
He's human so I put my +2pts in Int. I took the extra dex for AC, initiative bonus, ranged touch spells, and a better reflex save. It just seemed like I got more out of dex than con so that’s where my points that I couldn't put into Int went. My con is a little lower than I would like, but I'm usually pretty good at keeping my casters out of trouble and still playing pretty aggressively so I just kinda went with it. I only dumped Charisma, I mean I'm a skinny man-hag that's too smart and occasionally barf's up spiders..I think I can justify that pretty easily. I took it down to 7 because honestly I don't see that much difference between 7-8, this was at the cost of some random opposed roll's for charm spells (I think). Now I could have dumped Strength but I didn't because at low levels at least I want a chance to hit stuff with my long-spear if its needed and I like to be able to carry a little equipment. Our DM isn't an encumbrance Nazi but its come up a time or two when we need to carry a lot of gold or treasure.
We started at level 3. I took the shadow/patron spell path because I like the potential tricks you get with the shadow/illusion spells, and my familiar is the scorpion.
My hex's are :
Evil Eye
Cackle
Accursed Hex (with the extra Hex Feat)
My feat's are:
Scribe Scroll
Improved Initiative
Extra Hex (Accursed Hex)
I want to take the flight Hex at level 4 and the Improved Familiar feat at level 7. I might or might not take craft wands before then. These are all subject to change though. My spell list can be changed too so I wont list them either.
We've played two sessions and I really don't like how its panning out, but I really just hope there are tricks I'm missing. I rarely play casters and I have never played a witch before now. The class seems like it was built to be a de-buffer/battle-field control/support class so that’s how I intended to play mine. Our first combat went pretty smoothly. We got our feet wet with some orc's and eventually a hill giant that came in as we were finishing off the last of the green-skins. I cast mage armor on myself, and eventually enlarged the barbarian and barfed out a swarm of spiders when the hill giant showed up. Every other round I just used evil eye to debuff everyone I could. That was pretty much the first session as we used a lot of our time to make the characters.
Next session we had a couple of similar encounters with orcs and either ogre's or an advanced/mutant orc. We hadn't had an opportunity to rest yet, so I'm running out of spells and I'm pretty much just using hex's and trying to get in shots here and there my crossbow or long-spear.
Nothing has worked out too terrible so far I guess. It just seems like I have to work a lot harder to manipulate the combat numbers than say, a bard. I know at higher levels I'll get better hex's and hopefully before too long I'll have some scrolls and a wand or two to make up for the ineffectiveness of my spear and crossbow. I just feel like I'm doing so little with this character right now and the class might be working up to its potential at this point? That's really what I want to know I guess. Am I living up to my potential as a 3rd level witch at this point? What is the potential of a witch at mid to high levels? Am I going to be doing the same thing I'm doing right now, just with slightly bigger numbers? Should I be getting more done or am I just being greedy?
Considering it's only 3rd level, I wouldn't worry too much. I'm playing a 9th level Witch in a homebrew campaign right now and i'm loving it. My advice is to just stick with it until you get some more hexes and spells, because then you will have a whole plethora of options available.
Playing the witch is almost all about hex selection, and how you intend to make that work in combat.
If all you're contributing to combat is a -2 to AC, then I could understand why you'd be concerned. Evil Eye itself is incredibly versatile, in that you can use it to make things go the party's way. Are there other casters in the party? -2 saves makes a big difference. Bunch of meleers? -2 AC. Just the 1 party meat wall? -2 to hit.
Next, Accursed hex... is great when you have a few other hexes in your list that would benefit. Misfortune, Icy Tomb, etc.
Fortune is a wonderful hex that your party will love and makes everything happy as sunshine.
Misfortune is another wonderful hex that your GM will hate, and your character's name will only ever be uttered as a curse.
during short battles, if you're casting spells, it's almost a waste. Medium to long battles you'll want to aim for 2 to 3 spells max. Everything else should be hexes, shooting, potions, wands.
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I'd say you're missing misfortune and slumber. I play a witch in PFS and I've trivialized so many fights because of these two abilities. Sure, you'll feel kinda worthless when the baddies save but when they don't its GG.
Also, I'm not sure how awesome Accursed Hex is. You'll eventually (within a level or two) have enough options that you don't have to cast the same hex over and over and still feel like you're contributing to the fight.
also Accursed Hex is a feat that modify s hex's, not a hex.
You are correct, I have it written on my character sheet properly. I just confused myself a little bit. I had actually changed the character at the last minute. I had cauldron as my extra hex feat, but I couldn't decide on a feat I wanted besides scribe scroll, and I didn't really want brew potion and scribe scroll. So I just axed the cauldron hex for now and took accursed hex.
Which I totally agree its not as good now, but I still think it will be good later and I wanted to take something at the time I know I'll use at some-point over another hex I might not use as much. Sometimes our DM is forgiving about us changing things about our characters early, especially if its something we haven't actually used yet, or if its the first time any of us have played a new class. I just don't like going there if I don't have too you know? I try to make his job as easy as possible.
Cook People is amazing once you can get it (10th level). Requires Cauldron first, though. Get your meatshields to carry your dead bodies after combat, brew up some Fox's Cunning (+4 INT = +2 Save DCs on your spells/hexes) or Cat's Grace (+4 DEX = +2 AC). I'd take Cauldron as your last ordinary hex and then take Cook People later (Retribution/Ice Tomb are likely the two best battle hexes @ 10th - 18th) and you'll probably want to take Split Hex as your first feat @ 11th (Target 2 enemies instead of just one with a single Hex).
Evil Eye + Misfortune + Cackle = Disgusting debuffing as long as you're in range (30 feet, unfortunately).
The Witch has a bunch of good touch spells as well that can be upgraded using the Reach Spell metamagic feat. Making those touch spells into Ranged Touch Attacks or Close Range Spells can pay huge dividends.
I've got a lvl3 witch. Haven't hit combat yet, but I'm using Cackle+Evil Eye+Slumber. Slumber is my SoBS, Evil Eye is my debuff that I can hit targets with over and over with rather than 1/day.
I would add the Misfortune and Fortune hexes. Since you only forfeit your move with cackle, you can keep adding and extending hexes in combat and they can stack. Your spells should reflect your party. Specifically, if you need AoE attacks, focus on those since your hexes are generally single target specific. If you could use another front line member, you can pick up summon monster.
Another thing you may want to consider is taking a level of Fighter for the Bonus Feat (Improved Initiative; Initiative is huge for a Witch), Armor Proficiency (i.e. Armored Kilt = +1 AC, 0% Arcane Spell Failure or you can go with better armor but risk spell failure), Weapon Proficiency (i.e. Flail so you can disarm and/or trip close range enemies plus it's a d8 for damage and, at this point, you should be able to afford a masterwork or better) and gets you class skills in some weak points for the Witch (Climb, Swim, Survival) and a couple extra Knowledges, which you can invest a single rank in to get +4s in all of those.
Wait until at least 5th level, though. You should get another Hex first (either Misfortune or Slumber; I'd recommend Misfortune, personally, but both are useful).
Don't bother with the armored kilt. Pickup a Haramaki (+1 ac, 0 spell failure, 0 armor check) from Ultimate Combat for 3 gp.
Ah, right, forgot about that one. 1 lbs, too.
Dump accursed hex now either slumber or Misfortune.
Slumber will end encounters (and you aren't at a level where much will make a save vs it). Use on bad guy melees. Ice Tomb later for Low fort casters.
Misfortune is negated by a save as well, but again at this level, not much will save vs it. Cackle also works for misfortune, whichis a sick debuff.
Accursed Hex isa good idea, but you took it too early.
I'd get slumber now, since you'll feel special by owning Melee bad dudes. If it doesn't work, then Misfortune first (makes bad guys roll twice to attack allies and take worse number. (or cast ill omen) then Cackle to keep it going. Then evil eye their AC (so allies can smack em), Cackle will then keep both going. Next round either evil eye their saves or to hit or cast a spell.
When you take Imp Familiar at 7, get either a Nosoi or dust mephit and have them use wands of ill omen (no save). Between that and you using Misfortune, your enemies won't hit a damn thing ormake saves.