RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
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Glad to see you're getting another involved in PFS!
Witches are super helpful to parties in my experience. Some solid hexes are:
- Evil Eye: you can pick a different thing to debuff every time you cast it, and even if you fail, they are still afflicted for 1 round!
- Misfortune: drop this on the BBEG and watch your GM cry a little bit.
- Cackle: so strong, so very strong -- as a move action you make a maniacal laugh and extend the duration of your debuffs by a round. So you misfortune (lasts 1 round), cackle, then cackle every round and for the entire fight, the boss rolls 2d20 and takes the lowest one each time!
- Prehensile Hair: grab this later on, but use it to deliver wand touches from range!
- Flight: you can fly starting at level 5, pretty darn amazing imo
As far as familiars and weapons, grab whatever suits your fancy. You'll be potent enough with a high int (18 is fine) and just your debuffs, not to mention all them spells. You might want to consider Improved Familiar at level 7 to pick up an Imp and get even more combat actions. With ranks in UMD you can be a very welcome addition to any party.
I have not played a Witch in PFS but I did in a homegame and I loved her. She was probably my favorite character that I've played to date (but part of that was also thanks to the campaign and personality behind the character.)
Witches can be very useful to the party, but do not expect to be the one dropping enemies. Most of their spells and abilities are focused at crowd control and buffing/debuffing. So you will be great at debilitating enemies so your party members can take them out, but won't be doing much actual damage yourself. Witches do suffer a bit when fighting undead, oozes, or constructs, since most of their hexes and a lot of their spells are mind-affecting and will not affect those types of creatures. Make sure you have something you can do in rounds like that, such as buffing the party (the Fortune hex is good here) or even some kind of damage in the form of Burning Hands or Lightning Bolt.
Witches really should not be in melee combat much so weapon shouldn't matter a whole lot. As the above poster said, half-orcs can use Falchions and Great Axes, so one of those is probably your best bet, but with poor BAB and d6HP, a Witch wading into melee will not last long. You should also get a ranged weapon (a light crossbow would be good) to use if you absolutely have to. Since your DEX will be higher than your STR, you will have a slightly better chance at hitting things, plus you can stand back and away from melee action.
Witches can be very useful to the party, but do not expect to be the one dropping enemies. Most of their spells and abilities are focused at crowd control and buffing/debuffing. So you will be great at debilitating enemies so your party members can take them out, but won't be doing much actual damage yourself.
This! Make sure she is ok with not being the one rolling the huge amounts of dice.
Also, do we even need Wis above 10 for this character, or is it a waste of 2 pts?
high wis = +Will save
high will save = not charmed/hexed/paralyzed/[insert 20 other conditions here] = not a dead PChigh wis NEVER hurt anyone.
- «Yes but how do you know she is a witch?»
Go classic. Quarterstaff and a cat familiar.
Then, to see if she is made of wood...
- « build a bridge out of her.»
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At low levels the Slumber Hex is unbeatable!
If you combine with a rogue to get sneak attack on slumber'ed enemies...
The Healing Hex is very useful as well; especially if the party either lacks a cleric or has a cleric that focuses on combat.
Evil Eye is an excellent hex but I, personally, feel the Slumber Hex is a bit better at 1st level. Fly is also an excellent choice for an early hex!
Mage Armor is a good spell choice even if you plan on staying toward the rear...
A crossbow is very useful as well at low levels especially if you have a decent dex (for AC...). I have never used a melee weapon as a witch...
Your hexes will be much more powerful and useful than your spells at lower levels.
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I've played a witch a little in PFS myself, mine is half elf and will actually be switching to the HE Witch archtype when the rules for level 1 rebuilds come around in August.
As a level 1 witch, here's a few things I've noticed while playing - please take into account that my witch is building towards Eldritch Knight so some of this may not be entirely useful the witch you are contemplating.
The Healing Hex is very very very useful when there is not a cleric or other healer around, or even if there is, the first game I played we had a pregen cleric who got feared for an entire battle leaving me the only one able to heal, 1 free cure light wounds per player can be helpful at low levels. It can also be used against undead.
My witch uses a Longspear, mainly because of the reach aspect of the weapon, it allows me to be closer to the action and surprisingly there are times when the barbarian, fighter, or (insert other front-line combat class) can't manage to hit and yet I with a lower bonus just get lucky.
Inflict light wounds can be a good damage spell for a few levels, however like your other options at the low levels for damage you will have to be fairly close to utilize this spell, additionally even with 18 intelligence you have exactly 2 first level spell slots per day at first level, so you can't rely on your spells for damage all the time.
Mage Armor is a lifesaver, it has 1hr per level duration and best of all, no spell failure. Even at first level 1 hour duration can be most of an adventure if you cast it at the right time.
The Tongues hex can be useful as well, if no one else in your party knows a language that you encounter comprehend languages without using a spell slot can potentially mean success instead of failure for a faction mission, however as a character with high intelligence you can learn a fair deal of languages.
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I wouldn't worry much about melee weapons or even an average strength because she will be able to fly above everyone and hex by level 5.
Favorite witch spells:
Lipstitch--"A rare spell without verbal components, lipstitch sews the target’s lips tightly together if it fails a saving throw, such that no clear speech, bite attacks, spellcasting, or use of command words is possible. The target takes 1d6 points of damage as the stitches weave through flesh. The victim can still make enough noise to be heard at a distance with a DC 10 Perception check.
The thread created by lipstitch can be burst with a DC 20 Strength check as a standard action or can be sliced open with a piercing or slashing weapon (wielded by the target or an ally) as a full-round action. Cutting the thread provokes attacks of opportunity, while making a Strength check does not. Either option causes 1d6 points of damage and 1 point of bleed damage. The target has a 20% chance of failing to cast spells with verbal components until the bleeding is stopped. The effects of multiple castings of this spell do not stack. Optionally, the thread can be removed more carefully over the course of a minute with a DC 20 Heal check. If the check fails, the target takes damage and bleeds as described above. If the check succeeds, the stitches are removed with no harm. Creatures with no mouths are unaffected by lipstitch. Creatures with multiple mouths lose the use of only one mouth per casting—the particular mouth is chosen by the caster."
Unnatural Lust: "Your target is filled with lust and desire for a single creature or object as designated by you at the time of casting. That creature or object must be within the spell’s range and perceivable by the target of the spell. The target is filled with the compulsion to rush to the subject of its lust and passionately kiss or caress that subject on its next turn, taking no other actions. If the target would not normally have lustful feelings toward the designated creature or object, it receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw."
Loathsome Veil: "This spell creates a transparent veil of shifting, multicolored strands of light that form into endlessly varied and alien patterns. One side of the veil, chosen by you at the time of casting, is harmless. The other side twists and turns into impossible shapes, affecting any creature with 60 feet who views the veil. The veil affects a maximum of 24 Hit Dice of creatures. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the spell are affected first. The effect is according to the creature’s HD.
4 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated while it can see the veil, nauseated for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil, then sickened for 2d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.
8 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated for 1d4 rounds, sickened while it can see the veil, then sickened for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.
9 or more HD: The creature is sickened while it can see the veil.
A successful saving throw ignores all effects of the veil. Sightless creatures are not affected by loathsome veil. Affected creatures can avert or close their eyes to avoid seeing the veil, similar to avoiding a gaze attack."
Pox Pustules: "You inflict a painful, itching rash on the target creature. The target is sickened and takes a -4 penalty to Dexterity (this penalty cannot lower Dexterity below 0). The target can spend a move action scratching furiously at the rash to remove the sickened condition (but not the Dexterity penalty) until the start of its next turn."
If you spell focus, necromancy is a good one for witches.
Also, check out the scar hex. At first glance, it looks useless. But you can do some pretty crazy stuff with it when someone is trying to flee. It's also helpful to scar your party members so that you can use your heal hex on them without having to touch them.
The cackle hex is a must if you are taking misfortune and evil eye. Do not forget that even if they make a save for evil eye, they are still affected. Just cackle every round, and they can be under your hex for the duration of the encounter.
For feats, take extra hex and get some more hexes. The hexes are your bread and butter. Also check out the hex feats, like ones that allow you to bounce a hex to another player if your original target makes his/her save. And there is another hex that allows you to attempt to hex someone again, even if they have already made their save.
Witches are awesome. I would go with 20 int,as both casting and spells are based on int. Int also gives you more skills. You don't need str or charisma.
Hexes-slumber is awesome, as coup de grace is awesome.
You will need something to deal with mindless foes, so misfortune or fortune is needed pretty early. You will need cackle to extend them.
It's a very fun and powerful class from level 1.
Oh she doesnt like being on the front line, even in computer games! She would rather stand in the back and piss enemies off ;)
And as someone who plays two witches, that's the whole fun of being a Witch/Wizard. Except you can do it ALL DAY!!
In all honesty, I don't really find witches to be damage dealers as people have mentioned (heck, I even play both my witches as they don't do the killing, they let the rest of the party do it... And then also make enemies cry as they trip over themselves*) Evil Eye is a pretty nasty debuff, Misfortune is always a warm welcome, Fortune really is something the party enjoys, and yeah, even if you aren't level 5, Flying Hex still gives Levitate, and as far as I know: Hexes don't require a concentration roll.
Outside of combat, they can be a ball of fun to RP (The LG? Inquisitor was upset with me reading Infernal tablets that gave me a Profane bonus to saves. I felt evil inside.), and considering they also have access to healing (even if not the Hex), a good addition to any team. Frankly, they are my favorite class to date.
*Our home group uses the Critical and Fumble decks, I've prevented many critical hits, and have caused fumbles. One enemy had a crit threat against himself, so our GM ruled for Misfortune it takes the better result as clearly confirming that crit against itself would be very unfortunate.
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At low levels the Slumber Hex is unbeatable!
Witches are awesome. I would go with 20 int,as both casting and spells are based on int. Int also gives you more skills. You don't need str or charisma.
Hexes-slumber is awesome, as coup de grace is awesome.
A different point of view: slumber hex is terrible within the PFS environment. Why? While powerful, it's save-or-suck and can 'ruin' fun for others.
I played a bit of my slumber witch at PaizoCon and only used the slumber hex twice. The first time I used it, it made the two fighterish types cry as they had just moved and jostled to get into flank and killing position. (Here I was, thinking I was being helpful.)
The second time I used it, against a mook in the first fight of another mod, the GM said to me 'Please don't slumber every enemy.'
Trust me, there are better, funner options in PFS play.
Fortune, Misforture, Evil Eye, & Ward are more teamworky (and fun multiplers) and keep you involved with others which makes them MUCH better in the social PFS metagame.
Don't be like me. Be a good player instead.
Love and Snots,
Princess Isis
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If you want her witch to be the type to truly anger your opponents I HIGHLY recommend the Prehensile Hair hex, I personally rate it the 3rd best hex in the game for that.
It allows her to focus entirely on her Int and still be useful in combat and effective outside of it. Remember it allows her to use her int score as her strength bonus for hit, damage (1.5xint bonus to damage) and combat maneuvers (10' reach for trip, disarm and steal maneuvers) without needing the improved feats too, lets her use her touch range spells safely since she's out of melee range, and can EASILY pick up a PC and put them into flanking position so they can full attack.
Pick the right spells to complement her play style and everyone will cringe at her effectiveness and power.
I love playing a witch in most scenarios, just wish I had scribe scroll to make it perfect.
I play a witch and I love it. I love the flavor and the versatility. I love the role playing opportunities.
I think it's a powerful class, but it's not, imho, an easy class to play. The witch fills an unusual niche, and as such players who tend to fall into the classic roles can be quite frustrated with the witch.
One thing about the witch is that it's a class that truly can mess with the enemy in a seriously frustrating way. A well played witch can make a GM struggle to provide a challenge without accidentally overpowering the party.
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Prehensile hair is vastly overrated from my experience (played with a witch never played as one yet), you still have a witches BAB meaning that all the combat maneouvers pretty much autofail unless its against a mook, (and who really needs to trip/disarm a mook).
Even with int + bab your looking at a cmb of +9 by level 6 (+6 int + 3 bab) a fighter has a CMB of +11 by level 6 without even trying just from ST and BaB plus will likely have improved and greater trip for much better effects on his tripping (+5 ST, +6 BAB), meaning your behind the curve to start with and need to push hard to actually keep relevant on an area that isnt really a witches focus.
Ensure you have spells to do something to opponents who are immune to mind effecting abilities (most your hexes or there is whole mods where you just stand back and shoot things with a xbow or poke with a spear)
Wand of True strike + Familiar = Auto trip
Please don't forget witches are pure casters and can easily overcome any issue such as poor bab with little to no effort.
Now if you really want it to be obnoxious throw a Frostbite + Prehensile hair + AoMF (spell storing) + grapple into the above mix and watch everything in your way just die in the second round of combat.
If you have a witch with prehensile hair not using it to it's full effect then it's their lack of skill causing the problem not the hex.
i never saw any reason for str to be anything but 7. Fear of poisons or min/max angry GM?
Because maybe not everyone enjoys playing yet another clone of the Str7 Cha7 Int20 stereotype?
i never saw any reason for str to be anything but 7. Fear of poisons or min/max angry GM?
Because maybe not everyone enjoys playing yet another clone of the Str7 Cha7 Int20 stereotype?
There are strange people in the world.
That made me lol
If the witch is going to be a h-orc, why not take the scarred witchdoctor archetype?
Not as squishy as most witches and very stylish.
I'm playing one myself. She tanked a really nasty encounter with her massive hp (they use Con instead of int for casting and hexes).
Isn't the scarred witchdoctor for orcs only? I believe you cannot take it with half-orcs, but if you can I would be very happy!
Ensure you have spells to do something to opponents who are immune to mind effecting abilities (most your hexes or there is whole mods where you just stand back and shoot things with a xbow or poke with a spear)Misfortune and Retribution work against any target.
If some 40 lev 1 witches with misfortune can be brought into 30 feet of a god and can take a standard action, the god likely will be effected by the misfortune hex, as a natural 1 on a save is a fail independent of bonus and as misfortune is not stopped by SR, immunities or counter spells.
If that god could not kill 40 first lvl npcs I would seriously doubt that gods powers... Banjo anyone? Considering gods are generally above epic, I would say that taking out 40 peons huddling under your feet to be trivial? Also once it was targeted by the hex once, it cannot be targeted again for 24 hours. thats a long time to have 40 npcs wait to try to inconvenience the god for ;]
I get it that your just trying to point out its abilities, im just nitpicking here ;]
Mine is level 6 and has something about:
Str 9
Dex 12
Con 22
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 10
All without looking at the char sheet. And with a belt of mighty constitution +2
I don't like dumping stats too much, so I only dumped 1 below 10.
With ability focus (misfortune) I'm looking at a DC 21 there. If I use evil eye first to lower the enemies' saves first that's a good chance of succeeding.
Not as strong as slumber but I didn't want to make fights too boring with turning lots of them into save or die (slumber + coup de grace) so I took misfortune instead.
That is meant to demonstrate, how well a witch can handle immunities. Misfortune is a powerful debuff (effective -5 on all rolls) and can be used against anything. No other class (except hexblade magus) has something similar avaible.
If that god could not kill 40 first lvl npcs I would seriously doubt that gods powers... Banjo anyone? Considering gods are generally above epic, I would say that taking out 40 peons huddling under your feet to be trivial? Also once it was targeted by the hex once, it cannot be targeted again for 24 hours. thats a long time to have 40 npcs wait to try to inconvenience the god for ;]I get it that your just trying to point out its abilities, im just nitpicking here ;]
Dual-Cursed Oracle has a similar ability, I believe.
congrats on having a significant other that wants to play a half-orc :)
Witch is actually pretty easy for beginners if you don't mind her being on an average power lvl. Before I forget there is an awesome witch archetype for (full) orcs in the race guide, it uses con instead of int. Would be the least squishy witch ever.
My suggestions would be to focus on hexes she likes and uses in combat, like slumber, evil eye, cackle. Using those 3 you can nearly always do something useful in combat.
Witches are better if there are less parties on one side (or both of the fight), they are the opposite of the bard in that aspect, because witches buff or debuff one by one usually.
Beginner weapon ... really? A hex is the better combat option.
Go with dagger, always useful for cutting ropes.
If you really want the melee-combat experience co with something flashy like a two handed axe.
Spells are more difficult and until she learns them and understands them I would suggest her picking only/mainly healing spells. (I believe there is also a clause that beginners have to play the healbot, at least that's what my groups always told me when I joined)
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hmm you will have to link me to the errata that allows the wand + familar to cast true strike on the witch, the rules as written allow you to cast personal spells on the familar not it to cast them on you, hence I maintain that as written prehensile hair is vastly overrated (unless errata exists allowing familars to cast spells on their masters).
Share spells
The witch may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her familiar (as a touch spell) instead of on herself. A witch may cast spells on her familiar even if the spells do not normally affect creatures of the familiar's type (magical beast).
Are you being intentionally obtuse? It's a wand, it allows you to target something other then yourself with the spell effect in it. Familiar makes a UMD check to activate the wand and points at witch, witch gets +20 to CMB and succeeds on maneuver check.
At this point I'm done. Good day.
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For everyone who keeps suggesting the Scarred Witch Doctor archtype, its not legal in PFS as full blooded Orcs are not legal in PFS, the additional resources says that
In Chapter 2, nothing from the catfolk, drow, fetchlings, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, orcs, and ratfolk entries are currently legal for play.
Its a great archtype, but the only legal witch archtype in the advanced race guide for PFS is Bonded Witch.
However if the OP's SO wants to play a healing based witch, Hedge Witch is legal in PFS (assuming you have ultimate magic).
At low levels the Slumber Hex is unbeatable!Witches are awesome. I would go with 20 int,as both casting and spells are based on int. Int also gives you more skills. You don't need str or charisma.
Hexes-slumber is awesome, as coup de grace is awesome.
A different point of view: slumber hex is terrible within the PFS environment. Why? While powerful, it's save-or-suck and can 'ruin' fun for others.
I played a bit of my slumber witch at PaizoCon and only used the slumber hex twice. The first time I used it, it made the two fighterish types cry as they had just moved and jostled to get into flank and killing position. (Here I was, thinking I was being helpful.)
The second time I used it, against a mook in the first fight of another mod, the GM said to me 'Please don't slumber every enemy.'
Trust me, there are better, funner options in PFS play.
Fortune, Misforture, Evil Eye, & Ward are more teamworky (and fun multiplers) and keep you involved with others which makes them MUCH better in the social PFS metagame.
Don't be like me. Be a good player instead.
Love and Snots,
Princess Isis
Wow, this post is the biggest turnoff to the idea of playing in a PFS game (a friend of mine has been talking about getting into it, but god this sounds awful). If a GM said "please don't slumber enemies", I'd have said "as long as the fighter promises to not make attack rolls".
*facepalm*
It's a wand, it allows you to target something other then yourself with the spell effect in it.
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Sorry, but you're incorrect. A wand lets you cast the spell, but it doesn't change the valid targets for the spell. If the spell's only valid Target is "You", then only the person (or familiar) using the wand can be the target of the spell, barring some special exception (like a familiar-owner casting on their familiar, but not the other way around).
Similarly, you can't make potions of spells with a range of Personal
(http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items#TOC-Magic-Item-Creation), even though Paizo has occasionally forgotten this rule in some of their examples.
Are you being intentionally obtuse? It's a wand, it allows you to target something other then yourself with the spell effect in it.
Now, if you could please provide us spectators with the information where you got that from before calling others obtuse?
Last time I checked, zapping a wand did exactly the same as casting the spell (at the wand's level, with minimal requirements). Where did I miss the 'other targets' part?|
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Are you being intentionally obtuse? It's a wand, it allows you to target something other then yourself with the spell effect in it.Now, if you could please provide us spectators with the information where you got that from before calling others obtuse?
Last time I checked, zapping a wand did exactly the same as casting the spell (at the wand's level, with minimal requirements). Where did I miss the 'other targets' part?
That would be right here.
Activation: Wands use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a wand is usually a standard action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast has a longer casting time than 1 action, however, it takes that long to cast the spell from a wand.) To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for non-humanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.
Casting the spell can only be done on yourself, wands allow you to pick a target. (unless I've missed an errata somewhere which I have before)
edit: @allenw, you are mostly right there, they put a specific rule in for potions so you couldn't do that. I do not see that same rule anywhere in the wand chapter.
Activation: Wands use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a wand is usually a standard action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast has a longer casting time than 1 action, however, it takes that long to cast the spell from a wand.) To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for non-humanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.Casting the spell can only be done on yourself, wands allow you to pick a target. (unless I've missed an errata somewhere which I have before)
edit: @allenw, you are mostly right there, they put a specific rule in for potions so you couldn't do that. I do not see that same rule anywhere in the wand chapter.
Matthew,
They didn't need a special rule for wands, since wands work the same as a cast spell. If you try to cast a spell on an invalid target, it fails. Same with wands. "Point it in the general direction of the target or area" doesn't mean that you get to ignore restrictions on what "the target" can be in the first place, any more than it means that you could use a wand to cast a "target" spell on an "area" (or vice-versa).edited to add: Similarly, "Point it in the general direction of the target or area" doesn't mean that a wand lets you cast Touch spells at range.