Boosting the DC of a witch's hex

[Damon Griffin]

The DC of the witch's hexes scales with her level and her INT modifier. Other than that, am I correct in thinking the only way to boost the save DC is with the Ability Focus feat...and that if taken, the focus would only apply to one hex (Evil Eye or Misfortune or Slumber) unless she took the feat multiple times?

[Tinalles]

Yep. Boost your INT and take Ability Focus once per hex -- those are the only options for this that I know of.

[johnlocke90]

Actually if you really want to max out hex DC you want to go scarred witch Doctor, which uses Constitution in place of int. Then, you go water witch patron(which allows you to elemental body for a +8 bonus to constitution) and rage(a +2 on constitution). This will add 5 to your DCs.

Edit: Make sure you are a human or half orc with the Racial Heritage feat for another +2 on con.

[thejeff]

OTOH, they naturally scale with your caster level, so they remain effective. And you have many options for dropping your target's saves.

[johnlocke90]

Also, if you go half orc you can take a level in Barbarian in order to get rage(which adds +1 to DC over the spell Rage every other level). Then if you have someone else n the party with rage, you take Amplified Rage teamwork feat to add 2 to the DC. This should put your constitution around 44.With this, you can have a DC of 34 at level 14. Pretty good considering you have about 300 health.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/amplified-rage-teamwork

[Tinalles]

The Amplified Rage feat has "rage class feature" as a prerequisite. I don't think casting the spell "Rage" on yourself counts.

[hogarth]

There's a dwarven religious trait called Honeyed Words that gives you a +1 bonus to the DC of any charm or compulsion for peaceful purposes. That could, in theory apply to a hex.

...okay, I got nothin'.

[johnlocke90]

Tinalles wrote:

The Amplified Rage feat has "rage class feature" as a prerequisite. I don't think casting the spell "Rage" on yourself counts.

Which is why the first thing I said on that post is " take a level in Barbarian", preferably urban Barbarian so you can still cast.

[Odea]

Slumber Hex should be affected by the Elven alternate racial trait Dreamspeaker

Dreamspeaker wrote:

Dreamspeaker:A few elves have the ability to tap into the power of sleep, dreams, and prescient reverie. Elves with this racial trait add +1 to saving throw DCs for spells of the divination school and sleep effects they cast. In addition, elves with a Charisma of 15 or higher may use dream once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level is equal to the elf's character level). This racial trait replaces the elven immunities racial trait.

[Quandary]

urban barbarian's controlled rage doesn't say anything about allowing casting or otherwise not being subject to the no-concentration aspect of Rage. just sayin'.

[TGMaxMaxer]

Dreamspeaker elf trait does qualify, as does the bard cantrip lullaby to boost sleep DC's by 2 if they fail that save (and also a -5 perception), and you can take the cantrip with Two World Magic trait.

-Note that the sorcerer bloodline Fey and Infernal do not since they list spells not effects, had to have this out with a player before.

I seem to recall a cleric domain that boosts compulsion effects, but that could be a 3.5 holdover.

In general, gonna cost you a feat tho for each one, as been said.

[johnlocke90]

You are correct. Well then you would just be limited to hexes(and enemies should almost never make their saves on those)

[Damon Griffin]

Good to know about all these specific options for future characters.

My present character is a changeling witch (agility patron) with high INT and CHA but low CON, and I don't currently plan to multiclass, though with a good enough reason I could consider a very short dip.

I took a couple of traits that give her a +1 caster level when using spells with the mind-affecting tag, or with charm person/monster specifically, but AFAIK neither will cover hexes.

[Rerednaw]

/me *casts raise dead thread*

So it's been almost a year since this topic was posted. I'm considering rolling a witch for Society play and was wondering if there were any rules changes or supplemental information that has come out since then that is usable to raise my witch's saving throw DC's on his hexes.

Ability Focus is not legal for PFS play so even that's out. All I can think of is save lots of $ for +int items.

I mean I thought of a trick that may work sometimes. Quickened Ill Omen followed by a hex. But Ill Omen is low level and subject to spell resistance so it isn't reliable. But a nice "oh what the heck may as well" opener. With double spell slot reduction (Magical Lineage and Metamagic Master traits) it becomes a combo available at 5th.

Any ideas welcome. :)

[Iammars]

Rerednaw wrote:

/me *casts raise dead thread*

So it's been almost a year since this topic was posted. I'm considering rolling a witch for Society play and was wondering if there were any rules changes or supplemental information that has come out since then that is usable to raise my witch's saving throw DC's on his hexes.

Ability Focus is not legal for PFS play so even that's out. All I can think of is save lots of $ for +int items.

I mean I thought of a trick that may work sometimes. Quickened Ill Omen followed by a hex. But Ill Omen is low level and subject to spell resistance so it isn't reliable. But a nice "oh what the heck may as well" opener. With double spell slot reduction (Magical Lineage and Metamagic Master traits) it becomes a combo available at 5th.

Any ideas welcome. :)

The Ill Omen trick I use if I need to hurry up my debuffing, but instead of quickening it, I gave my faerie dragon a wand of ill omen instead. 750 gp or 2PP and it's well worth it.