Witches and Research

[Jason the Half-GM]

I would like to know if witches can do magical spell research like wizards to add to their spell list, somehow tinkering around with their familiar.

I am unsure if they can, since their spells seem to be granted via otherworldly powers. If this is covered in a specific book, please point to it :)

[LazarX]

Don't see why not. The main difference here is that the Familiar is essentially an required research partnerm because IT is the one that actually learns the spell, and then teaches it to the Witch when it's said and done.

[cmastah]

Wizards learn their spells via scroll or spellbook, researching new spells requires DM approval on what's possible (there's no real rule behind it, and the last time I read about researching was in the 3.5 books, I don't think that was available in the PF CRB). You probably also already know this, but witches learn new spells by their familiars learning it from OTHER familiars (the book where the witch is first introduced, I think it was the APG).

I'm not entirely sure whether you mean RESEARCH or just learning new spells though.

[Adamantine Dragon]

Spell research is like custom magic items. The rule books reference it and even encourage it, but don't really tell you how to do it, or what the limitations are.

FWIW my GM has allowed my witch to research a spell.

It takes a long, long time though. At least the way he's having me do it...

[Pippi]

You can also make a scroll soup for your Familiar as well, and there's a possibility of it learning the spell by ingesting it!

True story!

[mdt]

If you're talking about creating a new spell from scratch with spell research, then yes, they should be able to do that, although as pointed out, it is time consuming, expensive, and it's actually a pain for the GM to balance out the spell.

If you're talking about the way the wizard adds to his spells in his spell book when he levels, or scribes things into his spellbok, that's already covered in the witch's rules. As said above, feed a scroll to the familiar. Note, you should then scribe a new scroll, so you can re-teach your spells to your familiar, otherwise if it dies, you lose all those extra spells you taught. Keep a copy of each spell you want on a scroll so you can reteach.

[Jason the Half-GM]

I was definately talking about creating brand new spells, or possibly mimicking some that already exist. I did not expect it to be a *fast* process, but I did expect the familiar to be part of the process.

Scroll soup... on nom nom nom!

Thank you Guys and Gals!