OK, so,
I'm playing a physically weak Half Orc Witch in a racism-heavy, low-magic campaign. Always bullied by humans for being a Half Orc, I thought Diguise would be a natural hex-choice for him so he could pass for human every now and then, letting him be more interesting to play than a pure debuffer witch. The problem arose in the interpretation of the Disguise Self spell.
Now it does state positively that you can change several definite things about yourself. My cloak is now red, I'm one foot shorter, my greataxe looks like a woodsman's axe, I look like a human, and my spell component pouch doesn't show. All within the spell description, and I thought that was fine. Using it is still a risky business, as every person who touches me is going to get a will save or see me as the monster I truly am, and my DM knows how to make people touch you in any normal social situation (halfway blocking your path, patting your back, etc). It seems cool to me to not roll a Disguise check to pass for a generic human with the same sound and mannerism as my witch, as there is no flaw in my make up being a smooth illusion, no bulge in my pocket from the hidden spell component pouch. If I act weird, though, they'll go "Hey, you're not from around here" instead of "Hey, you are a Half Orc".
The problem we had was with the sentence "If you use this spell to create a disguise, you get a +10 bonus on the Disguise check". I interpreted this to mean that if you want to do something disguisy that this spell does not let you, there will be a disguise check, and you will get a +10. As an example, it will be easier to pass for a Ogre with a Diguise check if you already look a foot taller due to Disguise Self. Also, passing for a specific person requires more knowledge about what details to include, and this seems to me to be under the Disguise skill.
I have realized that many do not use it in this way. From what I have read here, the Disguise Self seems commonly to be a simple +10 bonus to a skill check, plus a will save. This seems ridiculous in two ways. First off there are several ways it can go wrong, both by looking through the disguise and by touching it. Thus Disguise Self is super volatile, as most would react to the something amiss when making the will save.
Secondly, that interpretation makes the Witch's hex retarded, as Disguise is not a class skill. If Paizo intended that a skill check be rolled for every use of the Disguise hex, it would seem the witch using diguises for several hours each day, should be just as adept at making them as an equally charismatic rogue with a scroll or potion of disguise self.
The witch is based off of classical fairy tale, literature and disney characters (ex. Coven from Macbeth), and as far as I can tell, the disguise ability as seen in Snow White when the witch queen looks like an old lady looks smooth and clear without anyone suspecting the witch queen for practicing making disguises every day. In my experience, there is nothing overpowered in my interpretation of the spell, and I think it's how it was intended, at least for the Witch.
Sorry about the rant, those are my thoughts on the topic, and I wonder if anyone thinks it sounds reasonable.
From the tone of your post, I can't tell if you're looking for the official clarification or just looking for people to back up your interpretation.
I'm not married to the idea, but my initial reading was that disguise self just gave you a bonus, and that it could also be nulled by scrutiny. Granted, when my players use it I don't have it constantly risk being detected.
There is nothing outright stating that a character knows it has made a saving throw. In fact, diseases are one such effect that have been classically run by GMs as being secret -- a GM will simply ask for a fortitude save or roll it himself to see if the disease infects the player, then inform the player the first time they risk taking damage that they feel unwell. Personally, I run saving throws that if a player makes a save successfully, then they realize they were targeted by a hostile effect, but if they fail a save then their character may not realize anything happened.
Sorcerors / Wizards get disguise self on their spell list, and they don't get it as a class skill either. That argument is not compelling. A Witch that wants to create durable disguises should put ranks into the skill instead of relying solely on her first level power.
I believe this was a deliberate change from 3.5, where the best rogue was a Wizard. A Rogue that wanted to disguise herself, lie her way past a guard, stealth, scale a wall, pick locks, and more had to invest skill points into each area and could not change them. But a Wizard could just take each of those abilities as a spell, and generally didn't even have to roll against DCs -- they were "I win" effects. Then the Wizard could prepare his spells differently the next day and practically be a new character. Some people found this to be unfair.
I guess both backing up and official clarification would be nice. I'm just looking to see if my stance is defensible, or if I really should put skill points in disguise to be able to use it effectively.
First off, I agree with you with the saves, sorry if that wasn't clear. Failed save usually means not realizing anything happened.
Secondly, the wording of the 3.5 spell is so to speak the same, except for the part about not disguising as other races. If a 3.5 wizard could "I win" a diguise situation by using the spell, a pathfinder wizard should be able to as well.
I like both to play rogues and wizards, and I have no problems with the wizard getting to emulate the rogue every now and then. The wizard is blatantly obvious when he speaks the arcane words for his memorized invisibility, while the rogue can hide as many times as he wishes. And again, the rogue stealths silently. Knock can open a closed lock, but it can't jam it. The rogue's diguise as a specific person of another race can last forever, and he's equipped to bluff his way out of most situastions as the pretend character, whereas the wizard can not do those.
I believe what you're arguing is that Disguise Self is like an Illusion spell- perfect until you directly touch it.
No idea if that is what RAW says, but hopefully that will help you communicate what you want.