I'm working on making a Samsaran Witch for a friend's game and I want to use the variant racial ability that would let me grab some non-witch spells for her.
My problem is, I can't find a way to scan for arcane spells that exclude witch. Does anyone have any non-witch arcane spells they'd recommend?
Also, if I were to, say, take Bard spell overwhelming presence, would I get use of that spell at 6th level (as it was from the Bard list) or would it be 9th level (as for Wiz/Sorc).
When you get the spell if it is on the bard and wizard sorc list depends on the GM.
d20PFSRd might have a better filter than the PRD has spell searchable by class but it would still include witch spells.
According to these boards, you have to pick a singular class and choose all your additional spells from that class's spell list, so there would be no issue for spells appearing on multiple lists - you'd go by the class spell list you chose.
I would suggest not using Bard list, you already get a ton of mind-affecting enchantments as a witch anyway. Pick Summoner (level reductions and conjurations galore!) or Sorc/Wiz (huge selection!).
As for what spells to pick, it depends what your needs and wants are. In an undead-heavy game, you'd obviously want a bunch of necromancy, for example. For me, witch gets a LOT of will save or lose (Slumber, Misfortune, nearly half their offensive spells...) and a fair bit of fort save or lose (Ice Tomb, Blindness/Deafness and Baleful Polymorph spells). So I would try to get some good reflex-based damage spells to combine with Dazing spell feat/rod so that you can target whatever weak save a creature may have with a save or lose/die. Good spells for dazing are Aqueous Orb and Ball Lightning (for similar reasons), Geyser (you'd probably want to alter its damage type, though), Snapdragon Fireworks (needs Heightening and element change to be good), and Stone Call (despite being will instead of reflex; just for the huge radius - no SR - unavoidable nature of it).
@Stream: Ah, didn't realize it was restricted to one class' spell list. Re-reading it, I see why they concluded what they did.
My primary focus as this witch will be the debuffer. So, I'd be looking into that area. Although you bring a very good point about getting some reflex-based spells to supplement. Part of me wants to avoid the Dazing spell combo because another person I'm playing with (pretty knit group) is using/will be using the mechanic (and I abhor using a similar tactic to another group member, even if it's a different game...not sure why). Summoner though...that has strong potential for early very powerful spells...
@wraithstrike: I tried that not too long ago actually. Ultimately, it wasn't much use because I couldn't exclude Witch spells, but it is a great way to search for something specific.