There are two things i dont understand about playing a witch.
1.The hexes are supernatural abilities that "just happen". No casting or anything needed. They happen purely by willpower apparently.
So how do you roleplay this?
E.G. Evil eye is literally you looking at someone and bad things happen. Roleplaying this seems pretty difficult since you just say some variation of "i look at X and give him the evil eye".
2.How do you deal with intelligent enemies that quickly realise that they are dealing with a spellcaster...that is in 30 ft? Even assuming the witch casts no spells, the fact that weird stuff keeps happening and the only people around is a fighter in full plate, a cleric in a breastplate, a rogue in a chain shirt and someone wearing no armor is a dead give away.
And the moment the witch casts a spell, all intelligent enemies should go "It's a mage! Get him!". And that's not hard to do when the witch is only 30 ft away.
Well you can role play hexes in a million different ways. Thats really a subjective thing based on the player/group. For us they stare right through you as if staring right at your soul. Target is affected mentally by it.
How is a witch different than any other caster? "Spell caster get em!" Use your spells or hexes for defense.
Hexes need to be within 30 ft of the target to work. Any other spellcaster can be a lot farther away. Even close ranged spells can be cast farther away than that past level 1.
I thought close range spells were 30ft at first level? Witches have spells too. In my experience our group is rarely that far away from the enemy. If the caster is keeping distance while the fighters are that far up front they will not live very long anyways in our games.
It is significantly harder for your foe to do if he's asleep. Or if he's trapped in a web / black tentacles / slowed / what have you. Or if your party members are protecting you. Or if you have summoned monsters protecting you. Or if you're flying. Or invisible. Or . . .
So, as Pan said, pretty much like any other caster.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Evil eye is actually really fun to roleplay. There are two ways I'd go about it. Either you have to keep the other eye closed, so you appear to be winking at someone and then their luck turns foul. Or, better yet, one of your eyes glows an off color, like yellow or arctic blue.
Well the scenario im imagining is the witch opening up with a cackle + hex and then the leader of a group of bad guys goes "shoot her with arrows!" because its not terribly hard to figure out she's doing something magical (and at level 1, you can go unconcious with a lucky arrow or two). Or someone does a charge attack and oneshots her with a greatsword.
No different than any other caster question. Sure at higher level other casters might have better range options but at lvl 1 its a wash. Give it a shot worst thing that happens is that you die and have to roll another PC. Its never stopped me. However you are not me. So ask yourself how does a regular caster live? Do that and the witch should be fine.
A regular caster doesn't NEED to be within 30 ft range though.
Question wrote: A regular caster doesn't NEED to be within 30 ft range though. Yep. Hexes AND being a full caster is a great combo, giving you all sorts of options.
Question wrote: A regular caster doesn't NEED to be within 30 ft range though. And that would actually matter if the witch didn't also gain spells. Any witch who charges the BBEG just so she can fire off an evil eye + cackle deserves a greatsword to the face. Let your party challenge and engage him while you cast round 1, then focus your ire on him while he's busy and your martial characters block charging lanes.
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I prefer the ever-simple explination of "I give x the finger and Reality agrees"
ShadowcatX wrote: Question wrote: A regular caster doesn't NEED to be within 30 ft range though. And that would actually matter if the witch didn't also gain spells. Any witch who charges the BBEG just so she can fire off an evil eye + cackle deserves a greatsword to the face. Let your party challenge and engage him while you cast round 1, then focus your ire on him while he's busy and your martial characters block charging lanes. Nothing actually stops the BBEG or his minions from retargetting the witch once she moves within 30 ft for her hexes to work. Espcially if said BBEG is anything with more than 30 ft speed.
And if the witch is spending actions on restricting their movement with spells like black tentacles, thats actions not spent on casting save or lose spells.
Whereas a wizard/sorc could stay way back and be casting save or lose spells from round 1.
Spending one round to safeguard yourself + one round to move within 30ft range and use a hex to do something a wizard can do in one from a safe range seems highly inefficient.
Of course you could argue that the witch and wizard might be casting the same save or lose spells...then you may as well be playing a wizard, because you are clearly not using the hex class feature, which is the entire point of the witch class.
I find it odd that you or anyone can have any role-play problem here. You do realize this is based of old real world beliefs right?
People literally thought that a witch giving you the stink eye could be enough to curse you.
The range thing seems like a odd complaint to me. Does your GM just always give you wide open easy battle fields? Because in my experience a lot of the time you would be lucky to have more room then 30ft to run and hide.
Also perhaps don't dump con? beyond lvl 3 your should not be so frightened of a single attack. Just make sure you don't do something silly enough to get hit by full attacks or say every enemy on the grid.
Question wrote: ShadowcatX wrote: Question wrote: A regular caster doesn't NEED to be within 30 ft range though. And that would actually matter if the witch didn't also gain spells. Any witch who charges the BBEG just so she can fire off an evil eye + cackle deserves a greatsword to the face. Let your party challenge and engage him while you cast round 1, then focus your ire on him while he's busy and your martial characters block charging lanes. Nothing actually stops the BBEG or his minions from retargetting the witch once she moves within 30 ft for her hexes to work. Espcially if said BBEG is anything with more than 30 ft speed.
And if the witch is spending actions on restricting their movement with spells like black tentacles, thats actions not spent on casting save or lose spells. Black tentacles, while not having a save per se, is a save or loose spell. And even if you "save" you still suffer a partial effect. And it has an area of effect. Easily one of the best spells of its level.
Quote: Whereas a wizard/sorc could stay way back and be casting save or lose spells from round 1. Save or loose spells aren't generally optimal.
Quote: Of course you could argue that the witch and wizard might be casting the same save or lose spells...then you may as well be playing a wizard, because you are clearly not using the hex class feature, which is the entire point of the witch class. No, the "Entire point of the witch class" as you put it, is being able to use hexes AND cast spells.
Look, at this point it is obvious, you don't like hexes. That's fine. Don't play a witch. No one is forcing you to. Not every class is for every person. Plenty of us, however, do recognize the power of hexes and we do enjoy playing witches, to each their own.
ShadowcatX wrote: Quote: Whereas a wizard/sorc could stay way back and be casting save or lose spells from round 1. Save or loose spells aren't generally optimal. Unless your party also has a witch on it that causes the opponents' saves to drop straight down. So how about that as an option? To not be the only caster in the party so that everyone doesn't rely upon you to play the God wizard? There are options other than SoD, bows, and greatswords you know.
Plus, like other said, if you aren't standing in front of the fighter, then the enemy would have to go around him in order to get to you. Either they waste move to even try getting near you, or they go through his threatened area and fall prey to the exact same "knocked out with one good blow" that you fear so much.
You don't HAVE to get within 30' to be effective. You are as much of a spellcaster as any wizard or sorc. Instead of sorcerer bloodline powers or wizard school powers (which are also mainly 30' range) you get witch hex powers. You can still sit back and cast longer range spells if that is your desire. Hexes are just another option in your arsenal.
You are a caster, you have lots of defensive and evasion spell options. Make yourself invisible, levitate or fly. Work with your teammates and don't be the one standing in front. There are ways of removing yourself as a viable target for that scary melee bruiser with the giant axe.
Witches have lots of options, every witch I've seen have been played differently. It's what makes them so fun.
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