I'm curious about the viability of running this AP with three female human witches and a male human warrior - probably a high DR/- Barbarian-type. Thematically I'm liking the idea a lot, but would they be able to cover thier bases effectively?
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Yes. Three witches together can be extremely powerful what with all the debuffing hexes they can pile on, and they can specialize their spell lists to cover the offensive and restorative (I'm using "restorative" instead of "curative" or "healing" for a reason; as you can imagine, curses and ability damage pop up early and often in this AP) capabilities the party will need. I'm assuming the barbarian's going to be in melee? If so, that's all to the good. It means the party can stick together; witches need to get fairly close to the opponents to use some of their hexes. I also suspect the player of the barbarian will get a kick out of one of the NPCs in the third chapter.
Yeah, the thought was that the Barbarian would be this incredibly tough warrior - going with Invulnerable Rager and Urban Barbarian Archetypes - and would be a paramor, guardian and consort to all three witches whom would be sisters.
Their Hex lists would be very similar, but they would take different spell focuses and different patrons/spell lists with one focusing on Necromancy (not raising undead so much as Enervation, Blindness, Cause fear, etc.), one would focus on Enchantments and one would focus on either Healing (most likely) or Conjuration.
Initially we saw what looked like a pretty good combo - stacking the Witch's Ward hex on the Barb, but since the bonuses are typed they can't be stacked unfortunately. Still, dropping all those sleep Hexes/sleep spells early on should be pretty potent and by the time all of the debuffs kick in they ought to be able to lock down a handful of foes on the battlefield at any given time, granting the Barb the breathing room he needs to take them down.
Alright, here's what we're looking at - three sisters whom were born to a Witch of some reknown and actually inherited her familiar, a Faerie Dragon. I'm making this Familiar a bit more powerful/expansive than most - he serves as a Familiar for all three Witches, granting them different 'patrons' as apporpriate to their skills and natures, and they get him from 1st level at no feat cost.
That means they will lose the collective benefit of three separate Familiars, but will get one strong one to share right off the bat - I'm charging them each 1 trait that they must sacrifice as part of this trade-off. I'm also technically making the three of them an official 'coven' right off the bat due to their shared blood and shared familiar.
The three sisters will choose many of the same hexes, most of those taken at the same time, but there will be differences:
Ygritte, the oldest, will effectively have the 'Time' patron. She is the leader of the group and of the family, and tends to be cool, aloof and commanding with a dry sense of humor. She will take the Spell Focuses in Necromancy and work towards Spell Perfection: Enervation as well as the Cauldron and Witch's Brew Hexes.
Llyra, the middle sister, will have access to the 'Enchantment' patron. She is a bit of a bon vivant, daring and vivacious. She will take the Spell Focuses for Enchantment and will work towards Spell Perfection: Dominate Person. She'll also instinctively use her Charm Hex in almost every social encounter she has.
Sansa, the youngest, is a bit more naive and gentle of spirit though she often shows the most wisdom of the three. The others protect her fiercely both in and out of combat, knowing her to the heart of their coven. She will work towards Healer's Touch but early on will take Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summoning and Superior Summoning in order to defend herself without directly taking lives.
The final member of the group with be an Invulnerable Rager & Urban Barbarian, a stalwart build and character in our games who makes for just about the toughest front-line fighter I've seen. He is protector and consort to each of the three sisters and is fiercely devoted to them all.
The group should be very effective though they are clearly non-optimized with a few Achilles' Heels. That's fine as I rather like parties with obvious strengths and obvious weaknesses... I think its going to be a hell of a campaign.
The Witches' feat/Hex selection will probably look a little something like this:
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Feats and Hexes:
1st - Hex (Healing)
1st - Extra Hex (Evil Eye)
1st - Extra Hex (Cackle)
2nd - Hex (Slumber)
3rd - Spell Focus: varies
4th - Hex: varies
5th - Greater Spell Focus: varies or Augment Summoning
6th - Hex (Fly)
7th - Reach Spell
8th - Hex (Misfortune)
9th - Quicken Spell
10th - Greater Hex: (Agony or Major Healing)
11th - Split Hex
12th - Greater Hex (Retribution)
13th - varies
14th - Greater Hex: (Majopr Healing or Agony)
15th - Spell Perfection: varies or Superior Summoning
16th - Greater Hex: varies
What rules are there for Witch's Covens? I know it was mentioned briefly in the book but I never saw any actual rules concerning PC covens.
Shouldn't all of them have to have the Coven hex?
Too bad you can't drop the Accursed sorceror bloodline in there somewhere too =)
That is just one of many pretty crappy Hexes. I was fine with hand-waving that they gained the Coven Hex for free, especially given the backstory.
So, all in all, what they lost was 1 trait each and the benefits of a normal familiar. What they gained was the Coven Hex for free and a single Improved Familiar at 1st level to share. They come out ahead in my mind, but not in any way that's particularly game-breaking, and I think it will add to the story nicely. Besides, they aren't controlling the Faerie dragon - I am. He'll serve as a nice mouthpiece for the GM early on and later his usefulness will diminish dramatically as they level up.
What rules are there for Witch's Covens? I know it was mentioned briefly in the book but I never saw any actual rules concerning PC covens.
To be honest with you, apart from the few mentions under the Witch entry I'm not even sure. I'm simply going to rule that they 'count' as a witches' coven in whatever ways might come up.
The benefits of a hag coven are found here: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/monstrous-humanoids/hag
The benefits of a hag coven are found here: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/monstrous-humanoids/hag
Thanks for the link. I obviously won't be granting them any of those abilities - if something comes up that 'applies to members of a coven' then I'll likely let it apply to them. I don't think they had any intention of exploiting those powers anyway, nor am I particularly sure that the rules are intended to allow 3 PC witches to be able to do so.
Coven Hex just lets the sisters count as hags for forming a hag coven, but there still needs to be a real hag involved.
It does mean that if the party can win over the night hag in Artrosia, they could actually have access to the coven abilities while in Artrosia, possibly setting up a coven duel pitting the night hag and the PCs (with one of the girls staying out of the coven and giving regular support) versus Jadrenka's mother and aunts. That could be pretty cool.
Coven Hex just lets the sisters count as hags for forming a hag coven, but there still needs to be a real hag involved.
It does mean that if the party can win over the night hag in Artrosia, they could actually have access to the coven abilities while in Artrosia, possibly setting up a coven duel pitting the night hag and the PCs (with one of the girls staying out of the coven and giving regular support) versus Jadrenka's mother and aunts. That could be pretty cool.
Verrrrrrrry interesting...
*furiously jotting notes*
Perhaps have the barbarian be a zone controlling type as mentained in TarkTx's Passive-Agressive Tank topic. Keeping critters away from the witches will be vital, so a Polearm+Spiked gauntlet is a possible load-out.
Perhaps have the barbarian be a zone controlling type as mentained in TarkTx's Passive-Agressive Tank topic. Keeping critters away from the witches will be vital, so a Polearm+Spiked gauntlet is a possible load-out.
I'd be running the Barb and I'm going with a Bardiche, Combat Reflexes and the ability to grow claws via Lesser Beast Totem. And yeah - protect them when they need protecting, kill when they don't. The characters already a hell of a tank sand with their debugging abilities there shouldn't be much I can't handle. One of the girls even has some Summoning ability to help out.