Very shortly we will be playing Rise of the Runelords campaign and I am thinking of playing a witch, and more specifically a Scarred Witchdoctor. I like the idea of caster that can take a few hits and keep on kicking. So down to brass tacks.
At first level can you take Extra Hex even if you don't get one at first level, or are you restricted until you actually get your first hex?
Secondly, the rules are a little hazy around the fetish mask and I was a little curious. It says specifically your familiar is treated as you have the arcane bond wizard ability. Considering your familiar is no longer a creature wouldn't it be safe to say that you consider it a bonded item per the description of arcane bond?
I'm sorry if my knowledge of these topics is a little hazy, I am a fairly new Pathfinder player.
1) You can't take Extra Hex until you get your first hex. According to an FAQ, you technically don't have the hex class feature until you get your first hex. The same goes for magus arcana, etc.
2) The archetype does not say it's an arcane bond. It only says that the witch treats it as a witch familiar for the purpose of preparing and gaining spells. So you don't need to wear it to cast spells and such. It's basically an expensive spellbook you wear on your face and can enchant as a magic item.
It actually makes me wish a wizard could use their spellbook as an arcane bond.
Thank you for the quick response! It seems like a pretty amazing alt class already with Con as the main casting stat, I would probably be a little unbalanced if you could cast extra spells with it like a bonded object.
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It's a horrible archetype that trades away the flexibility and spellcasting power for a few extra hitpoints, a slightly better fort save and a situational armor bonus, blech.
It literally strips you of your spellcasting power, remember you still use your int bonus for bonus spells to cast per day so you give up a LOT of magic potential for those extra HP's.
Add to that you give up your familiar so you lose all those extra actions in and out of combat (No aid another, no wand use, no scouting, no extra set of eyes to watch over you while you sleep, etc).
I still don't understand why everyone is saying this is a good archetype... it really stinks for a casting focused class.
It's a horrible archetype that trades away the flexibility and spellcasting power for a few extra hitpoints, a slightly better fort stional armor bonus, blech.
It literally strips you of your spellcasting power, remember you still use your int bonus for bonus spells to cast per day so you give up a LOT of magic potential for those extra HP's.
Add to that you give up your familiar so you lose all those extra actions in and out of combat (No aid another, no wand use, no scouting, no extra set of eyes to watch over you while you sleep, etc).I still don't understand why everyone is saying this is a good archetype... it really stinks for a casting focused class.
The reason why the archetype is so good is not because of the extra hp you recieve by being CON dependant, it's because CON is is far easier to boost than INT. Also, the reason why most players choose the witch class is not because of their spellcasting, it's for the hexes. Hexes do not benefit from bonus spells per day. In fact, witches need bonus spells less than other full casters already due to the fact that they save a spell slot every time they use a hex.
In short, hexes are far more valuable to a witch than their spell list, and being able to boost your main casting stat through polymorphing, rage or alchemy is far more beneficial than a couple bonus spells.
Besides, you can always buy more pearls of power, but that headband of vast intelligence will never get a higher bonus than +6.
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It's a horrible archetype that trades away the flexibility and spellcasting power for a few extra hitpoints, a slightly better fort save and a situational armor bonus, blech.
It literally strips you of your spellcasting power, remember you still use your int bonus for bonus spells to cast per day so you give up a LOT of magic potential for those extra HP's.
Add to that you give up your familiar so you lose all those extra actions in and out of combat (No aid another, no wand use, no scouting, no extra set of eyes to watch over you while you sleep, etc).I still don't understand why everyone is saying this is a good archetype... it really stinks for a casting focused class.
Has this ever been FAQ'd? I know it doesn't directly state that bonus spells are dependent on con instead of int, but I think its fairly clear the intention is to convert everything about spells and hexes from int to con. I understand what the RAW is, but I want to know if RAI has ever been established.
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Not that I know of. I don't like it either; it complicates things when a seeming random half of the spell mechanics work off of one stat and the rest another.
Not that I know of. I don't like it either; it complicates things when a seeming random half of the spell mechanics work off of one stat and the rest another.
Yeah, I will continue to run with with all things for spells and hexes based off of constitution for the archetype.
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So we played our first session today and with some talking with the GM she went with the belief that all spell and hex related abilities are affected by Con rather than Int.
So we played our first session today and with some talking with the GM she went with the belief that all spell and hex related abilities are affected by Con rather than Int.
Okay, reading over the rules, while I think that it does not apply to bonus spells chart, I think that's silly. It applies to literally everything else... makes me wonder if that was left off for word count or actually left off intentionally.
In fact, I'm going to go ahead and tag this for a FAQ candidate as if it's something that needs to be FAQ/Errata'd we will eventually find out, and if it's not then they can let us know just in this thread (usually they do)
I have asked myself the same question about bonus spells.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qes1?Scarred-Witch-Doctor-Bonus-Spells#1
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It's a horrible archetype that trades away the flexibility and spellcasting power for a few extra hitpoints, a slightly better fort stional armor bonus, blech.
It literally strips you of your spellcasting power, remember you still use your int bonus for bonus spells to cast per day so you give up a LOT of magic potential for those extra HP's.
Add to that you give up your familiar so you lose all those extra actions in and out of combat (No aid another, no wand use, no scouting, no extra set of eyes to watch over you while you sleep, etc).I still don't understand why everyone is saying this is a good archetype... it really stinks for a casting focused class.
The reason why the archetype is so good is not because of the extra hp you recieve by being CON dependant, it's because CON is is far easier to boost than INT. Also, the reason why most players choose the witch class is not because of their spellcasting, it's for the hexes. Hexes do not benefit from bonus spells per day. In fact, witches need bonus spells less than other full casters already due to the fact that they save a spell slot every time they use a hex.
In short, hexes are far more valuable to a witch than their spell list, and being able to boost your main casting stat through polymorphing, rage or alchemy is far more beneficial than a couple bonus spells.
Besides, you can always buy more pearls of power, but that headband of vast intelligence will never get a higher bonus than +6.
That's a pretty off idea there. You play a spellcasting class for spells not niche powers.Hexes are wonderful and I enjoy using them on my witch but they are FAR to limited to be your only weapon in the bag.
Remember Hexes are a single target power that is quite limited in range and re-usability. One lucky save or a minion whose on the ball makes you immune to that witches go to weapon. Heck if you just run aay from them for 30 seconds that hex focused character is useless (1x per day powers).As for con being easier to boost well that's debatable, the only thing that can boost con that doesn't boost int is certain shapechange spells that the witch doesn't get access to anyway.
Finally the benefit of a high Int easily outweighs a high con for everything except absorbing damage. More skill points, more spells per day, more languages, easier time learning new spells (remember it's still a Spellcraft check to learn any spell and THAT is definitely still Int based.
No, the archetype literally trades away the power to reshape the universe to your will for a few more hit points and a better fort save.
As for those hit points since you still lack the AC, DR, CMD, Familiar's actions or defensive spells you will wind up taking MORE damage then the average witch per attack directed at you.
As for the debate on whether bonus spells are Int or Con based the fact that there is a very detailed list of what the Constitution Dependent gives you and bonus spells aren't on that list tells you it's not on the list.
If you want to house rule it to include that it's fine but remember that's not how the archetype is intended to be run.