Scar. Slumber, move, scar, move away, cackle.
You can also scar your party members.
That said, really explore ways to do things without relying on cackle. Any class feels old after a while of always doing the same thing from round to round.
It's not difficult on a sleeping enemy. If you're focused on using cackle to prolong your effects then they need to be in place first anyway. There may be multiple enemies in a fight, as there often are. It's valid.
The long and short of it is that there aren't many options. Scar is one on a very short list outside of investing in feats to increase your move speed, quickened spells to, for example, dimension door around and still have actions left (high level), and so on. There are no convenient or easy solutions. Choosing what you do with your actions is a core mechanic of the game. You can't always do everything you want.
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Prior to 10th level there's only 1 way to resolve that.
First is you buy a Cackling Hag's Blouse.
This will let you chase your target down and still cackle to keep the debuff up.
After 10th level you get split hex and scar hex and a bag of flying critters you can control (Homonculi are great for this). Give each critter a scar and send them flying out over the battlefield and watch them. When they spot the target the fly within 30 feet of it and then you hit that critter with a hex and bounce it off them to the bad guy. This way you don't care about range, anything within a mile is fair game.
Also a good idea is to give each party member a scarred turtle to hang from their backpack so that if they get jumped by a bad guy you can bounce a good hex on them or a bad hex onto the bad guy.
Before that you just have to stay close to your target.
Scar doesn't let you "bounce" hexes. How are you doing this?
In many circumstances, keeping your opponent more than 30 ft away (unless they have powerful ranged attacks) is a net benefit. A witch excels at single-opponent battlefield control/debuff; it sounds like your witch hindered the assassin and the rest of the party couldn't take advantage. It sounds as if the assassin was spending a lot of actions running away from the witch instead of full-attacking, which should have given the rest of the party more opportunities; it sounds as if the party lacks a strong ranged damage-dealer (archer or ranged touch blaster).
Seriously, web followed by scorching ray is pretty potent at 5th level. Or even just having someone throw alchemist's fire on the webbed assassin.
Careful with that. Your familiar will also be affected by the same hex, potentially putting it to sleep, giving it negs, etc.
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Careful with that. Your familiar will also be affected by the same hex, potentially putting it to sleep, giving it negs, etc.
No, the trick is that you Scar the familiar and bounce the SCAR to the target. Once the target is scarred, you don't need Split Hex anymore - you can Slumber, Misfortune, Cackle, whatever on the target at massive range.
Ah. That sounds very round heavy. Doable with the chase scenario though.
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Careful with that. Your familiar will also be affected by the same hex, potentially putting it to sleep, giving it negs, etc.
Which is why I stated to use a homonculus NOT a familiar. They are cheap to make, Smart, utterly loyal, immune to most debilitating effects and if it does die who cares, you can make another one in a day.
Plus you only use them when you have a target that tries to run away, if they don't then you use the turtle hanging off the fighters backpack. Those are even less valuable so noone cares if it and a dozen like it die.|
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I think bouncing a scar breaks the intent of the hex. Much like allowing you to cackle from one mile away. Most DMs probably wouldnt allow it, since it completely remove's a witch's major weakness, the range limitation.Imagine if all you had to do was stay 100+ ft away from a combat, bounce scars off canon fodder, then start throwing slumbers and misfortune on enemies from more than 100 ft away. While cackling.
You mean like how every Archer, Gunslinger, Evoker or ranged character in the game is designed to work? ie, keep your distance, use party members to engage the enemy and rain death and distruction from range?
A witch on a mount can have the mount use it's move action to move while the witch cackles. DC 5 Handle Animal check is all that is needed.
After 10th level you get split hex and scar hex and a bag of flying critters you can control (Homonculi are great for this). Give each critter a scar and send them flying out over the battlefield and watch them. When they spot the target the fly within 30 feet of it and then you hit that critter with a hex and bounce it off them to the bad guy. This way you don't care about range, anything within a mile is fair game.
I'm not seeing this getting around the witch herself needing to see a creature to target them with a hex (unless the target is already scarred).
Hex a creature out of your line of sight via Scar? Fine. Bounce a hex at a third creature, via Split Hex through the scarred creature? Only if you can see the third creature, it seems to me.
So you also need a way to see through your hex-carrier's eyes. Perhaps Witness.
That said, if you get that, this is really cool, if a bit more complicated to set up. I could see a villain making great use of this.
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After 10th level you get split hex and scar hex and a bag of flying critters you can control (Homonculi are great for this). Give each critter a scar and send them flying out over the battlefield and watch them. When they spot the target the fly within 30 feet of it and then you hit that critter with a hex and bounce it off them to the bad guy. This way you don't care about range, anything within a mile is fair game.I'm not seeing this getting around the witch herself needing to see a creature to target them with a hex (unless the target is already scarred).
Hex a creature out of your line of sight via Scar? Fine. Bounce a hex at a third creature, via Split Hex through the scarred creature? Only if you can see the third creature, it seems to me.
So you also need a way to see through your hex-carrier's eyes. Perhaps Witness.
That said, if you get that, this is really cool, if a bit more complicated to set up. I could see a villain making great use of this.
Homonculi have a wonderful ability that resolves this.
A homunculus cannot speak, but the process of creating one links it telepathically with its creator. A homunculus knows what its master knows and can convey to him or her everything it sees and hears, out to a distance of 1,500 feet.
Anything past 1500 feet does require you to either scry or use spells like witness to target it but at that level such scry and fry tactics are normal.
If a witch has an ally who is an elf, she puts the scar hex on the elf before a fight and then uses split hex to use the slumber hex on enemies near the elf (who has a racial immunity to magical sleep).