Okay, let's start with the basics:
1. Starting level? Ending level?
2. Known party member classes/roles?
3. Any goals for the character (focus on damage, support, versatility, etc)? Role-playing goals?
4. Any notable house-rules?
aquatic campaign (Skull and Shackles)
1. Level 3. Approximately level 15-17. (might be a bit more, we play at my house so I want to play at later levels)
2. Elf Storm Druid (battle control, buffing, light blasting); Slyph Storm sorceror (blaster); Undine Cleric (heal, light melee, support buffing); Half-Orc Invulnerable Barbarian (BSF); Goblin rogue (flanking melee support; traps); Halfling dawnflower dervish (party face, light melee, utility).
3. I've been debuffing and doing 7 damage at max with the build the way it is now. Honestly, I want to be an effective battle-field controller and do some sort of ice/electricity combo (if I cant focus on both just ice) damage. But I found that I was easily failing at certain checks, but i was excellent in the water where as my counterparts were lacking there. But I couldn't do much once I got there besides debuff and like frost ray... which wasn't too much fun/effective. It was entertaining to see my evil eye work here and there, but it was the only consistent thing that was helping.
4. No gunslingers, no summoners, featured and core races; stat array (16, 14, 13, 11, 10, 9).
Crysaenthe2
Undine Witch (Winter Witch) 3
LN Medium outsider (native)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +3
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
hp 17 (3d6+3)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6
Resist cold 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
Special Attacks hexes (evil eye [dc 16], frozen caress)
Spell-Like Abilities
Constant—endure elements (cold only)
1/day—hydraulic push
Witch (Winter Witch) Spells Prepared (CL 3rd; concentration +6):
2nd (2/day)—web (DC 15), blindness/deafness (DC 15)
1st (3/day)—ill omen, mage armor, ear-piercing scream (DC 14)
0 (at will)—ray of frost, detect magic, detect poison, read magic
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Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB -1; CMD 12
Feats Ability Focus (evil eye), Brew Potion, Improved Familiar
Traits indomitable faith, magical knack, resilient
Skills Craft (ships) +6, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (history) +8, Knowledge (nature) +8, Knowledge
(planes) +8, Perception +3, Profession (sailor) +7, Sense Motive +3, Spellcraft +7, Swim +10, Use Magic
Device +10
Languages Aquan, Common, Elven, Halfling, Other Language
SQ cold flesh, patron spells (deception)
Combat Gear Wand of shocking grasp; Other Gear Cloak of resistance +1, 150 GP
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Special Abilities
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Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deliver Touch Spells Through Familiar (Su) Your familiar can deliver touch spells for you.
Empathic Link with Familiar (Su) You have an empathic link with your Arcane Familiar.
Endure Elements (Cold only) (Ex) Exist comfortably in cold regions.
Energy Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Evil Eye -2 (6 round(s)) (DC 16) (Su) Foe in 30 ft takes penalty to your choice of AC, attacks, saves, ability or
skill checks (Will part).
Familiar Bonus: You gain the Alertness feat while your familiar is within arm's reach.
Frozen Caress (Su) Whenever the winter witch casts a touch spell, she can infuse the magic with cold as a
swift action. This grants the spell the cold descriptor, and adds 1d4 points of cold damage to the spell’s effect.
If the touch spell allows a saving throw, a succ
Magical Knack (Witch [Winter Witch]) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Share Spells with Familiar Can cast spells with a target of "You" on the familiar with a range of touch.
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
p1
MY Familiar
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Väli
Coral Capuchin
N Tiny magical beast (aquatic)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +2 size, +2 natural)
hp 8 (2d10+2)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +4
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (good), swim 30 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d3-2/×2)
Space 2.5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks cursed bite
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Statistics
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Str 6, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 7
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 11
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Climb +6, Perception +6, Sleight of Hand +8, Spellcraft +1, Stealth +15 (+19 in coral reefs), Swim +10,
Use Magic Device +1; Racial Modifiers +4 Sleight of Hand, +4 Stealth in coral reefs
Languages Common (can't speak)
SQ amphibious, improved evasion, moisture dependency
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Special Abilities
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Amphibious (Ex) You can survive indefinitely on land.
Climbing (30 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Cursed Bite (DC 12) (Su) Victim takes 1d6 dam every 10 min out of water but can hold breath 2x as long
(Fort neg).
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Flight (40 feet, Good) You can fly!
Improved Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save; half on failed save.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Moisture Dependency Can stay out of water for Con hours, then takes 1d6 damage every hour.
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
and familiar is no use in combat besides scouting..
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Also, your familiar is illegal for your archetype, but if your DM already allowed it, i guess it doesn't matter.
One thing I would do is find tactical uses for Hydraulic push. Bull rush foes off a ship into the water. If they are already in the water, bull rush them down. Get to know the drowning rules. Carry a net. Non-prof penalties don't matter a lot when you are targeting touch ac. Entagled while underwater is a very bad place for air breathers to be.
hmmm... if you knock someone into the water (with hydraulic push) and then put them to sleep (with slumber), they wouldn't have the opportunity to hold their breath... doesn't that mean that they'd only have like 3 rounds for someone to save them before they drown?
Also, your familiar is illegal for your archetype, but if your DM already allowed it, i guess it doesn't matter.
One thing I would do is find tactical uses for Hydraulic push. Bull rush foes off a ship into the water. If they are already in the water, bull rush them down. Get to know the drowning rules. Carry a net. Non-prof penalties don't matter a lot when you are targeting touch ac. Entagled while underwater is a very bad place for air breathers to be.
It was permissible since we're playing skulls and shackles... Is there antoher familiar, Imbicatus that you would recommend beside it?
Can hydraulic push push more than one enemy if they are in the same line of sight where youre making the push?
That's a very good idea, I will get a net.
hmmm... if you knock someone into the water (with hydraulic push) and then put them to sleep (with slumber), they wouldn't have the opportunity to hold their breath... doesn't that mean that they'd only have like 3 rounds for someone to save them before they drown?
I think the combination with slumber would be great.
I wonder if there are any other ways to get my INT up without giving up too much.
Considering I can add the cold descriptor, I was wondering if there were any spells that had high chance of entanglement...
Btw, my group also has these spells available for me (and another) as it was found the previous campaign during loot search:
alter self, black tentacles, blue, cplor spray, enlarge person, hypnotism, slow, vampiric touch
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Ah, I missed that you took improved familiar, that overides the Default familiar options. The problem is that Winter Witch gives you a very small list of appropriate familiars, none of which are really useful for aquatic adventures. The coral monkey is better than them, but I don't think it's really worth a feat.
It's not on the list, but I would allow King Crab and the Blue Ringed Octopus as familars since they tend to live in very cold water. The problem is they are much less useful in air.
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Your party seems pretty caster-heavy and melee-light. Have you considered specializing a bit in summoning? Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augmented Summoning, and (optionally) Superior Summoning would be the feats of choice, and it could really help shore up your front lines. Right now it looks like the Barbarian is the only one really built to take hits, so a few disposable meatshields could really come in handy.
Also, two words: aquatic mounts. (You can summon a shark with SMIII, and it has a 60 ft swim speed. And big sharp nasty pointy teeth.)
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Ah, fair point - summoning does tend to bog down the game, even with more experienced players. (One solution to this is to assign the summons to other players, but even so, you might still have an issue.)
As for melee characters - just remember that while d8 hit die, 3/4 BAB, light armor guys may be aimed at melee, they tend to be more "skirmishers" than "front-liners." You can't really rely on them to stand between the casters and the enemy and take hits like a fighter, barb, or paladin can.
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hmmm... if you knock someone into the water (with hydraulic push) and then put them to sleep (with slumber), they wouldn't have the opportunity to hold their breath... doesn't that mean that they'd only have like 3 rounds for someone to save them before they drown?
Unless I hear about a great example where water doesn't wake you up, I'd classify being underwater while being made to slumber as an automatic "standard action that would rouse the victim".
Steps to optimizing a witch:
Step 1) Be human. Put your +2 in Intelligence so you can get a 20.
Step 2) Take Extra Hex twice at first level. Select Slumber, Misfortune, and Cackle as your hexes.
Step 3) There is no step 3.
(Ok, so I'm being snarky. Still -- witches are relatively easy to optimize.)
Considering that you are starting at lvl 3, I recommend that you check out the feat: Accursed Hex. That will let you grab cackle at lvl 2 without having to play through lvl 1 with out it.
Personally, I like misfortune over evil eye. Accursed hex helps it land, and if it lands, following hexes take four successes to resist.
Either way, Accursed Hex is my top recommendation.
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Paladin-
We're in an aquatic campaign that when someone needs to be mobile in the water, I apart from another party member are the only ones able to help out. IE: humans stuck under water chained and three ghouls 40 feet away going for them- only we because of being undine were able to get their quickly.
I don't know if going human is worth the trade off for the amphibious and aquatic automatic ability an undine gives you. Just my opinion... I do want to up my INT, cant figure that how, I'm thinking of getting extra hex as welll