Corset of Dire Witchcraft bonus to hex DCs

[King Tius]

I've seen this come up several times on the forums but there's never been an official ruling.

Corset of Dire Witchcraft

Spoiler:

A corset of dire witchcraft grants a +4 armor bonus to AC. If the wearer is a witch, each day when she communes with her familiar to prepare spells, she may enhance one hex she knows, increasing its caster level by +2 for 24 hours. This enhancement ends if the corset is removed or if she uses it to enhance a different hex.

The save to resist a hex is equal to 10 + 1/2 the witch’s level + the witch’s Intelligence modifier.

The question that arises is whether or not this was intended to increase the witch's level in this case. As written only four Hexes would actually benefit from the CL increase: Beast of Ill Omen, Healing, Major Healing, and Dire Prophesy. These seem to be too random and too few in number to make this item's ability worthwhile. The AC bonus is certainly appetizing but the item is flavored for witches and yet doesn't seem to actually do them much good.

Functionally this only applies a +1 to one hex's DC with doesn't seem particularly earth-shattering to me, especially since there's a trait that let's you up Slumber's DC by one already.

Discuss!

[Brf]

There are other hexes, such as Flight, that the item would give early access to better effects. Disguise, Tongues, Agony, Hag's Eye, etc. have duration based on the level.

[Malag]

Hey King Tius,

Not every item is supposed to be earthshattering and powerful. In case of Corset of Dire Witchcraft, it raises the level of a hex by +2. In that case, it also raises DC by 1 and duration by 2 increments. It also enables the witch to use certain hexes such as Evil Eye as being 2 caster levels higher. Some hexes advance at higher levels, hence a level 6 witch could use Evil Eye hex as level 8 witch. At least, that seems like it to me.

Malag

[Nefreet]

The issue King Tius (and others) have noticed is that the majority of hexes have no "Caster Level". They are (Su), not (Sp).

[King Tius]

Malag, while I agree that's what the item SHOULD do, as written it does not raise the DC by 1 for most of these Hexes as they are based on Level, not Caster Level. That's the whole crux of the argument.

Brf is also incorrect because again the wording is based on Level, not Caster Level. You would not get access to Flight abilities earlier and it wouldn't up their duration.

As this item stands now, you are paying 6k more than getting the equivalent Bracers of Armor +4 to alter 4 hexes which most witches never even take (other than a healing-based witch). That doesn't seem like the intended design.