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I had some questions about the broom of flying, and mounts in general as they pertain to witches.
I'm planning to craft my witch a broom of flying as soon as she can afford it. The description is a bit vague on how it works, but from searching around for interpretations, I understand it to work essentially like a flying mount. Which means I can move around using the mount's move but still perform a standard action, to cast a spell or hex, and also use my own move equivalent action, in this case to cackle.
So is there any mechanical disadvantage for a caster not to just ride a combat trained mount all the time (at least outdoors or in areas that are easy to navigate for a large animal?) Does it affect your Armor Class or other defenses in some way? Is there a chance of extra bad things like falling off when you get hit? It mentions the penalties for charges and double moves, but if you're making single moves is there any reason to not want to be on a broom?
Being able to move freely and cackle seems like a big advantage, so I'd like to just plan on staying on the broom for every combat. Even if it means only hovering a few feet above the ground while in a confined indoor area, I would think a medium character on a broom would still fit in a normal 5x5 space, and the broom wouldn't get spooked, so there is no reason not to ever do it. That's why I'm concerned if there is some defensive downside to it, or some other reason that I might not want to be on the broom literally all the time.
If I'm hovering 10 feet off the ground, does that mean most medium creatures can't hit me without reach or ranged weapons, and don't threaten me if I move over them? Are there any defensive advantages to being on higher ground than a ranged attacker?
The broom description says the broom is able to fly as if affected by the overland flight spell (+4 on fly skill checks). Does this mean for complex flying maneuvers that it uses my fly skill + 4, or that its own fly skill is fixed at 4 and my skill is irrelevant? If the latter, then the broom would not be a good enough flyer to hover reliably (DC 15), and there's nothing you can ever do to improve it, so that's a significant disadvantage. The Carpet of Flying is a very similar item, but it specifically words it as "gives a +5 bonus to fly checks", which makes me think that it's adding to the user's fly skill as a base.
It says that you can cast normally if the mount takes only a normal move action. There is a concentration check if it takes a double move. I'm going to go ahead and assume this applies to a supernatural ability like a witch hex as well, even though it doesn't specify. Even just a single move plus hex plus cackle would be awesome.