RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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So my Mummy's Mask group all died like 3 rooms in. We're planning to start from the beginning with fresh PCs. Originally I'd thought of doing a fighty cleric for divine casting and more melee power (we were a bit lacking in both departments the first time around). However, this is the current lineup for my comrades:
Paladin
Barbarian
Dawnflower Dervish
Rogue
Two issues: melee is crowded enough as it is, and there are no full casters to be seen.
Earlier today I was thinking of trying a Mystic Theurge, but I've been giving some thought to someone's suggestion of playing a witch. Seems they have a mix of traditionally arcane and divine spells on their list, I have full casting progression, plus hexes.
Sounds great!
But I've never played one. I know they have a reputation for Misfortune and Slumber "ruining everyone's fun", and I don't wanna be a jerk, but it does seem like they would be a good support character by making things easier for my four fighty friends via debuffs, healing, utility, etc.
So what are the basics of playing a witch? Aside from the infamous slumber and misfortune (and prehensile hair, which is a little too weird for my taste), what are good hexes? How should I view myself and my role as a witch? What would be helpful patrons for my party situation?
I'm not sure if it's powerful, but the healing hex is useful. You can have your familiar touch-attack undead with it every encounter.
Only thing with a witch, Jiggy, is that even though yes you do have full casting progression, you will want to take a look at their spell list...
...depending on your tastes, you might find it a little single-target-centric.
If witch is not quite sitting well with you, you might want to take a look at a dual-cursed oracle or the ACG Shaman.
Also, the Fortune hex is a nice alternative for a more helpful party-centric witch, as well as well as picking up like the Agility patron, which if I remember off the top of my head, adds Haste to your spell list.
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A witch in Mummy's Mask is different then the standard witch builds due to the sheer volume of undead and mind immune creatures you are expected to run into.
Misfortune is going to be your go to hex from the beginning with Fortune (yech), healing and aura of purity as your main backups. You'll need flight as soon as possible as well.
Unlike most witch builds you'll be more spell focused so grab thanotopic spell as soon as you can and focus on staying out of range and raining destruction down on your targets.
I do agree with Rerednaw - if the only other person with access to Restoration-type spells in the group is a paladin you may be obliged to take the Healing Patron.
This is a bit of a shame, as it means you will not be able to benefit from the buffing spells offered by the Ancestor patron or similar. Blessing of Fevor is always nice, as are Haste and Freedom of Movement from the Agility patron.
Witches do have a good spell list, but it does tend to be offense-focused. Much of the buffing or healing potential comes from Patrons, and is rather limited.
Undead can be a bit of a weak spot for witches. Witches have a lot of fortitude save and mind affecting will save effects. Undead are generally immune to fortitude save effects, immune to mind affecting, and strong against other will saves. That's shutting down a huge portion of your regular witch abilities. Reflex saves are weaker, and you don't have a lot of options to target that.
You'll need to craft a build specifically to try to shore up the witch's effectiveness against undead. A cookie cutter witch build won't serve you well in an undead campaign.
Slumber is normally a no-brainer, but useless against undead. Evil-eye is mind affecting, so also a problem. Misfortune is still usable, though since undead tend to have good will saves it may be less viable than usual.
Specifically for a low level undead campaign, I might start with healing hex and prehensile hair. Healing is not only useful for your allies, but will be a valuable attack that you can use once per undead foe. Cure moderate at level 5 is good damage and bypasses any DR that a mummy may have.
Prehensile hair is a method that allows you a good way to deliver touch attacks. Trying to actually hit them up close is a bad idea for you as a witch. Hair lets you do it at 10 foot reach (potentially more with lunge, enlarge, etc), so you can protect yourself. You use your int bonus instead of dex or strength, so you'll have a decent chance to actually succeed in your touch attack.
Using your familiar to deliver the hex (at level 3) is another option, but you'll have to carefully choose a familiar that can do this. It's risky because that's your spell book and you're screwed if it dies, and they're usually not that good at getting in and out of melee. You may need to take improved familiar and take other steps to make this viable.
Fortune is a powerful buff that is always a strong option. Somewhat less strong here than normal if you aren't using cackle hexes. But if you do decide to go with misfortune then you'll definitely also want fortune.
I'd recommend not learning cackle but instead crafting the cackling hag's blouse that grants it. Your hex slots are very valuable.
If you're willing to go evil, the gravewalker archetype is a consideration.
Failing that, I'd probably say skip the witch idea and go cleric. If melee is crowded, melee isn't the only option for a cleric. Witch is an uphill battle against undead, while cleric is a natural fit.
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Repost of mine from the last time this question came up.
Try and use the Gravewalker Archetype but if not you have a semi-tough first 2 levels ahead of you.
First you will definitely need to pick up the threnodic spell metamagic so all your mind affecting spells will work on the undead you encounter.
For Hexes you will need to grab these to maximize your effectiveness:
Flight (most undead can't fly and this will keep you out of reach)
Misfortune (the nastiest hex to lay on anyone and it's not mind affecting)
Aura of Purity (protects your party from disease, gaseous form, stench and most of the nasty aoe effects undead carry)
Healing (Works as a direct damage effect against all undead)
Slumber - Higher level undead are surrounded by living minions and thralls.
Evil Eye - cause it's super effective against the undeads living/summoned minions.
Pick the right patron, I'd consider Plague to be an undead creator/controller myself but Ancestors or Time let's you bring great party buffs if you decide to go that route.
Finally, you are a full caster with a respectable spell list and a POWERFUL familiar ability if you choose to go that route.
Take a homonculus for a familiar over every other choice. As a construct it is naturally immune to 99% of EVERYTHING an undead can do
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
Immunity to bleed, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.
Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
No mind effects, drain, diseases or death effects renders it immune to almost all high level undead abilities.
Mix that with the spell Familiar Melding means YOU are no immune to it too.Built properly a Witch (especially the Beast-Bonded witch) can laugh off nearly everything an undead can do while raining death and destruction down on any undead meat puppet who thinks to get in your way.
edit: oh and make sure to choose a method to get Disrupt Undead on your spell list it always gives you something to do.
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My Witch character is a Halfling
if you have the Jinx Trait and associated feats From the Halfling book available if combines to be seriously awesome for a "save or suck" caster my 14th level PFS character with Maxed out intelligence was commonly Evil Eying opponents for -7 to all of their saving throws and second round of combat taking out the big bad. cackle is also a must as well as the sleep hex.
Also the various spells that make the opponent make two roles and take the lowest.
this character was devastating from 1st level and could heal.
if you have the Jinx Trait and associated feats From the Halfling book available if combines to be seriously awesome for a "save or suck" caster my 14th level PFS character with Maxed out intelligence was commonly Evil Eying opponents for -7 to all of their saving throws and second round of combat taking out the big bad. cackle is also a must as well as the sleep hex.
Evil Eye is not going to work on undead, which is an important consideration for this campaign.
The grave walker dose not need to be EVIL.
The gravewalker archetype grants 5 replacement patron spells, 3 of which explicitly have the evil descriptor. A gravewalkers spells derive from communing with their "gristly, inanimate poppet stitched from human skin" containing the "will of evil spirits residing in the poppet". "At first level, a gravewalker can create a 20-foot-radius aura of evil power. This aura increases the DC of channeled negative energy by +1."
Trying to play a non-evil grave walker is either not playing that build to its full potential or just completely ignoring the alignment aspect of the game. Just like playing a jinx evil eye based debuff witch in an undead campaign is always going to be a struggle and isn't a situation that will allow that build to live up to its potential.
although many things in this campaign will be undead and immune to mind affecting the things that are affected will be your play things
So occasionally you'll be as useful as normal and the rest of the time throttled. Better not to design the majority of your build around features that will be so situational and so much less frequent than what the powers were balanced for.
A witch is very good at wearing down a single target rather than area of effect. If you come up against an undead BBEG with a bunch of weak living minions, then you're really not going to be showcasing your witch abilities by debuffing a couple of minions. As a witch you should be doing a good job of helping take down the boss. If you can't even do that you should consider a different class.