Bonded Witch Build - Need Help


Advice

Grand Lodge

I am trying to build a bonded witch that is a debuffer but also can do damage. He will be using his bonded weapon a lot.

Stats:
Str - 14
Dex - 14
Con - 12
Int - 18 (16 + Racial Modifier)
Wis - 12
Cha - 7

I will be using a bonded spiked gauntlet so I can not be disarmed, using evil eye hex for my 1st level and I don't know what patron to do. Any help would be appreciated.

Dark Archive

Why ever would you want to try and take a 1/2Bab, unarmored, low HP class into melee EVER?
Besides that WHY would you give up your familiar for that?

Grand Lodge

I just wanted to make a versatile build. Is there no way to do this without dieing alot?

Dark Archive

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The only thing that dies faster then a melee witch is the average rogue.

Grand Lodge

How about a bonded witch that uses dexterity and ranged attacks? I really want to make a bonded witch that uses a weapon for the bond but I don't know what to do.

Dark Archive

Ok, here's the real question for you, WHY do you want to be a witch that uses weapons?
There is nothing about the class that is in anyway damage focused. Witches are save or suck/save or die specialists with almost no combat abilities.

If you want to be a combat capable character with access to hexes then play a hexcrafter, if you want spells and spell like abilities to blast the HP's off your opponents go sorcerer.
You only do witch if you want a powerful support role, trying to do anything else is probably going to be VERY disappointing.

Grand Lodge

It is because I am dead set on using a bonded witch. I like that fact that I don't have to rely on a familiar and that I can debuff enemies. Is there a better item to have bonded? Or is there a bonded weapon I can put on myself that doesn't hinder my hexes/spells and allows me to the bonded weapon spells.

Also I am currently only making race archtype classes. Don't ask why I just felt like doing it. If you have a better suggestion for a racial archtype that I can also use for PFS I would honestly be very happy.


I think you could make a Bonded Witch with a longspear relatively effective. The loss of a familiar is offset by having an extra spell per day and a cheap magic reach weapon. If you take Combat Reflexes at 1st, Power Attack at 3rd and Pushing Assault at 5th (you need 15 strength) you can play keep away with the longspear while you cast and hex.

Dark Archive

The loss of the familiar is a MASSIVE decrease in the power and flexibility of the Witch that the extra spell does nothing to help.
Having played as and GM'd for several witches not one of them has ever run out of spells. Heck half the time they will go multiple fights before even casting a spell.

Now as for this specific archetype, it's one of the worst options out there. Remember it's NOT like a wizard's bonded item where it lets you cast any spell you know, it allows you to only cast 9 very specific and sub-par spells.

Now with that said if you insist on using this archetype then I'm going to have to recommend using the ring instead.
Witch's are VERY squishy and lack most of the defensive spells a wizard relies on to keep them safe. They usually use a wand wielding familiar to supply their protections but you gave that option up.
The Ring item gives you back many of the more useful defensive spells as well as some extremely nice but circumstantial defenses (Anti-magic field for instance).
It shores up a major weakness the class has while not interfering in how a witch is designed to play offensively.

edit: And before you ask why I say this is a terrible archetype look at how it learns new spells. The ONLY way for a bonded witch to learn a new spell is by finding a scroll of it. This makes finding new spells extremely erratic and up to your GM on what spells you can ever get and is MASSIVELY expensive to keep doing.


The loss of Improved Familiar does indeed hurt. The bonded object is much more useful in a game where you can't get item creation feats. There are a few ways to play a Witch effectively and though most of them use hexes they also use spells or why not just become a Hexcrafter instead?

Dark Archive

It's not just the improved familiar, losing that flat +2 assist on everything as well as the extra perception check and the initiative bonus is a lot.
As for the item creation I fail to see how you are counting the bonded item as valuable there. Sure you can enchant it as a magic item of it's type as if you had the item creation feat but that's not a big deal.
you are literally trading arcane power and action economy to save a little gold.
Losing that flexibility is a lot.

Grand Lodge

I didn't realize how bad a witch with no familiar could be. I just thought that the familiar would be an extra burden. Do you have any recommendations for a racial archetype I could create for PFS? I be honest I have only played one PFS game in real life and We Be Goblins.

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