| Timdog |
I just saw the Orc Scarred Witch doctor and I think I love it :) I have no idea if it would work, but my idea is as follows:
Two levels of alchemist for feral mutagen then all witch. Focus on Str and Con and touch spells. Deliver said touch spells via claw/claw bite.
Take the Strength patron mostly for the level 10 and 14+ spells
(Strength: 2nd—divine favor, 4th—bull's strength, 6th—greater magic weapon, 8th—divine power, 10th—righteous might, 12th—bull's strength (mass), 14th—giant form I, 16th—giant form II, 18th—shapechange.)
Giant form gives touch reach, which is pretty wicked, and a solid caster DC boost via Con. although waiting quite late for it.
I think once I have vampiric touch this beast could hold his own, it's a pretty decent amount of healing incoming while still hitting. I'm thinking tattoo and spell focus necro to make it even more solid. Not really sure what else - maybe something as boring as weapon focus claws to try and hit more often, although i'm hoping to get my str high enough to offset the shitty BAB.
Any other suggestions on how to crystalize this into something workable? I don't think or need it to be amazing, I just want it to be not terrible :) I don't want to drop any other classes probably though, I do want a "caster" more than anything, just a really messed up caster :)
| boring7 |
Don't bother with alchemist, the bonus from mutagen doesn't catch up to the severe negative of losing 2 caster levels.
Trying to be a melee monster with Witch's AC is tough, moreover every round you cast is a round you can't fight and vice-versa. Rolling 'spellwarrior' is limited to specific classes and builds that manage to combine fighter and caster (Magus, eldritch knight, kinda-sorta dragon disciple) and witch is not one of those classes. Additionally, as a witch you have hexes, and they tend to be a lot better than any damage you could be dealing with your magic claws (or your toothy half-orc bite attack) can dish out no matter WHAT your strength is.
If you are worried about making touch attacks you are better off getting weapon finesse so you can dex it up for your AC and reflex saves while tagging people with touch spells.
Vampiric touch healing is a dubious gambit, since the hit points are temporary. If you manage to open with it and roll well you can make it kind of work for that fight, but it is an unreliable tactic, and having 2 REAL hit points is pretty uncomfortable. I mean I guess you could use it on a summoned critter and coup de grace auto-crit for more HP BEFORE you expect a fight, but that plan has even MORE moving parts and discomfort.
Anyhoo, if you still really want it, you can technically swing Eldritch Knight with witch. Early-access costs you 3 spellcaster levels, and the long way still costs you 2, but you end up with a prestige class that has fighter BAB, almost full spellcasting, and improves your con-based witch casting. So that's an option too.
For armor, the adamantine haramaki and mithral buckler stack, give no arcane spell failure, and can be enchanted for cheaper than a set of bracers of armor.
The archetype stacks with a couple of other archetypes, like the pretty good healer Hedge Witch.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head...
| boring7 |
If you're going Gish, you might as well do your best to burn the hexes, Anytime you are close enough to hex, you are probably going to either be casting a spell or hitting it with a weapon.
Medium and hedge witch stack, burning off more hexes in favor of stuff that affects undead and spontaneous healing. Chances are none of that matters anyway since you will probably want to get EK by level 4.
Near the end of page 1 is the witch/EK build that allows early-access to eldritch knight. The spell-like ability from Scryer counts as the necessary spellcasting prerequisite for eldritch knight. Obviously several of the feats and selections are unnecessary because you aren't obsessed with rolling scythe or stuck playing human, but that is easily fixed.
If you really want to play around, half-orc (or human who takes it twice) might be able to take the racial heritage feat to get up to shenanigans. Might even be a way to get the prereqs for EK with a 3rd level feat, I don't recall all the racial feat-fueled SLAs out there, you just have to find one that copies a 3rd level spell.