Hello,
I have a Lv 7 Witch follower in my current game. She is a support Witch and we have mostly had her use the majority of her spell slots on long duration buffs and then left her at base to work on crafting, research, office management, and helping cure/stop a magical plague. We've made some powerful enemies and might be heading out again so the character will be encountering more danger. She doesn't have much roll in combat, being most useful before and after we get stabbed. I was wondering what ways there our to help keep her safe during combat. Her defenses and HP aren't great so I'm more looking for to make it more difficult to target her or remove her from the fight. Figutive's Grenades seem like a great solution but I'm looking for other options for when those won't work.
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Rope Trick
Store her in a Portable Hole with a Bottle of Air, a chair and a table.
Shrink her down, and put her in a familiar satchel.
She would have to be quite small indeed.
Rope Trick
Store her in a Portable Hole with a Bottle of Air, a chair and a table.
My DM loves the whole Portable Hole <-> Bag of Holding thing, so I'm wary of those.
That sounds like an awfully nice prison.
She doesn't have any combat hexes?
Would it be cheaper to have some sort of portable wizard hat shelter?
She does not. Went with scar, fortune, healing, cackle, brew potion, and deadly dealer. Scar, fortune, healing, and cackle for the obvious synergy, Brew Potion and Cartomancer archetype for character reasons.
I would love some sort of portable wizard hat shelter, is there an option for that?
Shrink her down, and put her in a familiar satchel.
She would have to be quite small indeed.
That's a good idea. Ideas for getting a medium creature down to tiny?
Ideas for getting a medium creature down to tiny?
Die, get reincarnated as a Small race, then pay for a permanent Reduce Person.
Or cast Vermin Shape II.
You could have her wear full player mail and carry a tower shield. If she's not attacking or casting spells in battle, the penalties shouldn't make much of a difference.
I actually considered rigging something up with tower shields, with Kord as inspiration. Some sort of system where you could pull them together to form a "battle egg". DM nixed the idea. Armor could be problematic with her Str score. Vermin Shape II seems like a good solution.
There's an armor enhancement that let's you retreat into a protective extradimensional space. Can't remember the name right now though.
Get her a Ring of Invisibility. Round 1, she goes invisible and takes cover someplace.
In subsequent rounds she can contribute to combat primarily by aiding the visible party members:
1) Her Scar hex will let her give Fortune and Healing to party members at range, without breaking invisibility.
2) Her Cartomancer archetype allows her to deliver touch spells with a thrown card. Consult your GM on this one, but I would allow her to deliver buffs and healing to the party this way without breaking invisibility, since the card itself deals no damage and neither does the spell.
3) She can summon things -- the summon monster spells are on her list. Similarly, she can lay down battlefield control spells like Black Tentacles without breaking invisibility.
Honestly, just staying invisible takes care of a LOT of the threats she's likely to encounter, barring the occasional enemy with See Invisibility or True Seeing. And this way she gets to contribute usefully to combat, and not feel like a liability the party's having to defend all the time.
Invisibility and Flight are already on my list of options, though a ring would be a good addition. In the fights I'm worried about, See Invisibility is definitely on the table. We have pissed off the Red Mantis(Curse of the Crimson Throne) and I'm expecting a fight with them in the not to distant future. If we get ambushed by them, I'm more worried about getting her safely out of the fight than her contributing to it.
The character definitely doesn't feel like a liability to the party. In fact we would have lost some members in our last big fight without her protections. Tons of RP with the character and her support is very useful so the party loves her. It's a character we want to keep safe, but she is a non-combat based cohort in a high power campaign so there will just be some fights beyond her.
There's an armor enhancement that let's you retreat into a protective extradimensional space. Can't remember the name right now though.
That sounds great. A quick search didn't find it for me. Anyone know what this might be?
Always be prepared to run away. No seriously, every mage-type will have to do a full retreat at least once in their career. It's a rite of passage and nothing to be ashamed of. If the rest of the party will be dropped in the sh*t by you running, then do you have anything useful you can do? Because if not the party is already are in the sh*t because you are only going to absorb the few actions it takes to drop you. If they aren't then you running away has stopped yourself being a liability and a target. You can always come back a round or so later.
Use Magic Device is an amazing skill in that it allows access to a plethora of useful wands (Enlarge Person, Mage Armour, Shield, pro. vs. Evil and so on) - develop it.
Buff your companions so that they can defend you, enlarge person for example creates a very big barrier for you to hide behind.
Get some offensive magic. Sorry but a good caster also need to be able to contribute to the different needs and challenges you will face and sometimes that means inflicting pain.
Oh don't worry, I'm always ready for a tactical retreat. I'm more concerned about what to do with her while the big boys are playing. That didn't sound as sexist in my head. The character is my character's cohort, which puts her at a severe disadvantage in a high powered campaign where we punch above our weight class. Basically the party consists of Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor and we need to figure out what to do with Pepper when Thanos attacks. Now the obvious answer is "Don't bring Pepper. Why did you bring Pepper?", which is mostly the route we've taken. But going forward we will be dealing with situations where we she will have to come along. Her stats are simply not going to be up to snuff. The better option to me seems to be to find a way to safely remove her from combat. Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor have the fight covered.
...Similarly, she can lay down battlefield control spells like Black Tentacles without breaking invisibility.
...
This is not true.
Any non-harmless spell that includes an enemy in it's area of effect counts as an attack for the purpose of breaking invisibility.
Wall spells, if witches get them. Or illusions. Both work from invisibility, unless you're trying to trap someone in a hemisphere of ice for example.
I'll ask my buddy about the armor.
If you can afford it, an armor or shield of etherealness. There are cheaper ways to become ethereal, mosswater strained leather, obsidian steed ( draw backs if good), charlatan cape, but being ethereal is a very good defense.
Found it!
Found it!
Oh that's perfect.
Ring of Seven Lovely Colors is flight for 4K. Hexes still work.
Cheetah's Sprint is a 1st level swift spell for getting out of trouble. Spell + Withdraw = far, far, away.
Learning spells should be an easy way to become more combat able. Screech is a 3rd level spell that gives your allies an extra attack. The faster the enemy dies, the less she has to worry about surviving. Ill Omen (1st) makes your party's casters happy since it makes the enemy roll twice and take the worst for saves. Mage Armor is a must for defense. Mount gets her extra movement so she can do casting and not worry so much about position. False Life gains temp HP. Ironskin: additional AC.
/cevah
Once again, thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Just wanted to add the Fortress Shield. Full round to be encased in an iron cube.
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Most of the time, a caster can stay out of combat's way on their own. They are supposed to be more intelligent than everyone else, so if they are putting their face where it is likely to get hit, they probably aren't playing as smart as they could be.
AC is not necessary, unless your group is constantly being surrounded, and if you are continually bombarded with mass amounts of AoE effects, HP is far more valuable. Plus the magic item slots you are wasting on AC can be spent on items that make a caster exponentially more powerful. Rings of Protection suck compared to Rings of Freedom of Movement or Rings of Wizardry. Amulets of Natural Armor are terrible compared to other amulets, and so on.
In my experience of playing wizards and such, there are just times when you don't do anything and let the thugs handle combat with the little guys. The only times I went down was when I myself did something stupid and got hit for it.
Witches tend to be more about disabling and deception, so perhaps they have spells that will really make the other characters shine, or perhaps making the bad guy do dumb things.
What it sounds like, is that the saving throws to resist their effects isn't high enough. That means they need ways to get that linked stat up as high as possible, as well as taking spell focus in a choice school of spells. Most witch effects, such as hexes or their spells rely on the enemy failing. It's usually save negates, which puts the Witch in a poor situation if their saves are made frequently. (Happens in our game with our shaman who can't land a hex to save his life).
Defensively, just think through it. If grapples are a problem, find or make a Ring of Freedom of Movement. If arrows and projectiles are an issue, look to Wind Wall or Fickle Winds. If they are getting stabbed, they need to be in a position to not be stabbed, and staying away and using range can help this quite a bit.
Hello,
I have a Lv 7 Witch follower in my current game. She is a support Witch and we have mostly had her use the majority of her spell slots on long duration buffs and then left her at base to work on crafting, research, office management, and helping cure/stop a magical plague. We've made some powerful enemies and might be heading out again so the character will be encountering more danger. She doesn't have much roll in combat, being most useful before and after we get stabbed. I was wondering what ways there our to help keep her safe during combat. Her defenses and HP aren't great so I'm more looking for to make it more difficult to target her or remove her from the fight. Figutive's Grenades seem like a great solution but I'm looking for other options for when those won't work.
Asides from magic gear, the only thing that comes to mind is an "Instant Fortress" cube. Just have her hide in there.
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A witch with the Scar Hex can basically stay outside the dungeon and easily be what the community deems "Stay at home Witch."
She should already be using buffs that last a long time. Min/Level buffs should be coupled with a Lesser Extend rod. But a Witch does get Marionette possession to drop Self buffs on select people as well as staying "with" the group for the first few rooms/areas of a dungeon. Before the spell ends she can dump more buffs on the group and Watch the group via magical means and Use Scar hex to drop useful things on the group.
But that is just my suggestion.
Wand of sanctuary might help. She'd have to make a Use Magic Device to use it, but it could help discourage enemies from attacking her. And stay behind all the beefy martials so enemies have to go through them to get to you.