Help me survive. So far I've managed to do so. My only defensive mechanism I have is Flight (Hex). I have no mirror image, invisibility, silent image. What are some effective ways to stay alive in combat or is it just best to fly 30 ft above everyone else and reign down spells/hexes on my foes. This doesn't always work because enemy alchemist throw bombs at me, and Huge sized creatures attack me also. What spells would you recommend that would help my cause? Right now my spell selection (memorized) consists of the following:
1) Mage Armor, Enlarge, Snowball
2) Silence (via Time Patron), Lipsitch sometimes I like the fact that it targets a casters Fort save (yes Silence and Lipstitch are similar but my God are they good), Glitterdust, Spectral Hand to deliver bestow curse (used this last session and landed on a boss 100ft away, something slumber can't do)
3) Haste (via Time Patron), Bestow Curse, Stinking Cloud
4)Halucogenic Smoke, Fear.
Other options at level 4 are Wall of Blindness, Debilitating Portent, Dimension Door.
Hexes include: Evil Eye, Cackle, Misfortune, Slumber, Flight
Flying keeps you out of range of ground-based melee opponents, but an increasing number of foes will be able to fly, or use missile combat, or target you with spells. Sometimes staying on the ground behind your friends, or handy bits of cover, is the right thing to do.
With your present spell selection, glitterdust can blind enemies if you go before them, and stinking cloud can block LOS to you. Enlarging your melee buddy might provide effective cover too. You should always have mage armor up but it won't protect you from anyone you should be worried about -- AC will not stop the primary attacks of powerful enemies. (It may help against minions or iterative attacks.)
Slumber and misfortune are good to throw on enemies who might be able to hurt you, but of course those enemies might be out of range of your hexes (especially archers), undetected (especially if they're concealed in an ambush situation or if they have, say, invisibility potions of their own), or make their save.
Honestly, some kind of invisibility or concealment spell would be very handy and continue handy as you increase in levels. Wall of blindness might affect your friends, too, which is one reason why wall and area-of-effect spells are always tricky.
A simple smokestick can sometimes provide you with concealment for a bit (maybe your familiar can drop them for you?) Getting a wand of invisibility, blur, or displacement - or even just fog cloud! -- might be a good idea, especially if your familiar can use it for you (probably only advanced familiars).
For huge creatures surely you can just fly higher?
As Tonyz says against ranged and flying foes you may be better taking cover, although dispelling opponents flight is a pretty fun option too.
Blast barrier is another kind of weird option for creating some cover for yourself, which you could look into, but as I say its a bit odd.
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I'm fond of Spell-Storing Armor armed with Frigid Touch. It staggers the enemy (no save) so that they can't full-attack you. (As a witch you'll need scrolls to charge it, and it only works for a round, but that can be the difference of life vs death.)
Just one of many great suggestions I got from my thread about playing an 11th level character with AC 11.
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Improved familiar - Azata Lyrakien wand keyring sage familiar is the umd master in my mind. If you don't want to umd a Faerie Dragon is the wand king. Either can make you invisible.
A ring of invisibility may be in your future or a decoy ring (riskier to activate but much better invisibility as it acts as greater invis). You can also spend some money on consumables. They greatly increase your preparedness. Remember, you don't die in fights you are prepared for.
Make your haramaki spell storing and add Stricken Heart to it. Here is the key don't activate it on the opponent's turn if they moved up to hit you. You want the staggered condition to rob them of their full attack so use it on the Aoo when you are getting away, or if they full attack you stopping their attack after the first. This should keep you from taking most full attacks. A life saver for a full caster.
I do in fact get an Improved Familiar at this level. I was leaning towards Faerie Dragon because its high UMD. Maybe Azata better?
I was thinking about buying a wand of invisibility and having the FD cast it on me after I cast my spell or hex? The following round the same thing (for difficult fights)
For huge creatures surely you can just fly higher?
I think it might be a problem of 'then I am out of the fight'.
If the huge creature is humanoid in shape (giants are a prime example), then they have a 15' reach. And that comes from the end of their 15' height (I hope so, or I've been playing giants wrong). Wouldn't that mean you have to stay at the 35' range to stay out of reach?
That means you can't hex any human sized targets anymore, since you are over 30' away from them. So maybe getting options that extend a hex's reach would help? That helps in general- it means that you don't have to be as close to melee in general, and you can hit ranged characters more easily.
Amplified hex looks good- it lets you spend spell slots in order to get various improvements on the hex (including a +30' on it). Admittedly, that feat gets more costly the more you use it (1st level slot for 1st time, 2nd level slot 2nd time.... etc.) .... but it is good to have the option.
Or you could focus on dealing with the huge thing, and then float back down to a more practical height for the rest of the fight.
Also witches do have spells, most of which have more than a 30ft range.
Azata has a higher UMD I believe with its 20 CHA but the Faerie Dragon does not need to roll for spells on the sorcerers list.
If your going round-by-round grab a wand a vanish. It's a better option. Then use Invis when you want to be gone for a few rounds.
You just saved me a lot of gold my friend, great plan.
Could he use a scroll of mirror image on me since its on his spell list?
Could he use a scroll of mirror image on me since its on his spell list?
ugh just noticed its a You spell, that won't work
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False Life and Mage Armour, never leave home without them.
Try not to rely on your hexes too much, sometimes it's better to keep your distance. Alternatively, invest in ride, cast Mount and have an extra move action to move back after using an offensive hex.
Witches do have access to the cloud spells, I would consider investing in Fogcutting Lenses in the future if you find you like using them to keep yourself alive. Bleed for your Master and at later levels Die for your Master allow you to shunt off incoming attacks to your familiar. Life Pact is also an option.
Because as a witch you have hexes, and most of yours are offensive, you can afford to dedicate more of your spells to defence. Most of your spells are offensive.
And use some cash on items for defence, particularly to raise your AC.
Off topic, my winter witch has aggressive thundercloud, as you can move the cloud as a move action for you, so from round 2 you can do damage with the spell and use a hex.
Because as a witch you have hexes, and most of yours are offensive, you can afford to dedicate more of your spells to defence. Most of your spells are offensive.
And use some cash on items for defence, particularly to raise your AC.
Off topic, my winter witch has aggressive thundercloud, as you can move the cloud as a move action for you, so from round 2 you can do damage with the spell and use a hex.
There are too many good 4th level spells that's the thing, I don't even have room for Aggressive Thundercloud. I've got Arcane Eye, Hallucinogenic Smoke, Fear, Debilitating Portent, Dimension Door. Even of these few I can't even take them all.
They can still attack me from range, do I need to memorize dimension door if I'm already in the back line casting spells from a height of 30ft?
Dimension door is a spell you never regret having. Besides moving to cover in combat, or trying to escape a grapple, it has any number of out of combat uses.
You can also use it to help move around allies who can't fly or teleport
Sounds like I need to drop one of my other two very strong spells arcane eye, hallucinogenic smoke.
Dimension door is a spell you never regret having. Besides moving to cover in combat, or trying to escape a grapple, it has any number of out of combat uses.
Ya the fact that its just a Verbal component is awesome. But still if i were grappled the concentration check to cast it would be no gimme. DC 10 + the grappler's CMB + the level of the spell being cast
At lower levels I've made use of Mount as cover. I've recently hit level 7 with my witch (hedge witch/herb witch) and I've found it helpful to make it clear to my party members how vulnerable my witch is so they can assist when necessary. On a past character I found the Mirror of Guarding Reflections to be helpful and a magical mithril buckler can be a cheap way to boost ac. You might want to see if your GM will allow you to have the Ironskin spell (it's from the monster codex). What race are you? Some races can take feats that allow them to see through fog, smoke or magical darkness which can be used defensively.
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A wand of vanish uses your standard action to be invisible only for one round. Not very efficient, as it only allows you at most a move action to do stuff. It is a little better if your familiar does it on you.
An interesting mechanic you can use is casting obscuring mist into the air. You fly into the bottom of the mist. You now see out without penalty, but you have concealment against enemies. Go up a little more, and they get concealment and you get total concealment.
The Symbol of Mirroring lasts a long time, but anyone in range gets doubled except the caster (see Symbol of Death). As soon as an enemy gets in range, they get doubled also. If you do manage to trigger the symbol then block its effect, you now only get a single image that re-spawns each round it is active. Which is only 1 round per level.
/cevah
That's a nice tip on using Obscuring Mist.