I'd say your instincts are correct dumping charisma so hard. Personally, I'd lower Wis and make the witch less of a wallflower.
Any season witch should be aware that when it says
At 1st level, she gains either the healing hex or ward hex as a bonus hex. This alters patron and the hex gained at 1st level.
some people (not me) think that the healing/ward hex replaces the normal 1st level hex. This is not the result of some tortured reading of RAW but of considering that the archetype isn't giving anything up that justifies a free hex. Anyway, I don't want to derail your thread with arguments about that, I just want to point out that you should check which way your GM sees it.
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Actually Cavall that’s you’re interpretation and what a Dev has posted as what he thinks it should be.
But it has already been acknowledge there is no definitive correct reading as the langague doesn’t make sense.
“Bonus hex” and “alters Hex” don’t mesh. It’s possible, even likely, you’re interpretation is correct but until an FAQ/Errata comes out, it’s not confirmed.
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the archetype isn't giving anything up that justifies a free hex.
Oh, it does give up something quite relevant: The ability to freely choose your patron. Autumn, Spring and Winter all have 5 spells already on the witch's spell list, and thus basically suck by default. While Summer doesn't have any bad spells on the list, it doesn't have any really good ones either.
So basically, what you give up is the ability to grab spells liek Invisibility or Haste.
The DC increas sounds strong, but the Witch spell list is severly lacking blasts, so the actual gain isn't that big.
You don't get a bonus hex, it limits the choice of your hex to ward or healing.
At 1st level, she gains either the healing hex or ward hex as a bonus hex.
Lowering ≠ dumping!
Will is the witch's strong save so I think it's ok to drop it a little. I'm playing a witch with a wisdom of 10 and I've been fine thus far though admittedly he's a half-orc with the Sacred Tattoo race trait.
With regards to the 'bonus hex at first level' issue I believe that the only sensible reading of:
At 1st level, she gains either the
healing hex or ward hex as a bonus hex.
The key word here is bonus. If the intention was to limit the choice of the 1st level hex to two options then the word bonus wouldn't be there; it would be written is a similar way to the herb witch:
An herb witch must select cauldron as her hex at 2nd level.
The contention of the Season Witch is caused by this line:
This alters patron and the hex gained at
1st level.
While it appears to contradict what was previously written I think that its intended function is to prevent the Season Witch archetype being used in conjunction with archetypes that alter or eliminate the first level hex e.g.the White Haired Witch or the Havoker.
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If you think that's the sensible reading that you get a bonus to dc, a free hex and the only thing changed is a couple patron spells..
If you think that's the sensible reading that you loose the ability to take a non-sucking patron and are forced to take a (for two of the seasons) weak hex in exchange for a +1 DC for like 5 spells...
As of now, with a bonus hex, the archetype is still weak.
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If you think that's the sensible reading that you get a bonus to dc, a free hex and the only thing changed is a couple patron spells..
I don't think it's sensible. Neither did a devs. Neither have many others.
Since there's already errata coming out for the book it won't take long to find out definitively.
The wording is poor but either way one reads it, it's poor. But as it is Now, if it is a bonus, it's a horribly imbalanced archtype with front loading.
The cost is being stuck with a bad patron in exchange for one free hex and a negligible DC boost this is not “horribly imbalanced”. It’s meh.
Your interpretation is you have your hex selection artificial narrowed, your patron selection articificial narrowed to a bad selection and a +1 DC bonus to element spells which is useless to 90% of all witch builds and at best is meh.
My interpretation makes the archetype not complete garbage.
Yours doesn’t.
If you think that's the sensible reading that you get a bonus to dc, a free hex and the only thing changed is a couple patron spells..
I don't think it's sensible. Neither did a devs. Neither have many others.
Since there's already errata coming out for the book it won't take long to find out definitively.
The wording is poor but either way one reads it, it's poor. But as it is Now, if it is a bonus, it's a horribly imbalanced archtype with front loading.
The cost is all the patrons are being stuck with a bad patron in exchange for one free hex and a negligible DC boost is not “horribly imbalanced”. Hyperbole is lazy.
Your interpretation is you have your hex selection artificial narrowed, your patron selection articificial narrowed to a bad selection and a +1 DC bonus to element spells which is useless to 90% of all witch builds and at best is meh.
My interpretation makes the archetype not complete garbage.
Yours doesn’t.
Based on typical Paizo practice in hardcovers, you just made a strong case for Cavall’s interpretation.
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As I already said, I think Cavall is probably guessing right.
But as of yet he is no more right than I because the langauge is ambiguous, so until such a time as that ceases to be the case I will operate under the assumption it isn’t complete garbage.
