Via the Spirit Talker feat I have a witch that can use it to gain the Arcane Enlightenment shaman hex and effectively get 4 wizard/sorcerer spells on her list. Since the biggest weakness of the witch spell list IMO is the lack of defensive spells I was looking for spells that fit the bill. Time Stop, Mirror Images, and Displacement seem to be obvious choices, and Shield could also be a choice. The witch in question can cast 9th level spells, so the entire wiz/sor spell list is up for consideration.
Ideas? Paizo stuff only, no 3rd party.
Agree with cavernshark.
That said a witch isn't so bad at really high level because some spells like moment of prescience and foresight are on their spell list. If it does work I might pick shapechange, time stop, contingency and horrific images to add to their list. Especially contingency.
This doesn't really work as well as you might think. Arcane Enlightment does add the spells to the list, but the witch would still have to prepare them. Spirit Talker only lasts an hour, so you would have to commune for 10 minutes to add the spells to your list for an hour, and then subsequently prepare those spells in open slots which also takes an hour. The hex goes away, so you prepared spells you can no longer cast because they're back off your list.
I never found a clear determination of this in the rules; that is, what happens when a prepared spellcaster loses access to their spell list. The CRB merely states this:
First you must choose which spell to cast. If you're a cleric, druid, experienced paladin, experienced ranger, or wizard, you select from among spells prepared earlier in the day and not yet cast (see Preparing Wizard Spells and Preparing Divine Spells).
If you're a bard or sorcerer, you can select any spell you know, provided you are capable of casting spells of that level or higher.
To cast a spell, you must be able to speak (if the spell has a verbal component), gesture (if it has a somatic component), and manipulate the material components or focus (if any). Additionally, you must concentrate to cast a spell.
So, once you memorize the spell, you've got it in your head until you cast it. The only other requirement at the time of casting is that your caster stat for the spell is high enough.
Actually, it does look like those spells would become unavailable after the hour is up, on the basis of this FAQ.
The spell slots of a class can only be used to cast spells that appear on the spell list of that class.
I didn't see that FAQ; that's good to know.
So what spells aside from escape spells are worth putting on a Contingency?
Actually, it does look like those spells would become unavailable after the hour is up, on the basis of this FAQ.
The spell slots of a class can only be used to cast spells that appear on the spell list of that class.I didn't see that FAQ; that's good to know.
So what spells aside from escape spells are worth putting on a Contingency?
You can use it to get a buff spell active as a free action once a day.
Since the ability to cast 9th level spells indicate that this obviously isn't for PFS (unless the original poster got a REALLY GOOD boon that I haven't heard of), a way does exist, but it will require retraining 4 or 5 feats (depending upon exact level) to Variant Multiclassing (Wizard). This gives you an Arcane Discovery at 15th level, and you can pick Fast Study, which does what it says on the can: lets you prepare any open slot in 1 minute or all your spells in 15 minutes.
Other options (requires retraining of Patron if you don't already have one of these):
- Time Stop is in the Deception, Spring, Time, and Trickery Patrons
- Mirror Image is in the Trickery Patron (which, as noted above, also has Time Stop)
- Displacement and Shield are not in any Patrons listed on the www.d20pfsrd.com Witch Patron list, although Shield of Faith is in the Wisdom Patron
But you don't put anything but an escape spell (probably dimension door) in contingency because an escape spell saves your life.
Shapechange and contingency as long term buffs, OK. Protection from energy and the longest term buff of them all, permanency could work, if they don't have one of the means of rapidly preparing spells.
True, I guess; I haven't played past getting 4th level spells in my contingency.