| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I played one for a bit back when we played a bit of Jade Regent and it worked splendidly. YMMV, especially if your GM decides you can't spontaneously cast cure spells until 4th level.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There are better options if what you want to be is a healer e.g. a cleric can spontaneously cast cure spells and channel positive energy.If you like the witch and want to above average-for-a -witch healing then the hedge witch archetype does the job. If you decide to go for the hedge witch then I strongly suggest you speak to your GM about the possibility of changing Empathic Healing to anything else (my GM let me change it to the useless but thematically interesting Witch's Bounty major hex).
You may want to consider the herb witch archetype for disease/poison/status effect removal. I believe since I starting playing Paizo have made some alterations So I've no idea what it's like now.
The witch I'm currently playing uses a modified (as mentioned above) hedge witch archetype and an earlier version of the herb witch archetype with a modification on the Cauldron Hex (GM ruled skill bonus applies herbalism instead of alchemy). I find having spontaneous healing can be helpful in situations where the spells I have prepared are no good so I have the option to convert them to healing; so in a way every spell slot is two spells. Overall I've found the herb witch more useful than the hedge witch archetype though as it's versatile in what it can remove and saves my spells/scrolls/pottions etc. However I don't know enough about it's current form to make a solid suggestion. While my witch would probably be stronger without these archetypes I really liked the way they worked with the theme of my character how is a, itinerant physician, healer and herbalist in addition to also being a witch.
The witch's greatest strength is their hexes. To be honest I think you might be better served taking the healing hex at level 4 instead of the hedge witch archetype. At level 5 a witch with an INT of 20 can cast cure moderate wounds 3 times per day. The healing hex allows them to cast cure moderate wounds as often as they like (just not multiple times on the same person in a 24 hour period) and can be combined with the scar hex to give it a range of 1 mile. Since I made my witch there has of course been a proliferation of hexes; if I'd had the hexes available then that I do now I probably wouldn't have bothered with the archetypes and just focused in increasing the number of hexes I gain.
If someone were to ask my witch what his role was in our merry band of adventurers he would tell them that he sees to all the medical needs of the group. But when it comes to matters of combat my main focus is on debuffing and debilitating foes (he's still an adequate healer) and since my character has a 'physician, healer and herbalist' theme I lean towards spells which reflect that i.e. he is using his knowledge of healing to inflict debilitating harm with spells such as blindness/deafness, bloodbath, pox pustules, siphon strength, excruciating deformation and so on.
I also like to supplement spells and hexes with alchemical remedies such as antitoxin and soothe syrup. As witches are (usually) INT based caters they can potentially have a high craft alchemy score allowing you to craft such items.
Now there are many guides that will tell you that healing in combat is in efficient and thus should be done out of combat preferably with a wand of cure light wounds. However there will be times when you need to heal in combat and the witch has several options available to them in this regard. There's the aforementioned scar hex which lest target scarred individuals with your hexes up to 1 mile away; your familiar can deliver touch spells though I wouldn't reccomend it since tour familiar is also your spell book; there are a couple of archetypes (gravewalker and cartomancer) that lets you deliver touch spells at range; finally there's the prehensile hair hex that gives to a 10ft reach which you can use to hold, amoung other things, a wand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For a Witch Healer, consider a Ley Line Guardian with the healing patron? Now you can cast everything spontaneously, and the gaps in the Witch's healing repertoire (notably restoration spells, which do come up a lot) are filled. If you wanted to play an archetypical "good witch" you could take the "Celestial Agenda" Patron theme (free ward hex, but you have to stay good aligned and you take a -2 penalty to rolls to deceive or threaten.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you mean effective healer as in the party doesn't have a divine caster and your hedge witch will fill that role, I say yes. Mix it with either ancestors or healing patron and you can fill that role.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A hedge witch with the healing patron will do well for what you want. They may not be the absolute best healer, but they can get the job done, and that is what counts. They also have a lot of other things that they can do so that also meets your criteria. The cleric would probably be a better healer, but probably not a versatile. The oracle has the same spell list as the cleric, but gets revelations for some versatility. The real down side of the oracle is the limited number of spells. Condition removal is actually more important to a healer than healing damage. With a limited number of spells you may be hard pressed to be able to have the healing spells you need and still have other spells.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It might be worth keeping in mind that the hedge witch is not required to take the healing patron. I'm not saying that the healing patron is bad but I think there are more interesting options out there. I suppose the main appeal of the healing patron, other than theme are the restoration spells it makes available to the witch. These spells could prove invaluable or you may find you just don't use them; in my case it was the latter and my GM let me recon to a different patron. Personally when selecting most spells I think about how frequently I need the spell, how high the caster level needs to be and how high does the save DC of the spell need to be. If the spell will be infrequently used or doesn't need a high caster level or DC then I would consider looking towards wands, scrolls, potions, wondrous or alchemical items and NPC services.
Note that you can stack the hedge witch and hex channeler archetypes to pick up a little extra healing (with Channel Energy/positive).
Thanks for all the info on the Witch as a healer! I dont think I like the Hex Channeler as to get a good Channel Energy you have to give up all your hexes, Wich are a big draw of the Witch..
Quick throw in question, How is the Bard as a healer? Aspecialy the Songhealer Bardic Archetype?
Better than nothing, I guess, but not being able to deal with death until level 20 is a bit of a downer. So tell your friends not to die.
Thanks for all the info on the Witch as a healer! I dont think I like the Hex Channeler as to get a good Channel Energy you have to give up all your hexes, Wich are a big draw of the Witch.
You don't have to keep improving it; and even if you do, the Extra Hex feat can help mitigate the lost hexes. Personally, I wouldn't consider more than 1-2 improvements (or 4 at most over a full 20 levels). Unlike the Healing hex, there is no limitation on how often a recipient can benefit each day. Even at the base amount, that's an extra 1d6 of healing, for everyone within 30 ft, 3 + Cha mod times per day (which was the point of my comment of "a little extra healing").
Also, the Turn Undead feat is based on level and not number of dice for effectiveness. This may be something else to consider if undead might be a concern in the campaign.