Playing in a Gestalt game and I am brewing for a character who is a Invulnerable Rager Barbarian // (Pre-Errata) Scarred Witch Doctor. The Inspiration for the character comes from Krieg from Borderlands 2. The Barbarian part is obvious but the Scarred Witch Doctor came to me because I could totally see Krieg self mutilating (Hex Scars) and constantly rambling with psycho nonsense (Cackle Hex).
I am looking for advice for the build, less so on the Barbarian side, I am pretty familiar with that half, I will probably be going for a Spell Sunder / Superstitious build to compliment the Con Casting Stat giving me tons of health.
What I am looking for advice on is moreso the Witch side and integrating it with the Barb. Some specific questions I have are:
1. Should I max Strength or Con? (I know this partially comes down to how I want to play it, but given the nature of the witch class with the spells and hexes, especially since hexes can be used while raging, my gut says that I should try to keep Strength high, but max Con)
2. What kind of Hexes are good? My short list includes Flight (Obviously) and Slumber.
3. If someone could give me a short rundown on the major differences in the Witch list and the Wizard list of spells, that would be great. Mainly what staples from the Wizard are gone, and what gems the Witch gets that Wizard doesnt.
4. Patron Advice?
1- As you are a full caster I would focus on CON. The spells and hexes are a great source of power, and barbarian rage/BAB an excellent backup. For gishes like this I really like to follow the, "cast what you can't hit, hit what you can't cast" formula. So keep a strong CON, with at least a 16 STR.
2- I personally like Disguise and Tongues for utility. Healing can also be a nice thing to have. Fortune/Misfortune/Evil Eye may not work as well for you as you may use your actions to move and attack.
3- Witches have less battlefield control spells and are more oriented around healing and debuffs.
4- Strength Patron. For no other reason than Divine Favor/Power. Best buff spell you can get for yourself. Fate's Favored Trait or Lucky Horseshoe makes it that much better.
Ill look at Strength Patron. I am already using Half-Orc, so Sacred Tattoo + Fates Favored is already on my list.
You're only going to play one of these characters in the immediate future, right?
In case you gain the ability to cast while in a rage (furious spell, or something trickier), you might like to take one of the barbarian archetypes which does without armour - beastkin beserker is actually compatible with superstitious.
On witch spells - the witch spell list is definitely shorter than the wizard's. It also has less defensive and less blasting spells. There are enough BFC spells that it's decent, but very few buffs. Debuffs are defnitely its best thing.
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avr, I think Genoin was talking about the superstitous rage power ("Spell Sunder / Superstitious") and not the archetype. The unarmoured barbarian is called the "savage barbarian" and it trades trap sense and DR for an AC bonus of up to +8 total (+3 dodge and +5 natural, increases at levels 3, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, and 19). Bad trade for a normally armoured barbarian, pretty good if you'd rather not wear armour in the first place, especially if you're not taking the natural armour bonus from beast totem. Note that Scarred Witch Doctor grants an enhancement to your natural armour, so it stacks.
3) Other two posters are correct about the general situation. Specific examples. Witches are missing Shield, Mirror Image, Blur, and Displacement, though they keep Mage Armour. They keep Obscuring Mist (and other Fog spells including Stinking Cloud), Web, and Black Tentacles but don't get the Pit or Wall spells. They don't get Fireball but do get Lightning Bolt and Cone of Cold. They keep Fly, Tongues, Dimension Door, and Teleport. They seem to get most of the important divinations (eg See Invis, Arcane Sight, Detect Thoughts, Scrying, Divination) and also add Augury. They get a good assortment of enchantments, including Hold Person as a level 2 spell (level 3 for wizards). The biggest new thing is definitely healing - they get cure spells and most condition removal spells, including Remove Disease, Negate Poison, Heal, and Raise Dead (though not Restoration or Lesser Restoration - though if you're the party's only healer you could pick these up using the Healing patron).
4) Strength Patron does look like a pretty good fit for your character.
2nd—divine favor, 4th—bull’s strength, 6th—greater magic weapon, 8th—divine power, 10th—righteous might, 12th—mass bull’s strength, 14th—giant form I, 16th—giant form II, 18th—shapechange
1) Depends on what you want to focus on. Power wise, attack based playstyle is miles behind hex/spell based playstyle, especially with the crazy high save DCs, but that's ignoring flavor and personal preference.
2) See 1). The main offensive hexes are Slumber, Misfortune, Evil Eye, Distraction, and Ice Tomb (major hex). City Sight, Seduction, and Restless Slumber (major hex) can also be pretty potent in the right campaign.
Noteable utility hexes are Flight (which drops in usefulness at 9th level), Murksight, Swamp's Grasp, and, for a martial centric build, Prehensile Hair.
Misfortune and Evil Eye require Cackle to properly work. It's also possible to use Cackle to keep up Fortune and Protective Luck on your whole party all day long, but it eats up all your move actions, and can make the GM hate you.
The normally ridiculously strong Greater Gift of Consumption (allows the Witch to ignore one fortitude save effects per round) is probably redundant due to your already crazy high fortitude save.
3) Noteable Witch spells not on the Wizard list: Ill Omen, Speak with Dead, Death Ward, Raise Dead, Dust Form, Find the Path, Heal, Resurrection, and Nine Lives.
4) Again, see 1). Strength and Trickery are nice for martial centric build, for a spell/hex centric one, you can either use the normal ones (Agility, Ancestors, Deception, Elements, Mountain, Time, Fate, Aurora), or, if you want to further increase spell DCs, pick one with polymorph spells that grant con bonus: Water, Strength, or Transformation.
Just a warning: When your lvl 16 character dishes out six DC 45 Slumber hexes a round, make sure your campaign is hardcore enough to warrant it!
They get a good assortment of enchantments, including Hold Person as a level 2 spell (level 3 for wizards).
Of course, if you gonna use a single target mind affecting will negates effect, you could use Slumber instead.
You're probably going to want to trade out Barbarian for Bloodrager, so you can make better use of the Mad Magic feat.
The slight bit of Charisma you need for Bloodrager spells is more than paid for by the ability to actually make use of your swift actions (unlike with Moment of Clarity).