Current direction I'm looking at is the unchained rogue with the Sylvan Trickster archetype. I had a hard time narrowing down hexes, so why not all of them? That and the skill ranks. I only have one other party member. She plans on going with a specialist gestalt, currently looking at a slayer/barbarian. My build is currently:
Current Stat Block. (Spells under construction, but I kind of know what I'm looking for on that end at least.)
3rd level
Feats: Alertness (Familiar; Greensting Scorpion), Healing Hands
Lvl 3: Improved Initiative
Hexes: Misfortune, Cackle, Sleep. (Soon: Flight, Gift of Consmuption/Greater, Feral Speech, Evil Eye, Blight in no particular order. I uhh, really like hexes.)
Notes:
I wanted to bring the utility so my question is could something combo better with these stats on a witch than a rogue? Is there anyway I could reasonably help directly in combat without summoning?
If you're not concerned about your Fort save or Hit Die, then I think an Empiricist Investigator would give you a little more mileage than a Rogue. All the skill points and Inspiration, alchemy (brewing potions in a Witch's case), Studied Combat gives you almost a full BAB, Studied Strike is a Rogueish attack, very much Intelligence focused.
An Investigator would also give you a Mutagen to buff your combat stats... but to be honest if your other party member is pure combat based you have to do the heavy lifting of control and buffs (which a Witch and Investigator ain't so bad at), and instead take a Cognatogen to buff your smarts. Summons are definitely good for your build and party composition- put as many bodies between you and the bads as possible. If you are concerned with actually hitting things, then I would take doomman's advice and swap your Con and Dex.
Also how are you a Gnoll with a penalty to Strength?
Strength Patron Synergist Witch with Improved Familiar: Sylvanshee for Pounce and Divine Favor/Power, crossed with Guide/Skirmisher Ranger going Two-Weapon Style for truly ridiculous Hunter's Smite Anything TWF pounce-massacre. Dual Talent Human for STR/INT, Artful Dodge to go TWF off of INT score.
Also how are you a Gnoll with a penalty to Strength?Dumped it to 7 and got the +2 racial probably.
That'd be the way. I could readjust the ability scores pretty easily. They came from a 25 pt-buy. But I was wondering if there are good alternatives to the rogue that I won't need to rearrange stats for.
Crazy sub-optimal.
DEX based Kensai Magus
Instead of switching between classes each round, why not be able to use the full abilities of both classes. Be both full melee and full caster in the same round.
You're not wearing any armor, might as well get INT to AC. Eventually you'll also get INT to damage.
You'll match a Diviner on initiative.
You'll want a witch build that can heal, since your partner won't have any healing.
It depends a lot on what you want to do with your actions. If you want to melee, I'd strongly suggest the Kensai option above.
If though, as it seems from some of your statements, you are really interested in throwing hexes and spells, then combat abilities from another class aren't going to be a huge issues, and what you are looking for is surviveability and action economy.
One option is seducer witch (chr casting stat) and Paladin (strange combo, maybe Paladin of Shelyn) which mechanically gives you a lot of advantages. Paladin is about the most survivable class out there factoring in HD and saves and swift action lay on hands doesn't hurt. Getting a mount could prove useful as well. Of course it is a weird combo, with weird roleplaying flavor, but it might work out well.
Another class that could be useful is the War priest, since fervor gives you some nice action economy for buffs and especially healing. You don't have great stat synergy here, but a couple more points in WIS from somewhere and you would have enough. Alternately, you could go with Shaman instead of Witch (still have hexes and 9 levels of casting) and be pretty much WIS sad. In either case, you wouldn't have a good REF save, but if you are going to have a bad one, that is the one I'd want.
Lastly I'd think about alchemist. Not a lot of direct action synergy, but all good save, and a set of spells (extracts of course) that can be used by someone else with a discovery (your familiar might be a good choice sometimes.) If I wanted to be a witch, I probably wouldn't want bombs and looking at archetypes without them the Promethean Alchemist stands out to me. The homunculus construct would be a nice bodyguard and a full extra set of actions.
Investigator and Magus were in the running before, looks like it would be worth poking through again. Especially combining the skill unlock for heal with the cognatogen to counteract the ability damage.
Any patron recommendations? I was looking at Elements or Deception for different reasons. SA from the rogue currently could give shocking grasp a decent damage boost, and later other spells can help soften enemies up for my melee-heavy teammate. Deception would help us get around undetected when we're heavily outnumbered.
What about Seducer Witch / Heavens Oracle? Pump Cha in lieu of Int.
Get Awesome Display to beef up your Illusion (Pattern) spells like Color Spray, Hypnotic Pattern and Rainbow Pattern. As long as you keep Cha high, you'll knock everything in the field out with one spell, and anything that saves, start hexing.
Awesome Display (Su): Your phantasmagoric displays accurately model the mysteries of the night sky, dumbfounding all who behold them. Each creature affected by your illusion (pattern) spells is treated as if its total number of Hit Dice were equal to its number of Hit Dice minus your Charisma modifier (if positive).
If you have a Cha mod of 6 and you're level 6 as well, chances are you'll be fighting many 4-7HD creatures/NPC's. They would all take the full amount of debuffing from Color Spray as if they were only 1HD. And as long as you keep pumping Cha all game, you'll be a lights-out caster even against the tough mobs even in the later levels. You'll want to get Heighten Spell though, so you can beef up your Illusion DC's for late game (vs. really tough mobs in late game, you might want to Evil Eye/Misfortune first, then knock 'em out ;)). And, as an Oracle, you get cure and restoration spells. I think this would synergize nicely with your Barbarian friend :)
If being good in physical combat is on the wish-list, nothing really compares to Strength Patron.
A fun option for a Witch wanting combat ability could be to take Hex Channeler and Crusader's Flurry with Monk gestalt. Monk bonus AC is very useful for a Witch.
A Magdh worshipping Witch|Monk with Strength Patron could be pretty damn scary flurrying a scythe...
If being good in physical combat is on the wish-list, nothing really compares to Strength Patron.
A fun option for a Witch wanting combat ability could be to take Hex Channeler and Crusader's Flurry with Monk gestalt. Monk bonus AC is very useful for a Witch.
A Magdh worshipping Witch|Monk with Strength Patron could be pretty damn scary flurrying a scythe...
If you're going to Hex with a Monk, you might as well go Shaman instead of Witch imo.
Not if you want INT, arcane Witch casting, some specific Witch ability like Symbiosis, or just a war-Witch concept.
Can an investigator take Cognatogen? It isn't on the list of Alchemist Discoveries they can take on the d20 site.
I misinformed you then; my fault. Be an Alchemist instead and shore up your Fort save. Be an Inspired Chemist to get Inspiration and other Investigator Talents during your Cognatogen.
There's a bunch of Archetypes that stack with this- if you want to hit things you can also be a Gun Chemist, or if you want to summon things you can be a Preservationist.
If hexes are the goal, hexcrafter magus is a great option and the blade scarf dancer archetype will give you Int to AC.
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Yo, I'd second Alchemist as being a super solid Gestalt option. It nets you an entirely better chassis from your Witch body AND compliments everything you're going for:
d8 Hp up from d6
4+ Int Skills up from 2+ Int
Perfect Saving Throw Progression alongside witch saves
So many Class Skills
Bombs as a combat option inbetween spells and hexes
Mutagen to get Swole (Dex Mutagen to become basically untouchable)
A whole other spell list
Discoveries to augment your class features
*Infusion to hand out "witch's brews" to allies
*Spontaneous Healing and Healing Touch for even MORE healing
Its everything you're trying to with your character PLUS all the fun of being a witch, combat prowess and spellcasting.
So updates! GM approved Background Skills and Automatic Bonus Progression. Also, my teammates probably not gonna be interested in being the primary face, as that was her last character. With that and me caving and rearranging the ability scores in mind:
Male Gnoll Witch; Investigator/3
Neutral Medium Humanoid (Gnoll)
Init +11; Senses Darkvision; Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 15, flat-footed 12, touch 13 (+2 nat armor, +3 Dex)
hp 26 (3d8 +9)
Fort +4; Ref +6; Will +4
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Offense
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Speed: 30 ft
Melee: TBD
Ranged: TBD
Spells/Extracts Prepared (Caster lv 3rd)
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Statistics
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Str 9, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 8
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats: Alertness, Healing Hands, Improved Initiative
Traits: Precise Treatment, Student of Philosophy
Skills: Max ranks in (Diplomacy, Heal, Know: Arcana/Geography/Nature/Planes, Perception, Spellcraft, Stealth)
Languages: Abyssal, Common, Gnoll, Necril
Special Qualities: Familiar (Greensting Scorpion)
Combat Gear: (Wishlist) Something pokey, MWK Buckler, Armored Kilt
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Special Abilities
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How's this look? Alchemist is still tempting, but the investigators pull in skill versatility is strong.
With just Mage Armor and Dex Mutagen, I could reach AC 23, and that's without the wishlist buckler, Misfortune, or later buffing options. 4th level comes another hex and the stat bump (going to Int of course). 5th level I'll take Extra Hex, and use the Investigator Talent to grab Skill Unlock (Heal) and be done investing in healing for the rest of the build. Offense is admittedly weak still, but Studied Strike/Combat should make a nice addition to spell damage. Am I right thinking spells like Shocking Grasp would apply SS/C to their damage? It could be worth preparing Chill Touch over Shocking Grasp when I get that.
Studied Combat applies to melee attack rolls and if you're using melee touch attack spells I don't see why not. Consider taking Weapon Finesse in that case to further ensure those hits land. I recommend the Longarm extract to keep you a little further away while delivering those touch spells. Then at 2nd level prepare Spectral Hand.
...or you could take the Prehensile Hair Hex instead of Weapon Finesse/Longarm. Spectral Hand is still incredibly useful.
An optional idea, if allowed, would be VMC Magus if you're not too strapped for feats. An Arcane Pool, Arcana, and eventually Spellstrike might be fun with those touch spells.
But I would definitely recommend the Empiricist Archetype. Trading away Poison Lore and Resistance gives you a much better benefit in my opinion.
At 2nd level, an empiricist uses his Intelligence modifier instead of the skill’s typical ability for all Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, and Use Magic Device checks. He can also use his Intelligence modifier instead of Charisma on any Diplomacy checks made to gather information.
Combine that with your Student of Philosophy trait and you are a true face and very SAD with Intelligence.
I like empiricist as a "straight upgrade" archetype. In fact, it's written into his sheet itself. I listed his patron (Elements) there too, but I forgot to put those on this stat block
Truth.
Any reason for Elements? Other Patrons give you better spells that aren't on your list in my opinion. Badbird mentioned Strength, but I think Time is incredible. Then again your Use Magic Device is going to be stellar at some point so I guess it's moot.
Also no Enlarge Person for your Barbarian friend? Their bigger reach and size protects you.
Thoughts on Prehensile Hair? Your attacks become reach and hit based on your Intelligence, and works with Studied Combat and touch spells.
A Buckler also gives you 5% arcane spell failure chance, but if it's Mithral no worries.
Elements is there for some more "flashy" spells, and to help me soften up enemies for my teammate without feats since they're spoken for at the moment. Plus flaming sphere and wall of ice are good for funneling enemies where we want them. There are a few really good patrons, time being one of them for sure. I can see trickery being
Prehensile hair is one of those abilities I know is good, but I just keep thinking of other hexes I want first. Plus, I'm pretty sure melee touch attacks use dex to-hit like ranged ones do.
I was planning on just settling on a masterwork buckler. Looking at it again, that doesn't remove the ASF chance like I thought. Welp, more saving up for mithral then.
Elements is there for some more "flashy" spells, and to help me soften up enemies for my teammate without feats since they're spoken for at the moment. Plus flaming sphere and wall of ice are good for funneling enemies where we want them. There are a few really good patrons, time being one of them for sure. I can see trickery being
*One of them