Hey everyone!
It's been a while since I've played a Pathfinder character, and even longer since I've made one. Coming back to it for a one-shot, I find myself overwhelmed with options and conflicting opinions.
The game will probably be about three sessions long starting at level 3, and I want to play a Witch. I already know what my familiar will be, (a raven) but I'm having a hard time choosing a patron. I've never played this class before.
Can anyone recommend patrons for witches? I'm not deadset on filling any particular role in the party, I just want to be useful and cast fun spells.
The party so far consists of a Pyrokineticist, a Ranger, a Ninja, and an Alchemist.
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It looks like you've got a very ranged-focused party, so why not take the Plant patron to get access to the Entangle spell? This is an absolutely lovely spell to have if you've got lots of ranged attackers in the party.
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Since I don't know if you have any healer in your party I recommend ancestry and healing for patrons from the ultimate magic, as for hexes healing give an extra healing spell per day per character, slumber is great for offensive effect is like sleep spell but Whit out the hd limit, ward help to improve the ac of party members.
Evil eye is solid
cackle
Slumber
Misfortune is kind of the module for control hex wise I think witches are probably uniquely suited to debuffing and save or suck.
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The idea of getting entangle to help enable your ranged party isn’t a bad idea
But I would say consider taking the swamp grasp hex instead, leaving your patron open.
Thereby allowing you to take the trickster patron, it has some very powerful spells including mirror image, which is good because Witches biggest weakness is defensive casting.
Also, trickster makes sense for an 11 year old.
The idea of getting entangle to help enable your ranged party isn’t a bad idea
But I would say consider taking the swamp grasp hex instead, leaving your patron open.
Thereby allowing you to take the trickster patron, it has some very powerful spells including mirror image, which is good because Witches biggest weakness is defensive casting.
Also, trickster makes sense for an 11 year old.
My DM described the party as mostly "skirmishers". We are indeed a pretty strange bunch!
I think for hexes I'll go with Slumber, Misfortune, Cackle, Cauldron, and Flight. Healing will be handled with Cauldron, and I could use spells like Web in combination with Misfortune for battlefield control.
I think flight would be good for defense agaisnt quite a few creatures...and I might even take Gingerbread Witch since it boosts my familiar a little bit. How does that sound?
I realize I still haven't picked a Patron, but at this point I'm just totally rearranging my witch! Maybe I'll go with Mercy, I dunno. Mirror Image is useful, but I'm not sold on Rope Trick. It seems a lot of these patrons are balanced with one useful and one useless spell at the start.
You are 3rd level. That means you have 2 hexes. You have 2 feats (3 if human). Your Patron has taught you 1 spell.
You are doing a one-shot in maybe three sessions. You are not likely to level, or at most level once. Getting that level means 1 hex and 1 patron spell.
You need to pare down your choices.
To get your list of 5 hexes at level 3, you must be human (for the extra feat) and spend all your feats on Extra Hex.
Some problem with your choices of hexes:
Cauldron: This is effectively Brew Potion, solid on its own, but potions are expensive, and they take time to make. Are you going to get that time in the one-shot? Doubtful.
Flight: At 3rd level, it allows you to levitate 1/day. This can get you off the field, but you now make yourself a target for enemy ranged attacks, since you are not in melee.
Slumber & Misfortune: Good when they land. You get to use them 1/day/creature. If they make the save, they don't have to worry about your hex again.
While Evil Eye may not seem as good for taking out an enemy, you can reduce their save or AC, making them much easier for others to take out. Also, Evil eye can be reapplied as often as you want. With the sequence Evil-Eye followed by Cackle, you have just extended the minimum duration by a round. The next round you evil eye another and cackle. Now both targets have their problems extended another round. You can even stack evil-eye as long as it is for a different effect..
If the GM allows it, the feat Ability Focus on your Evil Eye will make it much more effective.
I second Chromantic Durgon <3 with the idea of Swamp’s Grasp as a good hex. Getting six to eight 10x10 squares made into difficult terrain is a good way to keep the bad guys from charging, and not affect your ranged party. Entangle is a much larger area affected, and not as easily placed.
/cevah