Well, hexes aren't spells so you don't "cast" them. Additionally, unless the hex states otherwise you have unlimited use of whatever hexes you have. In terms of how many you get
Witches learn a number of magic tricks, called hexes, that grant them powers or weaken foes. At 1st level, a witch gains one hex of her choice. She gains an additional hex at 2nd level and for every 2 levels attained after 2nd level, as noted on Table 2–10. A witch cannot select an individual hex more than once.
evil eye does not state that its use is limited in anyway, so if you wanted to, you could use it every round against any enemy within range.
You can use hexes repeatedly all day long, but most of them can only be used once per target per day.
They're what makes a witch more than a wizard with a worse spell list plus cure spells.
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Any suggestions on helping me play a better witch would be helpful.
Get the Cackle hex. With that you can extend various other effects (e.g. Fortune, Misfortune, Protective Luck, Evil Eye, etc) indefinitely to buff your allies and debuff your enemies.
Protective Luck + Cackle on the party tank in every combat is a huge advantage. Extending it to the rest of the party, either one round at a time or all at once via the Soothsayer hex, makes the group very difficult to defeat.
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Unless otherwise specified in the hex, it is once per target per day. To put it simply, you can use each hex you know on everyone you meet once per day... sometimes that is a LOT of hexes.
I want to point out here that, though a lot of hexes specify "once per target per day," there is no general rule to this effect. It's a handy assumption but a lot of hexes aren't restricted in this fashion.
For example, the Misfortune hex states "Whether or not the save is successful, a creature cannot be the target of this hex again for 1 day," that's pretty much crystal clear, as is the Healing hex with its statement that "Once a creature has benefited from the healing hex, it cannot benefit from it again for 24 hours." There is no such times-per-day restriction in the text of the Evil Eye hex, so you can invoke the Evil Eye on any given target as many times in a single day as you want.
Many hexes do specify "once per target per day," but they specify it because it's not a general rule.
Evil Eye is a bit special since it doesn't have a 1/day/target clause, but there's an FAQ that explains Evil Eye is still limited to 1/day/target but it applies separately to each effect Evil Eye can cause. (so it's more like 5/day/target)
If you mean this FAQ. It states that no such limit exists and that if you apply the same penalty instead of it stacking it just resets the duration.
What I meant to say is that generally what, 90% of hexes are restricted to 1/day/target and those hexes have it written in text.
According to my spreadsheet, 42 out of 104, or 40%, actually.
Which is I think bad rule writing.
Not if you don't read something into it that isn't there. There is no mention of a daily or 24h limit in the FAQ, and thus there is no way that the FAQ can possibly create one. The FAQ is about debuff stacking, and the answer is to be understood within that context. That the sentence is easy to misunderstand if taken out of context is no problem.
round 1. Apply Misfortune so that the enemy hates their life, Cackle
round 2. Apply Evil eye against saving throws, cackle
round 3. Apply a save or suck spell on the boss who now takes -2 to their saves and needs to roll twice and take worse result.At level 3 your spell of choice is Hold Person (yes, the above is doable at level 3), at level 7 it becomes Phantasmal Killer.
This makes absolutely no sense. If the Misfortune sticks, so would a Hold Person spell have. Evil Eye+Cackle first is OK, because it works even if the target saves, but if the goal is to take out the target, Misfortune is a waste of an action/turn. Even more so when you have Accursed Hex and have two chances of Slumbering a target.
In my opinion, the worst (as in least useful) a Witch can do with with spells is cast a single target will save-or-suck spell, especially if it's a mind-affecting compulsion - that's exactly what you have Slumber for!
The Sleep spell, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful things in the game at 1st level. Yes, it will be useless after just a few levels, but until then, it's a powerhouse, because it can take out an entire encounter. There are other spells like that on the Witch list that are liekwise good, e.g. Glitterdust, Euphoric Cloud, Web, Barrow Haze, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, Confusion, Web Cloud, Fear, Cloudkill, Waves of Fatigue, Mass Suggestion, Waves of Exhaustion, Polar Midnight, and Mass Suffocation.
Your familiar is incredibly useful, but also incredibly frail and if your familiar bites it, you lose all your spells
It's not as endangered if you don't send it out to deliver touch spells... seriously, if you want to use Bestow Curse, wait two levels and use Conditional Curse instead.
Your familiar is incredibly useful, but also incredibly frail and if your familiar bites it, you lose all your spellsIt's not as endangered if you don't send it out to deliver touch spells... seriously, if you want to use Bestow Curse, wait two levels and use Conditional Curse instead.
Or select the Beast of Ill-Omen hex to impose bane on the first enemy to see the familiar (within 60 ft of the familiar). The familiar can be up to 60 ft from the witch when the effect is placed on the familiar and the effect is like a "held charge" until activated (so later movement by the enemy and/or the familiar can trigger the effect). Bane isn't a tremendously powerful spell, but it will last an entire combat and Beast of Ill-Omen works with Split Hex.
If you want to curse enemies at range, magus with the eldritch archer* and hexcrafter** archetypes (both can be taken) and Accursed Strike, Reach Spellstrike, and Distant Spellstrike magus arcana might be a better choice long term. It's not as good of a caster as a witch, however.
*- changes/replaces Class Skills; Arcane Pool; Spell Combat; Spellstrike; Counterstrike
**- changes/replaces Spell Recall
I have been running her as being able to only cast one Hex (at level 1; "Evil Eye"). Unfortunately this makes her weak as a regular mage (except for the additional Hex), shoot her two spells (18 INT) and one Hex and run... Of her two spells "Mage Armor" is mandatory in order to stay alive which only leaves one other offensive spell.
Her list of spells is severely limited. "Sleep" and "Web Bolt" are the only two real offensive spells/ Both of which are pretty limited.
Any suggestions on helping me play a better witch would be helpful. I know at higher levels she will be a lot better, I just need to keep her alive till then.
The witch’s speciality is messing the other side up, with hexes and debuffing spells. You do have some direct damage, but it’s not really your thing. Your big weakness is that a lot of your best spells are mind -affecting.
This may sound like heresy, but I wouldn’t bother with Mage Armour, because the amount of AC it gives you is so small that it rarely makes a difference. Hypnotism or Obscuring Mist will deal with a group of enemies, and that is a much more effective use of your spell slot than casting ia defensive spell on the offchance you might get hit.
When you get to level 3 there are a lot of good second level spells out there - Lipstitch and Vomit Swarm are two of my favourites.
Also, at first level do not ignore your cantrips. Daze is good against humanoids, and if you have nothing better to do, cast Guidance on the party damage dealer.
I have been running her as being able to only cast one Hex (at level 1; "Evil Eye"). Unfortunately this makes her weak as a regular mage (except for the additional Hex), shoot her two spells (18 INT) and one Hex and run... Of her two spells "Mage Armor" is mandatory in order to stay alive which only leaves one other offensive spell.
Her list of spells is severely limited. "Sleep" and "Web Bolt" are the only two real offensive spells/ Both of which are pretty limited.
Any suggestions on helping me play a better witch would be helpful. I know at higher levels she will be a lot better, I just need to keep her alive till then.
The witch’s speciality is messing the other side up, with hexes and debuffing spells. You do have some direct damage, but it’s not really your thing. Your big weakness is that a lot of your best spells are mind -affecting.
This may sound like heresy, but I wouldn’t bother with Mage Armour, because the amount of AC it gives you is so small that it rarely makes a difference. Hypnotism or Obscuring Mist will deal with a group of enemies, and that is a much more effective use of your spell slot than casting ia defensive spell on the offchance you might get hit.
When you get to level 3 there are a lot of good second level spells out there - Lipstitch and Vomit Swarm are two of my favourites.
Also, at first level do not ignore your cantrips. Daze is good against humanoids, and if you have nothing better to do, cast Guidance on the party damage dealer.
+4 ac isn't very much AC? That's a 20% chance of not getting hit. I mean, you could well argue that it's better to invest in offense than defense especially in a witch, and just get either an armored kilt or a hamakiri (not a big fan of this, but it's not relevant). But mage armor is basically like getting a free chain shirt with no ACP and no ASFC.
If you do nothing else for AC then mage armor eventually becomes the difference between being hit on a 2 and being hit on a 2. It takes a number of levels though.
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Witches have access to arguabley the best 1st lvl spell in the game: Ill Omen. At 9th lvl, they can cast Quickened I'll Omen + Save or Suck spell!