For those that have played Reign of Winter

[JDawg75]

My group may be playing this AP later this year. I got excited about the possibility of taking the Winter Witch archetype and Prestige Class, and even adding the Season Witch (Winter) archetype as well, tripling up on my cold-themed character.

A line from the player's guide caught my eye: "...while having protections against cold will be very helpful, remember that it's likely your character will be fighting creatures that are acclimated to the cold and resistant to the cold energy type." Makes sense, and it's got me wondering if creating my witch character was a good idea or not.

Is a Winter Witch a good idea for this AP, or will she be less effective than I'm thinking because of the enemies we will be fighting?

J

[Michael Talley 759]

A Winter Witch is going to feel a bit of hold back spell damage wise. However there own abilities (Hexes) Should be fine depending on the ones you take. I Played an Invulnerable Rager when my wife ran it, because I knew quite a bit about this AP and didn't want to steal the from the those playing Casters. (I own and ran The AP about 3-5 times at the local comic shop for a year with different groups as well)

Not everything is going to have cold resistance, in fact some things have quite the opposite. (Although those are rare)

I would certainly press that you should have the Language Sylvan if your going the route of Winter Witch, as they make several deals with Fey and there are Fey encounters where such a language will ignore a headache or two. (I ended up being a face, and my charisma as a Barbarian was not my best trait to say the least XD)

Otherwise you should be fine and not hold a group back at all while playing a Winter Witch with this in mind.

[Reksew_Trebla]

Season Witch and Winter Witch both alter Patrons, thus are not compatible with each other.

Winter Witch gets ways to ignore some Cold Resistance, and later half Immunity, so you’ll be fine. Though like any caster, you’ll suck at first.

[JDawg75]

I suppose Season and Winter witches might not be compatible, though PCGen lets me do it, strangely. I liked the idea that combining both archetypes give me a +2 to my DCs with cold spells.

Okay. Perhaps it'd be more useful to play a caster that specializes in fire spells, if monsters have a vulnerability to fire?

J

[CBDunkerson]

I am doing this currently.

Yes, there are many situations where cold damage is not going to be helpful in Reign of Winter, but then Winter Witches have access to other elements and damaging spells.

There are also many situations where it helps to be a Witch, a Winter Witch, a Jadwiga, and/or all of the above.

Overall, I think the benefits and drawbacks about offset each other... and the drawbacks can easily be worked around.

[Minigiant]

You may want to look into going into the Winter Witch Prestige Class

They stack with Witch so you are not losing anything, and they get:

Unnatural Cold (Su) wrote:

At 3rd level, whenever a winter witch’s spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability deals cold damage, treat affected creatures as having half their normal cold resistance when determining the damage dealt.

Which gets you round a lot of what you were concerned about

[Reksew_Trebla]

JDawg75 wrote:

I suppose Season and Winter witches might not be compatible, though PCGen lets me do it, strangely. I liked the idea that combining both archetypes give me a +2 to my DCs with cold spells.

Okay. Perhaps it'd be more useful to play a caster that specializes in fire spells, if monsters have a vulnerability to fire?

J

I’d ask the GM first. It’s one of those stacking archetypes examples that a lot of GMs allow you to do despite them both altering the same thing. For instance, a lot of GM allow Sorcerers to be both Crossblooded and Wildblooded, despite both of them altering Bloodlines.

So yeah, ask your GM first.

[Rennaivx]

I'm running Reign of Winter right now. If you're planning on playing pure blaster caster Winter Witch, you may find the amount of cold resistance you encounter frustrating. But non-damaging witch hexes and spells are always an option, and not everything has cold resistance. All in all, a Winter Witch will not be unplayable. You will come up against a ton of fire vulnerability, so if you want to play pure blaster caster a fire-based character may be more fun for you.

[Cavall]

I've run it. Waiting until you can crack through cold resistance is a long wait and likely a frustrating one.

However, you'll still be a witch and that's amazingly powerful no matter your spell choice.

If you want DC on cold, there are feats for that.

[Michael Talley 759]

Winter Witch as many have said, is a fine choice. Cold Damage will not work on some creatures at low levels But shouldn't run into those until about 2-3rd level

Charm or Slumber Hex can come in handy early on (lean towards Slumber myself)

The Frostfoot Hex will be helpful once your in the Frozen Wastes.

The book People of the North is very helpful for gear and racial considerations but Inside of the back of the binding also has a list of all Cold-based spells by class and level. Which is very helpful.

An Item I placed within the game was a Brooch of Energy Protection
{CL: 5, Absorbs 60 Points of Damage Per day of a selected energy type when created} worth 6,000GP [Craft Cost was 3,000GP]
Greater Version was CL:10 and absorbed 120 points per day worth 12,000 GP [Craft Cost 6,000 GP]

Although the one I put into the game was Specifically made to work against Fire Damage, one could get one against Cold or any other element of the standard Four

However, if you want to keep Cold Resistance for yourself and still be a threat to the Cold Subtype creatures throughout the AP. consider Elemental Water Sorcerer, you can change any Energy spell to Cold Damage
and if you pick all Fire Spells you can turn them into Ice Spells when they'd be useful or don't change them, when again, it's useful.

[Reksew_Trebla]

If you want Winter Witch still, while wanting to hurt the fire vulnerable creatures, take Elemental Spell (Fire). You can change the spell damage to be half or all fire damage, WITHOUT adding the Fire descriptor, meaning you can still cast the spell. Just be warned that it costs a spell level higher than normal. But that’s the price you gotta pay to be the best ice mage in town. Alternatively, just take some Wands of Fireball, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, etc, and use them in emergencies.