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The Witch class gets a lot of hate on these forums. To an extent, it is justified. However, I don't think that is the whole story.
Witch is a good choice for certain game types and GMs. Witch is not great at games where combat is the majority of the game. A good chunk of the Witch's power is tied up in the familiar, which is primarily useful outside of combat. Witch isn't terrible at combat, but isn't as good in combat as most classes. Generally, a Witch built for combat is going to run out of steam sooner.
Also, a Witch is not the best class at any particular thing. A witch can be built to look like a Wizard, but it won't be as good of a high-impact spell caster as a Wizard is. A Witch can be built to look like a Bard, but it won't be as good of a party buffer as a Bard is. A Witch can be built to look like a Druid, but it won't be as good at druid things as a Druid is. A Witch can be built to look like a Cleric, but it won't be as good of an in-combat healer as a Cleric is.
What a Witch is good at is combining the options of several of the builds. This allows the Witch to switch between the roles as needed. The choice of Patron and tradition will determine which one the Witch character most looks like. A Rune Witch will be most similar to a Wizard, for example. But a Rune Witch will be a much better bard, cleric, or druid than a Wizard will be.
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A Familiar Thesis Wizard walks up to a Rune Witch and says, 'Hey, I have a powerful familiar too. I can also prepare one more spell of each level than you can, and can recharge one of my expended spells each day. What do you have? An extra trained skill and the ability to use a light mace instead of just a club?'
Witch responds with, 'Well, that and one of the best focus point healing spells in the game, and the ability to increase my or my allies ability to find and identify creatures we are fighting. And that is just by level 2. At level 4 I can always reconfigure a spell slot to summon an animal companion to body-block incoming enemies with, but you go ahead and continue just hiding behind the shield cantrip. I can acquire 3 focus points and a handful of useful focus spells. And at level 16 I can also get a free casting of a spell - but it doesn't have to be one that I prepared today. So sure, you go ahead and enjoy your extra spell slots.'
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A Bard comes up to a Fate Witch. 'One of my several Composition cantrips can give a +1 boost to the entire party for the entire battle. I have more HP, better weapons, and I can wear armor. And I have almost as many trained skills as you do before even adding my intelligence bonus. I can cast my spell slot healing spells as many times as needed rather than having to choose how many to have for the day, and my focus point healing spell is just as good as yours. Do you even have anything that compares?'
Witch replies, 'I think you should recalculate your trained skill comparison to account for the skills that my familiar knows too - which of course is: whatever additional skills happen to be needed today. I can blast enemies with Burning Hands, which targets Reflex save. I can even boost everyone's elemental damage against an enemy, which you should note stacks with any weakness that the enemy may already have. And it doesn't have to be just for fire damage. At level 6, without spending any resources, I can keep tabs on one of my allies. At level 10 I can keep tabs on most, if not all of them. If I can find out what matching spells an enemy is going to use, I can prepare and counterspell them, or even reflect them back to the enemy caster. And at level 18 I can refocus all three of my focus points.'
(Yes, this one doesn't compare as favorably. Bard is a harsh class to try to measure up to. Even so, the occult Witch is a better wizard than the Bard is. Which is a really weird sentence to say.)
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I mean I get where you're coming from and I do think the class is a bit overhyped in how poor it is, but pointing out that a witch taking a bunch of specific feats can do a handful of specialized things better than a Bard or Wizard (who apparently have elected to not take any feats in this scenario) doesn't feel like a very strong sales pitch.
It's not so much that the Witch is a bad class, but that it's that they have a number of weaknesses compared to their counterparts that don't really feel like they have a reason to be there. A divine Witch can do things a Cleric can't, but that goes both ways and in the end I'm not sure it really justifies the across the board worse chassis or the significantly smaller pool of spells known without investing gold and downtime, etc. and I can totally get why that bums some people out.
A Familiar Thesis Wizard walks up to a Rune Witch and says, 'Hey, I have a powerful familiar too. I can also prepare one more spell of each level than you can, and can recharge one of my expended spells each day. What do you have? An extra trained skill and the ability to use a light mace instead of just a club?'Witch responds with, 'Well, that and one of the best focus point healing spells in the game,
Both the martial and the focus spell can be gotten by taking a feat. The witch can't get the extra spell slots it is missing. Maybe a lot of scrolls?? It is not the same.
The witch has some cool abilites, but its not quite there yet in this comparison.
However it does have excellent flavour.
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I mean I get where you're coming from and I do think the class is a bit overhyped in how poor it is, but pointing out that a witch taking a bunch of specific feats can do a handful of specialized things better than a Bard or Wizard (who apparently have elected to not take any feats in this scenario) doesn't feel like a very strong sales pitch.
It's not so much that the Witch is a bad class, but that it's that they have a number of weaknesses compared to their counterparts that don't really feel like they have a reason to be there. A divine Witch can do things a Cleric can't, but that goes both ways and in the end I'm not sure it really justifies the across the board worse chassis or the significantly smaller pool of spells known without investing gold and downtime, etc. and I can totally get why that bums some people out.
I didn't build specific class feats for the other class examples because it isn't important. The point is that the Witch is never going to be better at those classes that the actual class is. You are absolutely right that there are things that a Cleric can do that a Witch can't. Same with the Wizard in the example even. The Wizard can get the ability to cast spells as nonlethal, and be much more reliable at counterspell. Just as an example. But the Wizard isn't going to be casting any healing spells. At least not without locking in to an archetype.
And I am also not accounting for archetypes in the matchup. Because all of the classes can get those.
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It's not so much that the Witch is a bad class, but that it's that they have a number of weaknesses compared to their counterparts that don't really feel like they have a reason to be there.
Yeah. To me the most unnecessary one is the limitation of only casting one Hex per round. No other focus spell caster has that. The only one that is even similar is the limitation on Bard that casting a new Composition will end any previous one. But if an Oracle wants to burn 3 points casting Tempest Touch or a Sorcerer wants to cast Elemental Toss followed by Elemental Motion, they can both do so.