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Inspired by Midnightoker's post in the general thread on witches (https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43bap&page=5?Witch-Class-Am-I-Missing-the -Point#239) I thought I'd spend a moment to write a witch feature (based on their patron) that integrates their patron, hexs and familiar. In particular my goal was to make the familiar an integral part of the turn by turn actions that the witch takes.
Each patron has a familiar bonus. In general (with some exceptions) this bonus is activated by casting or sustaining the patron's hex cantrip and by trait-wise similar spells. To make them more closely integrate with the familiar these are all focused on it (either as a 5 foot aura or something similar). The close range should also make the basic focus spell phase familiar come up more often and the witches ability to regain their familiar every morning helps mitigate long term risk.
Baba Yaga
Familiar Bonus: When you cast a spell with the necromancy or cold trait you may make an attack against a creature adjacent to your familiar as per the spirit object cantrip
Hex Cantrip spirit object
Curse
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the curse trait malign energy surrounds your familiar. This functions as Dirge of Doom except its area is reduced to a 5 foot emanation.
Hex Cantrip evil eye
Fate
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the divination trait your allies adjacent to your familiar all benefit from Guidance (div) except they can only choose to gain the bonus while adjacent to your familiar and they are only temporarily immune for 1 round.
Hex Cantrip nudge fate
Fervor
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the emotion trait your familiar emanates a 5 foot aura that grants a +1 status bonus to attack for one round.
Hex Cantrip stoke the heart
Night
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the darkness trait your familiar emanates a 5 foot aura that functions as Darkness for 1 round.
Hex Cantrip shroud of night
Rune
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the divination trait your familiar can enchant one weapon or armor increasing the effectiveness of its fundamental runes for 1 round. If the item was non magical it becomes a +1 striking weapon, or +1 resilient armor, otherwise it increases both components of the fundamental rune by one step (for example a +1 striking weapon would act as a +2 greater striking weapon).
Hex Cantrip discern secrets
Wild
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the enchantment trait your familiar emanates a 5 foot burst that functions as Calm Emotions but regardless of the effect of their save creatures are only effected while within 5 feet of your familiar. .
Hex Cantrip wilding word
Winter
Familiar Bonus: When you cast or sustain a spell with the cold trait your familiar emanates a 5 foot burst damaging all creatures as per clinging ice.
Hex Cantrip clinging ice
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First of all, flattered you thought the idea deserved it's own thread.
Secondly, I like a lot of what you've got here. The consistencies are great:
1. 5-foot emanations centered on the familiar are a decent place to put the emphasis on commanding familiars, and the effects being derived from casting means they fill a different type of niche than a Summoner
2. The trigger of "cast or sustain a spell with X trait" is a lot more consistent than my original idea.
My initial criticism would be on some of the implementations, particularly with the strength value of some of the options.
The other factor is that deriving the value from your familiar being in proximity of others gives two byproducts. One, that you will prioritize movement-based (particularly Flight) based abilities to provide the best proximity triggers for some of these. Two, familiars that do require actions to move into range for these abilities are more demanding on action economy, which means that in a given round Command, Hex, 3rd action is a reasonable first turn.
Now not to say one and two in the paragraph above are "bad". Some of the familiar abilities do not emphasize being close to enemies, and thus do not require movement-based abilities. This means Familiars like Bats/Birds are great for Night/Ice, which honestly is a bit thematic, where a Rune Toad might make a little more sense.
On two, you might help alleviate this problem by turning some of the stationary abilities into an action the familiar can be commanded to perform (aka the rune one being a 2 action command makes decent sense), so that way the proximity-based abilities aren't effectively action taxed.
I think the core concept behind most of these is decent (with the exception of Wildling Word which I don't think fits thematically personally) in core concept, just might have done the execution differently.
Everyone has their own view of balance and execution, so unless asked for I won't go into specifics there.
I love what you've done though. I think there's something there! I've thought about putting together some kind of "Familiar Focused" type thing with nothing but Specific Familiars, new familiar abilities, and perhaps even rules for GMs and Players to better handle familiars in game (a narrative system with a little more guidance might help GMs feel a little more comfortable allowing familiars to flex while also giving players clear lines of what is "too much" for a familiar). If that were to ever happen, these would make great candidates for that book.
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First of all, flattered you thought the idea deserved it's own thread.
It was definitely a great idea to work from!
My initial criticism would be on some of the implementations, particularly with the strength value of some of the options.
I'd love to hear your opinion on strength values. While I'm reasonably confident that nothing is off the charts strong, or outright useless a second opinion would be great. Especially since my first concern was making it thematically fit the patron (generally by doing something resembling the hex cantrip). Many of my comparisons are to what a bard can do, for instance: I do squint a little at the curse patron, both because evil eye is already a good hex and dirge of doom (even at only a 5' radius) is also strong, however it is probably still worse then just dirge of doom on it own.
The other factor is that deriving the value from your familiar being in proximity of others gives two byproducts. One, that you will prioritize movement-based (particularly Flight) based abilities to provide the best proximity triggers for some of these. Two, familiars that do require actions to move into range for these abilities are more demanding on action economy, which means that in a given round Command, Hex, 3rd action is a reasonable first turn.
This is probably a good thing, I think my main complaint with casters is a lack of single actions and weaving commanding your familiar, single action hexes and the other options everyone gets would really make the witch stand out in play.
I think the core concept behind most of these is decent (with the exception of Wildling Word which I don't think fits thematically personally) in core concept, just might have done the execution differently.
Wild was the bonus I had the most trouble with. Wilding word is quite frankly garbage, but beyond its own power it also doesn't have very many exciting keywords to work with, you can see that same limitation on rune (while divination fits fate quite well, it is a tenuous fit at best for rune. I chose calm emotions (although quite heavily limited) because it fits with enchantment. It breaks the general pattern (So does Baba Yaga though) but I may consider something like:
When you cast or sustain a spell that targets a animal, fungus, or plant your familiar grows a thick coat of fur or foliage. For 1 round your familiar gains half your level in temp hp and creatures treat all squares within a 5 foot radius of it as difficult terrain.
This has the double benefit that you can now use your hex on your familiar and therefore always gain some benefit.
Everyone has their own view of balance and execution, so unless asked for I won't go into specifics there.
While I'm not looking for this to be perfectly balanced (it just needs to not break the game if I hand it to my players) I would be happy to hear your opinion if you want to give it.
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If I may throw in my own opinion, then, I really like these as an idea but am not sure that the overlap with hex cantrips is the best way to go about it in general. A thematically related but mechanically supplemental deal might be nice instead? Or maybe another effect could occur if an enemy affected by the hex cantrip is in the emanation. Not all of them overlap, of course. But I'm not sure disincentivizing the use of hex cantrips is the best idea.
Of the ideas you have, I think the power level is mostly correct given the tradeoffs. I'd be wary of circumventing the bonus types the way Rune does (it's crazy strong even without, honestly), and Night overlaps in a bad way, since darkness isn't very helpful as enemies accumulate more and more darkvision and other special senses.
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I'd love to hear your opinion on strength values. While I'm reasonably confident that nothing is off the charts strong, or outright useless a second opinion would be great. Especially since my first concern was making it thematically fit the patron (generally by doing something resembling the hex cantrip). Many of my comparisons are to what a bard can do, for instance: I do squint a little at the curse patron, both because evil eye is already a good hex and dirge of doom (even at only a 5' radius) is also strong, however it is probably still worse then just dirge of doom on it own.
I'll break down each value, but I think it's worth pointing out that Dirge of Doom is a level 6 Class Feat, is a Composition (so you can't stack using it and Inspire for instance), and is honestly one of the best Feats bards even get (and I'd argue they are the strongest caster in the game right now).
Baba Yaga - I don't think this one is a power issue so much as it is a granting the same ability twice. I am not saying Spirit Object is a great cantrip, but this effectively amounts to attack twice when using the cantrip. That essentially means this incentivizes casting other spells and not the Hex itself very much, which I think is just slightly backwards from others below.
Curse - I do think AoE no save Frightened 1 is too good to me personally. Some might say Evil Eye hasn't been great for them, but I personally think its solid considering. You might consider instead of furthering the "frightened" aspect of doing something that augments the use of the Hex or makes it easier to pull off. The general issues people have with Evil Eye or that it doesn't land, so perhaps exploring that space makes things better (Perhaps AoE reduced saves to Fear effects).
Fate - power-wise this isn't too out of wack and the divination trait is great, but it doesn't really incentivize the use of Nudge Fate at all. There may be no great way to approach this one. Overall its not bad as it is, if just straight up on the powerful side IMO, but nonetheless.
Fervor - This is too good. Stoke the Heart is already good, this is probably one of the strongest abilities which effectively maps to a one action bonus damage and the +1 status bonus to attack in the AoE. Now your thought might be "Bard's get Inspire Courage!" but Bard's have to choose between Inspire Courage and other composition spells. This also leads to the scenario where all your allies are going to want to be within 5 ft of your familiar, which causes a really weird "bunching" in combat, which I think is a bigger issue than the strength itself to be honest.
Night - Balance wise no issues here, although it doesn't get better with level, meaning it will become pretty unusable past certain levels once Darkvision is all but a certainty.
Rune - Breaks the expected math of the game because of how the Runes are applied. Discern Secrets is definitely lacking, but the math has to be respected in that regard.
Wild - I really love your Difficult Terrain idea and think saying the Familiar creates difficult terrain whenever you cast those spells is a great idea. The idea of a flying butterfly lapping a monster and creating vine flowers that surround it is thematic and cool. Might add the bonus "you ignore this difficult terrain if the familiar occupies your square" or something to that effect.
Winter - Same story as Night, not bad, might not even need work, but a bit of overlap. It does do the "colder" vibe, but perhaps apply "Cold Weakness" in an AoE or Resistance reduction would be more fitting than straight damage.
This is probably a good thing, I think my main complaint with casters is a lack of single actions and weaving commanding your familiar, single action hexes and the other options everyone gets would really make the witch stand out in play.
I dont disagree, but of the casters, Witches do have the most options here.
While I'm not looking for this to be perfectly balanced (it just needs to not break the game if I hand it to my players) I would be happy to hear your opinion if you want to give it.
Please take my opinion for what it is, just someone's opinion. These are just my takes.
If I may throw in my own opinion, then, I really like these as an idea but am not sure that the overlap with hex cantrips is the best way to go about it in general. A thematically related but mechanically supplemental deal might be nice instead?
I really agree with Alfa/Polaris here. To me, if the ability itself can be separated from the Hex casting or replace its value entirely, then it's not hitting the spot for me personally.
For instance in the case of Night, instead of creating 5ft darkness if it literally made areas of darkness it occupied one step darker that would probably hit the spot for me (and be similar to what you have in the familiar being the cause of darkness).
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Overall though, if these were to be used (outside of Rune for balance and Wildling Word for thematics) I think these are probably reasonable all things considered.
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Awesome, thank you both for your thoughts. I was especially torn on if a bonus should closely mimic the hex (like with spirit object) or if they should be a completely different, but still thematic, effect. I don't currently have a player looking at the witch, but I'll take those individual point in to account and push another revision on the ideas when next my players are considering making new characters.