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On hexes in regards to sylvan trickster, I would be interested in your material since I am presently playing one.
Here you go:
Aura of Purity I'm sure there's a game where this is useful. Don't ask me what it is, though.
Beast of Ill-Omen Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Blight Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Cackle Unlike a Witch, you don't have move actions to spare.
Cauldron Unusable for you.
Charm Not for combat use, but for social situations (where you don't always need high DCs) this can be quite good. It matches the stereotypical Rogue portfolio.
Child-Scent NPC villain crap.
City Sight Saving Throw, and very conditional, too.
Combat Hypnosis Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Congeal Pretty awesome in an underwater campaign.
Coven I don't think covens are too useful for a non-caster, even on the odd chance you would find a friendly one.
Cursed Wound Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Dark Apothecary Doesn't even grant even immunity to accidentally poison yourself, meaning you'd need to spend another Rogue Talent for that.
Deathcall NPC henchman crap.
Discord Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Disguise If disguising is a thing in your campaign, this lets a Rogue be good at it.
Disrupt Connection Saving Throw, and very conditional, too.
Distraction Saving Throw kills it.
Enemy Ground Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Evil Eye Crap without Cackle, and unlike a Witch, you don't have move actions to spare.
Feral Speech If your GM likes creative stuff and doesn't care too much about realism, this can be a nice addition of your information gathering toolbox.
Flight Flight is one of the things Rogue is really missing. It's even undispellable!
Floating Lotus Or you could just get the Flight hex.
Fortune If you already have Soothsayer + Protective Luck, this might be worth grabbing. Powerful effect, but only once per day.
Gift of Consumption Crap on it's own (like most hexes negated with a saving throw), but you'll still want it as a prereq.
Greater Gift of Consumption Costs two hexes, but being able to ignore one Fort saving throw per round is amazingly good on a melee with weak base Fort save and no bonus to saves.
Healing The healing isn't really good, but it's something a normal Rogue can't do. Works on NPCs, which can be nice. Also works for dealing extra damage to undead if you have a conductive weapon.
Heralding Bloom Very flavorful for NPCs.
Iceplant +2 AC and a spell that can be pretty helpful.
Leshy Summoning Unusable for you.
Minor Prophecy Takes an hour, lasts half an hour, and is probably too vague to be useful anyway.
Misfortune Saving Throw kills it.
Mother's Eye If your campaign is jungle-based.
Mud Witch Lets you slip through cracks, keyholes, etc. (presuming it changes your equipment), and grants a swim speed (but you can't fight in that form, and it's not dismissable). Note: This actually changes your creature type, which is virtually unheard of. Ask the GM if you get blindsight.
Murksight Crazy powerful on a Rogue if you can combine it with the Saltspray Ring, an item from an AP. Also works very well in combination with Equipment Trick (Smokestick), at the cost of swift actions.
Nails Even if you would build something actually using natural attacks, you wouldn't want secondary attacks.
No Place Like Home Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Peacebond Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Poison Steep NPC villain crap.
Poison Touch Once per day, and the poison just isn't good. Even if you have claws, this just doesn't cut it…
Pollute Water Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Polluting Glance NPC villain crap.
Prehensile Hair Secondary natural attack that maybe lets you do some extra stuff.
Protective Luck To be combined with Soothsayer. Not quite as good as on a Witch since you can't use it on yourself (and can't really use Cackle), but still a powerful combination.
Scar Not having spells further limits an ability that's already of limited use.
Seduction In non-combat situations, this is a Slumber less obvious to others, and the potential DC bonus is very helpful. Fits the traditional Rogue portfolio well.
Sink Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Slumber Saving Throw, but could be worth trying to land it on e.g. a lone guard.
Soothsayer To be combined with Protective Luck. Not quite as good as on a Witch since you can't use Protective Luck on yourself (and can't really use Cackle), but still a powerful combination.
Summer’s Heat Saving Throw, and fatigued just doesn't do enough anyway.
Swamp Hag Or you could just fly over the mud.
Swamp's Grasp Shapeable at-will difficult terrain with a large area at a long range. You did get the Flight hex, right? Also has a potentially good interaction with the half-orc feat Precipice Strike.
Swine Super powerful effect, but only useful in combat and comes with a saving throw.
Tongues To let you actually use your social skills. Assuming language barriers are a thing in your campaign.
Unnerve Beasts Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Verdant Familiar Unusable for you.
Ward Becomes completely redundant soon enough, and speaking from experience, a hassle to keep track of.
Water Lung Amazing in an underwater campaign.
Witch's Bottle NPC villain crap.
Agony Saving Throw kills it.
Animal Skin This lets you get pounce, and is amazing for underwater, too (granting both a swim speed and underwater breathing). The main issue is that you have a hard time getting Finesse Training for natural attacks.
Beast Eye Seriously underpowered for a scouting ability that comes online this late.
Beast's Gift Can be a nice little boon to natural attack builds.
Cook People Even if the alignment and morality issues are irrelevant, the granted spells just aren't good, and the duration too short. It's crap for a Witch, and even worse for you since you literally can't make use of the prereq. Just UMD scrolls of Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison if you want the two effects that are actually interesting.
Delicious Fright Saving Throw, and the effect is too small for a major hex anyway.
Drugged If you create poisons, this could be good. But who does that?
False Hospitality It's a 3rd level spell once per day, that's kinda pathetic for a major hex. But the duration is pretty long, and it strengthens something many players are looking for in a Rogue.
Hag's Eye Very good scouting spell that you get a ton of daily uses for, and you bypasses the 10 minute casting time, too. Finally a Rogue can actually be a good scout!
Harrowing Curse Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Hidden Home Will disbelieve that probably everyone gets to make very quickly ruins it. Which is a shame, because the effect is very cool.
Hoarfrost Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Ice Tomb Saving Throw, but even better than Slumber for taking out e.g. lone guards.
Infected Wounds Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Major Ameliorating Mainly so that you can suppress blindness.
Major Healing It's not really good at healing the party, but also works on NPCs. The same applies to Regenerative Sinew, though, which is better.
Nightmares Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Pariah Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Prophecy If you can trust your GM to provide useful information, this is pretty nice.
Regenerative Sinew Heals more than Major Healing, and can remove ability score damage, like a physical-only Lesser Restoration.
Restless Slumber Actually in some ways better for a Rogue than for a Witch, because it doesn't work with Split Hex and is made redundant by Accursed Hex, but a Rogue can't take either. Still has a saving throw whose DC likely won't be high enough to make it useful in combat…
Retribution Saving Throw, and not that great to begin with.
Speak in Dreams If long-range communication is good in your campaign.
Steal Voice Great party trick!
Vision Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Waxen Image Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Weather Control Unusable for you.
Witch's Bounty It's a first level spell. How is this a major hex?
Witch's Brew Unusable for you.
Witch's Charge Unlike a Witch you can't just cast Status, but I don't know why you'd want that effect, anyway.
Withering Cast it on a rat or other critter and enjoy a bonus to physical ability scores you don't have a belt for, as well as temp HP. If you have a caster in your party who 1) has access to Age Resistance and 2) uses spells that allow saving throws, this can buff their mental ability scores and thus DCs, making it potentially very strong.
Abominate This can range between useless and game-breakingly good. The hex replaces what the target can be turned into, but we don't know whether it replaces "Small or smaller animal" (which leaves the HD limit, making it useless) or "Small or smaller animal of no more than 1 HD" (which allows you to turn yourself and friends into some crazy powerful creatures). The hex really shouldn't have the second save, and unlike a Witch you can't Dispel Magic the hex away in case it's failed. Definitely work with your GM if you're interested in this hex.
Animal Servant Only works on humanoids, and has the usual problem of the DC probably being too low, but this is full-out mind control, with no new save for "actions against its nature". You can literally make the evil queen your little bitch! The target retains its mind, and even though it can't cast spells or speak (due to being in animal form), it can still use supernatural and spell-like abilities, and can understand language (i.e. your orders) just fine.
Curse of Nonviolence My goal in Pathfinder is to one day put this on a Tarrasque. Sadly, a Rogue's DC won't be high enough for that.
Death Curse Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Death Interrupted Unusable for you.
Dire Prophecy Saving Throw kills it.
Eternal Slumber Has a saving throw, and plenty of creatures are immune to sleep effects (it's not mind-affecting though!), but what makes it interesting for a Rogue is that it works with a Conductive weapon, allowing you a free attempt to completely incapacitate an opponent each round.
Forced Reincarnation Super powerful effect, but only useful in combat and comes with a saving throw.
Lay to Rest Saving Throw, and crap even on a Witch.
Life Giver Free Resurrection itself is nice, and you can go around reviving NPCs just because you can. What makes it awesome, however, is that it can be used well in combat - it's a standard action to use on a touched creature, which is instantaneously revived with full HP and no negative conditions/damage/drain except for a single negative level.
Natural Disaster Two high level spells, although not exactly the most powerful ones.
Summon Spirit A modified Greater Planar Ally, which potentially lets you de-facto hire spellcasting. It depends quite a lot on the GM, but you might even be allowed (and fairly easily able) to summon specific ghosts. Since ghosts are already dead, I have a hard time imagining any task that isn't "nonhazardous", so you should get away with 50gp per HD.
Witch's Hut It's Baba Jaga's hut! Shame it's so small, or you could animate magic item shops and walk away with them… I wonder if it works on a safe, in which case this would be easier than what they did in Fast and Furious 5.
@ Derklord Thanks Derklord. Lots of food for thought.
There is one thing I disagree with, which is of course the thing I am going to discuss, sorry.
It is hexes like this-
" Slumber 2 Saving Throw, but could be worth trying to land it on e.g. a lone guard".
As you and others have noted the save will not be as high as it is for a witch and considering that alone it is not as good for a Sylvan Trickster.
But it is a SoD with a 30' range, a scaling saving throw and ignores SR. Taking an enemy out at range like that is something a rogue can't do. So despite the lower save it is still very good as it adds an alternative way to defeat enemies that a rogue normally has nothing like.
A witch will likely want alternative ways of doing the same thing, like Swine once they reach level 8 if they can find space for it, in case an enemy makes it's first save. A Sylvan Trickster probably won't.
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Improved Unarmed Strike > Ascetic Style > Hex Strike
You probably want to be human so you can bring this online by 2nd level.
But I think we're no longer talking about a witch guide. :)
Fair enough. But now you've got me thinking about whether Ascetic Style into Hex Strike could end up being usable with a suitable Reach weapon in the Monk Weapon Group to control space around you while you cast Hexes or spells, as an actual Witch (so Cackle is also on the table). Double-chained kama, Kusarigama (sickle and chain), and Kyoketsu shoge technically qualify, although by the description they all sound awkward to use for Attacks of Opportunity. You also want the Long Arm spell (it's on your list) to increase your reach further. (But don't use Enlarge Person -- it hurts your Dexterity and makes you a bigger target.) But then the other question is whether you can use Hex Strike (a Swift Action) on a successful Attack of Opportunity?
If that last part works (otherwise it's a moot point), you will need an initial 1 level dip in Unchained Monk to fast BAB +1 get Improved Unarmed Strike and Combat Reflexes (Unchained Monk Bonus Feat) and the weapon proficiency, and you need to be Human for the Human Bonus Feat to pick up the Weapon Focus you need for Ascetic Style. You will also need the trait Magical Knack because you will soon dip one more non-Witch level -- this makes up for lost caster level on spells but unfortunately not Hex DC. Then go Witch for second level to get the Hex you want to use with Hex Strike -- probably Evil Eye, since it is several Hexes in one. Then at 3rd level take a 1 level dip in Lore Warden Fighter to get a bonus Combat Feat to combine with your regular 3rd level feat to get Ascetic Style and Hex Strike (and it doesn't hurt that this gives you proficiency with Bows in case you need to shoot at flying enemies in the early levels). Then go Witch the rest of the way.
One downside (noted above) is that you will always have -1 to your Hex DC, due to the 2 levels of non-Witch dip, as well as having spellcasting progression delayed by 2 levels.
Another downside is that the Witch spell list is missing some key self-defense spells relative to the Sorcerer/Wizard list, although the Wisdom Patron can mitigate that a bit (note that with the AC Bonus class feature of Unchainnd Monk, the bonus spell Owl's Wisdom becomes a bit of a defensive buff), but even so, you're getting them late (combination of Patron spells being 1 level late and your spellcasting progression delayed by 2 levels).
You will benefit from a considerably better Fortitude Save and slightly more hit points than most full casters (and up through level 6 you will have effectively 3/4 BAB). Not sure if that is enough to make up for the downsides, but seems like it could be fun at the low to mid levels.
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Fortune If you already have Soothsayer + Protective Luck, this might be worth grabbing. Powerful effect, but only once per day.
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Fortune is once per day per target. So you can use it a few times per day, especially if you plan to use it mostly on skill checks, especially if you aren't the only frequent skill-user in the party (and remember that you can help even the Wizard make those tough Knowledge checkds), OR if your party includes someone who frequently summons minions that may need to make skill checks.
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But then the other question is whether you can use Hex Strike (a Swift Action) on a successful Attack of Opportunity?
"Swift Actions
A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. In that regard, a swift action is like a free action. You can, however, perform only one single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions you take. You can take a swift action anytime you would normally be allowed to take a free action."I think the answer is you can activate Hex Strike as long as you have a swift action available. I.e. Have not used it from your last turn.
I don't know if I am repeating myself but I hate the idea of a 2 level monk dip. You hold up all of your witch progression to set this idea up. Big, big downside. And despite the monk dip you remain profoundly squishy and this strategy takes you close to combat. And it makes your character MAD.
The upside is you can hit people with reach weapons but your BaB is still crap. You can use hex strike with this, probably, but you have to hit with the weapon and then they get a save.
My suggestion- play a witch or play a monk. Trying to do both is... sub-optimal.
Fortune If you already have Soothsayer + Protective Luck, this might be worth grabbing. Powerful effect, but only once per day.
Fortune + cackle in combat is very powerful. Only once/day/ally but it is very good for 1 combat.
But it is a SoD with a 30' range, a scaling saving throw and ignores SR. Taking an enemy out at range like that is something a rogue can't do. So despite the lower save it is still very good as it adds an alternative way to defeat enemies that a rogue normally has nothing like.
I just don't think it's all that often useful in combat. You have maybe a 50% chance of landing it, and in most cases it doesn't last all that long. Plus, you should have the Flight hex, so you can reach anyone.
Of course, my ratings are strongly influence by the assumption that you want to play a Rogue, and have the ability scores according to that. If you want to make the most powerful Sylvan Trickster you can, the rating would be much different... but you'd basically play a spell-less Witch.
Although looking at what I have rated as a 3, putting Slumber and Ice Tomb up there would be perfectly justified. Maybe even Swine, which I always forget does not have a once-per-24h limit (and another hex on the very same page in the book does, so not just a clear oversight), although it will have a fairly short duration.
But then the other question is whether you can use Hex Strike (a Swift Action) on a successful Attack of Opportunity?
Well, only during your turn...
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Of course, my ratings are strongly influence by the assumption that you want to play a Rogue, and have the ability scores according to that. If you want to make the most powerful Sylvan Trickster you can, the rating would be much different... but you'd basically play a spell-less Witch.
My character has an int of 14, which is fairly normal for an unchained rogue that wants to be a skill monkey. So saves for hexes are lower than for a witch, but not outrageously so.
Was it you who rated the best class features as-
1 full spell casting
2 eidolon
3 witch hexes?
That seems insightful to me.
So you believe a spell-less witch with a sideline in being an unchained rogue and the ultimate skill monkey is more powerful that an arcane trickster build to be a rogue or just an unchained rogue?
Interesting. I have not got far with my first arcane trickster. But I know all about playing witches. And explaining to people what a well played witch can do just with their hexes. Often they don't accept it.
On the spell-less witch idea, it could be interesting. I am sure a witch would be more powerful overall. But there is this-
"Cutting Edge
Prerequisite(s): Advanced talents, rogue’s edge
Benefit: A rogue with this ability immediately selects two additional skills with her rogue’s edge ability. She can select this advanced talent multiple times."
With your skill points per level, a maxed out int and lots of skill unlocks [which allow you do a lot]you are the ultimate skill monkey. And you mostly use hexes in combat.
My suggestion- play a witch or play a monk. Trying to do both is... sub-optimal.I think this could be a fine strategy for a monk that wants to dip 1 level into witch. Your BAB is 1 level behind, but hex strike + slumber is powerful enough to justify that at lower-to-mid levels.
I mean, if 20-40% of your rounds to drop someone with slumber that's kind of amazing. And the opponents you're going to be punching are often ones with good fort or reflex saves, but poorer will saves.
In a campaign from 1-10 level I think this is viable.
Problem is that as a Monk that never gets more than 1 level of Witch, your Hex Save DC will remain at 1st level.
Related to this, VMC Witch (which was mentioned a while back) it has this problem as well until you get to be 15th level for the first Hex you chose to be advanced . . . to 8th level, and the NEXT one is stuck at 1st level. Second worst VMC ever, after VMC Gunslinger.
My character has an int of 14, which is fairly normal for an unchained rogue that wants to be a skill monkey. So saves for hexes are lower than for a witch, but not outrageously so.
- Maybe at first, but the difference will become significant.
At first level it's 4-6 less Int, so -2 or -3 DC. But a Sylvan Trickster likely won't put pips into int, and if not using ABP, get headbands later. And there's a ton of stuff that increases a Witch's hex DCs that a Sylvan Trickster won't get: DC increases form archetypes (SWD is +1 at 1st level, Invoker +1 each at 1st, 8th, and 16th level), Ability Focus (although the Rogue could), Hexing Runes, and Corset of Dire Witchcraft come to mind. Plus, Split Hex, and the Rogue likely won't have free hands for hexing rods, and will probably not take Accursed Hex.
Looking at what else I've rated as a 3, I can see an argument for giving Slumber and Ice Tomb that rating, plus probably Swine as well (which i always forget does not have a once/24h limit).
Was it you who rated the best class features as-
1 full spell casting
2 eidolon
3 witch hexes?
Yes. Well, I said that Eidolon and Witch hexes are the best non-spellcasting class features, I don't think I ever made a ranking where I separated full and 6/9 casting.
The issue with rankings is that versatility and raw power are very different, and either can be stronger in a given situation/for a given task.
Arcane Trickster would depend on the build. Sylvan trickster has higher raw power than an Eldritch Scoundrel, but loses out when it comes to flexibility.
With your skill points per level, a maxed out int and lots of skill unlocks [which allow you do a lot]you are the ultimate skill monkey.
If only this was true...