With which witch switch does your witch switch with?

[Ravingdork]

I keep hearing about how witches are underpowered compared to other classes. Therefore I want to see your powerful witch builds and awesome witch concepts.

Do you rely on a particular wand, staff, or broom to make it shine like a rockstar? Or is there a feat and ability combo that makes it all feel worthwhile? What are your witch's secrets?

[breithauptclan]

Well, ultimately they are underpowered compared to other classes. That doesn't mean that they are unplayably bad though. But there is some expectation management that has to be taken into account.

I have theorycrafted a ton of witch concepts of various levels. But that isn't what you are asking about.

Currently I am playing a Fervor Witch. Level 2. Playing Age of Ashes in a party of seven. Two Barbarians (giant, and dragon), a Swashbuckler (battledancer), Gunslinger (drifter), Cleric (cloistered), Druid (leaf). Playing with Free Archetype.

I have martial weapon proficiency through an ancestry feat. Which is nice since the Divine spell list doesn't have much in the way of damage spells at low levels. Shortbow makes a really nice cantrip. So did the Bottled Lightning that we found. Stoke the Heart is a party favorite. I picked up Lesson of Vengeance too.

My main role in the group is assisting the rest of the party. Damage boost with Stoke the Heart, Forbidding Ward, Guidance, Bless, Needle of Vengeance to deter attacks. I don't deal a lot of damage, but I always have something useful to do with all 3 of my actions. Which is something that our Cleric sometimes struggles with. He is very much feeling the problem of being at a loss for what to do when no one needs healing yet.

I keep scrolls of Heal for emergency healing. So far I have only needed that once - when the party took three crits in one round. I Healed one, the Cleric Healed another, and the third was on a barbarian who just sucked it up until the end of the battle.

Another nice thing (due to the Divine list) is the access to Phantom Pain. So far I have only used it once (I only got it at level 2), but the ability to throw out a reliable damage spell is pretty nice.

At the end of the day, Witch is still a full 3-slot spellcaster. The survivability is lower than other 3-slot casters though. So I had to take steps to counteract that. Boosting DEX and CON at the expense of CHA. Making sure to keep Shield cantrip prepared - at least until I can pick up Nimble Dodge from Rogue Archetype.

My familiar's role is mostly to be absolutely adorable in RP. In combat it has been carrying around our light source (manual dexterity ability). I have also used tremorsense to 'see' what is on the other side of doors. The Druid's familiar is currently taking that role now. I will also likely start using things like Familiar Focus at some point soon.

For as large of a party as we have, Bard would probably be more mechanically powerful. But it would also be really boring to play. I am having a lot of fun having many different options and choices of what to do each round and having all of them be useful (assuming I roll well enough or the enemies roll badly enough ;P ).

[Person-Man]

Asking the real questions I see.

Once we figure this one out I want to know which witch switched the rich lich pitch.

[cavernshark]

A Dustsoul witch with a Jar of Shifting Sands is an infinite sand-witch.

More to the topic: I think building a witch is a lot like building a druid, in that you need to lean into the focus powers and hexes it provides to make it worthwhile. There are a handful of good ones to build around, but that's a little unsatisfying if it doesn't fit your theme. I've wanted to do a primal witch but your options are winter and wild. Winter has a half-decent hex cantrip, but doesn't match my theme whereas Wild is just so situational you basically can't expect to use it.

It really feels like a case where a good look at expanding a few more patron options and a few more lessons would put the class in a decent spot.

[Ganigumo]

I'm playing a gnoll ifrit mosquito witch in outlaws of alkenstar (both geniekin and gnoll are recommended ancestries). I pumped strength and my stats are 16str, 14dex, 12con, 8wis, 18int, 10cha. I plan on going into the hair feats, and taking wrestler archetype so I can do some cool stuff with the hair.

I recognize its pretty suboptimal but its cool so I went for it. The biggest issue is how fragile the character is.

I've also tried to collect abilities that grant me fire damage, so I can trigger elemental betrayal as much as possible when I get it at level 2. The lava spike attack from the ifrit heritage is good for it, and once I hit level 3 I can learn the flame wisp spell which will let the lava spikes trigger elemental betrayal twice (the wisp is a separate source of damage). Alchemist's fire also synergizes well because the persistent damage triggers the bonus as well.
I'm a bit bummed out that the flame wisp familiar I took buffs basically none of the damage outside of fire spells though, but its still pretty thematic.

[aobst128]

Ferver witch is my favorite. Had an idea for a noble character that was a tactiction who realized the only way to ensure victory and keep his honor to his men was to be there on the battlefield with them. His familiar revealed itself to him as a bald eagle that appeared to be made entirely out of steel. Chipped and scared like a blade. His patron represents victory as an ideal.

[graystone]

Ravingdork wrote:

I keep hearing about how witches are underpowered compared to other classes. Therefore I want to see your powerful witch builds and awesome witch concepts.

Do you rely on a particular wand, staff, or broom to make it shine like a rockstar? Or is there a feat and ability combo that makes it all feel worthwhile? What are your witch's secrets?

Patron, baba yaga. There is just something fun about lighting a black powder keg [1 action], drop it [0 actions], then have it walk over to your foes [1 action], and ram them 1 action attack] before it explodes [20' burst]. Your familiar is also an object so if it's worn, as an attended object it's immune to most damage.

Spirit object is also interesting just moving stuff around, especially as the bulk goes up. A backpack or sack can walk around on it's own for a low str witch and as a 1 action use, can be used with Repeat a Spell and might not be fatiguing to keep using.*

*Exploration activities the PCs can keep up without getting tired are generally based on alternating between 2 actions per 12 seconds, averaging to 1 action per 6 seconds so IMO Repeat a Spell saying mentioning fatigue is based on the spell being 2 actions.

[Squiggit]

One game I'm in is particularly large, we have a fervor witch with bard dedication who just rolls stoke on our two frontliners with dirge of doom all combat long. It works pretty well and she never really feels pressured on resources if something weird happens in the campaign... not that the divine list has the best nova potential but whatever.

Before 12 she had a lot of trouble figuring out what to do with some of the dangling actions she'd have in early rounds though. Sustain > Stoke > ???? was a common issue early game.

[Ravingdork]

graystone wrote:

Spirit object is also interesting just moving stuff around, especially as the bulk goes up. A backpack or sack can walk around on it's own for a low str witch and as a 1 action use, can be used with Repeat a Spell and might not be fatiguing to keep using.*

*Exploration activities the PCs can keep up without getting tired are generally based on alternating between 2 actions per 12 seconds, averaging to 1 action per 6 seconds so IMO Repeat a Spell saying mentioning fatigue is based on the spell being 2 actions.

Seems totally balanced to me, seeing as how you are probably locking yourself out of other exploration activities.

[Losonti]

I've been playing a Rune witch in a game with an Enigma bard for the last year and a half or so. Casting discern secrets on him for a free (to him) recall knowledge using his Bardic Lore (with a +1 status bonus) has been very handy, especially if he uses the extra action to cast inspire courage.

I also went into the Familiar Master archetype and have been using the Familiar Conduit feat (combined with the Independent and Fast Movement abilities) to use my familiar to cast short range spells while I'm way in the back behind cover. His Tiny size makes him easier to maneuver around/through enemy squares and he can stick close to the paladin for protection.

In the early levels, we accidentally forgot to have anyone trained in Medicine, so the familiar had the Skilled (Medicine) and Manual Dexterity abilities and was the one doing all our Treat Wounds (while somebody else held the tools for him).

[AlastarOG]

Losonti wrote:

I've been playing a Rune witch in a game with an Enigma bard for the last year and a half or so. Casting discern secrets on him for a free (to him) recall knowledge using his Bardic Lore (with a +1 status bonus) has been very handy, especially if he uses the extra action to cast inspire courage.

I also went into the Familiar Master archetype and have been using the Familiar Conduit feat (combined with the Independent and Fast Movement abilities) to use my familiar to cast short range spells while I'm way in the back behind cover. His Tiny size makes him easier to maneuver around/through enemy squares and he can stick close to the paladin for protection.

In the early levels, we accidentally forgot to have anyone trained in Medicine, so the familiar had the Skilled (Medicine) and Manual Dexterity abilities and was the one doing all our Treat Wounds (while somebody else held the tools for him).

Similarly here my corgi mount is rocking independent and fast and is the source of a lot of my spells in strenght of thousands (they ruled me out of mounting him for free, they will now feel the wrath of dogo! LORD DOGERTON, CAST LIGHTNING BORK!!!)