While the witch was buffed in the remaster, a lot of that was tied to their familiar. The theory crafting looks great on paper but in play the familiar remains an easy fragile target. Moreover, it is replaced the next day. If lost, you are out your spellbook, familiar feats, patron buffs, etc. if you play conservatively, and keep your familiar out of sight, you lose your patron buffs which require your familiar to be near your targets.
Could people reply on how this has worked in practice at your tables? I am wondering if Witch effectiveness will depend on how much your DM is willing to target your familiar.
I'll let you know once I actually end up in combat.
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I think this is going to take some time to find out.
My suspicion is that it is going to depend a lot on the GM.
If the GM really, really goes after the familiar then the familiar will die a lot and the witch will kinda suck.
If the GM always ignores the familiar then the witch will rock.
And we need more evidence to figure out where the witch will be when the GM takes the middle ground.
But between the witch maxing its defences, the familiar taking toughness, and careful play I THINK (emphasis on think. as in experience may prove me very wrong) that the familiar should be mostly ok, only occassionally actually dying.
Have no practical experience with the new witch yet. I would expect flier, tough and independent being strong contenders for your first abilities if you want to actively use your familiar. Works much better with the 15 ft range familiars, of course, but the other ones are a bit questionable in usefulness anyway.
Add the lifelink ability and phase familiar - and don't forget that your familar dies at dying 4, nit at 0 HP! - and I think familiars won't die all that often unless the GM really wants to kill them.
I think lifelink yes, phase familiar no. The latter prevents too little damage for the cost of the focus point.
At 9th level tough is adding 18 HP, one use of phase familiar is stopping up to 13. Life boost would give 10 fast healing for 4 founds.