[Pathfinder] Witch Handbook discussion thread

[atonally]

A couple of other things to consider about the Forced Reincarnation grand hex:

* A complete wipe of the creature's buffs.  This may be a double-edge sword if you've already heavily hexxed/debuffed the original corpse.
* If you're targeting something that is gear dependent, it's not going to have it's gear on the new body.

[Power]

Handbook seems to need updating.

I'm wondering about the merits of the Water patron as a Scarred Witch Doctor because the Elemental Body in water elemental form gives you a large size bonus to Constitution along with some other perks and with Eschew Materials you should be able to cast in elemental form.

[zook1shoe]

Should the Thrush familiar fall in similar lines as the Raven, since they both can speak?

[Mithril Leaf]

If my reading is correct (the feat is terribly worded) you should be able to use the Spirit Talker Feat to pick up access to Int Mod's worth of wizard spells a day by using the Good Lore Spirit Hex.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/spirit-talker

[zook1shoe]

this one?

Arcane Enlightenment (Su): The shaman's native intelligence grants her the ability to tap into arcane lore. The shaman can add a number of spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1) to the list of shaman spells she can prepare. To cast these spells she must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level, but the saving throw DCs of these spells are based on her Wisdom rather than Intelligence. When she casts these spells, they are treated as divine rather than arcane. Each time the shaman gains a level after taking this hex, she can choose to replace one of these spells for a new spell on the wizard/sorcerer spell list.

[Mithril Leaf]

this one?

Arcane Enlightenment (Su): The shaman's native intelligence grants her the ability to tap into arcane lore. The shaman can add a number of spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1) to the list of shaman spells she can prepare. To cast these spells she must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level, but the saving throw DCs of these spells are based on her Wisdom rather than Intelligence. When she casts these spells, they are treated as divine rather than arcane. Each time the shaman gains a level after taking this hex, she can choose to replace one of these spells for a new spell on the wizard/sorcerer spell list.

That one indeed! It's nice to be able to pick up a couple of any wizard spells per day, although I did misread the spells known being based on Cha.

[phaedrusxy]

Which familiars in PF have Greater Teleport at will? I see the Lantern Archon mentioned in some threads, but I don't even see that listed as an option in the feat...

The raktavarna seems pretty awesome, particularly for someone who wants to use the beast-bound archetype. Outsider forms for your "polymorph", plus if you die you should be fairly safe because even NPCs probably won't destroy their "loot". (unless they're monsters, then... just run away). I plan to use this combo on a build styled after the Stay at home Hexer.

[phaedrusxy]

OK more nuggets that I've stumbled across while building a witch character:

Found a nice article that spells this out in a lot more detail, but a Witch with both the Cartomancer and Hedge Witch archetypes (and they can be combined) can spontaneoulsy cast cure spells at range through her thrown Harrow deck cards. She can cast any touch spell through the cards, but of course the non-healing ones have to be prepared.

Also, for healing your party this combo seems great: the Healing Hex combined with Hex Vulnerability makes for a very nice, cheap healing method (wand of hex vulnerability + your familiar delivering the hex = 2d8+CL, up to 2d8+10, healing per wand charge).

Also, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong because it sounds too insanely good to believe, there seems to be no range limit on how far away your familiar can be when it delivers a Hex via touch. It specifically says it doesn't have to be touching you when you "activate" the Hex, unlike when it delivers a touch spell. So you could be scrying on it from across the world, and then when it gets near the enemy you want to target, BAM! Combine this with some easy way to bring it back from the dead (because obviously sending it out to attack people is risky) and this could be a way to use it for long ranged delivery of Hexes.

And remember the old Share Pain on your psicrystal trick to get (effectively) +50% hit points? Well now pretty much every caster with a familiar can have that. You also basically get a free +2 AC out of the deal thanks to the feats the familiar gets. It loses Improved Evasion, which might hurt a lot in some games, but in games where you typically don't get hit with area attacks you won't miss it.

I'm still trying to decide if using the Transfer Feats option of the Beast-Bound archetype is worth it or not. What would be some good feats to give a familiar, anyway? Since mine is a snake-shaped outsider (i.e. lacks hands) not all of them will be useable.

Or... maybe I'll change to lawful neutral and go with the Arbiter Inevitable as an improved familiar because they get Regeneration 2 (Chaos)!  It might as well just say "unkillable" in most campaigns! This thing on a Beast-Bound Witch basically means you're freakin' indestructible!