Summer-Knight925
First Post
How many spells does a witch know? Is it like the cleric and knows the whole list?
Basically, the special ritual requires you to have, and destroy, a scroll of the desired spell, then make a spellcraft check similar to the check a wizard uses to learn a spell.A witch must commune with her familiar each day to prepare her spells. Familiars store all of the spells that a witch knows, and a witch cannot prepare a spell that is not stored by her familiar. A witch’s familiar begins play storing all of the 0-level witch spells plus three 1stlevel spells of the witch’s choice. The witch also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to her Intelligence modifier to store in her familiar. At each new witch level, she adds two new spells of any spell level or levels that she can cast (based on her new witch level) to her familiar. A witch can also add additional spells to her familiar through a special ritual.
. Losing your familiar is pretty serious business for a witch.it can be replaced 1 day later through a special ritual that costs 500 gp per witch level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete. A new familiar begins knowing all of the 0-level spells plus two spells of every level the witch is able to cast. These are in addition to any bonus spells known by the familiar based on the witch’s level and her patron (see patron spells).
As nobody has seemed to mention but the Witch has a Witch's spell list - a limited list of spells. Many of the new PF classes have their own limited list of spells (each different from the other), this includes bard, paladin, inquisitor, ranger, magus, summoner and witch.
The witch gains some bonus healing spells, but still their primary list of spells is pretty limited. Consider Fireball is not on the Witch's spell list, among many others.
They've got a few direct-damage spells, like Burning Hands at level one.
But really, Witches are amazing debuffers. At first level, a Witch with Extra Hex can cause a target to roll 2d20 and take the lowest for all d20 rolls for one round as a standard action, then spend a move action to turn that into two rounds. Then to the same thing to a different guy next round, while extending the duration of both penalties by a round. Get higher levels, when you can start stacking debuff hexes on a single target while keeping them going via Cackle, and it's disgusting.
If nothing else, you can use the Slumber hex to put someone to sleep, then use a Coup de Grace to finish them off. If you're worried about thematics, you can fluff it as offreing a sacrifice to your patron. Make sure to only use a dagger or short-sword (athame), and only use that weapon for the purpose of your "sacrifices".
It's much more efficient to use ready or delay to Slumber an enemy just before an ally within melee reach (or within a 5 ft step of melee reach) has his turn, though.