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What do you think of the witch?
- Thread starter Gnome
- Start date
I second this. I was going to try a witch until I read how the familiar works. I'm not about to lose all spellcasting ability and have to pay a ton of cash to recover a familiar filled with spells. It's bad enough you can't cast your spells if your familiar dies, but you lose all additional spells above and beyond a certain base amount if he dies. That is too great a weakness. And a cruel DM such as I play with would love to kill my familiar.
Dark Mistress
First Post
I like the class a lot but thinks it needs a few tweaks.
1) hex not causing AoO
2) Tougher familiar and maybe add something more to it so it stands apart more than the wiz one
3) Easier way to regain their spells if their familiar bites it, less of a issue if 2 is fixed.
4) hex baleful polymoprh it is to witch inconic not to have it.
I would even consider giving the hex's a short range like 30ft maybe. Right now a witch is not really tough enough to get in melee, if their familiar was boosted up and it could deliver the hex for the witch that would help.
So I like the class but I think it still needs a little work. I am hoping after the last round of beta feedback they tweak it more.
1) hex not causing AoO
2) Tougher familiar and maybe add something more to it so it stands apart more than the wiz one
3) Easier way to regain their spells if their familiar bites it, less of a issue if 2 is fixed.
4) hex baleful polymoprh it is to witch inconic not to have it.
I would even consider giving the hex's a short range like 30ft maybe. Right now a witch is not really tough enough to get in melee, if their familiar was boosted up and it could deliver the hex for the witch that would help.
So I like the class but I think it still needs a little work. I am hoping after the last round of beta feedback they tweak it more.
What the Witch class does is that it replaces the rather awkward Mystic Theurge as a combo arcane-divine caster. Sure, the spell list is limited, but it includes most of the "must-have" spells from both magic types. The Hexes are an icing on the cake - the major feature is having a character that can cast Heal and Teleport without having to fiddle about with multiclassing.
SelcSilverhand
First Post
I would have liked to have seen the Beast Shape line of spells added to the spell list, possibly along with the plant, elemental, giant, dragon lines as well.
The familiar does seem a bit too weak to survive in battles later on. If you know you are going into a fight you can always send your familiar away to be safe, but if you get ambushed it will probably be caught in the crossfire. Were I DM'ing, I would change the familiar. I would add DR/alignment which matches the alignment of the witch, and if you are neutral you pick either good or evil. This protects it a bit from melee hits and may give it a chance to get away. It already gets improved evasion, so that helps vs spells. I didn't see any of the energy protection spells on the list for it, so no help there. I thought about using the druid's companion advancement table but I think that makes it almost too hardy for a non-combat focused creature.
There's nothing saying you can't purchase or craft specialty magic items for your familiar to help protect it, other than the limit of body space.
I also would have liked to see a hex that allows for polymorphing. Sure, baleful polymorph is on the spell list, but a minor hex would have been pretty neat.
The familiar does seem a bit too weak to survive in battles later on. If you know you are going into a fight you can always send your familiar away to be safe, but if you get ambushed it will probably be caught in the crossfire. Were I DM'ing, I would change the familiar. I would add DR/alignment which matches the alignment of the witch, and if you are neutral you pick either good or evil. This protects it a bit from melee hits and may give it a chance to get away. It already gets improved evasion, so that helps vs spells. I didn't see any of the energy protection spells on the list for it, so no help there. I thought about using the druid's companion advancement table but I think that makes it almost too hardy for a non-combat focused creature.
There's nothing saying you can't purchase or craft specialty magic items for your familiar to help protect it, other than the limit of body space.
I also would have liked to see a hex that allows for polymorphing. Sure, baleful polymorph is on the spell list, but a minor hex would have been pretty neat.
White Wizard
First Post
Have you guys looked at the final version of the beta? It specifically says that using a hex does NOT provoke attacks of opportunity. I am not positive if this was changed from the previouse write ups because I was unable to participate in this playtest (my group decided to give 4e another try). Happily we are back to pathfinder and I think the witch looks great. I have a player debating trying it and just calling it a warlock.
Twowolves
Explorer
I wrote up and ran a Witch encounter for my group a while back.
The original pregen encounter was set up with three "witches" as a Cleric (healer/debuffer), a Druid (melee oriented) and a Wizard (debuffer).
Instead, I ran two witches (for the debuffers and healers), and a Hag (for the melee).
There were so many options, that both witches felt completely different, and in fact, had I not needed the high-hitpoint combat focused character for the encounter, a third witch with a different set of options and spells would have been easy to make.
I have to say, between elaborate ambushes, shut-down spells, cackling, potions and coven spells... it was one of the most fun encounters I've run as a DM.
The original pregen encounter was set up with three "witches" as a Cleric (healer/debuffer), a Druid (melee oriented) and a Wizard (debuffer).
Instead, I ran two witches (for the debuffers and healers), and a Hag (for the melee).
There were so many options, that both witches felt completely different, and in fact, had I not needed the high-hitpoint combat focused character for the encounter, a third witch with a different set of options and spells would have been easy to make.
I have to say, between elaborate ambushes, shut-down spells, cackling, potions and coven spells... it was one of the most fun encounters I've run as a DM.
