Witch Handbook

[StreamOfTheSky]

Witch Handbook

"I put a spell on you! And now, you're mine!"

This guide will cover the new Witch class in Pathfinder (PF) in detail, from class features, to feat choices, to the spell list. The guide will be limited to only Pathfinder sources, namely:

• Core Rulebook (CR)
• Advanced Players Guide (APG)
• Ultimate Magic (UM)
• Ultimate Combat (UC)
• Bestiary I (BI)
• Bestiary II (BII)

While there are other Paizo sourcebooks galore, these are by far the most “mainstream” and likely to be used in a given game. While 3E is frequently allowed in various sizes and forms into Pathfinder games, there is simply too much additional rules, and of tremendous variance in power level, to make a comprehensive, yet concise guide trying to accommodate for different “levels” of 3E book allowance. In any case, as a spell caster new to PF, it is in a Witch’s best interest to not have 3E material in the game. Every extra spell the wizard and sorcerer get to pick from due to legacy support is another reason to play one of those classes instead of Witch.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Race and Ability scores
• Class Features (Familiar and Patron)
• Hexes
• Spells
• Feats and Equipment
• Sample Builds
• Archetypes, Multiclassing, and Miscellaneous

Ranking
This guide will use a ranking system using the color spectrum to rate the class features and options, as follows:

Red: Absolutely terrible. Almost never worth considering, let alone a good idea.
Orange: Subpar. May have occasional use and isn’t crippling to take if you like the flavor.
Green: Average. There may be more powerful options instead, but this is fairly solid.
Blue: A good choice, above average.
Violet: Among the best in its class, possibly a no-brainer pick. Outstanding!

 

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Ability Scores​

Strength: You’re a feeble arcanist, and unlike a wizard your “spellbook” carries itself around. Dump this.
Dexterity: It adds to so many useful things, this is definitely an important attribute. AC, Reflex saves, some important skills like Fly, and most importantly…Initiative!
Constitution: You have a d6 HD and poor Fortitude saves. Need I say more?
Intelligence: Your casting and hexes both feed off of this. Put it as high as you can without utterly crippling your other important scores.
Wisdom: You already have good base will save. Perception is nice, but a small penalty won’t hurt that much.
Charisma: No one’s going to like you for being a witch anyway.

Race Selection​

I won’t list every possible choice, only those in the CR and specific choices from Bestiary I and II that would be well suited for witchery. None of the core races are outright terrible choices for a Witch; a race would need a penalty to intelligence for that moniker.

Core Races:
Elf: Bonuses to Int and Dex, but a penalty to Con. APG offers the Dreamspeaker variant racial feature, which will boost the DC of Slumber and your divination spells, which likely makes Elf the best Witch race. The other racial abilities are alright, not great. If for some reason your strength isn’t negative, you can use a longbow if you want.
Human: They’re seriously great at everything. Stat boost goes to Int. The favored class option to learn extra low level spells is not worth it.
Half-Orc: Half-Orcs are decent witch doctors. The darkvision is always nice to have, Orc Ferocity is actually handy when you can heal yourself, and the favored class option to give a skill rank (NOT point!) to your familiar means your familiar can end up exceeding the normal limit on skill ranks. Of course, a skill point spent on yourself benefits both of you, so the only reason to do this is explicitly to break the skill rank ceiling.
Half-Elf: Like Human, but not quite as good. The best choice if you want to multiclass, but why would you? Same favored class option as Human.
Gnome: Small size is a boon to casters, and Gnomes come with some spell-likes and an illusion save DC boost.
Halfling: Also small sized and no Int boost. The save bonuses are nice, but I think gnome is slightly better.
Dwarf: Despite not boosting Int, Dwarf is still a decent choice just because of how many amazing racial features it grants. The low speed isn’t as large a problem when you have flight magic available.

Bestiary Races:
Tiefling (BI): Almost perfect ability modifiers, darkvision, immunity to “person” spells, and a few other nice racial features. Nearly on par with Elf for the best pick (and overtakes Elf if your DM nerfs Dreamspeaker to only benefit spells), and thematically appropriate, too.
Sylph (BII): It’s an Elf that’s immune to “person” spells and trades all the other racial features and variant options for electricity resistance 5, darkvision, and feather fall 1/day. It’s a step down from Elf, overall, though not by much.
Hobgoblin (BI): It’s a very boring race and lacks an Int bonus, but it boosts the secondary scores and has darkvision, so you could do much worse.

 

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Class Features

Witches recieve:

• Poor BAB
• d6 HD
• Good Will Saves, Poor Fort and Reflex Saves
• 2 + Int skill points
• Proficient with simple weapons and no armor/shields

Class Skills
Craft: Alchemy is alright. Basketweaving has been known to destroy campaigns and is often banned.
Fly: You will be flying a lot. Possibly on a broom.
Heal: A one point wonder.
Intimidate: If you optimize for multiple round duration, shaken is a handy debuff to setup your save or lose spells. You can demoralize from 30 ft away.
Knowledge (arcana): May as well max it.
Knowledge (history): One point wonder.
Knowledge (nature): See arcana.
Knowledge (planes): See arcana.
Profession: Not even worth a point 95% of the time.
Spellcraft: Int synergy, lets you know what enemy casters are doing, ID items, and is used for item crafting. Max it.
Use Magic Device: It's one of the best skills in the game, and your spell list is kinda all over the place, you may need this. Best for a (Improved) Familiar to double your casting per round.

Cross-class Skills
Perception: It's the best skill in the game; it's worth maxing always.
Acrobatics: I think tumble DCs are near impossible, but you'll probably have more skill points than you know what to do with, and when in trouble, some chance is still better than no chance of avoiding an AoO.
Other knowledges: Most if not all are worth dropping a rank into just so you can make checks beyond DC 10.


As a Witch, your class features mainly boil down to spellcasting and hexes. The only other aspects to decide on are familiar and your patron, which works like a Sorcerer’s bloodline in that it gives you a specific set of bonus spells every other level. Hexes and then spells are in the following two posts. This post will cover Familiars and Patrons.

Familiars​

[sblock]Despite what you may expect, a witch's familiar has no real benefits over those of any other class. In fact, considering you lack the option of an arcane bonded item and that you have the d6 HD, 2 + int skills, poor BAB mechanic going (compared to say...a Magus familiar), a Witch overall may have the worst familiar class feature in the game. Go figure. In any case, while delivering touch spells is handy, it's my opinion that you want to protect your familiar from harm at all times. Not only does obtaining a new familiar cost 2.5x(!!!!) as much for you than it does any other class (I guess that's the tradeoff for not having to wait a week...*sad face*), it's your spell book. You know, that thing wizards go all super paranoid about trapping and hiding, and making duplicates of? Familiars with high AC, tiny or smaller size (if you have a means to free them from grapples), and high speed or various movement modes to escape from danger may be the best criteria to look for. Beyond the bonus it grants to you, of course. Also, check with your DM regarding HD. If the familiar counts as your HD for things like poison save DCs, those obviously are much more useful than if not.

• Bat: The skill bonus is alright, it's diminutive, has good flight, and blindsense.
• Cat: Three primary attacks, great stealth, and scent. Shame you want to keep your familiar safe.
• House Centipede (UM): Eww! Seriously, though, this guy is shockingly good. Land and climb speed 40, great AC, darkvision, a poison that dazes, and stealth that puts the cat to shame. If the save DC improves with HD, this might be blue.
• Compsognathus (BII): It's Improved Initiative for free! That's enough on its own to make this the best choice. Has speed 40 and a swim speed, and scent, too.
• Donkey Rat (UM): It has scent and can swim, and boosts fort saves.
• Fox (UM): Nothing really special.
• Goat (UM): Your familiar is not for combat.
• Hawk: It can fly, other fliers are better.
• Hedgehog (UM): Slow and boosts the save you need least help with.
• King Crab (UM): Why would you grapple?! Oh, it has the grab ability. For fending off pixies, I guess.
• Lizard: Climb is worthless when flight is a class feature, and the animal itself is bad, too.
• Monkey: Acrobatics is a decent skill and monkey has decent movement. If the monkey is allowed to Use Magic Device wands, this is a much better choice.
• Blue-ringed Octopus (UM): Much scarier in real life than in PF. The jet and ink cloud abilities are very handy, making this a good choice for an aquatic game.
• Owl: Pretty equal to the Hawk.
• Pig (UM): Just awful.
• Rat: Can climb and swim, but slow at everything. It is rather innocuous, though, has amazing stealth and scent, and boosts fort saves.
• Raven: It can fly and talk, and that's enough to be good. If it can Use Magic Devices, this is violet.
• Greensting scorpion (UM): It's not that bad, it's just that Compsognathus is so much better.
• Scarlet spider (UM): Just as in real life, centipede wins this showdown handily. They do have insanely high dex if you absolutely insist on having a familiar to deliver touch spells, though.
• Thrush (UM): Flight alone makes this better than pig. Still pretty awful.
• Toad: Speed 5 ft?! You don't need hp this badly.
• Turtle (UM): It's too slow to be practical in a land game. In an aquatic game, it's alright, just for its massive AC and the +1 AC boon it gives you.
• Snapping turtle (UM): Awful.
• Viper: It can climb and swim, but nothing else of note.
• Weasel: Slightly better than fox; keep it away from melee despite the attach ability.

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Patrons​

[sblock]This is your one big chance to grab some nice spells not on your spell list. Don't blow it! The patrons will have an overall ranking, as well as ranking the spells they grant. For the purpose of this class feature, it is INCREDIBLY suboptimal to take a patron that grants you spells you could have gotten anyway. Any such spells will automatically be labeled red, without exception, and an asterisk (*) will be placed next to the spell to denote this as the reason for its ranking (although the spell itself may also suck on its own merits). Patrons from APG are unlabeled, patrons from UM are denoted where applicable. Finally, as with the spells section, the spells are ranked for usefulness to the Witch. Which may make it more or less valuable than it would be to a Wizard or other caster.

Agility: Hexes do not depend upon form (save for a few, like Prehensile Hair and Nails), so polymorphing spells shouldn't hose you as much as they do a wizard.
2nd—jump, 4th—cat's grace, 6th—haste, 8th—freedom of movement, 10th—polymorph, 12th—cat's grace (mass), 14th—ethereal jaunt, 16th—animal shapes, 18th—shapechange

Ancestors (UM): Blessing of Fervor, Prayer, and Bless are all great buff spells, but aren't enough to carry this patron. Refuge is 2 levels lower than normal, but on your list regardless (and not very good). I have to take a moment to rail on how GODAWFUL heroism as a 6th level spell is. I'm assuming it's supposed to be greater heroism, but in either case, it's on your spell list already (heroism as a 3rd level spell!). Atrocious.
2nd—bless, 4th—aid, 6th—prayer, 8th—blessing of fervor, 10th—commune, 12th—heroism*, 14th—refuge*, 16th—euphoric tranquility, 18th—weird

Animals: Antilife Shell is absolutely amazing. While you lack the animal friends to utilize some of the spells well and the lower half of the list is poor, the high level spells are rather good. As above, regarding polymorph spells.
2nd—charm animals, 4th—speak with animals, 6th—dominate animal, 8th—summon nature's ally IV, 10th—animal growth, 12th—antilife shell, 14th—beast shape IV, 16th—animal shapes, 18th—summon nature's ally IX

Death (UM): Look at all those asterisks! And they're all pretty bad spells anyway. This is the worst patron ever!
2nd—deathwatch, 4th—blessing of courage and life, 6th—speak with dead*, 8th—rest eternal*, 10th—suffocation*, 12th—circle of death, 14th—finger of death, 16th—symbol of death*, 18th—power word kill*

Deception: Invisiblity and Time Stop are both great additions. I like the idea of using Ventriloquism while invisible to have your cackles emanate from somewhere else.
2nd—ventriloquism, 4th—invisibility, 6th—blink, 8th—confusion*, 10th—passwall, 12th—programmed image, 14th—invisibility (mass), 16th—scintillating pattern, 18th—time stop

Elements: Blasting isn't very good, and this offers an awful lot of fire spells. Still, at least they're not spells on your list already. If you want to use Dazing Spell feat a lot, this patron is green or perhaps even higher. Fireball for a 6th level 20 ft radius save or lose or Flaming Sphere for a 5th level single target save or lose (maybe; 2 rounds dazed might not be enough) that you can keep putting on new people as a move action once/round.
2nd—shocking grasp, 4th—flaming sphere, 6th—fireball, 8th—wall of ice, 10th—flame strike, 12th—freezing sphere, 14th—vortex, 16th—fire storm, 18th—meteor swarm

Enchantment (UM): This is just a sliver less terrible than Death. At least you get Unnatural Lust early...
2nd—unnatural lust*, 4th—calm emotions, 6th—unadulterated loathing*, 8th—overwhelming grief, 10th—dominate person*, 12th—geas*, 14th—euphoric tranquility, 16th—demand*, 18th—dominate monster*

Endurance: Miracle is awesome! The rest of the spells, not so much. Don't even consider this unless you're starting at level 18, and even then I wouldn't do it.
2nd—endure elements, 4th—bear's endurance, 6th—protection from energy, 8th—spell immunity, 10th—spell resistance, 12th—bear's endurance (mass), 14th—restoration (greater), 16th—iron body, 18th—miracle

Healing (UM): Even the good spells are just seldom used utility items. I was very dissapointed breath of life was not on here. That spell alone could make a patron worth taking, for saving your familiar w/o costly components. *sigh*
2nd—remove fear, 4th—lesser restoration, 6th—remove disease*, 8th—restoration, 10th—cleanse, 12th—pillar of life, 14th—greater restoration, 16th—mass cure critical wounds*, 18th—true resurrection

Insanity (UM): How witches don't already have hideous laughter is beyond me. Overwhelming Presence isn't bad considering the compulsion and save each round ends parts.
2nd—memory lapse, 4th—hideous laughter, 6th—distracting cacophony, 8th—confusion*, 10th—mind fog*, 12th—envious urge, 14th—insanity*, 16th—symbol of insanity*, 18th—overwhelming presence

Light (UM): The middle and upper levels are pretty good, but the low levels and 9th are awful.
2nd—dancing lantern*, 4th—continual flame, 6th—daylight, 8th—rainbow pattern, 10th—fire snake, 12th—sirocco, 14th—sunbeam, 16th—sunburst, 18th—fiery body

Moon (UM): Darkness as a level 1 is nice if you have racial darkvision. Overall pretty abysmal when only the 1st and 9th level spells aren't complete fail, though.
2nd—darkness, 4th—darkvision, 6th—owl’s wisdom, 8th—moonstruck*, 10th—aspect of the wolf, 12th—control water, 14th—lunar veil*, 16th—horrid wilting*, 18th—meteor swarm

Occult (UM): This patron is very similar to Plague, but has more witch spells and is thus worse. Create Undead is poorly ranked due to lack of a way to control them.
2nd—detect undead, 4th—command undead, 6th—twilight knife*, 8th—black tentacles*, 10th—snake staff, 12th—create undead, 14th—waves of exhaustion*, 16th—trap the soul*, 18th—gate

Plague: Again, creating undead w/o a way to control them isn't very useful. Negative levels are great, but Energy Drain is so very inferior to Enervation...
2nd—detect undead, 4th—command undead, 6th—contagion, 8th—animate dead, 10th—giant vermin, 12th—create undead, 14th—control undead, 16th—create greater undead, 18th—energy drain

Portents (UM): Ding ding ding! We have a new loser! Aside from blood biography (which is totally redundant w/ speak with dead): Every. Single. Spell. Is. Already. On. Your. List. W.T.F.?
2nd—ill-omen*, 4th—locate object*, 6th—blood biography, 8th—divination*, 10th—contact other plane*, 12th—legend lore*, 14th—vision*, 16th—moment of prescience*, 18th—foresight*

Shadow: Either we finally found another good patron, or my standards have just been lowered so much at this point that anything without witch spells excites me. Probably both.
2nd—silent image, 4th—darkness, 6th—deeper darkness, 8th—shadow conjuration, 10th—shadow evocation, 12th—shadow walk, 14th—shadow conjuration (greater), 16th—shadow evocation (greater), 18th—shades

Spirits (UM): This is slightly less good than Deception, the other invisibility-granting patron, too many of the spells are of very limited use. Spiritual Ally uses your BAB and Wis mod for attacks. Yeah... Planar Ally is in an 8th level slot for a 6th level spell, maybe they meant it to be greater planar ally?
2nd—ghostbane dirge, 4th—invisibility, 6th—speak with dead*, 8th—spiritual ally, 10th—mass ghostbane dirge, 12th—shadow walk, 14th—ethereal jaunt, 16th—planar ally, 18th—etherealness

Stars (UM): A few good low level spells, then a lot of trash. You have a hex if you want Dream.
2nd—faerie fire, 4th—dust of twilight, 6th—guiding star*, 8th—wandering star motes*, 10th—dream, 12th—cloak of dreams*, 14th—circle of clarity, 16th—euphoric tranquility, 18th—astral projection*

Strength: Oh, goodie. A patron to celebrate your non-existent melee prowess.
2nd—divine favor, 4th—bull's strength, 6th—greater magic weapon, 8th—divine power, 10th—righteous might, 12th—bull's strength (mass), 14th—giant form I, 16th—giant form II, 18th—shapechange

Time (UM): Good for a low level game, has some nice high level picks but too much trash along the way. RAW no one has to hear your cackling, so being in silence isn't so bad, note that PF nerfed the duration and casting time, unfortunately (I had this as Blue till I noticed that). Disintigrate is worth extra to a Witch for undead-killing potential. Expend is oddly not compulsion, and is Green if it actually requires the victims to waste actions expending their magic. If dispel magic couldn't undo it, I'd almost say it would be worth 5000 gp to make your familiar unkillable w/ Stasis.
2nd—ventriloquism, 4th—silence, 6th—haste, 8th—threefold aspect*, 10th—teleport*, 12th—disintegrate, 14th—expend, 16th—temporal stasis, 18th—time stop

Transformation: Again, you should be able to hex while polymorphed, so utility forms are decent. The spells are extremely redundant, though. Would've been nice to have more variety.
2nd—jump, 4th—bear's endurance, 6th—beast shape I, 8th—beast shape II, 10th—beast shape III, 12th—form of the dragon I, 14th—form of the dragon II, 16th—form of the dragon III, 18th—shapechange

Trickery: This is a solid patron overall. Mislead is the closest your spell list is going to get to Greater Invisibility. Hallucinatory Terrain just feels redundant and unnecessary next to Mirage Arcana.
2nd—animate rope, 4th—mirror image, 6th—major image, 8th—hallucinatory terrain, 10th—mirage arcana, 12th—mislead, 14th—reverse gravity, 16th—screen, 18th—time stop

Vengeance (UM): The 9th level spell is cool, but not nearly enough to pick this patron.
2nd—burning hands*, 4th—burning gaze*, 6th—pain strike*, 8th—shout, 10th—symbol of pain*, 12th—mass pain strike*, 14th—phantasmal revenge, 16th—incendiary cloud, 18th—winds of vengeance

Water: Note that slipstream is not an enhancement bonus to speed. This can be an alright patron in an aquatic game, but it's not very good otherwise. Water Breathing can be replicated with Water Lung hex.
2nd—bless water/curse water, 4th—slipstream, 6th—water breathing, 8th—control water, 10th—geyser, 12th—elemental body III (water only), 14th—elemental body IV (water only), 16th—seamantle, 18th—tsunami

Winter (UM): Cold only resist energy? Seriously? Most of these patron spells are already on your list or are mediocre blast spells.
2nd—unshakable chill*, 4th—resist energy (cold only), 6th—ice storm*, 8th—wall of ice, 10th—cone of cold, 12th—freezing sphere, 14th—control weather*, 16th—polar ray, 18th—polar midnight*

Wisdom: A pretty good patron, the stand-outs are magic vestment and spell turning. Again, there's a hex if you want to use dream. Disjunction isn't nearly as treasure-destoying as in 3E, though still dangerous around artifacts.
2nd—shield of faith, 4th—owl's wisdom, 6th—magic vestment, 8th—globe of invulnerability (lesser), 10th—dream, 12th—globe of invulnerability (greater), 14th—spell turning, 16th—protection from spells, 18th—mage's disjunction[/sblock]

 

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Hexes

"What? Were you expecting an old hag?"​

One important thing to note before we begin: unless it states otherwise, hexes do not provoke attacks of opportunity. Being specific to hexes, this overrides the more general rule of spell-like abilities provoking, so keep that in mind.
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• Blight: We begin with a stinker. This is for NPC villains, and frankly, even they could do much better than this.
• Cackle: May as well call it “Crack-le,” cause once you get some hexes up, you’ll be addicted to this like…well, you know. Obviously this is useless without having any of the agony, charm, evil eye, fortune, or misfortune hexes first.
• Cauldron: It’s a mediocre feat and a decent skill buff. I’m not clear on if you need to buy an actual cauldron to benefit from this hex or its offspring’s, and if so if you gain one for free by taking this hex.
• Beast of Ill-Omen: It’s…an sort of at-will Bane ability, except trickier to use. I’d look for better stuff and keep my living spell book far out of harm’s way.
• Charm: This is incredibly limited in target selection, benefit, AND duration! Normal charm spells last hours this requires constant evil laughter just to keep up for rounds! Pass on this.
• Child Scent: This is beyond terrible. They could’ve at least given the Scent a 1 mile range like a shark has to make up for how incredibly super limited it is.
• Coven: Bleh. Doesn’t help you find or ingratiate yourself with other hags by RAW, and I’m skeptical of how that’d work out when you’re part of an adventuring party. Yet another weak sauce hex meant for NPC villains who get off on being ineffectual.
• Disguise: This would be really awesome if the Hat of Disguise didn’t already exist.
• Evil Eye: This is supposed to be the “work horse” debuffing hex, though after the first few levels when you’re not horrifically short on spells I question its value in the action economy. Still a nice ability at low levels, at least. Best use is probably to lower saves, though hurting the target’s attacks or AC is helpful to the party, too.
• Feral Speech: Depending on campaign, this could actually be really useful. It appears to be unlimited usage per day, though the part about needing to decide what type of creature to talk to muddies things. I suppose it just means you can’t converse with lots of different animals simultaneously like Dr. Doolittle?
• Flight: Hell yes! Flight that can’t be dispelled is always a good choice! You also get feather fall at will and levitate once/day. Every Witch should take this.
• Fortune: Simply put, this is not worth using for only 1 round. If you use this on an ally, you’re going to need to keep it up with cackles for it to have been worth initiating in the first place. The DM will probably throw a book at you for it, but technically it seems like you could just cackle incessantly to keep fortune going on an ally or allies between combats.
• Healing: Nice at very early levels, though it quickly becomes worthless for in combat healing and barely superior to a CLW wand for out of combat healing. Can be used to hurt undead, too.
• Misfortune: A save negates this hex. If you’re relying on the target to fail a save, just throw an actual save or lose at him to begin with. Still a decent choice, just disappointing. Gets better in games with critical fumble rules.
• Nails: Ok, this isn’t even villainous, just worthless.
• Poison Steep: Great for NPC villains, for PCs it seems like too much effort to me.
• Prehensile Hair: Has some utility use, but it’s very borderline between average and subpar. Assuming you can use it to strangle people with your pubic hair pushed it over the edge to green for me. Arbane noted this can also be used to deliver touch spells from reach.
• Scar: This was originally just more villain crap, but Sean K. Reynolds slipped in a stealth buff: "Fourth, the hex could benefit from a mechanical boost. Therefore, scarring a creature with the hex has two benefits: the witch can use any of her hexes on that creature at a range of up to one mile, and the witch is considered to have a body part from the target for the purpose of scry and similar divinations." This makes Scar utterly amazing for buffing Witches and for scrying antics!
• Slumber: THE #1 reason to be a Witch! Sleep pretty much at will, as a standard action, no SR, and ignores HD! It can’t get much more awesome than that.
• Swamp Hag: Too small a benefit and too unlikely to come up much.
• Tongues: Never have to deal with language barriers ever again! Shame you likely dumped charisma.
• Unnerve Beasts: As hilarious as it would be to use on a Druid, I really can’t recommend this.
• Ward: At higher levels this is garbage (due to the bonus types), but this is a great buff at the early levels that you can put up before combat. Put it on the tank to make him feel overconfident enough to stand between you and all those nasty monsters.
• Water Lung: Obviously this is worthless if the campaign never goes near the water. When it can be helpful, though, wow is it useful! A level 1 party could do a deep sea diving adventure (at a very slow pace, granted) if the witch has this hex, that’s really impressive.

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Major Hexes
Available starting at level 10.
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• Agony: It allows a save to end the effect every single round.
• Beast Eye: Potentially a cheap method of scrying and without error chance. What happens if some of the animals in your “chain” move further than 100 ft apart after you’ve jumped between them but are still viewing? Check with your DM.
• Cook People: The spell effects are rather minor, but who can say no to some good old fashioned home cooking?
• Hag’s Eye: Arcane Eye is an alright spell to have some use of.
• Hidden Home: I suspect this has its uses, and would be happy to upgrade my ranking if I could be provided some ideas.
• Hoarfrost: Not only does it take many minutes to actually kill the target, they get a new save each minute to end it. This is simply impractical for a PC to use.
• Ice Tomb: I really wish I knew how this worked, I have so many questions and it’s hard to rate without a clearer picture. What range is this? Does resisting all the cold damage avoid the encasement (since it’s fort, not reflex, and the text only requires failing the save, I assume not)? Are creatures immune to being paralyzed still paralyzed since it’s due to being covered in ice? What if the creature has Freedom of Movement active? Can you attack creatures trapped in the ice, or is it a large solid block? How hard is it to destroy the ice? And more! Seriously, this thing needs errata badly.
• Infected Wounds: If you haven’t figured it out by now, PCs should not use offenses that work over the course of hours or in this case, days.
• Major Healing: Gives you a slightly stronger attack against the undead. I don't think this cuts it for in combat healing at this point, but others disagree.
• Nightmares: Maybe Witch is meant to be an NPC class…
• Retribution: This can easily shut down a melee brute.
• Speak in Dreams: Eh, I’d rather just use Sending or something.
• Vision: Take all the DM fiat-dependence of typical divinations and add “how soon before I can buff him with it again?” to that.
• Waxen Image: While impractical, at least this hex is cool, yet impractical.
• Weather Control: It’s a 7th level spell effect, but one you have on your spell list anyway.
• Witch’s Brew: Faster crafting of potions is not worth a major hex.

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Grand Hexes
Available starting at level 18.
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• Death Curse: Giving people heart attacks is just so stylish.
• Dire Prophecy: There are much nastier things you can do to someone that fails a will save. Like giving him a heart attack.
• Eternal Slumber: Still good, but much worse than Slumber was, relative to the level you can obtain it. Many things will be immune to sleep magic by now, and needing to get into melee touch range is a turn-off. Still, in the cases where it can work, it’s a single save or die, instead of needing 2+ like most hexes.
• Forced Reincarnation: While it's still very random and can come back to bite you, several benefits have been pointed out to me that make this the best grand hex. At the least, this is a debuff for 2 negative levels and loss of 50% of unused spell slots for the day. My friend also noted that on technicality, this royally screws over dragons, whose power is based on age category, and for whom, being in a "new young adult body" (Young Adult age category) can be a MAJOR nerf. Generally when using this on non-humanoids, this is better to use on the more powerful members of a creature type, and to be avoided on the weaker ones. For example, this could turn a Storm Giant into a Hill Giant...but it could also turn a Hill Giant into a Storm Giant. This hex also is a hilarious way to “cure” someone’s cold.
• Life Giver: Unless characters are frequently dying, the money this might save the party isn’t worth a high level class feature. On the other hand, with this hex, you're practically immune to losing your spells due to familiar death.
• Natural Disaster: Decent if you can avoid getting hit and losing concentration.
• Summon Spirit: I’m not a fan of the planar binding spells, and this carries an extra cost to it – the negative level.
• Witch’s Hut: I…uh…what is this for? Anyone?

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In conclusion, there is a tremendous amount of trash in the hex choices, but probably enough good options to to fill up your selections from 1-20. Extra Hex is a decent option for the early hexes, but it's mostly dissapointment in the major and grand hex lists. The "witches are bad" vibe seems to have gotten way too much of an emphasis in the class design, at least a third of the hexes seem like they were designed for the villain of the week.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Spells​

Level 0 (Cantrips)
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• Arcane Mark
• Bleed
• Dancing Lights
• Daze: Stop preparing it after the first few levels, till then it's good.
• Detect Magic
• Detect Poison
• Guidance: It's only a +1 to one roll, but you can use it constantly.
• Light
• Mending
• Message
• Putrefy Food and Drink (APG)
• Read Magic
• Resistance: It's useful for the first few levels.
• Spark (APG)
• Stabilize
• Touch of Fatigue

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Level 1
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• Air Bubble (UC)
• Beguiling Gift (APG): This requires some work, but it can be very good. Hand someone a really nasty cursed item (preferably one you can retrieve for future use afterwards, current fave is the robe of powerlessness for its cheap creation cost, light weight, and immediate strong effect). Give them a potion that's actually an ingested poison. Make them let go of your friend for the pretty wooden stick you've got. Biggest issue is it requires you to be adjacent in the first place.
• Bungle (UM): Save negates. SR. Mind affecting. 10 HD limit. All for...the next attack/check roll to probably fail. And if the target spellcrafts this, he will make sure that roll will be an insignificant one. Pass!
• Burning Hands
• Cause Fear: Only good at low levels.
• Charm Person
• Chill Touch
• Command
• Compel Hostility (UC): This is great for more martial casters, not for you.
• Comprehend Languages: Usage is somewhat dampened by the fact you have a hex to take care of this.
• Cure Light Wounds: You'll seldom prepare it, but it's nice to have on the list for wands.
• Damp Powder (UC): Every single one of these spells is atrociously bad. Every single one.
• Dancing Lantern (APG): This is worse than Dancing Lights, a cantrip!
• Decompose Corpse (UM)
• Delusional Pride (UM): Witch sure does get a lot of compulsion spells!
• Detect Secret Doors
• Diagnose Disease (UM): You can learn it just to be prepared, but you should leave playing House to the cleric.
• Ear-Piercing Scream (UM): Finally, a good spell! Much better w/o the "unofficial errata."
• Enlarge Person: I'd just have the Fighter buy a wand for you to use on him.
• Forced Quiet (UM)
• Frostbite (UM): Touch range hurts, but this is a lot of damage and fatigue per casting to inflict with no save.
• Fumbletongue (UM)
• Hex Ward (UM): Even if witches were common foes, it's a resistance bonus.
• Hypnotism: Again, quickly becomes useless w/ levels.
• Icicle Dagger (UM)
• Identify: Have it in case you need the +10.
• Ill Omen (UM): Of course the first Witch-exclusive spell would be compulsion! Compared to Bungle, it benefits from no save and gains additional uses with level. Sadly, it's even easier to counter for creatures that can spellcraft.
• Inflict Light Wounds
• Interrogation (UM): I found the 3E BoVD's torture rules that gave the victim a Bluff bonus much more realistic. Oh, you want a verdict? This sucks.
• Jury-Rig (UC): Casting this for an ally with the Fortified Armor Training feat can be a delicious combo. Otherwise, this is pretty useless.
• Ki Arrow (UM): I wouldn't even waste my action on this if it were a cantrip.
• Lock Gaze (UC): This is basically an alternative to Obscuring Mist for screwing over a Rogue. Oh, and it's yet another compulsion.
• Mage Armor: Keep this active in any dangerous area.
• Mask Dweomer (APG): Witch exlcusive, very similar to Magic Aura. It may come in handy once in a while.
• Mount
• Negative Reaction (UC)
• Obscuring Mist: Great spell, but you should just wand it.
• Peacebond (UC): In order to use this well, you'll want to be invisible or otherwise unseen and cast this (it has no verbal components) before initiating combat. And it probably will only work in urban areas, where people don't just have their weapons drawn all the time.
• Ray of Enfeeblement: PF nerfed this far too much.
• Ray of Sickening (UM): Ranged touch and a save negates is more points of potential failure than I'd like for such a minor debuff.
• Reduce Person: A great spell for you. On a wand.
• Reinforce Armaments (UC): If you need the sunder protection, wait for communal next level.
• Remove Sickness (UM): Get some scrolls in case of nausea, don't use spell slots on it.
• Restore Corpse (UM): Scrolls will do just fine if the party needs zombies.
• Sanctify Corpse (UM)
• Shadow Weapon (UM)
• Sleep: Goes out of fashion quickly, redundant with your Slumber hex. Possibly worth preparing for foes that save against slumber for a re-try.
• Summon Minor Monster (UM)
• Summon Monster I: By the time this has a decent duration, the summons are very weak.
• Unerring Weapon (UC)
• Unprepared Combatant (UM): It's compulsion with save negates. For some inexplicable reason it's not an immediate action, but standard, and it has verbal components. Good luck on using it for the Initiative penalty! Holy gods does this spell suck.
• Unseen Servant
• Vocal Alteration (UM)
• Weaken Powder (UC): Every single one.
• Youthful Appearance (UM): So you won't look a day over 400.

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Level 2
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• Adoration (UC)
• Alter Self: This is seldom more useful than your Reduce Person wand.
• Augury
• Bestow Weapon Proficiency (UC): May be situationally useful enough for scrolls, but not a wand or actual preparation.
• Blindness/Deafness: Since Witch has so many will save effects, I think having a "fort save or be blinded" spell is more useful to them than a typical caster.
• Blood Transcription (UM): Very much worth knowing to quickly prep the next morning or to have scrolls of.
• Boiling Blood (UM): Even if your entire party is orcs and it's a lengthy battle, this still isn't worth it.
• Burning Gaze (APG): Fairly weak, but it gts points for style. Check with your DM if you can light a fool up the round you cast this spell, as these sorts of things tend to work in every other instance I've seen (Flaming Sphere, Spiritual Weapon, all summons, etc... all can attack the round they're cast). This is a great spell for starting fires if you're a pyro.
• Cure Moderate Wounds
• Daze Monster: You know, this looks even more awful than normal to a class with the Slumber hex.
• Death Knell
• Delay Pain (UM): Consider getting scrolls.
• Delay Poison
• Destabilize Powder (UC): Every single one.
• Detect Thoughts
• Disfiguring Touch (UM): Save negates and melee touch make this not worth the small penalty. The long duration doesn't matter to a PC Witch.
• Enthrall: I wanted to make a joke advising to be Canadian to avoid ever facing the save bonus. But instead all I can say is wow, is this spell stupidly easy to screw over. One person making the save spending a round "strangling" one of the enraptured turns the entire crowd hostile. To YOU.
• False Life: For your familiar if you're realy paranoid.
• Feast of Ashes (APG): This is an NPC spell.
• Fester (APG): Notably, this is "very" early entry. Only other class that gets it is Inquisitor at 3, and they already have slower spell progression than you. Still bad.
• Find Traps: Anyone can find non-magical traps in PF, and this spell doesn't let you find magical ones. I think the duration is too short to bother with, YMMV.
• Fog Cloud
• Frost Fall (UC): Area and damage are both too small.
• Gentle Repose: Good spell to know just in case an ally dies or you want to keep the slab of meat you hunted fresh.
• Ghostly Disguise (UM): Being a witch is already enough of a costume for trick-or-treating.
• Glide (APG): Poor man's flight. I'd love to rank this higher, but it's just not going to be useful that often when you have real flight. A "fly" speed of 300 ft is nothing to scoff at, though. Combined with your 1/day Levitate at level 3 (you took Flight hex, right?!) this can be cool.
• Glitterdust: Even nerfed, this is pretty darn good and retains the utility of revealing invisible foes.
• Haunting Mists (UM): It's like Obscuring Mist, but higher level and it hurts you!
• Hidden Speech (APG): The message cantrip is nearly as effective, IMO.
• Hold Person: Basically save-or-die for humanoids. Ready an action to disrupt the target's turn with this, so his entire action is wasted and he can't get his first attempt (requires a full round action) to break free until everyone else has had a turn. Or cast it immediately after his turn has been resolved. Just don't use it immediately before his turn, that's a total waste.
• Inflict Moderate Wounds
• Levitate: Good, though you have the Flight hex.
• Mad Hallucination (UM): Awful in combat, but has potential recreational uses.
• Mask Dweomer, Communal (UC): Much more useful than the single target version. Witch-only, again.
• Masterwork Transformation (UM)
• Miserable Pity (UM): A higher level Sanctuary that's strictly worse.
• Mount, Communal (UC)
• Perceive Cues (APG): Use it at higher levels when your low level slots become more for buffing/utility.
• Pernicious Poison (UM): Pro: no save. Con: melee touch range.
• Pox Pustules (APG): Hmm... 2nd level fort save negates spell to sicken a target, or blind them? Hmm...
• Protective Penumbra (UM): Normally awful. Fluff text makes it sound like a great spell to buff a Shadow Dancer with, though. Check with your DM.
• Qualm (UC): Too weak for a save negates compulsion, and I would never use this unless I could hit a creature with it before initiative is rolled (ie, surprise round).
• Recoil Fire (UC): Every single one.
• Reinforce Armaments, Communal (UC): If your DM uses sundering NPCs, this is much better than the 1st level spell, unless the party has only a single item worth keeping in tact.
• Returning Weapon (UC)
• Scare
• See Invisibility: It's usually better to just prepare Glitterdust.
• Severed Fate (APG): Early entry. As a save or be shaken it's less good, and the small effect overall but long duration makes this more fit for an NPC, again. Techincally not listed as mind-affecting, but the shaken condition won't work on anything immune to that anyway.
• Share Memory (UM): How awesome would it be if people engaged in the purchase or trade/swapping of memories? Maybe some underground club or something. In the long run, does it realy matter that you never actually went skydiving or what have you, if you have a crystal clear memory of doing so to cherish?
• Silk to Steel (UM): Assuming the spell does give you proficiency with the "whip" (RAW it does not), this still sucks. You do not do melee combat. And the shield bonus application is worse and shorter duration than the 1st level shield spell.
• Skinsend (UM): I like being creepy, but at best you're losing half your hp just to squeeze through tight spaces and explore, probably all alone and with far too low hp to solo. I'd limit the use of this to social. Like delivering a singing telegram.
• Spectral Hand: THE way to deliver touch spells, at least low level ones.
• Stabilize Powder (UC): Every single one.
• Status: For when the party must be split.
• Steal Voice (UM): I'm sure NPCs drool over the permanent duration.
• Summon Monster II
• Summon Swarm: Good at the early levels.
• Symbol of Mirroring (UM): Almost always too restricted and expensive. Potentially brokenly powerful in the right circumstances.
• Thunder Fire (UC): Every single one.
• Touch of Idiocy: Very good against casters. Potentially good against low int monsters if the DM tactically plays them as animal level intelligence after the spell, as he should. Melee touch hurts, but no save.
• Unnatural Lust (UM): It doesn't really matter how weak this spell is, you know you're going to want to cast it.
• Unshakeable Chill (UM)
• Vomit Swarm (APG): Way cooler than just summoning it the normal method.
• Web
• Web Shelter (UM)
• Zone of Truth

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Level 3
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• Anthropomorphic Animal (UM): On its own, pretty weak. Better when combined with Bestow Weapon Proficiency.
• Arcane Sight
• Ash Storm (UM): It's the fire version of Sleet Storm. Up to personal preference which you want to use.
• Bestow Curse: Melee touch, save negates, and SR. But still, very nice spell. The 50% chance of losing your turn is generally the best choice, but you can get creative and make your own curses, too. My friend once made one that left the target unable to full attack, and later on royally screwed over a hydra with it.
• Cackling Skull (UM): Witch exclusive, but hard to be happy about. Higher level than magic mouth AND more limited in targets, for what? No 10 gp cost and a crappy d4 round shaken effect? Hell, it lacks the (object) entry in the saves lines, so you techincally couldn't even cast this on an undead skeleton's skull, which would be the first thing I'd want to do with this spell. The worst part is, you don't even get Magic Mouth, since you're getting this "better version."
• Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
• Countless Eyes (UM): Nice long duration.
• Cup of Dust (APG)
• Deep Slumber: Just use Slumber.
• Delay Poison, Communal (UC)
• Dispel Magic
• Eldritch Fever (UM)
• Eruptive Postules (UM)
• Excruciating Deformation (UM): You don't cast this for practicality, you use it to torture those that pissed you off.
• Flash Fire (UC): Every single one. Actually...this is decent if you actually expect to encounter a gun user that day and he has friends. Still a lot of "if"s.
• Fly: Less useful when you have the Flight hex, still good for buffing the fighter.
• Glyph of Warding
• Guiding Star (APG)
• Healing Thief (UC): No save, but melee touch, have to stay within close range, round/level, and caps at 50 healing total. Far too limited even used in optimal scenarios.
• Heroism
• Hostile Levitation (UC): Nope, it doesn't let you hover a melee monster in the air and make it impotent. It's a save negates to avoid a small attack and CMD penalty. Ho hum.
• Howling Agony (UM): Cool, yet impractical. Just think of it as "Slow, but worse."
• Ki Leech (UM)
• Lightning Bolt: What's with the incredibly random selection of blasty spells?
• Loathsome Veil (UM): Most foes won't even get nauseated for the 1d4 rounds, and it has a total HD cap.
• Locate Object: Without a spell book, this is less useful for you than a wizard AND higher level. Eww.
• Locate Weakness (UC): It's awesome for Magus and Ranger, not for you.
• Malediction (APG)
• Marionette Possession (UM): I'm going to need help in finding a way for this to be useful, but I'm sure there are ways.
• Nature's Exile (APG)
• Pain Strike (APG)
• Pup Shape (UC): Unlikely to work, though a strong debuff to an animal/magical beast if the party is evil and fine with puppy kicking. If this makes a familiar have only 1 HD of hp rather than half the master's total (CHECK WITH YOUR DM, I don't think it does this), getting a ring of counterspells with this spell in it for your familiar is beyond essential if you have a pet-targeting DM.
• Rage
• Rain of Frogs (UM)
• Ray of Exhaustion
• Reckless Infatuation (UM): Yet another compulsion, but this probably has all sorts of fun uses and a day/level duration.
• Remove Blindness/Deafness: It's worth learning if the party has no cleric or druid, but only prepare it when needed.
• Remove Curse: As above.
• Remove Disease: As above.
• Returning Weapon, Communal (UC)
• Sands of Time (UM): No save, but melee touch and very minor debuff.
• Screech (APG): Witch only, and verbal components only. Very minor effect unless you have a lot of allies with reach and Combat Reflexes and a lot of foes to target.
• Seek Thoughts (APG)
• Sepia Snake Sigil: Too expensive when you're not trapping a spell book with it.
• Share Senses (APG): Early entry. I'd avoid sending my familiar off on scouting missions, but if it gets taken / goes missing, this is good to have. Also, if the party splits into two groups, you can send your familiar with the other half and use this spell to retain information on what they're doing.
• Sleet Storm: Solid battlefield control. See Ash Storm, also.
• Speak with Dead: Great to know.
• Spit Venom (UM): The poison is nice, but the no-save blindness for a round on a ranged touch is why this is good.
• Stinking Cloud
• Strangling Hair (UM): You'd think witch could get this early or something. This dropped two whole rankings just for being concentration. Not only does that restrict you from casting or hexing, it means with the close range, it's super easy to disrupt this spell.
• Suggestion
• Summon Monster III
• Tongues: As with Comprehend Languages, Tongues hex makes this less important to prepare on a given day.
• Twilight Knife (APG): Terrible on non-gish casters.
• Unadulterated Loathing (UM): As handy as Reckless Infatuation, possibly more so from a combat-sense.
• Unravel Destiny (APG)
• Vampiric Touch: More hp for your familiar, if it makes the touch.
• Vermin Shape I (UM)
• Vision of Hell (UM): The effects only persist while in the area, so in order to effectively fear stack this, it needs to be in a spot where the victims can't run and thus have to cower. Can be good, very situational.
• Water Walk
• Witness (UM): Early entry since bards and inquisitors get 3rd level spells later than you. Similar to Share Senses but can be used on anyone and leaves you blind and deaf while looking through it.

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Level 4
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• Absorb Toxicity (UC): Decent for poison immunity now that Neuter Poison's been nerfed.
• Age Resistance, Lesser (UM): Staple witch ability. Much more useful in games that start at higher level so you can actually have this right off the bat.
• Arcane Eye: Remember there's also the Hag's Eye major hex.
• Black Tentacles: Nice at first, the grapple mod quickly becomes obsolete.
• Cape of Wasps (UM)
• Charm Monster
• Confusion
• Curse of Magic Negation (UM)
• Crushing Despair
• Cure serious wounds: If you were wondering when they'd smack you down for daring to heal as well as an unarmored d6 HD poor BAB one good save cleric that has to pay for his spells known...well, here's the breakpoint.
• Daze, Mass (UM): It still has the 4 HD limit! I need a rating below red.
• Death Ward: If only there was a communal version.
• Debilitating Portent (UC): Why do clerics get what's clearly a witch spell?!!! And at the same level, no less! *rages* Wow, this is edited badly. Says it uses wis for clerics and cha for oracles...but no mention for poor ol' witch. I assume witches use Int. If not this is so, so, SO very red!
• Detect Scrying: For the paranoid among you.
• Dimension Door: Thanks to the obscenely high grapple concentration DC, this spell is completely worthless for escaping grapple in PF. Get a partially charged wand of this spell (preferably made by a Summoner, to save money) or some use activated teleport item instead. This spell is still possibly useful in some utility scenarios, but grapple escape was at least 90% of its mojo.
• Discern Lies
• Divination
• Enervation: Spam it on a caster. One of the few spells that's amazing empowered.
• False Life, Greater (UM)
• Familiar Melding (UM): Probably has its uses, though most likely involve needing to fake being dead.
• Fear
• Fleshworm Infestation (UM): Melee touch, slow acting, and defeated by a 1st level wand many people tend to have with them.
• Geas, Lesser: No real threat will fall prey to it, but lots of weaker creatures can become enslaved to your orders.
• Ice Storm: Damage and battlefield control, with no save. Not bad.
• Inflict Serious Wounds: As if the level delay on healing wasn't pathetic enough...
• Locate Creature: Use it to find your "spell book" if it's taken hostage.
• Minor Creation
• Moonstruck (APG)
• Named bullet (UC): Every single one.
• Neutralize Poison: Apparently this spell was overpowered.
• Phantasmal Killer: Decent early on, overshadowed later.
• Poison: Yet another "why was this nerfed?" spell.
• Ride the Waves (UM): The alternative to Water Lung hex + refreshing it on the party every half minute. This also gives a swim speed.
• Scrying
• Secure Shelter
• Shadow Step (UM): You can take a move or swift after using this; otherwise it's basically like Dimension Door but worse in every way imaginable.
• Sleepwalk (APG): The 100 gp cost crimps a lot of the fun you could have with Slumber hex + this.
• Solid Fog: Got nerfed from 3E a bit, but still good.
• Spite (APG): Witch exclusive. The 250 gp cost and fact that you have no control at all over holding off on it going off until you want it to makes this a very bad spell, sadly. Of course, it's amazing for a damned metagaming DM's villain NPC to use against the party.
• Summon Monster IV: The first level where SM actually summons decent melee creatures.
• Symbol of Healing (UM): Weak healing, late entry, 150 hp total cap, all the normal symbol annoyances...
• Symbol of Revelation (UM)
• Symbol of Slowing (UM)
• Threefold Aspect (APG): Enhancement bonuses, bleh. At least it's early entry. Nice for being the sexiest venerable aged witch you can be.
• Tongues, Communal (UC): As always, communal is a crazy good deal. But the party can often get by with just one diplomaster doing the talking.
• Touch of Slime (UM)
• Vermin Shape II (UM)
• Volcanic Storm (UM): A fire version of ice storm, less good since fire is more commonly resisted.
• Wandering Star Motes (APG): This can get a lot of mileage in the right situation. Probably works beautifully with Persistent Spell.

[/sblock]

Level 5
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• Baleful Polymorph: It's great when something that's iconic to your class is also really, really good mechanically. Turn your foes into toads and newts! Other than against druids and things with really nasty Su attacks (like dragons), the will save is pretty irrelevant, failed fort save = you win.
• Banish Seeming (APG): Something this narrow and high level should be automatically successful. Never mind the melee range.
• Blight: Melee touch, fort half, for d6/level single target damage to a plant creature only?! I think I just hurt myself from rolling around on the floor laughing.
• Break Enchantment
• Cloudkill
• Contact Other Plane: Super risky.
• Contagion, Greater (UM): Strange you don't get the weaker version...
• Cure Critical Wounds
• Curse, Major (UM): Screw the +5 DC to remove, the draw here is that you can use bestow curse at range!
• Curse of Disgust (UM): This is more of a fun spell than a practical one.
• Dominate Person: Even if you have a ton of mind-affecting stuff, having a mind slave a week or more is still something new to you.
• Feeblemind: I consider this "Mage's Disjunction, Lesser," as they're both insanely crippling spells you never ever want used on you and you'd do best to form a gentleman's agreement with the DM to never touch. Or if you lack strong accord with the DM, it's best to never bring this one up and hope he doesn't notice it.
• Hold Monster: For a 5th level spell, this is starting to look less sexy when the # of things you can hold but not Slumber is so slim.
• Hostile Juxtaposition (UC): It's a will save that's not mind-affecting. That's the only good thing I can say about this.
• Inflict Critical Wounds
• Magic Jar: I can't believe this wasn't nerfed. This + some craftiness (basically, to hide your body and keep it safe) can easily lead to a small army slaughtering each other, let alone countless nasty tricks.
• Major Creation: Much better than minor creation.
• Mark of Justice: More cruel fun with captives!
• Mind Fog: It's a trap. You don't rely on failed will saves in order to set people up for...failing will saves.
• Overland Flight: While Fly is mainly obsolete due to a hex, all day flight is something you can't replicate. It's absolutely worth having both as options.
• Pain Strike, Mass (APG)
• Plague Carrier (UM): What a great NPC villain spell!
• Possess Object (UM): It says it's "like" magic jar, but the uses are very, very different. I think it's too situational to learn, but by all means, if you should ever find yourself near-crippled by poison or disease, can find a safe hiding spot for your body, and there's say...a gargantuan metal statue laying around...by all means, feel free to use a scroll of this!
• Prying Eyes: Too easy to spot, and being spotted tips things off to your presence.
• Reincarnate: Until you can raise dead, this is your only means of losing most of your spells known if the familiar croaks, unfortunately. Learn it for that 2 level gap, then never touch it again.
• Rest Eternal (APG): Worth learning and paying (un)holy water for those pricks you absolutely, positively want to keep dead. For added style points, toss the cursed body into a bag of holding and then destroy the bag.
• Secret Chest: I know I refer to it as such jokingly a lot, but you do not have an actual spell book you need to hide away. If only Witch had gotten less of these "protect a book" pieces of junk and got more actual witch-iconic spells like Hideous Laughter.
• Smug Narcissism (UM): Awful for combat, and in social situations, the verbal component and low DC "detect enchantment" of Sense Motive make it even less practical.
• Suffocation (APG): This needs eratta. As written, I don't know if failing the 1st save means you will be at 0 hp on your turn, or if the save on your 1st turn (2nd save overall) prevents that. I THINK the former is how it works and have rated this spell as such, but if your DM gives the target TWO fortitude saves before he's for sure unconscious, this spell is red and pretty awful.
• Summon Monster V: Starting at this level, you can get monsters with decent Sp abilities, or that are great meat shields.
• Summoner Conduit (UC): Note the summoner doesn't benefit from healing; just hurt by harmful spells. Perhaps after getting this to stick to a summoned creature, separate your party and the summon from the summoner (wall of force, teleportation, telekinetic sphere, whatever) and torture it with a mix of pain and healing (to keep it from poofing) until the summoner, isolated from stopping all this, inevitably drops.
• Symbol of Pain: Still a symbol spell, but no hp limit at least.
• Symbol of Scrying (UM): This symbol might actually be really useful to a fair amount of groups.
• Symbol of Sleep: Crazy powerful for protecting a stronghold from an army, if you have that sort of dilemma.
• Symbol of Striking (UC): More PC-oriented, but the effect is very limited. You always want the weapon to be a 2H one for the higher damage.
• Telepathic Bond
• Teleport
• Waves of Fatigue: No save!
• Wreath of Blades (UC): Creatures should not be starting their turns adjacent to you.

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Level 6
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• Age Resistance (UM)
• Analyze Dweomer
• Animate Objects
• Cloak of Dreams (APG): Probably overkill with your Slumber hex, but maybe not.
• Cone of Cold: Direct damage is "too good" for you to get at the appropriate levels. *eyeroll*
• Cure Light Wounds, Mass
• Dispel Magic, Greater
• Dust Form (UC): Should still be able to hex in dust form, check w/ your DM if you can cackle. You can use magic items, including command-activated ones, so I don't see why not.
• Epidemic (UM)
• Eyebite
• Fester, Mass (APG)
• Find the Path
• Flesh to Stone: Eh, usually Baleful Poly will do the trick just fine.
• Geas/Quest: Cast this on anyone you take prisoner.
• Guards and Wards: I really do love this spell, shame it's unlikely to ever be useful.
• Heroism, Greater: Did you catch the 1/10th duration?
• Ice Crystal Teleport (UM): You'll probably only get one coup de grace off before the ice is destroyed. "Safe location" is extremely subjective, and your DM's view on the matter greatly affects how useful this spell is. This spell is utterly pointless for allies, use it only offensively either for the CDG or a trip to a super-max jail or whatever.
• Inflict Light Wounds, Mass
• Legend Lore: Why spend money on this when you can just role play it out?
• Named Bullet, Greater (UC): Every single one.
• Plague Storm (UM): Devastate an army or town.
• Raise Dead: Save your spellbook!
• Slay Living: Somewhere out there, a cleric is laughing at you.
• Stone to Flesh: Super rarely needed, but you still may want to learn it.
• Suggestion, Mass
• Summon Monster VI
• Swarm Skin (APG): Yet another Witch spell that practically requires a "body guard." Duration seems to be "as long as you damn please," which is quite nice.
• Symbol of Fear: Hurray for 150 hp limits!
• Symbol of Persuasion: I'd rather just pay hirelings to be my friend for the day.
• Symbol of Sealing (UM)
• Transformation: Even with Su abilities galore, avoid this.
• True Seeing: For emergencies only.
• Unwilling Shield (APG): Round/level. Short range. Icky component cost. Pass.
• Vengeful Outrage (UM): Duration is rather short, unfortunately.

[/sblock]

Level 7
[sblock]

• Age Resistance, Greater (UM)
• Arcane Sight, Greater: +4 levels just for that?
• Chain Lightning: Being late entry always hurts, but the jump to 7 here means you cannot apply Dazing Spell to this (and have to pay crazy $$ on a greater meta rod of dazing instead of a normal one). That's just heartbreaking.
• Control Weather: This is also a major hex, though you likely won't bother to get it.
• Create Demiplane, Lesser (UM)
• Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
• Harm: Single target, melee touch, will half. Yeah, you really, really don't need this.
• Heal: Still great to have, even if the cleric gets it sooner.
• Hold Person, Mass: Humanoid only is just too limited by this level.
• Hostile Juxtaposition, Greater (UC): Getting several targets for only 2 levels higher makes this slightly more appealing than the base spell.
• Ice Body (UM)
• Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass
• Insanity: Confusion effects are powerful when there are lots of victims, so they infight. This is single target...cripes, the 4th level spell hit a radius!
• Instant Summons: This isn't even worth it for a wizard to cast.
• Lunar Veil (UM)
• Phase Door: Outstanding for stealth missions, and great to plop down around your stronghold during downtime, too.
• Plane Shift: Yeah, no level 5 for you. Still, you need this to get away to your demiplane to chill out.
• Power Word Blind: My favorite power word. Low enough level for it to still work on a fair amount of creatures despite its descriptors, and a hefty hp threshold. Still, you've been blinding people since 2nd level spells...
• Regenerate: Learn it in case you need to prep it someday...
• Scouring Winds (UM)
• Scrying, Greater
• Summon Monster VII
• Symbol of Stunning: Has the 150 hp limit.
• Symbol of Weakness: Very powerful if you can get enough victims to justify the cost.
• Teleport, Greater
• Teleport Object
• Temporary Ressurection (UM): I sort of can get Wizards having this on the spell list, but Witch actually HAS ressurection spells!
• Vision
• Walk Through Space (UC): There appears to be no casting time listed... In any case, this is alright for a long battle perhaps. But between cackling and flyby attack strafing runs, your move actions are actually pretty occupied.
• Waves of Ecstasy (UM): I really wish this wasn't so weak, I love the fluff text.
• Waves of Exhaustion: I think against any real threats, you're better off just spamming rays of exhaustion since there shouldn't be too many of them (lest it become a TPK or time to run), but this is still respectable.

[/sblock]


Level 8
[sblock]

• Antipathy
• Charm Monster, Mass: How int-casters make friends.
• Clone: Yet another familiar-death coping method. Best to keep the lab and clone body in your created demi-plane or somewhere else uber secure.
• Create Demiplane (UM)
• Cure Serious Wounds, Mass
• Demand
• Destruction: Don't you just love it when the bastards casting in full plate get spells before you? Yeah, me neither.
• Discern Location
• Frightful Aspect (UC): The no save and no SR fear effects are the only thing worthwhile here, in the cases where foes aren't immune. All the buffs are pretty worthless. Kinda sucks that the frightened effect ends the spell on that creature.
• Horrid Wilting
• Inflict Serious Wounds. Mass
• Irresistible Dance: Touch, SR, mind-affecting... It's at least 1 round of "removed from combat," but this spell just hits too many buttons you already could take care of.
• Maze
• Mind Blank: Makes dumping wisdom even less painful than before.
• Moment of Prescience
• Power Word Stun
• Prediction of Failure (UM): It's every bit as cool as it is underwhelming.
• Prying Eyes, Greater: You don't use these (much) for scouting; you use them for True Seeing w/o the materials cost. Keep the spares in a container thick enough to protect them from dispels and area damage.
• Resurrection: Raise Dead should be enough to bring back the familiar, usually.
• Stormbolts (APG): Actually a decent blast spell. Targets a different save (though in your case, reflex would've been useful) and avoids friendly fire. Sadly, you can't Dazing Spell this w/o a rod.
• Summon Monster VIII
• Symbol of Death: Aside from normal symbol issues, this only affects 150 hp of meatbag! Total!
• Symbol of Insanity: Leaps and bounds better than the above, yet STILL a terrible spell for the cost and restrictions.
• Sympathy
• Trap the Soul

[/sblock]

Level 9
[sblock]

• Astral Projection
• Create Demiplane, Greater (UC): Oh Yeeeeaaah! You can screw with time flow, this is what we were waiting for!
• Cure Critical Wounds, Mass
• Cursed Earth (UM): Same old villainous NPC-only crap.
• Dominate Monster: Against things not immune, it's still awesome.
• Elemental Swarm
• Foresight: I've always been underwhelmed by this spell. It's a party game, as long as someone notices the ambush, it's ok. The other benefits are very meager.
• Heroic Invocation (UC): Even if the entire party isn't all Mind Blanked, this is pretty pathetic.
• Hold Monster, Mass: Nice in concert with Polar Midnight, but hopefully you have some way of holding foes still for a round that isn't another 9th level spell. Preferably one that's not mind-affecting, too.
• Inflict Critical Wounds, Mass
• Mind Blank, Communal (UC): Yeah, scratch the "if." The entire party IS protected by Mind Blank!
• Polar Midnight (UM): Requires a tandem with something else to prevent movement for 1 round, but once you get that going, this is incredible!
• Power Word Kill
• Refuge: Cleric 7! Yeah, if it's not saving you from losing your familiar, that's just inexcusable. Nay, unforgiveable!
• Soul Bind
• Storm of Vengeance: You have a hex that does this better. Almost certainly impractical to use against any real threat, but like many high level spells, awesome just for a power trip to feel like a god against weaker stock.
• Suffocation, Mass (APG): See Suffocation. Sort of better since you can probably just run away and be sure they'll die within a minute even if they get two saves before hitting 0 hp.
• Summon Monster IX
• Symbol of Strife (UM): Do you know the kind of party you coud throw for 15000 gp?! And seriously, why do these spells have to reference the symbol spell w/ the 150 hp limit, leading to any iteration of the symbol line to not include a disclaimer to the contrary (like this spell fails to) to being completely and utterly worthless even with infinite money?
• Symbol of Vulnerability (UM): As above, but weaker effect... *shakes head* at least I don't have to rate any more of these.
• Teleportation Circle: It's costly to cast, but if you need to move an army, this is how you do it.
• Wail of the Banshee

[/sblock]

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Feats and Equipment

Feats
I'm not going to list every feat here, only those that pertain to the Witch class and would be potentially helpful, or in some cases to highlight traps for you to avoid. Thus, this section will not have many feats with very low ranking.

General
[sblock]
Ability Focus (BI): This could be a nice +2 save DC boost for several hexes, but by far the best choice is Slumber, of course. With this feat and a 20 Int at level 1, you'll have a DC 17. A Fey sorcerer can have a DC 19 sleep spell with Spell Focus, but 17 isn't far off from that benchmark.

Accursed Hex (UM): "No, I mean it! It is bed time, mister!"

Acrobatic (CR): One of the most useful dual skill boosting feats for you, but still bad.

Allied Spellcaster (APG): It's a trap!

Arcane Armor Training (CR): You have mage armor. I guess it's passable if you have no use for swift actions, but you also need light armor proficiency. The Mastery version is definitely not worth it.

Arcane Blast (APG): On the one hand, you lack a bit for sheer damage spells when you just really need to finish off an injured yet still just as dangerous as at full hp foe. On the other hand, this sucks.

Arcane Shield (APG): You need to blow a 6th level slot just to surpass the AC bonus an item you're going to have anyway is providing.

Arcane Strike (CR): You have no business doing weapons combat, even with a ranged weapon.

Arcane Talent (APG): Here's your chance to get "the best spell ever" (Prestidigitation) if you wish.

Augment Summoning (CR): It's a solid feat if you want to use summons a lot. You are far from the best class at it, though. You also lack many of the save-based conjuration spells that make the Spell Focus requirement not a total waste.

Combat Casting (CR): Try to boost concentration with a trait if you want it higher. In any case, you have AoO-safe hexes to use when threatened.

Combat Expertise (CR): If you're going to use a lot of touch spells, they hit on "not a 1" anyway, and you have the Int for this, may as well get an AC boost. I don't think doing this is a good idea, though...

Dazzling Display (CR): This is actually pretty nice. Combine your area fear effect spells with this 30 ft area demoralization ability to stack fear on foes to make them run or cower. The bad part is, this requires Weapon Focus, and worse still, you need to "wield" that weapon to use this, so you can't even get SOME marginal utility out of WF by selecting ranged touch spells or touch spells. *sad face* You could probably get weapon focus on your prehensile hair, though that also have a daily limit for use.

Defensive Combat Training (CR): In the long run, this is a big CMD boost. And even with poor strength, a mage with this feat and lots of dex and touch AC boosting items can get a reasonably good CMD total.

Destructive Dispel (UC): If you debuff with dispel magic often, save or be stunned until your next turn is a nice boon. Obviously works best on readied actions disrupting the foe's turn for the longest possible stun duration. Seems designed for a counterspelling character, but useful to other casters, too.

Diehard (CR): This feat is much better on a class that can heal itself than it is for others. That said, Endurance is very bad. This feat is green if you get Endurance for free or can bypass it somehow.

Dispel Synergy (UC): Works with area dispels for whole groups. Only helps spell save DCs, not hexes, though.

Diviner's Delving (APG): It's sort of cool, and witch does have a lot of divination spells, but its appeal is tremendously reduced for requiring Spell Focus (divination).

Dodge (CR): It benefits touch AC and CMD. Never a bad choice if you have no "must have" feats lined up for a given level.

Elemental Focus (APG)

Eschew Materials (CR): Typically, the only times this ever matters is when you're either being grappled or are facing an annoying pest that readies actions to disarm you. In either case, you should look for ways to avoid being in the predicament to begin with and failing that, just use hexes, rather than take this. If the DM likes to capture you or steal your stuff often, this is more valuable. But in that case, you've likely got bigger problems (your familiar).

Evolved Familiar (UM): The cha 13 requirement is painful, but there are so many good options for your familiar here. Reach to safely deliver touch spells for you; Skilled for +8 to Use Magic Device; Improved Natural Armor for +2 AC; even Unnatural Aura is sort of decent for outright keeping animals and dinosaurs away from your spell book w/o a save.

Extra Cantrips (UM): Witch doesn't get that many good cantrips on her spell list to begin with.

Extra Hex (APG): Plenty of decent choices at early levels. Higher levels barely have enough goodies to fill up the hexes you gain from the class as it is, though.

Flyby Attack (BI): You can strafe foes with standard action spells/hexes, even "skirmish" with melee touch spells, though you would provoke an AoO without superior reach. As a caster with healing spells, this is also handy for saving the meatshield without ending your turn near the danger yourself. The only downside is that cackling will often occupy your move actions.

Hover (BI): Just max the Fly skill.

Improved Counterspell (CR): Your limited range of spells makes this even worse than it is for most other casters.

Improved Familiar (CR): Probably the most important feat you could take. Any familiar that can find its way out of trouble (teleportation) is a huge boon in the area of "spell book protection." Check with your DM if it retains all your spells known. IMO, it should as you gain the new familiar at no expense, so it's not the same as run of the mill replacing a lost familiar, and a feat that wipes out most of your spells known is really, really dumb. If it does not, you may want to struggle by without learning any more than the spells you gain for fre until you get this feat, or adhere as close to that plan as possible, saving up spells you want to know as scrolls to scribe after taking the feat.

Improved Initiative (CR): Going first means winning!

Improved Share Spells (APG): Basically doubles the efficiency of your buff spells if you keep your familiar around you at all times, which is very probable.

Leadership (CR): As always, if this feat is allowed in the game, it is hands-down the most powerful one you could pick.

Lookout (APG): Basically the only teamwork benefit useful to you at all. If only your familiar could acquire feats... If you have someone else in the party to take it with, consider it. Otherwise, it's useless.

Lunge (CR): You would use this to make a melee touch attack from outside your foe's reach to avoid the AoO, and/or to skirmish with said touch attack using Flyby Attack without provoking for movement. A witch will not have the BAB to grab this until the 13th level feat.

Magical Aptitude (CR): The other dual skill feat useful to a Witch. Slightly better than Acrobatic, but not by much.

Major Spell Expertise (APG): Cha-based save DC means you're picking a utility/buff spell.

Minor Spell Expertise (APG): See Major Spell Expertise. 1st level Sp abilities are much less impressive than 5th level, though.

Nimble Moves (CR): Always be able to 5 ft step back and cast! Or you could just use your flight.

Parry Spell (APG): It's a trap. A very sexy looking trap, but a trap nonetheless.

Shielded Caster (APG)

Skill Focus (CR): Subpar choice, but might be useful for Use Magic Device.

Spell Focus (CR): Given how prevalent enchantments are on your list, this is well worth taking, and possibly Greater Spell Focus as well.

Spell Hex (UM): Definitely has its uses. You just need to find a good 1st level spell that could benefit well from the boosted DC, benefits of being Sp (and w/o text to the contrary, does NOT provoke an AoO for casting), etc... Beguiling Gift, Charm Person, Frostbite, Ill Omen, and Peacebond are alright choices, I think. Your 1st level patron spell might be a good candidate, too.

Spell Penetration (CR): Witch is lacking for no SR offensive spells. Greater Spell Penetration is likewise helpful. You can use hexes to deal with high SR foes, though.

Spell Perfection (APG): I need to find good picks for this feat. Ideally, it'll be a spell that your Greater Spell Focus (if you have it) applies to. I'm going to guess that whatever you choose, you'll want a spell 5th level or lower so you can apply Quicken Spell to it for free.

Spell Specialization (UM): I don't think +2 CL on a single spell is worth a feat at all. However...

Spell Specialization, Greater (UM): Spont. casting a chosen spell is pretty awesome! Just...not sure it's worth 2 feats (plus the spell focus both of these require!)

Split Hex (UM): It only works on the initially available hexes. But Slumber is one of those, so who cares?! Also handy for Evil Eye and Misfortune. Double your debuffing output for no cost at all! This is your level 11 feat. If you could take it at 10th level, you would!

Split Major Hex (UM): Sad that you couldn't split your Ice Tomb or Retribution major hexes? Wel, noooo problem! This requires CL 18 and Split Hex, NOT Witch level 18, so how soon you get it depends heavily on how much you can boost your CL into the stratasphere. At the bare minimum, you should be able to nab this at level 17 with the +1 CL iuon stone.

Toughness (CR): Also will boost your familiar's hp.

Uncanny Concentration (UM)

Weapon Finesse (CR): For melee touch spells, of course.

Wind Stance (CR): If you plan to do more Flyby Attacking than cackling, this is some nice all-day miss chance.

Witch Knife (UM): Even if you have a whole slew of offensive save-based patron spells, this is only +1 DC to a small number of spells. Alright, not amazing.[/sblock]


Item Creation
[sblock]
Brew Potion (CR): If you want this, spend a feat on Extra Hex (Cauldron) instead, and get a skill bonus as well.

Craft Arms and Armor (CR)

Craft Construct (BI)

Craft Rod (CR): Metamagic rods become very desired items at higher levels, being able to cut costs and not beg the DM to find them in a shop is handy.

Craft Staff (CR)

Craft Wand (CR)

Craft Wondrous Item (CR): It's just so useful to everybody.

Forge Ring (CR)

Scribe Scroll (CR): A great way to have utility spells at the ready.[/sblock]


Metamagic
[sblock]Bouncing Spell (APG): Incredible in any game with fights against more than a single credible threat.

Burning Spell (UM)

Concussive Spell (UM)

Dazing Spell (APG): Very costly at +3 levels and only applies to damage spells, which you're lacking in. But, the notion of a large area Reflex-save-or-lose is appealing when you already have will save or lose in spades and a fair amount of fort save or lose, as well. Could be good in concert with the elements patron.

Disruptive Spell (APG)

Echoing Spell (UM): Great in general, probably has abusive applications as well.

Ectoplasmic Spell (APG): Basically 3E's "Transdimensional Spell."

Elemental Spell (APG): Even if you were a blaster, this would be horrible. Who knew Energy Substitution was overpowered?

Empower Spell (CR): Can be good (it's amazing on Time Stop!), just unlikely for a Witch to be useful.

Enlarge Spell (CR)

Extend Spell (CR): You're probably fine skipping this and just using rods.

Flaring Spell (UM)

Focused Spell (APG)

Heighten Spell (CR)

Intensified Spell (APG)

Lingering Spell (APG): With some teamwork (bull rushing?), this might have potential...

Maximize Spell (CR)

Merciful Spell (APG): It's good for what it does, you just lack the blasty spells to get much out of it.

Quicken Spell (CR): Every high level mage wants this.

Persistent Spell (APG): Drastically increases your chances of success. Works even better with spells that have a save each round to either end the effect or reduce/ignore it for a round.

Piercing Spell (UM): Just get Spell Penetration.

Reach Spell (APG): Amazing flexibility.

Rime Spell (UM)

Selective Spell (APG): Strange that it's only a +1 spell level effect but requires 10 or more levels to get. This works well enough on rods (which is set to up to 4 ignored creatures, btw) anyway.

Sickening Spell (APG)

Silent Spell (CR): Cast discreetly while invisible. Cast in an area of silence unhindered.

Still Spell (CR): Shame the grapple concentration DC's impossibly high, that was the main use of this in 3E.

Thanatopic Spell (UM)

Threnodic Spell (UM): It helps against a common foe immune to mind affecting, but the +2 spell level and good base will saves and high HD of undead means it probably won't work much still.

Thundering Spell (APG)

Toppling Spell (UM)

Widen Spell (CR): Too costly.[/sblock]

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Reserved #6

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Reserved #7

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think that's enough reserved posts. This will be a work in progress for a long time. Please feel free to debate rankings, suggest uses for things, etc... I'm trying to learn the ropes with the Witch class through writing this guide, myself.

 

[Dingo333]

You did not use any of the improved familiar familiars in that section. Don't care for any, the feat or not there yet?

If because you haven't worked to there yet, you should check out the Silvanshee Agathion, Cassisian Angel, Lyrakien Azata, mephits, the 8 small elementals and the 4 alignment templates. Also, the Nosoi (from adventure path #47) is interesting if not very powerful

IMHO, gaining a feature of another class is pretty powerful, and the Silvanshee ranks highest in my books of the ones listed above, add to that cat's luck, and fly 90ft good.

The mephits are overall not bad, flight, breath weapon, fast healing(conditional), and hands that can use wands. There is also no effective alignment restrictions