Need Character help for a Pathfinder Sky Pirate Adventure

[Amurion]

We currently have a Tengu Monk, Human dual wielding rogue, and some kind of reach based fighter. I'm trying to figure out if magic, healing, or ranged would be more helpful for the party. I am currently leaning towards the Strix for a race and have no idea where I should go with a class. We are starting at level 4 with a 20 point buy system for stats. The Strix is not set in stone and I am totally open to other opinions.

Thanks

[Gnorman]

Definitely needs some spellcasting. Arcane would be more useful than divine, but gust of wind's going to be useful no matter what to fill those sails!

[Andry]

watch some Episodes of Tale Spin :smallbiggrin:

[Amurion]

How well do you think a witch would work in this situation to try to fill up both the arcane and divine casting hole? I haven't examined them very closely so I do not know their quirks. I'd probably want to forgo the Strix then, I just thought a flying character would be fun as a sky pirate.

[grarrrg]

How well do you think a witch would work in this situation to try to fill up both the arcane and divine casting hole? I haven't examined them very closely so I do not know their quirks. I'd probably want to forgo the Strix then, I just thought a flying character would be fun as a sky pirate.

A Witch would do VERY well filling the hole if you go with the Hedge Witch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch/archetypes/paizo---witch-archetypes/hedge-witch) archetype.
You can Spontaneously cast Cure spells, they don't even have to be known!
At the start of the day, prepare spells as you normally would for an Arcane caster.
Don't bother healing in combat, unless someone really needs it.
After combat, or at the end of the day, convert whatever Slots you still have into Cures and top everyone off.

The Healing Hex is also a Free Cure Light Wounds for every member of your party.

For Patron, Ancestor has a good mix of Buff spells. Strength has some nice Buffs too, but about half are "Range: Personal".
And the Healing Patron covers most of your non-HP healing.


As for Strix, it's neither a Good nor Bad choice for Witch. It doesn't have any real bonuses or penalties.
The Flight may be VERY handy though, so it's still worth consideration.

[Amurion]

So if I go with a Strix using a 20 point buy, I'm thinking of:
STR: 7
DEX: 16 (Racial to 18)
CON: 12
INT: 18
WIS: 9
CHA: 7 (Racial to 5, ouch I know)
with flight whenever is needed

Otherwise a similar stat ordering would net me a a 20 INT if I went with a tiefling, or a lot more points to place elsewhere if I settled for an 18 INT.

Does this look reasonable or am I way off of my mark?

[grarrrg]

So if I go with a Strix using a 20 point buy, I'm thinking of:
STR: 7
DEX: 16 (Racial to 18)
CON: 12
INT: 18
WIS: 9
CHA: 7 (Racial to 5, ouch I know)
with flight whenever is needed

Otherwise a similar stat ordering would net me a a 20 INT if I went with a tiefling, or a lot more points to place elsewhere if I settled for an 18 INT.

Does this look reasonable or am I way off of my mark?

I wouldn't bother starting with an 18 INT, VERY expensive, if you had a +INT race it'd be much more manageable (as you'd only need to buy a 16).
Go with a 17, that'll free up 4 more Points to work with, you won't be missing much from the lost point, and you can always increase it at level 4.
With the 4 points bump your WIS up to 10, then either take CON to 14, or STR to 8.

[Amurion]

I'm going to play around with feats and hexes and see what combinations I can make. I would really like to stick with the Strix (especially since I have a harpy mini that would fantastically), but it may better to go with human or tiefling, human especially since I can use the extra feat to recover one of the lost hexes of the hedge witch archetype. I really don't like that 8th level ability, it seems almost useless. The sacrifices I make for my party so they can have healing and arcane magic. They better get used to insane cackling at the gaming table.

[Amurion]

I hate to double post, but wouldn't buying/crafting a wand(s) of cure light wounds be more economical in the long run than burning two hexes on the healing variant of the witch?

[grarrrg]

I'm going to play around with feats and hexes and see what combinations I can make. I would really like to stick with the Strix (especially since I have a harpy mini that would fantastically), but it may better to go with human or tiefling, human

Human and Tiefling would be more powerful, but Strix has the extra utility of built in flight.
It's a toss-up.


especially since I can use the extra feat to recover one of the lost hexes of the hedge witch archetype. I really don't like that 8th level ability, it seems almost useless. The sacrifices I make for my party so they can have healing and arcane magic. They better get used to insane cackling at the gaming table.
...
wouldn't buying/crafting a wand(s) of cure light wounds be more economical in the long run than burning two hexes on the healing variant of the witch?

Agreed on the 8th level Hedge Witch ability. It's crap.
But the other ability is DEFINITELY worth a Hex. Being able to top everyone off with whatever spells you have leftover, or being able to get someone back on their feet after taking a Crit is very handy. And, again, it's Spontaneous Cures, and you don't even have to have them as spells known!

As for if Wands are the way to go, that all depends on if you have more Gold than you do spare Feats.
If you do decide to go with Wands, and skip Hedge Witch, then think about picking up one or both of the Healing Hexes for Emergency In-combat use (as you won't want to waste Actions juggling equipment around).


I hate to double post,
Then don't. That's why there's an "edit" button (same place as the "quote" button)

[Strormer]

I would go human. Flight becomes trivial very quickly, especially for casters. Witch is an excellent class to do what you're thinking however.

I did very nearly the same thing with a bard build recently and he was really complicated, leaving me almost wishing I'd done something more like witch, though admittedly there's nothing quite like rocking out with two bardic performances at once (via spell) while ethereal from my armor of etherealness and standing behind a pit fiend taunting him.

[Amurion]

I almost have the character done, I think I will stick with flight as everyone in our group can fly essentially, our DM is allowing us to take an anti feat, so that helps a bit. However I am debating about using the fey Race in the advanced race guide, it has virtually the same bonuses as the strix, flys at 40feet instead of 60, and most importantly is small and has a natural AC bonus. Would this be better than The strix with the slightly faster fly speed?