[PF] A Really Witchy Witch

[Halae]

Alright, so, what I want to do is make an evil witch. The GM is allowing this as long as the character in question plays well with the party, so keep that in mind.

What I'm looking for is a witch that fills the whole "Witch" theme in the older fairy tales and children's stories. you know, augury by way of weasel entrails, cooking people in pots, putting people to sleep for a thousand years, the whole nine yards. What I'm unsure about is exactly how to do this from a mechanical and fluffy perspective; what patrons should I take? what would make a good familiar? that sort of thing.

On top of this, I'm drawing some blanks for the backstory of such an individual, their general personality, and the like. And so, I come to you. Anybody have ideas how to go about doing this?

[visigani]

If I recall there's already a witch base class in the DMG... heavy on divination, enchantment, illusion, transmutation, and necromancy... light on conjuration, abjuration, and evocation.

[Halae]

actually, I'm using the pathfinder witch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch), as this is a pathfinder game (not allowed to take anything from 3.5 stuff.)

[Alienist]

Traditional Hexes:

Blight (this is what they are always accused of doing) - not useful
Cackle - only useful in conjunction with certain other exes
Cauldron - can brew potions at level 1!
NB: per the pathfinder item creation rules you can brew (most) potions in 2 hours, 1 hour if you add 2 to the DC, however, you can't skip prerequisites for potions, spell completion or spell trigger items (e.g. you can only make potions of spells you know)

Charm - basically diplomacy
Child scent - there you go (very thematic, but basically useless)
Coven - not useful
Evil eye - short duration debuff (in 4th ed his would be broken)
Feral speech - not useful (until 12th level?)
Flight - not bad
Fortune - free reroll, powerful, but is it thematic?
Healing - weak, but the only healer that can (in theory) beat a truenamer (nobody else comes even close except a tomb tainted dread necromancer)

Misfortune - beaten by a will save (yet again), other than that, very powerful, lead with Evil Eye to make their saves even worse
Nails - 1d3 secondary attack? Laaaame.
Poison - nasty stuff, have to get them to eat it though ... see the disguise hex. Also yet another one where you want to lead out with evil eye and/or misfortune to make their saves suck
Prehensile hair - I like this better than nails, not sure how thematic it is for you though
Slumber - like the cauldron mainly useful at low levels
Tongues - not bad
Ward - good but not thematic
Water lung - ???


None of the patrons really leap out at me.

[stack]

Slumber has no HD cap, so its good against anything not immune to sleep. Generally considered a very strong hex.

[navar100]

There is a Hex called Cook People in Ultimate Magic allowing you to bake muffins, bread, and cookies that can provide a spell effect for an hour. To play nice with the party only cook defeated bad guys. Pretend you're burying or cremating the bodies.

Knowingly eating a people cookie is an evil act, but if your party member doesn't know . . .

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0871.html

[Arbane]

If you want to break the game in two with the Coven hex, grab Leadership and talk your GM into allowing you to get a Hag cohort and at least one level 1 witch with the Coven hex as a follower. This gives you access to a nice assortment of spell-like abilities way earlier than expected.

As for backstory... a witch can be practically anyone, as long as they're smart enough to cast spells and dumb enough to think that making a deal with an unidentified supernatural entity was a good idea. :smallbiggrin: Are they from a big town? A small village? How did they ever decide that cooking and eating people was a good idea?

(Oh, that gives me an idea - they were trapped in some variation of the Donner Party, got desperate enough to eat someone else, and whatever horrid force makes wendigoes was amused/impressed enough to offer them power. Take the Winter Patron, and some winter-ish familiar, like an owl or a weasel.)

[Ellrin]

Weasels are winterish?

[hamishspence]

They're present in the far north, where they get white fur in winter- seems a pretty fair example.

[Halae]

Oh, hey! apparently Irrisen is a land of winter witches in Golarion.

I suppose I know where my character comes from. Thanks for the help, guys; I'll either be choosing a weasel or a raven as my familiar, and I'll go with a lot of cold themed stuff. once I can control the weather, I'm going to make studd cold :smallamused:

Also, nice catch with the coven hex! Definitely going to try and use that.