Is Evil Eye too powerful?

[Dalebert]

I was chatting with my friend about combat casting in PF. In my game, they'd come across drow party with a wizard and both sides had managed to foil at least one spell of the other by interrupting though the players came out ahead in that department (and every other since they won the fight with little damage). Anyway, we were discussing the differences between 3.5 and PF and how it's riskier to cast in combat, when threatened, etc. in PF. He said they were trying to balance casters a bit and I agreed that it made sense. His game alternates with mine weekly and afterward I was mentioning that I might not get the combat casting feat in his game and instead just rely more on hexes in tight situations.

So I mentioned evil eye and how I liked it because you could spam it unlike many other hexes which were once per day per target, that it lasts a minimum of one round even if they save, and last much longer than slumber (at low levels) if they fail. He said something about it could still get interrupted and I said "Not really. Like a lot of hexes, it's a supernatural ability which means it doesn't provoke an AoO, has no verbal or somatic components, and isn't even subject to SR."

He said "But it's a touch attack."

I said "No, it has a range of 30 feet."

"But you still have to roll to-hit. It's ranged touch, right?"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's not. I'll double check but I don't think so" (It's not. I've checked.)

At that point, I think I saw a brief look of terror in his eyes that made me very uneasy.

Is he gonna nerf my evil eye?! :smalleek:

[Grod_The_Giant]

Outlook not good.

On the other hand, it is a fairly minor debuff. -2 to one type of roll isn't going to be much more than an annoyance.

Incidentally, is there a reason that it's marked with an "*"?

[Dalebert]

On the other hand, it is a fairly minor debuff. -2 to one type of roll isn't going to be much more than an annoyance.

It becomes -4 at 8th level. :smallfrown:


Incidentally, is there a reason that it's marked with an "*"?

It's a good question. I notice a number of hexes have the asterisk. That usually means there's a note at the bottom of the page that explains what it means but I don't see one.

[VeggieWombat]

Agreed, no reason to nerf it.
Any intimidate check would do way more damage that that, and won't that a standard action each round to use + move(cackle) to maintain.
The scary part of the witch is the DD17 Slumber at level 1.

This being said, the last fight our group had against an undead, the witch cast fortune/mistfortune and otherwise sat on her hands.
Let the witch have some shiny stuff, because sometime she's near useless.

[Dalebert]

I like that I have stuph to do other than fire a crossbow on the rounds when I'm conserving spells for whatever reason, like because they're low or the mobs just don't justify any or I don't have one that's situational.

[Slipperychicken]

Evil eye sucks. Use slumber instead.

[watchwood]

Evil eye is nice, but it's by no means overpowered. Slumber/Misfortune are the nasty ones you need to watch for.

[Barstro]

Evil Eye gets a Will Save
Evil Eye cannot affect mindless creatures
The Witch must Cackle to have a "saved" Evil Eye extended (which means the victim can walk more than 30 away from the Witch to be somewhat safe).
Evil Eye effects one creature at a time.

Frankly, Crushing Despair is a much better spell, and I've not seen it be highly regarded. The ONLY thing that makes Evil Eye any good is the fact that it works even if "saved", and can be used multiple times. In a fight against four foes, the Witch might get it off three times. Of those three times, one NPC will be immediately destroyed by a melee character who scored a Crit (thus, the Evil Eye had no effect), one will roll so low that the Evil Eye didn't matter, and the last one will stay alive for a couple rounds and maybe (just maybe) the Evil Eye will affect one outcome. A Wizard with some Pears of Power can spam Magic Missile in the fights and usually have a more useful role in the fight.

If the DM thinks Evil Eye is overpowered, then he isn't looking at things from all angles and doesn't realize how easy it is to make it worthless for the Witch.

[Barstro]

Evil eye is nice, but it's by no means overpowered. Slumber/Misfortune are the nasty ones you need to watch for.

And usually Evil Eye is used to set up one of those. But now the Witch is wasting two rounds to take someone out. By the time it happens, the fight is pretty much over anyway.

[Psyren]

I wouldn't say that's the ONLY advantage. Remember also that it's supernatural, so it will penetrate SR, immunity, it doesn't provoke etc.

You can also use it prior to a slumber on a foe you know has tough saves to boost the chances that the Slumber lands - if they save once they're immune so against some foes you have to build up every advantage you can, and it isn't even a waste of a round because it increases the chances that your allies will land their own debuffs or attacks.