Optimizing a 12th level Hedge Witch

[Squeak]

Hi


I am going to be a healer of sorts in a level 12 Pathfinder game and I was thinking of going a Hedge Witch so as to avoid being a pure healbot. However, I am having a hard time deciding on the best choice of Race, Feats and Hexes, as I am new to pathfinder and while I am have been trying to read up on this there is so much information that I getting totally overwhelmed.


So far I have picked up that the best races are Elf or Human, with a 20-point build of

Str: 7
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 18
Wis: 11
Cha: 7


My current planned choice of Hexes are:

STANDARD

Cackle
Evil Eye
Flight
Fortune
Misfortune
Scar
Slumber


MAJOR

Agony
Ice Tomb
Retribution


GRAND

Forced Reincarnation
Life Giver
Summon Spirit


So 13 Hexes, with only 11 available from leveling and with the level 4 and 8 ones taken by my choice of Hedge Witch means I have to dedicate 13-11+2=4 feats to extra hexes.

Consequently my current choice of feats are:


Extra Hex*4
Accursed Hex
Improved Familiar
Improved Initiative
Split Hex
Split Major Hex
Scribe Scroll

and I can get an extra one if I go Human of course.

Do these choices look decent and if so in what order should I take them? Also what should I select for my favored class bonus? Perhaps, most importantly what is my best choice of of Patron?

Finally my character will be starting with 80,000 gp each, a maximum of 20,000 gp can be spent on any one item, and which has to include adventuring gear and one off equipment. I am guessing that a Headband of Vast Intelligence (+4) for 16,000 gp is a good choice, but what else should I be getting?




Thanks in advance!

[Geddy2112]

Stats are fine pre racial mods. Elf and human are both good, note that slyph is the same stats as an elf with some different racial tricks and a solid choice. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever take cackle as a hex.Not because it is a bad hex, but because you can get it from wearing a cackling hag's blouse. It is a fairly cheap wondrous item and it gives a +2 to intimidate to boot. Also get a corset of dire witchcraft when you can afford it to further juice a hex DC.

The best patron is a toss up between deception and trickery, and honestly depends on preference. Transformation is good if you wanna be a druid in disguise, wisdom is a defensive focused patron and works well with a hedge witch, time and agility are also decent.

I am personally not a huge fan of scribe scroll for non wizards-it is nice to have some extra spells per day with your reduced list, but even then, you have at will hexes. So dropping that and the cackle from extra hex nets you 2 feats. Toughness is solid because your familiar is your spellbook. Spell focus is good, I would probably take enchantment since it is your biggest school, but there are others if that is your thing. Persistent and bouncing spell are great metamagics for those save or suck/save or lose spells.

Use your favored class bonus to pick up extra spells if you are human or elf, then HP once you have the ones you want. Be on the lookout for spellbooks to pick up extra spells that way.

Besides the headband of intelligence, ring of protection, cloak of resistance, and cackling hags blouse: get a handy haversack to carry your stuff, a few wands of your spam spells, and a mithral/darkwood buckler. It has no ACP, so even though you are not proficient it won't hinder you to wear one. Throw on your favorite shield enhancements and go to town. A haramaki is also a cheap armor with no ACP or spell failure, to hold your armor enhancements.

Eventually you can try and get a ring of blinking. Blink does not affect hexes RAW, so you could blink and hex away at no penalty. Your DM might throw a book at you for pulling that kind of cheese though...

[Kurald Galain]

If you're a healer of sorts, where's the healing hex?

Some of your hexes are redundant. For example, there's generally no point in taking both Evil Eye and Misfortune; Slumber is better than either of those; Agony and Ice Tomb do more-or-less the same thing as well. Consider utility hexes like Charm or Disguise, the defensive Ward, or the hilarious Prehensile Hair.

Cackle is still a great hex to pick. Note that the blouse lets you cackle twice per day as a swift action, which is very useful.

Finally, note that your defenses and saving throws are not very good, so you may want to invest some feats and items in that.

[Barstro]

there's generally no point in taking both Evil Eye and Misfortune; Slumber is better than either of those; Agony and Ice Tomb do more-or-less the same thing as well.

I disagree.
Evil Eye, even on a fail, has an effect. But, many things are immune
Misfortune has an even greater cumulative effect. Misfortune also works on everyone, but there is a saving throw.

If (and it's a big IF) the party gets into long fights, using Evil Eye; Saving Throws and Misfortune the next round makes the fight MUCH easier than either one alone.
If your fights are only a few rounds (as is sadly typical), then the fight will be over almost as soon as you land the combination.

Slumber is certain a great hex when the creature is not immune. I grew tired of it; it's like Superman entering an arm wrestling competition.

[Kurald Galain]

I disagree.
Yes yes, the hexes have slightly different effects and a lot more things are immune to evil eye.

That's completely not the point.

The point is that since all of these abilities are unlimited, and you have five of them, it's tactically sound to always open with the best one (which would be Ice Tomb or Slumber). When that doesn't work, or when you need to repeat it even after Accursed Hex, you use the second best (which would be Slumber or Ice Tomb, or more likely one of your spells since you're still a full caster). In the rare case that neither works, you might on occasion use the third (which would be one of your spells again, or maybe Agony).

When will you use the fourth on your list? Well, never. When will you use the fifth? Also never. Hence, pick another ability that'll actually see some use in play.

[Geddy2112]

Some of your hexes are redundant. For example, there's generally no point in taking both Evil Eye and Misfortune; Slumber is better than either of those; Agony and Ice Tomb do more-or-less the same thing as well. Consider utility hexes like Charm or Disguise, the defensive Ward, or the hilarious Prehensile Hair.

Cackle is still a great hex to pick. Note that the blouse lets you cackle twice per day as a swift action, which is very useful.

I second a bit more diversity-between spells and a few critical debuffs, you can diversify your hexes. Prehensile hair is a great way to deliver touch spells, cauldron gives you brew potion-you were originally considering scribe scroll, but potions can cover low level buffs and curatives. I dislike ward because it won't stack with rings of protection and cloaks of resistance, which everybody in the party will have by now. Water lung is really useful if your campaign ever goes near water.

I still disagree that using a hex slot is worth it for cackle. If the blouse made it a constant swift action, then heck yes. For a 2/day, it is just not worth it unless you are going for a 100% cackle build.

[Squeak]

I just read an interesting combo - as I am starting at 12th level I can take Major Healing Hex and use the Vulnerability Hex spell to allow fast out-of-combat healing. Not really that good for in-combat healing though. Combine this with a couple of 1st level Pearls of Power and our party should be fine for healing after each major fight.

Is this a good idea by itself or together with going for the Hedge Witch option?


EDIT:

It looks like this doesn't work (any longer?) as the wording for Vulnerability Hex spell refers only to harmful hexes.