Demon-Sworn Witch Mechanics Clarification

[RedHerring]

So I play a Demon-Sworn Tiefling Witch in a Pathfinder homegame (really hoping I’m posting in the right place, just created an account here). I would dearly love to get clarification on two things.

1) Does an infernal patron completely replace a typical witch patron (agility, trickery, healing, etc.) or just augment it by replacing certain spells on certain levels?


A demon-sworn makes a pact with a demonic entity, forever binding her to the forces of the Abyss and corrupting her connection with her patron. At the indicated levels, she gains the spells below in place of her normal patron spells:

2nd—protection from good, 6th—unholy blight, 10th—dispel good, 14th—blasphemy, 18th—unholy aura.

Casting spells with the evil descriptor from this replacement list has no effect on the demonsworn’s alignment.

This ability modifies patron spells.

(From d20pfsrd)

2) When I get my improved, quasit familiar at level 6....will it hate me the way it would a normal wizard’s quasit would? I tend to think it would be more in line with me, and really it’s up to my dm, but I’m curious what other people think.

Thanks in advance! :)

[Geddy2112]

Welcome!

You are in the right place. To answer your questions

1. No, you still get to choose whatever patron you like, but the spells listed in your archetype will be gained instead of patron spells of that level. So if your patron was trickery, you would get protection from good at 2nd level, mirror image at 4th level, unholy blight at 6th level, hallucinatory terrain at 8th and so on.

2. If anything, your quasit would be more loyal than normal, per your archtype- "It loyally serves the demon-sworn, despite any conflicts of alignment, obeying its mistress to the best of its abilities." That said, the further you are away from being chaotic evil the more the familiar will disagree and dislike doing your bidding. Normally you would not be able to access a quasit unless you were within a step of CE, but your archetype bypasses this restriction.

If you were LG, the familiar might actually play along and try to corrupt you, or just be waiting for you to die so it can get the last laugh. Maybe it would like you-a lot of good roleplaying potential.

[RedHerring]

Thank you Geddy2112!

Awesome! I was really hoping I could get some milage out of having a force of nature patron as well. I think I'm going to either go with deception, trickery, or revenge.

Yeah I like the idea of a quasit liking it's master, but trying to gently nudge him to greater depths of diabolism. I like the idea of a quasit who is frustrated that his master isn't as dark as he wants him to be or who gets scared and angry if his witch gets injured due to succumbing to a conscience (and then being completely confused by ?liking? someone).

I can't tell you how much my character would enjoy someone to get in trouble with. My witch is currently chaotic neutral, so his morals are spotty and warped, but they are there when the situation calls from it. I think the push and pull could be fun, but I'd dig the mutual (but conflicted) loyalty mechanic.

[Geddy2112]

Deception and trickery are basically the two best patrons from a mechanical standpoint. They also offer a lot of roleplaying potential; they fit almost any concept unless you have another particular patron/deity in mind.

You might want to run your familiar concept by your DM/group as well, as improved familiars can be anything from talking pets to another character at the table. If your familiar starts to be a character in action, particularly in combat, they will get treated as one. Keep in mind you are basically screwed if your familiar bites it as it is also your spellbook. You are also having a CE splinter of your character's soul, their literal devil on their shoulder, becoming a character of the party. This could be just like introducing a CE sociopath into a party and that can be an issue. Playing two characters at once can be received as a very mixed bag and that varies from table to table. These are things to think about in and out of character, for your DM, other players, and group as a whole. Done right, it will be awesome, done wrong it could create strife. Having everyone on the same page helps make it awesome.