Pathfinder 1e Character Creation Help

[Someloser]

I'm completely new to pathfinder we'll be starting at level 3. I will be playing an Undine. I want to play a spellcaster and I want to lean into a water or water adjacent theme so things like water, ice, lightning ect.

The only banned classes are the unchained ones.

I would also like to go into a prestige class mainly because it's something new and exciting. I did see winter witch as an option but everywhere online says that witches are very underwhelming to play especially compared to other spellcasting classes.

There are so many classes to choose from is overwhelming so any recommendations would be great. As would recommendations as to what some fun prestige classes that fit with the water theme could me.

Any advice would be much appreciated :). Thanks

[DrMartin]

when reading online about a game released 20 years ago there is a lot of "meta" to catch up to. Saying that witches are underwhelming compared to other spellcasters is like saying that a particular race car is not doing great this year, compared to other race cars in a competitive racing cars environment. Chances are good that you won´t really notice the difference when going for groceries.

Witch is a fun and relatively forgiving class for new players. The spell list is smaller than a wizard´s, but you still get very good spells, and it being smaller means you have less choices to consider when picking your spells. You get a small selection of at-will magical abilities (hexes), which lessen a bit the constant managing of resources that prepared casters (wizards, cleric, witches, ...) have to deal with, as you can always fall back on your hexes.

On other classes:
- Kineticist is a class meant to do elemental stuff like benders in Avatar, so would be thematically a good fit. Unfortunately their core mechanic, Burn, is not very well designed and requires a lot of book keeping. I would stay away from it unless you feel like doing a *lot* of homework only to be rewarded with a somewhat functional character. There are some 3rd party "fixes" for the class that make it a lot less painful to play, if your GM is open to them, this might be a good option.
- Sorcerer is often suggested as the "newbie-friendly" spellcaster but i disagree on the general wisdom. It´s true that you have less choices to do in play, but the spell selection that you do at level up locks you in those specific choices forever, and you have to be quite game-savvy to pick the right spells to address everything the game can throw at you. Becomes less of an issue if the GM is on board and willing to help with spell selection and to some extent tailor the encounters to its group


If you go witch, I´d suggest staying away from the Water patron - the spells it grants are not that useful. Maybe there is some water or nature adjacent patron that also fits your theme but offers better spells - like winter, or spring.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm completely new to pathfinder we'll be starting at level 3. I will be playing an Undine. I want to play a spellcaster and I want to lean into a water or water adjacent theme so things like water, ice, lightning ect.
All right. The easiest choice here is to be a Draconic Sorcerer, because being a blaster caster is the easiest way to make your element choice very visible.

A cold sorcerer could take (1) Snowball, (2) Frost Fall, (3) Ice Spears, (4) Dragon's Breath, (5) Cone of Cold; and the Chilling Amplification and Spell Specialization feats.
A lightning sorcerer could take (1) Shocking Grasp, (2) Aggressive Thundercloud, (3) Lightning Bolt, (4) Shocking Images, (5) Lightning Arc; again with Spell Specialization feat.
Water doesn't blast well.

As a spontaneous caster, you need only one spell per spell level focused on blasting, so fill up the rest with party buffs, self-defense, or utility. In particular, note that first-level spells can be cheaply bought for 1000 gp each (via Page of Spell Knowledge item) so you can go wild on those.
Don't bother blasting with cantrips though, that's not very effective. At low level, Daze and Disrupt Undead are great; at higher level, just use cantrips for the utility (like Mage Hand, Detect Magic, etc).


witches are very underwhelming to play especially compared to other spellcasting classes.
Well, they're underwhelming compared to the wizard. But considering the wizard is arguably the strongest class in the game, that isn't really saying much. However, witches don't really do blasting all that well, they're more of a debuffer.

Alternative classes are the Alchemist (throw around energy bombs) and Magus (if you want a melee striker, this goes very well with the cold or lightning spells).


I would also like to go into a prestige class mainly because it's something new
I'll suggest Brewkeeper and Thuvian Alchemist as two useful and water-related prestige classes. The Winter Witch prestige class doesn't strike me as all that impressive.

HTH!

[Satinavian]

I would actually recommend druid. They still do have lots of water/cold spells as choice, can play support and blasting and are somewhat versatile, can have an amphibian animal companion like a crocodile or giant frog (or the Water domain if you don't like one), can shapechange into water, shore or river animals pretty soon and later even into water elementals. And all that before archetypes.

[Maat Mons]

I’ll recommend Arcanist. Unlike prepared casters, you don’t have to guess at the start of the day how many times you’re going to want to use each of your spells. Unlike spontaneous casters, you can experiment with different spells every day.

[Rynjin]

Witch with the Winter Witch archetype into the Winter Witch Prestige Class is a perfectly fine build, whoever said otherwise is kinda dumb TBH. Yeah it's not the absolute strongest character in the game but chances are you'll still be the strongest character in your party, and it's fun to play.

[gijoemike]

When you say new to Pathfinder do you mean I am a veteran D&D 3.5 player finally picking up Pathfinder, or I have played GURPS, MARVEL, Vampire for years, Cthulhu for years but now I am in the D20 system for the first time, or do you mean I have the sheet of paper and a few books about how this game is played as a group?

In pathfinder the VAST amount of options and powers are locked away in archetypes which changes the base class. Prestige classes and the baggage of meeting prereqs to take said prestige class have way less power than they do in 3.5. And prestige classes prevent you from reaching the archetype powers.

Now with that said.

Oracle.

Specifically Oracle of the Waves which relate to water and ice. Oracles let you choose a curse and mystery so the class is STUPIDLY customizable. And it has fewer archetypes limiting the analysis paralysis. The curse gives you a neat character flaw and story point. The mystery which at level 3 you would have 2 of gives you power of your domain. I suggest Waves and you could take Fluid Travel which gives you the ability to walk on liquid ( water, oil, lava ) and a swim speed of 60. For the other I suggest freezing spells. Cold damage from your spells slows creatures if they fail the save. And mysteries give you bonus spells related to your theme.

Caster, water theme, water specific powers, Pathfinder, works at level 3.


Also, d8 hit points, medium armor, and shields.

[Eldonauran]

You could also take a look at the Shaman class, a hybrid of Oracle and Witch. The Waves spirit has a lot of flavor, and it is one of my favorite spirits. A Oracle with the Spirit Guided archetype can get access to the same spirit, if you prefer spontaneous casting with a better spell selection.