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[highmax28]

I tend to build encoutners to deal with that. I had a barbarian one game (the legendary, infamous, Tyson-chan) who pretty much destroyed every encounter I had single handedly. I managed to deal with her damage reduction by adding more elemental abilities, and I dealt with the fuckton of damage by adding resistance to piericng/slashing/bludgeoning to a few enemies.

My DM for a game I played in learned that barbarians are very easy to handle after a quick chat after he sent a CR30 encounter after us because he thought my character was broken, and it didn't help that my DM added homebrew elements to the game that made things even more absurd. He had every enemy and every ally have access to a number of badges that essentailly were augmentations based on fire emblem. The ones I used was Vengeance (literally add half of the damage dealt to me dealt back to the enemy on a 19-20 on the die but it was from the last hit) and something else. He really went for less combat but more grand fights in his game, and god they were grand.

It all matters on finding ways to deal with your party. Party member likes using fireball? Use fire immune or fire resistant enemies. Party likes to launch your monsters into the air 100ft and drop them? Flying enemies! And so on and so on

HOWEVER, I feel pathfinder has the least amount of ways to deal with this without making players feel utterly useless or make other party members feel like they aren't good enough. I have one game where a character RESISTED ANTI MAGIC SPELLS. INCLUDING ANTI MAGIC FIELD. And he forgot about this ability because he was some Aasimar and never used it. It was supposed to let characters like the ranger and the rogue feel more like they were useful. No, instead, the guy rolls his save for the anti magic field and succeeds and casts a spell to summon a gold dragon to rampage the place. A REAL one. Worst part is, DM said he can't do that because he's never seen a dragon before (as they were going extinct in his world) and the guy proceeded to whine until he convinced the DM his lore can't happen

[Jimmy]

Don't even get started on summoning shenanigans. As a veteran Pathfinder conjuration magic fan, I've seen just about all the abuses you can imagine. Including level 10 Paladins that can summon from the 9th level Cleric spell list.

[Sirus]

Aight, I'd like some build advice.

I want to make a Pathfinder Witch, focused on healing. There are two archetypes that lend themselves to being a healer, and I cannot decide between the two.

The first one, Hedge Witch, possesses a cleric-like ability to convert their prepared spells into healing spells, starting at level 4. At level 8 they gain "emphatic healing", which means that if an ally fails their poison or disease saves the witch can choose to be affected by said poison/disease rather than their ally. Probably comes in handy if your tank or DPS gets hit with some debilitating disease.
Hedge Witch loses two Hex slots for these abilities, the ones normally gained at levels 4 and 8.

The second option is Herb Witch. This archetype can craft what are essentially cure-alls from level 1; free potions that can heal any disease or poison (at least those that allow saving throws), and treat a small number of status effects. Their downsides are that the witch can only have so many (so they can't just spend a week crafting a huge stockpile of them), and they only take effect if applied by the witch that crafted them (so no sharing them out). They can also substitute Profession rolls for Craft rolls.
To gain these abilities, the Herb Witch loses her first Hex choice and also must take the Cauldron Hex at level 2. This means that the Witch loses access to the extremely useful Healing Hex (and any number of other hexes) until level 4 at the earliest.

Of course, I could just run a standard witch. Thoughts.

[SOLDIER First]

Herb Witch, I would say. Plus something that lets you move around the battlefield really fast. ...That's a thing, right?

[Sirus]

They can learn how to fly...plus I'm sure there's something in their spell list.

[wierd]

What effects are permitted to be brewed into the freebie potions?  If there are any that boost speed, that could be beneficial. 

Rather, I suppose I should ask:  Are the potions strictly curative, or are buff potions also on the menu?

[Sirus]

If you're talking about the free cure-alls, they're purely restorative. They can (attempt to) treat a single disease, poison, or status effect per use.

The Cauldron Hex does give a Witch the Brew Potion feat for free though, and those potions can be infused with plenty of different spells. So buff potions are available, though they cost a not-insubstantial sum each time.

[wierd]

I find that rather silly, personally-- but that is just me exercising some domain knowledge.
(Learned all kinds of fun stuff when I studied magical practice as an independent study of anthropology. One of the avenues I explored was creation of tinctures, potions, poultices, and the like.)

Some very effective "Speed buffing" potions can be brewed very inexpensively IRL, if you dont mind the side effects. Take for instance, a slight bit of a toxic mushroom (Amanita Muscaria), added to a tea made from Ephredra.  Dark age speed in a bottle right there.  Side effects include euphoria, and hallucenations. Routine use can lead to heart and liver damage.

This is exactly the kind of thing I would expect an herbalism specialist witch to know.  As such, I consider the "Cure alls only" restriction absurdly out of touch with the archetype they are going for there. But hey, their game, not mine. 


Maybe I should just sit down one day and crank out a couple fun lists of things that could be cooked up using just a tea kettle and some wild plants some time, and leave it as a community source book. Unless you need to use gold as a reagent, I really don't see a valid reason to require GP expense on potion creation-- aside from if you need to pay somebody to do some ingredient gathering, or to perform some of the process steps for you.  It should be mostly be initial equipment costs, (you DO need some specialist equipment to brew the more interesting potions from dark age literature), and encumbrance from carrying that stuff around.

I get a little annoyed with some of these games' rules sometimes.  (Yes, I understand the gold requirement is to stop you from brewing shitloads of potions and generally ruining the DM's day. Personally, I think that same effect can be obtained by forcing the PC to buy the required bottles to hold the potions in, and forcing them to have to lug equipment around. Abuse of potion would be more interesting to deal with by adding consequences to misuse, such as the side effects, and effects of heavy use, like the potion mentioned above. Not all potions can be stored in clear glass bottles, as some degrade from exposure to light, and need to be in dark brown glass- others can react with metal oxides in colored glass bottles, so that's a very reasonable requirement for some potions right there that would naturally limit abuse. Adding encumbrance for empty bottles, and having the skill tree to make glass bottles not be included in potion maker classes would also naturally limit it in a more organic and less contrived way.  Basically, I really think this can be handled much better, and the game rule makers are either covering for ignorance, or are just being lazy.)

[Sirus]

Well first off, these potions are infused with actual, workable magic and spells. No downsides or side effects. It would be the equivalent of chewing a particular root and being instantly cured of cancer or blindness.

Secondly, herb witches do get some pretty nice bonuses to Profession (Herbalist), which would almost certainly give them bonuses on knowing the properties of various plants and fungi. It's just that magic is typically more effective.

[wierd]

Oh, most of the potions you can read about in dark age (and older) literature are based on sympathetic magic.  For instance, a mandrake root looks like a little human. This resemblance is where its 'magical power' comes from.  Likewise with some fungi that look like a penis, or fruits that look like a vagina.  Additionally, the process used to produce the potion can have "contagion" effects, which are also sympathetic magic. (Brewed on a full moon, for instance- Or made using swamp water from a toxic marsh.)

Imbuing a liquid with a magical force through ritual is more in line with shamanism and or being a cleric, at least in historical contexts. See for instance, holy water. (It's ordinary water that has been blessed.)

In a world where magic is a real force, then in addition to the chemical properties of a plant, there would be its active and sympathetic magical components as well, stemming from where/how it was grown, and how well the plant's physical makeup resembles the sympathetic feature it is being used against.

That's assuming you actually look at historical accounts and treatises on magic from across human history as a baseline for your magic system, instead of just winging it.

[MrRoboto75]

Dig up 1st or 2nd edition AD&D and their potion miscibility rules if you needed to nerf potion spam.

Basically, it was a table or two to see what happens when you mixed potions together.  Either one or both would get cancelled out, one or both would somehow have better or worse effects, stereotypical chemistry explosions, and other stuffs.  Every potion mix required a roll, even if they were the same "kind" of potion, on grounds that wizards and such didn't exactly practice the same or even consistent recipes.  The real fun began when someone drank more than one potion in too fast of time, as the potions would mix in their stomach and require a roll on the chart.

[Sirus]

So that's one vote for Herb Witch. Does anyone else have some more immediately useful input?

[highmax28]

Sorry. Can't really help. I never played a witch, so I wouldn't know how any of it works.

Unrelated, but do other DMs here being recurring characters from game to game? I'm sure it happens but not many seem to really talk about it

[NullForceOmega]

Sometimes, I have a stable of NPCs who see frequent use in my RIFTS games, but I generally roll whole new sets for D&D (but then, I'm usually creating a whole new setting when I run a new campaign in D&D).

I don't usually allow players to 'port' their characters to a new game, as I often advance time by a large margin between campaigns set in the same world (and I don't allow existing characters to be used in a new setting).

As for why people don't talk about it, imagine how someone acts when they talk about their favorite character, then multiply it by the number of NPCs.  It gets old real quick.

[GiglameshDespair]

Sorry. Can't really help. I never played a witch, so I wouldn't know how any of it works.

Unrelated, but do other DMs here being recurring characters from game to game? I'm sure it happens but not many seem to really talk about it

Only in very minor roles.
Major characters? No.

So that's one vote for Herb Witch. Does anyone else have some more immediately useful input?

To be contrary I'd vote Hedge Witch.

Maybe I should just sit down one day and crank out a couple fun lists of things that could be cooked up using just a tea kettle and some wild plants some time, and leave it as a community source book. Unless you need to use gold as a reagent, I really don't see a valid reason to require GP expense on potion creation-- aside from if you need to pay somebody to do some ingredient gathering, or to perform some of the process steps for you.  It should be mostly be initial equipment costs, (you DO need some specialist equipment to brew the more interesting potions from dark age literature), and encumbrance from carrying that stuff around.

I get a little annoyed with some of these games' rules sometimes.  (Yes, I understand the gold requirement is to stop you from brewing shitloads of potions and generally ruining the DM's day. Personally, I think that same effect can be obtained by forcing the PC to buy the required bottles to hold the potions in, and forcing them to have to lug equipment around. Abuse of potion would be more interesting to deal with by adding consequences to misuse, such as the side effects, and effects of heavy use, like the potion mentioned above. Not all potions can be stored in clear glass bottles, as some degrade from exposure to light, and need to be in dark brown glass- others can react with metal oxides in colored glass bottles, so that's a very reasonable requirement for some potions right there that would naturally limit abuse. Adding encumbrance for empty bottles, and having the skill tree to make glass bottles not be included in potion maker classes would also naturally limit it in a more organic and less contrived way.  Basically, I really think this can be handled much better, and the game rule makers are either covering for ignorance, or are just being lazy.)

That just sounds like a overly finicky pain in the ass, to be honest. Deeper simulation isn't always better.