Legendary Witch

The witch is a curious case in the works of fantasy and the myths of old. Nearly every fairy story or ancient tale includes one but the breadth of their abilities and the purpose they serve vary wildly. The legendary witch aims to capture the spirit of some of these inspirations to create a class as versatile as its role in these oft repeated tales.

Witches may be found in isolated huts, brewing potions and speaking curses. Witches may be found among the populace of a large city, offering protective charms and healing to small enclaves. Witches may be found traveling from thorp to hamlet learning what they can from the land and its people and drawing power from their experiences. What all witches share however is a strong connection to a being representing a distinct power or ideal. These patrons vary as much as the witch themselves from powerful elementals to fey tricksters, but all of them come to have a vested interest in a witch and grant amazing power. The details of this relationship are often a closely guarded secret as having dealings with powerful and other worldly creatures is sometimes misunderstood by others. It is not unlike the relationship a cleric might have to a deity but is different in the potential closeness and accessibility of the patron Whether a witch’s power was negotiated, bartered, or owed for some other purpose is different from witch to witch but they each have a patron all the same and that patron grants a familiar, acting as arbiter and regulator of what power the witch may access.

Role: While the legendary witch may have a somewhat different role to play depending on the patron chosen, at heart the legendary witch is still capable of hampering the enemy and increasing the effectiveness of allies.

Whether using magic to control the battlefield or providing a party with powerful concoctions or even stepping into the fray themselves, a legendary witch is a versatile support for any party and should be able to fill most roles well.

While the Legendary Witch shares many similarities with the witch including patrons, hexes, and familiars.

Where the two differ is in the depth of connection and breadth of impact patron choice now has on play. Each patron offers multiple unique powers and access to unique hexes ensuring no two Legendary Witches ever need to be the same. A patron representing strength will bestow martial prowess and alchemical knowledge while a patron representing the seasons will grant elemental mastery and dominion over weather. What power will you bargain for?

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d6

Starting Wealth: 3d6 x 10 (average of 105 gp) plus a set of clothing worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills: The Witch’s class skills are Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks per level: 2 + Intelligence modifier

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies

Legendary witches are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor typically interferes with a legendary witch’s gestures, which can cause their spells with somatic components to fail.

At 1st level, they can prepare four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells each day. At each new legendary witch level, the number of spells they can prepare each day increases, adding new spell levels as indicated on Table 3: Legendary Witch Spells Prepared. Unlike the number of spells they can cast per day, the number of spells a legendary witch can prepare each day is not affected by their Intelligence score. Feats and other effects that modify the number of spells known by a spellcaster instead affect the number of spells a legendary witch can prepare.

A legendary witch must choose and prepare their spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour communing with their familiar. While doing so, the legendary witch decides what spells to prepare and refreshes their available spell slots for the day.

Like a wizard, the legendary witch may prepare a spell with any metamagic feats they know and cast it without increasing the casting time.

Some patrons may modify how a legendary witch casts spells or if they cast spells at all.

Table: The Legendary Witch

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Reflex Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Spells, Cantrips, Familiar, Patron, Boon, Hex
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Hex
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Boon
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Hex
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Enhanced Familiar
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Hex
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Boon
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Hex
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Enhanced Familiar
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Major Hex
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Boon
12th	+6	+4	+4	+8	Hex
13th	+6	+4	+4	+8	Enhanced Familiar
14th	+7	+4	+4	+9	Hex
15th	+7	+5	+5	+9	Boon
16th	+8	+5	+5	+10	Hex
17th	+8	+5	+5	+10	Enhanced Familiar
18th	+9	+6	+6	+11	Grand Hex
19th	+9	+6	+6	+11	Boon
20th	+10	+6	+6	+12	Hex

Class Features

The following are class features of the legendary witch.

Spells: A legendary witch casts arcane spells drawn from the witch spell list. A legendary witch must prepare their spells ahead of time, but unlike a wizard, their spells are not expended when they are cast. Instead, they can cast any spell that they have prepared consuming a spell slot of the appropriate level, assuming they haven’t yet used up their spell slots per day for that level.

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the legendary witch must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell’s level. The saving throw DC against a legendary witch’s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the legendary witch’s Intelligence modifier.

A legendary witch can only cast a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. their base daily spell allotment is given on Table 2: Witch Spells per Day. In addition, they receive bonus spells per day if they have a high Intelligence score.

A legendary witch may know any number of spells, but the number they can prepare each day is limited.

Table 2: Witch Spells Per Day

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
10th	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
13th	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—
14th	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—
15th	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—
16th	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—
17th	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
18th	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2
19th	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3
20th	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Cantrips: Legendary witches can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day as noted on Table 2. These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume spell slots. As with their other spells, these spells are not expended when cast.

Witch’s Familiar: At 1st level, a legendary witch forms a close bond with a familiar, a creature that teaches them magic and helps to guide them along their path. Familiars also aid a witch by granting them skill bonuses, additional spells, and help with some types of magic. This functions like the wizard’s arcane bond class feature, except as noted below.

A legendary witch must commune with their familiar each day to prepare their spells. Familiars store all of the spells that a legendary witch knows, and a legendary witch cannot prepare a spell that is not stored by their familiar. A legendary witch’s familiar begins play storing all of the 0-level legendary witch spells plus three 1st-level spells of the legendary witch’s choice. The legendary witch also selects a number of additional 1stlevel spells equal to their Intelligence modifier to store in their familiar. At each new legendary witch level, they add two new spells of any spell level or levels that they can cast (based on their new legendary witch level) to their familiar. A legendary witch can also add additional spells to their familiar through a special ritual.

A legendary witch’s patron may alter their spell list and which ability they use for spellcasting.

Hex

Legendary witches learn a number of magic tricks, called hexes, that grant them powers or weaken foes. At 1st level, a legendary witch gains one hex of their choice. They gain an additional hex at 2nd level and for every 2 levels attained after 2nd level. A legendary witch cannot select an individual hex more than once unless specified by the hex.

Unless otherwise noted, using a hex is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

The save to resist a hex is equal to 10 + 1/2 the witch’s level + the legendary witch’s Intelligence modifier.

The legendary witch may choose from among those hexes available to members of the Witch class, as long as they do not share a name with any of the hexes found below. The legendary witch is considered a witch of their class level for such hexes.

Table: Legendary Witch Spells Prepared

Level	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	5	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	6	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	6	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	7	4	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	7	5	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
8th	8	5	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
9th	8	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
10th	9	5	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
11th	9	5	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—
12th	9	5	5	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
13th	9	5	5	4	4	3	2	—	—	—
14th	9	5	5	4	4	3	2	1	—	—
15th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	2	—	—
16th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	2	1	—
17th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	2	—
18th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	2	1
19th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	2
20th	9	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	3

At 10th level, the legendary witch gains access to Major Hex. At 18th level, the legendary witch gains access to grand hexes.

Each patron also provides several unique hexes available only to legendary witches with that patron. This may include hexes previously available to all witches.

Enhanced Familiar

Patrons imbue the familiars of their witches with additional powers beyond those of normal familiars. At 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level, the legendary witch may select two of the following options to enhance the power of their familiar. Unless otherwise specified an option can be selected only once.

• The familiar gains a +2 bonus to an ability score of the legendary witch’s choice, this option may be selected more than once.
• The familiar gains a +1 bonus to natural armor, this option may be selected more than once.
• The familiar grows wings and gains a fly speed of 30 feet (average).
• The familiar gains a swim speed of 20 feet and can breathe underwater.
• The familiar gains a climb speed of 20 feet.
• The familiar’s movement speed for all movement modes increases by 10 feet. This ability may be selected more than once.
• Increase the maneuverability of the familiar’s fly speed by one step. This ability may be selected twice.
• The familiar gains a bonus feat. This must be a special feat meant for familiars or a familiar feat it qualifies for. (A familiar feat gained this way works as if the familiar’s master had selected it). This ability may be selected more than once.

Additional Options unique to each Patron

Instead of selecting from the above options above, a legendary witch may instead gain Improved Familiar as a bonus feat. Any improved familiar summoned by a legendary witch gains all the benefits of the enhanced familiar class feature.

When summoning a new familiar the legendary witch may make new choices for each time they have previously gained this class feature.

Adding Spells to a Legendary Witch’s Familiar

Legendary witches can add new spells to their familiars through several methods. A legendary witch can only add spells to their familiar if those spells belong to the legendary witch’s spell list.

Spells Gained at a New Level: A legendary witch’s familiar is bestowed a certain amount of lore and magic by the patron as the legendary witch adventures. Whenever a legendary witch gains a level, they may add two spells from the legendary witch spell list to their familiar. The two free spells must be of spell levels they can cast.

Familiar Teaching Familiar: A legendary witch’s familiar can learn spells from another legendary or standard witch’s familiar. To accomplish this, the familiars must spend one hour per level of the spell being taught in communion with one another. At the end of this time, the witch whose familiar is learning a spell must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If the check succeeds, the familiar has learned the spell and the witch may utilize it the next time they prepare spells.

If the check fails, the familiar has failed to learn the spell and cannot try to learn that spell again until the witch has gained another rank in Spellcraft. Most witches require a spell of equal or greater level in return for this service. If a familiar belongs to a witch or legendary that has died, it only retains its knowledge of spells for 24 hours, during which time it is possible to coerce or bribe the familiar into teaching its spells to another, subject to GM discretion.

Learn from a Scroll: A legendary witch can use a scroll to teach their familiar a new spell. This process takes 1 hour per level of the spell to be learned, during which time the scroll is burned and its ashes used to create a special brew or powder that is consumed by the familiar.

This process destroys the scroll. At the end of this time, the legendary witch must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If the check fails, the process goes awry in some way and the spell is not learned, although the scroll is still consumed.

Patrons

A patron is a powerful being that a legendary witch has entered into a relationship with in exchange for power. Each patron is represented by a broad concept, phenomenon, or idea. The nature of a legendary witch’s relationship to their patron is unique to each witch and can be as simple as a devoted servitude or the power could have been bought and bartered for. These concepts can be as esoteric as Fate or Life or as real as Flora and Fauna. Each patron grants bonus spells known as well as unique powers called Boons.

Some patrons also modify how a legendary witch casts spells, their skill ranks per level, hit die, base attack bonus, or base saving throw bonuses.

Boons

Boons are special abilities granted directly to the legendary witch by their patron. Each legendary witch begins play with a boon at 1st level and gains additional boons at 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter.

A full list of patrons and their boons can be found at the end of this class description.