PF2 Remastered Witch Feats

Introduction

This article covers the remastered version of the Witch. For help with the legacy Witch, see our Legacy Witch Handbook.

Witch feats split their focus between spellcasting, familiars, and hexes, with a few other options thrown into the mix. There are plenty of options to build a character which emphasizes any specific part of the class.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Witch Lessons

Basic Lesson

Each lesson gives you one Hex and one regular spell. In addition to the benefits of a Hex, you may be able to get access to spells not available from your Tradition. Remember that gaining a Focus Spell which costs a Focus Point to cast also increases the size of your Focus Pool up to the maximum of 3 points, so taking a Lesson which grants you a Hex which costs a Focus Point will also improve your Focus Pool.

Basic Lesson and Greater Lesson can only be selected once, and Major Lesson can only be selected a second or third time after you reach certain levels. You can select a feat to gain a Lesson at most 5 times, but more likely you’ll only select a few and spend the rest of your feats elsewhere.

You will gain an initial Lesson from your Patron. Those lessons are not addressed here.

  • Lesson of Dreams (PC1): You’re taking this to be good at casting Sleep. It doesn’t do anything else.
    • Hex: Veil of Dreams: Combos nicely with Sleep, but still only situationally useful. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Sleep: A good save-or-suck, but the AOE is small and enemies still get a Perception check to wake up if you make noise just as if they were naturally sleeping, so it’s hard to use this mid-combat.

      Sleep is normally available on the Arcane and Occult spell lists.

  • Lesson of Elements (PC1): Great for blasters, especially in parties with allies that also like to deal elemental damage like Kineticists, Magi, and other spellcasters.
    • Hex: Elemental Betrayal: Great if your party is good at dealing elemental damage, but otherwise skip this. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: What, no metal or wood options?
      • Breathe Fire: Poor damage in a tiny AOE. This barely beats cantrips.

        Breathe Fire is normally available on the Arcane and Primal spell lists.

      • Gust of Wind: Gust of Wind is situationally useful when enemies rely on smoke or fog, and when you’re facing flying foes. This won’t be much use at low levels, but as you gain levels, flying enemies will become increasingly problematic.

        Gust of Wind is normally available on the Arcane and Primal spell lists.

      • Hydraulic Push: Passable single-target damage, but you’re here for the push effect.

        Hydraulic Push is normally available on the Arcane and Primal spell lists.

      • Pummeling Rubble: It has the ability to push multiple targets, but it’s also a 15-foot cone, which dangerous for a witch. It also doesn’t deal elemental damage, so it doesn’t work well alongside Elemental Betrayal.

        Pummeling Rubble is normally available on the Arcane and Primal spell lists.

  • Lesson of Life (PC1): Some good healing options, but not enough to make you an impressive healer on its own.
    • Hex: Life Boost: Fast Healing for one Action and a Focus Point. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Spirit Link: Extremely risky for the Witch. You have 6+ hit points, and this prevents Fast Healing on yourself, so Life Boost doesn’t work while you’re running this. This is a great way to help keep your party’s front-line characters alive, but Life Boost can do the same job without hurting you, and Life Boost automatically scales. Of course, Spirit Link’s duration is much longer, so you can pre-cast it.

      Spirit Link is normally available on the Divine and Occult spell lists.

  • Lesson of Protection (PC1): Blood Ward is good, but it’s frustrating that Mystic Armor is already on every spell list, so you don’t get as much from this Lesson as you do from others.
    • Hex: Blood Ward: A good defensive buff that works in basically any encounter. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Mystic Armor: A great replacement for investing a ton of gold into runes to enhance your Explorer’s Clothing.

      Mystic Armor is available on every spell list.

  • Lesson of Vengeance (PC1): Great sources of mental damage which will be useful in basically any encounter.
    • Hex: Needle of Vengeance: Easy damage and also an effective deterrent. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Phantom Pain: The target can either take persistent damage or spend an Action to end the Sickened condition.

      Phantom Pain is normally available on the Occult spell list.

Greater Lessons

  • Lesson of Mischief (PC1): Not consistently useful, and easily replaced in numerous ways.
    • Hex: Deciever’s Cloak: Easily replaced by other options. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Mad Monkeys: Mad Monkeys is useful if you need to steal items from an enemy or if you need to distrupt Manipulate actions, such as casting a spell. That won’t apply to a great number of enemies, so this is only situationally useful.

      Mad Monkeys is normally available on the Primal spell list.

  • Lesson of Shadow (PC1): Malicious Shadow is really good.
    • Hex: Malicious Shadow: See our A great offensive option with good scaling. Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Chilling Darkness: Poor damage unless you’re facing Holy enemies, such as celestials and clerics.

      Chilling Darkness is normally available on the Divine spell list.

  • Lesson of Snow (PC1): Personal Blizzard is not nearly good enough to make up for Wall of Wind being borderline useless.
    • Hex: Personal Blizzard: Okay damage, but it’s hard to attack the target while they’re under the effect. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Wall of Wind: Too situational. The best use case for this is to block low-flying creatures, and there are better counters for flying enemies.

      Wall of Wind is normally available on the Arcane and Primal spell lists.

Grand Lessons

  • Lesson of Death (PC1): A good offensive option, but maybe not good enough to justify locking yourself into Raise Dead permanently, especially if it’s already on your spell list.
    • Hex: Curse of Death: A good offensive option. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Raise Dead: Essential, but you want to avoid needing it, so it’s hard to justify locking yourself into it permanently.

      Raise Dead is normally available on the Divine and Primal spell lists.

  • Lesson of Renewal (PC1): Given the choice between the two, I would much rather take Lesson of Life.
    • Hex: Restorative Moment: Too situational to be locked into permanently. See our Witch Hexes Breakdown.
    • Spell: Field of Life: Outside of combat, this is more efficient healing than casting Heal, but I would absolutely never cast this mid-combat. This isn’t good enough to be locked into permanently unless you don’t have other healing options available.

      Field of Life is normally available on the Divine and Primal spell lists.

Witch Class Feats

1st-Level Witch Feats

  • Cackle (PC1): A free Action to Sustain a spell at the cost of a Focus Point, which you’ll now have at least two of. This is a massive tactical advantage that most casters can’t match until high levels when Effortless Concentration becomes available.

    See our Witch Hexes Breakdown for more.

    Remaster Changes: Cackle does not explicitly state that it provides a Focus Point, but it still does so. That is now a core rule in the Remaster.

  • Cauldron (PC1): Item crafting is expensive at first level, and I don’t think one free temporary item per day is enough to make this appealing at low levels. This could be a great option to pick up later. You do gain additional formulas as you gain levels, so there is a small incentive to get this early, but the cost to learn low level formulas later is small, and at low levels you really can’t afford a feat that you’re not actively using.

    Remaster Changes:: The temporary items are new, combining the effects of Temporary Potions and Cauldron.

  • Counterspell (PC1): Countering enemy spells is great, but you need to have that same spell prepared just to have the opportunity. It’s hard enough when you have a spell repertoire and can burn an appropriate spell slot, but when you’re a prepared caster your ability to counter spells drops precipitously as you go through the day casting spells. This problems get larger every time Paizo publishes a new source book because your odds of having the right spell get smaller as more spells are introduced.
  • Reach Spell (PC1): Many low-level spells have poor range, and most Hexes have a range of either Touch or 30 ft., so you can get a lot of use out of this. Your familiar may be able to deliver touch spells for you, which may be sufficient.
  • Widen Spell (PC1): Great for Blasters. If this adds one more target to an AOE spell it’s worth the Action.
  • Witch’s Armaments (PC1): The unarmed attack options are pretty standard, with the exception of Living Hair which has several more traits than you can typically get on an unarmed attack. However, the Monk doesn’t have any reason to be making Strikes, so there’s basically no reason to select this. You can also get comparable unarmed attacks from many Ancestries.

2nd-Level Witch Feats

  • Basic Lesson (PC1): Almost every Basic Lesson is good, and they all cater to a variety of different play styles. See Witch Lessons, above.
  • Cantrip Expansion (PC1): Consider Multiclass Archetype feats instead. For example: you can take Wizard Dedication and get two cantrips from the Arcane spell list plus proficiency in a skill. Similar options exist for other spellcasting classes, so you can get cantrips from whatever spell list you want. This feat isn’t awful, but archetype feats are objectively better.
  • Conceal Spell (PC1): The remaster rules make it very clear that casting a spell is obvious to observers: “Spellcasting creates obvious sensory manifestations, such as bright lights, crackling sounds, and sharp smells from the gathering magic.” The Subtle trait removes the visual indications of casting a spell, making spells unobservable unless they have an obvious visual effect. You won’t always need this, but it works consistently when you do.

    However, the feat doesn’t remove the Manipulate trait. This means that you do still need to move and that you still trigger Reactions.

    Remaster Changes:: This no longer requires skill checks to hide your spell components. A significant buff.

  • Enhanced Familiar (PC1): If you plan to really heavily emphasize your familiar, you should consider Familiar Master Dedication instead because it will give you Enhanced Familiar for free. I think that the Witch’s additional Familiar Abilities are intended to stack with other sources even if they’re not part of the Witch class, but check with your GM to be sure.
  • Familiar’s Language (PC1): Without this feat, you’re free to pick something interesting as your familiar like a frog or a newt, both of which feel very witchy. But since you get the ability to speak to creatures of the same type, you want to pick something common with a lot of relatives. Rats are great in urban campaigns, and birds are great if you’re outdoors and above ground frequently. If you only need this occasionally, consider a wand of Speak with Animals.

4th-Level Witch Feats

  • Rites of Convocation (PC1): If you’re relying heavily on summoned creatures as your go-to tactic, this allows you to prepare other spells at the beginning of the day and rotate in more summoning spells as-needed. It also means that more niche summon spells are available as-needed if you run into a challenge that can be solved by specific summoned creatures.
  • Sympathetic Strike (PC1): Conceptually very cool, but the Witch is not a gish. Your attack proficiency progression is the worst in the game, and your Strikes will fall behind other characters almost immediately. If you want a -1 buff, use Demoralize.

6th-Level Witch Feats

  • Ceremonial Knife (PC1): Essentially an extra prepared spell per day since only you can activate it. The spell will always be two ranks below your highest-rank spells, so it’s likely not going to do a lot in combat, but this is great for buffs and utility spells that you’re using on a regular basis. Ceremonial Knife will eventually reach 8th rank when you hit level 20, and an 8th-level spell slot is pretty great.

    You might consider a Basic Spellcasting feat from a multiclass archetype instead, which will grant you spells of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rank (you’ll need to wait a few levels for the 3rd-rank spell). A Basic Spellcasting feat will be a full spell rank ahead of Ceremonial Knife until level 10, and provides three spells per day instead of one. Ceremonial Knife’s spell will be better eventually, but from levels 6 to 12 I think Basic Spellcasting is a better deal, and that’s a huge level range. This does, of course, require a Dedication feat, so you are spending two feats to pull this off.

  • Greater Lesson (PC1): The Greater Lessons aren’t notably better than the Basic Lessons, but fortunately you can choose from either group. See Witch Lessons, above.
  • Steady Spellcasting (PC1): The Flat Check is too difficult to make this feat an easy choice. You have a success rate of just 30%. If you’re in a situation where you might lose a spell, cast a cantrip so that losing it won’t cost you anything.
  • Witch’s Charge (PC1): This is neat for witches who are built as Healers or Support casters, but you can solve the range issue with Reach Spell or with your familiar, and the abilities to monitor your charge are only situationally useful.

8th-Level Witch Feats

  • Incredible Familiar (PC1): If you’re going this far, you should have taken the Familiar Master archetype instead.
  • Murksight (PC1): Too situational unless your own party is relying on fog or similar effects, and even then, you’re perfectly capable of functioning without ever making an attack roll and your Perception is among the worst in the game. If you need to attack into fog, throw a Fireball. If you need to find enemies in fog, use Discern Secrets to ask someone else for help.
  • Spirit Familiar (PC1): Decent damage and decent healing. Considering that it takes 1 Action to Command your familiar, this is very efficient and effective. It works once per 10 minutes, so probably once in every encounter. You may want to save this for when an ally goes down, but dealing a bunch of damage with 1 Action can be impactful on its own.
  • Stitched Familiar (PC1): Decent damage and potentially immobilize your target. Considering that it takes 1 Action to Command your familiar, this is very efficient and effective. It works once per 10 minutes, so probably once in every encounter. This won’t define your tactics, but it can be very impactful if you look for opportunities to capitalize on immobilizing your enemies.
  • Witch’s Bottle (PC1): There are a handful of Hexes which buff the target (Life Boost, Nudge Fate, Stoke the Heart), but they have a 1-minute sustained duration, so if you use this the effects last just one round. If you add Cackle (which costs you another Focus Point to use), they get 2 rounds. Exciting. Remember that it takes an Action to consume the potion, so you’re locking yourself out of a Focus Point (possibly 2) for up to a full day so that your ally can spend an Action to activate a Hex instead of making you do it. The notable exception is Life Boost, but at that point, just buy a healing potion or take Cauldron and use the free items to make some temporary healing potions.

10th-Level Witch Feats

  • Double, Double (PC1): More temporary items, but not many unil you reach Master proficiency at level 15. If you’re getting a lot of use out of the items from Cauldron, this might be worthwhile.

    If it’s an option, take the legacy Temporary Potions feat, which provides twice as many items. I don’t think that’s intended to be allowed since Cauldron and Double, Double clearly fill the same conceptual niche, but chec with your GM.

  • Major Lesson (PC1): There is only one good Major Lesson, but you can also select Basic Lessons or Greater Lessons if you don’t want a Major Lesson. This is notably the only Lesson feat which can be selected more than once. See Witch Lessons, above.
  • Quickened Casting (PC1): Not nearly so exciting on the Witch as it is on other spellcasters, but still pretty good. Witches have lots of 1-Action Hex spells to choose from, so it’s easy to fill three Actions with nothing but spellcasting. You can still use this to cast two regular spells, and the once per day limitation may not be a problem since you can fall back on Hexes the rest of the time.
  • Witch’s Communion (PC1): A great improvement to Witch’s Charge, but at this point you’re spending two feats and the primary effect can be replaced with Reach Spell.

12th-Level Witch Feats

  • Coven Spell (PC1): This is an excellent and reliable way to use your Reaction to the benefit of your party. If you have one other spellcaster in the party, this is okay, but as you add more spellcasters the value improves because you have more opportunities to use this. You only get on Reaction, of course, but you’ll have the option of choosing which spell to support rather than being stuck with whatever the one other spellcaster might choose if you’re in a small party.

    To maximize the value here, be sure to take some Spellshape feats (metamagic if you’re accustomed to the legacy rules). Reach Spell and Widen Spell can both have a significant tacticle impact. Of course, even if you don’t do that, adding 6 or more damage to an ally’s cantrip once per turn as a Reaction is still decent.

  • Hex Focus (PC1): The only effect is to save you 10 or 20 minutes outside of combat when you typically have plenty of time to Refocus repeatedly.
  • Witch’s Broom (PC1): A free 12th-level item that provides permanent flight. When you hit level 12, that’s a huge benefit, but the value diminishes as you gain levels and your wealth increases.

    If you get a permanent broom, either by buying or crafting one, this changes to a +10 speed boost for the broom. The Flying Broom’s speed is only 20 feet, which is slower than walking for most Ancestries, but I’m not sure that a +10 speed bonus is worth a 12th-level class feat. Consider retraining once you have a permanent broom.

    If you like to use a magic staff, this allows you to anoint a staff as your temporary Flying Broom. Flying Brook requires you to hold the broom, which means that you have one hand on a staff and one on your broom, leaving no open hands for anything else. If that’s a problem, Witch’s Broom alleviates that issue.

14th-Level Witch Feats

  • Reflect Spell (PC1): If you’re going to counter spells, you’re probably countering something offensive and dangerous enough to justify spending a spell slot to counter it. If that’s the case, turning it back on the caster is really great. This doesn’t fix any of the problems with Counterspell, but it makes it considerably more exciting to use.
  • Rites of Transfiguration (PC1): Cursed Metamorphosis (formerly Baleful Polymorph) is a decent spell, but it’s on two spell lists already and it’s not good enough to justify such a high-level feat.
  • Patron’s Presence (PC1): Stupefied 2 is a huge debuff. The range is short, but if you can get close enough to hit one or two enemies with this, they’re at a huge disadvantage. Your familiar can Sustain the effect for an Action, which is a great excuse to select the Independent Familiar Ability.

16th-Level Witch Feats

  • Effortless Concentration (PC1): Absolutely stellar, but you may be doing alright with Cackle. Of course, you can use both in the same turn, so if you’re getting a lot of mileage out of sustained spells this is amazing.
  • Siphon Power (PC1): Potentially a free high-level spell once per day, but your options depend on your Patron’s spells and on what Lessons you’ve taken, so it’s hard to give this a universal rating. Check your spell options, and if you have good options of 7th, 8th, and/or 9th rank, this is worth the feat.

18th-Level Witch Feats

  • Split Hex (PC1): Hexes are great, but since they typically only target one creature and must be Sustained, it’s difficult to maintain them on more than one target while doing anything else interesting. This, combined with Effortless Concentration, means that you could Hex two targets, Sustain the spell as a Free Action, and still have a full turn to do other things.

    All of this comes at the cost of reducing the Rank of your Hex by 2, which is a big hit, but it really only matters for Hexes with level-based scaling, which is a minority of hexes. Stoke the Heart, Life Boost, and damaging Hexes will all be impacted, but the benefit of a second target significantly outweighs the lost power even if your Hex’s effects are entirely tied to Spell Rank.

  • Patron’s Claim (PC1): Spend 1 Action to Command your familiar, then deal 10d10 damage on a Basic Fortitude Save, and potentially make your target Drained and also recover a Focus Point. This is great, and the fact that you can use it once per hour is amazing. You may want to save this for turn 2 in combat once you’ve spent a Focus Point, but that fits so neatly into the Witch’s tactics that it’s hardly an inconvenience.

20th-Level Witch Feats

  • Hex Master (PC1): Many Hexes have a 1-Action casting time, so you may be able to cast as many as 3 in a turn. If you then use Cackle on the following turn you can Sustain all three of them without spending an Action. If you manage your Focus Points well, you can repeat this combination to great effect, potentially adding even more Hexes (most will need to be Hex Cantrips) over time.
  • Patron’s Truth (PC1): 10th-level spells are the most impactful things you can do, and this lets you cast two in one day. This is hard to beat.
  • Witch’s Hut (PC1): The most interesting but least useful of the Witch’s 20th-level feats. You’ve likely had spells that make this obsolete for several levels. If you can make yourself a magical shelter and teleport, there is very little reason to select this.

    Remaster Changes: The Leap option is new, and the feat now specifies that you can have only one hut at a time.

Legacy Witch Class Feats

These feats have not been reprinted in the Remastered rules. A such, they are available for you to use as they are currently written. However, you may need to adapt things to match the updated rules.

1st-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Wortwitch (APG): Too situational.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG.

2nd-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Living Hair (APG): An amusing option for other classes taking multiclass feats, but for the Witch it’s basically useless. Cast a cantrip instead.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG. It has been rolled into Witch’s Armaments alongside Eldritch Nails.

4th-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Eldritch Nails (APG): This feat is awful. You take a feat to force yourself to wander into melee with no armor and 6+ hit points to then cast a spell (which still provokes Reactions), then you add a totally unnecessary gamble to the whole farce where you might get a little damage out of your nails that you have almost certainly wasted a mountain of gold upon (runes are expensive), and if you miss (which again: you probably will) you’re stuck in melee, probably gave your target a free attack, and you’ve wasted a Focus Point, two Actions, plus whatever it took to get you into melee.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG. It has been rolled into Witch’s Armaments alongside Living Hair.

  • Improved Familiar (APG): You get 3 familiar abilities for being a Witch at 1st level, then another for free at 6th, 12th, and 18th levels, and you can get two more from Enhanced Familiar. So at 4th level you can have either 3 or 5 abilities. You can get to 4 or 6 at 6th level when you get another one from the Witch class , and you can reach 8 at 8th level with Incredible Familiar. If you’re dead set on getting an Imp or whatever, this gets you there earlier and you can spend your 8th-level feat on something other than Incredible Familiar. Otherwise, skip this.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG, most likely because Player Core does not include rules for specific familiars.

  • Irezoko Tattoo (ACLO): Made obsolete by the updated Refocus rules. Yes, you could use this in combat, but are you really going to spend your entire turn to recover one Focus Point mid-combat when you have full spellcasting?
  • Suo Tak-Nwa’s Skillfull Tresses (P#166): Only useful if you’re struggling to keep a hand free. Witches don’t rely on weapons, so this really shouldn’t be a problem.

6th-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Detonating Spell (KoL): A fun concept, but the damage isn’t good enough to justify the Action.
  • Divine Emissary (KoL): The abilities aren’t especially exciting. The damage resistance is tempting, but the damage types aren’t common enough to make this exciting.
  • Syu Tak-Nwa’s Deadly Hair (P#166): Much like Living Hair, this is really interesting for multiclass builds, but functionally useless for the Witch.

8th-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Chaotic Spell (WtD#3): The effects are good, but the fact that they’re random means that you can never count on getting something useful. Randomizing your damage type also means that you’re just as likely to hit a weakness as you are to avoid one.
  • Helt’s Spelldance (F): A great way to get out of melee or to move safely into position to catch more enemies in an AOE.
  • Syu Tak-Nwa’s Hexed Locks (P:166): There aren’t very many Hexes, and very few of them require 2 Actions to cast, so there already aren’t very many ways to use this. Add to that problem that you’re now adding an extremely unreliable point of failure (a Strike) before the target then gets a saving throw, and the whole package is just a horrible unappealing mess. If the Strike replaced the saving throw, this might be worthwhile, but remember that instead of your really good spellcasting proficiency you’re using your absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel Unarmed Strike proficiency.

    Multiclass builds looking at Living Hair for its dizzying number of properties on an Unarmed Strike may want this for Reach, but that’s the only appeal that I see here.

10th-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Temporary Potions (APG): This benefit was rolled into the Cauldron feat, so this feat is less necessary. Still, if you’re getitng a lot of mileage out of the free consumables, you might get even more by adding this.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG.

12th-Level Legacy Witch Feats

  • Familiar’s Eyes (APG): Your familiar likely has much easier access to flight than you do, and being tiny and able to fly makes them a great scout or messenger. You don’t get to control them, but you can still issue orders. And if they die, it’ll be a minor inconvenience but they’ll be back tomorrow.

    This feat was not reprinted in the Remaster despite being included in the APG.