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Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew (Pathfinder RPG) $3.99
Average Rating:3.9 / 5
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Advanced Feats: The Witch\'s Brew (Pathfinder RPG)
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Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew (Pathfinder RPG)
Publisher: Kobold Press
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/26/2012 13:32:54

Certainly one of the more interesting books for the new Pathfinder witch class. You will need the Advanced Player's Guide to get the most of of this book obviously. We start off with a brief overview/analysis of the witch class. Not bad really, but nothing we can get from the APG. On to the meat of the book, the 30 new feats.
They are a mixed bag, but for the most part they add a lot flavor to the witch. There are some familiar affecting feats which is nice, and commentary/sidebars on a few.

There are also 3 sample witch builds that you can use to make your own.

All this is a good product and worth the price.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew (Pathfinder RPG)
Publisher: Kobold Press
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/31/2010 11:36:30

There were a few attempts to bring out a Witch character class for Dungeons & Dragons 3e, but now that Paizo have added one to the Pathfinder RPG, witches are now integrated into the ruleset... and ripe for development and expansion, as here. Now Pathfinder witches are powerful wielders of magic, not cuddly modern Wiccans but a spellcasting force to be reckoned with, a match for any wizard or sorcerer and able to hold their own in play.

While you will need to read the full class in the Advanced Player's Guide before you start to use this book, it begins by giving an overview of the specific strengths of this character class. In some ways they are similar to wizards with spell lists, familiars, and 'at will' powers at their disposal; but the differences are quite profound. Witches tend to be more generalist, and their familiars can act as a repository for their magical knowledge, a sort of 'living spellbook' which means that, as written, it's probably not a good idea to allow your familiar to brawl too often. The real fun comes with the hexes that they can cast, these 'at will' powers give the witch some of the flavour and potency of the most feared mediaeval legend. Just as well, as they are not very physical and need to rely on defensive and healing magic in combat situations.

The class summarised, we move on to the real meat of this work, a full 30 new feats designed to make the most of the witch class, building on her strengths and addressing at least some of the weaker areas. Many are available to any character who can meet the prerequisites, but they are designed with the witch in mind. There are some nice ones to enhance your familiar - perhaps it too can cast hexes or concentrate to maintain a spell freeing you to do something else - and many improve or allow variation in spells. For example, there's the Discriminating Spell metamagic feat, which lets you choose to have one specific race or creature type either targeted by or immune to the spell you wish to cast. Indeed there is a wealth of neat ways to hone your witch's abilities through these feats.

The work rounds off with three witch 'builds' - suggested ways of planning and developing a witch character from first level on. One is the arch-witch, a magic specialist who dominates other spellcasters, demanding knowledge and power from them. Then there's the white witch, who defys the usual image of an evil cackling crone casting curses, specialising in healing both the injured and the world as a whole. And if you'd rather be traditional, there's a wicked witch as well!

Overall, if you want to play a witch this work has some useful suggestions for making the most out of the class, playing to the strengths and exploiting potentials.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew (Pathfinder RPG)
Publisher: Kobold Press
by Ben G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/30/2010 14:04:27

Advanced Feats: The Witch's Brew by Sigfried Trent offers an in depth look at the new Witch class as it’s available in the Advanced Player’s guide for Pathfinder. Trent and crew introduce 30 new feats designed with the Witch PCs in mind, as well as a discussion on what the Witch can do as a class, and several suggested builds.

Witches are somewhat new territory for me. I've got the APG and I've read through the class and been interested in them, but I've never played one or run a game with a Witch in the party. One thing that did immediately stand out for me with the Witch was that as helpful and interesting as their familiars are, they can also be a danger to the Witch. Losing your familiar hurts!

This PDF starts of with an examination of the Witch class and what bearing they’ll have on your party. It’s worth the read as Trent has put a lot of thought into this and gives an easy to follow overview of the Witch which goes a bit above and beyond what’s covered in the Advanced Players guide. I finished this section knowing how I’d implement a Witch in a game, rather than having a few interesting but vague ideas about the class. This is a good thing because the APG left me a little vague on how I would run one.

Now we come to the 30 additional feats for Witches which makes up the core of this document. On the whole, I think they're well crafted and will be immediately useful to players wanting to dabble in a little familiar based spell casting and hexing. In fact, the biggest strength in these new feats are those that address the Witch's familiar. There are a ton of interesting feats which make the Witch's familiar into more of an asset in combat and less of a heavily guarded, mobile spellbook. Familiar Concentration, where your familiar can concentrate on a spell for you, Familiar Range Extension, up to 100 miles of contact, and Hexing Familiar which does what it says all stand out for me.

There are other stand out feats. Infer Spell which allows you to figure out a spell based on how it's triggered by a magic item is a fun. Usurp Spell allows you to steal control of a spell cast by another.

As with my previous review of the Secrets of the Alchemist, there are a few feats which could, depending on how you and your group handle them, be game breaking. Extra Familiar, which allows for an additional familiar which you control could be one of these. Familiar Training, which allows you to share your applicable feats with your familiar is another. I'm not really prepared to take huge points off for this though because they could also work very well in your campaign. It's more of how they are implemented and used. Some may not find them flawed at all.

After the new feats we are presented with three character builds for the Witch, following the character from 1st through 20th level.The Arch Witch is someone who specializes in dominating other spellcasters. The White Witch build (which I cannot help but nickname The Glinda) is a Witch who specializes in healing and helping, while punishing those who are evil. The last build is the Wicked Witch (or the Alfaba?) who is just you think.

All of the builds are good, and in themselves offer even more insight into this class. Keep in mind that they do rely on the feats presented in this document.

If you want to expand on the new classes presented by Piazo, specifically the Witch in this case, certainly pick this up. It will be well worth the read and the new feats are for the most part well done and balanced.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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