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Segev
2019-05-07, 08:49 PM
I've always thought the concept behind the white-haired witch was interesting, but the execution has been disappointing from the start to finish. From the archetype actually starting with worse mechanics than just taking the Prehensile Hair hex, to giving up hexes for weaker abilities (some of which are highly redundant with grappling in the first place), to an annoying progression of to a weird fixation on Rogue Talents at later levels, it's just underwhelming.

Moreover, all it really trades away are hexes. So, what if, instead of an archetype, there were just a bunch of hex choices with Prehensile Hair as a prerequisite?

Let me know what you think; I have a tendency to make things overpowered, so this may be punching over the limit. In my initial draft, getting the maximum length of hair costs 4 additional hexes on its own, which was probably too expensive. This version auto-upgrades reach in the base hex.



New Hexes

Prehensile Hair (Su)

The witch can instantly cause her hair (or even her eyebrows) to grow up to 10 feet long or to shrink to its normal length, and can manipulate her hair as if it were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (for a Medium witch, 1d2 for a Small witch). Her hair's reach increases by 5 ft. at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Her hair can manipulate objects (but not weapons) as dexterously as a human hand. This natural attack can be improved by Improved Natural Attack.

The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature. Pieces cut from the witch’s elongated hair shrink away to nothing. Using her hair does not harm the witch’s head or neck, even if she lifts something heavy with it. The witch can manipulate her hair a number of minutes each day equal to her level; these minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. A typical male witch with this hex can also manipulate his beard, moustache, or eyebrows.

Note: Prehensile Hair used to have a fixed 10-ft. length in an earlier version of this document, with the extension coming from a second Hex: Long Hair. If Prehensile Hair is too powerful in your campaigns, you can split them into two Hexes once more.



Braided Rope (Su)

The witch can choose to maintain lengths of her hair that are severed, rather than having them vanish to nothing. She can maintain no more than half her level in individual lengths, though she may braid it before severing it to make anything from thread to rope out to a maximum length equal to that of her hair. Maintaining braids severed from her head in this fashion counts against the duration she may have her hair extended each day, though she may maintain up to her limit and her own extended hair with the same time commitment. When she ceases to maintain the rope generated in this fashion, it vanishes away to nothing as normal for hair severed from her head. Braids of her hair count as silk rope.

Forming braids into usable rope and severing them is a standard action which may be taken alongside any action using the rope. If the accompanying action is not a standard action, it takes as long as the longer action to perform both actions.

In addition, she gains ranks in Craft:Rope equal to her level, and may take the time to properly craft a rope by mundane means from her own hair to create permanent lengths, braiding it together to extend the length as long as she desires, using standard crafting rules and treating it as silk rope (though she "pays" for the material by using her own magically-extensible hair).

At 8th level, the Witch's control over rope made from her hair increases. The witch may control rope made from her hair as if it were affected by Animate Rope (provided it is within range and falls under the length limits). If she actually casts Animate Rope on it, she may command it as a free action instead of a move action, though she is still limited to one command to any given rope per round.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.

Note: The 8th level upgrade was originally a separate hex that did not even require Braided Rope as a prerequisite.



Braided Rope Tricks (Ex)

The witch is considered to have the Rope Tricks feat, but only when using rope made from her own hair. She is considered proficient with whips and spiked chains and to have the throw anything feat for purposes of using this hex, and if she has the Dread Locks Improved Grab ability, she is considered to have Improved Grapple for purposes of the using this hex. She must meet other prerequisites normally for the other tricks enabled by the feat granted by this hex.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.


Control Braids (Sp)

The witch may control rope made from her hair as if it were affected by Animate Rope (provided it is within range and falls under the length limits). If she actually casts Animate Rope on it, she may command it as a free action instead of a move action, though she is still limited to one command to any given rope per round.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.




Dread Locks (Ex)

The witch has trained her ability to manipulate her hair, granting her two of the following abilities:

Constrict: When the witch’s hair successfully grapples an opponent, it can constrict her victim as a swift action, dealing damage equal to that of its attack. The Witch adds +2 to her BAB (to a maximum of her Witch level) for purposes of calculating CMB for maneuvers performed with her hair.

Improved Grab: Whenever the witch strikes a foe with her hair, she can attempt to grapple that foe with her hair as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. When a white-haired witch grapples a foe in this way, she does not gain the grappled condition. The witch need not pull a foe grappled with her hair next to her; her hair may grapple her foe in place if she wishes. While grappling, if the witch performs a move, she may move up to her full speed and place her grappled foe in any square her hair can reach. The Witch adds +2 to her BAB (to a maximum of her Witch level) for purposes of calculating CMB for maneuvers performed with her hair.

Split Ends: The witch can split her hair to create a second effective limb. This limb may strike as a secondary natural attack (1d3 damage, 1d2 for a small witch). If the witch has Improved Grab with her hair, this limb may grapple a separate opponent. These extra secondary attacks do not get upgraded by the White Hair hex to primary natural attacks, though they otherwise benefit from the increased duration. The witch must be at least fourth level before she may select this ability. At every 4 levels beyond that, she gains an additional secondary attack. If the witch has Improved Natural Attack for her hair, it improves all of her hair-based natural attacks.

Strangle: When the witch's hair is grappling with an opponent, that creature is considered strangled. Strangled creatures cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components. The Witch adds +2 to her BAB (to a maximum of her Witch level) for purposes of calculating CMB for maneuvers performed with her hair.

Trip: When the witch successfully strikes a foe with her hair, she can attempt a combat maneuver check to trip the creature as a swift action. The Witch adds +2 to her BAB (to a maximum of her Witch level) for purposes of calculating CMB for maneuvers performed with her hair.

Wild Hair: When the witch's hair is extended, she can cause it to fly loose and thick, obscuring everything in its reach as if under the effects of a Fog Cloud spell. If the witch is at least 8th level, she may take this ability a second time to choose to make her hair resist movement through it, as if the area in its reach were affected by Solid Fog. Though the witch cannot see through her own hair without other magic, she is immune to the movement-restricting properties of the Soild Fog effect generated by her own hair.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.

The witch may select this hex multiple times. Unless specified otherwise, its effects do not stack. Instead, the witch may choose 2 new abilities each time.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.



Long Hair (Su)

The witch's hair gains an additional 5 ft. of reach. The Witch also adds +2 to her BAB (to a maximum of her Witch level) for purposes of calculating CMB with maneuvers performed by her hair.


Long Hair (Su)

The witch's hair can extend to 15 feet, rather than 10. When she reaches 10th level, it extends to 20 feet. At 15th level, it extends to 25 feet, and at 20th level, it extends to 30 feet.

The witch must be at least 5th level and have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.
Note: This version of Long Hair existed before the automatic increase in length was rolled into Prehensile Hair. If Prehensile Hair seems too powerful, you can strip that out and re-issue this Hex, creating a Hex tax on the length increase.



Medusa Mane (Ex)

The witch's hair is replaced by a nest of serpents growing out of her scalp, like that of a Medusa. The snakes' eyes give her All-Around Vision and a +4 racial bonus to Perception. She also gains a bite attack which is a primary natural attack that deals 1d4 base damage (for a Medium witch, 1d3 for a Small witch) and inflicts poison (injury, Fort DC (10+half level+Con mod), frequency 1/round for 6 rounds, effect 1d3 Str, cure 2 consecutive saves). A creature that fails the initial save against this poison cannot be afflicted by it again for 24 hours after they're cured or it runs its course.

Special: If the witch also has the Prehensile Hair hex, the snake attack replaces the natural attack granted, but gains the reach benefits of the hair when it is extended. With the addition of more secondary natural attacks (e.g. from Split Ends), the extra attacks are secondary natural attacks which deal 1d3 (for a Medium witch; 1d2 for a Small witch) damage and otherwise function like the primary bite. The snakes are affected as if they were her hair for all other hex purposes.



White Hair (Su)

The witch's power so infuses her hair that it bleaches it white, and she can manipulate her hair for as long as she wishes (rather than only a number of minutes per day equal to her level). In addition, this hex upgrades Prehensile Hair to a primary natural attack that deals 1d4 points of damage (for a Medium witch, 1d3 for a Small witch). If the witch has Improved Natural Attack for her hair, it improves this upgraded attack as well.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.




Major Hexes

Hair Dimension (Su)

The witch's hair contains and serves as a portal in and out of a pocket dimension the size of that created by Rope Trick. The witch herself may enter and exit this dimension, and anybody to whom she grants permission may enter from (or exit to) any space adjacent to her hair as long as they fit through Rope Trick's window. She can pull her hair in behind her, but must exit from where she left. Unwilling occupants may force their way out with a full-round action, provided they are free to move.

The witch's hair reaches every location in this space, and indeed forms all walls, floors, and ceilings.

When a rope made of her hair is the subject of a Rope Trick spell, the witch senses this and may choose to have it open on her personal extradimensional space. Occupants thereof may then exit via the window made by the spell, or via her hair into a space adjacent to her.

The witch must have the White Hair hex to take this major hex.



Hair Hydra (Ex)

As a full-round action, the witch may make a single attack with her hair at each foe within her hair's reach. She uses a single natural attack and "limb" for all of these strikes, and, if she has Improved Grab, may grapple each of them using only the single limb, though that limb remains occupied as long as any of them are grappled.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this major hex.



Hair-Raising (Su)

The witch may prop herself up on her extended hair, effectively gaining a fly speed equal to double her land speed, though she must remain within her hair's reach of a surface capable of supporting her weight. She receives a bonus to her skill checks to Fly equal to her level.

The way her hair distributes her weight generally prevents her from triggering traps if she is within reach of a non-trapped surface. Her hair clings to walls and even ceilings as if affected by Spider Climb, so the supporting surface need not be beneath her. Her hair must be extended and under her manipulation to use this ability, which may matter for witches without the White Hair hex.

If she has the Flight hex, she may use time her hair is extended to exercise that hex's power without counting against that hex's time limits.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this major hex.



Familiar Hair (Su)

The witch's familiar has the Prehensile Hair hex. Her familiar may develop a miniature coiffure matching her own in color and style, or may simply grow fur, or may extend already-extant fur as part of this hex, at her player's option. Her familiar also shares any hexes that she may have which require Prehensile Hair as an ultimate prerequisite. He uses her witch level as his own for purposes of these hexes.

If she does not have the Prehensile Hair hex, herself, she may nevertheless take hexes which have it as a prerequisite; they apply to her Familiar's hair only.



Sensitive Hair (Su)

The witch's hair is an extended sensory organ. When her hair is extended, her hair gives her All-Around Vision and, to the reach of her hair, Blindsight. She can even use it to peer around corners or through narrow spaces, as if casting Clairvoyance and Clairaudience at the tips. She may also scry upon severed locks of her hair as if they were her familiar, seeing and hearing from the location of the scried-upon hair.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this major hex.




Grand Hexes

Hair Maze (Sp)

As a standard action, while the witch's hair is extended, the witch may cast Maze on a single creature in reach of her hair. Her hair appears to engulf and consume him. When he escapes, he exits in a square of the witch's choice within reach of her hair, or adjacent to the witch if her hair is not extended. While trapped in the Maze, the creature is within reach of the witch's hair, though she cannot prevent his Intelligence checks to escape (which may result in him being grappled but outside the Maze).

If she also has the Hair Dimension major hex, he escapes first into her hair dimension unless she chooses to expel him immediately, and must take one additional action to force himself out.

If used on a Minotaur, the Minotaur is instead targeted by Charm Monster.

Once a creature has been affected by this grand hex, the witch cannot use it on that creature again for 24 hours.

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this grand hex.



A Mind of Its Own (Su)

The witch's hair gains its own set of actions, which it may use to move itself and her, attack on its own, and even detatch and operate as a separate creature. The witch no longer spends her own actions to enable the hair's actions; the hair acts on its own (at her mental direction). The hair may detach from her head (or face, or wherever) as part of a move action, and may re-attach as another move action. While separate from the witch, it has AC, hp, saves, and other statistics as if it were the witch. It can use her skills, but it can't cast spells. It counts as a Construct, and is immune to precision damage. It has damage reduction 10/slashing. It can go up to Long range away from her; if it leaves that range, it shrinks down to nothing, as it does if it is destroyed.

If destroyed, the witch regrows her hair the next time she chooses to extend it. She may also recall it by regrowing it, causing the separated construct to shrink down to nothing in the process. It has 1 hp when regrown after destruction, and has fast healing 1 while attached to the witch (and cannot be targeted as a separate creature).

The witch gains no special sensory connection to her hair while detached, unless provided by some other source, so may only direct it with the information of her own senses unless she is aided by some other magic (such as the Sensitive Hair major hex).

The witch must have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this grand hex.

nonsi
2019-05-08, 12:00 AM
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Given that the Witch has poor attack bonus, I see no reason for you to worry yourself too much about making things overpowered.
The White-Haired Witch is actually quite interesting up to level 8. It's the higher levels (where they got lazy and went for Rogue talents) that it loses its uniqueness.
You might wanna consider making some things automatic, such as the extended reach (nixing Long Hair in the process).
Basically, most of your proposals are solid and within reason (except maybe Hair Dimension and Hair Maze, which are a bit of a stretch).

and a small correction:

The witch no longer can needs to spend her own actions to enable the hair's actions

Segev
2019-05-08, 01:07 AM
Making the length extension a separate hex was partially for balance, yeah. Not sure rolling it into White Hair is the right move. Might put it all the way into Prehensile Hair.

The pattern is 10 foot reach at first level, then +5 feet at every multiple of five.


Hair Maze is actually designed to be similar in utility to the grand hex that turns a victim into an animal and enslaves it. I figure the shorter-duration removal was kosher as a grand hex from that.

The Hair Dimension is mainly for storage. But as a major hex needed to be useful. Interacting with ropes made of her hair was a fun ribbon, I thought.

Are they stretches balance-wise or thematically, in your opinion?


I agree the archetype is interesting, but I actually think the level 6 and 8 perks are bad. Pull is handled by the improved grab feature, as grappling by default enables and requires you to pull the target to a space next to you if you grappled with reach. Strangle is nice, when useful, but suffers from being situational and only slightly faster than just pinning the victim. I left it as an option in Dread Locks only for completeness. I removed Pull completely, since its rolled up in Improved Grab.

Gallowglass
2019-05-09, 12:42 PM
I would condense it down into fewer hexes by combining some of the powers. You have 9 minor hexes, 5 major and 2 grand? Assuming the idea is to let people grab some parts of white-haired witch that they like to combine with their normal hex selections, I would condense it down to maybe 5 minor, 3 major and 1 grand so that people can actually take all the hexes and still ahve room for a couple others.

Segev
2019-05-09, 04:39 PM
I would condense it down into fewer hexes by combining some of the powers. You have 9 minor hexes, 5 major and 2 grand? Assuming the idea is to let people grab some parts of white-haired witch that they like to combine with their normal hex selections, I would condense it down to maybe 5 minor, 3 major and 1 grand so that people can actually take all the hexes and still ahve room for a couple others.

That's a valid point. My concern would be to ensure that it's not making the hair hexes better than the majority of alternative hexes you could be taking. While, yes, I'd like it to be possible for somebody to take "a few" hair hexes and then take a few "normal" hexes, I also want the person who runs the White-Haired Witch theme to be filling out all his hex choices with them. Does that make sense? In a sense, while I'm definitely trying for something more powerful than White-Haired Witch, I want the concept represented by the archetype to be a complete build - or even more, a couple of variations of complete builds - if you want to go whole hog.

That said, I'm going to trim down long hair (pun intended) to something more like this:


Long Hair (Su)

The witch's hair can extend to 15 feet, rather than 10. When she reaches 10th level, it extends to 20 feet. At 15th level, it extends to 25 feet, and at 20th level, it extends to 30 feet.

The witch must be at least 5th level and have the Prehensile Hair hex to take this hex.

This way, it's only something you ahve to take once. I'm tempted to just put this in as a base part of Prehensile Hair, so a witch who takes only Prehensile Hair still has a reach of 30 at level 20, at least for the up to 20 minutes a day she can have her hair extended. THe main reason I hesitate here is because I do'nt think Prehensile Hair is too weak as written, and I'm also always more comfortable adding new options than modifying existing ones (unless the existing ones are obviously so bad I just want to replace them, as with the White-Haired Witch archetype in general).

Edit: Also just made Dread Locks grant 2 abilities each time you take it, and moved Wild Hair under it. I do fear this might be getting too powerful, but it does condense choices a little.

nonsi
2019-05-11, 12:28 AM
That's a valid point. My concern would be to ensure that it's not making the hair hexes better than the majority of alternative hexes you could be taking. While, yes, I'd like it to be possible for somebody to take "a few" hair hexes and then take a few "normal" hexes, I also want the person who runs the White-Haired Witch theme to be filling out all his hex choices with them. Does that make sense? In a sense, while I'm definitely trying for something more powerful than White-Haired Witch, I want the concept represented by the archetype to be a complete build - or even more, a couple of variations of complete builds - if you want to go whole hog.

That said, I'm going to trim down long hair (pun intended) to something more like this:



This way, it's only something you ahve to take once. I'm tempted to just put this in as a base part of Prehensile Hair, so a witch who takes only Prehensile Hair still has a reach of 30 at level 20, at least for the up to 20 minutes a day she can have her hair extended. THe main reason I hesitate here is because I do'nt think Prehensile Hair is too weak as written, and I'm also always more comfortable adding new options than modifying existing ones (unless the existing ones are obviously so bad I just want to replace them, as with the White-Haired Witch archetype in general).

Edit: Also just made Dread Locks grant 2 abilities each time you take it, and moved Wild Hair under it. I do fear this might be getting too powerful, but it does condense choices a little.


I remind you again that the Witch has poor BAB, so the base ability will be solid on its own with Long Hair being absorbed by Prehensile Hair.
If you're worried about certain iteration hexes being problematic - take care of those certain iteration hexes and tone them down as you see necessary.
Don't fall into the Dodge-feat-syndrome trap (i.e. forcing players to spend a lot of character resources for a probably never-reached power peak somewhere in the distant future of their character development). The process of character-build development should be adequately rewarding on its own.



Also note that Dread Locks and some other hair-hexes don't amount to something significant if the witch doesn't find a way to elevate her attack bonus.


[EDIT]:

Control Braids: Seems like this one should have Braided Rope as prereq. I’d actually make it an 8th level upgrade of.

Segev
2019-05-20, 11:17 AM
I remind you again that the Witch has poor BAB, so the base ability will be solid on its own with Long Hair being absorbed by Prehensile Hair.
If you're worried about certain iteration hexes being problematic - take care of those certain iteration hexes and tone them down as you see necessary.
Don't fall into the Dodge-feat-syndrome trap (i.e. forcing players to spend a lot of character resources for a probably never-reached power peak somewhere in the distant future of their character development). The process of character-build development should be adequately rewarding on its own.I agree on the design principle, here.

However, with this in mind:


Also note that Dread Locks and some other hair-hexes don't amount to something significant if the witch doesn't find a way to elevate her attack bonus.If something is done to improve BAB, would that make folding the Long Hair into Prehensile Hair overpowered?

As an alternative to BAB, would enabling the witch to either take a hex that grants, or to build into the hexes based on combat maneuvers, a size increase substitute for the lack of BAB?

Say, for each of Constrict, Improved Grab, Strangle, and Trip taken, the hair counts as one size category larger (stacking with each other and enlarge person) for purposes of combat maneuvers? Or just grants a flat bonus on CMB. That might be less messy than trying to mess with only parts of the size-category rules.

Maybe each has a clause that adds +1 to CMB when using the hair, which improves to +2 (each) at level 10. That'd be a +8 to CMB if all were taken by level 10, making an "effective BAB for CMB purposes" of +13. Actually higher than the BAB of a fighter at level 10, and the fighter only catches up at level 16, and surpasses at 17+. Would that be sufficient?


Control Braids: Seems like this one should have Braided Rope as prereq. I’d actually make it an 8th level upgrade of.I left it without Braided Rope as a prereq on the off chance a witch wanted to actually just mundanely fashion rope from her hair and take this hex. Admittedly, it's a bit niche in that case, so making it an upgrade might work.

Segev
2019-05-21, 10:28 AM
Edited some formatting and put the above discussed changes in. Left the old version as spoilers and notes for comparison. Also made Split Ends auto-upgrade, rather than need to be taken multiple times.

nonsi
2019-05-24, 10:56 AM
Edited some formatting and put the above discussed changes in. Left the old version as spoilers and notes for comparison. Also made Split Ends auto-upgrade, rather than need to be taken multiple times.

Seems solid now :smallcool: