Is it viable to take a Witch instead of a Sorc/Wiz?

[Rudel]

Question is in the title, currently (restarted on core) running my MC as a Kinecticist + Heal (Daeran) + Archer (Wendu) + Tank (Seelah) + Offtank (Camelia) and there's only one spot left. Ember with Slumber, Web and Hexes seems to be a very good CC but how is situation later on?

[Sador]

Ember has a bunch of decent spells and the hexes help out a lot. Evil eye especially is huge to make combat easier, and the dice roll spells (like fortune, misfortune etc.) are great. I will say that I think the lack of spells for Ember especially (as she can't write scrolls in her spellbook) is a bit of a pain in terms of flexibility if that's your main caster.

[Draken]

I'm just finished the assault on Drezen and Ember is still very useful.
There are a lot of enemies with low will through act 1 and 2. Gargoyles or Babaus. She even has a decent chance to sleep Minotaurs or Vrocks.
Ember also has access to reflex based fire spells or webs as well as some fortitude targeting spells. Ray of exhaustion and sound attacks for example.
So she is doing quite well. While she is my healer she mostly does out of combat healing and more spellcasting/hexing during the battle. So if you focus her on those areas she should do even better.
If all else fails and the enemies are going to resist everything she can throw at them, Ember can still give your tank protective luck, forcing enemies to roll twice and take the worst roll. If you get Seelah's AC high enough that means that some enemies can only hit her by rolling a natural 20, two times in a row. :D

[wyndhambarnhill]

Witches have always been one of my fave classes. ....That's about all I really have to contribute lol. Fortune and buff spells, combined with Mythic Enduring Spells and Abundant Casting, and Specializations are a pretty potent mix

[Rainnd]

I don't believe witches get access to haste and stoneskin and both of these buffs are something I just can't part with.

[CHAO$$$]

On normal everything works.
On higher diff the one thig that jumps at me from looking at your comp is that you miss haste i believe and missing haste is no bueno.

I dont have memorized the spell lists for cam/ember perfectly but i believe neither of them gets it.

Spelldamage/CC wise youll be fine except for having terrible DCs due the vanillas companions poor casting stats.

Vanilla tanks arent great without mirror/blink tho cam might actually get blink.

Id cut Daeran. Pots are plentiful and both witch and cam have druidic spell lists so you dont really need another divine caster than doesnt contribute much else + orcale doesnt get domain powers so its double bad.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

On higher diff the one thig that jumps at me from looking at your comp is that you miss haste i believe and missing haste is no bueno.

Yeah, I'm just finishing Grey Garrison and still using Ember, but I agree that Haste alone is sufficient to bench her in favour of Nenio relatively soon. Either Ember or Camelia or Woljif.

I've also got to create a slot for Daemon as his spellbook expands. It's going to be difficult to bench two out of Ember, Camellia and Woljif. But as their spellbooks and slots expand Nenio and Daeran are going to force their way into my first team one way or another I expect. I haven't met the others yet. I dare say they are going to make things even more difficult.

[アンジェル]

I suggest to think how much the witch abilities are worth to you. It is still viable to go witch and then have someone else who has haste to scribe scrolls for you to have additional uses. At least that is what my Nenio is doing while she mainly memorises only offensive spells.

[Prince & Emperor]

If you want her to be a blaster (besides her hex shenanigans), there are a ton of items that go well with her flame touched curse. So many fire spells, so many damage dice, it's great. Also if you switch Camelia for Woljif - though less tanky - you get haste. But maybe Camellia does too, I don't remember

[Tyzer]

You definitely need Nennio. She gives you all buffs you will need and she is a good magic trickster, which helps you a lot on high difficulties (touch attack is very strong and must have against enemies with high defense(which is every boss actually))

[Rudel]

Hmm ok, thanks. It makes sense to have someone with Haste on my team, wasn't sure about Camillas spellbook. Can you really ditch a dedicated healer and use mainly offensive casters? The healing wave saved my life so many times..

The thing about Woljif is that he's gone for quite some time in chapter 2. And tbh I don't like Seelah too much and I was planning to switch her with Regill, leaving Camilla as the only (Dex) tank.

[Irx]

I miss the d&d warlock, witches & kineticists are not that fun.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Rudel:

Question is in the title, currently (restarted on core) running my MC as a Kinecticist + Heal (Daeran) + Archer (Wendu) + Tank (Seelah) + Offtank (Camelia) and there's only one spot left. Ember with Slumber, Web and Hexes seems to be a very good CC but how is situation later on?

Ember is fine, esp. if you give her that fire spells ring. The problem with your party is no haste. If you go trickster and use a wand of haste it's fine, otherwise you need haste. Like, really need, at least on Core+ difficulty.

[Algol]

Dunno, Ember is ok, but the growing save bonuses of enemies seem to quickly outclass her offensive hexes. I prefer Ninneo as a dedicated spellcaster because wizards can can raise the DC of their spells better thus being more consistent.

[Naked Granny]

Witches are ok in the video game... Ember is just a sorcerer-variant of witch (Stigmatized archetype). If you don't like the spontaneous version, then make a vanilla witch.

The main difference between witch and sorc/wiz/arcanist is that the witch spell list does not get several very crucial spells. Slow, Haste, Stoneskin, Resist Energy, Protection From Energy and a few other high level ones. Those few right there are fairly game-halting things if you don't have anyone on your team who can cast them. The resist / protection from energy spells are available to clerics though.

Witches can usually crutch along by leaning heavily upon their debuff hexes which works ok for single-target bosses when you need to debuff a lot before your real disablers can land. In a game like Wrath where the combat is a non-stop slog through hundreds of creatures between rests, having spammable free hexes is convenient, whereas wizards in particular will always always always be out of spells available and begging to rest.

Compared to divine casters, witches might have cure / inflict spells on their list, but if you want restoration, you have to take the Healing Patron. With that Patron, witches can substitute for a caster-focused cleric (Sosiel is a a tank, and Daeran is a spontaneous caster so he has trouble keeping up with various debuff cures since he has limited spells known and scrolls are not really sufficient in some cases when the DC is high).

[jsaving]

I would not personally want 0 out of 6 party members casting wizard buffs/blasts/CC. But you have LOTS of options there besides Nenio if you think creatively about the available companions. You can give Lann 19 levels of empyreal sorcerer. You can give Seelah 19 levels of eldritch scion or sylvan sorcerer. Or you can give Camellia 19 levels of empyreal sorcerer. Or if you like Wojlif but aren't interested in scoundrel, you can even give him 17 levels of wizard which is enough to eventually cast 9th level spells.