Is winter witch still broken?

[Victor66]

And it is based on charisma or intelligence?

[Cutlass Jack]

Its based on whatever witch or shaman class you used to qualify for it.

Not sure what was broken or if its fixed though.

[Victor66]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Its based on whatever witch or shaman class you used to qualify for it.

Not sure what was broken or if its fixed though.

Apparently it barely had any spells and prison of ice was broken. So, as a stigmatized witch I'd use charisma, because it's the only witch that does?

[Schlumpsha]

Winter Witch isn't broken. Nor does it use Charisma.

To be able to qualify for the prestige class you either have to be a Shaman with the Frost spirit (thus Winter Witch will use Wisdom for casting stat). Or any Witch archetype that has access to the Winter patron (in that case Winter Witch will use Intelligence as casting stat). Stigmatized Witch loses Witch patrons in place for Oracle curses, so you won't be able to become a Winter Witch in the first place.

Non-Stigmatized Witches using Charisma for hexes and spells was a thing very early on during pre-release. It has been years since that bug was fixed. The Last Sarkorians DLC also gave witches a couple of extra spells, including cold ones. Winter's Grasp for instance.

[Victor66]

Originally posted by Schlumpsha:

Winter Witch isn't broken. Nor does it use Charisma.

To be able to qualify for the prestige class you either have to be a Shaman with the Frost spirit (thus Winter Witch will use Wisdom for casting stat). Or any Witch archetype that has access to the Winter patron (in that case Winter Witch will use Intelligence as casting stat). Stigmatized Witch loses Witch patrons in place for Oracle curses, so you won't be able to become a Winter Witch in the first place.

Non-Stigmatized Witches using Charisma for hexes and spells was a thing very early on during pre-release. It has been years since that bug was fixed. The Last Sarkorians DLC also gave witches a couple of extra spells, including cold ones. Winter's Grasp for instance.

Thanks! My winter witch has 1 shaman level and a frost patron and 6 levels as a stigmatized witch. Does it mean she uses wisdom?

[Schlumpsha]

Originally posted by Victor66:

Thanks! My winter witch has 1 shaman level and a frost patron and 6 levels as a stigmatized witch. Does it mean she uses wisdom?

Upon entering the first level of Winter Witch you should have selected the Shaman spellbook since that's the class with the met feature requirement. If that's the case the prestige class will utilize Wisdom for the Winter Witch spellbook and Frost Power features.

[Victor66]

Originally posted by Schlumpsha:

Originally posted by Victor66:

Thanks! My winter witch has 1 shaman level and a frost patron and 6 levels as a stigmatized witch. Does it mean she uses wisdom?

Upon entering the first level of Winter Witch you should have selected the Shaman spellbook since that's the class with the met feature requirement. If that's the case the prestige class will utilize Wisdom for the Winter Witch spellbook and Frost Power features.

The first level of my companions can't be changed AFAIK.

[Sophis]

Winter Witch has more spells now:
Witches get Winter's Grasp (lvl 3) and Cone of Cold (lvl 11, which they didn't use to have before).
Shaman gets the same as above, plus Tidal Wave (lvl 7 or 9, not sure).

If you go Winter Witch from Shaman, you will use Wisdom. If you go from Witch, you will use INT (Stigmatized Witch can't choose a patron, so you can't go WW from there).

Not sure about the Icy Prison bug, might be something from past updates. I've been using it on my winter witch run without any problems.

[Schlumpsha]

Originally posted by Victor66:

The first level of my companions can't be changed AFAIK.

Not the first base class level. I am talking about the first prestige class level. Winter Witch has a spellbook selection screen where you have to choose either Shaman or Witch to be affected by the Winter Witch. Whichever you select will then determine whether Wisdom or Intelligence is used.

By the sound of it you have made Ember a Winter Witch rather than a merc or your MC. That's... not a good idea. Winter Witch gradually decreases the DC of her fire spells, to a max. of -3. Meaning it runs counterproductive to her Blackened curse and additional fire spells.

[RedwoodElf]

Originally posted by Sophis:

If you go Winter Witch from Shaman, you will use Wisdom. If you go from Witch, you will use INT (Stigmatized Witch can't choose a patron, so you can't go WW from there).

Actually, you can. I've turned Ember into a winter witch by level dipping into shaman just to get the frost feature, then one level of crossblooded sorcerer (White Dragon/Water elemental) to get the extra +1 damage per die on cold spells and the ability to convert any spell into Cold Damage) Just combine spellbooks with Witch (Not Shaman) when you get Winter Witch, and she uses Charismal for all the spells. Winter Witch adapts to whatever class you combined spellbooks with when you qualified for it.

[Victor66]

Originally posted by Sophis:

Winter Witch has more spells now:
Witches get Winter's Grasp (lvl 3) and Cone of Cold (lvl 11, which they didn't use to have before).
Shaman gets the same as above, plus Tidal Wave (lvl 7 or 9, not sure).

If you go Winter Witch from Shaman, you will use Wisdom. If you go from Witch, you will use INT (Stigmatized Witch can't choose a patron, so you can't go WW from there).

Not sure about the Icy Prison bug, might be something from past updates. I've been using it on my winter witch run without any problems.

Actually, I went WW from Stigmatized Witch. She uses charisma, right?

[ayrtep]

Wow with cone of cold and winter's grasp WW looks quite good.

Witches usually loose five feats to wizards in return for a few hexes - a bad exchange IMHO as there spells are not as powerful as a wizard with all the spell focus feats. But WW gets the five feats back so I think WW is the best way to play a witch. You might need to take a Loremsaster level for Mass icy prison.

[Sophis]

Originally posted by RedwoodElf:

Originally posted by Sophis:

If you go Winter Witch from Shaman, you will use Wisdom. If you go from Witch, you will use INT (Stigmatized Witch can't choose a patron, so you can't go WW from there).

Actually, you can. I've turned Ember into a winter witch by level dipping into shaman just to get the frost feature, then one level of crossblooded sorcerer (White Dragon/Water elemental) to get the extra +1 damage per die on cold spells and the ability to convert any spell into Cold Damage) Just combine spellbooks with Witch (Not Shaman) when you get Winter Witch, and she uses Charismal for all the spells. Winter Witch adapts to whatever class you combined spellbooks with when you qualified for it.

Yes, if you take a shaman level for the frost Spirit you absolutely can. I was talking about going WW from pure Shaman or pure Witch, not using dips.

But then you are taking two dips, which will delay your spellcasting capabilities quite a bit... it will take a lot longer to get to the good spells. Not to mention the fact that cold-converted fire spells will still receive WW's -DC penalty (they will still have the fire descriptor despite doing cold damage). Not really worth it in my opinion, but can be done sure.