Pathfinder: Hexes of Shadow

Last night, I ran across a thread on the Paizo boards asking for more witch hexes. The posters were asking (among other things) for more helpful hexes, hexes that were more Rowling and Pratchett and less Brothers Grimm, but most strikingly to me, themed hexes, a hex that in some way ties into to their patron.

Well, I didn’t sleep much last night and a number of them. I could go crazy and write a whole host of them, but I really am trying to stay focused on Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen and finish that up. So instead, I am going to post some here on my blog whenever I finish up a group of three hexes for a patron.

So today’s hexes center around the Shadow patron. Long time fans of my work know that I love the plane of shadows. So a few shadow hexes was hardly difficult for me to come up with, especially considering the ideas in the thread. And with my editors’ approval, I present to you three new witch hexes.

Shadow

Each of these hexes is only available to witches with the Shadow patron.

Shadow Scout (Su): The witch touches a willing creature, tearing it apart from its shadow. The touched creature can control its shadow for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier, allowing it to scout ahead. The shadow has a fly speed equal to the the creature’s base land speed (with good maneuverability), has skills equal to the creature’s skills (with a +4 bonus to Stealth checks in dim light and a –4 penalty to such checks in bright light), has an Armor Class equal to the touched creature’s touch AC, is incorporeal, and can see just as the touched creature, but it cannot attack, speak, hear, cast spells, or otherwise interact with the environment. Meanwhile, the touched creature is unconscious until the shadow’s return. If either the touched creature or the creature’s shadow takes any damage or the shadow fails to make it back to the touched creature before the duration expires, the touched creature instantly wakes up without a shadow, suffering 1 negative level. At the next sun rise, this negative level disappears and the creature’s shadow reappears attached to the creature; the negative level cannot be removed any earlier. A shadow that returns to the creature before the duration expires suffers no negative effects. Whether the shadow returns to the creature or not, the creature remembers all the shadow saw. A creature without a shadow cannot be targeted by this hex.

Shadow Trip (Su): The witch momentarily takes control of a creature’s shadow, using it to trip the creature. The witch attempts a trip combat maneuver against a creature within 30 feet, using her witch class level as her base attack bonus and her Intelligence modifier instead of her Strength modifier to determine her combat maneuver bonus.

Major Hex: Cold Shadows (Su): The witch can choose a living creature within 30 feet. It takes 1d6 points of Strength damage + 1 per 2 witch levels (to a maximum of 1d6+10). A successful Fortitude save reduces this damage by half. Once a creature has been targeted by the cold shadows hex, it cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours.

For more witch spells, download Book of Magic: Signature Spells 2 at DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore or at Paizo.com.