Hey I'm Jake, I make rpg supplements and videos about Pathfinder2.
I LOVE Pfftoo and as a long-time player of DnD, I want to share the things that I find along the way and share them with you in a way that makes them easy to digest and hopefully... FUN!
All information for PF2 can be found on the Archives of Nethys for free.
Otherwise, if you want to get a physical copy of the books you can find most relevant information in the Core Rulebook.
Lizardfolk Ancestry and Feats are in the Lost Omens Character Guide.
Ardande Versatile Heritage, Kineticist Multiclass Archetype and Kinetic Impulse feats can be found in Rage of Elements.
Song of the Deep Background is found in Secrets of Magic.
The Witch Class and Feats can be found in the Advanced Player's Guide.
Mosquito Witch Patron is found in Lost Omens: Monsters of Myth.
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A little while ago I had the honor of playing in a 1-player PFftoo game run by GM Rufus (link here) where I got to play a hag. Well, essentially a hag. She was a Bog Witch that lives in a swamp and protects her home with nasty claws and she eats rotted flesh. So, y'know, a Hag.
Her Strength and Dex are 18 and her Intelligence is 16, all by 6th level. This is a hybrid spellcasting/melee build that focuses on buffing oneself before or at the beginning of combat with control options and limited healing, but it's there; and an overall focus on surviving and operating well in a swamp (and by default in a variety of other environments). So she's basically someone you can put into a variety of roles in the party. Provided she doesn't have to heal a large amount of damage in combat, she can do it. And now... BACKSTORY!
Hagatha Slugslime
Most people don't remember their early childhood, but Hagatha recalls her first moment of life. 3 years ago. Laying in a murky pond, the water was thick and warm - inviting. She gently floated to a mossy bank and arose, standing on the spongy ground, her claws and green rubbery skin glistening in the moonlight.
Her attention was drawn to the sky and she squinted against the brightness of a full moon, her brand new eyes adjusting slowly. But adjust they did, and transfixed by the blue-white light above her, she saw dark shapes move swiftly across the surface of the moon, forming eyes and a kind black smile and it began speaking.
It told her that she is a Swamp May, created to keep the natural balance of death, decay and rebirth. Without which, the world would spin out of control and all life everywhere would fail. The moon said it would be her guide and her face would bear the mark of the Moon's protection. She would learn of the swamp and creatures within it and to this end she was sent a companion to teach her of the world, it's ways, and of natural magic. She may have been made from slime and rot, but she is a benevolent guardian of natural things. She has a crescent moon shape burned into her forehead; a symbol whose match is also on the belly of her cockroach Familiar, Charles.
Shortly after Hagatha's emergence from her birthing pond, she began to explore the swamp and surrounding forest with Charles and in the process met dryads, sprites, and a family of intelligent wolves. One particularly worldly pixie made fun of her for looking like a "Hag" with her black root-like hair and green slimy skin, so she took the name in spite of him. It turned out to fit her well, and a friendly dryad even began calling her Hagatha which made her cackle with glee. After one particularly tense interaction with a woodcutting camp, she noticed that bipeds tended to wear coverings. So she thought that if she was going to explore further and learn as much as she can, she should also do so on the off chance that she might meet some people who were... unaccustomed to public nudity. So she wears the bare minimum to allow her free movement when running or swimming, though she's found a definite purpose for some articles of clothing to keep her comfortable while moving swiftly. She is, after all quite athletic and enjoys climbing trees and leaping upon creatures from above or surprising them from below while lying in the muck. In fact, she's quite fond of the look on people's faces when she surprises them with her black claws extended and eyes wide in excitement. Upon joining an adventuring group, she may learn that people tire quickly of such games. But she doesn't know that yet. She has also learned that her appearance tends to shock non-fey in general, even when NOT leaping out from hiding. So she tends to cover as much of her green skin and ratty hair as she can before venturing far from her home and she has acquired some heavier outerwear for just such occasions.
Level 1
BACKGROUND
The Background we chose is really one of convenience. It's "Song of the Deep" which gives you Water Breathing and 1 Attribute bump that has to be Str, Con, or Charisma. It also gives you training in Athletics and the Ocean Lore skill. I think "Swamp Lore" fits us here a lot better so I ALSO took Swamp Lore on the Character Sheet, but if your GM's cool with it, just replace Ocean Lore with Swamp Lore. You live in and are of a swamp. Not the Ocean.
It is a Rare Background though so if your GM doesn't allow it, then just take "Sodden Scavenger". It easily applies and it says:
"You've managed to eke out an existence in the storm-wracked Sodden Lands and have become an expert at scavenging food and tools.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.
You're trained in the Survival skill and the Swamp Lore skill.
You gain the Forager skill feat."
ANCESTRY
Ok so now this is a bit odd and I'm ok with that. This character LOOKS like a stereotypical hag. Green skin, big claws, black slimy hair, one green eye and one purple.
So naturally, her Ancestry is Lizardfolk.
Use the system for what you need! Because of her origin story, the Ancestry that overall fits the right theme is Fleshwarp. Because she was created from the use of magic and organic tissue. But Lizardfolk have a wide assortment of abilities that work MECHANICALLY the way a swamp hag would or could work.
Lizardfolk (Iruxi) are freakin' cool; they get a lot of physical abilities that are pretty rare. They start with a bonus to Strength, Wisdom and 1 other Attribute and a penalty to Intelligence. Since I made a Witch, I just took the optional "Boost 2 Attributes" instead. We're focusing on the physical so we're also going to take the option of reducing 2 Attributes to boost 1 so that Strength and Dex can still be as high as possible. We are after all, making a melee-ish character.
Iruxi get claws by default that do 1d4 slashing damage and have the Agile and Finesse traits. And this is going to be our primary source of damage. We will also get Primal spells so we can enhance our natural weapons and always have at least 1 hand free for casting.
You also get the Breath Control general feat for free so even if you don't have Water Breathing, it'll probably be ok. This changes the amount of time you can hold your breath (with this character) from 7 rounds to 17.5 minutes. Holy crap.
HERITAGE
In order to amplify the Naturey aspects of our character, we will take the Ardande Versatile Heritage.
Which says, in part: "You might have green, mossy skin, vines that grow from your head instead of hair, or thin appendages that resemble twigs. We also gain Low-light vision." So feel free to make yourself as plantlike or mushroom like as you wish.
1st level Ancestry Feat
We'll take Parthenogenic Hatchling which says:
"You were hatched from an unfertilized egg during hard times for your people, and you are a biological copy of your mother. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against diseases. Each of your successful saving throws against a disease reduces its stage by 2, or by 1 for a virulent disease. Each critical success against an ongoing disease reduces its stage by 3, or by 2 for a virulent disease. You take damage only every 2 hours from thirst and every 2 days from starvation, rather than every hour and every day.
Special: You can take this feat only at 1st level."
Now obviously, we were born of magic, not an egg. So this is a boost that Nature gave us to resist disease because we live in a swamp. It also makes sense to me that if you are birthed OF a swamp, you can at LEAST resist diseases from that swamp.
1st Level Class
Witch! You get a LOT of stuff for the 1st level of Witch; which may be why your weapon, armor training and SAVES are so... underwhelming. You get spellcasting, Hex Cantrips... which are weird. A Patron - which is awesome, and a Familiar. So first: Patron. Because it sort of dictates almost everything else. We're a creation of hag magic and a manifestation of decay, risen from the elements of a swamp. Mosquito Witch. Basically a no-brainer. This is the Patron that will allow us to emphasize our theme in more ways. Like summoning biting and stinging insects.
And the Primal Spell List also feeds our theme with Acid Splash, Puff of Poison, Root Reading, Tanglefoot, Magic Fang, Pest Form (mosquito or cockroach), Swampcall, Sudden Blight and Vomit Swarm! Obviously I love the idea of that spell.
AND OUR FAMILIAR
He has speech, independence, and flight. He also has a tiny little top hat and waist coat. He's CHARLES THE PROPER ROACH. "That's right, madam. I believe you heard me. You are NOT to harm those halflings. I am under no onus to explain my reasons to you. It simply must be so." AND YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO HIM BECAUSE HE'S THE MOUTHPIECE FOR YOUR PATRON!
Ok, alright also Charles is how we've learned so much about nature and spellcasting. He has been there with us since we were created, sent to be our guide like a disgusting Jiminy Cricket. Have fun roleplaying this one. I suppose if you wanted to you could trade him in for a spellslime at level 6. Oh! You could even have it be the same being, just now he's CHARLES THE PROPER SLIME. TOTALLY Swamp Hag here.
Level 2
2nd level Class Feat
Basic Lesson of Protection. The power of Nature protects us. You gain the blood ward hex and your familiar learns mage armor. Mage Armor lasts until the next time you make your daily preparations which is always convenient and gives a little bump to AC and the hex you get, blood ward, is a small bump to your AC but you can also put it on an ally if you want. Cuz this build is able to dish out a beating AND provide support for the party. All while being weird as hell. I think that's kinda my favorite build; versatile mechanically and extreme in some way. Like being a swamp hag. 2nd level Free Archetype feat
Cuz Free Archetype, Duh! Kineticist Dedication. Yeah not what you expected? We're jumping all over the place to stay on theme. With Kineticist Dedication we get the Kineticist's Kinetic Aura, the Channel Elements action, and Elemental Blast. We need to choose an element for this blast and aura out of air, earth, fire, metal, water, or wood. I thought about wood for armor, but we're born from a swamp and spend our time submerged in water and communing with the spirits of the swamp. Water. We're taking water. Yeah, the blast isn't going to be our focus so this stage of the Archetype is just a stepping stone, a feat tax. Which I don't really like the idea of but it happens. 2nd level skill feat
We'll take Terrain Stalker. Which says:
"Select one type of difficult terrain from the following list: rubble, snow, or underbrush. While undetected by all non-allies in that type of terrain, you can Sneak without attempting a Stealth check as long as you move no more than 5 feet and do not move within 10 feet of an enemy at any point during your movement. This also allows you to automatically approach creatures to within 15 feet while Avoiding Notice during exploration as long as they aren’t actively Searching or on guard."
Because we're a protector of nature and nature's cycles, we'll often need to move carefully through natural environments. It's a feat that's generally useful in a lot of campaigns and you can take it multiple times for the other two difficult terrains later if you like for more flexibility. But it totally fulfills the fantasy of "I'm a monstrous Hag who sneaks through swamps to ambush travelers."
Level 3
We get access to 2nd rank spells and we increase one of our Skills to Expert; we'll choose Stealth. Because we're a sneaky bitch. Creeping through foliage and swamp lands to grab someone and DRAG THEM UNDER THE WATER AND DROWN THEEEEEM. 3rd level General Feat
We'll take Ancestral Paragon: Moldersoul. Because there is no other General Feat at 3rd level besides Ancestral Paragon. That's just the only option. Ever.
Moldersoul says: "Your connection to elemental wood asserts itself in the form of decay, like forgotten logs left to rot and the char that remains after a forest fire, cycles of devastation clearing away what was to make room for the next generation of life. You gain the Decompose action."
Which means: "Once per day: energy seeps out of you, decaying everything within a 5-foot emanation and causing plants and foliage to age and decompose. Natural difficult terrain is destroyed, and creatures in the area with the plant or wood trait take 1d6 void damage with a basic Fortitude save against your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher."
Not great for damage; that's not really it's purpose. This will be useful occasionally for removing terrain that's in your way in combat or while exploring but obviously, it's for theme. It's flavor. And totally dramatic if you're just trying to make an impression.
I know it's not optimal, I know. If you wanted to instead, take Ambersoul here. It's another Ancestry Feat and it's more useful for combat. It says...
"Your elemental heritage is reflected in the oils and fragrances of plants, in tree resin that fossilizes into amber, or in the gentle smell of a flower. Sticky, golden sap runs through your veins instead of blood. Each time a creature deals slashing or piercing damage to you with a melee Strike, your sap coats its weapon or unarmed attack. The creature takes a –1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls with that weapon or unarmed attack until the end of its turn."
I'd like to flavor this as your blood being swamp slime instead, sort of indicating that it makes the grip of your opponent's weapon hand slippery and requiring extra effort to hold on, distracting them from using their full force on the attack.
It's more useful than Moldersoul, especially in a fight and it's STILL flavorful... it's just not as on-point for the theme of swamp hag as literally decaying everything around you.
Level 4
4th level Class Feat
Base Kinesis Kineticist Archetype feat. Gives you the Base Kinesis impulse. Go figure. It's a little stunted in power when compared to a full Kineticist, but it still means that you now have power over water. You can destroy it, move it, or create it from nothing. This can be useful for people to always have water on hand to drink, to keep cool, or if say-you're caught in a trap of some sort that affects someone's ability to breathe normally, say a chamber slowly filling up with gas, you can fill it with water and breathe just fine. I hope your friends can too. Finally, and my favorite purposes: keeping your swamp nice and muddy or... making anywhere you stay for the night into a mini-swamp. It's great. Just add a couple of armfuls of leaves and branches to the area, fill it with water, use your Decompose power and just rest under the filthy water all night. So nice and comfy! Just like home!
4th level Archetype Feat:
Through the Gate Kineticist Archetype feat, which lets us choose a Kineticist Feat. We'll choose Ocean's Balm. It takes 1 action and saaaaays:
"A blessing of the living sea salves wounds and douses flames. Touch a willing living creature. It regains 1d8 Hit Points and gains resistance 2 to fire for 1 minute. If it has persistent fire damage, it can attempt a flat check to remove it with especially appropriate help. The target is temporarily immune to healing from Ocean's Balm for 10 minutes."
And every 2 levels past 1st, the healing increases by 1d8. So when we take this at 4th level, we're healing 2d8 and it'll go up to 3d8 by the time this build is done. This is some nice healing. Because it replaces our need to take battle medicine or even the medicine skill and we can heal people outside of combat; every person in our group, every 10 minutes. It's also useful in combat in a pinch. AND of course helps against fire. Overall it's a very good Kinetic Impulse Feat. 4th level Skill Feat
Alchemical Crafting. Cuz duuuh. Bog Witch. We'll learn the recipes Sticky Algae Bomb, Skunk Bomb, Energy Mutagen and Bestial Mutagen. Now - I know that we have to have downtime to be able to make these, but it's suuuper flavorful for this build. You brew your own freaking Bestial Mutagens to kick ass with your claws. Hell yes.
Bestial Mutagen at this level gives you an unarmed claw attack (doesn't matter), a bite attack that does 1d6 damage, and gives you a +1 on unarmed attack rolls and athletic checks (all the better to hug you with, my dear). Aaaand -1 on AC and -2 to Reflex saves and it lasts a minute.
Energy Mutagen gives you resistance to 1 type of elemental damage and vulnerability to 3 others and lasts a minute. It isn't super necessary, but if you know what you're going to be fighting, taking 5 less damage from energy attacks is really great.
Skunk Bomb does what you think it does: it does poison damage and it can make an enemy sickened, or slowed AND sickened, or on a critical failure on their fort save, sickened, slowed AND BLINDED. They also smell terrible so they're easier to track. And it fits a Swamp Hag; collecting poisonous gases in a little pouch.
Sticky Algae Bomb ALSO really fits the flavor. And it says:
"Attacks with this bomb don't take the normal penalties and restrictions for being used in water or underwater. A sticky algae bomb deals the listed poison damage. Many types grant an item bonus to attack rolls. In addition, the target is tagged by the bioluminescent substance and leaves a highly visible trail for the next hour. The DC to Track a creature using this trail is 19, but the trail appears only in water." And at this level, the bomb does 1d8 poison damage and 1 poison splash damage. But the reason you take it is for those niche moments when you can be AMAZING in an underwater setting.
Level 5
We gain access to 3rd rank spells and we increase one of our Skills. We'll increase Nature to Expert because we'll need it for our next level's Skill Feat. 5th level
Ancestry Feat: Ambersoul if you didn't take it before. If you did, I'd take either Read the Roots or Treespeech. Read the Roots says: "The root systems of trees are a far-reaching network of information, and you know how to access them and extract their secrets. You Seek within 30 feet using tremorsense, an imprecise sense, instead of one of your own senses. You can also detect subjects touching or burrowing through the surface you are standing on in this way." Obviously pretty cool. But know your GM with this selection; if they don't really give much capability or weight to imprecise senses (because some don't), then Treespeech is probably the way to go. It says: "Your connection to elemental wood allows you to communicate with trees in the Universe in Muan, the language of wood elementals. You can ask questions of, receive answers from, and use the Diplomacy skill with woody plants like trees and shrubs." If you do this, you may want to change out your Occultism for Diplomacy training so that you can actually make use of this.
Level 6
6th level Skill feat we take Spirit Speaker so we can talk to the spirit of an animal or beast that died within the last 1 minute. It's flavorful and sometimes useful. And remember, we're a servant of nature and our purpose is to keep the cycle going of death, decay and rebirth. So it's entirely within our character's concept of morality to kill an animal or beast to gain information if it were for an important purpose.
6th level Class Feat We take Assassin Dedication. Yeah, I know weird, right? So Assassin usually means special training in a dark and evil endeavor. But for us, it's something that we've been learning about and training for since the day we were spawned. We learn to stalk and hunt prey, surprising and killing them more effectively; all the better to serve nature's purpose - to continue the cycle. SO! It says:
"You've trained to assassinate your foes, and you do so with tenacity and precision. You gain the Mark for Death activity.
Mark for Death is a 3-action activity that requires that you be able to see and hear the creature you intend to mark. This lasts until the mark dies or you use Mark for Death again. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Perception checks to Seek your mark and on Deception checks to Feint against your mark. Your agile and finesse weapons and unarmed attacks gain the backstabber and deadly d6 weapon traits when you're attacking your mark. If the weapon or unarmed attack already has the deadly trait, increase the size of the deadly damage die by one step instead of giving it deadly d6."
6th level Archetype Feat From the Assassin Archetype, we'll take Poison Resistance. It just makes sense to me that we would gain a stronger affinity and kinship with the nature of rot and the things that would be in a SWAMP.
"Your body has become fortified against toxins. You gain poison resistance equal to half your level, and you gain a +1 status bonus to saving throws against poisons."
So we have Poison Resistance 3.
ROLEPLAY TIPS You're only 3 years old. You are new to dealing with others and you have a bias against humans and other bipeds with few exceptions. You're also often horrified with how people treat each other. You believe that if a person or thing is causing suffering, it needs to be removed to make room for others. Life is simple to you. All returns to the cycle and the cycle causes rebirth. Any death you cause will only feed more life. Suffering and selfishness are the blight on the world. Most times you can be found listening to the insects or speaking to the roots of trees, trying to understand the messages that nature has to offer and sharing them with those few who ask. You wouldn't offer, as you're simply used to thinking only of yourself and Charles; you've lead a rather selfish life. Oh, and you prefer to eat creatures that died of natural causes, but if you had to kill it yourself, that's fair game. Also, you see no difference between eating the flesh of cow, dog, human or ogre. You just like meat. CHARACTER QUOTES: *Gleeful Cackling*
"What is it you want? More wealth? More drive for destruction? To make others suffer for your whims? I must set your life free to feed the reeds."
"What grace nature has given me passes to you" - When healing someone.
"A vampire you say? I need no payment. It's death is my reward."
"Waiter, did the cow that gave this beef die of natural causes? Did it have a happy life?"
"Is this free-range chicken?"
She's the Hipster Hag. What?
Spell Selection!
Ok now all of these were chosen for Swampy flavor or for direct combat application. Your support comes from healing others, destroying difficult terrain, creating it, and making others sickened, poisoned, and blinded. CANTRIPS First, your Hex Cantrip. Buzzing Bites. This does 1d4 per spell rank and each time you sustain the spell they take the damage again. It can also make them Sickened and if you needed to you could cast it on more than one person and still attack. Because it takes 1 action. I like the repeated casting of Hex Cantrips. It's a really fun idea. Acid Splash in case you actually NEED acid damage at some point. This is also your best ranged option if you HAVE to stay away from enemies. And swamps can be highly acidic, so it made sense to me.
Healing Plaster so you can use Nature instead of Medicine. Obviously, you won't need this after level 4, but you can still keep it. After all, your healing Impulse can't help anything but hit point damage and fire. So this Cantrip is still useful. Puff of Poison for when you're up in someone's face and you don't want to attack with all of your actions, this is a good option for some extra damage that's easier to land than your second attack. Root Reading detects medium or larger creatures in 30 ft. emanation AND tells you if any passed by in the last hour AND gives you a bonus to track them AND if they're unnoticed by you nearby, they're instead undetected and you know they're there. This is just a flexible NEAT spell. Tanglefoot. Because slowing someone's speed is occasionally great and immobilized is even better. You could flavor this as a long whip of slimy green algae lashing out from her. 1st level spells! Magic Fang. Duh. make your claws deal more damage and give you a bonus to hit. Pest Form. Because reconnaissance is a thing. And because you can gross people out by turning into a cockroach. Mage Armor. From your Lesson of Protection; you'll probably cast this at the beginning of every day. Swampcall. You make a 10ft. burst within 30 ft. difficult terrain AND reduce their movement speeds (except swimming) AND make them flat-footed (or off guard). GREAT. Especially if you're in melee, push them back in and then jump in yourself. You're at home in gooey ground. 2nd level spells! Quench. You can use it to hurt fire elementals, counterspell fire spells, douse magical fires or most importantly in my games: automatically extinguish all non-magical fires in the area. Seriously, there have been so many forest fires started in my games.
Sudden Blight. It's an aoe damage spell and that by itself is a reason to take this. But it is also utility. It can rot all small and tiny non-creature plants in the 20 ft. burst, which also removes difficult terrain, cover and concealment if it's from plants. And it's decay. If I played this character and memorized this and it DIDN'T need to get used that day, I would use it anyway just to make some plants die. It's totally natural, after all: You're a force of nature.
Vomit Swarm. The best spell for flavor. I really like the visuals of this spell. You belch forth a swarm of tiny magical vermin of your choosing. Rats? SURE! Mosquitos, wasps, or roaches? Why not? It's another aoe damage spell and it also sickens creatures that fail their save. And maybe players.
3rd level spells!
Gasping Marsh. This is another aoe spell that deals damage and it could also cause sickened and persistent poison damage. Any creature it affects can only be affected once every minute, but the strengths of this thing are that it's an invisible effect and you can move it every turn. So this can lead to sickening, damaging, or outright killing a huge number of weaker enemies. You bring the spirit of the swamp to their souls. And not everyone can handle that.
Stinking Cloud. Causes concealment which can be nice, and it causes sickened and potentially slowed. I love that we can hold our breath for so long because we can walk into it and not be affected. I know that's not technically in the spell but that just makes sense. At least for avoiding the sickened and slowed.
Dive and Breach. It does damage in a small area twice, but the coolest part of this spell is it's tactical applications. Stuck behind a wall of bad guys and you need to get to an enemy caster who's flying behind them? Jump into a pool of nonexistent water next to the bad guys, then teleport to a surface near the caster. You might deal damage to them with the splash or even leap ON them and claw the shit out of them while you both fall through the air.
You can download the free fillable character sheet for this Haggy, cockroach-loving Witch already filled out to 6th level Here.
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And remember...
The smell of freshly cut grass plays a role in plant communication and plant defense against being eaten, functioning as a distress signal warning other plants of imminent danger. So that lawn of freshly cut grass is screaming to the other plants: I'm dying! It's coming for you!
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