Hey I'm Jake, I make posts, videos and supplements for all things RPG. As of late, I have been delving into the wonders of Pathfinder 2e.
All the information I talk about here is on the Archives of Nethys site where all Pathfinder 2 resources are available for free.
Being new to Pathfinder2 (PF2) but a long-time lover of D&D, 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! And that's why we're discussing the Poppet Ancestry (Race) and the Witch Class to combine them in a creepy and interesting way. Our character today could NOT exist in 5e. It will be a Poppet Witch. Not a Witch who uses Poppets... an actual Poppet that's a Witch. God I love this game! *shake head*
I'm going to start from first level with Ancestry selection and Backgrounds to show you an idea of how you could pull feats and skills and powers from Pfftoo to make nearly anything you can think of. I'll only be taking the build to 6th level to give you a start; then you can take it from there.
First... what is a Poppet? In our world it's basically a voodoo doll. You do things to the doll as if you were doing them to the person and it's supposed to affect the person. Wiccans generally use it to cast beneficial luck or healing spells on someone with their permission.
In PF2, Poppets are small, basic constructs commonly made of cloth, wicker, and wood that help their owners with simple tasks. Usually Rich people. Occasionally, poppets gain sapience, independence, and a spark of life. Elevated beyond mere helpers or playthings, these poppets are free to chart their own destinies. Their size and appearance vary, but nearly all poppets appear humanoid in shape and between 1 to 3 feet tall and 6 to 30 pounds. Very, very rarely, a common poppet spontaneously manifests a spark of life and becomes a thinking, independent creature. A poppet might manifest this life essence through a magical fluke in its construction, a brush with ephemeral spirits, or even the fervent wish of a loving child. Our Poppet character was born of the rage and pain of a little girl named Priscilla with an extraordinary ability. She could tap into the Realm of the Fey and use the magical essence of the first world to create friends for herself. Because she was traumatized and so had boundless anger and fear, these playmates manifested traits of her twisted will. This gave them anger, a desire to protect her, and a violent nature. Her creations have only rough features, so our Poppet has a rough crooked mouth, two mismatched button eyes, and has blade-tipped claws for hands. She made many of these friends, but her access to the land of the Fey was severed and so they were lost. This Poppet character we are building is one of if not THE last. It has no gender, but we'll call it Playmate. Poppet Heritages are varied and really cool. we have...
Ghost Poppet - You gain resistance to negative damage equal to half your level (minimum 1) because you've already been dead before. Stuffed Poppet - You have little inside you other than cotton, sawdust, or dried leaves. You take no damage from falling, regardless of the distance you fall. If you take Stuffed Poppet you can also take the Nothing but Fluff feat later which reduces precision damage you take because you're just full of cotton. Next is Toy Poppet - you're tiny. Cute, but unnecessary for this build. Windup Poppet - Provided you wind metal tabs on your body a few times each day, you don't need food or water to survive. You must still breathe to ventilate your internal mechanisms and sleep to give your mechanisms rest, just like other poppets. This is weird to me and it seems like no Poppet should have to breathe, eat or sleep and I would rule it that way at my table. I mean, who cares? Wishborn Poppet - You were wished to life, either by a powerful spellcaster or by the earnest desire of an innocent person who loved you very much. If you roll a success on a saving throw against an emotion or fear effect, you get a critical success instead. This one actually fits our theme very well, but the Nothing but Fluff was too good to pass up. Plus I didn't want to give an edge against emotional spells. And which one are we gonna pick? Stuffed Poppet. Some of you may know where I'm going with this. And we get a Poppet Feat so we'll choose Harmless Doll. Cuz it's creeeepy. "You look like nothing more than an ordinary toy, doll, or statuette, and you can fool others with your innocuous appearance. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Deception (or another skill if you're already trained in Deception), and you can Impersonate an inanimate toy or a mindless poppet. You can Hide without any cover or concealment from creatures that don't realize you're alive, so long as you're in a location where a toy of your shape wouldn't be out of place, like a carnival booth, city street, or toy shop (at the GM's discretion). If you succeed, onlookers still see you, but they mistake you for an inanimate toy. After being fooled once, they realize you're alive, and you can't Hide from them in that way again."
Now that we have our Ancestry and Heritage, lets move on to Class. We are going to choose Witch because you get curses and I think that's cool for a Poppet, and a couple of other reasons that I'll get to in a minute. A Witch is a bit like a Wizard from 5e (they get familiars, they cast spells, but your familiar holds your spells like a spellbook), which it teaches you. and they get Hex spells which are fun weird magical things you can do that are usually very "Witchy". All Witches subscribe to a "Patron", which is functionally their subclass. Their Patrons are mostly general themes like Curse, Fate, or Night... and the Patron determines what spell list they use and what bonus spells and abilities they get. And skills. And we are going to choose Curse! Because Poppet - Curses. It just works. Also, it makes some sort of intuitive sense to me that if you're angry, it could spill out in offensive ways in a magical world. And beings that identify with that spillage might reach out to "help" you. So taking Curse means that we get training in the Occultism skill and pull spells from the Occult Tradition spell list which is weird, evil, or otherworldly like mind control, tentacle magic, torture... you know... fun stuff. Curse also gives us the Hex cantrip Evil Eye, which we can use to make someone frightened, and gives you the spell Ray of Ray of Enfeeblement. Which is so much better than in 5e because it lasts a minute and can save you from fighters and the like. The target is "enfeebled" a condition, which subtracts a number from Strength based melee attack rolls, damage rolls and athletics checks. Now familiars. There are lots of options but we're going to pick... a Poppet...
What? We're going to choose to make it Independent and have Manual Dexterity so that it can act without us having to control them and they can use and move objects and tools. My dream idea is to throw the Poppet (weighs 6 lbs) near an enemy or ON an enemy, then let the Poppet strangle people. I know it might be tricky to work out, but they can still be used to help hand items between party members if not. BUT I couldn't find any rule stating that a Familiar CAN'T grapple. It's not a strike. Anyway, moving on. Let me know if I'm wrong on this. 1st level Witch Feat: Basic Lesson.
Lessons are things available only to Witches that just further customizes their usually dark magic. We're taking the Lesson of Vengeance. It gives your Familiar the Phantom Pain spell, which does persistent mental damage to an enemy without having to concentrate on it. If they fail, it just does mental damage every round for a minute. Aaaaand the real reason we're here: the Hex spell Needle of Vengeance.
*ahem* "A long, jagged needle jabs into the target foe's psyche whenever it tries to attack a specifically forbidden creature. Name yourself or one of your allies. The target takes 2 mental damage any time it uses a hostile action against the named creature."
I would flavor this to be a huge spectral Pin that matches the pins used for Poppet magic. Like sewing stick pins; and any time the enemy takes damage from it, it rams into their skull. Also, we'll take the Nothing but Fluff feat at 5th level, so that when you cast the spell and make the needle appear over your enemy, you take out a rapier or big pin that matches the one over their head and slowly skewer your own head with it. You reduce the precision damage, so you just have a sword sticking through your head. This would also be GREAT to do during intimidation. Because it makes you look crazy. I would also do this any time you cast a curse of any kind. Or you could just carry around extra swords or knives for your allies. Just stuck in your body.
We're almost done with 1st level, we have to still pick our starting skills and Backgrounds. I would like Intimidation, you already have Occultism, and you'll want to pick up Diplomacy and Athletics so you can grapple, which I will explain further once we are done with the Background. Background! I created a Background for this. I scoured every skill, background and feat and couldn't find what I was looking for so I made it. You can show this to your GM and see if they approve, You can download it Here. So here it is...
Emotionally Abused You had a difficult childhood, marriage, or imprisonment. You have spent a long time trying to put the pieces of yourself back together after this trauma. As part of your journey of self-validation and growth, you've discovered that you have an edge in stressful or violent situations.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Charisma or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.
You're trained in the Deception skill. You gain one of the following special abilities as a result of your experiences. Have Mercy FEAT1
(Action)
Frequency: once per day Requirements: A creature within 30 feet of you has displayed violent intent.
You passionately and humbly request an end to violence, causing your foe to second guess their attacks. All physical damage dealt by the target is nonlethal. This effect doesn't incur the typical –2 circumstance penalty for nonlethal attacks with a lethal weapon or attack. An unwilling target must attempt a Will save against your class DC. A willing target can choose to critically fail their saving throw.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected. Success The creature is affected for 1 round. Failure The creature is affected for 1d4 rounds. Critical Failure The creature is affected for 1 minute. Are you sure? FEAT1
(Reaction)
Frequency: once per day Trigger: You are the target of a spell or attack.
You sow seeds of doubt in your target’s mind, causing their actions and thoughts to become muddled and confused. The target must attempt a Will save against your class DC. This effect lasts for 1 round. This effect immediately ends if you or any of your allies cast a harmful spell on or make an attack against the affected creature.
Critical Success The target is unaffected. Success The target is enfeebled 1, and stupefied 1. Failure The target enfeebled 2, and stupefied 2. Critical Failure The target is enfeebled 3, stupefied 3, and confused.
On the other hand, if you would like another option, I would choose the Prisoner Background instead, which gives you the Stealth skill, and the Underworld Lore skill. You gain the Experienced Smuggler skill feat which is still useful, it just isn't helpful for the storyline I had in mind for this character.
While Playmates creator Priscilla is ACTUALLY the one who was abused, Playmate has had most of her emotions and assumptions about people IMPRESSED upon it. While Playmate has been "programmed" to be violent for a good cause, the psychic impetus that was Priscillas mind pushing it on no longer exists. Meaning that Playmates default is actually one of fear and misjudging. It tends to hide or to try to make itself pleasing to others. It volunteers for little tasks like cleaning or helping someone cook. That being said, there has to be a good reason for it to defend itself. It'll defend others immediately and aggressively, sure. But if it's all alone and attacked, it will try to play dead or escape first before resorting to violence.
2nd level! We get a Witch feat. We will take Living Hair. Sure, Poppets can have hair. So Playmate has scavenged stray hairs from the ground and also from enemies its killed. And its Poppet Familiar has stitched and stapled them to its head for it. Yeah, why not?! No, this is why I said we'll take Athletics. Because we can wrestle with our hair!!! I like the idea that our Poppet knows that it was made by a girl, but she's gone and left it all alone. It wants to fit in better and feels out of place so it collects hair wherever it can. Most creatures have hair, right? And while we're at it, they also have skin! And features that Playmate just doesn't have :( Maybe its Poppet Familiar will stitch on some ears to the sides of its head so it fits in better. Or lips. And maybe a skin patch on its arm that has a tattoo on it. It just wants to be accepted as a real person. And speaking of the Poppet Familiar, I imagine that because of Playmate and Priscillas history, the Familiar might try to care for them in special ways. We're giving it independence, manual dexterity, and eventually the ability to speak. Which means it can sing. So it sings its friends to sleep with an eerie high-pitched voice. Skill feat at 2nd level No Cause For Alarm; allows you to get rid of your allies frightened condition. Because I love the idea of this aggressive ugly killing machine going "ok ok, calm down yes it's ok... it's ok...". You need Diplomacy for that but we're going to be Expert in Diplomacy very soon anyway. And as I mentioned in the Wildfire Druid Post, we're assuming that we can choose a Multiclass Archetype at every even level for freebecause most people play with the Multiclass Archetype Feat Rule. If you can't, you could just skip this part... but it's more flavor than I can shake a Poppet at so I have to take it. We're choosing the Multiclass Archetype "Summoner Dedication" so we get an Eidolon. Eidolons are spirit-beings that use you as their anchor to the world and they have different natures, sources and abilities. We'll take the Devotion Phantom Eidolon... and her name is Priscilla. That's right, when we walk into town we are carried close to the chest of a little girl ghost as her treasured companion. Devotion Phantoms are really protective *grin*. Alright so the Phantom can do attacks and stuff, but really it's for roleplay and another ability I'll get to at 4th level. We found our girl! Yay! She's back... she's not quite the same but she likes us and protects us and we're happy to be together again! And we protect her too as we should. As we was made. As it will always be. 3rd Level Now this one's convoluted, stay with me. We're taking the Adopted Ancestry General Feat to select from Gnome Ancestry feats. We'll choose First World Magic which reads: "Your connection to the First World grants you a primal innate spell, much like those of the Fey. Choose one cantrip from the primal spell list. You can cast this spell as a primal innate spell at will." And we're gonna choose Puff of Poison, which says: "You exhale a shimmering cloud of toxic breath at an enemy's face. The target takes poison damage equal to your spellcasting modifier and 2 persistent poison damage, depending on how badly it saves." Now this is normally a spell that we don't get from the Occult Tradition spell list, so we wouldn't have access to it, so that's cool. Plus, since it's a cantrip, we can use it as often as we like. Even when you're lying lifeless on the floor like a doll and somebody picks you up. You just vomit poison into their face. And it's supposed to have a verbal component, so I'd like it to be "Bleeeeh". Aaaand 3rd level skill boost you'll need to choose Expert in Diplomacy for the next level ability. 4th Level
Feat: Syu Tak-Nwa's Skillful Tresses: (Yeah, that was a mouthful)
"You can expertly control your living hair and use it to perform various tasks. You can perform simple Interact actions with your hair such as opening an unlocked door or picking up objects. Your hair can't perform actions that require fingers or significant manual dexterity, including any action that would require a check to accomplish. Your hair can hold items of up to 1 Bulk, but can't Activate or attack with any items it's holding." Again, weird but... useful. I think I would have Playmate just play dead in Priscilla's arms with its hair gently caressing her face or playing with HER hair. And also do this with anyone you feel close to. They'll like it I'm sure. I also kinda like the idea of Playmate being carried through a marketplace and quietly grabbing something from a nearby stall out of curiosity. Or maybe to eat. Hey while we're on that; if Poppets have to eat then WHAT do they eat? They have no organs, no bodily fluids, no process to digest food or absorb nutrients. Maybe they eat sawdust and cotton. Or oils or fat to grease their parts. Or how about insects and pigments to keep their dyed parts looking bright? 4th level Multiclass Archetype Dedication Feat Initial Eidolon Ability; now Priscilla has a Reaction ability: Dutiful Retaliation. If Playmate is attacked within 15 ft. of Priscilla and she's within 15 ft of Playmate, she can strike back with ectoplasmic energy. "You leave my friend alone!"
And the skill feat we get at 4th level We are choosing Glad Hand. It reads: "First impressions are your strong suit. When you meet someone in a casual or social situation, you can immediately attempt a Diplomacy check to Make an Impression on that creature rather than needing to converse for 1 minute. You take a –5 penalty to the check. If you fail or critically fail, you can engage in 1 minute of conversation and attempt a new check at the end of that time rather than accepting the failure or critical failure result." Playmate really does just want to be safe and OK and one way to assure itself of that is to make friends with new people quickly. 5th Level
Yay, we get an ancestry feat. So we'll finally take the Nothing but Fluff feat. Which says... "Your fluffy interior lacks specific organs and struts, with few weak spots to injure. You gain resistance to precision damage equal to half your level."
Mostly just cause it's strange and really funny to carry swords around in your chest. 6th Level
This level we will take: Syu Tak-Nwa's Deadly Hair Feat. It says: "Your hair unarmed attack deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage and gains the grapple trait."
Yes! Finally we can grapple people with our stinky, greasy hair taken from dead people. You also get a skill feat at level 6, and now you can take Aura Sight so you can see peoples emotional and physical state, which is cool. For pure optimizing you'd take Titan Wrestler. Or now you could take Intimidating Glare if you didn't before. You intimidate with a glance instead of using words which is obviously badass. Yes, a glance from a button. While Playmate's lifeless and limp a button looks at you and it's... angry. *eyebrow* If you wanted more focused optimizing, you could take the Eldritch Nails Witch feat to be able to put weapon runes on your claws and to cast a spell through your claws. I just like the hair. Cuz it's weird. All in all, we are a monstrous 2 ft. tall plushy with dagger fingers and random hair and skin attached to us who can trip, disarm, grapple, shove or smack people with its hair. When we curse someone or use the Needle of Vengeance spell, we slowly skewer ourselves with a sharp implement and probably roll Intimidation in the same round. We vomit poisonous gas clouds, hit enemies from 10 ft. away with our hair, and if we get hit our Devotion Phantom Eidolon backhands them. Spiritual Pimpslap... and we help calm people down if they're scared, removing the frightened condition.
Also, Playmate is fiercely loyal. Protectiveness is baked in to it's core. And it is NEVER going to be more happy than when it is facing a threat with friends by its side, together. THAT is the greatest feeling it can experience. Because it knows that it's safe (because the threat is out there) and that it belongs somewhere. Helping people who appreciate it. In addition to this, you also get the spells that a Witch gets (From the Occult Tradition Spell List) . I didn't even go over general spell selection. There are great utility, offensive, defensive and creepy spells to choose from. Like the 1st level spell Grim Tendrils which lets you spray shadow tentacles in a 30 ft. line. You could flavor it like you're spitting those out too, just for... ahem flavor. Moving forward, you could have the Patron for this character be an actual Hag who is trying to teach Playmate to become a better Witch so that she can eventually steal it and use it for her own magic. Imagine the power she could get from a Poppet magically animated by pain who is also a Witch. Or maybe Priscilla could turn out to still be alive and this Eidolon pet only took the form that Playmate needed. And Priscilla makes friends with Playmate and forges a completely new relationship. And do not forget to remember; you might have developed coping mechanisms to deal with your emotions; like clanking your metal nails together. Counting things or naming things out loud as you pass them. Or drawing - badly; or rituals like before you sit somewhere turning in a circle to make sure you're safe. Maybe you whistle pop goes the weasel when you're nervous. I got this started for you - download our free fillable character sheet that has all of these things already on it.
And if you have a request for a character concept dripping with flavor in Pathfinder 2e, let me know. I'll be happy to make something for you.
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