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.
The Magus Class and Soulforger Archetype can be found in Secrets of Magic.
The Conrasu Ancestry can be found in The Mwangi Expanse.
The Witch Multi-class Archetype and Feats can be found in the Advanced Player's Guide.
Tattoo Artist and the Magical Tattoos are in the Treasure Vault Book.
Please note, these links are affiliate links and if you use one to purchase, we may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
I have for you today a Gnome Magus focused on the protection of Witches, natural places, and Druids. The Witchblade. Or Witch Warden if you like.
This build combines interesting aspects from 5e: The Roleplay of the Oath of the Ancients Paladin, the reach and ability to hit multiple opponents of a Polearm Master, and extra Hit Points, Damage, and even more spellcasting than the Hexadin. Oh, and you get to sneak around the woods like a Gloomstalker Ranger This is a build that has a lot of self-sustaining abilities and has a variety of ways to protect squishy casters.
The Witchblade
BACKSTORY Our Gnome character is named Syrup. *shrug* What? She likes pancakes. While working as a guard in an alchemical and machining workshop, Syrup was enjoying her lunch break of Cooperative Waffles with her team when a safety alarm began blaring. Dropping their alchemical snacks, they ran to help.
They discovered a team of Technicians trapped in a room with rising heat due to an energy leak from a newly discovered ancient device. They had estimated it came from the time before Earthfall and unfortunately, they were right.
Syrup bypassed the safety seal and grabbed one of the Technicians, burns and boils all over his skin, dragging him to safety and together they fled the laboratory. A blast caught Syrup and the technician from behind, searing and sending them both to the ground. She arose and stumbled in a daze, one shriveled and burned arm tucked under her tool vest. Her technician wasn't as lucky. She glanced back after rising and turned away from the ruin of his body.
Only to see more around her.
She moved away quickly, but she was still in range for the next blast that erupted from the facility, vaporizing flesh and melting steel.
Not knowing how far she made it with her burned and broken body, she finally slumped into the soft loam of the forest that she'd loved since her first burrow and laid her head to rest against an ash tree.
When she awoke it was dim, but she could see well enough the bodies of other workers who had followed her path, burned in a similar fashion as she. Checking all of them for signs of life, she touched each one until she found someone still breathing - someone from her team, in fact. She stayed awake to watch over him, seeing it as her duty to care for her team for as long as she could.
When he began to rattle in a terrible way, she began yelling for help as loudly as she could - she was no medic, she hadn't even finished basic first aid... she always meant to, but there was always something more important. His rattle thinned as her ears perked up at the sound of swift feet through the snapping twigs of the forest. Then suddenly a small tree came into the clearing. Then another, then another. Startled as the 4 sparkling black orbs surrounded by shaped and twisted plants regarded her, she could barely breathe. She'd never seen a Conrasu before. Only heard of their unlike-us-ness.
The otherworldly creatures rushed to her friend's aid and with a glow of green and white light, his breathing eased and he moaned in pain. Taking that as a wonderful sign, Syrup sat down and blacked out from exhaustion, the moment of peace taking the remaining energy she had.
She awoke to searing pain - ants and some sort of slow-moving acid crawled all over her left arm and ribs.
Seeing that their patient was beginning to panic, a wooden creature shaped like a magnifying glass with spider legs brought it's glassy eye of stars close to Syrup's face and emitted a vibration that could only be described as the voice a crystal bowl would have if it could speak.
"We enhance our calm to avoid harming ourselves. Energy is precious."
Far from comforting, the voice was barely intelligible to her fear-addled brain. She started moaning loudly in pain and tears squeezed out of her eyes as she strained against the huge leaves wrapped around her body, holding her to the rigid bed beneath her.
Another Conrasu moved into view above her, quickly placing heavy wooden pods all over her ruined left side, sternum and hips. Syrup was able to glance to her left, noticing that the bent and blackened appendage that had been her arm wouldn't respond to her commands; she saw no evidence of the ants or acid, only a shimmering clear film of some sort covering the arm. Which suddenly erupted in moss, green tendrils, and pain. The pods burst all over her, digging roots deep into her body before the first Conrasu mercifully touched her forehead and darkness clutched her tightly once more.
She woke again, but numbly - as if drugged. She had no feeling in the left side of her body.
Waiting for her to wake, the same spider-glass Conrasu again brought it's glassy eye of stars close to her face.
"Move slowly. Life force re-balances."
Ignoring the creature, she glanced at her surroundings long enough to realize that she was in some sort of large wooden room before staring... without understanding... at her transmogrified body. As her eyes traveled from right to left, there seemed to be an ending to her flesh where skin and muscle gave way to bark and sprouting branches.
When she raised her left arm she gazed in frightened awe at the delicately articulated tree branch that her appendage had become. She wiggled the five fingers that ended in points and managed to stammer to her host "Wha... wha.. huh... how - What am I doing here?!"
The Conrasu spider-person raised two limbs in a beseeching gesture and said in that same eerie voice "We enhance our calm and hear. This one is Gravix, Maintainer and guide. The Seekers reclaimed the living beings and brought this Gnome here. Gravix has Maintained this Gnome." it gestured to her and rose a bit, as if proud of it's work.
Syrup rose up as well, and managed a bold stance. "You have helped me and cared for me and my people; I thank you for that. May I see them?" And Gravix knelt grandly, then rose and ushered her out, the Gnome clumsily grabbing a nearby robe left out for her and leaving the hut with her new guide. In short order, Syrup assured her still-living friends that she was alright and that she would be staying with the Conrasu for a while longer, all the while keeping her wooden claw buried deep in her sleeve.
And so she did.
6 summers went by while Syrup stayed with and learned from the Conrasu. She quickly came to master her half-wooden body and practiced the rituals of connection and centering that her Conrasu friends did, finding that it gave her peace - a reprieve from the repeating horrors of her memory of the factory accident. After many months of deep meditation, she finally touched the stream of thought that was the collective consciousness of the Conrasu.
The thought-forms present there were inviting, balanced and calm. And in their midst her mind floated for days. She felt herself becoming one with the extraplanar creatures, their alien thoughts of order and mystery flowing over her mind; making her complete.
When she emerged, she found she could no longer understand how she'd created her inventions. She remembered her fondness for machines, for discovery of a new formula or for plans she had written; she just had no idea how to use them.
And in their place was an impulse - a drive for combat, maneuvers, tactics and skills that she never had before. But that wasn't all. There was also... magic.
bImmediately after awakening from her Ceremony of Renewal (as it was later named), she gestured and a flame appeared in her hand. Laughing to herself in relief, Syrup arose from her meditation a new person - unburdened of her drive for invention of new mechanical marvels, she instead discovered a passion for the beauty of combat and the mystery of Arcana.
At a loss, she attempted to explore her new skills, but quickly learned that she was ...imprecise in her spellcasting. After causing more damage than she meant, a Conrasu Elder named Simisim guided her to a small encampment of nearby spellcasters to continue her learning.
And so Syrup Azini was handed into the arms of the Witch's Coven known as "The Verdant Veil", where she would spend the next several years of her life coming to know the spirits of nature more closely. It was a Coven only in the loosest sense, as it contained 8 witches, 3 druids and a Hobgoblin Bard, Niko. Nearly all of the witches served Patrons of natural forces, such as winter and fey, and Syrup came to value and respect the wisdom of each of her Primal brothers and sisters.
The coven considers Syrup an honorary Witch of the Verdant Veil and she in turn has sworn a deeply personal oath to the source of all natural harmony that she will guide and bless, serve and protect the people of nature to the best of her power, and seek to teach others that they can renounce their artificial ways and turn to the boughs and banks of nature instead, and find solace.
Level 1
BACKGROUND Well y'see, she began life valuing thought and innovation above all else. She loved artifice, machinery and invention and she, along with many of her 11 brothers and sisters, were accomplished Inventors and Alchemists. As she grew, she came to see it as her duty to protect and guide those younger than she. The role of Guardian came naturally for her, and she would spend hours telling stories about magic, machines, explosions and adventure with her family. So we're going to borrow from the Alkenstar Tinker and give her the Crafting Skill, Engineering Lore, and Alchemical Crafting and the Intelligence Ability Boost from that Background. But she's been through a living hell at the accidental hands of technology. Hands that she feels utterly betrayed by. So although she's a tinker herself, she has become an Anti-tech Activist. I'll read you that background's flavor text now.
Anti-Tech Activist "You've seen the sorts of things that technology brings— polluted environments, workers put out of their jobs or horribly injured, and the slow erosion of society—and you've vowed to inform the larger world of these ills. You do so with long, impassioned speeches on street corners and village squares and by talking personally with the heads of various guilds. Adventuring into the wider world could help spread your message even farther."
ANCESTRY, HERITAGE Syrup was born a Vivacious Gnome; someone who loved life for all it's worth. Always up for a good laugh with friends. But all of that's gone now. Something inside her was lost the day her friends and coworkers died and the work that she placed so much faith in... betrayed them all. She's lost her Vivacious side in her suffering and reconstruction by the Conrasu. And in the time of living with the Conrasu, learning from them, and sharing in their magical artistry with nature, she has become like them. For her Heritage, she is Conrasu. This is mainly for roleplaying purposes, but I'd like to take a Conrasu Feat to further cement her connection to Wood, Nature, and these "orbs in tree's clothing".
1st level Ancestry Feat Ceremony of The Evened Hand. This is part of her backstory and further reflects her connection to nature; her entire left arm is made of living wood now and it has been cultivated into a dexterous claw for mostly utilitarian purposes, but it could be occasionally useful as an additional weapon. It has agile and finesse. This arm and indeed her whole left side is living wood. That means that, like the Conrasu, she will have to contend with the wood hardening over time and having to grow a new limb unless she can solve this issue by other means. Well, she doesn't know how to grow another one and doesn't have the magic for that. So instead, every night she has to pull out her wood planer and sandpaper and shave off her outer bark, then sand the arm smooth again... and there's no reason that she wouldn't be able to feel all of this. If she can use her left hand she has to be able to have a sense of touch with it just like the Conrasu do.
So every night she goes through the pain of slicing and scrubbing her arm away until it's just as flexible as the day before. It only hurts a bit, but only if she does it every night. This person is very familiar with pain and suffering by choice every day; as well as the pain of losing half of her body in the first place and then surviving her recovery. This means that she is very used to pain. She knows to expect pain every day and has become resigned to that fact. If she wants to keep living and functioning well, it's just going to happen. So she tends to seem a little reserved, even morose or depressed at times... but she's also VERY ready to join in anything fun. Any excuse to celebrate or be entertained is good enough for her to quickly decide to join in. Because of her melancholy nature though, she's rarely the one who comes up with something fun to do herself.
1st Level Class Magus! The great Aeon Conrasu Mindstream has reformatted our brain to do magic. We get Arcane spells, Spellstrike, Conflux Spells, and the Inexorable Iron Hybrid Study, which requires that we use a two-handed weapon. I like Inexorable Iron for this build for a few reasons. 1 - Two-handed weapons often have reach. Which will help you protect your caster friends. 2 - The Conflux spell is an AOE cone that can knock enemies prone, which means that they have to spend actions getting up and ready again in order to threaten our caster friends. 3 - Inexorable Iron grants you temporary hit points every round if you start the round holding a two-handed weapon (if you are in Arcane Cascade Stance). Which is great if you are using a spell to use your health to protect a squishy caster. Like Shield Other. And we'll be using a weapon that was given to us by our Conrasu Maintainer, Gravix. A Glaive. It's a Conrasu ancestral weapon. Magi are really interesting. Being able to cast at the same time as smacking a bitch is awesome, PLUS they have other spells that they can use; not just the offensive spells. They are so flexible. I think their Hybrid Study feature is really customizable and you can use a lot of different fighting techniques if you want to like: you can have a skirmisher that feels sorta like a Rogue... that teleports. If you want me to make a laughing shadow build, like the video (link above). If I get 100 Likes I'll do it. Or I dunno, 10 comments saying YOU CAN DO IT! Just let me know!
Anyway, I'll go through my chosen spells at the end.
And her spellbook? A collection of small crystal balls of pure blackness with sparks of light within, resembling a Conrasu's core. She studies her "book" and memorizes her spells by rotating the crystals in her hands and meditating simultaneously. It looks like a performance of some kind except that her face is blank and passive while she concentrates.
2nd level Class Feat
Expansive Spellstrike. Now I would prefer that this were not essential, and technically it isn't, but if you want to use AOE spells (some of which have debilitating effects in an area), and spells that require a saving throw instead of an attack roll (like Ray of Enfeeblement or Fear), you need it. Anyway, this will make us better able to defend our people. A note to make about this feat is that we won't be using it to prepare any spells that could damage the forests, which are like home to us. So no Fireball.
2nd level Free Archetype feat cuz Free Archetype.
Witch Dedication (Fervor Patron). Now I always love a good Witch, as you well know but - well; I need to be able to access Divine Spells for a later Archetype that brings the theme of Defender of Nature into focus. We could go different ways to get Divine spells, but Witch uses our Intelligence as a casting stat and the first Witch feat we get is something that I thought made this build really interesting. Witch Dedication gives us 2 Divine Cantrips and a Familiar. And normally Fervor Patron gives us Religion but in this case it's kinda off the mark, because we view nature AS divine. And we are sworn to protect her and her people. I'd ask your GM if you can make the skill something that is more foresty-naturey like Nature. Because we're protected by Nature as an embraced part of the natural order.
2nd level skill feat Terrain Stalker (Underbrush). "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." Obviously, this makes us an excellent hunter and scout. We're adept at moving around in underbrush to spot threats to our humanoid friends, animal friends, and the natural habitat that we share with them.
3rd level Magus gives us 2nd level spells. Covering spells at the end.
And 3rd level General Feat gives us Ancestral Paragon: Burrow Elocutionist. We can talk to animals that have a burrow speed. We never had much close tie with animals as we were growing up like some Gnomes do, but since we've become embraced by nature, we can talk to all sorts of critters that we couldn't talk to before. They even report back to us about dangerous or scary things happening that we need to look into for them. We protect our little furred friends.
4th level Class Feat! Basic Witch Spellcasting We gain a 1st level spell and we gain Witch spells as we level... which I'll cover at the end.
4th level Archetype Feat: Basic Witchcraft gives us a Witch Feat and also increases the number of abilities your Familiar has by 1. For the Feat we choose Wortwitch. "You have a particular affinity for leafy plants. Your patron grants you a leshy familiar. In addition, you gain the ability to see through leaves, vines, and other foliage. You don't take circumstance penalties to ranged spell attacks or Perception checks caused by foliage, and your targeted attacks don't require a flat check to succeed against a target concealed only by such vegetation." At this point we're more fully embraced by the arms of mother nature. We feel a stronger connection with all life as we are blessed with sight of life itself. When we're looking at plants, we can choose to see past the surface which allows us to see through them, but also allows us to see the living pulse of everything around us. We feel at one with the world. And while we're exploring this new world of life, we discover a new power. This life in a being can be called to the surface and coaxed and encouraged to show itself for all to see. So...
4th level Skill Feat we gain Tattoo Artist. When you select this feat, you gain the formulas for four common magical tattoos of 2nd level or lower. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Crafting checks to Craft tattoos which increases to 2 if you're a Master in Crafting. Now I'll give a few examples here in a moment, but these tattoos are usually reusable, once a day things so their magic takes a day to replenish, but you always have the tattoo. And they cost a lot to make like magic items and take DAYS to create, like magic items. It gives you specifics on what these look like but they're a little unrealistic for the sheer cost of these things. So they could even be extremely detailed, expansive works of art like a full sleeve tattoo. Here's an example and the one that we'll tattoo on ourselves: Eye Slash is the name of it. "Small scars or marks around your eye improve your distant vision. These scars are especially common among orc scouts, who favor scars shaped like eagle talons. You can see four times farther than normal. If you have darkvision, you can see blood in color. Higher-level versions of an eye slash are larger and more elaborate scars or marks, radiating out around the eye."
Four times as far... and we can see THROUGH foliage. Which means that in an area with significant vegetation like a forest, jungle, some mountains... kelp beds in the ocean - we can see MUCH farther than anyone else. Now since we can see energy in living things and we have this power to create tattoos that we never trained for - the art that we create on someone's skin is directly inspired by their soul. We see into their life force and put what we see there on the person's skin for all to see. This is a deeply personal and some would say spiritual experience for both people. Some say that after you've put a tattoo on them, that it sometimes moves or even changes with their mood. Another I like is Wildwood Ink: These curving, delicate designs resemble leaves, vines, or creepers, most often wrapped around a limb, ear, or throat, or curled around specific muscles. They help you blend in among plants. You gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks, which increases to +2 in forests. "Activate (reaction); Frequency once per day; Trigger A creature would detect you by Seeking; Requirements You're in a forest or similar natural area; Effect The tattoo casts tree shape on you before you can be noticed. The duration of this spell is 10 minutes."
5th level Magus gives 3rd level spells and our proficiency in Reflex saves and simple and martial weapons and unarmed attacks increase to expert. Cool this helps us stay relevant as a fighter-type. 5th level Ancestry Feat: Animal Elocutionist. You can speak to all animals and you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Make an Impression on animals.
Now our previous burrowing friends have learned to trust and rely on us in times of need, and that good will has been seen by the spirits of nature, who have seen fit to bless us with the same deep relationship with all natural animals. Nature truly wants us to know her.
6th level Archetype Feat Soulforger Dedication. This allows us to choose either a weapon, armor or shield and make it a Soulforged Armament. If we don't do this to an item that exists then we just choose one and it is summoned from our spirit. You gain the ability...
Manifest Soulforged Armament (concentrate, conjuration, divine, extradimensional) You immediately wield or wear the soulforged armament bound to you. The soulforged armament remains manifested until you Dismiss this effect.
You can choose a weapon, shield or armor. Once per day when you use this ability, you can manifest the armament's essence form. You gain the armament's essence power until it's Dismissed. After 1 minute, the essence form armament is automatically Dismissed. "
There are a variety of powers, but we'll choose...
Magical Resilience. "Armor or shield only. You gain a +2 status bonus to saving throws and AC against spells. If you're 5th level or higher, you can cast dispel magic once as an innate spell. The spell level is equal to 1 lower than half your level rounded up (2nd level if you're 5th or 6th level, and so on)."
And nature has graced us with a special purpose like a paladin of the woods. We are focused on the protection of Witches, natural places, and Primal Casters like Druids, as I said. And at this point we receive a special blessing. Nature empowers our Conrasu-created arm to provide us extra protection. Whenever we want, we can summon armor that spreads across our body from our living wood side and covers us with plates of wood. We can choose any kind of armor, and if you want to really go for flavor, you can choose the Wooden Breastplate. Or you can choose "Buckle Armor", which is armor with spacious tool storage. Buckle armor comes with the storage armor adjustment. So you can put whatever tools you need to in the armor. I dunno, it's just kinda neat.
And 6th level Class Feat Soul Arsenal. "Choose an additional soulforged armament of a different type than the type you already chose, and choose one essence power for it. Upgrade and change armaments individually. When you Manifest Soulforged Armament, you can summon any number of your armaments (you must meet the Requirements for each), and when you Dismiss the effect, you can choose to Dismiss some and not others. You can choose to manifest the essence form of any number of your armaments when you take the action. Each armament can manifest its essence form only once per day."
And the Essence power: Healing Grace. "You gain fast healing equal to half your level. You can cast heal once as an innate spell with a level equal to half your level rounded up."
So... much like a cantrip, it levels up with us automatically.
Or you can take Attack of Opportunity to better keep your caster friends protected and to keep the enemies away from them. You're a guardian; and while simple, this feat makes you a better guardian. It's just narratively boring.
6th level Skill feat Spirit Speaker. "You know that when an animal dies, its spirit lingers briefly before moving on. Using low chants, body language that shows respect, and special movements that demonstrate to the spirit that you are an ally, you glean information from a spirit before it departs. This is a 1-minute activity. You must begin the activity while adjacent to the body of an animal or beast that died within the last 1 minute. As part of the activity, you ask one simple question of the spirit." This character is really big on meditation and patience. She's more like a Monk than a Magus.
Spell Selection!
Arcane spells that fit this theme by level. Cantrips (Magus gives us 8 known) Ancient Dust Detect Magic Electric Arc Produce Flame Ray of Frost Read Aura Shield Warp Step for when extra movement is needed
1st level Fear Magic Weapon Pummeling Rubble (can push them away up to 10 ft) Ray of Enfeeblement Tether (lovely spell. Keeps a target immobilized, hopefully) True Strike
2nd level Blur Glitterdust Invisibility Web (for melee combatants)
3rd level Crashing Wave (30 ft cone) Earthbind Oneiric Mire Paralyze
Cantrips Forbidding Ward Haunting Hymn
1st level Sanctuary
2nd level Shield Other
For later levels after 6th, you could continue with Soulforger, expanding on your arsenal and gaining new soul powers. Or go back to Witch for more interesting feats like the lessons, which would give you more focus points for your Magus Conflux spells too.
So overall, Syrup Azini regrets that other people use dangerous advanced technology and tries to get people to rely more on the power of nature and their own inner strength. The more complex or expensive the technology, the less she likes it. And the more widespread that the use of technology goes that damages nature, the more aggressive she gets with the people that own that technology. She might even go so far as to sabotage machinery or destroy chemical storage devices in an effort to hinder or delay the spread of machinery and alchemy. She is however, very sympathetic to anyone who USES such technology or is employed to make or use such things. She will NEVER take an action that she knows is likely to cause injury to people, animals, or plants.
Also, she sees plant-based creatures like the Conrasu and Leshies as the wisest of all beings, and Druids, Witches of all kinds, and to a lesser extent, other spellcasters as being just below the Conrasu in the hierarchy of divinely wise. This doesn't really hold true for people who gained their power by learning, like a Magus or Wizard. She thinks such things should come from nature, not from invention and Wizardry. It's just a little too close to Artifice for Syrup's liking. She forgives them and accepts their ways if they have chosen to respect nature, Witches and Druids.
Character Quotes:
"Enhance your calm. Emotions cloud the mind. And a clouded mind sees nothing."
Or when referring to a party member: "I respect lady Alandria, the power she wields, and the Wisdom in her soul. You should strive to be more like her."
"It's sad that you won't put down your mind of metal. Can't you see the wonder all around you?"
You can find this character's already filled out Character Sheet PDF free for download.
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