Sorcery: Witch Spellcasting

Sorcery: Witch Spellcasting

Pathfinder introduces a new arcane spellcasting class - the witch. She gains her powers from an unknown patron through her familiar. Let's see how we can sorcerify it.

Sounds almost like the warlock, right? Not really. First, there is nothing said about the witch being required to do anything for her patron, so the Pact limitation will not make sense, even if this is an actual pact. If we look at the list of patrons, most of them are very focused, encompassing and equivalent of a GURPS college of magic. So, we apply Limited Colleges, One College, -40% to the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage. Witches are arcane spellcasters, so I would suggest forbidding the colleges of Healing, Animal, Plant, Fungus, and Weather - but it's your game, so do whatever you want.

Then we have the familiar. The witch must have a familiar. See GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 5: Allies and Pyramid #3-75 for examples of implementation of that. Also, the witch cannot neither cast nor improvise without her familiar, so both the spells and the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage gain Granted by Familiar, -40%. However, if you look at the Familiar Path article in Pyramid #3-75, you will find a more granular way to calculate the limitation value. I strongly suggest doing that.

If that seems too harsh, consider applying Granted by Familiar, -40% to either Sorcerous Empowerment or spells, not to both of them at once. In the first case, the witch will not be able to improvise spells without her familiar, but will be able to cast known spells, and in the latter case it's the other way around.

Then we have the hexes. Most of them, if their theme corresponds with the patron, can be built as spells. If you want the witch to have more utility, then you can turn the hexes into simple magical abilities, but not take them as alternative abilities to your Sorcerous Empowerment. Making them a separate array of alternative abilities should be fine though.