Scarred Lands Sea Witches in a seafaring campaign; balanced or not?

[chatdemon]

So I'm going through my D20 and 3e books looking for things to use in the seafaring chapter of my campaign, and I come across the Sea Witch prestige class in Relics & Rituals 1. The class seems pretty cool, but what I'm afraid of is that part of the balance of the class is the assumption that the party will not constantly be gallavanting around on ships. If ship voyages (and battles) are not an every day occurence for the party, the Sea Witch's Ignore Metamagic Penalty ability (which allows the Sea Witch to ignore the increase spell level slot requirements when using metamagic feats if he is standing on the deck of a ship while he casts) isn't too outrageous. If, on the other hand, the party is always, or almost always, at sea, that ability seems way over the top. Even the slower than usual spellcasting progression for a prestige class doesn't seem to balance out this ability.

Anyone have ony thoughts on this? Has anyone used this prestige class in a seafaring campaign? How did it work out?

 

[Crothian]

I had one as an NPC and it worked very well as the reoccuring villian. THey are strong in their element but weak out of it. No different then many other prestige classes, so I saw it's just fine.

 

[Graf]

I haven't run a sea faring campaign.

If the whole game is really on a ship then it would be unbalanced. If its take the ship to an island and search the ruins, then have a battle on the beach on the way back to the shore, then lose the ship and get "rescuded" by pisceans and kept in coral cages as slaves then....

Ok. I'm running a bit long but if its purly a game involving boats then you might want to limit it somehow. If its a 'sea game' in and around the sea then it might be perfectly fine.

Do the players have to get off the boat a lot to accomplish their goals? Are most of their opponets going to be other boat using races?

You might want to limit it to "your ship or any ship you have spent an hour, a day, a week attuning yourslef to".
Don't have the R&R with me, so I can't be more specific. Good luck.

 

[Nightfall]

Chat, while I agree the metamagic ignoring penalty is a little much, especially on a sea campaign, consider this. A necromancer, with his crew of sketel undead, can in fact probably do as much damage as a Sea Witch casting spells, SINCE he can probably summon undead from the sea. Or a Transmuter can turn parts of the water into mud, or dry it up completely. While the Sea Witch is a handful IN his ship, he and the ship are STILL subject to spell effects, depending on the cirumstances.

 

[chatdemon]

Graf: I failed to mention it in my original question, but the ability to lessen/ignore metamagic slot increases does require that the Sea Witch first be bonded to her ship, accomplished through a ritual that lasts 1 day per 25 feet of the ship's length and also grants her the ability to target her 'personal' ranged spells on the ship itself. I guess one way to control the ability would be to have the party switch ships now and then.

Nightfall: Good point. I hadn't gotten around to looking at the advantages and disadvantages other spellcasters will encounter in a seafaring campaign. Now that I've taken that into consideration as well, coupled with the idea above about shuffling the party from ship to ship now and then to throw a wrench into the Sea Wtich's routine, I think I'll let the class stand as is and see how it goes.

Thanks for the feedback yall

 

[Nightfall]

*knows he'll get a groan for this one* What ever floats your boat Chat.