Help me build sea witch?

[Falcii]

I came up with a concept for a character who is really cool and i really want to figure out how to make her work... but oh my god is she not coming together right.

My goals are these: build a character who will function in a semi optimized group, dont step on the toes of my party, and most importantly, make something that feels like a sea witch.

So what am i saying is a sea-witch? What would feel like one to me flavor wise? She would need to have an affinity to weather and water magic, a familiar or companion who is at least semi aquatic or flies, perhaps has some scrying capabillity, and preferably has the abillity to wield a trident ala ursula from little mermaid. I would like to use her for battlefield control or maybe as a buffer of some sort.

whos toes do i want to avoid stepping on? Blaster caster wizard, metamagic bruiser cleric, tank cleric, and a paladin.

i have a build in mind, but i would reeeeallly appreciate some help on this one.

also please dont say "straight druid" kkthxbye

[Kaje]

Sea witch is literally the name of a prestige class from Stormwrack. Try that.

[Falcii]

I looked and ... It's kindof god awful. The benefits it gives are suuuper minimal for the levels it eats, and it's very setting specific. If you aren't on the ocean while youre playing it is mediocre as heck.

[Inevitability]

Why is 'straight druid' not acceptable?

[Falcii]

I really want to do something more specialized than druid. I make aloooot of them so I was hoping to take a step back from that. So personal preference really. Currently I'm thinking maybe taking the storm caller PRC from stormwrack and using druid to get into it.

[Inevitability]

Ardent going into Storm Disciple and picking up a psicrystal? Fluff it as a crystallized lightning bolt and have it boost your initiative.

[Albions_Angel]

Cleric with the storm domain, and theres a swamp domain too isnt there? Maybe some arcane caster in there and "find familiar"? Head into a theurge prestige? Pick water and weather spells, get some reserve feats (call lightning at will anyone?) for flavour? There is a cleric ability or reserve feat that allows you to create a water elemental from level 1. Always good fun.

Are you starting at level 1? If not, why not see if you can play a Sea Hag and go into a caster class with some LA buyoff?

Wu Jen?

I have no idea if any of those are up to the level you need to play at (well, Wu Jen probably is, but you would specifically pick water element stuff). But hopefully there is something there.

[The Viscount]

Consider stormcaster and wavekeeper.

[Albions_Angel]

Consider stormcaster and wavekeeper.

Seconded.

Heres the issue as I see it. You want to play an ocean themed magic user. Lots of storm and water powers. Buy your main gripe with the Sea Witch prestige class is that it sucks if you arnt near the ocean. All sea witch builds will suffer from being far from the ocean. You typically either optimize, or you build to a theme, sacrificing power and versatility to make it fit thematically.

That is unless you talk to your DM and figure out how to refluff something else.

Stormcaster, storm domains, wind and lightning spells, maybe summoning water elementals, thats about as close as you are going to get without harming your power level and versatility.