| David Thomson |
Actually, you're wrong Adamantine Dragon. Cackle is quite explicit in how it functions, and it functions by extending duration. And Fortune explicitly gives one re-roll per round, and even includes rules for lasting longer without combining with other hexes. By the rules, you absolutely can cackle all day long, and there are ways around most of the downsides as well. Have to remain within 30 feet? Scar Hex allows it within one mile. Too loud? Message lets you do it at a whisper. The only thing it permanently removes is a move action each round, and honestly that seems enough punishment to me.
Because, playing a Witch, there are very large weaknesses. You have some good buffs in your hexes, but by and large you're a very weak class. At early levels you're almost entirely reliant on mind-affecting and sleep effects, which at least in the game I played a Witch in meant I could affect maybe 1 in five of the things we ran into. There were entire gaming sessions where my entire use to the party was a small amount of healing and the Fortune Hex, and it's quite a blow to the class to limit it any more than it already is.
Think it's too powerful? It's not. First off, it's difficult to keep going, especially in combat. Without a move action you have a choice between either directly assisting in combat or positioning yourself each round, and especially at low levels when they have access to fewer hexes they'll spend a lot more time doing the latter. Especially if you throw an NPC or monster with Knowledge Arcana, they can probably identify Cackle and keep enough pressure up to severely punish that lost move action. A lot of effects can even rob them of that action too, and then they can't use it again that day.
In my opinion, it really only gets broken when the Witch uses Fortune, Healing, Ward, Cackle and similar Hexes with Scar from a mile away while enjoying a margarita. Which is doable by the rules, but highly questionable.