Hey all.
So I may soon be joining a game set in Goloran at level 6.
Apperently this is a fairly low OP group and none of them do the 2-3 archtypes and feats and equipment from 12 places builds.
In other words AM and AMY need not apply.
As it is a pre-existing group that I will be the new guy in I do not want to step on any toes, or come in and overshadow the players that are already there.
Anyway I am thinking of doing a Human or Half-Orc Oracle of Battle.
The fluff would be that he was cursed by a Orc high shaman to carry the restless souls of a tribe of orcs.
Some will be working against him (Haunted curse) But some will be working with him and trying to help.
The Fluff is that he is simply a fighter, all the oracle stuff is the spirits helping/hurting.
It looks like he should be better at fighting but the spirits pull at his sword arm, help his opponents dodge, that kind of thing, thats why he is at 3/4 BAB
When he "Casts" he will be calling on the spirits of past shamans or wariors to do something for him. (Mechanics do not change, its just fluff)
For now assume 20 PB. But I will find out for sure this week.
Now on to some questions.
What are battle Oracles actually good at?
It looks like a mixed bag, and I'll be honest I'm having some trouble rooting through.
Should I just go for manuvers?
Seems like they would be good at it.
Dual cursed?
Not at all sure what the second one should be.
Really the problem is I have great fluff, I love the idea of the character, but am not sure where to go.
Oh and it's worth pointing out I will NOT be going with the Human favored class extra spell known, maybe once if I go human, but not often at all.
The character is not a caster, he calls on a small number of spirits to cast a few spells for him. I want the fighting to be his main thing, with some support and buffs.
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1st: Battle Oracle is a solid character type. Just be willing to spend a round buffing at the beginning of combat, and you'll be fine. Try to pick your specialization and stick with it.
2nd: Fluff is fine. Focus on maintaining decent Strength, Constitution, and Charisma. You can easily get away with 16 Strength, 14 Charisma (16 w/ racial boost), and 14 Constitution. If you aren't concerned about being a spellcaster, you can drop Charisma lower (11-12 plus racial mod), but you'll need those buff spells to keep your melee up to par, so it's a mixed bag.
3rd: Expect to get a lot of flak for your first several sentences, mostly because people tend to use the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Ultimate (Combat/Magic) for character builds, and Pathfinder doesn't have nearly the problem that 3.5 splat did.
Thanks for the advice, And I want to be clear.
I normally make characters from MANY sources, I love the little soft cover Players books (Orcs of Goloran) is my Fav book that is out right now.
I simply wanted to point out the groups "Feel", and honestly my first few sentances do give a really good feel for the group.
Right now I'm thinking of useing a Falchon and being in Full plate.
Feats
1. Extra Revelation (Weapon Mastery)
3. Power Attack
5. ?????? (Maybe Furious Focus)
Revalations
1. Skill At arms (If I go 1/2 Orc I dont really need this as I can get away with Med armor)
3. ?????? (Suprising charge?)
These are all half formed ideas, mixed with "not quite there" fluff, so really anything would be helpful.
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This is a character I made for a home game. He worked so well I made him in to a PFS character. Dose good damage with the ability to put out healing if needed. With out move away from the fight. It allows for allot more freedome to move around the battle space. By using over run and charge through to get to where you want to be.
Human
Oracle Mystery Battle
15 Point buy home game
Str 17
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 7
Cha 14
20 Point buy PFSP
Str 17
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 7
Cha 14
Traits : Reactionary, (Vagabond Child, or Gold Finger)
Skill Point's Per level (15Point) 5 (20Point) 6
Feet's
Human : Extra Revelation: War Sight
1 : Improved Initiative
3 : Power Attack
5 : Improved Over Run
7 : Charge Through
9 : Improved Sunder
11 : Greater Sunder
Revelation's
1 : Skill at Arms
3 : Weapon Mastery: Bardiche
7 : Maneuver Mastery: Trip
11 : Surprising Charge
Main weapon : Bardiche
With the changes to trip property. You could pick up a Fauchard, but it cost a feet. The ingress in threat range is very nice. The Bardiche hase a good threat range and has the brace property. Over all any reach weapon works better for this build.
Back up Weapon : Scimitar more flavor then any thing else. And a long bow increases he needs a range weapon.
For buffing you can not go wrong with enlarge person. As it has a long duration and gives you a bump in dice damage and Str. The biggest advantage with it is the large size and a reach weapon. As now your threat area is 15-20 ft away from you. You no longer threaten 5-10ft away from you. The advantage out weigh the disadvantage.
With a 20 point buy you might want to take combat reflexes after you get Maneuver Mastery Trip. I debated that with some people it's a good option just not one I chose to go with.
Ok, here is what I sent to my GM as a this is the character I am thinking of playing...
#3 Jeremiah the wanderer (AKA That poor bastard)
The Fluff....
Jeremiah was a normal Mercenary Fighter, he did what any of his brethren did, and that was "Anything for a copper"
Jeremiah did not care who he worked for or what they needed him to do, in his mind so long as he was being paid it wasn't his problem, that is, untill the day that all changed.
"I was hired to guard a priest named Zoolane, yeah, I know, Zoolane, Where the hell do they get these names? Anyway as I was saying. The job was to get him into some big Orc burial ground without being seen. He said all he wanted to do was look around, I should have known better. You don't get that kind of gold to look around.
So there we are, Me, One-eyed Pete, Hooknose Carl, Matt "The Gnasher" Murphey, and Jo were all working the job with me.
We manage to avoid the guards, or so we thought. Again I should have known better with the noise Carl was making there was no way the Orcs didn't hear us.
Eventually we make it to the middle of the of the grounds, and believe me when I say I've seen a fair bit of creepy things in my life, but this place had me on edge.
We finally find a large mound, it has the typical Orc crap all over it, sculls and glyphs and stuff. Anyway this is when Zoolane pulls out a shovel and says "Get to it" I tell him to go screw himself, I was hired to have a look-see, and we did that, there is no way in hell I'm digging up this mound. no way, no how, not a chance in hell...... Thats when he pulled out more gold..
So anyway, I'm digging up this hole when my shovel hits something hard.
Zoolane gets all excited and jumps in the damn hole! hes rooting around down there for what seems like hours but may have only been a few min at most.
That's about the time the Orcs showed up.
Like I said, We should have known better.
Zoolane screams up from the hole that he needs more time and that if we hold them off our rewards will be great. We hell, we came this far, what are a few Orcs? Let me tell you, these were no ordinary Orcs. These fought like their lives depended on it, like that hole was the most important thing in the world.
Carl was the first of us to die. Serves you right, you loud bastard.
Next was Pete followed by Jo.
"We have to get out of here I screamed to Zoolane, it's just Gnash and Me!"
Zoolane stopped chanting in the hole, and stuck his head above the surface to look around.
"How right you are my friend, thank you for holding them off, good bye" And with one word of Magic he disappeared.
This is about the time Gnasher took a greataxe to the chest, shit.
The last thing I remember is seeing an Orc Shaman point at me, then it all went dark....
When I woke, I was tied to some damn Orc alter, my shirt was open and there was blood everywhere.
The orc shaman was standing over me and he bagan speaking, I could tell it was something important as he kept gesturing and looking at me as if he was waiting for an anwser. I did the best I could, I nodded a lot and tried to look helpful and REALLY sorry.
After 10 min or so of this, the shaman began to realise that I did not speak Orc, he mutterd to himself a bit and then cast a spell.
"Can you understand me now ape?"
I thought it best to let that one go and just nodded.
"I will not go over all that I have told you again, you will have to find most of this out yourself now. The fact that you did not even bother to learn our language before you steal our sacred relic is enough to kill you for, but we need you alive to recover it." Then someone hit me over the head again.
Over the next few hours I woke a few times to see the Shaman chanting over my body, at times he was holding things we had seen in the burial ground, a bone here, a talsman there, other times he was just chanting, but each time I was hit as soon as they saw I was awake.
The last time I awoke it was only for an instant, the pain was so intense, I looked down to see the bones he had been holding driven through my chest, the talsmans likewise were embeded in me and there were ghosts circling me, each one tied to one of the items piercing me. Thats when I passed out.
I say thats the last time I woke up, and it was, later on We woke up outside the village, when I say We, thats just what I mean. I am not alone. There are others in here with me, they haunt me always, everything I do is made harder by them. they mock me in my dreams, they harrass me in my waking hours.
However there is one of them that I think is trying to help me, over the years I have learned to speak Orc, it may be from the constant mocking in my dreams, itmay be from the one that tries to help. I only wish I knew.
All I do know is that the helpful one used to be their high shaman, and by asking nicely he ill sometimes come to my aid, I only wish I knew more about magic, but I remain a simple man, I live by the sword and If I'm able I hope to die by it."
The Crunch...
Jeremiah is a Oracle with the Battle Mystery and the Haunted Curse he is also a Human
Honestly there isnt much odd crunch to Jeremiah. he plays like a normal Oracle.
He is the one with the most "Re-skinning" or "re-fluffing"
In other words he plays EXACTLY like any other battle oracle, he fights, he casts, he is normal.
However..... the fluff is that he is a fighter. he SHOULD be able to fight better (fighters have full BAB, oracles have 3/4 BAB) however the spirits pull his sword out of place, help his opponents dodge, etc.
He cant cast spells, but he can ask the good spirit to do it, again EXACT same rules as normal, just the flavor is different.
Well thats it people, I hope you all like it.
For what its worth, here are the other 2 character ideas I submitted.
#1 Brother Jenko of the four seasonal winds.
The Fluff.....
Brother Jenko, or just Jenko as he uses in normal conversation is a peace loving man. A thoughtful man, and a wise man. Slow to speak, he tends to hold back a bit and observe how others see a situation before weighing in himself.
It is said that brother Jenko has the "Wisdom of the heavens" within him, and honestly that is true. For Jenko is decended from celestials (Tho for the actual rules he is a human).
Jenko prefers to stay out of mortal matters as much as he can and simply observe from a distance.
As such he prefers to use a bow on the few times he is required to fight.
Also his Celestial nature shows its self in that he finds spells simply bubbling to the surface as he needs them, seemingly without his actual thought. At first those at his monastery thought he was a sorcerer but dismissed it as he does not have the force of personality required for it.
Added to that is his ability to heal those around him when they fall in battle, while nothing close to what the Clerics could do the fact that he could do it at all showed his superiors that he was something special.
The Crunch.... (Or, the actual rules)
Jenko is a Human Monk (5) with the Zen Archer Archtype and the Qinggong Archtype. This among other things lets him..
Flury of blows while using a Bow.
Use his Wisdom, Not his Dex for shooting his bow.
He is also a Sorcerer (1) His Bloodline is the Wildblooded Archtype (Empyreal)
Ok, so what the hell does THAT do?......
It lets me use Wisdom for ALL Sorcerer stuff, spells per day, DC, bloodline powers, etc.
It gives me a 1d4 ranged heal (yeah it sucks, but it gets people up) 3+Wis mod a day.
Also 1st level sorc casting.
#2 Prof. Zintok Montgomry.
The Fluff...
Zintok, or Scorch to his friends, Also known as "Get that lunitic out of here before he kills someone!" is not the most.... Stable person on the face of Golarian.
When Zintok was young his home burned to the ground killing his entire family, Zintok was found to have been in bed the whole time, and while the sheets were all burned away and even his pajamas were charred beyond repair Zintok himself was spared with only a few minor burns.
Noone knows why this happened, least of all Zintok himself, however from that day forth he dedicated his life to the study of fire in all its forms.
He learned to converse with he beings of pure fire, he learned to call upon their might when he was threatened, he learned to do anything.
Sadly, this did not go over at all well with the other Gnomes of his village. As he grew there were rumors that he was the one that set the fire that killed his family, the only reason he was not brought up on charges or exiled was that frankly as odd as he is, there is something likeable about him.
He may giggle too much, he may start spewing only Ignan when agitated but he is a likeable little guy.
It is worth pointing out that he is NOT a Professor, not even close. However Zintok feels that it gives him an air of..... well something. Added to that is he only uses the title once in a while, so that when someone else uses it he can seem to be embarrassed by it "Oh, come now, there is no need for titles, I'm just like everyone else"
The Crunch....
Zintok is a Gnome using the following alternate racial traits.
Academician, this gives a +2 to one Knowledge (the Planes)
Pyromaniac, This makes him count as 1 level higher for the oracle Flame Mystery.
Also gives the following Spell likes abilities 1/day
Prestdigitation
Dancing lights
Flare
Produce Flame
Gift of tongues, This gives +1 to bluff and Diplomacy (Not going to be used)
Also give +1 language each time I put a rank in Linguistics (Also will not really be used)
Zintok is also an Oracle with the Flame Mystery And the Tongues Curse
The curse only lets him speak Ignan During combat (Zintok is unaware of this and simply tells people to speak up if they want to be heard)
The Flame Mystery Gives a TON of stuff, mostly blasts and battlefield control stuff. you can read about it in the link section I will put at the end.
Go with the battle oracle. It was a pretty awesome backstory ;)
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it.
As odd as it is, thats the one that the GM did not care for :)
no biggie, I think I'm going with the Monk Archer, but yes i will be using the Oracle in some campaign as soon as I can.
Again, thanks for reading.
I have concerns that bringing a dedicated Zen Archer to a low powered group may cause some issues, as you'll likely outdamage everyone....especially as the new guy. Archers in general are that good. Just be forewarned.
And I appreciate the warning, thats one of the reasons I diped Socerer 1.
It adds to the story and tones it dow a tad.
Also when I start going arcane archer it will tone it down even more.
If it seems I am not out pacing the group then I can just skip the AA and stay ZAM.
This is a character I made for a home game. He worked so well I made him in to a PFS character. Dose good damage with the ability to put out healing if needed. With out move away from the fight. It allows for allot more freedome to move around the battle space. By using over run and charge through to get to where you want to be.
Human
Oracle Mystery Battle
15 Point buy home game
Str 17
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 7
Cha 14
20 Point buy PFSP
Str 17
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 7
Cha 14
Traits : Reactionary, (Vagabond Child, or Gold Finger)
Skill Point's Per level (15Point) 5 (20Point) 6
Feet's
Human : Extra Revelation: War Sight
1 : Improved Initiative
3 : Power Attack
5 : Improved Over Run
7 : Charge Through
9 : Improved Sunder
11 : Greater Sunder
Revelation's
1 : Skill at Arms
3 : Weapon Mastery: Bardiche
7 : Maneuver Mastery: Trip
11 : Surprising ChargeMain weapon : Bardiche
With the changes to trip property. You could pick up a Fauchard, but it cost a feet. The ingress in threat range is very nice. The Bardiche hase a good threat range and has the brace property. Over all any reach weapon works better for this build.
Back up Weapon : Scimitar more flavor then any thing else. And a long bow increases he needs a range weapon.For buffing you can not go wrong with enlarge person. As it has a long duration and gives you a bump in dice damage and Str. The biggest advantage with it is the large size and a reach weapon. As now your threat area is 15-20 ft away from you. You no longer threaten 5-10ft away from you. The advantage out weigh the disadvantage.
With a 20 point buy you might want to take combat reflexes after you get Maneuver Mastery Trip. I debated that with some people it's a good option just not one I chose to go with.
I took Eldritch Heritage(Abyssal) At 11th lvl you would have a +2(+6 at l7) to str +4 on saves V.S poison, Electricity res 5(10 at 17) and claws that are pretty good as a back up weapons.I like your choice of having a medium range cha at lower level. I don't like Iron skin, the dr 10 it gives you is going to be bypassed by most things. But you won't miss it you should use the spell Righteous Might It will give you Dr 5 vs evil/good (which ever is appropriate)along with a +4 to str&con, an increase in size category, and +2 Natural Armour. Then Divine Power Which Gives you +1 to attack&damage per every 3 caster levels. Having a speed weapon then allows you to have as much attack around as a fighter(assuming the fighter Doesn't also have speed weapon).
