Ok, so I have a PFS boon that lets me take an axebeak as an animal companion or bonded mount despite it not being on my class' list. Cavalier was my first choice (as well as the obvious one if you know how I got it) but for whatever reason, I really wanted this axebeak-claimin' character to be an elf (I think that WoW's hawkstriders are to blame for that one).
Turns out that elves can make some pretty awesome oracles and the Nature Mystery has bonded mount as a revelation... Now, I still have the picture in my head of a melee-oriented knight (admittedly not-so-optimized with elf stats...).
1)Nature Mystery has junk spells but good revelations and skills.
2)Stargazer archetype has great spells (at levels 2 and 4, anyway)
2a)SG loses a lot of important skills (but adds perception) and imposes a heavy two revelation tax.
3)Ancient Lorekeeper has the best spells an oracle can have.
3a)Those spells are a level higher than they are normally (unlike SG's spells) and AL's skills are poop for an AC/Mount character.
1)+1 BAB for all of them, allowing me to take Power Attack at first level
2)All of them provide the skills I need (Handle Animal, Ride, and Perception)
3)Barbarian eliminates the 10' penalty to move speed (lame curse) and gives a little bit of rage; at oracle level 5, no fatigue.
4)Ranger (Guide) gives a bonus to attack and damage on one creature/day and opens up a bunch of wands (including longstrider)
5)Cavalier (Dragon) adds to effective druid level for mount and opens up heavy armor (while eliminating it's penalty to Ride!) but Challenge is about 1/4 as good as Ranger's Focus.
Any advice or thoughts welcome. Thanks.
Axebeaks aren't that good, but they sure are cool! I hope to shore up some of it's shortcomings with the Narrow Frame feat and Vital Strike once it qualifies (they only get the one attack).
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Sometimes it's not about optimization, but the fact that he can get one. Im going to throw out here that power attack isn't that useful at low levels, since attacks can kill anyways, with low BaB you aren't going to get as much out of it (and miss more). If you do multicast, choose the cavalier, because I think they stack.
Two of my characters have gotten that boon, and I somewhat regret that my paladin (the only applicable one) chose bonded weapon over mount.
Thanks, Kiinyan. I guess you're right about PA for my 3/4 BAB character. I think Cavalier can really build my image for this character, too- a fey knight with all the fairy stuff like spells and a giant bird.
Now I'm only really stuck trying to figure out which I like better between a two-revelation tax or a bunch of *arcane spells, heightened by +1....
*Probably this one. Very fey.
Freebooter ranger gives you +1 hit and dmg for every one all day long (renewable) +1 BaB, all the skills you want, and two bumps in your worst saves.
My second runner up is mysterious stranger gunslinger, then barb, then cavalier (hunt master for the bird companion so you start to feel like the beast master)
@Kiinyan- the EK isn't a bad idea but I got a chance to think about the Cav/Oracle while running some errands and I think that that might be the one. Now I'm toying with the possibility of the Emissary archetype or the Samurai alternate class (there aren't too many Teamwork feats available at first level). Some of the Nature mystery's Revelations work very well for my concept, like Bonded Mount (obviously), Nature's Whispers, and Natural Divination.
@Byrdology- Freebooter's Bane does net a greater advantage than Guide's challenge-like ability and Ranger does get me that +2 to reflex that Cav and Barb won't, but I don't have Pirates of the Inner Sea. Also, it's not in the title or spelled out too well in my original post, but the axebeak is really the only thing that is truly non-negotiable, so your second runner up is out (maybe for a different character in the future, though...).
At this point, I'm ironing out some mechanical bits; I need to decide on an archetype for Cavalier and I need to pick out some Wiz/Sorc spells that are so cool that they are worth using up a spell-slot one higher than normal.