Advice on Lunar Oracle

[Wasum]

Hey there!

I want to make a lunar oracle and I'd like your advice on how to improve the stuff I made up.

As there are only core races allowed in this game I'm going to pick human. At first I thought for something similar to the reach cleric, using str as primary stat, but now that I see that there are feats I'd prefer over the melee stuff I dont think its worth it.

For now I decided to go with STR: 12 DEX: 7 CON: 14 INT: 12 WIS: 12 CHA: 19

Dual-Cursed archetype

1 Skillfoc (kn. nature) [focused study], noble scion war
2
3 Eldritch Heritage (arcane)
4
5 SF (conj.)
6
7 Augment Summoning
8 Skillfocus (Perception) [focused study]
9 Imp. Familiar
10
11 Superior Summoning
12
13 Imp. eldritch heritage

For revelations I wanted to have the companion, prophetic armor, misfortune, fortune, maybe touch of the moon and then maybe some shapeshift stuff, even though I'm not sure whether thats even worth it.

Now I'm glad to be king of action economy with that build. Familiar, companion, summons - great! But I'm not sure what to do myself. Tossing spells seems the best idea, but the cleric lists kinda lacks the real good stuff, even though there's probably enough to work with.

Is touch of the moon worth it to make use of inflict spells? I'm really not sure about this. While I'm no fan of inflict stuff at all, the confusion might make it worth it, but here I need your advice.

And do you maybe have some more ideas I missed out?

Thanks in advance!

Wasum

[avr]

First, recent FAQ/errata is that oracles can't use improved eldritch heritage to cast spells not on the cleric/oracle spell list.

Confusion as a touch range effect on a single target is not nearly as impressive as the Confusion spell. Since you damage them in doing it it may have no effect other than obliging them to attack you. I might get it once Inflict Light Wounds was available, but I might not.

[Wasum]

Yea, I guess abusing ill omen and other oracle spells (at least there are some good offensive spells) might be the better choice there and will save me that revelation. Even though I'm not sure which one to pick instead as most lunar revelations are not that amazing for non melee oracles.

I wont gain much use out of moonlight bridge or moonlit script I guess. Mh - wish I could use the beast shape SLAs for my companion but sadly that wont work.

Do you have an advice what revelation might be the best choice after companion, armor, misfortune and fortune?

[Wasum]

And in adition to all that:

I also had in mind to make him sylvan sorcerer. Companion would be the same, familiar would be the same, so in the end it would come down to the spell list. I think for this build oracle would just provide more interesting stuff, even though sorcerer would provide more offensive power. What do you guys think would be the better choice?

[Cpt Jason]

You might want to look into half elf so you can use the Ancient Lorekeeper, which allows you to take wizard spells. Also if you took the burned curse it would allow you use scorching ray and a few other offensive spells.

[andreww]

Confusion is an incredibly powerful debuff to apply. Confused creatures cannot make opportunity attacks except against something that has already attacked them (the initial inflict wont count as the attack occurs before the confusion effect kicks in) and have a very high chance to lose their entire action. Using higher level spells also means it lasts longer. Other important considerations:

1. The confusion is attached to inflict which means you are targeting will, often a weak save.

2. Inflict spells are necromancy and the effect is not called out as mind affecting. As such you can confuse plants, oozes and other creatures that would normally be expected to be immune to mind affecting spells.

3. The DC for the confusion scales with your level and Charisma. This means you can be creating maximum DC confusion using level 1 spells as the save is forced when they take damage from an inflict. Inflicts deal half damage on a save so they always have to make the save against the confusion.

4. At level 10 you gain Mass Inflict Wounds which becomes a hideous, hard to resist and easily targeted confusion spell which you can use despite your allies being in the mix and which will affect the target for 5 rounds. That is an amazing level of control.

[avr]

Typo by me above. I meant 'Mass Inflict Light Wounds' if it makes a difference.

Now, if you do stick with Oracle, being able to change shape into something which can fly fast or breathe water may occasionally be useful. If you're not into melee it's not a combat trick but it's still useful out of combat.

The sorc/wiz list is certainly more fun to use than the cleric list. Spiritual weapon/ally + Toppling Spell is seldom going to match Glitterdust or Stinking Cloud for battlefield control, Confusion is better as noted and if you feel,like blasting the sorc list is better by far. There are enough useful buffs that a sorc can feel wanted for that alone (marginal advantage to oracles) and oracles unlike clerics can't speed up summoning with Sacred Summons. Ill Omen and Oracle's Burden are interesting spells but not something which will often be worth the action to cast.

The advantage of being an oracle is that you can be much harder to kill than a sorcerer (e.g. your prophetic armor revelation, or normal armor/HD) and so you can take more risks rather than needing to play a paranoid. You can dash in and try to Bestow Curse on someone for example. A sorcerer shouldn't do that.

[andreww]

As far as Feats go Eldritch Heritage is of little use to you now that the FAQ is out which also means you don't really need the spell focus stuff. I would strongly consider Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy.

Before you get the confusion revelation you can use them for spells like Blindness and Bestow Curse. Afterwards it is Confusion tastic. I would avoid the summoning feats as Oracles have no way to reduce the casting time. Personally I would pick up Persistent Spell and probably Quicken around level 11. You may also want to pick up Spell Penetration at some point or possibly Piercing Spell.

In terms of revelations I would go:

Prophetic Armour
Primal Companion
Misfortune
Touch of the Moon
Eye of the Moon
Form of the Beast

The rest are pretty crap.

[Wasum]

I'm mainly picking eldritch heritage for the improved familiar later.

By now I also think inflict would be kinda nice as there are not enough good revelations anyway.

I also do like sumoning even though my casting time is 1rd. To be honest, even with sacred summons you're spending 1 rd most of the time as you always want flexibility when summoning and those few alignment summons do not fit all the time.

I dont really like th idea of SF necromancy as I wont be using that many nec spells (sure, bestow curse is great, but confusion is not that much worse and doesnt need that SF). Also, I wont be using that many spells which offer a save so I'm not sure whether persistent will be nesseccary - espacially since I can get it as rod later. Also, a rod of reach might come in handy.

Thanks for those great advices so far, you guys are really helping me and I feel this character slowly getting in shape!

[Wasum]

I went with blackened and tongues now for dual cursed.

And I switched to half elf in order to get the elven FCB for the companion. I will still pick up some spells with the human FCB though. Over the first 12 levels I want to increase my druid level for primal companion by 4 and get 4 spells, I think that is a good mix.

[Wasum]

And one more question: In case I increase my companions INT to 3 I'd be able to pick up additional traits feat in order to gain fates favorite (for example), right?

And yea, I'd still love to hear some more advice, even though my concept looks pretty good by now:)

Wasum!

[Wasum]

What do you guys think about Spell Perfection for an oracle? Which MM-feats should I pick? Right now I'm thinking about reach, quicken and persistent or piercing.

But I'm clueless about which spell to chose. I even thought about divine favor to be able to quickbuff my tiger. Does Spell Perfection double the bonus of fates favorite?

I really struggle to find a good spell and honestly there are not too many threads on thse boards sealing with divine spell perfection.

By the way I did skip the summoning feats for now and ended up with the haunted curse.

[andreww]

Reach, Quicken, Dazing and Persistent are the four powerhouses for clerics/oracles. Given the lack of divine spells which ignore SR then Piercing can also be a good choice.

Excellent spell perfection divine spells include:

Flame Strike, apply dazing to it and you are imposes 5 rounds of doing nothing to multiple enemies. Half the damage ignores any resistance or immunities so you will always be able to apply the debuff with it.

Blade Barrier. This one is insane. Again apply dazing to it. It deals force damage so pretty much nothing has an immunity and it can directly affect incorporeal enemies as well. It lasts for 1 minute per level so is almost guaranteed to murder anything it hits unless they can make the save as it continues to damage them.

**Word, these spells are less about metamagic (although you can apply persistent) and more about boosting your caster level. Varisian Tattoo and Spell Specialisation mean you cast a level +6 Add an orange ioun stone and at level 15 you are casting it as a level 22 character. Add in a necklace of prayer beads and it is 26. That kills enemies with up to 16hd and severely weakens those up to 21hd.

Mass Inflict Light Wounds, this is a terrible spell but at level 5 it can easily have dazing applied to it and is rather more discerning than Flame Strike. Negating the actions of multiple opponents for 5 rounds is likely to end many encounters.

Plane Shift. You get Plane Shift as a level 5 spell. With reach spell and quicken spell (and a trait) you can be banishing people at range to the elemental plane of screw you with a swift action.

[Ismodai]

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