Arachnofiend |
So I'm trying to put together a Winter Oracle blaster for a home game I'm in. The main appeal is this ability:
Freezing Spells (Su): Whenever a creature fails a saving throw and takes cold damage from one of your spells, it is slowed (as the slow spell) for 1 round. Spells that do not allow saves do not slow creatures. At 11th level, the slow duration increases to 1d4 rounds.
The problem is the Winter Oracle spell list is terrible and not very accommodating to this strategy. I've been trying to get Fireball on my list somehow (I have a level of Elemental Sorcerer so it would be changed to a cold spell) but none of my options are... very good. Improved Eldritch Heritage: Arcane wouldn't come online until level 11, the Ring of Spell Knowledge would bump Fireball up to a level 4 spell. Am I missing anything here? I'm playing a Tiefling so Ancient Lorekeeper isn't an option without GM permission and I'd rather make sure my character works by RAW if I can manage it. If there's another potential go-to spell that I'm missing then I'd love to hear it.
Ryzoken |
Fireball's rough, but I can get ya Flaming Sphere and Wall of Fire. The Blackened curse out of Blood of Angels (irony, there) gives you spells known in exchange for a stiff penalty to weapon attack rolls. Starts with Burning Hands (good for lowbie levels) and progresses to the aforementioned (and Scorching Ray, which doesn't mesh with what you're doing, but is still a not bad spell.)
Arachnofiend |
Yeah, I'm already taking the Blackened curse... Flaming Sphere seems moderately useful but overall pretty weak, especially since it seems to only affect one creature per round as far as I can tell. Wall of Fire would be good, except it is a more expensive spell and allows no saving throw so Freezing Spells can't take effect.
Phithis |
You could just put 11 in cha for your sorcerer dip, maybe crossblood with dragon or orc for extra damage and then go wizard after that for a much better selection of spells and faster progression. Take magical lineage with fireball and get Rime spell for great group control. Grabbing Irrisen Ice Mage is also a good boost and Treantmonk said Dazing spell is great with the build too. Add in a familiar with an initative bonus so you can avoid clipping your buddies and there you go damage and control.
Dark Immortal |
So the problem you are having is finding spells to actually play with?
There are tons, especially since you can change the energy descriptor:
Burning Disarm
Divine Trident
Sun Metal
Sound Burst
Shatter
Snow Shape
Shield of the DawnFlower
Blood Blaze
Boiling Blood
Meanwhile you will also have frostfall, sleetstorm, ice storm and icy prison to play with.
The assumption here is that you'll be making judicious use of the Rime Spell metamagic feat and frostfall sleet storm and ice storm should be your bread and butter spells. I don't see cold themed casters as primarily focused on damage as much as on battlefield control. Focus on that. You are already going to do low to ok damage. The goal should be to impair the enemy horribly while you're doing it. Cold does this quite well. With the assortment of other spells available to you, you can also support while simultaneously making sure that everyone at the table knows that you're a cold themed caster. Lots of the spells I listed are far cooler when you realize that the shatter you just cast was cold based.
The ring of spell knowledge opens the floodgates to all of these spells and more, although it only works for spontaneous arcane casters, which you are, the intent was probably to add it to that spell list and not the oracle one. But Raw not sure. Either way here are the toys you missed along your way to level 3 spells:
Burning Hands
Snapdragon Fireworks
Burning Arc
Defensive Shock
Frigid Touch
Shocking Grasp
Acid Arrow
Fiery Shuriken
Scorching Ray
Spontaneous Immolation
Corrosive Touch
Frostbite
Produce Flame
Chill Metal
Between the long list of options available to the base of this build and the number of styles of play you can take all using cold as the theme, I don't see where your experiencing a problem with few useful spells available to you for the purposes of getting your cold on.
Finally, you admitted to having taken the blackened mystery. So what is the problem with burning hands, scorching ray, flaming sphere (move action), sleet storm, burning disarm, frostfall, Sun Metal, cures, harms, bless, revelations and the knowledge that wall of fire and delayed blast fireball are ahead of you? I think you're in amazing hands with lots going for you. But I am not playing the character so I don't know the experience. My flame mystery oracle is burning everything just fine at level 5 (with a dip in sorc). Level 6, when he gets scorching ray and flaming sphere, he'll be golden. I assume that you, with far more spell options to make fit your theme would have an easier time finding spells that do what you want.
Anyway, maybe this post will offer insight and help you out. :)
Arachnofiend |
That post was extremely helpful, DI. I admit to this being the first full caster I have ever played so I'm not terribly familiar with what options are available to me. The intent was to stack Entangled on top of Slow so Rime was always on the table.
Sound Burst seems like a good option for my go-to spell. Guess I won't be needing to bend over backwards for Fireball after all.