Two-Handed Weapon Melee Battle Oracle Advice Needed

[Swiftbrook]

So I'm not sure how survivable this concept is, but I think it might be fun to play.

I'm creating a want-to-be Paladin - no levels in Paladin.

So I want to build a Battle Oracle that uses an Elven Curved Blade.
Charisma will still be a big stat, 2nd best if not top.
Looking at Dex for 2nd best stat.
Weapon Finesse and Agile property on the blade. (Dex to hit and damage)
At 5th level (or 7th) taking the Divine Protection feat to add Cha to all saves.
Trying to avoid taking the Skill at Arms mystery. I'll have all the weapon proficiencies I need from Elven blood and a high dex is wasted in heavy armor.
PFS 20 point buy.

So that's the short version of the concept. I can have fun, but can I survive? How does a Two-Handed Weapon fighter survive without a shield? Lots of HP?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[Major_Blackhart]

Toughness is a good start I think.
Also, other forms of survivability include getting the right curse. For instance, I've gone with Half-Orc wielding a falchion and heavy armor type. Totally awesome. But he's strength based. This guy will have a harder time at surviving because he doesn't have HP bloat, and he doesn't have any ways to increase his AC the way that other classes do. I'd suggest that you at least consider combat reflexes, or maybe some sort of panache adding feat to help you out if there are any.
Also, Eldritch Heritage, anything that increases your armor class or hitpoints is considered a godsend.

[Swiftbrook]

I'm thinking about a one level dip in Fighter. If it's my first level then
1) Bonus Feat
2) Max HP
3) Weapon Prof
4) Armor Prof
Also taking Magical Knack as a trait.

[Rodinia]

It seems you'd get better damage, for less investment, if you are STR based. Why spend feats on DEX combat with the Elven Curved Blade (ECB)? Instead of STR 10 & DEX 16 you can have DEX 14 and STR 14. Is this just a preference thing, or are you trying to optimize?

The one level Fighter dip is tempting. It will be a bonus until about 5th level, after that a chain around your neck.

If you don't dip, spend a feat on Power Attack (at 3rd) instead of Weapon Finesse, and just use a longspear instead of ECB, you'll probably be more effective. That's before you fish for AoOs, which the ECB can't do at all. Plus you'll have higher caster level.

[Major_Blackhart]

Are you gonna go to full 20? If so, don't do a level in fighter. The capstone for battle is just too damn good. Move up to speed and full attack, either before or after. It's basically just a slower, more versatile version of pounce.

This is tough, never did a dex based anything. Not even magus. Always a strength based conan type character.

Also, if you take power attack, eventually you'll need furious focus, unless you can get Divine Power and Divine Favor, which can mitigate the negatives of power attack. Take Fate's Favored as a trait, increase luck bonuses all around.

[ChrisLKimball]

Okay I am trying to build a very similar character, here are the things I am looking at, first i was thinking of going METAL for these reasons:

1) Lead blades spells and ECB FTW!

2) Dance of Blades is great and you can put your alternate race bonus each level to get the rewards faster.

3) Armor mastery is a boon for med/heavy armor and high dex (make sure you get mithral armor)

the real problem besides agile there is no Slashing grace for two handed (even for finesse weapons) sad

I have been thinking the way to go is to stack vital strike chain (harder with 3/4 bab), but with lead blades that makes up for a lot and you can do a vital strike and after level 11 or earlier with your alternate class points, you can give yourself a 20% miss shield every turn (not shabby)

if you are going to 20 it is sick provided you can retrain some of those feats.

[Just a Mort]

You could melee in breastplate if you're inclined to. I've certainly frontlined in less then that. Chainshirt, leather armor..part of pfs.

Run 16 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 10 int, 10 wis, 14 cha and you can start your career smacking things up.

Divine protection is not pfs legal. If you really want dex based, use heirloom weapon to get a scimitar, then take dervish dance, so you can add dex to dmg.

Else you can spend 3 feats, wep focus longsword, wep finesse, then take slashing grace.

[RainyDayNinja]

If this is for PFS, keep in mind that Divine Protection is not legal. But you could take Battle Cry at level 7 instead, which would be boss.

If you're not focused on spell DCs, you're better off with less Charisma, maybe starting at just 14.

I'm not sure what you mean by getting your weapon proficiency from "Elven blood." Are you playing an Elf? If so, the ECB is still a martial weapon for you, and you'll need Skill at Arms to be proficient. But if you play a half-elf, you can use the alternate racial trait to swap out your Skill Focus bonus feat for the proficiency.

For a half-elf, I'd recommend something like this:

14/17/14/10/8/14
Traits: Fate's Favored, ???
1: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus* (weapon mastery revelation)
3: Power Attack, warsight
5: Misc.: Toughness? Iron Will? Improved Sunder?
6: Improved Critical*
7: Battle Cry, battlefield clarity
8: Greater Weapon Focus*
9: Misc.
11: Misc., misc.

*Using the elf oracle favored class bonus on this revelation, to add 1/2 to your effective level, gets you early entry to the later bonus feats.

Fate's Favored plus divine favor it a better first-round buff than lead blades, giving you +2 to attack and damage from level 1, and scaling up from there. At level 8 you can start with divine power instead for the extra attack.

Starting with 14 Str lets you qualify for Power Attack, and gives +3 damage, which makes the agile property mostly superfluous. You can skip it and get regular plusses or other enchantments instead. You also don't need keen because of Improved Critical at 6.