PFS Oradin advice...


Advice


I have a 1st level Tiefling Paladin burning a hole in my pocket, so I'm trying to decide what path to commit to. I do know that I'm going to be heavily in Lay on Hands. Couple of questions:

Should I take 1 level of Oracle or 3 levels or Oracle? Lifelink is a given, but if I take those extra two levels, what else? Channel?

What Curse? My first impulse is Legalistic since it fits in with his Tiefling heritage and his Lawful nature but Powerless Prophecy intrigues me as well.

Which Paladin archetypes are the best to consider? Obviously Oath of Vengeance deserves consideration. I was thinking about Holy Guide, starting with Urban as my Favored Terrain; I just never seem to get much benefit out of most Mercies, but I'm not sure I want to put off Greater Mercy - am I considered to have the 'Mercy class feature' even if I haven't technically choosen any Mercies? Sacred Servant looks good too.

Any major erratta that I should be aware of? I can never seem to keep up with the ever-changing rules of PFS, much less the ever-changing rules of Pathfinder as a whole?

Thanks in advance!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hey Wiggz --

The great thing about Oradins is that there is no one true build. You can emphasize the oracle, or you can emphasize the paladin, and it's all good. Tieflings have the world's best favored class bonus for this.

So... You can have exactly as many lifelinks as the levels in oracle that you have. The normal choices for oracle levels are two (to get more than one life link) or four (to get Lesser Restoration. Channel and one other second level spell before you lose any more BAB.) Or all the rest, like Lyric did, because she fell in love with spell casting!

I know of one Oath of Vengeance Oradin who only did two levels in oracle for the lifelink, figuring that in most PFS games you only have a few heavy hitters in the front lines. So he'd go in with his two best buddies, smite and fight. He ignored channel entirely, just going for melee. His feats were Fey Foundling, and lots of Extra Lay on Hands. He figured that he can either use those Lay on Hands to Heal, or to Smite so that the Bad Guy went down just that much faster.

Holy Guide is also a lovely archetype. A friend of mine has one in PFS that he likes very much. Because it delays mercies, you cannot get extra mercy feat yet though.

What do you see your Tiefling Oradin doing?

Hmm


Fey foundling is almost a must. (I don't know what david the gnome's orphanage is doing right, but they seem to raise an awful lot of paladins)

Silver Crusade

For curses, I went deaf! No wimpy legalistic curse for me! Advantages: immunity to sonic, silent spell casting, and the most memorable initiative modifier around.

(Lyric rocks a -4 initiative bonus!)

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I agree with the others, there are a lot of good ways to build an oradin. You can develop a new one if you want!

I have an oradin myself--Charisma Arcadia, a somewhat stereotypical bubblegum-snapping 17-year-old anime heroine with a far too large sword that is just about too big for her to wield. While she can run circles around her opponents, the weight of that ridiculous weapon can make her clumsy at times and the bubblegum makes it hard to make out what she's yelling at you about in battle.

Mechanically, she's taking one level of lunar oracle with the prophetic armor revelation and 7 dex. It makes her amazingly clumsy sometimes, which is kind of funny! But then the rest of the time she murders things with a greatsword.

Scarab Sages

Wiggz wrote:

I have a 1st level Tiefling Paladin burning a hole in my pocket, so I'm trying to decide what path to commit to. I do know that I'm going to be heavily in Lay on Hands. Couple of questions:

Should I take 1 level of Oracle or 3 levels or Oracle? Lifelink is a given, but if I take those extra two levels, what else? Channel?

What Curse? My first impulse is Legalistic since it fits in with his Tiefling heritage and his Lawful nature but Powerless Prophecy intrigues me as well.

Which Paladin archetypes are the best to consider? Obviously Oath of Vengeance deserves consideration. I was thinking about Holy Guide, starting with Urban as my Favored Terrain; I just never seem to get much benefit out of most Mercies, but I'm not sure I want to put off Greater Mercy - am I considered to have the 'Mercy class feature' even if I haven't technically choosen any Mercies? Sacred Servant looks good too.

Any major erratta that I should be aware of? I can never seem to keep up with the ever-changing rules of PFS, much less the ever-changing rules of Pathfinder as a whole?

Thanks in advance!

There is no way one to do it as said by Hmm, but my advice.

4 levels of Oracle you don't lose a BAB and gain a second level spell. (Personally, I like Shield Other)

Paladin I prefer no Archetype - though Hospitaler is also a popular choice.

Curse - Like Lyric I went Deaf. Silent Spell casting is a major bonus, as is going last with life link running. Note: immunity to sonic effects IMO does not mean sonic damage (In real world terms that damage is from the pressure of the sound - like bass from speakers, though you'll get variation on this.)

Not any Errata I can think of that effected me though the Campaign Clarification on the Boots of the Earth did affect many Oradins (I never bought them)- oh and the Bracers of the Merciful Knight will be your friend and Fey Foundling is IMO the only feat requirement of the build.

Silver Crusade

Lyric lost her elven favored class bonus to errata. A change from a revelation boost from 1/2 to 1/6 levels is tough. Fortunately there was no change to the human FCB. So instead of buffing revelations, she's adding spells to her spell list. I took an extra revelation in order to start boosting channel right away and make up for the multiclassing. Post-errata, I would have never taken the feat to get channel. Sigh.

But the errata did not change the Tiefling FCB, which is crazy good for oradins.

Go deaf oradins!

Hmm


Alright, so right now I'm really torn between going straight Paladin (to get the full value of LoH, among other things), taking 1 level or Oracle (to be able to put Lifelink on one teammate who needs it most) or taking 4 levels of Oracle for the reasons mentioned above and grabbing Channel. Six 2d6 channels x 4 party members is almost like getting 24 free Cure Lights Wounds spells every day...

Scarab Sages

Wiggz wrote:
Alright, so right now I'm really torn between going straight Paladin (to get the full value of LoH, among other things), taking 1 level or Oracle (to be able to put Lifelink on one teammate who needs it most) or taking 4 levels of Oracle for the reasons mentioned above and grabbing Channel. Six 2d6 channels x 4 party members is almost like getting 24 free Cure Lights Wounds spells every day...

That's part of the reason I like the bracers so much. Despite being 4 levels behind as a paladin, my LoH aren't.

(Posting this as my 12th level Oradin)

Silver Crusade

Invest 100gp into a meditation crystal to get the most out of your oracle channels.

The hospitalier archetype is great if you want a paladin that specializes in healing, oradin or not. Paladins get access to shield other and paladin's sacrifice at 7th level, both of which are great at mitigating damage to the group. Greater and Ultimate Mercy are also pretty awesome to have at your disposal.

Life link doesn't scale well, so unless you're taking 3 or 4 levels of oracle, you may find the oracle dip lackluster as you approach retirement. Of course, you could always retrain those levels later in your career.

Finally, Channel + Oath of Vengence Paladin means a lot of smites every day.

Sovereign Court

Jack Amy wrote:
Finally, Channel + Oath of Vengence Paladin means a lot of smites every day.

Lots of Smites, eh? Like 7-8? Heh.

However, both Oath of Vengeance and Hositaler modify Channel Energy and Aura of Justice, so they do not stack.

I like my (N)Oradin with only 1 oracle level, and 2 levels of ninja.
Yes, Ninja.

Forgive me Chaplain for I have... No, Chaplain, I haven't been using poisons again. No, no, its fine, I put the holy water back in the... Stop looking at me like that, I followed the letter of The Code!

My thought process is that a CHA based Ki pool is amazing. Sure you can go Iroran Paladin, but that trades out Smite Evil and doesn't stack with Hospitaler. As Jack mentioned, Meditation crystal is very useful for a Hositalier, but in this case because you have a ki pool it also allows you to turn channels into Ki pool. And with 1 level of Oracle you can pick up Life Link, and spend a feat on Extra Revelation(Channel) to have another channel pool.

You then purchase a large amount of Tea of Transference (Alchemy Manual 40 gp/dose) to turn Ki pool into "one use of channel energy, ... one use of smite evil, ... or one expended spell slot at least 2 levels lower than the highest-level spell you can cast." The spells part is not so much useful at lower levels, but ... you can turn channel energy into a Smite Evil. So... 2 channel pools based on Cha, and a Ki pool based on Cha... My level 11 Noradin (Nin 2/Or 1/Pal 8) has something like a potential 28 Smite Evils per day. And 11 more Lay on Hands. Can't turn the Smites into Lay On Hands, but the rest all can, so potential 37 Lay on Hands if not converting to smites. 3 Ultimate Mercy's a day and a little left over to actually play with.

Ki pool can also be spent on extra attacks, or move speed or bonus on stealth. Sure you have Poison Use because no ROGUE archetype trades it out. And sneak attack, but if you have complaints about sneak attack bonus damage (after combat is announced anyway) from say, flanking, then you should deny all Paladins the +2 bonus to hit from flanking for the same reason because its not 'fair'. Or +1 higher ground, or anything whatsoever that is tactical or gives them an advantage. And force them to take a -4 to do non-lethal, because you know, they can't attack something vital intentionally.

Now, if you happened to be a Paladin of Irori (mine was Sarenrae, who doesn't have anything against poison surprisingly) there is a little feat called Ki Channel(Inner Sea Gods). Instead of healing from the channel, you get Ki points = channel dice. So, channel for 3 dice (hospitaler) into 3 ki points, take a tea to get the channel back, use the remaining 2 ki to smite/heal all of the things. And jumps and flips and Acrobatics because you are a Paladin in full plate (non-mithral) with a +30 Acrobatics check (ninja trick:acrobatic master).


If you don't care about the spellcasting or channeling, then only 1 or 2 levels should be totally fine for oracle levels. For archetype it's tough to argue against Oath of Vengeance.

Being a Tiefling with the FCB and taking Fey Foundling as your level 1 feat is all you'll need to keep yourself alive through almost anything.

Silver Crusade

I really would like to play an Oradin with a tumor/protector familiar. Attach your familiar and redirect half the damage you take to it. Meanwhile, it heals 5hp per round. It's insane!

The only problem is that it's quite...un-elegant. You can do it in 2 ways: Alchemist or a class with Aberrant Bloodline.

Alchemist: you need at least a dip of 2 levels. Take the tumor familiar Discovery. If you take only 2 levels, you'll need Boon Companion too.

Sorcerer/Bloodrager: Aberrant Bloodline + Aberrant Tumor feat. Then, Boon Companion if you don't dip at least 5 levels.

In synthesis, this needs 1 level dip in Sorc/Bloodr. + 2 feats or 2 level dip in Alchemist + 1 feat to work. More levels seems just too much...

Sovereign Court

Skill Focus -> Eldritch Heritage (Aberrant Bloodline) perhaps? It says "choose a bloodline".


Firebug wrote:
Skill Focus -> Eldritch Heritage (Aberrant Bloodline) perhaps? It says "choose a bloodline".

Still requires 3 feats.

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