First: I have used the search function, I have found other threads that I'm pretty sure answer the question for me, but I'm having a bit of a disagreement with the Lone Wolf devs in charge of Hero Lab.
In Hero Lab a Gnome Oracle 4 with the Lycanthropy curse who has taken two levels with the favored class bonus should have the abilities of the Lycanthropy curse that are granted at lv. 5. This is how I interpret the rules.
Gnome Oracle Favored Class Bonus (ARG): "Add +1/2 to the oracle’s level for the purpose of determining the effects of the oracle’s curse ability."
Lone Wolf is determined to have me believe that the Oracle can not use this favored class bonus to gain its curse abilities early, and that the favored class bonus is solely intended for gnome oracles who multiclass (much like the magical knack trait.)
Can anyone please give me some confirmation one way or another in a current thread? I feel like I'm crazy here.
You are correct. The favored class bonus lacks Magical Knack's limiting language. Lone Wolf is wrong.
FCB is a mechanic to reward singleclassing, or to punish multiclassing if you will. Having an FCB that is only useful for multiclassing is contrary to intent, and dumb.
I can sorta see where they're coming from. There are a lot of classes that get an advanced but separate version of class abilities at higher levels, and sometimes those abilities also have level dependent effects. eg a level 11 Inquisitor wearing a Bane Baldric may use Bane for 16 rds/day, but does not have access to Greater Bane.
That doesn't seem to be the case here. Oracle Curses wrap everything together, so if your effective curse level is 5, you get access to everything 5th level would give you. The only curse level dependent bonuses I can find are all 3PP. The official stuff explicitly says "oracle level" or "character level," so bumping curse level doesn't do ANYTHING if it doesn't give you early access.
Just wanted to update you all, after pleading my case, and linking to this thread as well as older ones discussing similar if not almost identical questions, Lone Wolf emailed me saying that they concluded that Hero Lab does indeed calculate the FCB's benefit incorrectly and that it will be updated!
Thank you all for your replies, and a big shout out to Lone Wolf for keeping an open mind and giving the issue a fair shake!