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A little background for this character: He's not an 'oracle,' so much as one of those creepy teen psychics; tremendous psionic potential, relatively limited control, and an assortment of metal issues (phobias, obsessive-compulsive tics, etc). I'm picking lore oracle because it seems to best capture the precognitive angle. That being said, I'd like some advice on how to build this character.
Game starts at 1st level, using a 25 point buy. In addition PC's can bump up one 'odd' ability to an even provided it does not increase said ability score higher than 16. This is before racial modifications. I'm uncertain about race; human, of course, offers the bonus feat, extra skills, and their favored class option, but I'm not married to that race either. If someone can come up with a compelling reason to pick a different race, I'd love to hear it.
In addition, I'm not too experienced with clerical magic, so I'm at a lose as to which spells I should pick as I level up.
Pretty much any pathfinder book is available. In advice for a lore oracle for carrion crown (without spoilers, of course) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I've found gnome to be a solid Oracle race. The racial favored class bonus is decent, and if you've read any of the Gnomes of Golarion or Inner Sea World Guide descriptions of Golarion gnomes, they can definitely possess a major creepiness factor.
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You could rock shield of faith as a kind of omen of clarity that gives people a precognitive sense.
I'd go for stuff like flame strike and searing ray to emulate pyrokinesis later on. For right now, though, just like read through the books and take spells you like. Protection from evil and later magic circle against evil are both solid choices and being able to cast multiples gives your party a big edge up on monsters with mental control powers.
As far as the game goes, do you plan on meleeing, or do you want to be the skill character? A Lore oracle can be a great skill character in addition to being a divine casting powerhouse.
I would suggest as far as just general spell picks...
1st level-- bless, shield of faith, protection from evil and magic weapon
2nd level-- hold person, lesser restoration, silence, spiritual weapon
3rd level-- daylight, dispel magic, magic vestment, prayer.
4th level-- greater magic weapon, freedom of movement, restoration, death ward.
Stay human. Use your favored class bonus from 3rd level on to get new spells of lower levels.
If you want to be a skill/spell character, I'd suggest a stat line up like this:
STR 10... 10 (0 pts)
DEX 8... 8 (-2 pts)
CON 14... 14 (5 pts)
INT 15+1... 16 (7 pts)
WIS 10... 10 (0 pts)
CHA 15+2... 17 (13 pts)
You have 2 points to put anywhere. Good places are Con, Str or Wis depending on your own needs.
Take the revelation that gives you Charisma to AC instead of Dex-- Sidestep Secret. Now your character is clumsy, but uses precognition to dodge attacks.
Oracles get 4 + Int skills. 4 + 3 = 7 + 1 for human = 8. Lore gives you all Knowledge skills and Appraise. With this, you can have a lot of skills maxed out. If you want more, you could take the feat Cosmopolitan to pick up more languages and more skills-- like Intimidate, Perception, Bluff, Linguistics, etc.
You could rock shield of faith as a kind of omen of clarity that gives people a precognitive sense.
I'd go for stuff like flame strike and searing ray to emulate pyrokinesis later on. For right now, though, just like read through the books and take spells you like. Protection from evil and later magic circle against evil are both solid choices and being able to cast multiples gives your party a big edge up on monsters with mental control powers.
As far as the game goes, do you plan on meleeing, or do you want to be the skill character? A Lore oracle can be a great skill character in addition to being a divine casting powerhouse.
I would suggest as far as just general spell picks...
1st level-- bless, shield of faith, protection from evil and magic weapon
2nd level-- hold person, lesser restoration, silence, spiritual weapon
3rd level-- daylight, dispel magic, magic vestment, prayer.
4th level-- greater magic weapon, freedom of movement, restoration, death ward.Stay human. Use your favored class bonus from 3rd level on to get new spells of lower levels.
If you want to be a skill/spell character, I'd suggest a stat line up like this:
STR 10... 10 (0 pts)
DEX 8... 8 (-2 pts)
CON 14... 14 (5 pts)
INT 15+1... 16 (7 pts)
WIS 10... 10 (0 pts)
CHA 15+2... 17 (13 pts)You have 2 points to put anywhere. Good places are Con, Str or Wis depending on your own needs.
Take the revelation that gives you Charisma to AC instead of Dex-- Sidestep Secret. Now your character is clumsy, but uses precognition to dodge attacks.
Oracles get 4 + Int skills. 4 + 3 = 7 + 1 for human = 8. Lore gives you all Knowledge skills and Appraise. With this, you can have a lot of skills maxed out. If you want more, you could take the feat Cosmopolitan to pick up more languages and more skills-- like Intimidate, Perception, Bluff, Linguistics, etc.
Good call on the pyrokinesis angle; it adds a nice Carrie aspect to the concept.
I know that I want this character to be very skilled; many of his knowledge skills will be boosted by his revelations to absurd levels. I'm at a loss, combat-wise; I don't want to suck in a fight, obviously, but I'm also unsure of how effective a lore oracle is when it comes to a fight.
I've also been considering my curse, and so far, haunted seems to be the frontrunner; this character isn't *actually* haunted by malevolent spirits, however. Rather, the haunted curse would represent his telekinetic powers backed by his unstable psyche. When his oracle abilities first manifested, his family thought the house was inhabited by ghosts.
I can dig that line. Instead of being haunted by ghosts, you're haunted by your psychic powers. Cool.
As far as combat goes, your main goal is to pump up your Charisma for high DCs and more spells. Cast spells before combat with long durations like protection/circle vs evil, shield of faith or magic weapon and then during combat cast spells like bless, hold person, spiritual weapon, dispel magic. Oracles are fantastic support casters-- the best in the entire game, in my opinion. Brain Drain is a cool revelation that you also might want to get for the combat application, but it's all or nothing and enemies will usually have worse Knowledge ranks than you and that's meh.
Go for the big 5 in Knowledges (nature, planes, religion, arcana, dungeoneering) and something like Think On It (meh) or Focused Trance (oh, yes) and you could be a big boon in combat as well-- identifying the hell out of every monster and spell effect you run into is a big advantage in every kind of fight.
Watch out, though. Carrion Crown is FULL of Knowledge checks during the social/investigation sections, and you don't want to leave the other PCs feel like they're Watson to your Sherlock. It's a handle with care kind of thing.
EDIT: I also thought of a cool flavor for Protection from Evil-- you're using your latent abilities to double-layer your ward's mental protection. A psychic shield, so to speak.
I've found gnome to be a solid Oracle race. The racial favored class bonus is decent, and if you've read any of the Gnomes of Golarion or Inner Sea World Guide descriptions of Golarion gnomes, they can definitely possess a major creepiness factor.
Gnomes are creepy regardless of class. I do want a little creepy, but not too much. After all, we *are* trying to build trust among the xenophobic peasants, and I'm not sure that a cast member of the Village of the Damned would be the best way to go about it.
That said, I'll consider a gnome; they do have the awesome charisma bonus.
I can dig that line. Instead of being haunted by ghosts, you're haunted by your psychic powers. Cool.
As far as combat goes, your main goal is to pump up your Charisma for high DCs and more spells. Cast spells before combat with long durations like protection/circle vs evil, shield of faith or magic weapon and then during combat cast spells like bless, hold person, spiritual weapon, dispel magic. Oracles are fantastic support casters-- the best in the entire game, in my opinion. Brain Drain is a cool revelation that you also might want to get for the combat application, but it's all or nothing and enemies will usually have worse Knowledge ranks than you and that's meh.
Go for the big 5 in Knowledges (nature, planes, religion, arcana, dungeoneering) and something like Think On It (meh) or Focused Trance (oh, yes) and you could be a big boon in combat as well-- identifying the hell out of every monster and spell effect you run into is a big advantage in every kind of fight.
Watch out, though. Carrion Crown is FULL of Knowledge checks during the social/investigation sections, and you don't want to leave the other PCs feel like they're Watson to your Sherlock. It's a handle with care kind of thing.
EDIT: I also thought of a cool flavor for Protection from Evil-- you're using your latent abilities to double-layer your ward's mental protection. A psychic shield, so to speak.
Good advice, thank you. :)
For spells, I'm trying to find a balance between flavor and usefulness; my general lack of experience with clerical magic makes this difficult. Any tips or suggestions in this area would be appreciated.
I picked lore because I wanted to have a bunch of clairvoyant-type magic at my disposal; Focused Trance presents many cool possibilities.
Alright, I'm giving this thread one last bump; our game begins this weekend, so I'm pretty much out of time with my initial character creation.
In addition to my oracle, we have a tiefling wizard (evoker), changeling summoner, and a human inquisitor.
Any last minute tips or ideas before I finalize my character?
Ya know what, on some level you can make whatever you want. Know why? Because you have a 25 point buy! Make a dwarf lore oracle who goes into melee with the haunted curse, you've got 25 points, you'll be fine!
Ya know what, on some level you can make whatever you want. Know why? Because you have a 25 point buy! Make a dwarf lore oracle who goes into melee with the haunted curse, you've got 25 points, you'll be fine!
You know, you're right.
I'm a little amazed no one called me out on my horrid math.
STR 10... 10 (0 pts)
DEX 8... 8 (-2 pts)
CON 14... 14 (5 pts)
INT 15+1... 16 (7 pts)
WIS 10... 10 (0 pts)
CHA 17+2... 19 (13 pts)
You could do that if you wanted to. Still leaves you with 2 points for where ever.
Okay.
Ya know what, on some level you can make whatever you want. Know why? Because you have a 25 point buy! Make a dwarf lore oracle who goes into melee with the haunted curse, you've got 25 points, you'll be fine!You know, you're right.
I'm a little amazed no one called me out on my horrid math.
STR 10... 10 (0 pts)
DEX 8... 8 (-2 pts)
CON 14... 14 (5 pts)
INT 15+1... 16 (7 pts)
WIS 10... 10 (0 pts)
CHA 17+2... 19 (13 pts)You could do that if you wanted to. Still leaves you with 2 points for where ever.
Okay.
I decided to spread the points around a bit, giving my character a bit more versatility. I went with:
Str: 13
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 15+1... 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 18