Magic and Mystery—Oracle Class Deck Preview

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

In the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the oracle is a divine spellcaster driven by devotion to an ideal rather than to a particular deity. The specific source of an oracle's abilities is a mystery, and each oracle is burdened with a curse of some kind, for power has a price. When we designed the first version of Alahazra the Oracle for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, we found ourselves drawn to the idea of prophecy and foresight. That idea carried through into the new character designs for the Oracle Class Deck.

In the Skull & Shackles Base Set, the blind Oracle Alahazra wielded the power of storms against her enemies, while using her divine abilities to open a brief window into the party's future. In her new incarnation, the Bride of the Sun calls down the daystar's light on anyone who gets in her way, and that dazzling illumination makes many things clear to even those who lack eyesight. (She also has a sweet hat.)

No, we don't know how she gets dressed like that without sight either.

That last role power works in combination with the second power, so Alahazra can provide a long term strategic view of what's to come by peeking at the bottom two cards of a deck. Cartmanbeck gave you a preview of her other role, Wandering Prophet, two weeks ago.

For the two new characters in the Oracle Class Deck, we decided to get freaky with our divination methods. Ramexes, as mentioned in that "Class Decks Update" blog, is a haruspex. That means he guts things and sees what's to come in their entrails. Since we're fully into fantasy stereotypes here at the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, we knew Ramexes had to be a pitborn.

He's not bad, he's just drawn that— ...well, actually, he's pretty bad.

Ramexes has a straightforward "kill 'em, cut 'em open, see what's coming" mechanic in his first character power. My favorite power of all time is his third character power, in which he cuts open his allies to gain prescience and bonus explorations. I cackle every time I play him, and he's one of my playtest characters for Season of the Runelords, so I play him a lot. The other folks in the office have gotten used to the frequent cackles that emanate from my cubicle. Or at least they've stopped asking about it.

The final character in our clairvoyant trio is Grazzle, a lizardfolk life oracle who practices ossomancy, or bone divination. He's slightly more fastidious/carnivorous than Ramexes, and prefers to use the whole kill rather than just the entrails.

Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog... wait, wool of bat?

As you can see, Grazzle's focus isn't on scrying, but rather on healing his party through a little self-sacrifice. He can automatically recharge his spells, so he fights like a sorcerer, and the Bone Diviner can still do a little divination where his friends are with a mechanic similar to S&S Alahazra. The Bone Diviner also has a power that works with the variety of new diviner items that we've put in the Oracle Class Deck—but you'll have to wait and see those another time!

I showed off this deck to a playtester of mine, and he shuffled through the deck and gave me a look full of shock and misery. "Where's Augury?" he asked plaintively.

That's right, kids, the Oracle Class Deck doesn't contain the Augury spell. Doesn't have it, doesn't need it. Between the new items and powers we've jammed in there, these oracles will be examining decks like it's their jobs; they'll want to save their spell slots for other things. We encourage you to pick it up and try it out, and see what you think.

Until next time, Pathfinders.

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer