Player Core 2 Preview: The Oracle, Remastered

I might actually play an oracle now.

LOL I played one quite often as the feats were meh and I didn't care about anything curse/cursebound but it was a full caster class meaning it's feats were all free for archetypes. it played great as long as you ignored the curse. ;)

Lookin good! Love The Dead Walk. I'm going to assume it will scale

I don't think it will. It gets more powerful as your curse gets stronger since you get more spirits that attack your enemies. According to the post higher levels mean you can shoulder more of your curse, so you can potentially get more power from this ability.

If the new cursebound works similarly to the old curse, you will usually start a combat either without it or at least with only a very small effect from it. The means The Dead Walk gets stronger the longer any given combat lasts since your cursebound condition will increase during combat.

The best use scenario is most likely relying on your spells coupled with free action or one action cursebound abilities for the first 2-3 rounds of combat. Then use The Dead Walk to finish off your opponents.

This is a little disingenuous as this is the absolute worst case scenario for the fighter (level +3) and the best case for an auto hitting single target spell. It also comes with a higher cost to pull off for the Oracle.

Comparing optimum for the Oracle and worst case scenario for fighter is not a fair comparison.

It's the worst case scenario for a caster (single target) and the best case scenario for the Fighter (single high AC target). Because I can compare the damage output of a Divine Wrath on a dozen enemies to the Fighter's and the difference will be way higher.

Ravingdork wrote:

I might actually play an oracle now.

LOL I played one quite often as the feats were meh and I didn't care about anything curse/cursebound but it was a full caster class meaning it's feats were all free for archetypes. it played great as long as you ignored the curse. ;)

I played one as Cosmos Oracle and one of my players as played as Battle Oracle. Both runs pretty well.

The strange point about playing as oracle is that curses doesn't looks like as curses but as a power overwhelming that give some benefits in trade of some penalties. This made the Mistery selection a choice about what is the best for the build what you wanted to do.

In my case the Cosmos Oracle was good due the physical resistance and because the enfeebled and penalties to be Grappled, Shoved and other Forced Movement wasn't a big problem for a ranged support caster in 99,9% of time. The cosmos' curses usually just helped my movement than creates any problem.

And my player that played as Battle Oracle just loved to have a spontaneous divine caster that uses a heavy armor and a martial weapon a yet get some rage bonus and fast healing and the AC penalty was relatively easier to deal with him just Striking every turn. He was considered as the MVP in our Plaguestone adventure due how well this mistery was in lower levels.

The mysteries and oracle chassis made Oracle as interesting alternatives for Divine Sorcerers specially for low-level adventures in legacy. But always was strange that curses never looks like as curses but as trade-offs that was most good than bad. You just need to build around then to compensate the curses limitations.

So I'm hyped with what this new oracle will give. If the curses finally will looks like curses and if it will be fun to play is highest levels specially now that alignment gone and you don't need to have a deity to cast many good spells with divine tradition in the remaster.

Powers128 wrote:

Lookin good! Love The Dead Walk. I'm going to assume it will scale

I don't think it will. It gets more powerful as your curse gets stronger since you get more spirits that attack your enemies. According to the post higher levels mean you can shoulder more of your curse, so you can potentially get more power from this ability.

If the new cursebound works similarly to the old curse, you will usually start a combat either without it or at least with only a very small effect from it. The means The Dead Walk gets stronger the longer any given combat lasts since your cursebound condition will increase during combat.

The best use scenario is most likely relying on your spells coupled with free action or one action cursebound abilities for the first 2-3 rounds of combat. Then use The Dead Walk to finish off your opponents.

That sort of counts as scaling I guess. Hopefully they don't suffer map then amongst themselves

Wow, love the flavor of Foretell Harm. Which Mystery is it for? Bones?

It didn't show a prerequisite in the stat block like the 10th level feat example so likely available to all.

Like Druid, I think it’s just a feat, and may be granted freely as part of selecting Mystery.

Bones would be my guess too…

I'm going to need to heavily rebuild my Oracle. These are certainly interesting changes but I'll need to see the full thing before speculating if ill like them. The PF2 oracle was always divisive, but I was one of the people who dug how each curse pushed you into a specific play style. And my battle oracle really appreciated the mysteries constant benefits-- the weapon damage meant I never almost never had to resort to canntrips, and a full spell + strike is an awesome turn. We will see how much these cursebound actions let me keep that vibe. It looks like they are essentially an additional resource look to manage, which is a different experience. Also, I didn't spot how you lower your curse level. Refocus or long rest?

There's also spells to consider. Divine access as a feature is great, but whether I can stand moving it to level 10 will be determined by whether sure strike and haste are part of the base mystery spell selection. I will say the Oracle feag selection wasn't amazing before so there's less sting to spend them on "buy backs."

I'm in the same boat. I leaned so heavily into my curse and built my Ancestor Oracle to be able to contribute in every area of combat. I loved my oracle, but man... I am going to have to think about whether she will still work after the remaster. I may decide to keep her unremastered.

Hmm

I have the same thought: If the remaster modifies my Oracles too much, I can still play the non-remaster version.

I have the same thought: If the remaster modifies my Oracles too much, I can still play the non-remaster version.

Perhaps player core 2 will fix this, but currently you really can't play a remastered Magus due to the paucity of spells that involve attack rolls since Frostbite, Thunderstrike, Acid Grip, Enfeeble, and Arctic Rift all target saves when their legacy version targeted AC. IIRC there's only 4 spell attacks in the entire PC1.

So "playing the legacy version of your character, which already works to my satisfaction" is just fine. I'm personally not a fan of taking an existing character and reworking them entirely because of a rules change.

SuperBidi wrote:

I have the same thought: If the remaster modifies my Oracles too much, I can still play the non-remaster version.

Perhaps player core 2 will fix this, but currently you really can't play a remastered Magus due to the paucity of spells that involve attack rolls since Frostbite, Thunderstrike, Acid Grip, Enfeeble, and Arctic Rift all target saves when their legacy version targeted AC.

That seems a bit of an exaggeration. Though GMs may vary, and are technically allowed to ban anything for any reason.

But even in PFS, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, Acid Arrow, Ray of Enfeeblement, and Polar Ray all still exist and are valid choices for Magus characters created today.

So banning all of the legacy spells that target AC just to nerf Magus players seems like a GM problem, not a game content quantity problem.

I might actually play an oracle now.

I'm going to need to heavily rebuild my Oracle. These are certainly interesting changes but I'll need to see the full thing before speculating if ill like them.

I loved my oracle, but man... I am going to have to think about whether she will still work after the remaster. I may decide to keep her unremastered.

... It does kind of feel like the Oracle remaster was designed for people who didn't want to play Oracles in the first place, which is certainly an interesting direction.

I'm hoping they at least retained the positive mystery mechanics within the mysteries rather than just reducing them to spell lists. Though the fact that they didn't mention mystery mechanics outside of changing curse progression to purely be negative is I guess slightly worrying. It does sort of give the impression mysteries are being reduced to spell lists.

That seems a bit of an exaggeration. Though GMs may vary, and are technically allowed to ban anything for any reason.

My reading on "remastered" character would be "one who doesn't use legacy material". So if you're using the legacy versions of the spells, you're not a remaster character, which is fine.

Finoan wrote:

That seems a bit of an exaggeration. Though GMs may vary, and are technically allowed to ban anything for any reason.

My reading on "remastered" character would be "one who doesn't use legacy material". So if you're using the legacy versions of the spells, you're not a remaster character, which is fine.

Then you couldn't play a Magus in the first place...

PossibleCabbage wrote:

Finoan wrote:

That seems a bit of an exaggeration. Though GMs may vary, and are technically allowed to ban anything for any reason.

My reading on "remastered" character would be "one who doesn't use legacy material". So if you're using the legacy versions of the spells, you're not a remaster character, which is fine.

Then you couldn't play a Magus in the first place...

Allowing the Legacy class but banning all of the Legacy spells that the class needs is definitely an ... interesting choice from the GM.

I would be very concerned if a GM allowed one Legacy item but not another unless it is clearly a replacement like Frostbite & Ignition but banning Legacy spells but allowing Magus for me just sounds like a giant red flag to me however this is neither here no there for the Oracle, this change seems really interesting however I am unsure how it will work at low levels.

Foretell Harm (Level 1 Feat)
It just feels like a very odd way of squeezing 2 turns of Dangerous Sorcery out of Oracle which isn't really cheesing the action economy, in fact I don't think it's really altering it at all. With Dangerous Sorcery being so easy to get with Free Archetype (Yes it can stack I know this) it seems really strange to me. If it didn't have the immune for 24 hours I'd be more then happy to take it I think.

The only hope I have in the higher level feats makes me want to consider Oracle over Sorcerer which seems to be the primer caster of PF-2E,not any special gimmicks just extra spells, no preparations required. Just raw casting capabilities with decent focus spells.

This is the problem I have with some of the classes. You need to balance the Spontaneous Casters with themselves but so far I feel as if Sorcerer does it better. I suppose the thing i am missing is 9 slots of magic for 2 extra hit points. That might actually make a difference...I don't see enough Oracles to really make a proper answer. I have seen Bards and they are as nasty as Sorcerers if not worst with how good Courageous Anthem (Inspire Courage) is.

I haven't even mentioned Cleric, Druid or heaven forbid the Animist. Prepared casters but still I think they feel better then Oracles.

Having a base level of power but also being able to trade a debuf for a powerup is very "sorcer" to me.
We often see casters in fiction straining to "cast harder!",but most game mechanics do not support this.
Psychic is closest up till now.

Ravingdork wrote:

I might actually play an oracle now.

Captain Morgan wrote:

I'm going to need to heavily rebuild my Oracle. These are certainly interesting changes but I'll need to see the full thing before speculating if ill like them.

Hilary Moon Murphy wrote:

I loved my oracle, but man... I am going to have to think about whether she will still work after the remaster. I may decide to keep her unremastered.

... It does kind of feel like the Oracle remaster was designed for people who didn't want to play Oracles in the first place, which is certainly an interesting direction.

I'm hoping they at least retained the positive mystery mechanics within the mysteries rather than just reducing them to spell lists. Though the fact that they didn't mention mystery mechanics outside of changing curse progression to purely be negative is I guess slightly worrying. It does sort of give the impression mysteries are being reduced to spell lists.

It feels like a symptom of taking the advanced players guide classes, which were meant for advanced players, and making them core alongside the simpler classes. Oracle was harder to pilot effectively. Lots of people hate jumping through hoops just to perform roughly on par with a class that "just works." Those people could player a divine sorcerer or cleric instead.

But people like Hilary and I like playing around those hoops and reading the unique rewards. For me, it's not unlike the min-max game of PF1. Leave your strength at 7 and then find all the little ways to make it not matter. Hopefully that isn't lost, and to be fair a unique resource pool which advances your curse penalty seems to accomplish that without limiting the class from using something as basic as focus spells. They won't have to multi class poach focus spells to use their focus pool without penalty.

I do doubt the constant mystery benefits (the ones not linked to curses) are going anywhere. Battle Oracle without heavy armor and proficiency in some martial weapons just isn't battle oracle anymore. Those little defensive buffs other mysteries had felt like one of their key advantages over cloistered clerics.

I'm a bit concerned... If we need to expend our limited number of class feat choices to get cursebound feats, it means we can't use those feat choices to get feats that would enhance our other abilities. They'd have to be really good abilities to be worth giving up other abilities and class features that don't come with penalties for use, such as additional revelation/focus spells (assuming the class is still as focus-spell centered as it was previously) or metamagic.

I definitely need to see the whole Remastered class before making up my mind on the new Oracle.

I liked the PF1 one but agree it was far to open to minmaxing, which led to less variety rather than more.

The PF2 class mechanics never really clicked with me, but I liked the whole premices they were built on.

Remastered Oracle sounds like it tries to mix both. I need to see the whole picture to know if it excites me enough to play one or not.

I definitely hope the MC Dedication will be easier to integrate than the pre-Remaster one though.

Having a base level of power but also being able to trade a debuf for a powerup is very "sorcer" to me.

We often see casters in fiction straining to "cast harder!",but most game mechanics do not support this.
Psychic is closest up till now.

A D&D Sorcerer, yes. But not really a Pathfinder Sorcerer. Pathfinder Sorcerers are not really about tradeoffs with wild magic like a D&D sorcerer would be.

** spoiler omitted **

Protection's initial focus spell would be hilariously redundant with Life Link so I'm hoping it's not one of the new ones :b

Between this, the animist, and the witchwarper preview we got, I'm really liking the look of newer casters. Fun mixes of class mechanics, spell slots, and spell slots tying into class mechanics

Loving it Paizo! One of my NPC's is a death oracle who loves to stab the spectral anchor that is his power into the ground and summon a ghost viking ship chalk full of spectral ghost viking phantoms! Seeing the look of my group's enemies when they realizing their gonna have to fight a dozen incorporal ghost sea reavers is priceless! :D

Misread Foretell Harm as Foretell Ham and I was like hell yeah free ham. {. . .}

Now I've got this vision of Homer Simpson as an Oracle . . . .

Fortell Ham would only warn you of its existence, not that it would be free ;)

D'oh!

Between this, the animist, and the witchwarper preview we got, I'm really liking the look of newer casters. Fun mixes of class mechanics, spell slots, and spell slots tying into class mechanics

I really think this is the right design direction.

You can’t do much about the design philosophy of spells in PF2e. It’s a direction the designers and a lot of players like in comparison to PF1e or 5e.

Bolstering their class abilities as their main gimmick with spell slots as their “rounding out” seems like the happy medium between “Vancian Caster” and “Impulse Casters”..

It’s a reason Bard is such a top notch caster, why the Psychic has a more preferred design, and why the Remastered Witch was a solid direction.

I’m thinking Paizo has really found their stride and I’m all for it!

I do like the way casters are being done lately, and that includes the overall idea of this rebuilt class — the sting in my earlier post was mostly from the point of view of my existing Oracle and what I already liked about the class.

I'm still deathly curious about all of the unknown details, but one thing that's kept sticking out to me is how they're going to handle the bonus spells for the mysteries that are already squarely within the Divine purview. Like, Flames and Tempest are obvious big winners which practically demanded Divine Access for staple elemental spells, and you could probably get some neat off-list stuff for the ones like Cosmos, Battle, Time (whenever that is), Lore, and even Ancestors, for their slightly occult flavor. But I'm not sure what you do for Life, when the only vital/void/healing spell that isn't Divine already is like, Soothe, and Bones might be in a similar boat. ^ ^;

New spells?
Thats what Id like

Chocolate Milkshake wrote:

Misread Foretell Harm as Foretell Ham and I was like hell yeah free ham. {. . .}

Now I've got this vision of Homer Simpson as an Oracle . . . .

Jonathan Morgantini wrote:

Fortell Ham would only warn you of its existence, not that it would be free ;)

D'oh!

The ham is also cursed.

I'm still deathly curious about all of the unknown details, but one thing that's kept sticking out to me is how they're going to handle the bonus spells for the mysteries that are already squarely within the Divine purview. Like, Flames and Tempest are obvious big winners which practically demanded Divine Access for staple elemental spells, and you could probably get some neat off-list stuff for the ones like Cosmos, Battle, Time (whenever that is), Lore, and even Ancestors, for their slightly occult flavor. But I'm not sure what you do for Life, when the only vital/void/healing spell that isn't Divine already is like, Soothe, and Bones might be in a similar boat. ^ ^;

Rather than vertical, they could go horizontal.

Life could dabble into an “evolution” concept and Bones could dabble into “soothsaying” or some such.

Perhaps we could look for examples of “Oracle” in other media to make a guess?

I have never played an oracle in either PF1E or PF2E. I may have to play one now, especially now that centaurs are available.

... It does kind of feel like the Oracle remaster was designed for people who didn't want to play Oracles in the first place, which is certainly an interesting direction.

I respectfully disagree. My first and favorite character of 1e was an oracle of life. I was really looking forward to 2e’s oracle but I haven’t really been interested in playing my battle oracle much because it just doesn’t feel like an oracle. It plays more like a watered down cleric (similar to the critiques of the swashbuckler vs. other martials).

I’m very much looking forward to both of those classes being remastered so I can rebuild my characters—and yes, I’m looking at you too, investigator.

What is the result of the cursebound condition for the Bones mystery?

What is the result of the cursebound condition for the Bones mystery?

This is me paraphrasing, so I can't give you super concrete details, but it's something like both Vitality and Void damage can hurt you, an you gain some weakness at two stages, and the other two stages give you fort save penalties.

What is the result of the cursebound condition for the Bones mystery?

From memory:

1: You have weakness 2 to void/vitality damage. (There is argument about whether this means you can be healed or not. I assume yes, others think there's an ambiguity in how Paizo has treated undead assumptions here in the past. I don't care about the details, I assume you can be healed still.)

2. You have a -1 fort penalty.

3. Your weakness is now 5 + level (you can't get cursebound 3 until 11th level)

4. Your fort penalty is -2.

I just checked the new video from BadLuckGamer. Curses are so lame now...

My Tempest Oracle used to have his personal storm around him at Moderate Curse. And now? Electricity weakness 2 and -2 to ranged attacks. They have been completely watered down.

Like for my Barbarian, it looks like I'll keep the old chassis for my PFS characters. I just wonder how Cursebound feats will interact with old curses even if it could be rather straightforward. I hope PFS will not force the new chassis to all players at some point, because I'd be really angry.

The Oracle used to be cursed...

Just watched that new BadLuckGamer video on the Oracle. (Haven't read myself, but it will be the first thing I dive into when I get my book)

If people like the new oracle, I'm happy for them. But tbh, I'm kinda heart broken that the thing I loved about this class is completely gone. It seems like they made it stronger as a caster class, but at the same time got rid of all the weird n janky unique bits. Every oracle subclass felt wildly different and really creative. For example, I was excited to see how they would improve the Ancestors oracle. The solution was to make it just like all the other oracles (with a feat that is similar but worse than the original Ancestors oracle).

This went from maybe my favorite class to something I don't want to play. Can't say that about any of the other remastered classes :/

Honestly, I'm not sure I would call the new oracle a remaster of the old oracle. It's more of a replacement than a remaster.

Honestly, I'm not sure I would call the new oracle a remaster of the old oracle. It's more of a replacement than a remaster.

It feels almost like a beefy class archetype to me, yeah.

I think this new oracle is more for me though, I have to admit. I really like the flexibility it gives, letting me describe how my curse grows throughout my character's journey. That's real neat. I also like that I on't have to touch my curse much if I don't want to.
I'm debating turning my dry lich cleric turned mummy primal sorc into a flames oracle of some kind. I'd need to see how many spells I'll be able to poach.

Yeah, they have completely removed the Cursed vibe. For those who loved this double-edged crazy fantasy, the Oracle's gone. For those who dislike weird janky classes, they have their Oracle. But I'm sad, it's not half of what it used to be.

In that Badluckgamer video, he brought up that the table for spell casting and the text of the spell casting class ability don’t match. That means one or the other is in error. Which means that there is a possibility that Oracles aren’t 4 spell slots per level after all. Has it been confirmed anywhere that was intentional? I think what he pointed to is that spell casting says you can cast 2 spells per day at level 1, not 3 as the chart says, raising the possibility the chart is wrong (or the text is wrong).

I was one who wanted more flexibility and felt that too much was tied up in the curses. I didn’t expect them to take away the Mystery Benefits on top of simplifying the curses, though. That’s what really killed Battle and was a big downgrade for Life and others. My assumption was that it was too much to give them 4 spells and let them keep their Mystery abilities. I don’t think anyone was asking for them to be 4 spells/level casters, so that felt like a surprise. If it really was a mistake, then removing the Mystery abilities was too much.

I'm not a fan of "curses are purely negative" either. Like this probably makes the class easier to understand, but it was fun when there was a push-pull within the curse.

Like Cassandra's curse was not that people would not believe her, it was that she could also actually see the future.

You'll have to wait for day 0 (ish) errata to answer the question of how many slots they are supposed to have. Since they kept 8 HP, light armor, and a legendary will save I assume they're three slots still.

Then removing the Mystery Benefit was too much. That’s also adding to the feeling everyone seems to have about the flavor being removed.

There was also an in between option for the curses. They didn’t have to carry the majority of the abilities, like they used to. But that doesn’t mean they had to be completely negative, either. A smaller benefit tied to the curse combined with the new cursebound feats would have been fine.

Not to bring up the spectre of 1E, but they really do have everything there already. Even if they were never going to allow mixing and matching of curse and mystery, there are still so many fewer mystery specific options than existed in 1E.

For example, Ancestor in 1E had 10 Ancestor specific Rvelations to choose from. There was enough variety that not every Ancestor Oracle felt the same, but their abilities were also flavorful.

10 seems to have been the number most Mysteries got to choose from. Granted, some of them were effectively duplicates (the Armor of reveleations, for example).

I guess I just don’t understand why it had to be either everyone with a particular Mystery has the same abilities tied to the same curse, or curses give you nothing, and there are a bunch of universal abilities any oracle can take (plus a few that are limited to a couple of mysteries each, but still not unique).

Wanting flexibility doesn’t mean not wanting flavor.

So is it that the new Oracle has the choice to be a 4 slot caster that follows the rules of the universe and gets no curses or breaks those rules (implied benefit being the reason to break the rules) and suffers a curse for it.

Just watched that new BadLuckGamer video on the Oracle. (Haven't read myself, but it will be the first thing I dive into when I get my book)

If people like the new oracle, I'm happy for them. But tbh, I'm kinda heart broken that the thing I loved about this class is completely gone. It seems like they made it stronger as a caster class, but at the same time got rid of all the weird n janky unique bits. Every oracle subclass felt wildly different and really creative. For example, I was excited to see how they would improve the Ancestors oracle. The solution was to make it just like all the other oracles (with a feat that is similar but worse than the original Ancestors oracle).

This went from maybe my favorite class to something I don't want to play. Can't say that about any of the other remastered classes :/

Honestly, I'm not sure I would call the new oracle a remaster of the old oracle. It's more of a replacement than a remaster.

I'm ambivalent on the old Oracle Mystery/Curse dynamic. On one hand, I thought they were flavorful as hell. On the other, I always thought their design was too conservative given how much of your character it impacted, not to mention how weak they were for the penalties received.

Take Cosmos for example... Why does it focus on becoming near intangible? When there are Supernovas, Blackholes, Worm holes, Gravity and even Space-Time to explore as concept for powers. But no, you gain the power to become a Ghost. And the benefit? Damage resistance on a caster class that will be DESTROYED by critical hits.

Overall, I think the old design had a lot of interesting ideas behind it, but the execution fell short for most Mysteries and Curses. If the current Oracle succeeds mechanically but offers less flavor, I'm okay with that. Because flavor and roleplay I can readily provide, well designed and interesting mechanics I cannot.

In that Badluckgamer video, he brought up that the table for spell casting and the text of the spell casting class ability don’t match. That means one or the other is in error. Which means that there is a possibility that Oracles aren’t 4 spell slots per level after all. Has it been confirmed anywhere that was intentional? I think what he pointed to is that spell casting says you can cast 2 spells per day at level 1, not 3 as the chart says, raising the possibility the chart is wrong (or the text is wrong).

I was one who wanted more flexibility and felt that too much was tied up in the curses. I didn’t expect them to take away the Mystery Benefits on top of simplifying the curses, though. That’s what really killed Battle and was a big downgrade for Life and others. My assumption was that it was too much to give them 4 spells and let them keep their Mystery abilities. I don’t think anyone was asking for them to be 4 spells/level casters, so that felt like a surprise. If it really was a mistake, then removing the Mystery abilities was too much.

Badluckgamer pinned this at the top of the comments on the video: "My Sources have confirmed to me that Oracle is indeed now a 4 Slot caster, giving Oracle even more fire power than they had before!"

Ferious Thune wrote:

In that Badluckgamer video, he brought up that the table for spell casting and the text of the spell casting class ability don’t match. That means one or the other is in error. Which means that there is a possibility that Oracles aren’t 4 spell slots per level after all. Has it been confirmed anywhere that was intentional? I think what he pointed to is that spell casting says you can cast 2 spells per day at level 1, not 3 as the chart says, raising the possibility the chart is wrong (or the text is wrong).

I was one who wanted more flexibility and felt that too much was tied up in the curses. I didn’t expect them to take away the Mystery Benefits on top of simplifying the curses, though. That’s what really killed Battle and was a big downgrade for Life and others. My assumption was that it was too much to give them 4 spells and let them keep their Mystery abilities. I don’t think anyone was asking for them to be 4 spells/level casters, so that felt like a surprise. If it really was a mistake, then removing the Mystery abilities was too much.

Badluckgamer pinned this at the top of the comments on the video: "My Sources have confirmed to me that Oracle is indeed now a 4 Slot caster, giving Oracle even more fire power than they had before!"

Thanks! That helps make up for the loses. With the spell casting, it's a good class mechanically, even if they overcorrected thematically.

...

Like for my Barbarian, it looks like I'll keep the old chassis for my PFS characters. I just wonder how Cursebound feats will interact with old curses even if it could be rather straightforward. I hope PFS will not force the new chassis to all players at some point, because I'd be really angry.
...

That's probably not what will happen.

Currently the PFS rules allows to get legacy options that's no more exists in remaster but what's exists will be replaced like an errata. So probably the new oracle chassis will substitute the legacy one.

Ferious Thune wrote:

In that Badluckgamer video, he brought up that the table for spell casting and the text of the spell casting class ability don’t match. That means one or the other is in error. Which means that there is a possibility that Oracles aren’t 4 spell slots per level after all. Has it been confirmed anywhere that was intentional? I think what he pointed to is that spell casting says you can cast 2 spells per day at level 1, not 3 as the chart says, raising the possibility the chart is wrong (or the text is wrong).

I was one who wanted more flexibility and felt that too much was tied up in the curses. I didn’t expect them to take away the Mystery Benefits on top of simplifying the curses, though. That’s what really killed Battle and was a big downgrade for Life and others. My assumption was that it was too much to give them 4 spells and let them keep their Mystery abilities. I don’t think anyone was asking for them to be 4 spells/level casters, so that felt like a surprise. If it really was a mistake, then removing the Mystery abilities was too much.

Badluckgamer pinned this at the top of the comments on the video: "My Sources have confirmed to me that Oracle is indeed now a 4 Slot caster, giving Oracle even more fire power than they had before!"

So now oracles are basically divine sorcerers with light armors and 8HP/lvl and that can use cursebound like an extra "focus spell system".

This makes them a pretty strong spontaneous divine casters but I agree with many here it loses its vibe as an unique class.

Legacy ancestors oracle was quite objectively one of the worst subclasses in the system, but it was also probably the mechanically most fun build I ever played here. I loved going all in on the curse and letting the ancestors decide how my character plays every turn. My big hope was that remaster would keep everything that was so incredibly cool and unique about ancestors oracle and its playstyle while making the passive benefits stronger.

From what it looks like the exact opposite happened - all the flavorful ancestor mechanics are gone, and ancestor will now play very similar to other oracles and divine sorcs, while still being not all that good due to getting one of more punishing curses.

While legacy ancestors oracle wasn't perfectly designed, it did an amazing job at making me actually feel like my character is possessed by their ancestors. Mechanics and flavor worked perfectly together. I don't care that the mystery is probably stronger on average now, having as many slots as a sorcerer and becoming clumsy after using a strong spell like ability has just nothing to do with what made ancestors oracle appealing to me in any way.