Corla's page

Really I feel the big problems here is that Life and Flame just aren't offering enough bang for your buck. Look at Battle for a moment. Fast healing of half your level in battle is well worth the AC and Saving Throw penalty (especially in a system with jank 0 HP mechanics) and its major curse bumps up the fast healing to character level. Fast healing beyond 4 was hard to get for PCs and here we have Fast Healing gatdang 11.

THIS IS ON TOP OF +4 TO DAMAGE! This is worth the stupefied here!

The math on Battle oracle isn't actually all there. The design is to make it more of a martial character, by it never quite gets anywhere near as good as an actual martial character, but quite a bit. +4 damage is nothing compared to the greater weapon specialization that most damage dealer get. And even if you multiclass into barbarian to get the bonus damage to add Rage on top of that it still pales in comparison. Not to mention they have a harder time hitting than a martial character.

Meanwhile Fire Oracles can pretty much burn the world down if they wanted to.

Your comment on the fast healing is note worthy though.

I have to agree that the Mystery/Burden System needs a revamp. Where it stands, there is no point for a Life Oracle to cast their Revelation spell until they have access to the Moderate Curse same with Battle. All you are doing is gimping yourself for very small gains which isn't worth the risk.

I personally feel like we need more Mysteries to accurately judge the system though. Having only these three doesn't do well for testing the system, they only test those versions of it. Who's to say the next mysteries they come out for us to play test aren't very well suited for the current system.

I know in my current playtesting, I haven't and will not be casting my revelation spell until Moderate Curse is unlocked. And that would go for any of the Mysteries. It's just something you can survive without. But once I get to Major Curse for my Battle Oracle, I'm just going to sit at the major effect of it.

I've been trying and it just isn't working. Everything keeps falling short. I know not all the Mysteries and Curses and all that jazz is out yet, but it's initially disheartening.

2 of my favorite builds for Oracle in P1 was Rage Prophet, and small character backpacking healing/buffing large fighter type. None of those seem to be viable with what we have so far.

Zeal's Weapon Surge Focus Spell is just more potent, I don't know why someone would opt into Call to Arms when that is an option.

Maybe if the Bonus to Initiative scaled instead of the Temp HP I might see it....

Source Core Rulebook pg. 391

Cast Reaction verbal; Trigger A living creature within 20 feet of you dies, or an undead creature within 20 feet of you is destroyed.

Duration 1 minute

Seeing another pass from this world to the next invigorates you. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to the triggering creature's level plus your Wisdom modifier. If the triggering creature was undead, double the number of temporary Hit Points you gain. These last for the duration of the spell, and the spell ends if all the temporary Hit Points are depleted earlier.

Since our primary spell casting stat isn't Wisdom would this spell give us bonus hit points based on our Charisma instead? Or is this another stat we will have to worry about?

Corla wrote:

Curses:

I'm not sure if it was a typo or not, but it says if we use the Casting a Spell action while under the effect of our Minor Curse Effect, we progress to the next stage of curse. Was this supposed to say use the Casting a Spell action for our Revelation Spell? If not this turns one of the main class mechanics into something that just feels punishing for the player rather than something they want to interweave into their gameplay.

The Oracular Curse section of the Playtest doc does say the curse effect only increases when you cast a revelation spell. Does it say something different elsewhere?

Oracular Curse (APG Playtest, p. 15) wrote:

The first time after your daily preparations that you complete the Cast a Spell activity for a revelation spell, your minor curse manifests. Once your minor curse has manifested, it remains in effect until the next time you rest for 8 hours and make your daily preparations. If you cast a revelation spell while your minor curse is in effect, you progress to the moderate curse effect immediately after you finish Casting the Spell.

It must have been updated, as it didn't originally state that. I'm glad to see they are on top of these simple clarifications ^_^

Ahh I see the only vision that gets obstructed is creatures become concealed to you. Guess I read that wrong at first glance...

My favorite thing to play in Pathfinder 1e was a Rage Prophet. With what's being shown so far for oracle... I really don't see anything like that being possible.

So if you cast a lvl 7 spell you also trigger the effect of a lvl 3, 3 action expenditure Heal Spell.

TLDR: Not really a fan yet.

Spells:

First bit of confusion. The spell table lists the standard 5/2 level 1 cantrip/1st spell per day. But in the spell description it says we start with 3 1st level spells. Not sure which is the case. The Witch class states 3 spells at lvl 1 as well but shows it in their spell table.

Curses:

I'm not sure if it was a typo or not, but it says if we use the Casting a Spell action while under the effect of our Minor Curse Effect, we progress to the next stage of curse. Was this supposed to say use the Casting a Spell action for our Revelation Spell? If not this turns one of the main class mechanics into something that just feels punishing for the player rather than something they want to interweave into their gameplay.

Mysteries:

Battle: Seems pretty balanced. Compared to the other Mysteries though, there is A LOT less detrimental effects to the Oracle herself. Although I don't see myself casting the Revelation spells. Zeal spell just seems more potent.

Flame: I don't know why anyone would take this curse. All of these terrible things just for some increased Reflex saves seems pointless. I also don't understand why you become concealed from others at the Moderate Curse level. The fires are still illusionary then, how is it effecting other's interaction with you? The Major Curse effect just isn't worth entering into. MAYBE if it were 2d6+CHA fire damage aura, and you take CHA fire damage... I could see that. Keeps the theme, but doesn't completely cripple you.

Life: This I feel has a good mix of risk/reward added to it.

Feats:

Divine Element: This would be a good feat to take... if you could see past 30 feet. I don't know anyone who would cast Fireball or Meteor Swarm with a vision range of only 30 feet.

Greater Revelation: I assume when it says "... if you have Advanced Mystery feat..." it means Advanced Revelation feat.

Paradoxical Mystery: This just doesn't seem to have the same power level as the other two feats.