DJCherryPie's page

See... this is why Seattle is awesome. I can never pre-packaged Daigles in California.

Just started this book with my group Saturday.... the first encounter with the spiders....

What a way to start the book I loved it! They weren't to tough but with the size and damage output they sure scared my PCs!!!

Confounded. Already filled with 7. One of these days, I'm going to weasel my way into a remote player spot. Guess I will planon GMing this one here locally if I find some players.

You can be in my next game

The Flooded Vault-

I had fun with this one mostly cause the were terrified to go in the water. Once they realized the havoc the spores can cause the vaults were taken much more seriously. Being dark and incapable of water breathing didn't help. They eventually took care of both issues but not tell after the Megapiranha had a little snack. They dealt with these by trying to fly down or clinging to the vines going down the shaft of the sinkhole and doing ranged attacks but blood was already in the water.

I had 2 of the Gray nisps come out but after a few good hits I had them pull back and made my PCs fight them in the heavy silt area. The vision obstruction made this a much more interesting fight.

I also added a 2nd save in this area. It made sense to me because the silt is full of spores. Though my players were also for the most part doing FAR too well on their insanity saves. This vault is very small and I think it needs that little extra to make it memorable.

I was also amused when they found the ring of swimming before the Megapiranha attack. Most of them had difficulty swimming. The wizard was trying to identify the ring while on the sink hole ledge. He couldn't see or hear his party in the water so he had no idea there was the Nisp fight underway. He spent most of the combat trying to identify the ring only to stop after more than a few rounds when he was informed of the ongoing battle. The ring was still unidentified and PCs too scared to put it on tell they knew what it did exactly.

Who needs a paranoia insanity when your players are already convinced your gonna curse them at any moment with every treasure

oh and cookies!

I will not have builds up to lvl 7 nor will I have 4 page backgrounds. I will have 2 fun ideas and a general idea of who she is and where she came from but I like to learn who my PC is as time passes really get a feel for her, but then I'm all about flavor. :p love ya Steel_Wind you nut ball

And don't forget people much like our Kingmaker, Serpent's Skull and Legacy of Fire games, You will get to watch them on Grumpy GM.

(18 and over please. We are adults and we play like them. I'm sure this AP will bring out the pirate talk potty mouths... like me.)

For the insanity effect of the spores I chose to use all insanities because I knew my players could handle it and have fun. PLEASE NOTE I DID NOT ALTER THE DC FROM THAT OF A STANDARD SPORE ENCOUNTER ONLY THE EFFECT.

Some of these can be QUITE brutal and would NOT recommend some for new players or GMs. The other downside of this was onset times.... some are quite long. I ruled if a player died (-con not just -hp)the insanity was gone too. They have "cured" the wizard twice and the rouge once this way before I had any fun...

I made cards to track DCs to add some fun and make the PCs responsible for their crazy. With the first bout of paranoia in book 3 and the reaction it caused I knew I would be the target of some player frustration so I turned it back on them and made it a mini game all in their hands.

I made 5 cards per insanity (10 for mania/phobia) each with their % range and "CONGRATULATIONS" on one side and the insanities details on the other including a space to write their current DC and onset day but I'll get to onset in a moment.

I gave out 4 cards to each player to write "things they may encounter" on them. After I tossed out specific people and things like "halfling wacky weed" I gave them all new cards and clearer instructions resulting in a better list like Spoons, Magical Cloaks, and Bread. these became the objects of Phobia or Mania.

For multiple personalities I made a deck per PC and 1 NPC each had 4 personalities they could randomly select. For this one I gave them info on the personality likes, dislikes, age, race, religion, gender and to make the bitter pill go down easy.... a class or racial perk!

for onset I didn't want them to know what day it may be coming and if i rolled the die.... well its not all in their hands is it... thats where drawing straws came in. I rolled for onset and added the corresponding day to the random card the player would pull when contracting the insanity. these were done in a letter not a number order 1=A 2=B 3=C and so on. then they drew straws that were also lettered until they got the matching letter and were affected.

So here's how it goes down

Encounter spores
players would roll their save
if affected roll a % to select your insanity (2nd even/odd roll for Mania/Phobia)
draw a card for your insanity
if it has an onset draw a straw each day tell you draw the one with the matching letter.
TA DA YOUR CRAZY!

PICTURES HERE!!!!

Oh I also Only gave them 3 vault locations the other 3 required more info ....unknown glyphs they needed to decipher. As I do the other vaults I'll explain how I let the others become known. This controlled the pace where they went and how much I needed prepped.

I gave them The flooded Vault, The Impenetrable Redoubt of Khalid-Shah and the Vault of Silence.

The First Vault -

My PCs had made a deal of sorts with the Kech they first encountered when arriving. They saw these Kech as a new tribe and therefore subject to slaughter... they did not seem to be a difficult fight for them.

The Sabosan are a FANTASTIC mob and tie into the theme of the APs monsters VERY well in both the earlier and later books. But fighting in a vault robs them of some of their best abilities so I recommend tossing them in as a random encounter as well. These would have been tougher if not for all the lantern archons that got summoned.

my players liked the salt crystals and later used them to fight the slug..... Sadly the slug was bit of an after thought. If the PCs circle around and find the vaults other stuff there is little reason for them to fight the slug and sadly that is just what my party did. It is also hard to justify cornered slug surrounded by salt tossers having much of a chance.

The Secret chamber was Great fun. They got to learn a little about the spores and discover entering the vaults are not there only exposure risk. I added a few more Pharasma ties here. They were well liked. The 2 new insane party members did not appreciate this room as much.

I should note I chose to use ALL insanities and later I will post the fun I had with that. most have become Phobic rather than paranoid. I believe I made 3 of the 5 (2PCs and an NPC)insane this vault.

The collapsed chamber was a bit of a disappointment turns out NO PLAYER saw the benefit of destroying old ant mounds.... cant realy blame them... who sees an ant mound and says hmmmm bet there's treasure... and no digging = no perception check? I say give em the perception that gives them a reason to dig.

They saw the stone golem coming a mile away and it did give them fight but not the surprise you would hope for.

And the portal room....

Before this be sure to ask how they search rooms do they dust off walls? how do they dust them off to see the old art? Do they use there hands? Is it with a touch spell? Cause if so -BABAM TOASTED WIZARD-

a source of some dispute for one of my players since I killed him here for the 2nd time... (first was the rakshasa) couldn't resist the opportunity to make them a little more specific about how they "search rooms" and I did toss in an extra "big enough" diamond at the flooded vault to make up for it.

This trap is a KILLER 18D6 to everyone in the room..... lets hope your wizard or bard or whoever does your knowledge checks has evasion. Mine did not... and only 33 HP... with a 10 CON....

He was made to convert to a follower of Desna in exchange for a raise dead from our holy vindicator of Desna. He got his butterfly tramp stamp and was back among the living. But he was no longer Phobic of gloves.

Capt. Venture

Go Team Venture?

Woo Hoo 2 stars baby

By the way I have started sorting and posting some photos and have made a file for my Serpent's Skull game. the only thing in it so far is the dry erase drawings I did for the GK feast but I should have more soon.

Pictures Yeah!

I was making a gob ranger/Infiltrator 2 weapon back stab goddess. I'm going with Aberration to get Amphibious. That could be a VERY fun pirate.

Well Now! Update on how things went for us... We are just about half way into the Vault of the Body Thief. They faced the Gorilla King... and let me say WOW!

HUGE credit to my players first off cause they MADE Azmyth play along and there for ran the GK as normal not as an all out Monkey war.....

The feast went well
Azmyth - Nora - refused to eat or sit on the slaves
Gary - Aziz - ate most, made his saves
Charlie - Finn - ate it all, had EXTRA sour wine, failed one save was almost immediately fixed by the vindicator Nora
Merry - Ate some, made his saves....
the thing they had hardest time eating was the Ice chilled Vegepygmy since they are allies.

I was concerned with the first test because the highest STR in my party was an 18 I wanted them to have a chance of winning.

I will note I was terrified when I realized what GK could do in a single power attack crit WITH A 15 ON THE DIE!!! Roll bad/good and in 1 hit you could have players deaf with up to 132 dmg and 12 of that is Bleed.... UM OUCH!

For the test of strength when the asked to examine the bundle and asked if it could be weakened i made him mace a Disable devices and a slight of hand both rolls were high so I dropped the DC to 20. all the buffs in the world and they made a roll of 19.... oh wait I forgot to add my guidance 20.... PASS

Story telling was EASY once you see they can also use Bluff, Diplomacy, or Charisma... they even took the WIDELY hated bard and didn't need him. Bluff was the key there. We Just happen to have a guy playing "Finn" who is modeled after Sawyer from Lost, so "telling stories" come natural to him.... PASS

The final test was now for fun and slaves.....

I didn't mind killing one of them so no holding back.... until I rolled a 6 initiative. Aziz got a crit on his first hit ... crit card... SEVERED SPINE! Huge damage (including bane) and my Dex dropped to 6... my turn and I rolled ... like a monkey... miss miss..... 1 more hit the King was at 50 HP and surrendered.

That's when I had to pull the GM card
"No Aziz you cant kill him or I'll need to look at changing your alignment"

All in all it was fun! I think its why this part is so looked forward to. It is break in the norm. It is a party of sorts, it is PURE FUN! So I say run it that way. Have fun be flexible and with good roll play this part can't go wrong.

BTW his Derhii scouts can be much more brutal with their aerial charges than many things in this book Just ask Finn... so far I'm outright killing a PC per session in this book. Be sure your players know how to die with a smile!

I can post info on each vault soon if you are all interested

So far I'm playing with the idea of a "face man" of some sort. Powers of persuasion but fairly corrupt. Also actually looking at Bard..... Never thought I'd say that.

I'm thinking Sea Singer into Duelist maybe even as a Tengu. MUHAHAHAHA

I meant you skipped Serpent's Skull In the podcast run (I was being a brat and teasing you again if you missed that) and I seem to remember a dwarf arriving in camp recently.....

I plan on running Shattered Star next.

And my next AP correct? Or are you gonna skip me again like with Serpents Skull... :-P

Fun was had by all!

Most interested in the section on alignment infractions. Can't wait to read up!

I AGREE!

Oh and remember the mobs and traps are not necessarily the most dangerous things in the vaults.... the madness can be far more devastating

I would not recommend doing that.

The vaults can be QUITE deadly if found too soon. Most of them can be avoided in book 3 due to the not moderately remote locations of the entrances. I would not necessarily even recommend that they find all the vault locations on the map at once. This allows you to fully prepare for what is to come a little better in the next game day or 2. I split them up with the players finding only he locations to the flooded vault and the impenetrable redoubt at first finding later clues to in D4s quick sand as to the locations too all others except Vault of the Body Thief.

Doing this allows you to direct your players and helps move the story along buy limiting their options. I think many struggle with books 3 and 4 because there is just so much to do, where do you start...

Do not feel like finishing everything in book 3 is a must before going on to book 4 but I would recommend that they at least have reached lvl 12 or close to it and that they have already encountered the tribe in the Artisan district. You will find yourself hopping BACK into book 3 from book 4 from time to time but I DO NOT RECOMMEND hopping FORWARD into book 4 from book 3.

I tried ad hok for book 3 to deal with this issue of overlapping books so they didn't advance too fast..... my players hated it but it did the trick. Looking back I would have let them lvl normally advance to VoM sooner and just gone back into Co7S a few more times.

It specifically wards against inhaled diseases so I see no reason why it shouldn't completely prevent any damage by the midnight spores.

Spores are contact not inhaled that's why holding you breath doesn't help. But i still think life bubble would work.

I certainly have found I didn't start small by choosing this AP to start with. And I think were it not for:

•my love of lists and spread sheets
•my fear of being unprepaired
•the intimidation of very experienced players that I deeply respect
•my own extended gaming experience
•my luck of having many quality GMs as mentors over the years
•randomly becoming best friends with one of the monster makers for the AP (<3 you NP)
•and my fondness for props and hand outs with a propensity to spontaneously break out into arts and crafts....

I would have been in trouble.

Book 1 was fantastic it had of the first 3 books the best balance for play just enough to push them along but free form enough to allow for interesting outcomes that I have seen very DRAMATICALLY from group to group. Though I have to say I was most shocked at how unbelievably successful a high diplomacy group could be. The down side.... 24 weather rolls, sometimes up to 3 rain severity rolls, 1 disease roll per pc, roll to see what was in the surf that night, random encounters, attitude rolls for NPCs, every shipwreck..... HOLY CRAP it was a lot of % rolls. That's were that "love of lists and spread sheets" came in very handy!

Book 2 this was almost too structured to go into following book 1 as the players had gotten use to forging their own path. also expressing the true interest of each faction and exactly what they were offering was not going well at the start of book 2 I found it is a situation where presenting written offers for each made this a MUCH more entertaining event. I don't believe this or the spirit animal event are played up quite enough. They are 2 things that can deeply guide the outcome of how some roll players develop their PCs. The Faction can turn friends into foe and rivals into brothers. It is something that should be encouraged to tie them to their goal and their new family.

The spirit animals I had some fun with. It was still a random roll but once I had the sub type I looked into the symbolism of the animals listed and matched them to the PC. I gave them mini readings on the one I chose for them giving them a peek at another perspective. Encouraging them to latch on to one of those traits and find a but of the characters soul. ... the colors I added for fun.

we had Green Lion (Lion Shaman halfling, currently replaced, though not dead, by a Human Inquisitor of Abadar). A Blue Zebra (Elf Dragon Disciple), Yellow Porcupine (Half-elf Holy Vindicator of Desna), Pink Elephant (Elf Wizard)

Down side of book 2...... Itombu can go very deadly very quickly....very much a potential TPK! A little too structured... some situations also make it easy to question the hows and whys of going the way that your expected to the "why not just teleport us at least close to there" kind of stuff. And lastly calling it a race turned my game into "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and while that was fun and good for book 2.... it has slipped over into book 3 causing my players to miss the fun bits and wiping out almost all major beasts (though very few of the actual tribes) and 5 spears in just 2 weeks of game time.

Book 3 was HARD! hard to keep players on track hard to keep their xp in balance hard to get timing down. They have well thrown me for a loop many times on this one forcing me to think fast. Think in tactical ways i normally don't. It was not a comfortable situation. Lack of maps while understandable.... very disappointing. The map pack at this point is in my opinion ESSENTIAL! Though discrepancies on descriptions compared to images and the size scaling caused some frustrations. Now with that said I must say it has had more potential behind it then any thing i have seen so far! the problem is so many things would need to be tweaked its very overwhelming to the less experienced GM.

Oh and watch out for District D. There is the potential to bring EVERY MOB in the entire district down on their head at once.... I know because my PCs tried to.

We are about to start book 4 and I must say It looks quite good. I have some concerns about some areas but if I have learned anything it is that I cannot even come close to predicting what is going to happen when my PCs get there. The most thrilling part of this AP to me has been watching the way this plays out. I am as much at the whims of my players as I am to the stat blocks in the books and I have taken to calling this "The Crazy AP" for more than one reason.....

I have glanced trough 5 and 6 and to be honest I don't have any idea how to do half of it. As a new GM I know I have taken on far more than I expected. But I am not a lazy GM. I don't think you can be with this AP and still be successful. roll your 87 random rolls per day in advance, level the NPCs as they level .... you'll regret not doing it by book 3. Visual aids and crazy NPC encounters will make blah moments some of the most memorable moments.... and don't worry everyone hates Gelik it's not just you.

Woo Hoo I'm SO excited to see this!

I'm really looking forward to Phoenix too.

not sure what LED you were looking for, but any wedding store should have light up buds which can be worked into some pretty small stuff :)

was looking for 6 single lights on 3" of wire one to light each stone and a push button on off

Don't tempt me....

super failure finding an LED kit for my staff so we're gonna try fiber-optic wands..... so the staff may not light up like I had hoped....

...This year though I plan on coming as a Cleric of Asmodeus. Look for the man dressed in the crimson and black nobleman's outfit.

I certainly don't wish to be alone in this, and I more than likely won't be, but I want to see who else will be bringing their dress up game to the con.

Im excited to see who brings what, or as who, this year :)

In honor of my first Paizocon I plan on dressing as the Lovely Rhoswen From Neil Spicers Realm of the Fellnight Queen. I will be the red head in the crown and green dress with the big lightup staff .... If I can get it done in time .... now back to the sewing for me.

I have VERY experienced players they are very resourceful and none of them really are a class that requires "Making arrows" and the like. The also have figured many ways around weather, temperature, illness, and hindering movement.

My players are fast. The faction is the Sargavan Government

It wasn't exactly every other night but they "kept moving through the night" for a number of days of travel through the plains but would stop and sleep at most event points and if they got a random encounter

they set up a series of marking patterns to inform the supply team on where to go to follow for this I did increase their chances of REs

They are very diplomatic so most people cant help but like them and want to follow and with 5 people in the party (counting NPCs) that can heal in some way them being hurt is not often an issue. They do have many problems with knowledges but they haven't been slowed by it too much yet.

Like I said I have VERY experienced players. The dc on the pillars should slow them down though.

I think I'm just gonna let the factions take less time and catch up on a few days because they wont have to worry about the threats in Tazion since everything will be dead. Just get them there a little sooner after them but in the same order.

Thanks guys

I have a question about travel times. My players made all the appropriate friends and made all the rite moves to earn all the travel time reductions and although they did visit the spawn of Aomak extending the trip by 1 day they also ONLY slept every other day or when necessary.

Because of this they made it to Tazion in 36 DAYS!!!!! I am concerned with the fact that the next team will not reach Tazion for 20 more days. This is going to give them 29 days before all factions are successful in reaching the ruins. My players have also put methods in place to try and slow down the others.

How should I let this affect the other factions arrival to the city in book 3? If I give my PCs 20 free days of exploration in the city before the next team arrives I'm worried it will give them too much control over the city by the time the others arrive but I also dont want to belittle the efforts they made.

Apparently in my group you put "Race" in the title and my players start thinking "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and they are ready to run FAST!

Any recommendations?

My party should have been a TPK as well because they forgot they had the Zenj Spirit Fetish.

I held back a bit (more than I should have probably) giving them more chances to remember they had it. It felt wrong to kill them all since we only play every other Saturday and while the party had received it only "a few days ago" my players received it a month before this play session.

my Rogue was stuck in deeper darkness and entangle (cast by the druid)
my Halfling Druid when he could hit was hardly bypassing DR
my very fast cleric/fighter was running away out of fear and was 1400' from the battle by the time she snapped out of it
and my wizard only had spells it was immune to.....

this fight was brutal

It ended with them remembering the fetish that was now on the body of the possessed druid and my rogue got to use his combat swipe ability.... It was quite entertaining but they really should all be dead.

It's my first time as a GM for an AP though so this is a game thats more for me to learn how to be a better GM and work up my confidence in running higher lvls. That made it a little to difficult for my first kill to be a TPK when it's all my close buddies playing to help me learn.

I must say....

Well played!

Brilliant....

My PCs have managed to keep everyone alive including NPCs and a couple island inhabitants. Everyone likes them and they have managed to get a little ahead of themselves ....

BTW

heres the numbers I can provide

Good catch!

Chris Sanders as the DM. PFS# 2464

The table was:

Azmyth playing Oswald 14547-2 2PA
DJCherryPie playing Cala 14548-2 2PA
Nicholaus playing Gallard Stormeye
Risner playing Chan, the once and former monkey fighter
Natertot, as above
Painlord, playing Thorne, the Most Powerful Mage in *ALL* of Absalom (11226-1, 2 PA)

Best Con I've had for PFS. Better than GenCon/CotC/DragonCon/etc.

Had a blast with Monkey, but finally got someone to cast Dispel Magic about 15 times before he succeeded in dispelling the effect. Yay

You will always be monkey to me....

BTW posted about your heroics with the sea serpent on the "Stupidest/Funniest thing to happen in a Game?" thread.

First day of Neoncon and my monk having just leveled to 8 was feeling OVERLY confidant!

Traveling by sea on a mighty vessel. I, Cala, was joined by my fellow allies.

Ozwald, Masterful negotiator and prince of the Quadiran empire.

Thorn, The most powerful mage in all of Absalom who summons balls of FIRE in his hands.

A man I am sure you have heard of a great Bar-Bear-ian, Who shortly after this event became know throughout the lands as the man that pinned a Black Dragon, Twice.

And the bravest Monkey I ever had the pleasure to adventure with. You are a fine friend and I hope to join you again for future adventures.

We were also joined by my savior and confidant Oberion. A man to whom I owe my life. If it was not for the sure bite of his infernal Sharks I would not be here today.

And let us not forget fellow pathfinder Jirandiel Waverider who later fell nobly in battle.

While traveling we were accosted by a giant beast of the sea. Though fortunate for us it was only a child of its kind. A great serpent rose up from the depths under our ship and the battle ensued.

Ozwald attempted to climb for a crows nest to aid his targeting and to act as look out for the beast as it would dive and attack from a new side with out warning. Monkey making a leap of grate confidence clung to the back of the beast before later being plunged into the sea and struggling to not drop to the bottom. While Captain Jirandiel tried in vain to pelt the beast with the ships defenses.

Thorn had managed to summon a pair of Crocs and were joined by Oberion's mighty Infernal sharks. I having thrown my magical spears was out of effective ranged attacks and decided to do what only a stupidly overconfident monk could do.....

Leaping upon the back of a crocodile I intended to show this beast the power of my mighty fists face to face........ shortly there after I was in it's great maw. Monkey, Having just been plucked from the sea dove back in despite his hindered swimming ability's in an attempt to free me.

And as I started to slide down the throat of the great beast all went black.....

I was later told it was the Infernal sharks of Asmodeous that saved me. I'm still shocked it is a Chelish to whom I owe my life.

It was truly one of the most amazing vacations I have ever had and the one of the funnest cons I have ever been to!

We're really looking forward to this Con!

Cherry & I celebrate our sixth anniversary with everyone @ NeonCon '10!

And we will be causing some trouble :)

Just wanted to point out cause I didn't see it mentioned anywhere on the thread. It is clearly stated that Gnomes can only produce offspring with other Gnomes.

I can't find the original reference I remembered but it is also stated in Gnomes of Golarion page 4 "Despite an inability to crossbreed with other races, Gnomes' constant hunt for new sensations means they rarely restrict their liaisons to their own kind"

So you cant have a Gnome blood even a little unless your a Gnome.

Just read your previous post and wanted to check- your aware the trap damage is spread out among all the enemies attacking the camp right?

Yes I am aware they have only had the first 2 RE's. The traps rolled high and the mobs were low HP for example 4D6 against 3 vipers at 3 HP each.....

Also, surely your group doesn't stay in camp and do nothing all day? My PC's tend to be active at dawn until midday, then back for dusk or a bit after. Not every random encounter has to be at camp.

No, and they will get encounters out but both of these hit at the midnight hour when they were in camp and had watches up.

Thanks for the advice it is appreciated! This is my first time running anything but WW or Star wars. So I'm still working out the kinks.

DJCherryPie wrote:

Amra - Female Lion

The way you wrote this, I can't tell if it's just the druid's animal companion (I assume it is) or someone in your game is actually playing a lion...

yes she is the druid's animal companion

About the random encounters....

My group just started but after 1 (all be it long session) they have made all the NPCs friendly and are fully taking advantage of the jobs they can preform. They have yet to stray more than a mile from where they woke up making camp just off the beach about 15' While this does not seam to be a problem it has raised a question about the first couple sessions worth of REs.

I have rolled up about 2 weeks worth of Random Encounters in advance to help me as a new GM and in 2 weeks I have 13! random encounters.... (Rough dice) I am not worried about TPK despite sometimes 2 encounters in a row, the actual rolls of what they encounter are not too bad, my concern is their defenders.

They have both Ishirou and Sasha always set as defenders giving them 4D6 worth of trap damage at the camp and NOTHING has survived to fight them. it has turned into "you wake up to find "X" Dead everyone gets 85xp"...

Should I worry about handing out XP like this? Do they get XP for this?

Also I have rolled Pezock as a 2nd RE on one of the days. While this is good because the traps will have gone off already and not risk killing him before they even get a chance to talk to him I'm worried about this making them hostile to each other immediately and have considered using Pezock's quarks to my advantage and making this a visual encounter only.

I thought of them spotting him as he wanders the beach during low tide talking to himself (and the fish) as he collects sea urchins for food spotting the camp and running back to the safety of his crab dropping his urchins in the process.

any thoughts?

Kashka - Halfling Druid(Lion Shaman)
Amra - Female Lion
Nora Mystera - Half Elf Cleric of Desna
Eddie Blake - Half Elf Ranger (guide/skirmisher)
Jimmy "Finn" - Elven Rouge

As an oracle of lore the bonus spells have me a bit confused.

At level 4 you gain ability to cast 2nd level spells and "Tongues" as a bonus spell.

The oracle selects spells from the cleric list.

Now while this is a 2nd level bard spell it's a 4th level cleric spell. How do I cast this? Is it using a 2nd level spell slot?

I think its also good to remember that its not always about damage. In the correct situations (especially at lower levels) there are some simple and cheep items that can dramatically help a party.

Some times it's OK to be the one distracting and irritating all the baddies while your friends pound on em.

I have to say I believe Oracles are subtly brilliant and can open things up to a unique play style well before lvl 20.

Even my lvl 3 has quickly become my favorite PFS character.