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Do you think it is possible for the Oracle to gain access to the majority of these spells without suffering greatly in some other role? This really is not a rhetorical question, as my understanding of an Oracle on the field is decent at best. Given the number of spells known early on it appears to me that they would shoot themselves (or perhaps their party) in the foot by foregoing various healing/support abilities and taking a more offensive role. Their various equipment proficiencies have been scaled down from the Cleric mold, which isn't an amazing detriment but it may give them an incentive to order their choices in a slightly more efficient way, taking into account the Oracle's unique strengths.

Later levels are a completely different story, but I think most spellcasters are quite powerful by then.

Also, would be a bit much to give Oracles a Cleric-like spell level progression (1, 3, 5, ...), even if the first spell gained for each new level must be related to the focus? Again, the spells per day would have to be toggled slightly, but it would be simple to keep that particular progression the same for the most part.

I can see what you mean by balancing issues. With foci like Flame that could easily end up being the case.

If I had to cap it somehow, I would probably attempt to mix the old "bonus spell" method that they are currently using with the subtype variant. It would be cool to allow a single spell relevant to that focus (of a particular subtype, or however one may limit it) to be chosen rather than having it be preselected. This would basically allow them to choose a single spell of their liking with every new spell level they gain, providing players a choice while keeping the oracle from treading too far into Sorcerer territory.

It doesn't seem like it would be going too far to also use a cleric-like spell level progression, where the focus-based bonus spell gained at level 3 is a 2nd level spell, level 5 is a 3rd level spell, etc. I think it's the best way to provide the oracle with a bit more firepower, offensive or otherwise, without going overboard. The spells per day would have to be changed slightly to reflect this, though.

In terms of redundancy between spells and revelations... man. The majority of the revelations are based around combat, so there is bound to be quite a bit of overlay with various spell subtypes. It could just be that using elements as foci make it very hard to come by creative ideas, but from what I can see most revelations are just geared toward fighting. Very few of them can be used outside of battle, which is a shame, and what makes it all the more troubling is that many of those geared toward combat just aren't all that great, particularly in the long run. Coupled with the fact that Oracles have a limited reservoir of spells (which will no doubt be used for support purposes) and you have a relatively weak class.

Rant aside, I would probably add in more abilities geared toward utility and party support (as opposed to the more mundane self-buffing) instead of providing 3 different ways to inflict #d# elemental damage. It would be more more interesting and potentially even give the player some room to choose spells outside the norm.

I'd be happy to hear about the various tactics one could use with just the Cleric spell list, however. :) And honestly, it is fine if the Cleric spell list is not quite as offensive and that the Oracle does not gain quite as many spells, provided that foci and curses pick up the slack.

As I am only in a position to glance at the PDF and can't really compare, I'll just stick to some things that naturally follow.

I really like the fact that spell subtypes were added as bonus spells. :) But I think that this creates a redundancy with many of the revelations, particularly offensive-minded ones. Revelations therefore would have to be reworked (something I've believed since the beginning, regardless of anything else). On the other hand the elemental final revelations which I thought were somewhat of an unimaginative copout now have much more weight due to the increased number of known elemental spells.

I'm not sure of the extent to which the number of known spells was increased, but I think it would be wise to place some restriction on it. The original progression was fine (given the foci are redone), honestly. I think the bigger issue was relatively "weak" Cleric spell list coupled with the loss of a new spell level every odd level. This Is solved somewhat by expanding the spell list, but I think more can be done to balance the oracle (which seems to be considered underpowered) than just by simply giving it more bonus spells.

I would like to see the foci based more on concepts like life, which could include healing, Peace, love (I know love has been done to death) Time, Strength.

Love could be sweet, haha. You more or less have an enchantment-based Oracle right there. Though I'm not sure how strength would differ from something like combat. Perhaps this is off-topic, but I think using domains as a guideline for what foci to create would, frankly, hurt possibilities. It makes the idea of a concepts checklist all too real.

Stone is stability, Waves is adaptability, Wind is freedom, and Flames is... well, okay, its fire. Destruction, maybe?

... Frostflame is on the money - it would be cool to recast them all more strongly in their high concepts. I'd totally be into an oracle of Change, with lots of transmutation powers (with some water-type abilities, perhaps?) or an oracle of Peace, with sanctuary and healing spells...

Yeah, you probably wouldn't even have to go so far as to rename them. It would be very disappointing if someone could not find a few applications for any major element outside of, "I throw flames/waves/rocks/lightning at people!" You could interpret each element in so many ways, but any such attempt at it seems absent. Even something like Fire, who's rightful place is probably to make the Oracle an offensive caster, can be expanded on slightly.

If a certain philosopher could fashion an entire belief system with the concept of fire taking a central role, then this really shouldn't be a problem.

I think the spellcasting ability is fine - but they have to continue the line of thinking that this is a divine sorceror and make the Foci as defined yet powerful as a Bloodline. I think they are getting too much into the selection aspect and have made what is overall a pretty weak class. An excess of melee touch/close range abilities and bizarre level restrictions(5th level?) leads this character to be pulled in many different directions. The sorceror bloodlines provided a central theme from which to build your character, whereas these abilities seem to be very basic damage and defense boosts.

In addition, many of the Foci share very similar(if not identical) abilities. Perhaps a single 'elemental' foci, would cut this down. Then the Oracle can expand on unique ideas, such as has been recommended: divination, healing, magic, nature, etc.

I agree with almost everything said here. Utility abilities need to be given more priority, rather than just sprinkling combat abilities of variable worth to make a given focus seem more robust than it really is. Backing out even further, it feels like a lot of foci (like the aforementioned elementals) were just thrown in there as if to satisfy fantasy checklist. Though honestly any one element could become viable if enough liberties were taken. Collapsing elements together into one (water and wind into storm, for instance) could work too.

As a side note I wonder if a nature focus could really serve much purpose. It's a rather broad term, and seems doomed to be an imitation of a Druid.

The idea of a curse is great, but there's room for improvement. Right now they're really just character flaws. If curses are going to be one of the things that defines an Oracle (and I'm sure that's the intention) the benefits should be much greater, even if they need to make the curse itself somewhat harsher. Overall class balance is necessary, but as it stands the Oracle is far from overpowered. If the benefits aren't more pronounced then curses will just detract from the experience or keep people away from the class altogether.

I think setting out a solid, all-encompassing curse progression would be good. That is, every so many levels the Oracle would receive a benefit from the curse. Perhaps halfway through the progression some curses would worsen, but in the end the benefits would greatly outweigh it. Liberties really just need to be taken to make the idea more fun, both from a role-playing perspective and from a statistical perspective. It would also be nice if they made a distinction between major and minor curses, for those who aren't willing to give up too much.

Out of all the curses I think that, in terms of what is lost and gained alone, only Deaf really goes out of its way to change the playing field. In contrast Clouded Vision SHOULD go all the way (or at least at some point during progression) and become Blind, with more abilities appended to make it worthwhile. Overall there are lots of cool concepts who's potentials are just being wasted, or will be wasted if kept so conservative.

Oracles in this sense are basically on par with druids, because while they get the various heals a spell level sooner, they have a lot fewer spells available to cast. I do not see Oracles being effective as a heal class without a focus devoted to healing.

So I think we should look at their place in combat. They lack the armor to go into melee and they lack the ranged spells or spell verity to stay in the back doing anything but being the “heal b!@!@.” So far I don't see them having a concrete place in battle.

These are important observations, and lead to a question that should be asked of developers if it hasn't been answered already. Were Oracles meant to be main healers or act as an alternative divine caster? I've always assumed the latter, which is why it seemed natural that healing would fall to the wayside a bit in exchange for other cool abilities. Though if a healing focus were to be taken they should be able to surpass a Cleric in terms of raw healing ability.

I think a lot of people assume the former, but going down that road eliminates potential for growth in areas that would make it stand apart from the Cleric. A class can't have everything.

Adding in the entire Druid spell list sounds a bit excessive.

It would be more fun if each particular focus unlocked a relevant group of spells that the Oracle could then choose from in addition to the Cleric spell list. And by group, I mean something much larger than the default 9 currently given for each. As a rough example, an Oracle of Fire could choose any spell with the Fire descriptor to be a known spell. That may be a bit unbalancing in some instances, but really, it would be nice enough to be able to choose more spells having to do with your focus.

I do not disagree that it is possible to change most revelations to fit into the context of trances. However, if they are delegated to a trance mechanic, it is important to specify how they will be used outside of battle. Would you have to expend rounds of trance to use, say, Earth Glide or Wings of Air, who's durations are larger than a few rounds?

My issue is that the Oracle and its revelations are, to some extent, unlike that of a Barbarian who's rage powers are all based around combat. Of course, as it stands, utility revelations are few and far between, but a strictly rage-like trance mechanic would really limit these as well as any future attempts to bring revelations outside of the aforementioned circumstance. It's just opinion on my part, but I think that would be a shame.

This sounds pretty cool, but in the context of this class and 3.5/Pathfinder's system I don't feel that it would mesh too well in the long run. Certainly if the foci were all combat-oriented it would make sense, but I'm hoping that they will expand more on utility type revelations. Taking into account the Oracle's limited repertoire of spells, revelations are the only other major way to obtain abilities usable out of combat. That is, unless they decide to increase the number of spells known.

A prime example of this would be divination-based revelations, which is one of the first things that come to mind when I hear the term "oracle". You would need to either expend a trance attempt to make use of the revelation or hold these types of revelations to a different set of restrictions. There are obviously other schools and sub-schools of spells that would have this issue, so I think it's worth considering the impact a trance mechanic would have on these.

I never really expected an Oracle to serve primarily as a healer, like a Cleric, given the potential for variation both foci and curses present. That said, I don't think that these two things have been given nearly enough weight in the class balance. Rather than upping spells per day/spells known to compensate for weaknesses in the Cleric spell list/overall power, the foci should be given a considerable boost. If they're kept too conservative then all they really are are slightly powered up domains.

One of the major things that bugged me were the rather harsh x/day restrictions placed on some revelations. Instead of x/day, it should be in terms of revelations per battle, similar to ToB, or at least of a similar quantity. Utility-type revelations should be freed up a bit too. Elaborating on curses and ultimately making them more of a boon than a bane by giving some cool extraordinary/supernatural abilities, similar in level to a Monk, would really add to class flavor, as well. Doing anything similar to these would really emphasize an Oracle's unique qualities and encourage players to utilize it as a role-playing element, all the while making up for balance issues.

Ultimately all I really want to get across, in what unintentionally became a rant of sorts, is that it would be a pity to hold back on the things that make the Oracle special. If a player wants flexibility, a Cleric will always be the most suitable. I was very glad to see that Sorcerers were distinguished somewhat from Wizards through bloodlines, and I hope that Oracles will be able to do the same.

Of the available Foci, I tend to view Battle as the most powerful. Even so, the reason it's powerful is because it better compensates for the lack of spell casting oomph for the Oracle. Part of it is the Sorc progression, which delays each spell level.

I agree that the Battle focus seems to have been favored. Personally, it would be nice if its revelations were changed in a way that would give its users more buffs for allies, like Battlecry. As it stands, it feels as if they are just attempting to mimic a Fighter. On the other hand, something like Combat Healer really is just too much given the theme the focus attempts to portray. That sort of revelation comes off more as something for a Healing focus, to me.

It would be cool if Oracle's could keep a Cleric's spell progression, but that the first spell they gain for each new spell level is determined by the focus they choose.

Regarding the title, I had a question. In the case of Arcane Schools (P. 194) it uses the term "caster level" as the determinate for progression of specialist abilities and bonus spells. However, in the Cleric's and Wizard's respective class pages the descriptions make them out to be more of a class-specific progression as opposed to simply caster level. If a Cleric or Wizard were to take a prestige class which advances the caster level of either divine or arcane spells, would it also advance domains or specialist bonus spells/abilities?

Another question I have is regarding domains acquired from prestige classes. Let's say I'm a Cleric taking Divine Oracle from Complete Divine. It grants the Oracle domain at level 1. How would this domain progress? If I use the actual caster level it will progress faster than the Cleric's domains. Using the Divine Oracle level alone would be infeasible because it is only a 10 level class.

Any help and/or guidance would be very much appreciated! I hope this project becomes a great success! :)