Don't spread yourself too thin between DCs, melee and heals.
Yeah, the Oracle is option overload.
At this point I'm thinking I'll go for utility spells that don't run off of DCs and head in a more martial direction. Might try a Battle Oracle and skip Skill at Arms entirely, opting for the Longspear and Morningstar instead. This would let me open with War Sight, Weapon Mastery (Longspear), and Surprising Charge for my first three revelations, which seems pretty strong.
And Fury's Fall isn't allowed in our game, so the tripping builds look less appealing to me.
Oracle 1: Racial Heritage, Focused Study, Skill at Arms [Revelation]
Oracle 3: Combat Reflexes, War Sight [Revelation]
Oracle 5: Power Attack
I figure that at Oracle 7 I'd take the Extra Revelation feat, to pick up Maneuver Mastery and Weapon Mastery [Guisarme] at the same time, so that I may begin tripping guys into oblivion. Racial Heritage is there to get into Ancestral Lorekeeper, and Focused Study is there to get me into a Bloodline later. Because I don't see myself needing many metamagic feats, as I'll be going for mostly utility buffs/debuffs that don't require DC saves, so I gotta spend those feats on something.
My beef with this route is that I don't particularly want Skill at Arms, as I plan on eventually using a Mithral Breastplate. So all it really gets me is martial weapons, which I'd really only want for the Guisarme. It feels excessive.
Anyways, Time Route-
Oracle 1: Racial Heritage, Focused Study, Temporal Celerity [Revelation]
Oracle 3: Combat Reflexes, Time Flicker [Revelation]
Oracle 5: Power Attack
Gets me concealment, but I'm stuck using a Longspear. Which actually doesn't seem that bad. I suppose that this would play something like the Reach Cleric build, except I wouldn't really use summons. I think this build is a little cleaner too, compared to the Battle build. Would probably pick up Rewind Time and Improved Initiative at 7 to make Temporal Celerity beastly, Furious Focus at 9, and Divine Intervention at 11. Then maybe go into a Bloodline after that. Though perhaps it'd' be better to not do a Bloodline (and drop Focused Study) here and pick up Lunge and Quicken Spell.
I'm kind of leaning toward the Time route though. Even though the Battle route looks better on paper. Something about being a mysterious Time holy wizard with melee prowess just seems . . . fun.
Game I'm in is coming to a close, so it's time to roll up a new character for a new 4-man game. For our next game we have a Witch that's going to rain debuffs like hundos, a skull-crushing Barbarian, and an Archeologist Bard. I want to be a kind of hybrid melee/caster Time Oracle.
I'm looking to go Elf, since my girlfriend wants to play one and she wants us to play the same race (I need the brownie points). Since I'm an Elf, I'm figuring I'll go into the Ancestral Loremaster archetype. Though this blows out the amazing class skills that the Time Mystery would give me, the Wizard spells that I would gain (Utility! Buffs! Battlefield Control!) seem worth it. Grease, Overland Flight, Invisibility, Black Tentacles, Sleet Storm, Form of the Dragon III (lol), etc. I also plan on going Haunted for the cool spells.
We're coming in at level five, and this is what I'm thinking-
Oracle 1 - Improved Initiative, Temporal Celerity
Oracle 3 - Power Attack, Time Flicker
Oracle 5 - Furious Focus
For my starting gear, I'm thinking of coming in with a +2 STR belt, a +1 Elven Curve Blade, a +1 Breastplate, and a +1 Amulet of Natural Armor.
I feel like this is a decent start, but I'm hazy from here. Especially where feats are concerned. I don't see myself needing many more combat-related feats, as I ought to be able to use wands/spells pre-combat to get myself formidable for real. But please correct me if I'm wrong.
Regarding metamagic feats, I can see going with Quicken Spell, since I won't be able to use a Quicken Rod on the fly (thanks, Haunted). Are there any other that I absolutely need? I was considering Extend, but I'm guessing that buffing pre-combat with an Extend Rod would be fine.
Also considering picking up an Eldritch Heritage at later levels, if our game progresses that far. I'm torn between the Arcane, Abyssal, and Draconic Bloodlines. Wondering which would give me the most mileage with a character like this.
You'll definitely want to max out Perception. You can't hit what you don't see.
I also really like the Liberation Domain and at your level it will be very helpful to the entire party.
I can see going full Perception. Between the Tengu racial and my Wisdom score it's probably necessary. Also really torn between Luck and Liberation, though the Liberation powers are pretty crazy.
Zenlike wrote:
Spoiler:
not a big fan of dumping stats so I feel yours are fine. But I'm sure someone will come along soon and say otherwise...
soupturtle wrote:
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I'd also put both your level increases to dex, instead of one to dex and one to strength. If you want (and especially if you're unlikely to play much at/beyond level 16) you could put the level 12 one to strength, but for now +1 to hit beats +1 to damage. You could also play with a bit less wisdom (or a minor dump to int or cha) to up your dex some more - you really need as much dex as you can get. Something like str 12, dex 16+2 race +2 level +2 item, con 12-2 race, int 10, wis 13 +2 race +2 item, cha 8 would work fairly well. Channel isn't so important that you really need high cha.
For your higher level feats, the next one I'd add is clustered shots, as damage reduction is pretty common. You should carry cold iron, silver blanch and adamantine blanch arrows, but sometimes you just need to punch through. Once you can get it improved precise shot is incredible, but you can't get that before level 15 if I'm not mistaken.
Torn on this issue. I can see dumping CHA, though it feels icky. But I'm really not attached to Channel. The only thing I have attached to CHA is UMD (I'll grab the trait for it), so I might go ahead and dump it. Which means I see a Circlet of Persausion in my future. Maybe go with the following for stats-
10 Str
16 Dex
12 Con
10 Int
15 Wis
7 Cha
I can see leaving STR at 10, since I should be able to boost attack/damage rolls with self-buffs. I'll also probably pick up Clustered Shots, since it's gotten a couple of recommendations. And could you explain the arrow blanches a bit? Sort of new to archers, though I could probably just Google it. But I'm lazy.
Crosswind wrote:
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Luck domain, to be honest, isn't super impressive. I'd go Liberation and Travel (Exploration), were I you
Two for Liberation. I might take that advice.
Kudaku wrote:
Spoiler:
Note that taking Guided Hand (and dumping dexterity) means that there are some really important archery feats you don't qualify for, like Manyshot and Improved Precise Shot. Both require a high dexterity, 17 and 19 respectively.
It's not unreasonable for a GM to rule that Guided Hand allows you to use your wisdom to qualify for combat feats with the appropriate weapon, but RAW it's a no-go.
As Matthew mentioned, Guided Hand also puts you a few feats behind a dexterity based archer. Since Clerics struggle to find enough feats to get archery working till the mid levels anyway, I'd consider Guided Hand a bit of a trap option.
This sounds reasonable. I looked at the Guided Hand option and also didn't like the idea of picking up dead feats. Pretty sure my DM would slap me for requesting that I use my Wisdom to qualify for those archery feats.
I'm in a group where I'm playing this melee/healer hybrid Life Oracle. Got some new additions to our group and everyone wants to be melee. So I'm thinking of making a switch to something similar, but ranged.
Heard that archer Clerics are decent where ranged damage/support is concerned. Kind of want to lay out a build sketch here, so that some generous person(s) may tell me where anything is lacking.
Going with Tengu for my race. I'm going to swap the Swordtrained Racial for Exotic Weapon Training. DM is allowing me to pick up the Daikyu and go full composite with it.
Thinking of Dangerously Curious/Reactionary for my traits.
I would like to know if that spread is garbage for a Cleric archer. I could also go 11 STR/15 DEX, which might be slightly better.
For feats, figure I'll start with the typical. Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot/Rapid Shot/Deadly Aim/Manyshot. Any suggestions for feats past the 11th level? Lost after that point.
For my skills at LVL10, I'm thinking 10 point in UMD and 6 in Fly, but I can't figure what to do with the rest.
Also, wanting to pick up the Luck & Travel Domain. Those spells. Thank you, based Desna. I'm guessing that combination is fine? Because those powers/spells look bananas. Also wondering if anyone has experience with Travel's subdomains. Interested in the Exploration one.
With everything said, does this look like a reasonable start?
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Hello. First-time poster, lifelong lurker, etc. Been creeping on these boards for the past month. Played Pathfinder for the first time a few weeks back and had a serious deal of
Spoiler:
fun.
The group I'm in looks like Rogue/Fighter/Sorcerer/Ranger/Myself. I'm playing a(n?) Half-Orc Battle Oracle at the moment, but the Fighter is rocking the THF archetype and is slapping everything in half with his +1 Masterwork Greatsword of Hamboning. Seeing as he has melee-monster covered I want to retool my character, putting it more toward the support end of the spectrum, while still having respectable melee abilities.
I apparently also want to be snowflake as possible, because I'm leaning towards a Tengu Oracle with the Life mystery and Shigenjo archetype, which will be especially snowflake as it's an Eastern campaign. I'm also thinking of going with a 2-level dip in Ninja. Though there's some drawbacks (-1 BAB and lost caster levels/revelations), I'm thinking the dip will be worth it. Opens some solid class skills (Acrobatics, Perception, UMD!), a free feat, more stuff for the Shigenjo Ki pool, and . . . 1D6 Sneak Attack (lol).
We're also allowed traits, so I'm sure I'll go with Magical Knack to offset the CL loss. Though I'm not sure what to do with my second trait.
Concerning the Revelations, I think I'll end up with four of my choosing, since Oracle 18 loses one and Shigenjo overwrites another. The ones I want most are Channel/Energy Body/Lifesense (in that order), but I can't figure out what I want the fourth one to be. The rest of them don't impress me a great deal. Maybe Combat Healer?
As far as feats go, I'm considering the following-
Which looking at it now looks all over the place and out of order in a big way and there has to be a better way to go about this. And is Selective Channel really necessary? Wondering this as I plan on using Channel mostly out of combat. Like, I imagine I definitely don't want to use it in combat as I'll be two levels in my Channel progression.
Also, I'll be coming in at Level 6. What kind of equipment should I show up in? Figuring out what to do equipment-wise is something that I'm particularly horrible at.
Please let me know what you ladies/gentlemen think of this. I'm especially wondering if this is the dumbest build ever made, because if it is I should probably stick to my Battle Oracle.
