neurogenesis's page

If I'm understanding the optional ability boosts, the dwarf in the example would be (free, free, free, no flaw?)

From how I read it, I think it's that you can take either the listed ability changes (+Con, +Wis, +Free, -Cha) OR you can do what Humans do and take +Free, +Free.

There are some ancestries where this is simply a net buff rather than a sidegrade because their ability boost structure is something like +Dex, +Free such as Fetchling and Automaton.

At first, I wasn't sure how to rule that but I leaned on being more lenient when one of my players speifically wanted to be a Stormtossed Tengu Tempest Oracle. The Tengu resistance would pretty much cancel out the Tempest weakness which felt very much textbook mitigation. But I figured it would also mean his heritage practically wouldn't have a benefit either so I let both effects stack as normal. Hasn't been a problem and his intentions turned out to be more aesthetic than trying to cheat the curse so I'm glad I allowed it.

My perspective on this has always been that you're allowed effects that would always function, you're not allowed effects that specifically cancel other effects.

For example, if you're a Lore Oracle and are taking your -4 penalty to initiative, an effect that says "gain a +2 status bonus to initiative" would be allowed because it's not a mitigation - you'd get this regardless - while an effect that says "You don't take penalties to your initiative checks" would not block the curse effect because this is a negation of the curse effect. Similar things would be like effects either saying you can't be Enfeebled, would remove the Enfeebled condition (i.e. Restoration), or provide a maximum Enfeebled condition that can apply to you for the Cosmos oracle; effects that make creatures not Concealed or prevent damage from the major curse such as fire resistance (Fire Oracle); effects that prevent AC reductions (Battle Oracle); effects that prevent HP loss (Life Oracle major curse); etc. etc.

For a Tempest Oracle, I would say that Electricity resistance would be allowed since the character is still taking additional damage equal to the weakness compared to what they would otherwise take. What wouldn't be fully allowed is electricity immunity - I think a character with electricity immunity would always take electricity damage equal to their weakness when subject to an electricity effect. The point being, the weakness here represents damage that a character *must* take (similar to the how the Fire Oracle and Life Oracle *must* take the damage associated with their major curses).

My biggest issue with the Oracle is that it's a Divine Only class. Tempest and Fire should've been Primal list; Cosmos and Lore should've been Occult; Ancestry, Battle, Bones, and Life are fine as Divine (though an argument for Life being Primal could also be made). I know that gets into Sorcerer and Witch design spaces, but Divine Access could be limited to the Divine spell list mysteries and Sorcerer ends up with more flexibility without needing to manage a curse.

To put it a different way: nobody is going to look at the Divine Sorcerer ancestries and say "Sorcerer is really crowding out the Oracle" or the reverse of "Oracles are really crowding out the Divine Sorcerer ancestries," so I don't see why it would be problematic for Oracle to have access to Occult or Primal depending on their mystery.

As for the flavor, Oracle has always been about a Divine curse, but that was a design aspect from PF1 where you had Arcane and Divine as the two schools of magic *and* Oracles received many more on-theme abilities through their selection of Boons as they leveled up, so there wasn't as much of a need for them to have access to a list that wasn't the Cleric list.

In PF2, many more of the Oracle's capabilities are tied directly to their spellcasting (since the Curse and Focus Spells are really only a handful of effects compared to what could be acquired previously through Boons). In addition, there are *no* Mystery-specific feats for Oracles, which is also very sad. As a result, I think it makes sense to broaden the flavor of Oracles from "Divine Curse" to a more nebulous curse cast on the target by an array of entities ranging from deities or other aligned outsiders (divine); to the unknowable cosmic forces of the Dark Tapestry (occult); to the Fey or Green Men (primal).

Or maybe make it so that Oracles can always choose the Divine spell list regardless of their mystery, but some mysteries (as listed above) can instead choose the Occult or Primal spell lists.