Some very simple Oracle playtest observations

[Jagyr Ebonwood]

In my 1st level game yesterday, one of my players decided to bring in an Oracle character.

Here are some simple observations from the game. I don't know how useful they'll be, since so much depends on the luck of the dice at 1st level, but hopefully I'll be able to add to them over the course of the game.

The Oracle: The oracle is human, with the Flame focus and the Heat Aura revelation. He took Imp. Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple as his feats, with the idea being a pseudo-monk (since grappling and whatnot works well with the proximity-based flame powers).

Party Composition: The other PCs are a paladin, a sorcerer (abyssal BL), a ninja, a swashbuckler, and a barbarian. Already, in this group at least, it seems to fall to the oracle to be the healer.

Worg Encounter: On a narrow trail through the woods, the party is ambushed by a worg. The only ones who spot it are the barbarian (#1 in marching order) and the oracle (#4 in marching order). The oracle acts first, casting bless. The barbarian shoots at the worg with his bow. The worg jumps out of the bushes and bites at the legs of the barbarian, successfully tripping him. The rest of the party then enters the fray, with the paladin and sorcerer moving towards flanking positions. On his next turn, the oracle attempts to move behind the worg to provide flanking. He doesn't quite get there, since he has to move through difficult terrain and his movement suffers. Before he can get to his next turn, the worg falls to an arrow from the ninja.
This fight went pretty quickly. The oracle's contributions were the bless spell and an attempt to provide melee support. During this fight, the oracle was more or less interchangeable with a cleric.

Gnoll Encounter: The party arrives at their destination, an abandoned cottage newly inhabited by something bad. They kick the door open, and are immediately attacked by a pair of gnolls. The oracle decides to act more monkish this combat, and runs into room, using his acrobatics skill to avoid an AoO. He has to double move to get up next to the gnolls, but he uses his swift action to activate his Heat Aura. The gnolls blow their saves, and take maximum damage. The gnolls' turn is immediately after the oracle's. The one further away from the oracle charges the PCs entering the doorway. The one right next to the oracle attacks him with its spear. The oracle's 20% miss chance fails him utterly, and the gnoll confirms a critical hit, instantly dropping the oracle from full HP to -10. Thank Gaen for the dead-at-negative-Con rule. The rest of the party quickly dispatches the gnolls (well, except for the swashbuckler and the sorcerer, who are currently being strangled by a choker in the next room). The oracle is stabilized by the paladin, and given a couple healing potions to get him back to positive HP.
This is where it was hard to judge the effectiveness of the class. A series of very unlucky rolls took the oracle out of the fight pretty hard. However, the 4 damage to each gnoll from the Heat Aura was not insignificant: it knocked them down to 7 HP each, which put them in a position to be easily one-hit-KOed by the fighter types. Although he was trying to be like a monk, the oracle really filled the role of an evoker in this fight, with Heat Aura effectively accomplishing as much as burning hands.

The Cleric: The oracle got a chance to play the healer just a little, casting cure light wounds once after each fight. However, the swashbuckler had his neck snapped by the choker in the adjacent room, and his player decided to bring in a cleric PC. Next week, we'll see how the oracle does in a party that includes pretty much every PC role. My guess is that he'll be closest to a sorcerer's role, since he's got the flame focus, and the actual sorcerer in the party hasn't shown any interest in being a blaster.

[Jagyr Ebonwood]

Just after posting this, I happened to spot a post that my player made last night, with his perspective on the session:

ElyasRavenwood wrote:

Hello all, I just finished a D&D session this afternoon. My friend was starting a new campaign, and he was using the adventuring materiel out of the Dummies guide for Dungeons and dragons. We were using the pathfinder rules. I asked the DM if I could give the Oracle a try since I almost always play a cleric.

He said yes. He told me to use a 30-point buy. With all of those points I put together Prometheus, an oracle with the fire focus.

With 30 points at my disposal, I purchased strait 14 s in all my stats. I chose to be a human. I put my +2 bonus to get a 16 in Charisma. For feats I picked improved unarmed strike, and Improved grapple. Ok, probably not the best decision, but it was my mistake to make. I was going for a “monk” feel to the character.
For spells I picked Bless and Cure light wounds. For osirions I picked stabilize, light, read magic and detect magic.
For the Focus I picked Fire. For the revelation I picked the one where you generate heat and do 1d4 damage in a 10-foot radius. For the moment I forgot what skills I put in.
Prometheus had some basic gear like studded leather, a morning star, backpack, and bedroll, trail rations, water skin. Etc.

All in all we had a good time the party consisted of an Aasimar paladin, a tiefling sorcerer, (the players are married in real life) a halfing rogue, a dwarven barbarian, and a human fighter, and myself a human oracle.

We had a good time, first in the apothecary dealing with the owner, as she doled out cures for the filth fever the group picked up last weekend and the were rat lythancropy. I had just joined so I didn’t have any of these diseases.

After that the sheriff hired us to go to some outlying farmsteads and investigate why some animals were being slaughtered. Apparently the wizard who lived in the woods had gone missing. We were to investigate his dwelling as well. We entered the woods, and were first challenged by a worg. The battle went well in general, and my character used a bless spell to help turn the tide of the of the battle. Also used a cure light wounds spell on the Barbarian to staunch his wounds after the battle.

Next we found the wizards old house, and the barbarian dwarf burst in through the front door. On the other side was a pair of gnolls. Luckily I rolled a 20 for iniatative. I charged across the house until I was next to the gnolls, and I roasted them with my fire relevation, doing 4 points of damage to them. One of the toasty gnolls turned on Prometheus and skewered him with his javelin. The DM rolled a 20 and confirmed it.
My character went from a healthy 10 hit points to a Dying -10 hit points with the thrust of the gnolls weapon. A fight ensued and the gnols were killed in a couple of rounds.
Luckily another party member had a cure light wounds potion for me. I was brought back to -5 hit points, but stabilized.
Meanwhile n the next room, the sorcerer and fighter had crept into the neighboring room. A choker killed the fighter, lurking in the rafters. The Sorcere was choked into unconsciousness survived. The lurker was dispatch by the remaining party conscious party members.

All in all we had a fun afternoon even though we had terrible die rolls. I enjoyed playing an oracle. I know I probably didn’t build the character in the most efficient manner, and first level characters are always limited in what they can do. I would like to suggest adding the Cure spells, to an Oracles list of spells known for free. With two spells to choose from at first level, I knew one of them would have to be cure light wounds. I think it would have been nice to say be able to have chosen a Bless, and a Curse spell, for my spells known and say the Cure light wounds spell already “known”

I liked the revelations and the focuses. Oh I also liked the oracles curse very much. I chose clouded vision. We joked about my character ruining his sight illuminating manuscripts. My character would sometimes wonder why he left the monastery for a life on the road adventuring.

Anyways that was one brief afternoon, where I made a first level oracle and gave it a try.
Thanks

[Jagyr Ebonwood]

Another session last night. Important parts of the adventure included:
1) Fight with 6 skeletons.
2) Fight with a wight.
3) Fight with 2 gnolls and a 4th level necromancer.

There were 6 characters, all of them either 1st or 2nd level.

In all of this, the oracle was more or less equivalent to a crappy cleric. He basically tried to hit things with his morningstar. He used cure light wounds once, on himself, and used bless during one of the fights (wither the wight or the necromancer, can't remember which).

He was a decidedly second-rate melee combatant. He never got a chance to use his heat aura power because his allies were clogging up the area. The cleric definitely outshone him in terms of healing capability, and the sorcerer outclassed him when it came to detecting/analyzing magical things etc.

All in all, he wasn't especially useful.

I do have to add a qualifier to this post though. The oracle's player wasn't there last night, so the oracle was played by players who have a much less firm grasp of the rules. If the oracle's usual player was there, he might've been making better use of his character's abilities.