My local group wasn’t cool with adding playtest material to an ongoing campaign, but I was able to wrangle in a few other players to put a bone focus oracle through a mini dungeon.
Format: 4 man first level party party vs. mini dungeon with hidden doors, traps, and four combat encounters. (two cr1, two cr2, one cr3). No resting, double cost for consumable items, average starting gold, 15 point stat buy.
Note: yes, this was extremely short ‘boot and loot’ gaming, which admittedly doesn’t showcase the Oracle’s strong thematic elements as well as an extended campaign. That said, I did try and make the Oracle as I would a character for any real campaign (and very well may play the character in the future, as either an Oracle or a Cleric, depending on what the final version of the Oracle class looks like).
The Oracle in question:
Veriath the Haunted, level 1
Female Human Oracle1
N medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Perception -2
AC 15, touch 11, flat footed 14 (+3armor, +1dex, +1shield)
HP: 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +0
Speed 30ft
Melee Sickle +0 (d6 /20)
Ranged Light Crossbow +1 (d8 /19-20)
BAB +0, CMB +0, CMD 11
Str10, Dex12, Con14, Int12, Wis7, Cha18
Feats: Improved Channeling, Improved Initiative
Skills: Bluff +8, Diplomacy +8, Intimidate +8, Knowledge Religion +5, Spellcraft +5, Use Magic Device +5, Sense Motive +2
Spellcasting – caster level 1, Cha +4
Orisons, at will, DC 14
- Read Magic, Detect Magic, Stabilize, Light, Mage Hand, Ghost Sound
Level 1 Spells, 4/day, DC 15
- Cure Light Wounds, Bless
Command Undead – 7/day, DC 16, HD limit 1
Oracle Focus: Bones
Oracle Curse: Haunted
Revelations: Undead Servitude
Languages: Common, Abyssal
Items & Equipment: Studded leather, light crossbow, 10 bolts, backpack, bedroll, wooden holy symbol, light wooden shield, 2 tinder twigs, 2 torches, sack, 1 day’s rations, belt pouch, sickle, dagger, acid flask, waterskin, belt pouch, 7sp, 8cp
Experience making character: The choices of foci, and curse really got my imagination flowing. I loved picking them out. As a fan of necromantic-type characters, I loved that there were multiple curses that seemed to mesh well thematically with the bone focus. Everything was great until I went to pick first level spells. First level cleric spells aren’t the most impressive when you only get two. I knew the character would be filling the divine role, so cure light wounds was an automatic choice. Cause fear seemed like a good choice, but the character would get it for free at 3rd level. In the end I settled for Bless, because I wanted something I could get some use out of.
Selecting revalation also had some hiccups. Bone armor has no affect what-so-ever for this character, or for any first level Oracle, since I can’t imagine one starting with less then leather armor. I’m not sure how it scales, or if there’s any later level at which it would be useful since I haven’t gotten in higher level play tests yet (but I will). I considered taking the Speak with Dead revelation for fluff value (I have that association of ‘oracle’ with ‘diviner’ in my head, and this was the most relevant ability). In a regular campaign I might have, but given the nature of the test I was running I wanted to pick something combat relevant.
At first I wanted to pick Raise the Dead – it seems like it has a lot of potential for a spontaneous caster (summon effects are generally decent for them), but found the ability too open ended. Do I get to pick any 1HD monster and slap a skeleton template on it (or zombie template, if it’s small enough not to get bonus HD)? Do I get to troll through the Bestiary every time I use this ability hunting for the best creature + skeleton template for the current situation? It seemed like that would be a serious disruption to the game, and I’m not even sure it’s what was intended, so in the end I decided to pick something else. Please re-write this ability to summon from a list of specific creatures, rather then ‘anything I can find in the bestiary and slap a template on’.
So in the end I went with the Command Undead option. It’s situational, but Bone Oracles will likely be more popular in undead heavy campaigns, and Command Undead on a Cha based caster seems pretty nice.
Other Party Members: as generic as they come. Sword & Board Half Orc fighter, Elven evoker wizard, Human melee Rogue.
Dungeon was a minimal affair, with four combat encounters and two traps. An exiled goblin cleric and his followers have taken up residence in some ruined catacombs haunted by the undead, and the PCs have been hired by the local villagers to clear them out. Party shows up at the entrance to the catacombs. Area was dark – both wizard and oracle cast light spells, but the dungeon was too enclosed for the light rules to really come into play.
Very first door was trapped, and the rogue botched the perception roll, taking three damage from a poison dart and alerting guards inside. At least he passed his save vs. poison. Guards consisted of three generic goblins, who had the advantage of cover and readied actions thanks to being alerted. Fight was short, and left the rogue with one HP and none of the other party members injured. The Oracle rolled a one on the first Cure Light Wounds spell on the rogue, for only 2 HP healed. I grumbled and burned another one, bringing the rogue up to 7 or 8. Oracle contribution: two missed crossbow shots and half his first level spells burned to bring the rogue back up to not quite full HP. The goblins had some gold and a cure light wounds potion, which the rogue took.
Second hallway had a swinging axe trap, detected and disarmed by the rogue, and a hidden door, that led to a passage with several skeletal corpses in alcoves along the wall (tentative pokes from the fighter got no response). Search showed one of the corpses had been buried in fine linen, with a dagger clutched in its skeletal hand. Detect magic from the oracle showed the dagger was magic, (though the wizard could have done so just as easily). Just then some whispering and pattering feet were heard in the hall, running towards the entrance. The fighter ran into the hall to check it out, going all the way back to the first room. The rogue picked up the dagger, at which point three of the skeletons in the room lurched from their alcoves. Roll init.
Party was surprised, but skeletons burned their surprise round getting out of the alcoves. Oracle went first, thanks to improved init, took a 5’ step out of melee range, and busted out the command undead. All three skeletons failed their save, but only one could be controlled. I was tempted to grab the one closest to me, but instead opted to get one of the two who were flanking the rogue. The skeletons went next, attacking with claws, and one of them would have confirmed a critical on the rogue had if it had the +2 to hit from flanking. As it was, the rogue was only hurt. It could have been a tough fight, what with the fighter starting down the hall in the next room and each of the creatures having two attacks, but the command undead really turned the tide. Then again, it was the Oracle’s curse that had sent the fighter down the hall in the first place, but that was still pretty fun. Thank goodness the fighter and rogue brought a back-up Morning stars. Rogue now had a magic dagger and drank the potion, the Oracle burned a cure light on herself, leaving her with one first level spell, and one human skeleton had joined the party.
Oracle Contribution: took the party fighter out of the fight for two rounds, removed one threat entirely while adding to the party with command undead, dealt some damage with a morning star, healed self after combat. This fight was the most enjoyable, and I was riding pretty high afterwords, even though I was almost out of first level spells and only half way through the dungeon.
The secret passage led deeper to another hidden room, this one with a skeletal champion guarding a treasure chest. This went poorly. At least the DM generously had it waste a couple turns killing our skeleton through its damage reduction, eve. When I realized we weren’t hitting it, I burned my last 1st level spell on bless. Hurt both the fighter and the rogue. Mage dropped his magic missile on it, leaving him with only sleep (started with mage armor, magic missile, and sleep – still had mage armor up). Rogue eventually took it down with a good sneak attack. After this fight we were running on empty. The oracle was out of first level spells, the wizard only had sleep, the skeleton was dead, and both the rogue and the fighter were running low on hp.
Oracle Contribution: Commanded Undead soaked a couple hits (although the DM was being generous). Missed several times with morning star. Cast bless, and might have earned an extra hit from the fighter because of it, though I can’t remember.
Treasure box had a divine scroll with cure light wounds (which was immediately used on the fighter) and speak with dead on it. Skeletor was wearing a masterwork long sword, which the fighter took but didn’t wield (too many skeletons about).
After that the secret passage led past another swinging axe trap (again disarmed by the rogue) and ended at secret entrance to a large burial chamber, which the goblins were using as their lair. The secret entrance allowed us to get a surprise round on the final room (apparently the goblins hadn’t found the secret passage), which included a level 3 goblin cleric, two standard goblins, and two normal skeletons under the cleric’s control. Surprise round went as such: wizard cast sleep netting both normal goblins, oracle used command undead (one skeleton failed its save, but I couldn’t have controlled both, anyway), rogue got a shortbow sneak attack off on the cleric (he had moved to the back row after being left with only a couple HP). The cleric got a channel negative energy off that got the entire party and neither of his sleeping friends, dropping the rogue unconscious and severly injuring the fighter, oracle, and wizard. Thanks to some lucky rolls, the fighter and skeleton and oracle were able to take down the cleric before it got a chance to try that again, but the other skeleton dropped the oracle to unconscious in revenge. The wizard CDG’d the sleeping goblins, and the fighter smashed both the skeletons before they managed to land a blow on him and take his last 2 hit points.
Thankfully the fighter had taken a skill rank in heal, and was able to stabilize the Oracle and Rogue. Victory!
Oracle Contribution; command undead to swing numbers for a couple rounds, bonk cleric on noggin once, get knocked unconscious.
All in all, a rather fun little mini-dungeon, and everybody got to have a moment or two to shine. The oracle itself was fun to play, probably the best moment was realizing that the footsteps the fighter had chased down the hall were ghost sounds generated by the Oracle’s haunted flaw.
Spells were limited, and healing would have been a serious issue if not for the cure potion and scroll in the dungeon. Truth is, a cleric with the command undead feat probably could have done everything the oracle did, without falling unconscious, and with channel negative energy could have done more, besides. I’m not sure my little play test says anything other then ‘the Command Undead feat on a cha-based caster is good in a dungeon with a liberal amount of undead in it’. Had those skeletons been more goblins instead, I doubt my oracle would have been able to do much of anything at all after the first couple fights.