Made a nasty villain with this class, multiclassed as an evil cleric.
Round 1, threw up obscuring mist and hid in it. Round 2, Raise the Dead (which I houseruled as an animate/summons so it summoned the nearest dead body and animated it, which just happened to be a guy the party had just killed after a really nasty fight in which 1 PC died and they cut off the guy's head, so the zombie had no head). BBEG had the Trickery domain, so spent the rest of the battle making copycats when the party got up to him, and channeled negative energy. The zombie (by pure chance) ended up occupying the attentions of the weaponless monk, meaning it lasted the full 5 rounds against the main party damage dealer, all the while these waves of nasty energy kept sweeping through the mist and the party couldn't find the guy hiding behind crates and barrels. The armour of bones power helped the BBEG since before he was unmasked, he had to blend in with people who wore, at best,leather armour. I game him the tongues curse, so he spent the whole battle rattling off curses in Infernal, with the party only able to understand a single word: Norgorber, creeping them out even more. The only reason the party didn't bite it seriously against this guy is that he kept rolling 1s and 2s with his channels. And all this as only a 4th level villain versus 1st level characters. Very fun to play.
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Three of the four additional skills given to the Bones domain are Charisma based, so this is a subobtimal curse choice for the mystery.
Unless you deliberately want to avoid being the "face" person for the party, I wouldn't take the Wasting curse on any Oracle.
Tongues has a similar issue. You can't use language dependent spells or skills in combat. So once the fight has started, you have no way to negotiate your way out of combat. I've run into a couple of situations where the party was attacked by the city watch (who thought we were criminals) or the BDF attacked the wrong person and I was able to negotiate an end to the fight with Diplomacy. I really like the idea of the Tongues curse, but it should be avoided unless your party has another diplomatic type.
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especially the wasting curse which has massive negatives i can understand diplomacy and disguise taking a hit, but bluff, use magic device makes no sense. i would also argue that perform would only apply when the performace took in the visual aspect.
I would agree that Use Magic Device should not be affected by the Wasting curse. I would disagree on bluff, in my opinion, you're going to be a lot more suspicious of what you are told by a person who is rotting away than someone who looks normal.
Three of the four additional skills given to the Bones domain are Charisma based, so this is a subobtimal curse choice for the mystery.
Unless you deliberately want to avoid being the "face" person for the party, I wouldn't take the Wasting curse on any Oracle.
Tongues has a similar issue. You can't use language dependent spells or skills in combat. So once the fight has started, you have no way to negotiate your way out of combat. I've run into a couple of situations where the party was attacked by the city watch (who thought we were criminals) or the BDF attacked the wrong person and I was able to negotiate an end to the fight with Diplomacy. I really like the idea of the Tongues curse, but it should be avoided unless your party has another diplomatic type.
I agree that wasting is a poor choice for a bone oracle, your shooting yourself in the foot then wondering why it hurts.
As for tongues, if you have that curse you can still understand what others are doing, so you would rely on the party to decide to go diplomatic. On the bright side, your the one bargaining with demons and devils because your speaking their language in combat.
I have been playing a haunted cursed bone oracle for the better part of the APG beta up to its release with the similar hopes of the final release will drop some of the weaker revelations and some of the bonus spells as well. My thoughts on the revelations.
Armor of Bones, was a good revelation until oracles were given medium armor proficiency during the beta phase. There are still a few mysteries that have this instant armor kind of revelation but they are all equally useless. It takes until 7th level for Armor of Bones to have the same AC bonus as an unenchanted breastplate. It is situational there are times your character may be without armor if they are captured or something on those lines.
Bleeding Wounds, scales too slowly to be that useful.
Death’s Touch, is fine as it is in line with a number of cleric abilities granted from domains that work the same way.
Near Death, is one of the better revelations of the entire oracle class the range of affects you get the bonus to saves are all very useful. It has helped me out a number of times.
Raise the Dead, duration is too short and at higher levels the undead you summon will not even make fodder.
Resist Life, is somewhat strange it is a very fun for theme but in practice you are shooting yourself in the foot as a number of useful spells like heal or breath or life are positive energy.
Soul Siphon, is a mixed bag it is useless against monsters by the time at 7th you may take the revelation. Against foes with PC levels it could be useful for denying them their class skills. I see this more dependent of the type of campaigns you run.
Spirit Walk, for being the high level revelation for bone oracle it is somewhat underwhelming it has its applications.
Undead Servitude, a handy revelation if you are not playing a Pharasma bone oracle.
Voice of the Grave, like resist life it is a fun theme revelation and has good utility but not really that flashy like other revelations are.
Overall it is kind of sad there are feats, armor, and rings for extra revelations but there is nothing else I want from the class outside of Death’s touch, Near Death, and Undead Servitude.
I like the oracle concept wise, I like the curses, but the revelations don't do it for me.
So once the fight has started, you have no way to negotiate your way out of combat.
Warriors/soldiers throughout time in our own world have managed to do that time and again - without a common language.
You're in trouble when in your enemy's language "aaargh" means "more seething oil, please!", but other than that, throwing down your weapon, throwing up your hands, getting on your knees and making desperate sounds will usually get the point across.
My take on the original coplaints:
Wasting: Definitely a very poor choice if you want a diplomat - if you want to fill that role, stay away from it. But if you don't want to talk nice to people and like the rotten flavour, this can work. You can still intimidate, and gain some decent immunities. I think it's spot-on for an oracle of bones, since I don't picture them as diplomats in the classical sense. More like the Vlad the Impaler (from the stories where he is said to have received petitioners in a forest of stakes with people staked on them, to show thow them he's not to be f+&+ed with), using intimidate as "a real man's diplomacy". It does mean that your extra class skills Bluff and Disguise will go unused.
Raise the Dead: I have to agree: 1 or 2/day for Cha rounds is quite underwhelming for many levels. It's okay as long as your charisma bonus is higher than your caster level, though, which will happen at times, and summoning as a standard action is decent, too. I can't tell you whether these critters are on par with a combat brute you could summon with summon monster or summon nature's ally, though, and that's what you need to compare it with.
Armour of bones is not that bad, actually: It's a nicer version of mage armour. Of course, unlike mages, you can wear real armour, but this armour has no penalties whatsoever, and will eventually rival all but the heaviest armours in AC (and without all the penalties). Not for everyone, but if you want to concentrate on casting spells (including rays) and get a decent dexterity, this is a godsend (the protection of medium-heavy armour with the freedom of movement of regular clothes). The duration is also rather nice - as you can split it up!
Bleeding wounds: Not that bad, actually. It won't help against enemies with healing capabilities (but against those, no amount of bleeding will help), but otherwise, bleeding wounds can be nasty. Try to flee from the enemy while bleeding? You need to waste time patching yourself up or you'll drop with no hope of stabilisation. And even during the fight, it will force some to use healing when they would otherwise use the time to do something else.
Near death: This might be boring, but it will help a lot against all sorts of nasty effects. Even without diseases (something a haunted oracles of bones would get), you get bonuses against mind-affecting effects (including charms, compulsions, and the all-time favourite fear) and poisons. Later, you get death effects and stunning (sleep effects aren't that nice). In other words: A lot of stuff that can seriously ruin your day.
Voice of the Grave - sure, it's situational, but it fits the theme. It also means you don't have to add that spell to your spell list, that you can split your uses to several targets if necessary, and the fact that it's a revelation (which gives the target penalties at higher levels) means your chances at getting the stiff to talk are a lot better than with the spell most of the time.
Any thoughts or am i just moaning ;)
You are an oracle of bones with a wasting disease. You *should* be moaning!