One thing I love about the oracle is that it is a very versatile class. A battle oracle and a life oracle, for example, feel very different, yet use the same base class. That, in my mind, is great class design.
However, I must admit that I would like there to be a little more variation. Further, there are some aspects of the class itself that I'm not happy with. I wanted to share my ideas on this, and I welcome constructive feedback.
First of all, I really dislike the oracle's curses. The idea is an interesting one, but I don't like the implementation, and I don't like the fact that every oracle (and only oracles, for that matter) must be burdened with them. Part of the reason is that I want to reflavour oracles for my campaign - rather than being selected/burdened by the gods, an oracle's power comes from contemplation and drawing on one's inner power, and nothing about that suggests they must be cursed. I know, I could work curses into this flavour, but I don't want to. This issue with the curses doesn't worry me too much, however, because I think class would work perfectly fine if I simply removed the curse entirely, both the curse itself and its associated benefits.
Second, while using Charisma for spellcasting works, I also like the idea of having oracles use Wisdom for spellcasting. This is tied to the idea of their power coming from inner contemplation, which I associate with Wisdom. As with the curses, I see no problem with simply making the switch. However, in this case, I'd like a little variety, so I may allow the player to choose which stat will be used in spellcasting. This choice would be made during character creation, and once chosen, it can never be changed. Or, I may decide that certain oracle mysteries use Charisma while others use Wisdom (and I may, in fact, have the lore mystery use Intelligence). I understand that some stats can be more advantageous in some ways, but given that all stats have their uses, I'm not overly worried about this. If you disagree, I'm happy to hear why. FWIW, I've also considered having the sorcerer cast with Intelligence (or at least having sorcerers with the arcane bloodline use Intelligence).
There's one more way that I'd like more variation among oracles, and that's in combat ability. While I can understand why many oracles would wear armour and engage in melee, I picture oracles of life and lore to be less martial. (Again, I can see why they could be more martially inclined, but I like having the option that they are not.) So, I propose that oracles have the option of making the following changes. First, drop all armour and shield proficiency. Next, reduce BAB to the poor progression, and reduce HD to d6. I'm toying with the idea of giving them spell failure in armour, but I'm not sure about that yet. To balance out these losses, I would increase their skill points to 6 + Int modifier per level, and I would give them a revelation every odd level (so, in addition to the ones they already get, they also get revelations at levels 5, 9, 13, and 17). I may require this change for some mysteries and disallow it for others, rather than making it the player's choice (although in either case, the battle oracle would not be allowed this option). As before, this feels a reasonable change to me, but I'd be happy to hear reasons why people may disagree.
That's kind of an interesting idea, the whole... well, sort of turning them into a divine sorcerer. I like the idea of more priestly casters, and members of the cloth as opposed to some always walking around with shields and armor (medium or otherwise). I think I'm going to keep an eye on this thread and see how it turns out.
I agree the curses are an interesting idea that fit with the idea of mythological prophets or oracles being burdened by a disability. It gives oracle some amount of flavor but the issue I have with the curse is they are not created equally. Haunted is by far the worst curse but it gives the least amount of benefits. There is some synergy with spells like Oracle’s Burden but depending on the oracle’s curse its usage may vary. Cursing being optional is not a bad idea but an option to have a more far reaching curse for those who wish to do so would be nice as well. Cursed oracles would have made for a more interesting oracle archetype than just being a general class feature.
There already are three wisdom divine casters I like how oracle goes over to the paladin side with charisma. The inner contemplation works for some of the oracle mysteries but for others it does not fit like battle, bone, or fire. People do not choose to become an oracle it is forced upon them and is a source of conflict. It is the oracle’s will of personality that allows them to become powerful. Charisma fits the oracle as their primary attribute in my opinion. I do find it odd in D&D/Pathfinder that will saves are off wisdom and not charisma but that is a separate matter. Changing the key stat also creates some unbalancing issues as some stats are better than others. Intelligence will give more skills, wisdom will give better will saves, and what not.
The problem with reducing them to a full arcane caster hit die is it makes the oracle class less attractive. the cleric/oracle spell lists lacks the versatility of the sorcerer/wizard and the majority of cleric/oracle spells are touch which makes a low hit point and low armor caster close to the fighting a liability in comparison to an armored cleric. Divine casters do not require the complex gestures that arcane casters have. Giving a divine class spell failure is a bit much.
I have been playing a bone oracle for most of the beta up to now. While the oracle is fun it does seem to be missing something in comparison to the cleric. The balance of the mysteries was not done as well as it could had been. Battle, fire, life, lore, water are a step above bone, heavens, or stone.
There already are three wisdom divine casters I like how oracle goes over to the paladin side with charisma. The inner contemplation works for some of the oracle mysteries but for others it does not fit like battle, bone, or fire. People do not choose to become an oracle it is forced upon them and is a source of conflict. It is the oracle’s will of personality that allows them to become powerful. Charisma fits the oracle as their primary attribute in my opinion.
As I said, I'm reflavouring the oracles so that they are not merely chosen by the gods. While I'm not making these changes for a Dragonlance campaign, if your familiar with the Dragonlance mystic, that's kinda the flavour I'm going for. It's based on an inner power that's independent of the gods. Some of them are healers, some have ties with nature, some are Dark Knights, etc. Force of personality (Charisma) is a perfect fit for some, but others are more quiet contemplatives (Wisdom).
You're right about inner contemplation not working for oracles of battle, bone, or flame. Now that you mention it, I think I would lean towards only using Wisdom with some specific mysteries.
The problem with reducing them to a full arcane caster hit die is it makes the oracle class less attractive. the cleric/oracle spell lists lacks the versatility of the sorcerer/wizard and the majority of cleric/oracle spells are touch which makes a low hit point and low armor caster close to the fighting a liability in comparison to an armored cleric. Divine casters do not require the complex gestures that arcane casters have. Giving a divine class spell failure is a bit much.
That's why I added the extra skill points and the extra revelations. Do you think that's not a reasonable trade? I find the revelations to be pretty good, better than the class abilities of clerics, sorcerers, and wizards, especially since oracles get so many of them. My martially weak oracles would get even more.
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Just a note about the Lore mystery being changed to Intelligence - a lot of it's revalations are Charisma based, and would be quite weakened by just switching the casting stat. There's probably going to be similar problems with other revelations.
Not saying it's a bad idea per se, but certainly something to consider.
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Sounds like there's 4 cool archetypes for Oracles here where you get something extra in exchange for losing something.
And the great thing about the way archetypes work, there could be another one which basically is "Uncursed" where you lose the curse's penalty/benefits and can combine that with any of the other archetypes.
I'd happily copy/paste/print some Oracle archetypes for house rules until 2012 or 2013 when we see an Ultimate book for the holy types. :)
Just a note about the Lore mystery being changed to Intelligence - a lot of it's revalations are Charisma based, and would be quite weakened by just switching the casting stat. There's probably going to be similar problems with other revelations.
Not saying it's a bad idea per se, but certainly something to consider.
Very good point. You can deal with that by having the revelations always be based off the same stat used for spellcasting. So, for example, if a life oracle chooses to use Wisdom for spellcasting and also takes the channel revelation, she'd be able to use it a number of times per day equal to 1 + her Wisdom (rather than Charisma) modifier.
There's another issue that comes up with the lore mystery, though. One of its revelations is mental acuity, which grants an inherent bonus to Intelligence. If the lore oracle uses Intelligence for spellcasting, this could be overpowered. I suppose I'd handle that by having the bonus apply to Wisdom, if Intelligence is used for spellcasting. The lore keeper revelation also needs work. Maybe the simplest way of handling the lore oracle, if I still want to change the stat for spellcasting, would be to just change it to Wisdom rather than Intelligence.
Thanks for drawing my attention to this issue. I'll need to look at each revelation carefully before deciding whether the make these changes.
I'd happily copy/paste/print some Oracle archetypes for house rules until 2012 or 2013 when we see an Ultimate book for the holy types. :)
You may not have to wait that long. I think I've read a post in which one of the Paizo staff stated that there will only be the two Ultimate books. That means that if they present archetypes, you'll find oracle archetypes in Ultimate Magic. That's what I'm hoping for. :)