Building an oracle for a new game, and ran into a problem. I usually build clerics as buff-casters, picking the appropriate spell for the occasion. This is an oracle of lore, so she'll eventually know the right occasion, but she doesn't get to have the spell of choice.
What's good, and flexible, and almost always useful for a divine spellcaster? (I'm currently thinking about the bane/cause fear combination, swapping out cause fear later, but what would be preferable?)
We also have a wizard, cleric, and bard in our party, plus a fighter, so I'm not too worried about the generalist spells that usually seem to be necessary.
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What's good, and flexible, and almost always useful for a divine spellcaster? (I'm currently thinking about the bane/cause fear combination, swapping out cause fear later, but what would be preferable?)
We also have a wizard, cleric, and bard in our party, plus a fighter, so I'm not too worried about the generalist spells that usually seem to be necessary.
I would say Bless if you didn't have a bard. I prefer Command to Cause Fear.
I would say Bless if you didn't have a bard. I prefer Command to Cause Fear.What's good, and flexible, and almost always useful for a divine spellcaster? (I'm currently thinking about the bane/cause fear combination, swapping out cause fear later, but what would be preferable?)
We also have a wizard, cleric, and bard in our party, plus a fighter, so I'm not too worried about the generalist spells that usually seem to be necessary.
Eh, I'd say cause fear is pretty superior to Command in a lot situations. Cause Fear takes out the most menacing looking person for 1d4 rounds (and more when you consider they have to run back ). Also, cause fear still does something if they make their save.
For Command, I find its most useful when you're already winning and typically doesn't buy you more than one or two AoO's and one missed action.To each their own, of course. That said, I absolutely love Command, Mass, heh.
To the OP: It really depends on the sort of build you're looking to do. Melee/Buffer/Debuffer etc. In general, spells I consider are: Bless, Divine Favor, Magic Weapon, Protection, Shield of Faith, Cause Fear. Bane is fine, of course, especially at lower levels when you'll be faced with hordes of small 1/3 CR creatures and if you're going the debuffing route (and thus have a high casting stat for Spell DCs), but I find Bless, overall, to be universally better.
If you have a lot of people making attack rolls in your group, Bless and Cause Fear will probably get you some decent milage. If you're going to be a front liner, I'd recommend Divine Favor and Shield of Faith.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I'm leaning more toward the debuffer line, actually, than anything else. The basic philosophical question, though, is still: given your very limited selection of spells, what are the most generally useful ones an oracle can take so as to be usually interesting to play. (I don't want to always be casting the same buff spells over and over -- I can do that with a cleric since they have a larger selection and can vary them based on the situation.)
Any time you played a cleric and thought to yourself, it was smart to prepare that spell but too bad I only had it prepared x times, that's a good oracle spell.
I really like blessing of fervor as a buff spell. It benefits all party members in one way or the other.