Hey guys!
So I'm creating a Life Oracle for a new Kingmaker campaign I'm about to start, and thought it would be a good idea to ask around for advice first.
I did some searches on the messageboards (and online in general) and haven't been able to find too much about how to get the most out of an oracle, so I thought I would ask here. This will be my first Pathfinder campaign, but I'm already loving it based on my devouring of the rulebooks and setting guides. I'm no stranger to D&D in general though. My characters in the past have leaned melee (a skirmisher, a melee druid) and an arcane caster or two (bard, wizard) - so I thought I would go for more of a support/divine caster role.
So now that you know a bit about where I'm coming from, I decided on the Oracle class because it seems to offer a lot in terms of roleplay, and also some pretty cool abilities in through the revelations.
Here's what I've gotten worked out:
Sex/Race: Female Half-Elf
Class: Oracle (Life Mystery)
Deity/Belief: The Green Faith
Alignment: Neutral Good
Ability Scores (20 Point Buy):
STR 12
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 17
Oracle's Curse:
Haunted (Fits well with my background story, and the granted spells are nice too)
Revelation:
Channel Energy
Traits:
Fast Talker
Ease of Faith
(Fit in well with my backstory, and go well with trying to fill the "party face" role.)
Feats:
Selective Channel
Skill Focus (Diplomacy) [Racial]
Skills:
(One extra for favored class)
Bluff (+8)
Diplomacy (+11)
Heal (+5)
Knowledge (Nature) (+5)
Spellcraft (+5)
Survival (+5)
Spells:
0-Level:
Create Water
Detect Magic
Light
Mending
Ghost Sound
Mage Hand
1st Level:
Cure Light Wounds (Automatic)
Bless
Shield of Faith
As for equipment, I currently have her with scale mail, a buckler, a morningstar, a sling, and a dagger plus other random inventory. Since this is Kingmaker, I tried to strike a good balance between in-combat utility and out-of-combat utility. So what do you guys think? Am I missing anything glaring that would make my oracle a cut above the rest?
For the third level revelation, I plan on taking Life Link, and using the feat at that level to get a second revelation, Energy Body. I figure this is a good "damage swap" combo, letting me heal my party members essentially by healing myself. A thing that might be good to keep in mind is that I play with a fairly large party (of which I am the main healer), which is why I thought that a Life Oracle would be an interesting choice to play. Also, I'm conflicted as to how else I should help in combat... is my role more at range or up close? I have the AC to stand up front, but if I go down, then the party would likely follow suit unless they can figure something else out.
Any thoughts or advice are welcome, and thank you in advance!
I like Healing Hands more than Energy Body myself...
Seems like a good build to me though :)
I made a similar one recently, except that I had a lower Str, higher Wis (with MW backpack to compensate for carrying stuff)
I had the Dangerously Curious trait because i thought it was cool with the haunted curse (His curiousity had uncovered things he now wish hadn't.....)
Just a GEE WHIZ thing, is the DM wanting one of your traits to be campaign specific from the players guide? If so that may mean you need to adjust one of your choices.
Greg
Just a GEE WHIZ thing, is the DM wanting one of your traits to be campaign specific from the players guide? If so that may mean you need to adjust one of your choices.
Greg
Thanks for the comments guys!
The DM is providing campaign traits as an option, but they are not a must, so that's okay. I was sorely tempted by the Dangerously Curious trait, but decided to go with bluff since we have a party bard who's all about umd.
Does anyone have any ideas for rounding the character out, making her not so one dimensionally a healbot? Like I mentioned, I'm conflicted if I should try to be a melee or ranged type combatant when it comes down to it... On one hand, I'm thinking "protect the healer" while in the other, I have one of the highest ACs in the group, and can pump that even further with Shield of Faith. Any thoughts?
Don't knock the energy body.
I play a life oracle in my friday game, and we got jumped by 8 poison using assassin types. The poison was save or paralysis, and due to sucky rolls, our 2 main meeler's dropped.
I used energy body (gain elemental subtype, no precision damage, no crtis, and more important no poison works on you) and healed the rest of the pary till the assassins were dead. I got hit twice, but didnt need to worry about the poison.
Think of it as an "Oh s**t!" button.
I understand the ‘protect the healer’ mentality, but if it makes you feel better, in our group most clerics are melee, so it is not uncharted territory by any means.
The first factor I would look at is your group composition. If it is melee heavy, it would probably be best to go ranged and vice versa.
Assuming you don’t know the group composition or the group has a good balance of melee v. ranged, the second thing I would consider is which method would generate the most damage for the least risk. This is tricky.
Melee is always easier to get going (requires fewer feats to make viable at low levels). However, without a high strength it is kinda lack-luster and all but requires you to be very mobile and use great tactics (e.g. always be flanking). Melee clerics can also run into AOO problems if they need to buff or heal with touch-ranged spells during combat. Finally you are right in the thick of things and that makes you a convenient target.
On the other hand, ranged combat has heavy feat requirements; especially if you want impressive damage and even then the damage will probably never match up to melee. Ranged, being based on dex, offers better synergy with your other roles though and you have the advantage being ‘safe’ in the back of the group with much fewer AOO issues when healing/buffing during combat. For me, it comes down to what other feats you really want.
If you want a lot of feats that improve your channeling, spells and/or skills… go melee, if you can live without 2-4 feats… go ranged.
Assuming you don’t know the group composition or the group has a good balance of melee v. ranged, the second thing I would consider is which method would generate the most damage for the least risk. This is tricky.
First off - great analysis, GoldenOpal, this made me think about my situation from some new angles. Our party has a lot of up-front people, and I would really prefer to be a ranged attacker overall to be honest. But like you said, it's difficult to do ranged attacks well without a number of feats, feats that I'd rather invest in increasing my spellcasting/healing abilities.
I think that my best option may be to start off combat in ranged mode and try to get a few shots off before allies close in on the enemies, and then switch to melee if I'm not too busy managing damage or doing other things.
We've just played the first session, so my first-level things are pretty locked in, so now I'm looking more to the future. Our DM likes to throw us particularly difficult challenges (particularly since Kingmaker is more of a day-by-day campaign, allowing you to rest after each combat). Because of this, I think that healing is going to be my main combat role, at least during lower levels where death is a real threat. For example, without channel energy, we probably would've bitten the dust during one of the first combats (almost everyone went unconscious at least once in that fight - nailbiting but awesome!).
Any tips on making the most of a poor ranged situation, I guess?
@Kryzbyn -
Awesome! Yeah, I think Energy Body is a pretty awesome ability... it gives you something similar to an extra couple of CLW per day (with great action economy!) and also grants the elemental type... nothing not to love about that in my opinion.
Thanks guys!
I think that my best option may be to start off combat in ranged mode and try to get a few shots off before allies close in on the enemies, and then switch to melee if I'm not too busy managing damage or doing other things.
Generally I would caution you against going this route. In my experience, getting a few shots off before enemies are engaged in melee just rarely ever pans out. You are lucky to get even one shot and it would be better action economy to buff before the melee characters charge in, so they get the benefits asap and/or are close enough to you for touch-ranged spells. However, the method could work in Kingmaker, because (from what I understand, haven’t played it yet) you can spot enemies from a greater distance than you would in an ‘average’ dungeon or town and you won’t have that ‘my group mate(s) standing in the doorway or ahead of me in this hallway are providing the enemy with cover’ issue. Though, as soon as you go into an enclosed area (exploring ruins or something) you will run into these problems, so keep that in mind.
-
Some tips for when you are in melee. Having played a non-full BAB melee character in D&D you may already know this, but as a refresher…
Like I mentioned in my previous post, positioning is very important. AOO can be a major problem if things start to go bad and you need to use spells. When you find yourself in this situation, remember most enemies only get one AOO per round. With your comparatively low attack bonus, you will want to be in flanking position and/or attacking monsters weakened by debuffs any time it’s feasible. Finally, don’t forget the Aid Another action. If an enemy has a high AC, give the big-hitter a +2 to hit. If a party member is getting clobbered, a +2 to his/her AC may prevent additional damage while you wait for a better opportunity to get out of melee and heal them.