I haven't played an Oracle, so I don't have any specific build advice, but as far as Channel Energy, you are correct.
Channel Energy heals (or harms) everyone within its' area. You can, however, pick the Selective Channel feat, which allows you to decide who to affect with a given use of Channel Energy.
(On a side note, remember that you can't both harm and heal with the same use of Channel Energy. If your friends are fighting undead, healing your friends with channel energy doesn't also harm the undead. You have to pick one or the other).
Regarding your questions:
1.) She has a decent base attack as an oracle, so as you have said, grabbing a composite longbow wouldn't be a bad idea. If she grabs "deadly aim" as a feat, she can dish out more even more hurt from afar. Though, dealing damage at ranged is pretty feat intensive, requiring "point-blank shot" and "precise shot" just to get started, that is so you don't suffer a -4 on the attack roll for firing into melee. She could always just grab a melee weapon and wade into melee herself. She wears medium armor, so that's not a real big issue. Her hit points are a little low, but that's fine, especially since multiple characters can heal.
2.) All characters begin play with one feat at first level and gain an additional feat every odd level thereafter. Some classes get bonus feats, though I don't think oracles are one of them (except perhaps through their revelation class ability).
If she wants to be support and also deal some damage in combat, summoner might be the right class for her. They get a ton of useful support spells and their eidolon doesn't hurt either.
I am currently playing a Life Oracle in our Kingmaker game.
I am the only healer in the group, so not only did I pick the "most healingest of the healing" classes, I also focused on that aspect a lot.
Even with one of our melee tanks consistently going into the negatives, I'm finding that I'm only using about half my healing resource (per day stuff, like spells, channeling, etc).
What seems to save the day a LOT is Life Link. This is similar to the Shield Other spell, only it's for less damage (5hp at a time), but can be spread across multiple allies once you start gaining levels.
I've never been directly attacked by a single enemy in 6 levels (this is specific to our party makeup and types of enemies we've fought), but I've taken hundreds of damage simply through the use of this ability alone.
Just don't forget about it. I usually start my turn with "Does anyone have more than 4 hitpoints damage?" so I don't forget it's there (it's automatic, so forgetting it should not happen anyways, you have to voluntarily drop the effect).
Now, I've had to blow a lot of magic on outright curative spells due to our situation. Your group already has a Cleric, so spontaneous healing is already available, and the oracle will have more opportunities to do other things with their time/magic.
Good spells are Command, Doom, etc, to reduce the enemies effectiveness, or Summon Monster to flood the field with targets other than your party members.
Since you are a spontaneous caster, you can decide if you need 5 castings of one spell or not at any particular moment, and sometimes Summons work out that way. Plus, you can switch out a spell occasionally if needed when lower level summons become useless.
There are a number of mysteries for the Life Oracle that can be gained at lower levels, but will not really kick in that strongly until you gain more oracle levels (the +1 per level stuff).
Things like safe curing, life link, and channel, can be useful right away.
Regarding Channeling placement.. the Life Oracle is in the position to get the most out of the Selective Channeling feat, due to naturally having a high Charisma.
I've found that pulling in damage to myself spreads the damage out, making Channel healing more effective (if I pull 10 extra damage over two rounds to myself, and then use a channel, I just increased how much I healed with it). I can also pull damage from the front lines and heal it away from the enemy, so Channel has a greater opportunity to work without accidentally healing a foe too.
Reach spells (metamagic feat) make low level healing nice (and good for popping a Protection from Evil at range). Especially since I've got the Lame curse.
Also keeps your damage soaking butt out of the immediate melee danger (or at least, a reasonable distance away from a full attack), and far enough so that your Channel burst doesn't reach enemies.
Oh, speaking of which.. investing in a decent Constitution score and maybe even the Toughness feat will make using Life Link (and possibly Shield Other later) that much easier to handle.
Hope this helps!
Together with the Sun/Good Cleric we would have 2 similar divine Casters in the group. Do you think that would be OK? The Carrion Crown Path has a fair amount of undead creatures though. Hmm..
Markus
Can't have enough Channeling when there's undead around. Can't heal your allies while hurting undead. Nice to have burst damage AND healing available if this is the kind of campaign you are looking at.
The sun cleric will especially be set up for killing undead with channeling. Having a Life Oracle there for burst healing will let him keep his channeling for killing the undead.
The one combat that involved decent amount of undead to use burst attacks, I found myself holding back to make sure I had healing for the boss encounter, for what it's worth.
The life link indeed looks promising. Though its kind of sad - a pretty female elf - taking all the damage. also how does it exactly work?
- As a standard action, you may create a bond
between yourself and another creature. Each round at the
start of your turn, if the bonded creature is wounded for 5
or more hit points below its maximum hit points, it heals 5
hit points and you take 5 hit points of damage.-So the linked ally must have full hitpoints, if it has 30HP and looses 12 through an attak than it heals 5 and only looses 7. The Oracle looses 5.
The next round the fighter has 23HP and looses through the next attack 9HP it is down to 19HP and the Oracle takes another 5? And the 5 stays fixed also when you progress.I was wondering which feat to take. Selective Channeling. One more Mystery, Toughness.. hmm
The way I read Life Link:
You can create a bond as a standard action. The bond lasts until you end it (or either of you die). You can have one active bond per Oracle level. So you want to start these up as early as possible, and not wait for combat to happen.
When a bonded ally take damage, the life link doesn't do anything. They take that damage normally. At the start of your turn, every turn, all day, you check everyone you are bonded to. Are anyone missing five or more hit points? For each bond where the answer is 'yes', that person heal 5 hp and you take five points of damage.
That could get a little risky. However, you can end the bond as an immediate action, meaning that you can end any number of bonds before your turn begins, if it's looking like you would otherwise be taking more damage than you can handle.
You totally need the Wasting curse to go with this. :)
I was wondering which feat to take. Selective Channeling. One more Mystery, Toughness.. hmm
If it was me, I'd pick Selective Channeling and Toughness at level 1. Exstra Revelation at 3rd, then probably Reach Spell at level 5 and Highten Spell and/or Spell Focus (Abjuration) after that (the last two mainly being to get the most out of Sanctuary. Reason being that when you are busy killing yourself, you really don't want an enemy to come over and help :) )
Of course, that's for a human. For an elf, you could probably push Reach Spell to 7, or just not worry about it. I definitely wouldn't skip Toughness (already taking a hit to Con) and I would think very seriously about fitting in Highten Spell as early as possible.
If you are thinking elf archer with slightly less healing, and good charisma, and the ability to dish out mega damage, you might want to think paladin. They get full BAB, and decent healing starting at level 2, and the ability to channel at level 4. Not to mention smiting works very well against strong undead.
That is, if you want another choice. Life oracle is pretty awesome, although I would agree with others, if you go that route, you will want more con bonuses. Humans are great for the extra feat. Half elves are good too, because they don't get the -2 to con.
Hmm seems a Life-Oracle will not be able to use a bow for damage then.
Elf Life Oracle has too less constitution but would be the one able to use the composite bow.How else could a Life Oracle deal damage from distance?
I don't think you can really focus a life oracle on dealing damage. Sure, you can pick up a bow or a crossbow, but it will never be great. Or even decent.
I think, as was suggested upthread somewhere, that if a life oracle is interested in having something else to do in a fight, a good option would be to look into some of the more controllerish cleric spells. Like Command and Doom, etc. That could potentially have a much more important impact on a fight than plinking away for 1d8 damage. :)
That makes sense. So is it fair to say, that if my wife wants to stay away from melee she should consider the life oracle as another PC in our group plays a cleric of saranrae good / luck and might go more into melee and not focus on healing as much.
I think that sounds like a fine fit. Clerics have a LOT of spells that make them great in combat, but it comes at the expense of casting other spells. Like healing. A dedicated life oracle sounds like it would work well.
This is Sarrah, my life Oracle in Carrion Crown. She stays away from Melee entirely, her build is to heal the party and wipe out undead. She has 8 Channels so she can use them pretty much at will.
Her save DC is for her channels is 17 right now but will quickly be into the 20's, making saves from most undead very unlikely. Her ability to damage pretty much every undead in a combat will really come into play starting around 3rd level as she hits them over and over again, every one of them...yes Sanctuary will be a good pick up spell a little later but she will be as far from combat as she can stay until then.
Well, there's a good thread that talks about some of the pitfalls for playing some of the curses (for both the DM and the player): The Deaf Oracle is Cripplingly Unplayable.
*Edit* Ooops, wrong link. For some reason that old one has more recent posts? I'll leave it up for the discussion, but the thread I was thinking of was this one: Oracle Curses, Namely the Deaf Curse.
The question is if a Life Oracle - focused on healing makes sense if He is pretty much set on his Good / Sun Cleric.
A cleric can be quite versatile, since he's got a lot of self buffing spells, and attack spells. If a cleric is given a chance to *not* have to burn all his magic in healing and protection magic, he can do quite a lot.
Full access to the spell list means the Cleric can decide to focus on something for the day. Without having to convert spells to cures, he can actually pull off that "something".I also thought, as she was playing a 4e cleric before, that an Oracle would be easier in Pathfinder for her than a cleric, that needs to choose spells etc.
What do you guys think? I was thinking of a Life Oracle with the Tongue Course (Celestial).
This does not interfere with spellcasting, but it does apply to spells that are language dependent
What does that mean?While our sun / good cleric goes more into melee, she could hang back like she was used to and heal / buff, also do some channeling. As feats I would pick selective Channeling.
Also the Energy Body sound interesting together with Life link.Do you think that character concept sounds like fun (and easy / accessible )character concept to play for her?
Language dependent spells are things like Command: you have to tell a person to do something, so they need to understand what you are saying. Taking the tongues curse can limit some of the attack spell options you might have.
Choosing spells aren't really that much easier, just different. You have to look at each spell selection as something that will give a lot of use later on down the road.
Avoid things like Cause Fear (due to the 4 HD cap), and instead go for things that might do something similar but without a cap (Command).
Energy Body is pretty awesome, thematically and in healing potential. I've not needed it so much, but our combat seem to be fairly melee centric right now, all focusing on one character. I'm sure I'll get a chance to start using it later down the road.
Regarding the concept/playstyle: It's very "do things for others" style of gameplay. I've played healers in MMOs before (Everquest, World of Warcraft, etc), and this class build feels the most similar to that. Occasionally tossing out a Searing Light or debuff, but mostly countering damage soaked by the others, and buffing with protection magic.
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Oh, one last thing to consider.
Picking Human gives you the option to this alternative favored class bonus:
Oracle: Add one spell known from the oracle spell list. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level the oracle can cast.
I am currently running a Human oracle, and while I didn't bother with extra orisons at the first few levels (picked a few extra skillpoints for a couple extra knowledge skills instead), it as come in pretty handy for 1st level spells and up.
Thisis a Life Oracle that I created for a Carrion Crown PbP here. She's a Changeling (the +2 to Charisma helps alot). Take a look.
What effects will the tongue curse imply? Which spells won`t she be able to use?
I think Kaisoku already answered this, but to recap. The Tongues curse doesn't stop her from casting any spells. What it does is make her speak in a strange language (eg. Celestial) while in stressful situations. Such as combat.
Language-dependant spells require the target to actually understand what the caster is saying, so if you are speaking Celestial, and the target doesn't understand that, certain spells won't have any effect. The Command Spell is the obvious example.
Whether a spell is language-dependant or not is listed in its description.
"Four white mages? It'll never work." -Black Mage
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(Sorry if there's any egregious errors in there--I did this in bursts at work.)
A Mystery of Life Oracle can be a simple heal bot serving up channels and heals or a very proactive and powerful de/buffing machine.
I play my PFS Oracle with these three things in mind: prevention, mitigation and healing. Below is my life oracle I'm playing with commentary and regrets alike ;)
Human Dual-Cursed Mystery of Life Oracle
Curses: Haunted, Lame
I chose human for the bonus feat & favored class spell bonus and Dual-Cursed for the extra revelations and spells. The lame curse is manageable and, as someone who prefers to be behind the action, the loss of movement isn't too bad. Haunted is also manageable and can be chosen as the “doesn't ever improve” curse of the two. Tongues curse is a potential option, but as the party face and someone who likes the option to offer surrender in combat, it wasn't for me.
STR 12
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 18 (+2)
High CON to power the Hit Point battery.
PFS Traits:
Shadow Lodge-Aid Allies: +3 bonus on successful Aid Another action
Gifted Adept (Cure Light Wounds): +1 Caster Level
As a longspear-wielding secondliner, I often used Aid Another on the frontliners at low levels in combat to grant them +3 to hit or AC. When you don't have many spell options and miss more often than hit in melee, buffing a bruiser with a simple “hit AC 10” action is totally aces. Gifted Adept seemed like a good idea at the time—when every HP counts, boost the cure spell you'll use a gajillion times. While it served its purpose admirably, in hindsight, Sacred Conduit or a skill-related trait would have been better.
L1 Toughness
L1 (H) Extra Revelation
L1 Revelations: Life Link, Channel Positive Energy
Toughness to fuel the burgeoning HP battery. At level 1 with Toughness, 16 CON and favored class HP bonus you'll have 15 hp.
L2 Mystery Spell: Ill Omen
You afflict the target with bad luck. On the next d20 roll the target makes, it must roll twice and take the less favorable result. For every five caster levels you have, the target must roll twice on an additional d20 roll (to a maximum of five rolls at 20th level).
There is NO saving throw. None. Nada. While pre-level 5, you may not get much out of this, at level 5 you're forcing the enemy to take the worst roll on 2 consecutive d20 rolls giving Ill Omen more time to play out and your allies a greater chance to capitalize. Depending on where you are in the initiative and the size of your party, you could set up the big bad to miss on their attacks, CMD checks, concentration checks or saves (especially nice when the wizard's turn is right after yours).
L3 Selective Channeling
L3 Revelation: Misfortune
Misfortune is simply a must have in your suite of damage prevention tools
Misfortune (Ex): At 1st level, as an immediate action, you can force a creature within 30 feet to reroll any one d20 roll that it has just made before the results of the roll are revealed. The creature must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll. Once a creature has suffered from your misfortune, it cannot be the target of this revelation again for 1 day.
Who doesn't who doesn't want an immediate action with unlimited uses per day (with the only caveat being it cannot be used more than once a day on the same creature). Mook makes save? Misfortune! Big bad breaks off a crit? Misfortune! Note that you can force any creature, including allies and yourself, to reroll. Fighter fails save? Misfortune! Ninja misses sneak attack? Misfortune!
Does misfortune always work? No, but it can single-handedly swing the battle in your favor...or at least keep it from getting worse. Remember, you will forever suffer the effect of a second curse that never gets better, so make this count.
BIG NOTE: If you play with a GM who regularly roll behind a screen, you'll get a lot less use out of this when it comes to delivering bad breaks to the nasties.
L5 Flag Bearer
L5 Revelation: Energy Body
YMMV with Flag Bearer. I selected it because basically it's a continual Bless that saves me a round of buffing in combat. Since I'm always secondlining with my longspear, frontliners will almost invariably be within range of flag. Since your flag grants morale bonus, you can toss off a Moment of Greatness as needed.
If I didn't take Flag Bearer, I would simply take my channeling feats earlier
L7 Contingent Channeling or Quick Channel (choose other at L9)
L7 Revelation: Combat Healer
If you're barely standing after a tsunami of life link/shield other pain, in one round you can Swift Action cast cure (whatever) yourself, Move Action energy body heal & Standard Action cast cure (whatever)--at my level, I could potentially heal myself up to 28-75 hit points in one round (3d8+7) + (1d6+7) + (3d8+7). Alternately, if I need to heal everyone in the party and have Quick Channel, I could Swift Action cure myself for 3d8+7, Move Action Quick Channel & Standard Action Channel (8d6 total, 12d6 with a Phylactery of Positive Energy).
Contingent Channel is a fantastic option towards increasing your healing economy.
Contingent Channeling
You can imbue others with your healing energy so that they can use it at the moment of greatest need.
Prerequisites: True healer class feature, Selective Channeling.Benefit: You can use a standard action to touch an ally and expend one of your daily uses of channel energy to create a repository of positive energy within that ally. This repository contains the same number and type of dice as normal for your channel energy feature, and it lasts for 1 minute. An ally who has such a repository can use an immediate action to roll the repository’s dice and regain a number of hit points equal to the result. If an ally who has such a repository is reduced to negative hit points, the repository triggers, allowing the ally to heal without using an action
So, your frontline BFF can heal himself with an immediate action leaving you free to contribute elsewhere. (It's like Blessing of Courage and Life turned up to 10.)
This is where I'm at right now.
Prevention: Misfortune & Ill Omen and other debuffs to gimp the enemy and various buffs to help my party knock down the baddies post-haste (if the enemy is dead, they're not doing damage).
Mitigation: Life Link & Shield Other
Healing: Anything that improves the healing economy, or better yet, leaves you free NOT to heal (Blessing of Courage and Life, Contingent Healing, etc)
I kept my Favored class bonus as +1 HP until level 6 where I could start taking level 2 spells for my human favored class bonus.
My normal routine is to Lifelink the party at the break of dawn and cast Shield Other on those who will either see the most action or are the most vulnerable when it looks like combat is in our near future. In battles, I buff, debuff, poke with my longspear and eat people's damage via Lifelink. With a larger hit point pool (especially if you get a +CON item), you may not actually need to heal anyone during minor encounters as all the damage is sent to you and post-battle you can use a Wand of Cure Light Wounds on yourself. Out of combat, I'm the party face.
At sixth level with a +2 CON item I have 68 HP. Usually when I get to 50-60% health is when I seriously consider healing myself as one big AoE to the party could knock me down. I've only gone negative HP once and that was from having 4 Shield Others up during the final encounter--one negative energy channel and several failed saves later I was on death's door. Should I have had that many shield others up? Probably not, but funneling that damage to me left enough people standing to take the boss down the next round.
phew.
Hope that helps.
This is a life oracle/tongues curse I ran in an amazingly-run play-by-post here on the boards, before life began to suffocate me to death. I strongly advocate the class, and the curse. It's a LOT of fun to roleplay.
I played a battle oracle with the tongues curse and int as a dump stat - oh the fun we had, doing stupid things, when people couldn't tell me I was doing something wrong - try to mimic "flank him" or "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" - I recommend tongues - and don't let the other party members just take a skill rank to learn infernal (or what ever tongue your speaking).
+1 for misfortune - it's a awesome ability - even when you ask the GM to reroll a 19 and he rolls 20 instead (the 19 wouldn't have hit by the way)
+1 for ill omen - I would even consider quickening it later on - although not usefull against undeads.
And the buffing/debuffing routine can be rewarding. The more people in the party the greater benefit - bless, prayer, Blessing of fervor - people will love you.
Incombat healing have a hard time keeping up - things just do damage faster than you can heal it. (until you get heal). Most time it's better to buff peoples AC/debuff enemies to hit (SoF, prayer, aura of doom, pro against evil, and hope they don't get hit in the first place).
and if it hasn't been mentioned - traits: if you plan om harming undeads with channaling - Sacred Conduit gives you +1 DC