Gnome oracle

[qutoes]

We are starting legacy of fire this weekend. I'm thinking of making a gnome oracle mystery of flame with the Clouded Vision curse. I will be the parties main healer but I'm trying to think of a build will let me be useful and fun when I'm not healing. I'm not sure if I can be a good enough blaster and may need something else to do in combat .

The people here are great with coming up with fun/useful ideas

We are using a 25 point buy.
Not sure what the party make up is going to be other a melee fighter, rogue and some kind of arcane caster.

Thanks for any help or ideas.

[Douglas Muir 406]

I assume you're taking Gnome Pyromaniac?

What alignment? I would reflexively think of a gnome Flamacle as a giggling arsonist -- nongood and nonlawful -- but YMMV.

25 point buy is pretty sick. That's (unmodded) a 17, two 13s and three 12s. Modded, you have 17 Wis, 15 Con, and a still respectable 10 Str. (Meaningless at higher levels, but in that first module you may occasionally have to join melee. Also it's nice not to worry about encumbrance all the time.) -- What does the rest of the party look like?

Doug M.

[qutoes]

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

I assume you're taking Gnome Pyromaniac?

What alignment? I would reflexively think of a gnome Flamacle as a giggling arsonist -- nongood and nonlawful -- but YMMV.

25 point buy is pretty sick. That's (unmodded) a 17, two 13s and three 12s. Modded, you have 17 Wis, 15 Con, and a still respectable 10 Str. (Meaningless at higher levels, but in that first module you may occasionally have to join melee. Also it's nice not to worry about encumbrance all the time.) -- What does the rest of the party look like?

Doug M.

Yes I'm taking pyromanic. I'm thinking of a pyromaniac or maybe a fire and brimstone all evil must be cleansed with fire southern preacher type . What I'm trying to figure out is what I'm gonna be doing when I'm not casting spells to help in combat . Ranged weapon seem kinda silly with cloudy vision . But I guess I could be fun trying to do stuff outside of 30 meters lol. Look out!!! the gnome is using his crossbow again . Lol

[Beebs]

If you want to go all in on a gnome oracle of flames blaster I think this is about the most damage you can squeeze out without multi-classing.

Alternate racial trait:
Pyromaniac

Traits:
Magical Lineage: Fireball
Reactionary

Feats:
1: Spell Focus: Evocation
3: Varisian Tattoo
5: Intensified Spell
7: Spell Specialization: Fireball
9: Empower Spell
11: Maximize spell

Spell damage by level
1: Burning hands 2d4
3: Burning hands 5d4
6: Fireball 8d6 (3rd)
8: Empowered Fireball 15d6 (4th)
10: Invigorated, Empowered Fireball 21d6 or 15d6*1.5 (5th)
12: Invigorated, Maximized Fireball 90 damage (6th)

Even with all that work to up your damage, I don't know that it's worth it. At level 8, an unoptimized barbarian power attacking with a non-magical greatsword while raging is doing something like 2d6+19 (avg. 26) every single hit, while you are doing 15d6 (avg. 52.5) a few times per day after devoting the majority of your character to that idea.

A one level dip in a crossblooded draconic (gold)/primal (fire) tattooed sorcerer will be a huge boost in damage, save you a feat (varisian tattoo), and get you a familiar (compsognathus for +4 init), but will delay your spellcasting.

I'm not actually familiar with Oracle blasters, so others may definitely have some tricks I am missing!

[Cheapy]

How does the sorcerer level grant a familiar? They aren't arcane bloodline.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Beebs is describing a common problem with blasters. It's actually made slightly worse by the fact that you're emphasizing fire, a very common damage type that many things are resistant to. However, with a little effort you can still make a fun and interesting character even if he isn't tricked out and minimaxed.

Varisian Tat + Pyromaniac -> +1 CL to evocation, +1 CL to fire, and +2 CL to evocation and fire (i.e. Burning Hands and Fireball). So that's pretty attractive, yeah.

25 point build -> high Cha; I'd say buy 17, racial bump to 19, at 4th level go to 20. So, for most of your career your save DCs are +4 or +5, then another +1 for evocation if you take spell focus. That nudges you in the direction of save-or-suck spells. (Which is not just fireballs and such; there are lots of fun SOS spells.)

What to do outside combat: well high Cha suggests party face, ranks in diplomacy and other Cha-based skills. At low levels you can be a backup melee combatant -- keep your Str at 10, and the +1 attack / +1 AC you get for being a small creature will mean you can rumble with a single skeleton or orc or something even after you're out of spells.

It does depend on what the other party members are. If you have a bard, being a face is less important; if you don't have a single real melee fighter, you may have to be a second-line fighter (as opposed to emergency backup). And so forth.

Also, mysteries. I have the feeling there should be some clever way to leverage molten skin (5 fire resistance)...

Doug M.

[Sarta]

You may also wish to consider a theologian cleric of a deity with the fire domain, such as Brigh. This also allows you to capitalize on being a pyromaniac, but grants a bit more spell flexibility and healing capability.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Cheapy wrote:

How does the sorcerer level grant a familiar? They aren't arcane bloodline.

Tattooed sorceror gets a familiar instead of the 1st level bloodline power.

Draconic sorceror gets +1 damage/die on fire spells, which is pretty tasty. But as noted, it delays spell acquisition -- no 2nd level spells until 5th level, no 3rd level spells until 7th, etc. Mind, 8d6+8 damage from a fireball at 7th level is nothing to sneeze at.

Doug M.

[Cheapy]

Oh! Tattooed. Thanks.

[Beebs]

Make that 8d6 + 16 if you do cross blooded! Really synergizes with invigorate and empower.

[Beebs]

Two thoughts if you want to go all-out on the fire blasting, but keep the "preacher" aspect, as well as some ability to cast healing spells. Keep in mind that these builds are getting pretty silly, so if your group isn't very interested in super optimized characters, steer clear, as you risk outshining the party.

1) Cross-blooded draconic (fire dragon) / primal (fire) razmiran priest sorcerer

The Razmiran Priest is not a divine caster... but is all about pretending to be a divine caster! You'll be doing all your healing using use magic device and wands. Razmiran Priest conflicts with tattooed sorcerer, but that's okay, you can just take Varisian Tattoo the normal way (or skip it if the cross-cultural conflict in the fluff is problematic).

2) Cross-blooded draconic (fire dragon) primal (fire) tattooed sorcerer 1/Oracle (or Cleric) X

This is riffing off of a sorcerer 1/wizard X build in the evoker optimization thread.

Key feats for both builds: Varisian Tattoo, Spell Specialization, Intensified spell and Empowered Spell.

Where does this get you?

At level 3 -- Cross-blooded draconic (fire dragon) primal (fire) tattooed sorcerer 1/Oracle 2
Feats: Varisian Tattoo (sorc bonus feat), Spell Focus Evocation, Spell Specialization Burning Hands (you can change the spell every even level, so you'll switch to fireball later).

Burning Bands does 5d4 + 10 damage!

At level 8 -- Sorcerer 1/Oracle 7

an Intensified Fireball does 11d6 + 22! Not too shabby.

When faced with enemies immune to fire, focussing on buffing and healing should keep you plenty busy.

-----------------------------------------

Two other thoughts:

1) If you are keen on fire, but want your blasting to have more impact, at least at higher level, the dazing spell feat seems like it would add a whole lot of bite to an otherwise underwhelming blast.

2) If by any chance you aren't 100% set on the fire mystery, but are keen on playing a gnome oracle, the Heavens revelation "Awesome Display" will allow you to kick some serious butt with color spray long beyond the spells normal life span. You'll have plenty to do when not healing, and all you have to do is invest one revelation in it instead of all of your feats.

Maybe instead of "cleanse it with fire" you can do "cleanse it with holy light" ;)