Thinking of playing an oracle and I wanted to know what your favorite mystery was and why
I've played a few oracles, in a few styles, and I simply cannot stress this enough: pick the oracle with the best flavor. Oracles are deeply entrenched in the flavor of their mystery, so even if it functions mechanically well it'll be an absolute drag to play if you're just not feeling it.
As for me, I adore the Nature, Dark Tapestry, and Bones mysteries. Nature is pretty versatile and feels a lot like playing a druid ("I am nature."), while Dark Tapestry is very Lovecraftian and feels a lot like the sort of mystery you really don't want to solve. Bones is a really efficient Necromancer (more than the Undead sorcerer) that has all sorts of great little necro-tricks.
The Spellscar oracle seems interesting to me at the moment
Oracles can be built many different ways and can do just about anything you want them to do. It is what makes Oracles awesome.
The munchkin in me likes Battle or Life.
But Dark Tapestry and Spellscar know how to party!
Seriously, oracle is the new cleric.
Oracle looks so much fun. I don't think there is another class in the game that has a disability as an appealing class feature!
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Oracle of Battle : For combat focused character.
With there ability to do things other then damage. And with skill at arms revelation. Being the self healing, self buffing, and combat focused. Divine caster makes this type of build work better then most battle clerics. With out needing to multi class to get weapon, and armor feats. Along with specialized revelations to give you options in combat.
Oracle Spellscar : For casting focused character.
The only mystery that even comes close for a casting base is wind. The over all spelization of spellscar mystery makes it very powerful but limited. The over all utility of wind mystery makes it very powerful. Over all I feel the spelization of spellscar is more useful then the utility of wind. Focused on revelations to free up spell slots for utility and other effects. Allow you to be a much more rounded casters. Even with the limited spells known. The wind mystery is more rounded caster then even the spellscar. It how ever lacks the big debuff gun of spellscar. I feal that one ability realy makes a big difrences in higher level games.
I love the Dark Tapestry mystery, but I'm a fan of Lovecraft. My current character is a young, formerly wealthy (family money, he got wrote out of his allowance)halfling who had a slightly more than healthy interest in old arcane tomes concerning knowledge of the aberrant... and then he was bestowed with knowledge of the Dark Tapestry and his ancestor who was lynched for (possibly) making pacts with things that live beyond the stars is haunting him.
Nothing Lovecraftian about it really...
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i love waves the most. i had so much fun playing my ninja scrolls character.
he used katana, double blade, and star knives, cast obscuring mist and beat the snot out of people. 1 oricle, 3 weapon master fighter, and the rest ninja. he had defness which combos so well with invisibility.
but he wasnt a very functional character.
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Wood is very powerful and so is metal, but my favorite is likely either Dark Tapestry or Flames.
Dark Tapestry, along with the Heavens mystery, reeks with the mythos and I dig it. It also makes for a pretty nice save-or-suck caster and has some nice utility with Many Forms. Flames has this very archetypical brimming-with-power character back story potential: a troubled youth who finds power and it all ends in tragedy, a soldier who gazed too long into the flames and so forth. Lends itself well to blasting and is a good fit for many Golarion character, since fire, heat and sun all figure into so many of the supernatural and mythological elements in the setting. For instance, Sarenrae, shoanti burnriders, Nergal, devils, Cheliax and genie ancestries.
I have soft spot for Waves. But that's because my current character is a barbarian/oracle that is very much a Viking so Waves make sense for him.
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I'm currently playing in a goblin campaign and I'm adoring the outer rifts mystery to death. Nevermind that I love intimidating characters, I'm playing an Alma (from F.E.A.R. FPS) like character.
Demon skin is useful like the other armor mysteries, wings of terror give flight and intimidate bonuses and you get to call down pillars of screeching fire.
I scare myself sometimes.
I've been getting some good mileage out of a elven Metal Oracle with a couple of Fighter levels (for useful feats and BAB boost).
The Skill at Arms revelation gives proficiency with all martial weapons, which means that the elven curve blade can be used without an Exotic Weapon feat. Their L 1 bonus spell is Lead Blades, which is otherwise a Ranger 1 spell (and no one else has it on their spell list, as far as I know). So at Oracle 2, given 1 round to cast Lead Blades, the elven curve blade does 2d8 damage and crits on 18+.
Then add either Improved Critical feat or the Keen weapon enchantment (crits on 15+), and Vital Strike feat (2d10 damage on standard attack, or 4d8 with Lead Blades in effect).
Other good revelations for the Metal mystery: Armour Mastery, Dance of the Blades, Iron Weapon.
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I like Heavens because I like the idea of basically making an "epileptic seizure attack" without end. Like a one man rave, they are. Life is good too.I am sure you meant no harm, but that's a bit insensitive.
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my sister in law is epileptic.But, on topic, heavens is sweet on paper. I havnt tried it yet but a bonus to all pattern attacks makes me warm and fuzzy inside.
Spellscar has great flavor; it reminds me of the Wild Mages from Baldur's Gate. Combine it with the Haunted curse for complete chaos. If you're playing PFS, the primal magic events are unfortunately verboten, but I, tooting my own horn, came up with my own flavor table, found here. Use primal magic and you might change color, get hit with a snowball, or become aware of the true nature of the universe for a round.
Practically speaking, this is the anti-magic class, as its bonus spells show. Spellscar gets bonuses to saves against magic (and eventually supernatural abilities), plus elemental and spell resistance. It also can avoid elemental resistance, and gets boosts to dispelling, which on a spontaneous caster might, *might*, make it actually worth counterspelling.
I've DMed for two oracles. One was a heavens oracle that could quite easily shut down encounters and had decent utility beyond just color spray. The other was a nature oracle that was rather underwhelming... but I think that was due to her playstyle rather than the class itself.
One of my most favourite characters was an Oracle of the Dark Tapestry and being a gnome with the Bleaching just to add more of the creepy little Lovecraft prophet vibe.
Other than that, for a dedicated healer, I absolutely love the Life Mystery.
I like life, ancestry, spellscar, and flame personally.
Flame is just nice. +10 to my base speed and fire resistance... I want to make one that dances in a bonfire!
But a Dual Cursed, Black-Blooded, Oracle of the Outer Rifts can be quite a terrifying way to make an "undead" oracle. Works especially well if you have the tiefling racial features(that replaces darkness) that let's you get healed by both Positive and Negative energy.
A player in my game is an 8th level gnome oracle of flame and he loves it. "Burn it" is his catchphrase and lifestyle. Last week I GM'ed a villainous 11th level Oracle of Bones and he was quite a dangerous opponent to the entire party.
Flame is just nice. +10 to my base speed and fire resistance... I want to make one that dances in a bonfire!
But a Dual Cursed, Black-Blooded, Oracle of the Outer Rifts can be quite a terrifying way to make an "undead" oracle. Works especially well if you have the tiefling racial features(that replaces darkness) that let's you get healed by both Positive and Negative energy.
Interestingly enough my back up character is currently a seeker black-blooded oracle of flame.
Interestingly enough my back up character is currently a seeker black-blooded oracle of flame.
Hmm, I haven't though of a back-up character yet. Probably should...
Hmm, combine Blind curse with Stone mystery, and you've kind of got Toph from Avatar.
I have been toying with a gnome flame oracle just to get a character out named Basil Blasthazzard.