I dunno what books you're reading, but Divine is at a severe disadvantage when it comes to damaging spells. The "Inflict Wounds" line is really your only good damage spells and they're all touch-range spells and require Metamagic in order to cast them without stepping close to something that could really easily kill you (cause you may be less squishy than the Wizard, but you're more squishy than the Paladin or Fighter).
Just glancing over the spell lists again, and having just experienced building a playing a lvl 11 Cleric in a higher level campaign... I found that arcane casters, especially Wizards, had a LOT more useful utility... and yes, damaging spells throughout their career.
I did better with healing (obviously), most buffing, and the occasional control. Even able to cast lvl 6 spells there weren't a lot of damaging spells worth taking unless I KNEW I was facing undead. The best experience I had was with Blade Barrier, and that was more of a battlefield control spell.
There were a few save or suck spells, but nothing special.
I was really envying the wizard their extra utility, control, debuff, and damage/SoS spells.
Sure, with clever selection of your domains, you can cherry pick some good arcane spells.... but you'll never have everything that the wizard does so well.
*shrug* Just my two cents. I've definitely been jealous of the wizard spell list when playing my higher level cleric.
I personally have never played either, but I have seen both done to the point of broken. from what I can tell you are not wrong but given the right spells, items, and feats an arcane caster can out do any member in the party except the healer. there are spells to help him find traps as well as if not better then a rogue, out shoot the ranger in both accuracy and damage, and go toe to toe with the fighter. I would have to get my hands on the character sheet but its not that hard of a spell list and only about three feats.
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I was going to respond to each point but that would just get really long. Suffice to say:
-The divine spell list is not as good as the arcane spell list.
-Healing is not effective use of actions in combat and out of combat healing can be done by wands.
-Cleric offensive spells are less common and have more draw backs. Arcane casters can, and do, spam damage spells with no saves, no SR, no AC, or some combination thereof.
-Magic Vestment is not that good until higher levels when you don't need it. +Saving throw spells generally don't stack with items or other spells. Death Ward is a good spell against negative energy but arcane casters avoid it with other methods.
-Only the oracle of lore and nature archetypes get mysteries that give charisma to AC. Paladins get charisma to saves, that is so much better. (Getting both is even more amazing).
-Arcane casters have defences that ignore attack rolls, displacement, mirror image, blink, invisibility, etc. AC isn't relevant if they can't hit you anyway.
-Restoration spells are nice but not so useful actually in combat. There's probably an arcane spell that does what you need and has inbuilt buff, Protection against <alignment>, for example.
-Miracle requires GP to duplicate spells with expensive (>100) components or expensive (25,000) magical effects.
Also, they do different things and have different roles. And a lot of it is how well built the character is.
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How many spells your wizard has in his spellbook make an huge difference. And access to magic items is another thing that can make a large difference.
The cleric has access to all clerical spells of the levels he can cast, the wizard must acquire them. If the GM give out few extra spells the cleric capability to chose any spell in his spell list when he pray give him a lot of flexibility.
If the GM is stringent in giving out magical items the access to better weapons and armors is an advantage for the cleric.
If the GM is lenient in giving out both the wizard spell list generally has better spells (barring the healing spells and a few other specialistic spells).
Oh, yes. Heavens Oracle... not a very good Capstone, in my opinion. (However, I had forgotten about that so thank you for the reminder).
Oracles will never have the utility of a Sorcerer*, and they can't do as much damage as a Sorcerer using the same spells as a Sorcerer (unless they dip crossblooded Sorcerer).
The question of there being a "need" for any given class aside, a well built (full, and sometimes 6 level like a Bard) caster can generally fill the space of any other by virtue of having spells that do similar/the same thing. I agree you don't "need" a Sorcerer because you can have an Oracle instead. The classes are very similar and System Mastery (tm) goes a long way. I also agree that the Oracle is stronger than the Sorcerer, but not because of armor proficiencies and the ability to cast in armor. Their class abilities kick in earlier and are better. But a Wizard is still better than both of them, a Cleric, or a Druid. So if asked: "Are Arcane Casters more powerful than Divine Casters?" I would say yes, definitely.
*If you're going to argue they will because they can cast Miracle then a Sorcerer can just cast Wish and do the same thing. Not to mention Miracle requires your god's approval so it's inherently limited in what you can use it on.
How wizards got more powerful in 3.0:
...uhhh, familiars? Oh, and mithral shirts.
That's a twilight mithral shirt.
Incantatrix, Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, Rainbow Servant, just to name a few. Clerics got DMM: <meta> and CoDzilla but don't imply Wizards didn't get anything. EDIT: Anything in 3.0-3.5, that is.
Hmm, alright. Having looked over the 8th and 9th level Wizard/Sorcerer spells and the fact there's no material component if the spell isn't 'big'/doesn't have a >100gp material component, I am persuaded that Miracle is more awesome than I previously thought.
(The only spells I would want to copy from 8th/9th level would probably be Dominate Monster, Prismatic Sphere, Mage's Disjunction, Echean’s Excellent Enclosure, Polymorph Any Object, Scintillating Pattern (Heavens should get this anyway but doesn't), and Shades.)
How is that "not good"? If there's decent respect for RP in your games, a char that auto-revives is noteworthy.
Respect for RP has absolutely nothing to do with balancing mechanics. It's not very good because the alternatives are better and what it offers is either not always useful or can be obtained without taking 20 levels in <relevant mystery> Oracle.
Time:
Upon reaching 20th level, you become a true master of time and stop aging. You cannot be magically aged and no longer take penalties to your ability scores for aging. Age bonuses still accrue, and any aging penalties that you have already accrued remain in place. You cannot die of old age, but you can be killed or die through accident, disease, poison, or other external effects. In addition, you can cast time stop once per day as a spell-like ability.
Lore:
You gain the ability to take 20 on all Knowledge skill checks. Your understanding of the fundamental underpinnings of reality has also become so advanced that once per day, you can cast wish. This ability does not require a material component, but the wish cannot be used to grant ability score bonuses, nor can it be used to replicate spells with expensive material components.
So when I compare ceasing to age and 1/day timestop, or fundamental understanding of the universe, take 20 on knowledge checks and 1/day wish with: Cha bonus to saves immunity to fear, autostabilise and reincarnate, auto-confirm crits, I don't think it's a very good capstone. I think most of the Oracle capstones are lackluster, to be honest.
EDIT: Sorry for the tangent. But, hopefully your question got answered along the way!
Oh, woops. I meant I don't think Heavens' capstone is very good when compared with the Lore and Time capstones. Most of the rest of them I feel are mediocre and Heavens is probably the one I like the least.
As to Arcane capstones, the Arcane bloodline (Arcane Apotheosis, I think) on Sorcerers is pretty nice. Metamagic costing the move action of a spontaneous caster is something I've never liked. Probably my favourite capstone next to Witch's Grand Hexes, Forced Reincarnation and Animate Hut are hilarious. I don't like Summoner but its capstone is boss; turning you into the eidolen. Only problem I have is that completely ignores what they did with the Druid and the changes to Wild Shape. Most Arcane capstones I feel are so-so in terms of power/reward for keeping with the class for 20 levels.
Although, I will admit that I rarely stay 20 levels in any class because I think it's boring. That and I often find bits of other Base Classes and PrC's fit my character concept more than a given capstone.
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Well, let's take a few offensive spells and compare. I agree, the inflict wounds spells are pretty terrible (at least, they were in 3.5e, haven't read them carefully here to see if they changed at all).
L. 9
- Implosion vs. Wail of the Banshee: Unless I'm misunderstanding Wail, Imp. is superior in that you don't risk killing the rest of your party.
- Energy Drain is same.
Implosion only gets one target/round and generally requires this annoying thing called 'concentration'. WotB is you letting lose against a cluster of your least favorite people, who all are rolling Fort negates.
L. 8
- Firestorm: 20d6, +4d6/round until extinguished.
Versus horrid wilting, which isn't using the most commonly resisted damage type in the game, same damage base.
L. 7
- 'Words' spells (Holy, Blasphemy, Chaos): Not damaging, but can really rock.
- Destruction: More potential damage than FD on save, slightly lower average/expected damage.
The Word spells are good against things weaker than you. If they're equal or stronger, they're of no use whatsoever.
Destruction is overall better than Finger of Death, if only because it's harder to revive someone killed by it.
L. 6
- Harm: Even better than the above (guaranteed 75 damage). You have to be in melee, but that's why you're wearing armor, and have defensive buffs, c.f. (extended) Righteous Might.
Versus disintegrate, which deals 2d6/caster level, doesn't heal the undead, blows holes in nearly every inanimate object in existence (if it doesn't annihilate it outright)...at range. Oh, and harm doesn't kill people on its own (keep a quickened inflict wounds spell handy for the follow-up).
L. 5
- Flame strike: Half the damage is holy so can't be resisted, 15d6 is not bad at all (same as cone of cold)
- Slay living: Another decent single target damage.
Flamestrike: smaller area of effect than cone of cold, so good in confined areas, I admit. Still not great.
Slay living: more like 'wound living'. Damage is so-so against your fellow wizards, but against level-appropriate monsters it needs help badly.
And this is just the CB. Granted, there are fewer AoE, but unless you take the selective targetting feat (forgot the name, but that's one less feat choice for arcane), if would seem like divine is coming out on top.
Or know how to aim and when to use AoE. Also, what are you going to do when a a fire-resistant red dragon attacks you? The wizard, if he's intent on blasting, has lots of options. Divine casters are more limited.
Also, Mass Heal. That's just... amazing.
Yes, Mass Heal is amazing. Too bad my arcane caster has been amazing with sleep, color spray (level 1), web, glitterdust (level 2), stinking cloud (level 3), stoneskin (level 4), baleful polymorph (level 5), etc. All long before you reached Mass Heal.
Honestly, divine casters have more hp, generally better BAB, more good saves, and armor proficiencies to make up for the fact that arcane casters can end fights with one spell. Divines vary, but they don't do well at battlefield control from my experience except via summoning, while arcanes can turn the battlefield into a nightmare if they like (black tentacles, wall spells, cloud/fog spells, a few pits, and so on).
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clerics are powerful, but they have a weakness. if they are interrupted during their one hour of rest they dont get there spells. a wizard can take a feat to only need 15 minutes to prep. i have seen so many gm have random encounters during that rest period, it a littel bit of a dick move but its on of there major weaknesses.
now you can argue that a spell book is just as bad, but not really. i have feats i can take to allow me to cast from memmory. i can also bring multiple spell books. oh and have you ever seen an npc disarm a cleric of its holy symbol? hilarious!
Wizard/Sorc wins with the new Advanced race guide race Samsaran. They have a racial trait that allows you to take 1+caster stat mod spells from any arcane caster spell list if your class is arcane, or divine caster spell list if your class is divine. So as a wizard/sorc you just steal the bards cure spells and you get to keep all the tasty damage and utility of your class while being able to heal.
Divine casters unfortunately mostly rely on the cleric spell list, so most of the time your option is to steal a few druid/inquisitor spells that can help a bit in the damage department, but not as useful as being able to steal healing spells as a sorc/wiz.
clerics are powerful, but they have a weakness. if they are interrupted during their one hour of rest they dont get there spells.
And if the wizard doesn't get his eight full hours of uninterrupted sleep, he's just a commoner in a dress. Although two more hours of rest can make up for an interruption.
a wizard can take a feat to only need 15 minutes to prep.
The wizard's limitations are largely game-mechanical, while the cleric's are roleplaying-oriented. So yes, wizards do have some nice feats to chose from to make them less vulnerable. I'd say they're spoiled for choice, even.
i have seen so many gm have random encounters during that rest period, it a littel bit of a dick move but its on of there major weaknesses.
Well, once a PC gets powerful you have to start hitting their weak spots, if only to keep them from getting too big for their breeches.
now you can argue that a spell book is just as bad, but not really. i have feats i can take to allow me to cast from memmory. i can also bring multiple spell books.
It's still a vulnerability clerics (or sorcerers) do not have. You have to have a spellbook, as a wizard. And you have to study it when you prepare your spells; you can't cover them all with feats. So no spell preparation in the dark for mr. wizard. And no new spells when thrown in jail. No new spells when the dog ate his homework. All a cleric has to do, is check the clock and fall to his knees at the appointed time.
oh and have you ever seen an npc disarm a cleric of its holy symbol? hilarious!
It is, isn't it? Comedy-wise, it's right up there with disarming a component pouch... ;)
The more we compare them, the more the comparisons fall apart. Clerics and Wizards do have similarities. But in the end, they're two very different beasts.
oh and have you ever seen an npc disarm a cleric of its holy symbol? hilarious!
Traits are cheaper than feats, and with the Birthmark trait, it becomes much harder to disarm a cleric of their holy symbol. My cleric is Shoanti, and I used this trait to tattoo her holy symbol to her face. Can't be disarmed, can't be taken away if imprisoned, and it's always being presented, allowing my cleric to channel even if immobilized (which has saved somebody's bacon on occasion, including my character's own life). Granted, you don't want a random NPC to catch you with Rovagug's holy symbol on your face, but that's why you pick a deity that's tough to hate.
Clerics have incredibile versatility, and if you know what your party needs going into a campaign, it's easy to build a cleric that will fit whatever niche needs filling, while still covering healing duty. Need a front-line damage-dealer? There's a cleric build for that. Need a buffer? There's definitely a cleric build for that, and you could make a debuffer cleric, too, with the right domain. Also with the right domain, you could make a blaster cleric. I joined a group as a fifth member in a party with a barbarian, an ex-paladin, a ray-caster sorcerer, and an archery-focused ranger. They needed healing, but they also could benefit from some battlefield control... and I built my cleric with that in mind, and picked a domain that offered the right spells.
Looking at the divine spell list alone, it might not be as powerful as that of an arcane caster... but that's what domains and mysteries are for. When you have an idea in mind, you can then pick a mystery or domain that gives you access to some of the best arcane spells to do the job, in addition to an already huge divine spell list. You get the gems that Khashir highlighted, plus a fireball if you want it. Arcane casters are great, and you can do amazing stuff with them, and sometimes they will end a fight with one spell... but divine casters can get some of the best from both worlds.
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How wizards got more powerful in 3.0:
...uhhh, familiars? Oh, and mithral shirts.
3.0 for wizards was less about becoming MORE powerful, and more about having most of their weaknesses done away with, or at the very least minimized. Their spell preparation time was cut down ridiculously (1 hour for absolutely everything as opposed to 10 minutes per spell level for EACH spell). They also get to make Concentration checks to avoid losing a spell if they suffer damage while casting it.
Having played a cleric up to level 18, I can say that clerics certainly do have access to a number of deadly spells once they attain a certain level, including death effects. Wizards on the other hand have a diverse selection of damaging spells at all levels. Also bear in mind that as a general rule the cap on the number of damage dice is higher for arcanists too.
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Well, let's take a few offensive spells and compare. I agree, the inflict wounds spells are pretty terrible (at least, they were in 3.5e, haven't read them carefully here to see if they changed at all).
L. 9
- Implosion vs. Wail of the Banshee: Unless I'm misunderstanding Wail, Imp. is superior in that you don't risk killing the rest of your party.
- Energy Drain is same.Implosion only gets one target/round and generally requires this annoying thing called 'concentration'. WotB is you letting lose against a cluster of your least favorite people, who all are rolling Fort negates.
Hmm, I thought WotB didn't let you choose your targets? All living creatures who hear the scream, those closest to you affected first? I.e., includes party members, no?
Wail of the Banshee
School necromancy [death, sonic]; Level sorcerer/wizard 9
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one living creature/level within a 40-ft.-radius spread
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Fortitude negates; Spell Resistance yes
When you cast this spell, you emit a terrible, soul-chilling scream that possibly kills creatures that hear it (except for yourself). The spell affects up to one creature per caster level, inflicting 10 points of damage per caster level. Creatures closest to the point of origin are affected first.
WoB is one of those spell that has been half updated to Pathfinder and then forgotten.
I have seen a Dev say that the "10 points of damage per caster level" are the total damage for the spell (so an amazing 200 hp of damage between all target at level 20) and when asked "Are you sure? I thought it was for each target?" it said "Yes, it can be read your way too. It would even be more appropriate for a level 9 spell. Use it that way if the GM agree."
Then it has a target line (so apparently you choose your targets) then the text say "Creatures closest to the point of origin are affected first.".
It is badly in need of a overhaul.
I'm almost convinced, except that there's a bit of inconsistency in your position: in almost any campaign, it seems more likely to die in a fight than of old age; so, why you consider Time Oracle's quasi-immortality over Heaven Oracle's resurrection is a bit strange. Not dying of old age is not gonna be useful if you die from a dragon roundhouse to the face!
At that level if you reincarnate after your enemy kills you they can find out about it and kill you again or do something worse. Cursed bag of holding will still end you. I just feel the ability to ignore time is so much more thematically powerful than the ability to come back from the dead. You can already do that (ressurection, reincarnate, raise dead, etc) with spells, but not even miracle will stop you from dying of old age. (Also, dragons are no longer the not-so-secret above CR encounter they used to be. Any creature with teleport at will I think is more intimidating). Also, it's reincarnate. Not resurrection, or even raise dead. Reincarnate. The annoying druid spell. The one you turn people into troglodytes with. >:/ I don't want that as a capstone, really don't.
That said, it is entirely subjective. My personal opinion is that the time mystery capstone is more thematically impressive, more powerful, unique, and therefore better than the Heavens capstone. If you think that auto-reincarnate and then miracle to restore yourself is better then fair enough.
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It turn people into young troglodite. Reincarnation is the cheap way to immortality as you are reincarnated in a completely new young body.
The magic of the spell creates an entirely new young adult body for the soul to inhabit from the natural elements at hand.
The spell can bring back a creature that has died of old age.
Supposedly, arcane gets better spells.
They get more of the best spells, it's true. But the game is funny in that...you can get pretty far just spamming the same half dozen uber spells, so you don't really need 200 great ones to be a great caster.
Cleric especially, and also druid to a lesser extent, have enough great spell choices to make the differences unnoticeable. Splats have made this much worse, as they seem to not understand the types of spells divines should get. Polar Midnight, why is this on the cleric list and not sorc/wiz? Druid, it makes sense, but why cleric? Why do clerics get Cold Ice Strike, that's as pure blasty as a spell can come! Why do clerics get Terrible Remorse? Emotional enchantment type shut down spells have always been more of an arcane thing. The splats have just gone hog wild with it all...
There's a reason Logic Ninja said, (paraphrasing), "Every round a wizard spends casting a cleric or druid spell, for that round he is a sucker!"
But, so many great sorc/wiz spells ARE cleric or druid spells as well! Heck, I got really frustrated in making my current wizard character, focused on abjurations that clerics actually get several of them at earlier spell levels than me! Serious, wtf? I seriously ended up not taking too many of the spells because it was like, "well, the cleric can cast it already and at less cost than I can, so why bother?"
Now, sorc and wiz can do utility better. Not the "play doctor" utility or the "feed the metropolis" stuff, but the "build a town overnight" or "have the enemy army chase after a figment army instead of attacking us" or the like. But, that's really not sexy or interesting enough for a lot of players to be satisfied IME.
What about level one spells. Wizards get color spray and sleep and a lot of other good stuff while clerics don't get that much. Bless, command murderous command, protection from evil are the best ones I can think of.
more along the lines of protection / assisting the tanks.
And that's the reason Fighters love Clerics, but are always looking for ways to kill Wizards. ;)
It turn people into young troglodite. Reincarnation is the cheap way to immortality as you are reincarnated in a completely new young body.
The magic of the spell creates an entirely new young adult body for the soul to inhabit from the natural elements at hand.The spell can bring back a creature that has died of old age.
I suppose you are effectively immortal but I would rather not have to die to be young again. Rather have 1/day timestop and be forever young.
Divine casters unfortunately mostly rely on the cleric spell list, so most of the time your option is to steal a few druid/inquisitor spells that can help a bit in the damage department, but not as useful as being able to steal healing spells as a sorc/wiz.
Depends on what you consider powerful, depending on its level.
Plucking some spells from the Pally's list gives you things like Holy Sword once you hit Cleric 7. Not too shabby, either.
partial divine casters have all sorts of good spells to pluck as do the domains themselves. there is a reason that Samsarang Divine casters are so powerful. they have an alternate racial that allows them to pluck spells from the domain lists, the paladin and ranger lists, or even the cleric, druid, or inquisitor list.
a level 7 Samsarang Cleric of a good aligned Deity can have a +5 Holy Weapon.
Time Stop does squat about aging. So I'm not sure where you're going with this.
I suppose you are effectively immortal but I would rather not have to die to be young again. Rather have 1/day timestop and be forever young.
Time:
Upon reaching 20th level, you become a true master of time and stop aging. You cannot be magically aged and no longer take penalties to your ability scores for aging. Age bonuses still accrue, and any aging penalties that you have already accrued remain in place. You cannot die of old age, but you can be killed or die through accident, disease, poison, or other external effects. In addition, you can cast time stop once per day as a spell-like ability.
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Time Stop does squat about aging. So I'm not sure where you're going with this.
I suppose you are effectively immortal but I would rather not have to die to be young again. Rather have 1/day timestop and be forever young.Time:
Upon reaching 20th level, you become a true master of time and stop aging. You cannot be magically aged and no longer take penalties to your ability scores for aging. Age bonuses still accrue, and any aging penalties that you have already accrued remain in place. You cannot die of old age, but you can be killed or die through accident, disease, poison, or other external effects. In addition, you can cast time stop once per day as a spell-like ability.
Being ageless is less useful than returning to life in a young body every time you die without the need of any outside intervention.
As you will have a different body some divination will not work against you, so, unless the BEEG know that you are a oracle of heavens and know what an oracle of the heavens do (both thing aren't automatic at all, we know what it is because it is in the rulebook, but in the game world every oracle is a single example with different powers from each other oracle) you will benefit from a window of peace to rest and recover after returning to life when killed by an enemy.To die isn't nice, but most adventurers have died a few times before reaching 20th level and have the tendency to die every few years. As long as the oracle is an active adventure being killed by old age is improbable.
Being ageless is less useful than returning to life in a young body every time you die without the need of any outside intervention.
As a stand alone statement I tend to agree with it. Unfortunately, it's Reincarnate, not Resurrection or True Resurrection and since there are quite a few monsters and spells you can encounter even before level 20 who make it completely useless I don't think it's very good, as well as for other reasons. (Also, as stated above, there are other ways of getting the other features and they don't require you to take 20 levels in Heavens Oracle)
As you will have a different body some divination will not work against you...
Unless you're thinking of a specific spell I'm not aware of I'm going to say no, you're mistaken. Discern Location can only be stopped by Mind Blank or deific intervention. Scrying's DC is based on how well you know the person and how connected you are to them, not if you know what they look like.
To die isn't nice, but most adventurers have died a few times before reaching 20th level and have the tendency to die every few years. As long as the oracle is an active adventure being killed by old age is improbable.
It's not improbable, it's impossible. The class feature specifically triggers on death. It's also irrelevant whether or not the Oracle is an adventurer, if they have 20 levels as a Heavens Oracle whenever they reach the end of their natural life they reincarnate 3 days later. At the point at which you get the ability to never die of old age the cost of reincarnating yourself is trivial anyway. Is a capstone really that good if it can be (mostly*) duplicated by a minor amount of money, class features and/or other mechanical character choices? I think not.
*The only thing it has going for it is that the ability is automatic and requires no outside intervention. That said, since the BBEG is probably evil anyway I can imagine a demon taking great satisfaction in killing you roughly every 4 days. You don't have a way of turning it off.
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Scrying is directly influenced by how well you know the target. If his race change you stop knowing it so well. The "Body part, lock of hair, bit of nail, etc. -10 to ST" stop working completely as the body has changed.
It don't influence discern location, but you must know that your enemy lives.
Being killed by old age is perfectly possible. The point of the oracle power is that you don't stay dead.
"Is a capstone really that good if it can be (mostly*) duplicated by a minor amount of money, class features and/or other mechanical character choices? I think not. " You forget this small thing "So long as some small portion of the creature's body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature's body at the time of death."
If you don't have a piece of the dead creature at hand you can't cast reincarnation or raise dead or resurrection. so it is not so trivial to raise a friend if he was killed and you had to flee or you suffered a TPK.
The heavens oracle? No problem, 3 days and I am back.
The Incinerate power of the red great wyrm? Sorry, it will not stop the oracle power, as his power don't require any remains.
Wendigo? It changes you to a new creature that is a NPC. So sure, it stop the oracle power.
Zomok? again the star child power isn't blocked by the lack of remains.
Same thing for Polar midnight.
If you wish to add to your list, being turned into an undead block the star child power too. it is still way better than not having the option to return at all.
Demilich or Trap the soul? sure they stop the power as they improsoin or destroy the soul.
Bag of devouring? Again, the power isn't blocked by the lack of remains.
Scrying is directly influenced by how well you know the target. If his race change you stop knowing it so well. The "Body part, lock of hair, bit of nail, etc. -10 to ST" stop working completely as the body has changed.
Reincarnation doesn't effect mental stats or non-tangible racial features. You don't change as a person, just your body. The person Scrying you knows you just as well. And if they have a piece of your previous body it's still your body. Reincarnate gives you a new one but you can still have the old one (assuming the target of the reincarnation spell is not a whole corpse,) you're just not in it.
It don't influence discern location, but you must know that your enemy lives.
True, but you'd have to either be very clever or never interact, directly or indirectly, with the thing that killed you again or else it could come to the realisation that you are alive.
Being killed by old age is perfectly possible. The point of the oracle power is that you don't stay dead.
Okay, yes. I should have said it is impossible for you to pass on, but on that token you should have said it is definite you will die of old age.
You forget this small thing "So long as some small portion of the creature's body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature's body at the time of death."
If you don't have a piece of the dead creature at hand you can't cast reincarnation or raise dead or resurrection. so it is not so trivial to raise a friend if he was killed and you had to flee or you suffered a TPK.
The heavens oracle? No problem, 3 days and I am back.
You are also forgetting:
Should you die, you are reborn 3 days later in the form of a star child, who matures over the course of 7 days (treat as the reincarnate spell).
If it is treated as reincarnate (like it says) then as soon as an effect requires resurrection, miracle, wish, or true resurrection, your capstone doesn't work because it doesn't work as one of those spells. This is why I don't think it's very good. I suppose you could read it as only treat the growth of the starchild as reincarnate but that makes no sense to me.
The Incinerate power of the red great wyrm? Sorry, it will not stop the oracle power, as his power don't require any remains.
treat as the reincarnate spell.
A great wyrm red dragon can incinerate creatures in its fiery breath. A creature reduced to fewer than 0 hit points by its breath weapon must make a Fortitude save (using the breath weapon's DC). Failure indicates that the creature is reduced to ash. Creatures destroyed in this way can only be restored to life through true resurrection or similar magic.
My whitelist beats your blacklist.
Wendigo? It changes you to a new creature that is a NPC. So sure, it stop the oracle power.
Again, it's a creature that when it kills (in this case by disease) require the use of true resurrection, miracle, or wish.
Once the transformation is complete, the victim is effectively dead, replaced by a new wendigo. True resurrection, miracle, or wish can restore such a victim to life, yet doing so does not harm the new wendigo.
You don't become a Wendigo, it effectively spawns from your body. It's the same as Incinerate.
Zomok? again the star child power isn't blocked by the lack of remains.
Same thing for Polar midnight.
Again, see Red Dragon, Great Wyrm. Incinerate (Su).
If you wish to add to your list, being turned into an undead block the star child power too. it is still way better than not having the option to return at all.
They were just examples of higher CR monsters that required Ressurection or higher effects to return a slain victim to life.
Demilich or Trap the soul? sure they stop the power as they improsoin or destroy the soul.
Bag of devouring? Again, the power isn't blocked by the lack of remains.
I disagree with the assertion that it isn't blocked by the lack of remains.
I dunno what books you're reading, but Divine is at a severe disadvantage when it comes to damaging spells. The "Inflict Wounds" line is really your only good damage spells and they're all touch-range spells and require Metamagic in order to cast them without stepping close to something that could really easily kill you (cause you may be less squishy than the Wizard, but you're more squishy than the Paladin or Fighter).
Druids are divine and their flying tank artiliary that can call storms upon their enemies. And their are other damage spells other then inflict, although it is true arcane have less support options.