Hey guys, I have a bit of a problem with the Oracle as a class. In my view, a cleric (as priest) devotes himself to his church; a druid protects and reveres nature; a wizard studies arcana to increase his power and reach immortality or other obscure secrets.
But with an oracle, I just don't know what they actually do... Or stand for... They are not aligned with any church, they are aligned to a Mystery and the gods that share that interest. Because of this, I have never considered playing one. Just because I did not know how to play the character.
Now, one of my players, who also is very new to RPG in general, wants to play a half-orc oracle of stone in the Rise of the Runelords campaign, which seems a fun character since you deal with ancient ruins, stone giants, and so on... So I have some nice ideas to get him involved into the story. But I'm at a loss to help him find a focus for his character. What does an oracle of stone do? Talk to rocks? Revere mountains? Need some help so I can help my player.
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I have seen them as clerics of concepts rather than entities. According to the description of the class, they are also not always Oracles by choice. Mysteries are not so much a source of power as an affinity.
For example, your buddy the half-orc oracle of stone and I'll pick lame as his curse. Let us call him Rock. Rock was born on a mountain side. He was dropped when born and broke his little baby hip on the slab of granite upon which his mother labored. Ever since then, Rock has had much to do with stone and mountains.
Growing up, he would feel a purring whenever stone was near. He could even get a sense of the stone's type from the feel of the energy. Because of this, Rock loved playing in the mountains. His bad leg bothered him, sure, but he could still climb well enough and could always locate the best hiding place or nook of rock.
One day while wandering through the mountains, a violent storm hit. Rock was forced to seek cover in a cave that was barely more than a dimple in the bedrock of an exposed mountain face. He was cold and scared while the massive storm pounded the mountain. While cowering, pushing himself into the rock walls, he first found his power. It came welling up from the stone and into him. It was bright and warm and life itself. With it came a calm and a sense of purpose.
When he came down from the mountains, he was a changed half-orc. He knew that he needed to spread the word of strength and majesty and protection that the great mountain spoke to him. He packed up and left the next day to tell others of the great power that comes from the bedrock of the world.
While Oracles tend to not be associated with a given church, maybe they are, in the same way that clerics are usually associated with deities, but do not have to be.
Maybe he was just a simple farmer going to pay tribute to the god of the earth when he was struck by a chaotic vision that overloaded his sense (taking the clouded vision curse) and was suddenly given tremendous magical power. It would be pretty clear where the power came from, but the characer would have to figure out why he was chosen, which can make for interesting character development.
Alternatively, an oracle could be from a religion that reveres spirits instead of specific deities, spirits that live in everything from bonfires to hillsides, with a given oralce being devoted to one particular type.
Ok, that clarifies some things already. Thanks. He took the clouded vision curse. We decided already that he was born from a human mother and then abandoned by resentful villagers in a Varisian ruin, where Brodert Quink, archeologist and historian found him and took pity on the baby half orc. He took him in.
He named the half orc Nathan, purposefully a human name, but still the boy was shunned by most other children. So Nathan didn't really do anything else than listen to Brodert's stories of ancient Thassilon. When he was a boy, he started dreaming of a cave, or underground space. Mvashti deducted from a reading that he dreamt of the ruin he was abandoned in as a baby.
When he went there, with Brodert, the ruin collapsed and he was stuck underneath the debris, dust and earth in his mouth, and his eyes. After initial panic, he noticed he could see perfectly in the dark. He noticed the rocks, the earth around him, and he could almost see the ruin as it used to look, when it was not yet old and collapsed, as a spectral tower in his mind's eye. But he also noticed he could not see further than a few feet.
Brodert, an old man at that time, could not find the strength to dig the boy out, but when the boy heard him shouting his name, the rocks seemed to come alive, filling him with a power as natural as breathing. He lifted one hand and a rock bigger than his frame propelled upward with his arm, shattering in pieces, and creating a shaft to climb out of.
And now we are kinda at a loss what this means for the boy. He is blind now, or as good as blind, and he has this newfound power coursing through his body. But he doesn't really have a purpose yet.
I was thinking of the following options :
- The ancestors of the Shoanti and Varisians feel the Runelord Karzoug awaken and filled an unlikely hero with the power to stop him.
- His interests in Thassilon and ruins (buried in the earth, built from rock) made him a vessel for the lore and memories stored in the rock waiting to be exhumed from oblivion.
Any other ideas for this.
I'm making a Haunted Oracle of Life for an upcoming game (also Rise of the Runelords, actually).
My character was a con-man and fence (and initially not even one with a heart of gold--just the regular icy heart kind that fleece widows for coins), but he ended up "chosen" somehow by something. He doesn't know which deity/entity it is, or exactly what he was chosen for, but he was granted awesome healing and magical powers.
Initially, he just used them for profit, but the spirits haunting him are agents of whatever being chose him, so they cause mishaps when he strays from the proper path. They mess up his cons, knock stuff over where he's hiding (from say, the vengeful father of a young woman taken by his charms), etc.
He is starting the game having been essentially driven to Sandpoint by the haunting entities, with warrants and blown cons in his wake. He's a reluctant hero, but hopefully, will grow into a true one as the game goes on and he accepts his gift.
The GM agreed to this, but yeah, I don't even know what entity he is an Oracle of or what task it is they want me to complete. I just asked that it be some actual force of good, and not like, the BBEG orchestrating my actions or trickster fae just messing with me or something. I told her that I'd rather it just remain unknown and vague than be a big middle finger at the end, and she agreed.
Should be a fun adventure growing into a good person and discovering what's haunting me.
Nice, that right there helped me a lot just to 'get' the feel of the oracle. Ok, I think I can help my player now. Thanks all for the advice.
