We've started Serpent's Skull, but I'm becoming a bit unsure about the mechanical development of my character, especially after re-reading some of the rules relevant to it.
Originally we had a group of three characters planned, so the GM allowed us higher stats and a bonus feat. The other players wanted to play a Chaotic Neutral party with a sorceror and a ranger, and I decided to try out a new class, so I picked oracle of battle. Due to movement of players, the party has changed, and now we have the sorceror (mostly tosses out color spray), a melee-stealth rogue, and an inquisitor whose specialty I don't yet know (so far I know 10 Strength, decent Dexterity).
The situation is as follows:
Human Oracle of Battle 2; Clouded Vision curse; Skill At Arms and War Sight revelations
Str 17, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 20
Feats are Extra Revelation (War Sight), Skill Focus (Perception), and Tower Shield Proficiency.
Currently it's outfitted with a longsword, scale mail, tower shield and weapon cord.
The mechanical concept was to be a capable mix of healing and tank. Defense is very important, since we've got d6, d8, d8 and d8 hit dice. And I'd really like to be good at hitting too.
The plan was to go full platemail with a tower shield, take Exotic Weapon Proficiency with a falcata then Weapon Mastery and Surprising Charge. Beyond that I hadn't had too much planned out, but I was considering spending feats on Extra Revelation (particularly Battlefield Clarity, Combat Healer, Iron Skin; maaaaybe a Maneuver Mastery) or the shield feats. I figured I'd put the ability score increases into Charisma with the assumption that the extra spells would probably make up for the opportunity cost of lost Strength bonuses.
Planning my character out further has made me less sure it's going to work. First was learning that tower shields apply a -2 to attack rolls -- all attack rolls. I thought it was just on shield bashes (which I have now learned you can't perform with tower shields, blah). Now applying the penalty, I'm finding it really hard to hit in combat -- our last fight in particular had me missing more than half the attacks when I was already buffed, even when the enemy was Stunned and Prone. I didn't start hitting until I took the shield off. The rest of the combat had me running around the battle field trying to get to injured people or prepare for the next round of attacks, and my crippled movement speed was wasting rounds for me.
Looking over my future options, I'm not seeing that much available. A tower shield can't shield bash, so that tree isn't available to me. The useful shield feats are fighter-only, and I'm not seeing an option to multiclass while holding down my roles. I like the idea of Combat Expertise, but if I follow that route then I might as well forget using a weapon. I really need to figure out a path for distant healing for the party, too.
I'm working under the following constraints:
* CRB and Advanced Player's Guide are generally available. Other books are generally unavailable.
* Item creation feats are banned.
* He is unsure about the direction of the campaign -- whether he will follow the adventure path, or branch off and go elsewhere -- and I cannot depend on simply buying a magic item at a market.
* Although he will temporarily allow the retraining of some abilities, he won't allow the retraining of abilities we've already used, and I've used pretty much every mechanic of my character.
* Although he would allow me to kill my character and just bring in a new one, I don't want to do that. On one hand, I'm stubborn and don't want to just 'give up' like that; on the other, I like the character's personality and background, and would prefer to make this work.
So, is this accomplishable within parameters? Are there character choices under my control that I can use to hold down those roles?
Power Attack is basically required for a melee character, and you're already proficient with all martial arms and full plate if you picked the Battle Mystery.
You happen to have skill focus Perception and a very high CHA. I recommend putting some feats into Eldritch Heritage, since those feats are crazy awesome. The Accursed and Dragon bloodlines are both very good for you and require Perception Focus, and your DM might let you prestige into Dragon Disciple if you take the Dragon Bloodline(It normally requires an arcane class).
Clouded Vision is cool but if you plan on doing any spellcasting or ranged attacks I really recommend ditching it and replacing it with something else. Lame and Haunted curses are pretty good for every Oracle, and especially so for Battle Oracle if you want to dip into Barbarian for a level or two.
I'd ditch Tower Shield Proficiency or look up guides how to really use them.
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I'm going to also suggest ditching the Tower Shield. They're suuuuuper situational, and even though you're all D8 or less HD, that problem will be more easily fixed with Con buffs and being a little more cautious in your tactics.
A buckler or light shield are probably safer bets, allowing you to both cast with your free hand, as well as still maintain some of the benefits of a shield.
I'm playing a Dual-cursed (Lame/Tongues) Oracle of Battle, and I actually grabbed Warsight first, and intend to grab Skill at Arms at level 3. A Morningstar isn't THAT much worse than other options at early levels, and it's not like you can even afford decent Heavy Armor at level one. That's just my personal opinion, though.
I could hypothetically ditch the tower shield, but I can't retrain the feat; I'd just have to eat it on that one. Similarly, I can't switch around my ability scores or change out my oracle curse unless, after examining all my options, I give up this character entirely and make a new one. Though I will keep the advice in mind for future oracles.
The curse opinions are of particular interest. I don't usually run clerics like blasters as a player (usually just as NPCs). I plan on buffing and healing more than anything, but I suppose if I pore through my spell list and really think about what I'd be trying to cast on my allies at range I might find some nasty surprises regarding what is inaccessible to me. But as a reminder to anyone that might be confused, I can still aim Area spells in an area I can't see -- it's just a question of how much trouble the GM is going to make it for me.
Lame is one of the better looking curses to me. Haunted seems alright -- I haven't formed much of an opinion on it yet. I love the Scent and Tremorsense from Deaf but that seems like the fun would vary wildly depending on your GM (coincidentally not a problem, since my GM has a deaf oracle in my game and we have similar tastes on how to run them). But the Tongues curse seems like the curse to take if you don't really want a curse, and even with the benefits of understanding languages I also see it granting new vulnerabilities to language-dependent effects.
Handedness is not a problem, at least for now. I'm using a weapon cord. In the long term I'd like to find out if there's something that would let me use my weapon as my somatic component for my spells so I'm not burning my Swift action to recover my weapon every time I cast a spell.
Weight isn't a problem either, for now. I'm still at at light load, just barely. Even if I were already at a medium load, the scale mail is giving me medium armor penalties (20 ft, -4 ACP, Max Dex +3), so it wouldn't make me move any more slowly (20 ft, -3 ACP, Max Dex +3).
The reach weapon has given me an idea; given that I have Enlarge Person whether I like it or not, I could keep it up whenever possible, take Maneuver Mastery for Trip, and use any weapon I like for the AoOs. As long as it hits, the lost AC might be worth it in the attacks it negates.
I'm definitely going to look into Eldritch Heritage to see if it would interest me. Given that I can't change a lot of this character without throwing it away, I especially appreciate the suggestions on how to move forward.