I've read through the Channeling the Cosmos oracle guide(it was awesome), and noticed that the author left out discussing those mysteries because they are campaign specific. I've also noticed that Spellscar and Oute Rifts are rarely mentioned on the boards; Juju gets some love, but not much.
Having never played or been in a group with any of these oracles, I'm looking for feedback. Are they any good? What are your thoughts?
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The Spellscar Oracle looks ok. Of the two, mechanically, it looks much more interested and feasible. The Outer Rifts Oracle, I just don't get. I'm not sure if it was really just desinged to be an NPC class or what. It's got a lot of differnt powers and abilities all over the place that do not really seem connected (even flavor-wise) in any way. It has some of the worst bonus spells for any mystery, and for every power that seems cool, 2 others just seem "meh". The fluff of the class is great, but, and this is just my opinion, it doesn't really seem to go anywhere.
Juju, is a little but different. It allows you to play a non-evil necromancer, but a lot of people either don't now about it or do not allow it. It's a pretty good choice for the Oracle, if it's allowed and your GM is willing to work with you on some things, (and you don't have a Paladin or certain Clerics in the party, yes, even though they are not evil). It was also one of the things that was officially retconned out.
Looking at the Outer Rifts oracle, I agree with you, Devil's Advocate. It does seem to be all over the place.
I'm disappointed to hear about the Juju nerf; it makes no sense to me that *all* undead are evil aligned, even the mindless ones. In older editions, zombies and skeletons were neutral. Still, I'm certain there are DM's out there who ignore that ruling.
I've heard the idea was simply so Paladins could Smite them.
I could see the that line of reasoning for the higher end undead, but if you need to waste a smite on a lowly zombie, then you've got problems.
Mostly likely its to keep everything in one place. All angels are good, all undead are bad type of thing. Reserve anything outside this as an additional option in a splatbook maybe, but keep it out of RAW.
Thats my 2 coppahs anyway. I don't know much about those mysteries myself.
I was really dissappointed with juju. It felt rushed, not terribly well thought out, and underpowered. I could go over the specific reasons why I feel this way, but that's the short of it. I think an oracle worshiper of juju would be much better served by taking the bones or ancestor mystery.
I agree. Other than the spirit vessel revelation, I wasn't much impressed with it. It has excellent flavor; almost all of the mysteries can boast that much, but crunch-wise it's kind of lacking. I can see a necromancer focused character dipping into juju for non-evil undead (assuming your DM ignores the nerf).
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It wasn't really nerfed, (that I know of), it was just stated that it shouldn't be in Pathfinder. Nothing about it has changed, though.
In 3.0 mindless Undead where not automatically evil, but that was changed in 3.5, yes so that Paladins could smite and detect them. In my opinion, it would have been much better to just add to the Paladin that they can smite and Detect evil on Undead rather than change Undead. I do like that most undead are evil, but I kind of like that mindess undead (that can not chose one way or the other) and some undead that can are not Evil. Even if the non-evil or even good undead are still fully affected by divine magic and smiting. :)