Group is going to be playing a "shonin-esque" type of game with Gestalt rules, and I'm considering the above as a character (think Naruto for inspiration - ie: magical ninja).
Personally, I've never been huge on Divine spells for anything other than support, so I'm kind of wondering if Oracle is a good fit or if I should just bite the bullet and go Sorcerer. My issue with going Sorcerer is that, simply put, I like the options with the Waves mystery better for the character concept than any of the Sorcerer Bloodlines.
I realize I can be a pretty great support character, but how offensive can I be? What Cleric spells would compliment a "strike-hard-from-the-shadows" style of character?
Yeah, you seem to be in a bit of a catch. You want the flavor of the waves oracle, but the class list of spells really clashes with that. If you do go down this road you will want the Shadow Strike feat ASAP if you do go ahead with this; your oracle special ability grants everything around you concealment, so you need this feat to be able to sneak attack them. Other than that, the darkness spell might be worthwhile. You must be mindful if your GM uses lots of enemies with darkvision (which totally negates it) and you will need the darkvision ninja power to see through it yourself, but when it does work it's very dangerous.
Do keep in mind that part of the reason why the Oracle mysteries appear better than the Sorcerer bloodlines is because having a better class spell list is one of the Sorcerer's class features.
You've hit the nail on the head. :(
I may just resign myself to a support character that isn't awful in combat (due to the Ninja abilities).
The alternative would be to dip 3 levels of Oracle (to pick up the two Revelations I want most, Freezing Spells and Water Sight) and then just replace Oracle with Sorcerer - the downside here being not only slower Sorc progression, but also less growth into my curse. (Edit - After looking over Boreal bloodline, this option may just be what I end up doing.)
The alternative would be to dip 3 levels of Oracle (to pick up the two Revelations I want most, Freezing Spells and Water Sight) and then just replace Oracle with Sorcerer - the downside here being not only slower Sorc progression, but also less growth into my curse. (Edit - After looking over Boreal bloodline, this option may just be what I end up doing.)
Well, as a gestalt character you could try going for a Sorcerer/Oracle/Mystic Theurge on one side while staying pure Ninja on the other. Normally that's a downright masochistic build plan, but as a gestalt character with a single class on the other side to carry the weight it might just work.
Actually, I've found Oracle of Waves/Ninja to be a really brutal combatant. Water Sight+Obscuring Mist is absolutely brutal with a ranged/reach weapon as you'll have full concealment against people more than 5 feet away from you, so you get to just sneak attack the crap out of them. You also get the typical Cleric buffs, so you can super buff and beat flat footed opponents down in short order. You could also go Dual Cursed and get the Blackened and Wolfscarred Face curses (level up Blackened), take a level of Wizard (Admixture school) and then use Freezing burning hands and such with the Freezing Spells revelation to slow mass enemies and then bite the crap out of them with a natural weapon that doesn't get the -4 penalty from Blackened. Plus the Misfortune revelation is amazing since it forces all allies and enemies 1/day rerolls, and Fortune is pretty nice too. Wolfscarred Face and Blackened are also funny as hell to force on enemies with Oracle's Burden, especially if it ends up downgrading their natural bite.
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benalitybob actually touched on the character i was going to suggest for you to play.
reach weapon, chained kama is a good choice, with the deff curse, for free silent spell, then swift action invisibility run 10 feet away from your target, cast obscuring mist (silent woot!!) the enemy has no clue you're 10 feet away and when he goes to leave the mist you trip him.
then you get:
+2 for total concealment
attack flat footed ac(cmd also)
+2 improved trip
+magical bonuses from weapons
= a prone enemy, then you full attack using a ki point to TWF then to death
the only spell you need is obscuring mist, other fog spells are viable options later on. i played this character very successfully, i used ninja stars for ranged attacks and a **kusarigama** (is the name of the weapon i was thinking of)
you do not need to go with levels of sorcerer to play this character "like naruto" when i played this guy i had him function very similar to that guy with the sword (setsubo or something like that) they first fought and the boy/girl with the mask
benalitybob actually touched on the character i was going to suggest for you to play.
reach weapon, chained kama is a good choice, with the deff curse, for free silent spell, then swift action invisibility run 10 feet away from your target, cast obscuring mist (silent woot!!) the enemy has no clue you're 10 feet away and when he goes to leave the mist you trip him.
then you get:
+2 for total concealment
attack flat footed ac(cmd also)
+2 improved trip
+magical bonuses from weapons= a prone enemy, then you full attack using a ki point to TWF then to death
the only spell you need is obscuring mist, other fog spells are viable options later on. i played this character very successfully, i used ninja stars for ranged attacks and a **kusarigama** (is the name of the weapon i was thinking of)
you do not need to go with levels of sorcerer to play this character "like naruto" when i played this guy i had him function very similar to that guy with the sword (setsubo or something like that) they first fought and the boy/girl with the mask
That's basically who I had in mind when I decided this route. ^_^
Could you post, say, a 10 lvl breakdown or so of this character of yours? I'd appreciate it.|
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since you're playing a gesalt character you really can go nuts with your build.
if i were you, i would play something like this.
(20pt buy) human
str 14
dex 16 (14 + 2)
con 14
wis 10
int 10
cha 14
as a balanced character, you can change it as you feel necessary.
feats:
h = TWF
1 = PBS
3 = rapid shot
5 = dodge/agile maneuvers
7 = weapon focus
9 = ITWF
basic feats to give an idea of where you want to take him
tricks/revelations (deff curse)
tricks
vanishing trick
flurry of stars
ki charge (paper bombs)
shadow clones (water clones)
combat trick (lunge)
revelations:
water sight
Freezing Spells
blizzard
Wintry Touch
Fluid Nature (you wouldnt need dodge as a feat then)
last but not least spell selection
fog spells are the most important of all the spells you can choose. after them i would choose either a buffer/debuffer type ninja who uses murderous command and haste/slow silence spells as your main assult, change cha to your main stat, or go more for a self buffing damage dealer keep dex as your main stat.
damage dealer:
1
magic stone
weapon wand
infernal healing
entropic shield
protections from ...
abundant ammunition
2
SILENCE!!! cast on you for ultimate cheeze, remember you get to cast silent metamagic every spell for free
hold person
resist energy
3 warding (depending on your campaign
from here on you basically want to focus on damage based spells and self buffing spells to net you a bonus to your damages.
now i want to point out that clerics do not get many cold based spells, so you wont be very ... justsu based. if you want to be more of a hard core every other round i cast a spell or use a magical ability you can still kind of play this character using wizard/sorcerer as your base by getting this item goz mask for 8,000 gp, gaining the ability to use water sight but with the sorcerer/wizard list. the character wont be as good over all, but it would have a much more flamboyant aspect to the fighting style.
Thanks for the "build." :)
Yeah, I figure I'll take the (one?) available divine cold damage spell and the rest will just have to come from Waves bonus spells.
I'm not worried about being "flashy" but I would like to be viably "offensive," so I think I'm looking more at debuffs with a few buffs and restoratives thrown in for balance.