convince me to pick my first 6th level divine spell


Advice


I'm playing a battle oracle in rotrl and just dinged lvl 12. In like 15 years of gaming I've never had a divine caster this high. I'm melee focused with reach weapon, but also have augment summoning.

My current considerations are:

Summon monster 6. If I don't pick this up first it will be my 2nd choice. Maybe the optimal pick, but I already have summon monster 5, full round casting time bugs me, and other choices on the list are very appealing

Animate objects. Seems like a standard action summon. Seems very fun. Also seems like a lot of work?

Wind walk. Seems very strong! But the group already have communal airwalk covered with another oracle. Maybe he will alsowant to pick up this and retrain airwalk.

Dustform. This seems very good to me, offering a good set of benefits. I spend a lot of time enlarged and sometimes size is a problem. maybe not good forfirst pick.Any firsthand experience with this spell?

Note: I don't consider heal cause the oracle of healing in the group get that for free.

Please also feel free to make other suggestions. Anti life shell?


This one is easy, being a battle cleric I would go for Harm. Even on a successful save the target takes 60pts of damage. :D

- Gauss


Gauss wrote:

This one is easy, being a battle cleric I would go for Harm. Even on a successful save the target takes 60pts of damage. :D

- Gauss

I'm str focused so my chr isnt very good. I generally avoid feats with save. But is harm really that good?


Harm is so good because it rocks or it rocks hard. At your current level it is 120pts of damage or 60pts of damage with a successful save. Even at level 12 that is 60pts of damage which is pretty good for a battle cleric on a touch attack.

Cast spell, move into melee, touch them, then wail on them with a regular weapon. :)

BTW, what is your current strength and charisma? Just curious.

- Gauss


We used to get a lot of mileage out of Heroes' Feast. But it looks to be not as good as it was in 3E (poison immunity, so we would just cloudkill all over the place).
Find the path is good. Heal is good, obviously. I enjoy Geas, but maybe i am just an a!*%~!&.


Personally my first pick would still be heal, but thats because imo u can never have to many heal spells.. Sum Mon would be my 2nd pick.. The Lillend Azata gives an inspire courage +2 and can cast good hope, so a net +4hit/dam bonus for those rounds is sexy.. Also she can heal and has decent attacks and some cc as well.. A huge elemental is never bad as well.. And neither of the demons are bad if u dont mind sum them..


You have a reach weapon? Can you manage to get a reach of 15' or more?

Antilife Shell is greatly underrated.


Yes I'm usually enlarged so my reach is 15-20. Would Antilife shell block out companions that are alrewdy inside when it is created?


I second Heal. Remove all kinds of conditions. Superb spell.


Have you considered Greater Dispel Magic? No party of this level should be without it.


I'm a big fan of Cold Ice Strike. It's a little unremarkable until you notice that it has built-in Quicken.

Liberty's Edge

Heal is one of those spells that are hard to beat.


heal is not a spell a Battle Oracle gets for free. They get mass bull's strength and mass cure moderate wounds for free, not heal.

heal is pretty much *expected* to be available by the meta-design. Unless you have other PCs in the party that have access to it - and *especially* if you are the only one in the party that can get it - heal is a must-have spell.

EDIT: Two heals are better than one. There's a decent chance when you're facing down CR 15 encounters that you'll need them both. :P

2nd EDIT: The other suggestions are all great first choices. Of the original trio, I would probably go with dust form if you're the primary melee guy or pair up with the primary melee guy.


The OP specifically said he wasn't nterested in heal because the party already had another oracle with it.


Blade Barrier is an excellent battlefield control spell.


Cold Ice Strike lets you burst down foes hard. I second this spell.


Heal is not an option. I absolutely understand it's value, but it is already covered inthe group. Also the healing oracle is so focused on his heals he don't really appreciate it to much if I step on his terretory. I will absolutely consider picking it up later.

I'm well aware I don't get it for free, there is another oracle in the group with the healing mystery.

I also considered cold ice strike, but forgot to mention it. Again the save troubles me, but maybe I am being to cautious about this. Who cares when its just a swift action? My chr with headband is 18, so it's not so bad (my str is 24 btw, grauss)The same is true for blade barrier, but it sorta overlaps with wall of stone, which I already have.

Basically, I'm just a little overwhelmed by all thegreat options. We very rarely play this high.


If you're good, I think Eaglesoul is an underrated buff.


Taking your whole situation into account, I would actually recommend Wind Walk or Anti-Life Shell (which won't push out your friends to my knowledge).

Wind Walk is an incredible travel spell that can really change the game for you in different ways. Anti-Life Shell seems to suit your combat style deliriously well.

One question: have you already decided on which spell to swap out? Or was that dependent on Sum Mon VI or not (to knock out V)?


The way I read anti life shell, it won't care if creatures are allies or not, but it won't block out anyone already inside the area as long as they stay inside (impossible in combat if you move as far as I can understand.) Would this be correct? I can see this being very usefull if solo, but we are 3 characters that regularily go melee. This and the 1rnd acting times bugs me.

Wind walk I would only wanna cast once a day, so it's not so good for first pick. If only I had got a usefully bonus spell.

I'm a bit confused on dustform. Does everything in the rules for incorperal apply? Dex as str, pass through objects, etc or just what is described in the spell?

No I havenot decided on any swap.


Seems the other oracle is picking wind walk, so that leaves out that as well. I am still undecided.


Erikkerik wrote:
The way I read anti life shell, it won't care if creatures are allies or not, but it won't block out anyone already inside the area as long as they stay inside (impossible in combat if you move as far as I can understand.) Would this be correct? I can see this being very usefull if solo, but we are 3 characters that regularily go melee. This and the 1rnd acting times bugs me.

I'm not really sure why you feel like you have to be within 10' of an ally during a fight. If you regularly increase size (which actually gives you 20' reach, since a reach weapon doubles your natural reach), I see no reason to ever be within 10' of them unless you have "when adjacent to an ally" teamwork feats. The one round cast time is annoying, yes, but it lasts 1 min./level, so you can pre-cast it a while in advance of expected fights.

Erikkerik wrote:
I'm a bit confused on dustform. Does everything in the rules for incorperal apply? Dex as str, pass through objects, etc or just what is described in the spell?

I think Dustform needs a FAQ, honestly, because it states you are treated as Incorporeal, but part of being incorporeal is the move through objects, which seems to make the first part of the spell (squeeze with no penalty) obsolete.

I also tend to dislike spells with 1 round/level durations--that's generally only good for one fight, while minute per level can usually make it through two or even three in a densely packed area.


Because fights rarely occur in large open spaces, at least so far in rotrl most fights have been in hallways or small rooms. I can easily imagine a lot of cases where my shell would mess up for my party, or I'd be forced to end the spell.
I agree on dustform.


Summon Monster VI

Lillend, Azata - use her to Inspire Courage. She does so at a +3. I think you and any other fighters in the party would appreciate a +3 to attack and damage.
Or, if your party isn't opposed to the idea, an Erinyes devil, partly because she has constant True Seeing and has lots of defensive/offensive abilities, but also because she can fly (transport you to hard to reach area), teleport (steal something or murder someone), telepathy (send a private message), and generally has a ton of useful skills for non-combat situations.
The Succubus can do many of these as well, with the added bonus of having 1/d Dominate Person. Fighting a humanoid, like a powerful fighter? Summon succubus, dominate him. If you can pull it off against an enemy spellcaster, well... go to town!

And if you just don't want to deal with any of that funky stuff, a Dire Tiger will obliterate everything.


Summoned monsters can not teleport.

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