Tengu Oracle + Favored Class Bonus

[Caws Rorec]

So I am building a character.

A Tengu oracle.

Now I noticed the Tengu's favored class bonus for oracle is the following:

Add +1/2 to the oracle’s level for the purpose of determining the effects of the oracle’s curse ability.

Now most of this is obviously ok for the curse abilities.

However a couple of them are not so clear cut.

Specifically blackened and haunted.

Both of these offer access to spells as benefits at certain levels.

Now if I am lets say I am a level 8 oracle and I have chosen the +1/2 option for my curse. I am now considered a level 12 oracle for purposes of my curse. Now let's say I chose the blackened curse. The blackened curse's 10th level ability adds wall of fire to your list of spells known.

However as intended I believe wall of fire was supposed to be added as the druid level 5 spell known. Seeing as how I would only have access to 4th level spells does that mean I would add the wall of fire as a 4th level spell (sorcerer/wizard) version instead?

Take the above example and apply haunted to it. Does that mean I only gain the benefit when I get higher level for the telekinesis as the only known level of the spell is level 5?

[DeltaOneG]

Spells would not be of lower level and you would not be able to cast them until you were able to cast spells of the appropriate level.

So yes, doesn't really help with those curses that add spells known.

[Kazaan]

IIRC, if you get a bonus spell in this manner, it defaults to the highest level of spell you cast at the level you get it at. So you'd normally get Wall of Fire at Oracle 10 and Oracle 10 can cast up to lvl 5 spells, but if you instead get it at Oracle 7 because you have an effective lvl 10 for determining curse effect, you learn it as a lvl 3 spell because that's the highest level of spell a lvl 7 Oracle can cast. I forget where I saw it written, though, so keep in mind that I may be conflating it with a similar topic until I come across the appropriate passage to confirm or refute my explanation.

[Sean K Reynolds]

The racial abilities weren't intended to be used like that (to be precise, the oracle rules should be explicit in stating what spell level the spell is for you, and the racial abilities wouldn't change that spell level.

What it would do is add the to your spell list (as a spell you couldn't cast yet), which would allow you to use spell trigger and spell completion items with that spell.

[Kazaan]

Ok, I think I found what I recalled. It's not exactly the same situation, but comparable:

FAQ wrote:

Sorcerer: Is the aquatic sorcerer bloodline (page 136) supposed to get geyser as a bonus spell at sorcerer level 9, even though that’s normally a 5th-level sorcerer/wizard spell and unavailable to sorcerers before caster level 10?

Yes, and the sorcerer learns it as a 4th-level spell. Note that geyser is also a 4th-level druid spell (available at character level 7), so the aquatic sorcerer gaining it at character level 9 as a 4th-level arcane spell isn’t too powerful.

—Sean K Reynolds, 02/07/12

A Sorc who gets geyser at lvl 9 can only cast up to 4th-level spells, even though geyser is a 5th level spell on the Wiz/Sorc list and normally couldn't be cast until Sorc level 10. So it's the level you actually learn it at that determines the level the spell is; you don't learn it "as the Druid spell" or "as the Wiz/Sorc spell", you just learn it straight up and it defaults to the highest level of spell you can cast for that class at the time you learn it, since it would be rather stupid for a valid racial option to give you access to spells that you can't even cast until you'd get them without the bonus anyway.

[Sean K Reynolds]

And like I said, the racial trait wasn't intended to allow you to cast spells at a lower level than you're normally expected to cast them.

In other words, if the oracle curse's description was completely clear in its intent, it should say something like:
Haunted: Malevolent spirits follow you wherever you go, causing minor mishaps and strange occurrences (such as unexpected breezes, small objects moving on their own, and faint noises). Retrieving any stored item from your gear requires a standard action, unless it would normally take longer. Any item you drop lands 10 feet away from you in a random direction. Add mage hand and ghost sound to your list of [0-level] spells known. At 5th level, add levitate and minor image to your list of [2nd-level] spells known. At 10th level, add telekinesis to your list of [5th-level] spells known. At 15th level, add reverse gravity to your list of [7th-level] spells known.

In doing so, it would be obvious that the tengu's racial favored class ability would put those spells on your spell list earlier than normal, but the spell level would not change. This would help you a little bit in that you could easily use spell trigger and spell completion items for those spells (because they're on your spell list).

[StreamOfTheSky]

So what happens once you get the 15th level abilities early? Do you retroactively gain back a skill point or hit point as you level up (and effective oracle level goes above 15) thereafter, or do you just get shafted?

[Kazaan]

StreamOfTheSky wrote:

So what happens once you get the 15th level abilities early? Do you retroactively gain back a skill point or hit point as you level up (and effective oracle level goes above 15) thereafter, or do you just get shafted?

I wouldn't say you get shafted, so to speak. But it's a strategic trade-off; you can get your 15th level curse ability by lvl 10 with the racial favored bonus and, according to SKR, you can use scrolls, wands, etc. for those spells at lvl 10, though you can't actually add them to your Spells Known list until lvl 14 at the earliest. That's the bonus. The fact that you eventually "catch up" is the cost; it's like an investment. By contrast, spending those 10 levels on an HP or SP bonus would be a tactical decision; you take the solid advantage at hand and wait until you normally would get the abilities anyway instead of investing those HP/SP points into the racial bonus.