New Oracle Curses

[Notabrick]

I am a bit underwhelmed by the options for Oracle Curses. Here are a few that I think might be fun. These are just outlines and some are not done.Let me know what you think:

Martyr:
You are connected with a fallen Martyr who has chosen you:
Drawback: You must do your best to protect innocent people or your allies. Must defend allies in combat. Must defend innocents. Must help others unselfishly and without reserve.
1st level: 1 /day +4 to any roll to protect others. (or constant status or deathwatch effect?)
5th level: Shield of faith
10th level: sacrificial oath (or breath of life)
15th level: Resurrection??

Outsider:
Drawback: you are affected by spells and effects as if you had the “outsider” type and “good” subtype. You are also effected by spells that target summoned or extraplanar creatures. You must make a will save or be unable to attack a creature warded by Protection from Good or similar effects. Effects that would banish you cause you to be nauseated for 1 round and then sickened for 1 minute per level of the spell or effect:
1st level: You can use Detect Evil at will as a spell like ability (or don’t need to eat or sleep as an outsider?)
5th level: Weapon and natural attacks you make are considered “good” for overcoming damage reduction.
10th level: You gain the “Truespeach” ability.
15th level: You gain the ability to smite evil as a celestial creature. (or perhapse just gain the celestial template??)

Magic in the blood:
Your magic and body are intertwined.
Drawback: If you ever become fatigued, your effective caster level is reduced by 1 and your spell DCs are reduced by 1. If you ever become exhausted, these penalties increase by 1 and you also loose 1/3rd of your total spell slots for each level you can cast.
1st level: As a standard action, you can sacrifice hit points and gain a number of spell levels equal to the hit points you sacrificed. You can only sacrifice up to your character level in hit points this way each day. (For example if you were a 5th level caster, you could sacrifice up to 5 hit points to gain 5 first level spells, or 2 second level spells and 1 first level spell or 1 second level spell and 3 first level spells.)
5th level: If you use more than 2/3rds of your total spell slots (or all of the spell slots from the highest level you can cast), you become fatigued until you regain spells again. If you are already fatigued, you are now exhausted. Magic and effects that reduce exhaustion to fatigued work as normal, but the fatigue cannot be removed until you regain spells. You gain 1 additional spell slot and 1 additional spell known for each spell level you are able to cast. This applies to higher level spells as you gain access to them.
10th level: When casting a spell, you can choose to take up to 2 damage to both strength and dexterity and increase your caster level or spell DC by 1 for each point of damage taken.
15th level: The amount of damage you can inflict to hit points to regain spells is doubled and the amount of damage to strength & dexterity you can inflict to increase spell DCs increases to 3.

Patron
Your powers are granted by a patron being who expects your loyalty and obedience
At first level you choose one type of aligned being (Azata, Angel, (LG celestial), Deamon, Demon or devil,
Drawback: You must strive to appease your patron and gain a code of honor similar to a paladin, although relevant to the specific alignment of your patron:
Powers granted would be similar to "Outsider" or similar to weakened versions of Paladin or Anti-paladin abilities.

[Lincoln Hills]

Congrats on the inventiveness of these concepts, but I warn you that they seem to me to be deliberately less severe in their "curse" aspects, which means that the 'benefits' of the curse as you advance should be considerably less beneficial than those in the APG. Instead I'm seeing some pretty formidable perks.

Note that the Martyr is entirely role-playing based. The drawback here is that somebody playing a NG oracle is going to find Martyr so close to their own goals that the perks are "payment for something I'd have done for free", while oracles of highly differing alignments would be in regular violation. Also, for both Martyr and Patron, you need to spell out (fairly severe) consequences for disobedience. A GM speaking of moral matters should never say "you have no choice:" it should always be "if you make that choice, you will suffer Drawback X and Penalty Y." It may seem a fine distinction but it's important for players to have an option (even if it's an unthinkably bad option.)

'Outsider' has some mighty good stuff for things that are relatively minor, situational disadvantages.

'Magic in the Blood' has a lot of potential, but you need to stiffen up the penalties. Off the top of my head, detect magic should always indicate your presence, and spells like dispel magic or break enchantment might be special weaknesses (inflicting, say, a dazed condition or the loss of all spell-like and supernatural abilities for a short time.)

[MrSin]

Magic in the Blood is a little ridiculous. You can lose all of your spell slots from being exhausted, you have to constantly keep track of your total spells, and you can have nigh infinite spells per day if you carry around a heal stick. A single use of a wand of cure light wounds avarages out to 5.5, meaning you get back every single spell slot at level one with one tap.

[Notabrick]

Lincoln;
Thanks for your feedback. I agree with your points. I struggle with the cost/benefit of existing curses are all over the place as far as how much of a drawback they are and how much of a benefit they are. I think "Blackened" is a great example of paying me for something I'd have done for free and "Obscured Vision" has nasty limitations with only minimal benefit in many situations.

Mr Sin: Thanks for your input. The curse can easily be adjusted to simplify record keeping. Also,at first level you can only sacrifice 1 HP to gain 1 spell level back. "You can only sacrifice up to your character level in hit points this way each day"

[Notabrick]

Here is revision 1 with some of your recommendations implemented. Changes are bold
Curses
Martyr:
You are connected with a fallen Martyr who has chosen you:
Drawback: You must do your best to protect innocent people or your allies. Must defend allies in combat. Must defend innocents. Must help others unselfishly and without reserve. If you fail to do any of these, you become sickened for 24 hours.

1st level: 1 /day +4 to any roll to protect others. (or constant status or deathwatch effect?)

5th level: Shield of faith

10th level: sacrificial oath (or breath of life)

15th level: ??

Patron
Your powers are granted by a patron being who expects your loyalty and obedience
At first level you choose one type of aligned being (Azata, Angel, (LG celestial), Deamon, Demon or devil,
Drawback: You must strive to appease your patron and gain a code of honor similar to a paladin, although relevant to the specific alignment of your patron. Failing to follow the code will result in loss of magical class abilities:
Azata: You must always be CG, must strive to free the imprisoned and help innocent and good causes. You can never associate with evil beings or
Angel: You must always be NG, must strive to remove

Outsider:
Drawback: you are affected by spells and effects as if you had the “outsider” type and “good” subtype. You are also effected by spells that target summoned or extraplanar creatures. Damage from evil aligned weapons or spells deals an additional 50% damage (min 1). Effects that would banish you cause you to be nauseated for 1 round and then sickened for 1 minute per level of the spell or effect:

1st level: You can use Detect Evil at will as a spell like ability (or don’t need to eat or sleep as an outsider?)

5th level: Weapon and natural attacks you make are considered “good” for overcoming damage reduction.

10th level: You gain the “Truespeach” ability.

15th level: You gain the ability to smite evil as a celestial creature. (or perhaps just gain the celestial template??)

Magic in the blood:
Your magic and body are intertwined.
Drawback: Whenever you are fatigued or exhausted, treat your charisma as being reduced by the same amount as your strength and dex. (Spell DCs are lowered and bonus spell slots may be lost.)

1st level: As a standard action, you can sacrifice hit points and gain a number of spell levels equal to the hit points you sacrificed. You can only sacrifice up to your character level in hit points this way each day. These hit points can only be healed by convalescence. (For example if you were a 5th level caster, you could sacrifice up to 5 hit points to gain 5 first level spells, or 2 second level spells and 1 first level spell or 1 second level spell and 3 first level spells.)

5th level: If you use all of the spell slots from your highest spell level you become fatigued until you regain spells again. If you are already fatigued, you are now exhausted. Magic and effects that reduce exhaustion to fatigued work as normal, but the fatigue cannot be removed until you regain spells. You gain 1 additional spell slot and 1 additional spell known for each spell level you are able to cast. This applies to higher level spells as you gain access to them.

10th level: When casting a spell, you can choose to take up to 2 damage to both strength and dexterity and increase your caster level or spell DC by 1 for each point of damage taken.

15th level: The amount of damage you can inflict to hit points to regain spells is doubled and the amount of damage to strength & dexterity you can inflict to increase spell DCs increases to 3.

[Notabrick]

Talisman Spellcasting:
Each spell you know has a unique talisman that you must have in hand and use as a focus. In order to cast a spell, you must first draw and focus on the talisman (as a move action). Once you have a talisman in hand, you can then cast that spell as normal. If you wish to cast a different spell the next round, you must spend another move action to draw the talisman associated with that spell. If a talisman is lost (or destroyed) you are unable to cast the associated spell, but it does not function for anyone else. Replacing a talisman requires 1 hour of work and materials costing (spell level squared X25gp) in materials.
1st level: Choose one spell the Druid spell list (no higher than 1st level). Add that to your list of spells known.
5th level: Choose one spell from the Druid spell list (no higher than 2nd level). Add that to your list of spells known.
10th level: Choose one spell from the druid spell list (no higher than 5th level). Add that to your list of spells known.
15th level: Chose one spell from the druid spell list ( no higher than 7th level). Add that to your list of spells known.

[Notabrick]

Lightbringer
Drawback: Anytime you are in darkness, magical or mundane, you are shaken. Visual senses you might have such as darkvision, tremor sense, and blindsight no longer work in darkness. Each round after the first, you must make a will save or become panicked. The will save is equal to the DC of the spell that created the darkness (treat mundane darkness as 0th level). The save increases by 1 each round until you fail a check. Being in dim lighting does not cause you to panic, but you must make a will save each round or become shaken.
1st level: Add “light” and “Farie Fire” to your list of spells known. These do not count against the number of spells you know. Also, you cast all spells with the “Light” descriptor at +1 caster level.
5th Level: Add Continual flame and Burst of Radiance to your list of spells known (as 2nd level spells).
10th level: You are immune to being blind, dazzled, and any other effects that use bright light to overwhelm your vision.
15th Level: Add Sunbeam to your list of spells known