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I'm getting a Race boon for PFS for the Ifrit race, and after going over my options I'm considering an Ifrit Oracle, Dual Cursed (Blackened and Tongues, with Tongues being the one that doesn't improve), Flame Mystery. I'm going for a fairly blasty build with some battlefield control on top of that and some summoning once I have access to Summon Monster II to take advantage of the Fire Insight alternate racial trait.
S 8
D 16
Co 12
I 10
W 10
Ch 19
Alternate Racial Traits: Wildfire Heart (+4 Init), Efreeti Magic (Enlarge Person or Reduce Person 1/day), Fire Insight (+2 rounds duration on Summons of Fire-type creatures)
Improved Initiative for first level feat.
Misfortune (From the Dual-Cursed archetype) for first level Revelation.
But what about spells? I'll have Burning Hands at first level for the Blackened curse. I'm considering Obscuring Mist and Command for the other two.
What about traits? Reactionary seems like a good place to start. The character's Initiative will be +13 at first level.
Is dual-cursed horrible? The Misfortune Revelation looks awesome. I'm also taking that so that I don't end up with overlap in bonus spells known for the Blackened curse and Flame Mystery.
How about Feat progression? Extra Mysteries? Spell Focus Evocation?
Anyone with experience with this sort of build? Suggestions or advice?
Like Aasimars, Ifrits can use an alternate favored class bonus for oracle to advance their effective level in a revelation by 1/2 per level. This can be insanely good with the right revelation.
For clerics and oracles in general I like the reach build. Grab a longspear or other reach weapon, move up to about 15 feet away from the baddie, cast on your turn, get your damage is as AoO's on their turns. Combat reflexes pretty much required. Also this plan only works for the first couple turns, but by then you'll have gotten your important spells off and can wade in to melee.
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Going with a melee build may be one of the best builds for Oracles, but with my conceived stat array and choice of curses makes it completely awful. Do you suggest I throw out my concept and go with the melee build instead?
I am aware of the limitations of the blaster build and the benefits of the melee build. For example, I know that Fire (the focus of this concept) is the most often resisted energy type, so will have backup spells and role for times when an enemy is resistant or immune to fire. I wanted to do a fire blaster build for style and fluff reasons.
Gaze of Flames will most likely be your best friend. Through up a fog type spell and pelt your enemy with fire from afar when they can't even see you. Waves mystery does this better but you can still have your fun.
With Efreeti Magic you can make use of that reduce person on yourself and be a hard to hit little ball of flaming goodness.
I built one of these for an arena style match, and had a blast with it (pun intended). Built basically like a blasting sorcerer.
Gaze of flames does not see through fog as far as i am aware. Be carefull there. Oracle of waves and flames are different there.
Also, mechanically, smoke and fog are something different as far as i know.
You have both wildfire heart AND improved initiative? With your DEX, you have a +11 to initiative at level 1.
While dual cursed is usually a rather harsh price to pay, I think you could VERY easily absorb the penalties of the deaf curse as a secondary curse. Put a skill point into linguistics so that you can read lips (allowed by a PFS FAQ), and your only disadvantage would be that you fail perception checks for sound. Since you might not have the best perception at the table anyway since you are not a WIS caster, and that seems like more than a fair trade to make all of you spells silent spells and gain access to those sweet revelations offered by this archetype.
Dual cursed can also be cool when you use oracle's burden (especially since you have the blacked curse).
About the gaze of flame: Don't Ifrit have a racial feat that lets them see through smoke and fire without penalty? Although, Gaze of flame looks slightly better since it says "You can see through fire, fog, and smoke." So yes, it sees through fog. You still might want Firesight feat though since it is not rounds/day and it also makes you immune to being dazzled.
Just one thing.
Did you plan out your spell progression?
You don´t get that much fire magic spell or actually none from oracle.
The important and blast ones come from the flames mystery and your curse.
Taking dual-cirsed switches some out from the curse, which means you will be missing them and i´m not aware of other possibilities to get them for an oracle.
page of Spell knowledge and Ring of Spell Knowledge are arcane stuff and therefore not viable for you i think.
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The only spell I'm missing out on from what I can tell is Fireball. That hurts, but I'm resigned to it.
I've also decided to keep the boon for another character, and instead build this Flame Oracle as a Gnome. The favored class bonus gives me access to Scorching Ray and Flaming Sphere at level 5, Wall of Fire at level 7, and Delayed Blast Fireball at level 10 if I did my math right.