Background, my Oracle seems to be the "arcane" caster, the "ranged" combat strength, and the crowd control for a 4-man party. Woo. I'm looking for advice on 3rd level spells and lvl 7 / 9 feats in order to help cover these.
The party:
* Elf Oracle 5 (Heavens mystery / Blackened curse) = me
* Half-Orc Fighter 5 (Falcata two-hander)
* Halfling Rogue 5
* Halfling Rogue 1 / Cleric 4 (protection / healing domains)
The two halflings are siblings, and both took the "Precise Strike" teamwork feat. They and the fighter can take apart anything that enters melee range in about 1 round -- but we're overall a pretty squishy party, and don't have much ranged power.
My general combat MO is to self-buff with Shield of Faith and Prot. From Evil if I can see combat coming, starting with Color Spray, Hypnotic Pattern, Hold Person for crowd control, then Burning Hands to soften up groups of minions or Summon Monster II, Scorching Ray to deal with single targets.
Feats so far are Combat Casting (since my ranged is still not very range-y), Spell Focus (Illusion), and Spell Penetration.
I'm trying to map out the next couple levels worth of spells & feats. Feedback welcome (other than "kill off the halflings and make them make new characters") -- here's my thinking so far:
Feats:
* Persistent spell to keep color spray useful
* Lingering spell to use color spray/burn hands to wall off the party (or maybe a lesser metamagic rod?)
* Elemental spell to change up the fire repertoire
Spells:
* 6: Daylight (mystery), Summon Monster III, trade in SMII for Silence
* after that: ???
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I recommend Burst of Radiance as a 2nd level spell if you can spare it; it's been a crucial control option for my lore oracle.
Another option is Sound Burst; the 1d8 sonic damage is incidental, it's the stun effect that's important. Even if it's only for one round, stunned is a nasty condition. The only down side is the fact that it's a fortitude save.
I'm a huge fan of taking both metamagic reducing traits (magical lineage and Wayang Spellhunter/metamagic master, applying them to Color Spray and getting free Persistent Spell Color Sprays. Also if you can, I highly recommend becoming a Dual-Cursed Oracle since it will get you additional revelations and more importantly the Misfortune Revelation, which makes your Color Sprays holy terrors to successfully save against, requiring 3 successful saves on your enemies part. Since you are focusing on Color Spray I recommend picking up Greater Spell Focus (Illusion) and then Threnodic Spell (can reverse order), after you get Persistent Spell. Greater Spell Focus will help make your mainstay spell harder to resist and Threnodic lets you expand your trick to a target that is usually immune.
After that I'd recommend the Eldritch Heritage feats, since they can give you some very useful abilities or the Summoning Feats. (And ya I'd just get a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Lingering Spell since even your Threnodic Persistent Color Sprays will be only Level 3 spells).
Don´t forget your mystery spells rainbow pattern and Hypnotic pattern!
Just as usefull as usefull as color spray only with range.
If your campaign has enough undead, you might want to try threnodic spell, either as feat or rod. Rod is probably better since you would need spell focus necromancy.
Then shard of chaos, arrow of law, spear of purity are all damage spells, but not as good as an arcance blaster.
Inflict wounds with reach spell is also an option.
After that I'd recommend the Eldritch Heritage feats, since they can give you some very useful abilities or the Summoning Feats.
I'd been thinking about eldritch heritage, though it's quite an investment, with the skill focus prereq. Which ones would make sense here? Arcane seems promising? Most of the ones that give a 30ft attack at 1st level don't seem useful by the time I'd get there.
I'm past the point where taking dual-cursed or changing trait selection would make sense / be allowable.
I recommend Burst of Radiance as a 2nd level spell if you can spare it; it's been a crucial control option for my lore oracle.
Oh, nice -- I like the dazzled even on a successful save, and the range = long is definitely a good add.