I didn't see the Winter Mystery on the oracle guide on the forums, so I was wondering what the general opinion on it was.
It looks pretty good overall to me because it gets some good class skills, one of the revelations is basically Mage Armor but better, and it gets some good-looking bonus spells, but I've never played an oracle. What kind of build should someone aim for to maximize the effectiveness of this particular mystery?
approach largely as you would a frost themed sorcerer.
That's true, there's some good thematic overlap between the two. I suppose the sorcerer would be a better flat-out blaster, but are there any notable upsides to going with a Winter Oracle over the sorcerer?
|
With the aasimar alternative favorite bonus you can be summoning an elder elemental at level 10. Not bad considering that's a CR 11 creature all on it's lonesome and the equivalent of an 8th level spell.
I don't believe so. I am pretty sure that you cannot invest FCB bonuses in an ability you do not have, and you do not get the Elemental revelation until level 7. So you could have 4 "points" invested in it by level 10, making you effectively level 12 and able to summon a Huge Elemental, and at 12th level have 6 "points" invested and effectively 15th level and able to summon the Elder elemental.
Still a useful perk, unfortunately the duration is still pretty short.
Interesting, I didn't know that about the Aasimar favored class bonus. How would the Mystery work for a melee oracle? Any thoughts on that? The first revelation should definitely be Ice Armor but after that, does it matter all that much?
It doesn't have the Ooomph of a rime-touched sorcerer or a winter witch, so you will proably need to use weapons as well.
You get the sleet storm spell at 6th and you can get the Snow Sight revelation which lets you see thru it. You probably want to combine these.
The other revelation I like is Freezing Spells. Get this, a trait to reduce the cost of metamagic on Frost Fall, and the Rime Spell feat and your 2nd level slots slow anyone in a 5' burst for 1 round, entangles them for 2 rounds, do a little cold damage, and if they don't move it does the same to them again next round.
The Ice Armor revelation is just a free chain shirt until 7th level - I wouldn't waste a revelation on it. Just buy a real chain shirt. The Cold Aura is moderately nice but you don't get enough uses for it to matter.
In other words I'd play a Winter oracle as primarily a battlefield control guy rather than a meleer.
The other revelation I like is Freezing Spells. Get this, a trait to reduce the cost of metamagic on Frost Fall, and the Rime Spell feat and your 2nd level slots slow anyone in a 5' burst for 1 round, entangles them for 2 rounds, do a little cold damage, and if they don't move it does the same to them again next round.
This.
And one of the main advantages this has over the sorc is being able to wear armor.
If you are not set on going melee I suggest taking the blackened curse so you get some free fire damage spells for when enemies resist cold.
approach largely as you would a frost themed sorcerer.That's true, there's some good thematic overlap between the two. I suppose the sorcerer would be a better flat-out blaster, but are there any notable upsides to going with a Winter Oracle over the sorcerer?
You get to use a different Spell list and you get more spells. With all the free Cure spells. You get Nice Ice themed spells even if you dont get the wonderfull Frostbite. You get better HP and Bab and skills as well.
Humans have a very Nice favored class bonus and so does elfs and that and paragon surge makes half elfs somthing like the Perfect race:)
If you want to use it ice armor is a good target for the aasimar favoured class bonus.
If you want to use it ice armor is a good target for the aasimar favoured class bonus.
You could. By 5th level you'd reach the +6 armor bonus, by 8th +8 and at 9th you'd get the DR. Still to do so you'd have sacrificed the favored class bonus which you might otherwise use on more spells known (human, half-human or catfolk), or on raising your level for the purpose of the oracle's curse (gnome or halfling), or on skills/hp, and also a revelation which is probably worth a feat. That's a painful price given you have light & medium armor proficiency built into the class. A chain shirt at first then upgrading to a (mithril) breastplate just seems entirely better unless you're starting at 9th level+.
BTW, the Elementalist Oracle archetype looks like it would go nicely with the melee version of a Winter mystery oracle.
