| Atragon |
Like it says on the box, I'm looking for advice on leveling my PFS Oracle from 1 to 2, and possibly taking advantage of the free rebuild.
Currently:
Alraxion, Agathion-Blooded Aasimar Dual Cursed (Haunted & Blackened) Lunar Oracle
Stats: 8/8/14/14/10/20
Traits: Dangerously Curious, Tomb Raider
Feats: Noble Scion of War
Skills: 6 pts per level, 1 point each in: Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magical Device, 6 unspent (I'm thinking of putting points into knowledge: history, knowledge: religion, UMD, Perception, and Diplomacy, Linguistics)
Oracle Revelation: Primal Companion (Tiger) <- +1 effective druid level from FCB
Spells Known:
0: Mage Hand, Ghost Sound, Guidance, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Create Water
1: Burning Hands, Cure Light Wounds, Bless, Divine Favour, Ill Omen
Combat Stats:
Init: +5, Speed: 30 ft, 17 HP, 10 AC (-1 Dex, +1 Haramaki), Fort: +2, Ref: -1, Will: +3
Animal Companion: Axos, Tiger
Stats: 14/18/13/2/15/10
Feats: Toughness
Skills: Acrobatics, Perception, 1 unspent
Tricks: Attack (2), Defend, Down, Flank, Heel, Seek, 1 bonus unassigned (Come, Fetch, Guard, Maneuver?)
Combat Stats: Init: +4, Speed: 40 ft, 16 HP (19 /w toughness), 19 AC /w leather barding
In combat, I find that I usually throw divine favour on Axos, bless on the party, and then try for either burning hands or guidance as the situation calls for it, while Axos goes to try and eat the face off of my foes. With Ill Omen as my bonus 2nd level spell, I feel like I'll be using that fairly aggressively.
Because of the blackened curse, I don't really use weapons that well since my current attack bonus for melee and ranged weapons is -4.
The items that I'm most uncertain about, and where I'd specifically appreciate some advice are:
Do my skill and spell choices seem sane?
What should I throw the skill point into on Axos?
Should I replace toughness with something else? I'm thinking of working my way towards improving my grapple attempts and rake damage for the long term.
What would make sense for the free trick?
Would taking the Totem Guide companion make sense? As far as I can tell, the major trade is giving up Evasion in exchange for getting Eldritch Claws later. I'm currently planning on taking Celestial Servant at level 3, which will get him resistances, damage reduction, spell resistance, and a 1/day smite, and I think totem guide would be a nice pairing, but I'm not sure how badly giving up evasion will hurt.
Any other advice or critique is most welcome.
| Ryzoken |
Your oracle and mine look... very different, lol.
Given you're leveling to 2, I'm going to assume you've got about 1100 gp laying around, since it's reasonable you've made about 1500 off your chronicle pages. You might have squandered that gold by purchasing consumable magic items, but hopefully you instead used Prestige on the ubiquitous wand of CLW(1). That 1100 gp would be well served going into a mithril shirt, bumping your AC to 13. A Hvy Shield would further enhance your AC up to 15, making you significantly less likely to get pulped by goblins.
I'm not sure I'd bother with Divine Favor. Your first action in a given combat should probably be Bless, buffing both your cat and your party. Doubling down on buffs will chew through your level 1 spells quite quickly, so any module with more than 2 combats will see you start to run out of steam. Consider swapping that Divine Favor for something like Sanctuary or Murderous Command. The latter potentially eats the actions of one foe and removes another from the fight, a 2 for 1 in spell efficiency.
I recommend keeping Sense Motive and Perception capped, rank wise. As opposed checks, you'll want them high to account for outlier enemies with artificially high values.
I assume you're taking Misfortune at level 3, possibly with Prophetic Armor using a feat? If you weren't planning on doing so, I highly recommend it, as Misfortune is amazingly fun (and strong!) and Prophetic Armor is pretty key to your AC not being terrible.
| Atragon |
I've got a hair less than 1350 gp saved up, and used 2pp to buy a CLW wand. I'd be hesitant to use armor that would (together) put me into medium load without any other equipment on, and I don't think I'm much squishier than an arcane caster, especially once I pick up Prophetic Armor. OTOH, I will have to live through level 2 before I can pick up another revelation, so perhaps getting hugely slowed down would be worth it for my continued survival.
I went with divine favor since at first level my AC was only attacking at +2 for 1d6/1d4 +1 damage (bite/claw x2), so the extra +1 to hit and damage was a significant boost in output. You do have a valid point about spell slots. The modules I've played so far haven't been that heavy in terms of encounters per day, so it hasn't really hit me.
Good point about Sense Motive. I'll pick it up instead of either Linguistics, K:H, or K:R.
For my 3rd level progression, I was originally thinking of Celestial Servant and Prophetic Armor. Servant would boost my AC's survivability, while Armor would boost mine. Misfortune is darn good, but I'm not certain it's worth giving up either of the other options for 2 more levels.
For my AC, I'm debating between keeping toughness, or trading it for Improved Unarmed Strike, and picking up Improved Grapple to go along with it (and then, later, Greater Grapple). With Axos having Rake, the potential to bite, grab, then rake is quite appealing. I also want to pick up narrow frame around level 7 so I don't run into trouble in the inevitable 5ft wide spaces. OTOH, Toughness gives me 3 extra HP now.
Finally, Totem Guide companion archetype? Give up evasion now in exchange for magical claws later? I feel as though an amulet of mighty fists is in his future anyways.
| Atragon |
Celectial servant is supreme.
Feats for tiger are :
1- toughness
3- power att
5- imp unarmed
8- imp grapple
10- ( min for bab 6) greater grapple .
Next are either lunge- vital strike dragon style
Or imp bull rush, awesome blow , greater bulls
What about those inevitable times when you'll get stuck in a 5ft wide corridor? Would dropping either toughness or power attack make sense to avoid the -4 to hit and to AC for those situations?
| Ryzoken |
You are aware that a mithril shirt only weighs 10 pounds right? At an 8 strength, you've got 26 pounds of carry capacity, 30 pounds if you picked up a masterwork backpack. You're an aasimar, so you don't need a light source, you're blackened cursed so you don't need weapons (unless you want to provide a flank, but you've got a cat for that), your spell component pouch weighs 2 lbs, a heavy darkwood shield weighs another 4.
So you're at 16 lbs out of 26 or 20 lbs out of 30 with the masterwork bag. Create Water cantrip eliminates the need of a waterskin, so you've got 10 pounds to play with for a bedroll, cup (for create water), and a few days of rations.
Even the squishy casters tend to have 14+ AC from Dex and a haramaki if not mage armor or shield (which usually pump them up to 18 AC or thereabouts.) AC isn't the end all be all of defense, but it is a very good starting point and should not be neglected. You'll be in better shape with Prophetic Armor under your belt, but you still need to survive til you get that. Some decent armor and a shield will help that immensely.