So it'll be several months until we start, but we'll be playing a campaign soon as pirates. This is NOT for PFS, most any races are available, as well as a few homebrew races (some of which have flight, one of which doesn't need to eat or breathe). So far we have someone interested in playing a Gunslinger and a Sorcerer, and I think another melee person.
I don't have to, but I was thinking of playing a character who could heal, but I don't want to be a Healing Battery. So I figured I could potentially go Oracle with perhaps the Waves or Wind revelation. Or possibly a Druid of some nature.
I know, I'm not being super helpful right now. I suppose I'd even consider a Cleric or Witch if there were some good domains/archetypes or something thematically appropriate, but I feel like if I stick with Oracle or Druid I can provide the out of combat healing/condition removal that we'll invariably need.
Pirates on the ocean or pirates in Port X this week?
If on the ocean, a Storm Druid is one of the best options available. Everyone needs a weather witch when out at sea ya know. Also, storm druid is very casting focused.
Since you can spontaneously cast your domain spells, you can prep most of your slots as healing, trading out as needed for your awesome spells. Many domain spells are strong choices for ship to ship combat.
Also, there was a feat back in 3.5 that gave druids the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells. See if your GM would allow it. (IIRC, the pre reqs were: Non-Evil, 4 ranks heal, able to cast cure spells) If the GM will allow it, it frees you to prep nearly exclusively utility spells, trusting to your ability to swap them out for offensive domain spells and healing spells.
If you are going from port to port, with most encounters happening off the ship, Storm druid is not as great a choice, but is still strong. Others too look at are Urban and Goliath.
Even if you do not go Storm, urban or Goliath, domain will be better then pet for this type of campaign. Customs being what they are in regards to pets and the aquatic ones being limited in port.
That said, for more encounters in town, Oracle is a slightly better choice, imho.
If you're not too averse to Paladin, you can pick up divine spells and the ability to heal. (Almost just as well as a dedicated healbot, actually. There's a reason why Oradin is 1/2 Paladin.) Granted, you won't be as adept or powerful as if you were a Druid, but that's a more melee option. Ranger would be fairly interesting, too. But yeah, Dafydd's advice is best: Storm Druid is awesome on ships, and Oracle is awesome off ships. If you make a specialized Battle Oracle build, you'd be a better meleer than a Storm Druid, but a non battle-specialized Oracle isn't as tough in melee as a Druid.
If you want an awesome theme for a voodoo-ish pirate, go Barbarian 1/ Spirit-Guide Oracle of Nature X with one of the revelations that lets you dump dexterity for charisma and the Lame Curse.
The flavor is a shambling spirit-wracked pirate-mystic who seems like he can't walk in a straight line and gets the shakes for no obvious reason... and yet he's devastatingly strong and seems to stagger around attacks like he's not even trying. He can also cast Oracle buffs and support spells, and his charisma is high enough that his DC is nothing to scoff at either. So basically he can smash heads, cast potent spells, and talk his way out of all sorts of problems... usually by intimidation. He's perfectly set to be an epic pirate-captain terror.
You can stat something like 16/18STR+, 7DEX, 14CON, 10INT, 9WIS, 16/18CHA+, and the Barbarian Fast Movement cancels out the Lame Curse leaving you with fatigue immunity by 6 so you can cycle rage at will (take one Extra Rage, maybe more).
The feat Noble Scion of War bases initiative on charisma if you want to rescue your initiative score, or just Improved Initiative works too if you don't have the book or don't want the background angle. Divine Protection is just stupidly powerful charisma-to-saves if you want. Barkskin adds more AC to his 18+ charisma AC, so he can swing a sword with both hands and still have impressive defenses. He can use healing to patch some fool back together in case they try to use a gaping wound as an excuse to slack off, but it's hardly his real calling.
BadBird, that's pretty fantastic I gotta say, and pretty flavorful!
I was looking through the Spirit Guide Oracle and am maybe leaning a little more that way, considering it gives a good bit of versatility.
To really play up a Voodoo theme, Dual-Cursed is really good too. You lose early bonus spells so Nature would lose Barkskin, but you get the Misfortune Revelation and access to the Witch spell Ill Omen. Misfortune lets you force a re-roll on an enemy d20 roll with an immediate action, so if they do something like save against one of your spells or roll a 20 attacking you, you just say 'nope'. Ill Omen on its own gets very powerful for a level 1 spell at higher levels, but the real use for it is getting Quickened Ill Omen by level 10, which lets you wreck the target's next 3 d20 rolls with the wave of a hand.
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