I'm making an evil Oracle (probably LE) who, due to certain events in his/her life, despises all undead and necromancers. I was wondering if there were any evil deities who dislike undead and would empower an oracle in order to destroy them.
Yes, I know Oracles do not have to worship a single deity or follow a code like a cleric, but I'd like to at least determine which deity (or deities) granted him/her powers in the first place. Pharasma is an obvious choice and is most likely one of them, but she is not evil.
So, are there any evil deities who hate undead?
EDIT: Also, this is a battle oracle with the Life Mystery for energy channeling fun! I wouldn't mind any feats, tips, etc, in regard to building a good undead-slaughtering battle oracle.
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Oracles are almost a group project for deities. You often have multiple deities all powering the same oracle. Sometimes deities of different and even opposing alignments may power the same oracle.
You may not even know or ever find out who is the source of your power. Sometimes oracles are not even willing but have their power forced on them. The deity you worship could even be opposed to those granting you power. So while a oracle is a divine caster their choice of deity has about as much impact on the game as that of a fighter.
Oh, I thought the deities would at least have to be close in alignment with each other. That makes things easier!
I didn't plan on the character knowing the source of her power, but I just figured it would help flavor-wise.
Thank you Mysterious Stranger.
@Cavall
Yes, that would be difficult to mix with the life mystery....That is another route I could take this character though.
Most deities don´t like undead much. I imagine Lamashtu may be strongly opposed to them, as she has a fertility aspect that the undead stand in opposition with (and thus works well as a life oracle), and Rovagug can see it as an attempt to cheat the destruction he/she/it brings.
Pharasma can work out okay, imo. An oracle doesn´t have to follow the church dogma, and as a deity of prophecy and fate she can be interpreted to also be a supporter of divinely mandated social order, including, say, tyranny. The class description mentions that an oracle´s power can come from many sources, so there are quite a few archdevils, greater Daemons and all matter of other beings your character can get their power from.
Personally, I think making a conscious "bargain" with Pharasma for your powers in return for (limited) service may work perfectly well for a LE oracle, and she is the closest thing I can think of that also makes sense for the life mystery. You can also go with a few other lesser powers, such as Eiseth or Achaekak - the first is very strongly tied to vengeance, while the second as the "slayer of the gods" is can be interpreted to be opposed to those who seek to cheat death or the divine order by undeath. There are tens of others infernal dukes, asura rana, rakshasa immortals and so on whom we only know the name and title of, so you have some room for improvisation.
I liked the idea of making a deal with Pharasma. I decided to choose the haunted curse, but then I realized that it might not sit well with Pharasma.
The ghosts haunting her would be some of the people from her home town she indirectly killed (she was deceived into helping a necromancer). They blame her for their deaths and refuse to move on, haunting her out of spite.
However, this means she is technically interfering with the movement of souls to the Boneyard just by living. Would Pharasma be fine with this as long as the oracle doesn't let anything evil befall the spirits or should I scrap this idea?
Alternatively I could make the oracle sort of like a "beacon" for lost souls. They'd sense her presence and be attracted to her. She would protect them until a psychopomp could escort them to the Boneyard.
I'd prefer the former, but I'm not sure it could work. What do you guys/gals think?
I like your first suggestion a lot My Self. I'll probably use that one.
Four Horseman could work too. Can't raise someone as an undead if their soul got eaten.
Groetus probably wouldn't have much stomach for undead. He might, for his own inscrutable reasons, create a life oracle to combat them.
I'm making an evil Oracle (probably LE) who, due to certain events in his/her life, despises all undead and necromancers. I was wondering if there were any evil deities who dislike undead and would empower an oracle in order to destroy them.
Yes, I know Oracles do not have to worship a single deity or follow a code like a cleric, but I'd like to at least determine which deity (or deities) granted him/her powers in the first place. Pharasma is an obvious choice and is most likely one of them, but she is not evil.
So, are there any evil deities who hate undead?
EDIT: Also, this is a battle oracle with the Life Mystery for energy channeling fun! I wouldn't mind any feats, tips, etc, in regard to building a good undead-slaughtering battle oracle.
I think pharasma is your main to!
Many of Pharasma's worshipers are those closely aligned with either burgeoning life or terminating death. These include midwives, grave diggers, and morticians. Her priests are typically clerics, diviners, and necromancers that choose not to create undead. Her followers view the undead with hatred and consider them a great abomination. They view putting the undead to rest as a holy duty. The creation of undead is outlawed, and commanding undestroyed undead is not much liked either
In addition to what's already been said, I would just add that the divine deific "sources" of power
may themselves not have intended to create/grant powers to the Oracle, or even be aware of the connection,
the class simply says the Oracle was "selected by providence", NOT selected by any of the deities in question,
so you can just as easil view the Oracular powers as tapping into some latent divine energy,
i.e. the same energy the gods are tapped into, but not necessarily under their exclusive control.
(consistent with fact that many domains are "shared"" by deities, even who are enemies/non-allies)
I would consider Osirioni pantheon, Horus and Ra are LN with Sun Domain (Pos Energy/Anti-Undead),
with somewhat focus on life-related thigns (Animal) and/or human civilization (Nobility) which Undead are affront/challenge to.
Your thematic interests seem to overlap with a character of mine who was a "Dayborn" Dhampir,
that ended up being a Separatist Cleric of Nex with Sun and Thought Domains,
seeing Nex as epitome of Human(oid) achievement of power vs un-natural undead domineering Humans etc.
But again, conscious deific involvement in gaining your powers is un-necessary,
so choice of deity worship isn't particularly more important than for a Fighter.
How set are you on following a deity? I mean, there are several forces with deity-like powers out there. The Four Horsemen are an example, but if it's about undead destruction, who could be more interested than creatures from the Positive Energy Plane?
The bestiaries contain few inhabitants of the Positive Energy Plane so far, and they are all neutral or even good. But hey, with permission of the GM you could make up an evil entity deep in the plane. It could be overzealous when combatting negative energy, to the point where it destroys everything with a little connection to it. It could be the result of a corruption - while gods can't interfere with the plane, maybe the Abyss itself can. Or it's a malicious Solar Pitri, with a very twisted version of perfection.
No matter why, it's shiny and evil. And you are its shiny, evil messenger.
Really great suggestions in here. Thanks for all your help! I kind of mixed all of your ideas together with a few of mine.
I decided against Pharasma being the only source of her powers. This let me keep my idea of having her be haunted by the ghosts of her ex-friends/family.
Her family were Abadar worshipers and that's where her lawful tendencies come from (not powers though). She gets her powers simply by tapping into the positive energy plane. She was born with a natural connection to it and some powerful, neutral being there strengthened that connection.
Her evil side comes from being way too zealous in her crusade against undeath. She primarily worships Pharasma, but occasionally prays to Abadar, Ra and, Horus (I found out another party member worships those two Osirioni deities and we decided that he introduced them to her).
Add Anubis to the list of Osirion deities she worships. He's the god of "burial, the dead, funeral rites, mummification, tombs," and probably dislikes undead. He's also lawful neutral, which means you can worship him if you're lawful evil, and take the Fateful Channel feat. This is ludicrously powerful for a life oracle.