the perfect hybrid where to go from here, Oracle feat advice

[Tyophelis]

Hello

I ve built an interesting character. It s a Lame Aasimar life Oracle, Spirit guide with 18 strenght and charisma, who uses the battle or fire spirit animal.

He can tank and melee decently, has a great channel as move action, decent buffs and if he uses the fire spirit he can blast often for some good aoe dmg. Normaly he fought with a spear and battle spirit but I m starting to use mainly shield and mace together with fire spirit.

Weaknesses are initiative, dex skill checks, hitpoints and jack of all trades- master of none.
He s the main healer & buffer of the grp, party face and also the one who s holding the grp together and on the righteous path. He also uses a tower card set.

The group consists of a warrior, barbarian, Inquisitor and transmutation wizzard.

I m just about to hit lvl 7 and don t know what feat I should take.
So far I have:

selectiv channel
heavy armor training
quick channel

I can channel as move action and would like to get the most out of my standart actions. Swift actions are mostly unused.

Is there a feat that would let me get the best out of action economy?

Is there a non meta magic feat to get more dmg out of my fireballs and burning hands?

Thank you for any suggestions.

[andreww]

Battle Cry will give you a bless effect as a swift action Cha mod times per day.

Toughness could help with your HP issue.

Expanded Arcana can net you 1 or 2 extra spells known which might mitigate some issues. I don't know what race you are but if human, half elf or half orc you should be taking extra spells known.

Noble Scion of War could have helped your Initiative but can only be taken at level 1. Otherwise Improved Initiative can help. Additional Traits could also assist by taking a +2 Initiative trait and something else, maybe getting a skill trained.

You only have 1 revelation so far so Extra Revelation is never a bad choice. Energy Body and Spirit Boost are decent. If you find you are casting healing spells in combat then Safe Curing.

If you are wanting to improve your melee damage then Power Attack.

Improving spell damage can be done either with metamagic feats or by increasing the DC improving the chance of the target failing the save. 18 charisma is fairly low for level 7 if you want to do much spellcasting. I would consider Spell Focus or Spell Penetration if meeting lots of enemies with SR. You might also want to invest in Burst of Radiance as a spell known.

Fire damage can be improved with the Goblin Fire drum.

[Tyophelis]

Thy for the detailed answer Andrew.

The race is Aasimar. I like alot of the suggestions. I ve considered improved initiative, power attack and additional traits, they are certainly in contention.

Battle cry is a good feat and would be nice as swift action, but I already have 2 or 3 ways to give a morale boost to the hole grp.

I m not very impressed with the Life revelations, so extra revelation is not in my plans. Energy body will be probably what i m going for as my second revelation.
I basicly keep the grp alive with my channels which are 5w6 and the odd heal spell, if someone gets realy low.

I don t want to use meta magic feats, I don t like the full round action nor the spell lvl increase, I might make an exeption but only at later stage, when I have higher lvl spells.
Spellfocus is a decent suggestion but I don t use many evocation spells.Would there be a feat chain that then would let me add more fire dmg?

I love the burst of radiance spell, will certainly try to get it asap. And the goblin fire drum is a very cool idea, but bit complicated to use.

[Aerodin]

Consider tribal scars. It will give you+5 movement +6 hp. That may help you a bit.

If you don't want to invest the feats and gear to be a stronger caster, focus on conjugation many spells have no saves and are Sr no.

If you have the int and you could improve your casting with arcane enlightenment from the lore spirit. Grab some pit spells, glitter dust, acid arrow etc. This will give you some blasting but you can also take some control sells. I like this option better because if you know your going up against some fire resistance you have other options.

This is a little later for you but divine interference at level 11.

Maybe fateful channelling I don't know who your God is but this is a nice feat.

Over all it looks like you are trying to do a lot of things. You might start feeling like you are not doing many of them effectively as you go forward if your group has optimized.

Going forward also look at the mammoth spirit it has some good buffing. I like it better than battle.

Combat roles

Buffer:
Your class is build for this. Use your spells fateful channelling and arcane enlightenment for haste.

Blaster:
Cha boosting items, spell focus/penetration. Fire spirit or arcane enlightenment.

Controller:
Arcane enlightenment focused of conjugation spells, haste and your inititive. Get improved inititive and the ioun stone to boost it and additional traits reactionary

Striker:
Strength boosting times. Pick a weapon 2 handed reach is likely best. Get power attack and if you have the Dex combat reflexes. Extra traits fates favoured with boost several important buffs for you.

Healer:
Shield other, life link, channel fey foundling is classic. You're eore of an emergency healer so I think you're fine. My oracle has been saved by combat healer but over all it's not used that often.

[Tyophelis]

Hi Aerodin

Thx for your answer. It s an Oracle of Saranrea, so the fire theme fits abit. When I created the character the intention was to be the main support class and stick things from behind with a spear.

But I found myself falling behind with the melee dmg and looked at the spirit guide more closely. Found the fire spirit, which help with movement and gives me some other options to use my spells on.

It wasn t the intention to build a jack of all trades, the char has just developed in this way.

Unfortunately my other scores are realy not that impressiv, 12 dex, 11 wis, 12 int or so. else arcane enlightenment would have been a great option.
I don t feel the need to pick up wizzard buffs, we have a transmuter and he knows his role, I can t do it all :-)

Tribal scars would have been amazing, but it really doesn t fit at all to the character story. But I ll certainly consider it for other chars.

I knew from the beginning that I didn t want to make a heal bot. But that I would need to be the main healer, so the live oracle with quick channel was the perfect fit, I can keep the grp up while doing other things, but I don t want to invest more into healing, fav class bonus and 2 feats is enough.
But the melee dmg is realy low compared to our barbarian and warrior. And since the wizzard isn t doing any aoe dmg atm I tought I can fil in those shoes with fireballs and the odd burning hands, since i have really not much use for so many 1st lvl spells.

I would love a feat that gives me +1 dmg per d6 to fire spells or something similar without adding spell lvls.

[andreww]

Aerodin wrote:

If you don't want to invest the feats and gear to be a stronger caster, focus on conjugation many spells have no saves and are Sr no.

The cleric list has basically none of these.

Quote:

If you have the int and you could improve your casting with arcane enlightenment from the lore spirit. Grab some pit spells, glitter dust, acid arrow etc. This will give you some blasting but you can also take some control sells. I like this option better because if you know your going up against some fire resistance you have other options.

This does not work for Oracles. The Lore spirit allows you to add spells to your prepared list. Oracles don't prepare spells.

Quote:

Going forward also look at the mammoth spirit it has some good buffing. I like it better than battle.

I wouldn't do this. Mammoth is pretty weak as a spirit option. Its bonus spells are OK but its Hex options are poor.

[andreww]

Tyophelis wrote:

I would love a feat that gives me +1 dmg per d6 to fire spells or something similar without adding spell lvls.

This isn't really available as a feat except via metamagic. You could take Intensified Spells and start dropping Burst of Radiance with better scaling automatic damage. Likewise its decent for Burning Hands. You wont see any benefit from it for Fireball for a long time.

If you really want to increase your spell damage then you could consider taking a level of crossblooded sorcerer. Picking Orc and draconic for your bloodlines can net you +2 damage per dice on spells of one elemental type.

[Tyophelis]

andreww wrote:

Tyophelis wrote:

I would love a feat that gives me +1 dmg per d6 to fire spells or something similar without adding spell lvls.

This isn't really available as a feat except via metamagic. You could take Intensified Spells and start dropping Burst of Radiance with better scaling automatic damage. Likewise its decent for Burning Hands. You wont see any benefit from it for Fireball for a long time.

If you really want to increase your spell damage then you could consider taking a level of crossblooded sorcerer. Picking Orc and draconic for your bloodlines can net you +2 damage per dice on spells of one elemental type.

I ve tought about dipping sorceror, but I really can t see my righteous good Assimar Oracle take the Orc Bloodline.

A other Option would be to become a Harrower at lvl 11. There are random buffs for the day, that add +1 to penetrate spell resistance, +1dmg to dice, or increase dc. I already have the deck, but loosing the Battle spirit Hex and channel progression is just a too high price.

[Vatras]

While playing my life oracle I found that my melee damage is not worth much past level 5, compared to the damage of melees and the HP of the mobs.
I had only the standard spells to use, so no fireball for me...I had to wait till flamestrike before raising hell. I could lay my hands on a staff of fire, though, which amounted probably to the same thing as the fire spirit.

I found no easy way to increase spell damage, which didn't involve a cost I wasn't willing to pay - I picked the class for a reason, and didn't want to water that main purpose down.
The best option would be metamagic rods, especially one of maximize, since they don't cost higher spell slots and anyone can use them.