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Hi everyone.
I'm currently playing a Dual-Cursed Winter Oracle, with Blackened as primary curse, 1-level dip in Sorcerer Crossblooded Orc/Draconic, damage oriented using fire spells. I've chosen the Winter Mystery for flavour reason, as I'm playing the Reign of Winter AP (even if I'm starting to regret this choice). I'm still at the beginning of the AP, so I can still change my build.
Here some specifics:
- This character is a Gnome (Pyromaniac) and uses a Mauler familiar as a mount, obtained as a Bloodline Familiar through the Sorc dip, thus I need Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) to unlock the Battle Form 3rd level familiar ability, or at least Boon Companion. The familiar gives also a +4 to Init and helps a lot lowering enemies' saving through demoralizing them.
- The GM allowed Leadership, that I'm going to take at 7th level. The cohort will be a Wizard with crafting feats we have already met during the campaign.
- I suppose that Spell Perfection is an almost mandatory choice, thus I need to choose THE spell and 3 metamagic feats.
Since the AP lasts up to 17th level, I've just 9 feat-slots, 6 or 7 of which are already occupied (6 with Boon Companion, 7 with Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage):
1 Skill Focus (Knowledge[Planes]) or Boon Companion
3 Eldritch Heritage or -
5 Metamagic 1
7 Leadership
9 Metamagic 2
11 -
13 Metamagic 3
15 Spell Perfection
17 -
How do I build him? Some possible routes are:
1) Blast: Intensify (to be used on Burning Hands up to 10th level), Empower, Quickened Spells and Scorching Ray as perfect spell.
2) Control: Intensify (as above), Persistent, Dazing Spells and Wall of Fire as perfect spell.
3) Take Improved Eldritch Heritage at 11th and add a new spell from the wiz/sorc spell list and choose the metamagic feats around it.
4) A combination of the above?
I was planning to add Spell Penetration and Greater, but, without the various Spell Focus, Elemental Focus and Greater versions, the DCs are quite low, making some blasts quite useless at higher levels, as well as almost all the control spells, i.e. Dazing Spells.
Thank you very much for your advice, I'm not so new to PF, but I'm definitely new to the high-level game, so I don't know how much this build is viable. Bye!
Another option is to go Oracle VMC Wizard (Evocation (Admixturer)). This gives you the Arcane School ability to change the elemental damage type and descriptor of your spells on the fly a few times per day, starting at 7th level, and also gives you a Familiar at 3rd level, and this is full progression instead of the stunted (even with Boon Companion) Familiar that you would get with Bloodline Familiar. Expensive on feats, but may be worth it (the Wizard 1st level Arcane School Power that you get at 7th level is the equivalent of getting Elemental Spell with all 4 elements, although if all your Evocation spells are of 1 type, for practical purposes it is 3 elements -- still not a bad deal; also, as noted above, you are relieved of the need for Boon Companion). Later, VMC Wizard gives you a Cantrip (at 11th level, and don't dump Intelligence or you won't get it -- this is the worst part of this VMC but you might still be able to get some use out of it), then a Wizard Arcane Discovery (at 15th level), and then the 8th level Arcane School Power (at 19th level).
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The problem with this approach is that it doesn't resolve the issue of low DCs. The dip in sorcerer is what actually makes the whole concept mechanically useful, and I'm already feat starving! The loss of the 3rd level feat is equivalent to 2 feats (Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage), while the loss of the 15th level feat is equal to a regular feat spent on metamagic. So I actually lose 4 feats to gain 3 ones, with a net loss of 1 feat. I can't lose the static damage to spells AND 1 feat: I would still have the problem of low DCs, but I would also deal much less damage.
Moreover, this is a very thematic campaign. 3/4 of the enemies are immune to cold and vulnerable to fire. If someone will ever be fire resistant, it would be because he spied on our party and buffed himself before the encounter :D In that case, a rod of Elemental Spells[Acid] will be enough.
This is geared towards Wizard, but you might be able to apply some of The Blockbuster Wizard guide to your Oracle build. For dealing with Save DC problems while adding control, the metamagic feat Persistent Spell (paid for out of your own spell slot increase) + a Rod of Dazing Spell might be the way to go once you get 5th level spell slots.
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How about just being a winter oracle with spirit guide archetype to pick up flame? At third level you can apply the hex of fire vulnerability every time you blast. And you'd have the versatility to pick up other options with other spirits.
Or... Go flame oracle and spirit guide so that you can have a wide range of spell choices at level 3, but always have the flames available. Blasting with fire in a cold AP sounds like a great decision to me.
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Going on fire in this AP is a great idea indeed :) The point is that I already started as Dual Cursed Oracle, and I used the Misfortune revelation a lot. It's very useful for all the party, and I don't feel it would be a good idea getting rid of it. The Dual Cursed archetype removes the first 3 mystery spells, so no Fireball from the Flame mystery.
I think I will continue with the Winter mystery and I'm going to ask my gm if I can pick both the Dual Cursed and the Spirit Guide archetypes. RAW I couldn't, because they both modify bonus skills, but mechanically it's not a problem: the Spirit Guide substitutes mystery skills with Knowledge, then the Dual Cursed archetype just removes them. Same the other way around: the Dual Cursed removes all mystery skills, so the Spirit Guide has nothing to substitute.
If my gm let me do this, I'll have a couple of feat-slots free that I'm going to use to raise DCs. I think I'm going to select the Flame spirit, mainly to get Fireball. A question: does the Arcane Enlightenment hex of the Lore spirit work with Oracles?
EDIT: Answer: no it doesn't
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I've done a sorceress with a dip in winter oracle before - getting the revelation to add Slow to your cold spells is great. Having the bloodline power (or wizard school) to make any elemental spell into cold was the heart of the build.
A spell you might look at: Sheet Lightning. It's only one damage, but you can make it cold, which makes it interesting for Rime and Revelation. Not something to build around though.
There's also a one level dip into the winter witch archetype to raise the DC of your cold spells, but then you can not learn any more fire spells in any class. You can keep the spells you already know and cast them as cold though.
Oh, and a Voidfrost Robe helps too.
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Yes, but I want to play an Oracle (blaster!), not a Witch :D
I suppose I'll go this way:
Traits:
Magical Lineage [Fireball] (taken with the Spirit Guide archetype)
Affinity for the elements [fire] (+1 DCs of [fire] spells)
Feats:
1 Elemental focus [fire]
3 Boon Companion (in order to get a mountable familiar)
5 Intensify Spell
7 Leadership
9 Empower Spell
11 Greater Elemental focus [fire]
13 Quicken Spell
15 Spell Perfection [Fireball]
17 Spell Penetration
Revelations:
1 Misfortune
5 Icy Skin
11 Ice Armor
13 Fortune
*Ring of revelation [Child of Winter]
I'm going to buy a lesser metamagic rod of Dazing Spell and one (or more) of Selective Spell. I'll also buy a Blazing Robe and an Orange Prism Ioun Stone in order to raise my CL vs SR. The Eternal Hope racial trait and the Misfortune and Fortune revelations should help with that.
Any thoughts? Any other good item to include? Any substitution? I hope that DCs and CL vs SR will be high enough...
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Almost any enemy is immune to cold damage and vulnerable to fire, and I'm specializing on blasting with fire. Freezing Spells is almost useless. I'm considering the idea to choose Flame Strike as perfect spell, and pick Dazing-Persistent-Quickened Spell. In this case I wouldn't need the Spirit Guide archetype, I would have more revelations and I would select Freezing Spells too.