Hello,
Our group wiped last game and we all created new level 9 characters. I'll be playing with a barbarian, a rogue, a 2 handed ranger and a zen archer.
So, yeah, no arcane, no divine.
I decided to fill in as a divine caster, and also help with AoE damage that we sorely lack. Never tried Fire Oracle, so went for it.
I plan to have a big initiative, throw a Fireball at the beginning of the fight, then heal or blast as needed. I know blasting isn't that optimal without a dip in sorcerer but, hey, still sounds fun.
Soooo, here's my question. I have A LOT of feats that I plan to take, and only 6 feats (5 for level 9, 1 for human).
In no specific order:
- Elemental spell (acid): for those pesky immune, seems mandatory, and might come up too often for me to just get a wand.
- Intensify Spell: Useful for Burning Hands, somewhat useful for Fireball if it's my specialized spell, and WILL be useful in the near future anyway.
- Empower Spell: Especially useful on Fireball, considering I'm taking Magic Lineage.
- Spell focus (Evocation): Self explanatory
- Spell Penetration OR Piercing Spell (dunno which one would be better)
- Spell Specialization (fireball) and/or Varysian tattoo.
- Improved Initiative.
I wanna go first on most cases, so Improved Init seems a given. Same with Empower. So I'm stuck deciding between 7 feats and 4 slots. And I might have missed some other stuff as well.
So, hey, any advice to make me a happy blaster (slash) bandaid (slash) divine caster ?
Thanks a lot ;)
Hello
I am no expert with blasting and the usefull metamagic feats but I do know my way around oracles and my lvl 9 one is also able blast with fire, but completely not specialized in it.
The most important thing for me as an oracle is to get additional spells known, so you can grab all the essentials and still have an option for the other slots. There are several ways you can gain more spells known (like expanded arcana feat or the fav class bonus for certain races), but I would recommend you the spirit guide archetype for this, which gives you one additional spell known per spell lvl and also has very good diversity, since you can swap out your shamanic side on a day to day basis. you loose alot of revelations through it but if you re not to fond of the flame revelations from the oracle you can get the same fire spells from the shaman side of the archetype.
The blackened curse, with a drawback that wont matter to you, can get you a decent choice of fire spells, altought no fireball (you get delayed firaball later on)this would free you up to take a completely different mysterie.
To the feats: I think you re focusing alot on the blasting, but your most important role might be to buff and support your group.
1. lvl feat should be divine scion which gives you charisma to initiative ( instead of improved initiative)
one metamagic feat I would strongly recommend is reach spell, there are sometimes situations where you don t want to or can t stand next to the group member who needs your support.
divine intervention could be a great lvl 11. feat.
for the other feats I think your looking at the right ones but I can t tell you the order you should take em.
Intensify spell can wait until 11th without much trouble; you can get a different attack spell to use in 2nd level slots if you're so inclined. If you do so then obviously you're not going to get both of spell spec & varisian tattoo.
If you're worried about spell penetration then the seeker archetype might help. Also pick up some Dweomer's Essence.
Noble Scion is awesome, didn't know about it. With it and the +2 init trait, that's going to give me +9 init, enough to play first most of the time.
Dweomer essence is a good idea as well. As for the Seeker archetype, it would be awesome, but we're not playing PFS.
So I'll probably go:
1: Noble Scion, Spell focus (evocation)
3: Varysian tatoo
5: Empower spell
7: Elemental spell (acid)
9: Spell Specialization (scorching ray)
I have the blackened curse, even if it overlaps.
This should give me a capped 10d6 fireball (and a 15d6 one with a 4 level slot) and a capped 4d6x3 Scorching Ray. Not too shabby for a healer.
Another way to do this is would be a Theologian archetype Cleric using the Fire Domain (or Arson subdomain). The ability to prepare your Domain spells and still be able to prepare any other needed spells is huge. Feats to consider: Elemental Focus, Greater Elemental Focus, Glorious Heat, and Burning Amplification. Theologians also get free metamagic every 5 levels, from a list of metamagic feats (one of which is Intensified Spell).
Don't forget Dazing Spell and Quicken Spell at levels 13 and 15.
Improved Counterspell might work too. You can counter blasts, which means you don't have to heal them afterwards. It can be a little passive, but if you also summon or have a companion somehow, it's still a fun and effective tactic. I used it to pretty good effect with a 3.5 druid.
Doesn't the human oracle favored class bonus add extra spells known?