| MageHunter |
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by Dragon Oracle. Is that a Mystery or 3rd party thing?
Anyhow, for a melee build, it doesn't have to be too complicated. Two-handed weapon + Power Attack + Furious Focus is a staple for 3/4 BAB builds.
I will note, that Oracles get access to Divine Favor and Divine Power, which are some of the best melee buff spells in the game. I would highly recommend using it, and the trait Fate's Favored which boosts the effect by 1.
| ShroudedInLight |
The Dragon Oracle is a mystery from Legacy of Dragons.
Its a rather good mystery, giving you Perception and Intimidate as class skills, some neat spells, and a few cool revelations. Dragon Magic allows you to cheat out Arcane spells, though you can only select it once so you need to pick your spells well.
As far as CC melee oracles go, you want to be a reach Oracle then. You'll want a decent Dex to make attacks of opportunity, and then try to stab/trip people who get close to you. It also allows you to make more attacks outside of your turn, letting you spend your turn on castin spells.
Dragon Oracles actually do quite well at intimidate builds too, thanks to gaining it as a class skill, Draconic Presense, and some Intimidate feats/cause fear.
| Meirril |
Looking at Dragon Oracle you could either spec yourself for melee, or play keep away. Dragon Oracle has access to early flight though Wings of the Dragon and Form of the Dragon revelations.
But, Oracles don't really have what anyone would call sustainable ranged attacks, so focusing on melee would probably be best.
First revelation should probably be Talons of the Dragon since that would allow you 2 attacks with no penalties at first level. The damage will be miserable, but its still impressive. You'll want to pick up Form of the Dragon so you can transform for the harder fights. You could reverse the order, since having the breath weapon from Form of the Dragon should end boss fights at early levels.
As for feats, Armor of the Pit seems natural (tiefling racial feat). Weapon Focus (claw) will help keeping up your natural attacks with other classes. You will need to use buffs to make up the rest of the difference. Power Attack is iffy. You start with an early game advantage in melee combat, but the further you go the farther behind you'll fall compared to full BAB classes. Mainly I'd recommend Extra Revelations as feats, and once you have everything you want retrain the feats when you pick up a revelation via class so you can assign the feat slot to something else.
It doesn't help that your natural attacks can't be enchanted. You probably want to pick up Greater Magic Weapon as a spell so you can use that to boost your claws like they were weapons. You'll also want to get an Amulet of Mighty Fists since it enhances all of your natural weapons. Instead of getting enhancement bonuses to hit and damage, get special abilities instead. Pick up corrosive, flaming, frost, spell storing, shock, or maybe Bane if there is one very common type of opponent. Amulet of Mighty Fists doesn't need a +1 bonus before it starts to add special abilities to your natural attacks. If you stack it with Greater Magic Weapon you'll get the most effect out of it that way. FYI: you have 2 claws to use Greater Magic Weapon on, so 2 castings. Too bad you can't pick up Greater Magic Fang.
With the build your considering, I'd pump strength to be equal to charisma, and don't forget to invest in con and probably dex. When you transform into dragon form you'll lose your armor unless it has a special property to not merge into your body. You might consider picking up the Dragon Magic at 6th level (via Extra Revelation feat) so you can get Mage Armor, and then at 10th level "retrain" Dragon Magic away to pick up Dragon Magic targeting Mage Armor and Mirror Image. Not having to pay for magic armor might make up for all the extra expense that Amulet of Might Fists is going to cause.
This seems like it could be interesting. Good luck.