Ganzi Life Oracle

[Erushin Laaslir]

I'm building a Ganzi Pei Xin Practicioner ( Divine Herbalist on PFSRD ).

I went Ganzi for the FCB, which allows me to pick up Enchantment school spells 1 level below the highest I can cast from Sorcerer/Wizard list. At 1, I'll grab Daze, 4 Bungle/Charm Person.

For a Curse, I grabbed Elemental Imbalance (can't decide between Earth/Water). Earth gets Grease and Glitterdust at 1 and 5, while Water gets Hydraulic Push and Frigid Touch. I think I'll flavor it as being plant magic, Vines and such

I look to do battlefield control and act as a party HP battery through Life Link and Swift action Lay on Hands.

It's a 20 point buy, 2 trait Second Darkness game

A few questions..
Is it worth it to wait for Life Link at 3 to have Fey Foundling at 1?
Water or Earth for Elemental Imbalance?
Ranged or Melee? I lean ranged but the party has at least 3 melee so I'd be fighting against -4 for shooting against threatened enemies.
And what should I do about score wise?

If I dump STR, I could go

Pt. Buy:

Str: 7
Dex: 14
Con: 18 (+2 Racial, +1 4th level) (15)
Int: 10 (-2 Racial) (12)
Wis: 10
Cha: 18 (+2 Racial) (16)

Lastly, how would you flavor the Protean heritage? I was thinking flickering, coruscating irises/ chromatically variant hair and base it off of mood and spells being cast.

[Erushin Laaslir]

Bump, he said lonely-ly

[Rysky]

The Protean flavoring sounds cool.

[Mister Fishman]

Hi I love life oracle's and I've never posted here but I wanted to just for this post.

1. Absolutely wait to take life link. You can have links = to level active, so three is your usual party of four. Also life link can kill you really easily at low levels. Also fey foundling is an amazing feat that scales and keeps you topped off.

2. Grease and Glittersuat stay relevant and require much less investment, so I'd go for those.

3. Ranged is easier and safer, if the battery gets smacked it's harder to so your job. You could try for spells that target touch ac, or just focus on healing / control and let the team sort them out.

4. Unfortunately I know nothing about proteans.

5.Free bonus advice. I highly recommend taking extra revelation for channel at some point + selective channeling. Energy body is cool for immunities but is largely not worth it imo. Sheild other will make your party love you, take it when you can. If you have any questions feel free to ask, also sorry if there are typos I did this before bed on my phone.

[Erushin Laaslir]

Mister Fishman, I was definitely planning on grabbing Channel.

I appreciate the advice, my buddy's 2nd character, which made it through Reign of Winter, was a Life Oracle and he said similar things about not being strong enough to tank.

Channel would be my 3rd level feat and I'd be hard pressed not to get Selective but I might go with Toughness and try and save Channel as an "oh s***" button heal and something I could pop as a standard

Energy Body would be soooo much better if it scaled the d6s up for extra Fey Foundling heals.

At low level, Quibble Daze combo seems gnarly. Plus, as a support, it's nice to pop on teammates that roll a natural 1

Again thanks so much man

[Magda Luckbender]

I've GMd for a variety of Life Oracles. I agree that Fey Foundling is really really nice! The most effective Life Oracles I've GMd for had high STR and used reach tactics. I recall one Life Oracle who consistently did more melee damage than most melee specialists, while ALSO performing all the standard functions of a Life Oracle. At the same time.

Suggestion: it's possibly a bad idea to dump Strength on this character. Basic martial competence changes the nature of your character from one who must be protected to one who protects others. It's totally worth the slight decrease in specialization that comes with slightly lower other attributes

Consider increasing this PC's defensive power by taking basic martial competence. This means Strength of 14+ and a reach weapon, such as a longspear. STR 14 is the magic number. In the event that foes try to get close you'll sometimes be able to trip or skewer them, which reduces incoming damage far more than, say, carrying a shield.

Here's an example of how this works.

[Erushin Laaslir]

Magda Luckbender wrote:

I've GMd for a variety of Life Oracles. I agree that Fey Foundling is really really nice! The most effective Life Oracles I've GMd for had high STR and used reach tactics. I recall one Life Oracle who consistently did more melee damage than most melee specialists, while ALSO performing all the standard functions of a Life Oracle. At the same time.

Suggestion: it's possibly a bad idea to dump Strength on this character. Basic martial competence changes the nature of your character from one who must be protected to one who protects others. It's totally worth the slight decrease in specialization that comes with slightly lower other attributes

Consider increasing this PC's defensive power by taking basic martial competence. This means Strength of 14+ and a reach weapon, such as a longspear. STR 14 is the magic number. In the event that foes try to get close you'll sometimes be able to trip or skewer them, which reduces incoming damage far more than, say, carrying a shield.

Here's an example of how this works.

I'm usually the type to agree but the character concept sort of hinges on Hippocratic Oath, do now harm stuff. Plus I'm working toward grabbing Healer's Touch and damage pushes back progression on that. The Haunt Channeler VMC Magus and the Bloodrager in the party are putting down fat damage and now that the UnRogue hit 3, he's picking up.

That said, if I hadn't already rolled the character, I think I'd def consider your strat.

[Erushin Laaslir]

I think also, I should mention a few updates and inquiries.

I decided to tack on the Inerrant Voice archetype which affords some fun things, chief among them Shield Other is the mystery spell gained at 2. Effectively, I'm gaining access to it one level earlier than a Cleric and also casting at one slot lower than usual.

At 3, I lost the revelation that one usually gets there in exchange for the ability to select someone as a ward. I can, 1/day, cast an Abjuration spell on my Ward as an Immediate action.

Shield Other has gotten limited use, as it seems like no PC that I shield gets hit, but using my level 3 feat, I grabbed Life Link via Extra Revelation. LL has been a godsend. In the most recent session, we were tasked with freeing a Ratfolk pup, 2 Human babies, and a Halfling baby from a crime boss slave trader's compound. Sneaking in with invisibility, we grappling hooked up to the second story window of the room adjacent to the nursery. We snuck into the nursery, liberated the babies, and all jumped out, LL topping off even the most severely hurt members in a mere 2 rounds.

Rant over, now for questions.

I'm roleplaying her as a Human Druid, not a Ganzi Oracle.
How can I seed that she isn't Human, when the character doesn't even know it?

Does Spiritual Weapon and Summon Monster count as you dealing damage?

At level 5, I'm torn between grabbing Channel Revelation with my feat or getting Craft Wondrous. Both have S-Tier support value.

I am also considering dipping Grasping Vine Shaman - Life Spirit for a separate pool of Channel Energy and a Valet familiar for rapid magic item production.

TLDR; How can I develop and seed that my character isn't a Human Druid?

As a DM, would you rule damage dealt by Spiritual Weapon and Summons as my character dealing damage?

Channel Positive Energy (3d6), Curse Progression grants Glitterdust or Craft Wondrous, CPE (1d6), 2x Craft Speed +4 Craft Checks Familiar (but delayed spell progression)?

Bonus Question: @magda, How can I contribute to combat when I can't rely on Daze and can't/don't want to deal damage?