TLDR: Not really a fan yet.
Spells:
First bit of confusion. The spell table lists the standard 5/2 level 1 cantrip/1st spell per day. But in the spell description it says we start with 3 1st level spells. Not sure which is the case. The Witch class states 3 spells at lvl 1 as well but shows it in their spell table.
Curses:
I'm not sure if it was a typo or not, but it says if we use the Casting a Spell action while under the effect of our Minor Curse Effect, we progress to the next stage of curse. Was this supposed to say use the Casting a Spell action for our Revelation Spell? If not this turns one of the main class mechanics into something that just feels punishing for the player rather than something they want to interweave into their gameplay.
Mysteries:
Battle: Seems pretty balanced. Compared to the other Mysteries though, there is A LOT less detrimental effects to the Oracle herself. Although I don't see myself casting the Revelation spells. Zeal spell just seems more potent.
Flame: I don't know why anyone would take this curse. All of these terrible things just for some increased Reflex saves seems pointless. I also don't understand why you become concealed from others at the Moderate Curse level. The fires are still illusionary then, how is it effecting other's interaction with you? The Major Curse effect just isn't worth entering into. MAYBE if it were 2d6+CHA fire damage aura, and you take CHA fire damage... I could see that. Keeps the theme, but doesn't completely cripple you.
Life: This I feel has a good mix of risk/reward added to it.
Feats:
Divine Element: This would be a good feat to take... if you could see past 30 feet. I don't know anyone who would cast Fireball or Meteor Swarm with a vision range of only 30 feet.
Greater Revelation: I assume when it says "... if you have Advanced Mystery feat..." it means Advanced Revelation feat.
Paradoxical Mystery: This just doesn't seem to have the same power level as the other two feats.
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Fireball and Meteor Swarm don’t suffer from a miss chance and you can still see targets at your minimum curse level.
So far, what I've seen is: Steep costs for minimum benefits. There's a lot of flavorful stuff, but seems like the whole class was narrowed down to a divination cleric.
I expected a lot more Mysteries. Only three is very lackluster. Also, the curses are varying wildly in terms of management, some are awful with bad benefits (Flame), others the entire playstyle is simply killing yourself while also gimping self-healing, while allowing some conditional types of healing. I honestly don't know what kind of Oracle you're supposed to be playing with it and will probably have to invest a s~*! ton in CON just to not die when somebody touches you. Life Mystery is just straight up suicide. You either use your stuff and is constantly at low HP mid-fight or you simply don't use them, which begs the question of what's the point of choosing it, then?
The only mystery that interested me, and seems like the best, was the Battle Mystery. If we're looking at good examples for the Oracle, I would consider the Battle Mystery the baseline power level and of benefits granted.
My favorite thing to play in Pathfinder 1e was a Rage Prophet. With what's being shown so far for oracle... I really don't see anything like that being possible.
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Flames Mystery is for spells that don't care about concealment; it even has a specific exception to the rule for fire spells. It actually seems really good to me.
Ahh I see the only vision that gets obstructed is creatures become concealed to you. Guess I read that wrong at first glance...
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The only mystery that interested me, and seems like the best, was the Battle Mystery.
I feel pretty much the exact opposite. Battle Mystery has the same problems as any other martial caster build and eating save and AC penalties is real rough.
Flames on the other hand seems pretty manageable since you can turn off the major penalty and ignore the moderate penalty when you cast fire spells, all while being concealed yourself.
Life definitely has problems, but it also outputs absolutely massive amounts of healing and later on damage against Undead too.
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I can't speak to how well the class functions in play yet, but I really like the direction the Oracle is going. I'm a big fan of "double-edged sword" abilities in games and I think the Oracle is a perfect fit for those kind of mechanics.
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The curse penalties are really bad to me, it could be fine if they gave something, but currently they just function as the focus limiting mechanic. A Oracle can't use focus powers more than a character that takes the level 10 and 16 feats (you get 1 free use per day at level 1 and when you take a feat to get another focus spell). That free use per day is not worth the curse at all.
In addition to the curse not being worth the 1/day extra focus use, they don't get benefits comparable to other casters. Bards, the closest comparison, get much better proficiencies in armor, saves, and weapons, flame oracles match them in saves at level 1, but lose out in weapons and armor. Battle oracles have better armor and slightly better weapons, but lose in saves at level 1. But in addition to those proficiencies at bard also gets composition cantrips! The Oracle is missing a huge part of making it comparable.
Bards have composition cantrips and Clerics have channel energy. The Oracle needs another interesting and useful ability to be comparable to those classes.
The only mystery that interested me, and seems like the best, was the Battle Mystery.
I feel pretty much the exact opposite. Battle Mystery has the same problems as any other martial caster build and eating save and AC penalties is real rough.
Flames on the other hand seems pretty manageable since you can turn off the major penalty and ignore the moderate penalty when you cast fire spells, all while being concealed yourself.
Life definitely has problems, but it also outputs absolutely massive amounts of healing and later on damage against Undead too.
Moderate Curse straight up makes it impossible to cast spells beyond 30ft, since the targets are hidden/undetected (no light of sight) and even if you somehow manage to pinpoint the square, it's still a flat DC 11 to succeed.
And I can't begin to see why a caster would be benefiting from a aura so late into the game, specially one that also kills you (unless spending an action keeps the aura going but without self-damage, in this case it's alright).
The only mystery that interested me, and seems like the best, was the Battle Mystery.
I feel pretty much the exact opposite. Battle Mystery has the same problems as any other martial caster build and eating save and AC penalties is real rough.
Flames on the other hand seems pretty manageable since you can turn off the major penalty and ignore the moderate penalty when you cast fire spells, all while being concealed yourself.
Life definitely has problems, but it also outputs absolutely massive amounts of healing and later on damage against Undead too.
Moderate Curse straight up makes it impossible to cast spells beyond 30ft, since the targets are hidden/undetected (no light of sight) and even if you somehow manage to pinpoint the square, it's still a flat DC 11 to succeed.
And I can't begin to see why a caster would be benefiting from a aura so late into the game, specially one that also kills you (unless spending an action keeps the aura going but without self-damage, in this case it's alright).
They are hidden unless they Sneak, so you can target them with 50% miss chance. They're intended to cast AoEs like fireball I think.
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Curses:
I'm not sure if it was a typo or not, but it says if we use the Casting a Spell action while under the effect of our Minor Curse Effect, we progress to the next stage of curse. Was this supposed to say use the Casting a Spell action for our Revelation Spell? If not this turns one of the main class mechanics into something that just feels punishing for the player rather than something they want to interweave into their gameplay.
The Oracular Curse section of the Playtest doc does say the curse effect only increases when you cast a revelation spell. Does it say something different elsewhere?
The first time after your daily preparations that you complete the Cast a Spell activity for a revelation spell, your minor curse manifests. Once your minor curse has manifested, it remains in effect until the next time you rest for 8 hours and make your daily preparations. If you cast a revelation spell while your minor curse is in effect, you progress to the moderate curse effect immediately after you finish Casting the Spell.
Curses:
I'm not sure if it was a typo or not, but it says if we use the Casting a Spell action while under the effect of our Minor Curse Effect, we progress to the next stage of curse. Was this supposed to say use the Casting a Spell action for our Revelation Spell? If not this turns one of the main class mechanics into something that just feels punishing for the player rather than something they want to interweave into their gameplay.
The Oracular Curse section of the Playtest doc does say the curse effect only increases when you cast a revelation spell. Does it say something different elsewhere?
The first time after your daily preparations that you complete the Cast a Spell activity for a revelation spell, your minor curse manifests. Once your minor curse has manifested, it remains in effect until the next time you rest for 8 hours and make your daily preparations. If you cast a revelation spell while your minor curse is in effect, you progress to the moderate curse effect immediately after you finish Casting the Spell.
It must have been updated, as it didn't originally state that. I'm glad to see they are on top of these simple clarifications ^_^
That would have been a quick update then. I only saw the "revised" version and I thought I got to it rather quickly.