Burn It! And Incendiary Aura build

[Ms. Bloodrive]

Hey there, so I was thinking about making a goblin and my first idea was flame oracle to get a boost from Burn it! I however didn't expected to have a focus Spells that pairs so nicely as incendiary aura, with them and the humble produce flame cantrip it does has a lot of potential at low level, it would be... 1d4+4 +2d4+1 or 12,5 average if my math is correct (it often isn't), that's pretty good, I mean... Since the 2d4+1 (6?) is persistent damage I just need to kindle each foe only once and watch them burn, that's just amusing specially is the one doing so is a goblin.

The problem is that the aura is somewhat small at the beginning, 10 foot is practically close range and once my curse kicks in I can't quite target anything beyond 30 feet, so... Besides being unbreakable instead of Charhide as I initially thought what could help to survive at melee range? Or I should simply play as a suicidal goblin arsonist? That's not a bad plan either...

[Schreckstoff]

if you take armor proficiency and the sentinel dedication you get access to heavy armor that scales to expert automatically.
That'd make lvl 1-3 pretty awkward however since you can't wear medium armor until lvl 3.

I asked for advice on a melee flame oracle build in this thread a while ago
Looking for the good low range damage spells for a flame oracle

[Gary Bush]

I ran a Goblin Flame Oracle in Plaguestone and did exactly what you suggest. I never ran up to combat before my meat shields. It does take be combat aware and when to move up and when not to move up.

The biggest challenge was getting the rest of the party to understand not to be close because I can't keep from setting them on fire as well!

[Ms. Bloodrive]

@Schreckstoff Oh! How interesting, it's pretty similar to what I'm trying to make here but less goblin.

Lot of good info there.

@Gary I didn't considered setting my allies on fire... I know I can and will do that if they take fire damage while in my aura but... Gotta keep an eye for enemies with fire attacks

[Leomund "Leo" Velinznrarikovich]

I made a kobold flame oracle. I chose the options that gives a breath of 15ft cone of fire. While it takes a round to wind up, it is fun to light several enemies on fire at a time. I plan to pick up burn it at level 5.

[iNickedYerKnickers]

This sounds like it may be stupidly fun!

Charhide Heritage and the Goblin Feats, "Burn It!" and "Torch Goblin," are must-haves, in my opinion. Additionally, the Goblin Feat, "Chosen of Lamashtu," allows Goblins to have two heritages. So, both Charhide and Unbreakable Goblin Heritages can be accomplished.

This begins to come online at Level 5 when "Torch Goblin" is available. This Goblin wants to be on fire (suffering Persistent Fire Damage), because she then deals additional fire damage with her attacks and when attacked. It may also server as a deterrent to being attacked when the bad guys learn that attack her burnses.

She does trade four Class Feats, in this build, for Archetypes: Alchemist Multiclass and Sentinel Archetypes.

Alchemist Dedication allows for (Level x 2) Lesser Alchemist's Fire Bombs per day mainly for setting herself on fire. Wade into Alchemist a bit more with "Basic Concoction" to learn "Quick Bomber" and she draw a bomb and set herself on fire in one action.

Combined with the General Feat "Armor Proficiency", this Sentinel Oracle may take full advantage of Heavy Armor. Additional Feats can be selected to maximize her abilities with Full Plate. With "Adopted Ancestry," for instance, she could take Dwarven "Unburdened Iron" and igore the speed penalty of full plate.

Alternatively, I think the build would be fun even if she didn't dual heritage or take Archetypes.

Unbreakable Charhide Goblin Flames Oracle (Starting as Charhide and a Worshipper of Lamashtu):

Ancestry Feats:
1st Level: Burn It! - Buff fire damage.
5th Level: Torch Goblin - Set yourself on fire...
9th Level: Chose of Lamashtu - Pick a second Goblin Heritage: Unbreakable.

Class Feats:
2nd Level: Sentinel Dedication - Wear Medium Armor, or Heavy Armor if the Armor Proficiency General Feat is taken.
4th Level: Steel Skin (Sentinel) - Any armor you wear effectively gains the Comfort trait.
6th Level: Armor Specialist - Gain Armor Specialization effects and meets the condition to allow a second Archetype Dedication.
At 8th or 10th Level: Alchemist Dedication - This is mainly to make [Character Level] x 2 Lesser Alchemist's Fire Bombs at daily prep for an additional source of fire damage.
beyond that: [url=https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1492]Advanced Revelation, 6th and Greater Revelation, 12th...
otherwise: I'dun'no... More Sentinel Feats? Dig deeper into Alchemist Archetype? Take some more Oracle Feats?? Profit?

General Feats:
1st Level: Adopted Ancestry:
Dwarf: Undburdened Iron - Ignore armor speed reduction.
Halfling: Distracting Shadows - Hide behind larger allies to approach the bad guys.
Kobold: Scamper - Reposition with 5-foot speed boost.
Orc: Orc Ferocity - Become harder to knockout. [However, this one might be considered an innate ancestry feat and invalid for Adopted Ancestr.]
Shoony: Scamper Underfoot - Bonuses to Tumble Through bad guys' squares.

1st Level: Armor Proficiency - Wear Medium Armor.
1st Level: Diehard - Be harder to kill
1st Level: Fleet - Move faster.
1st Level: Toughness - Be more harder to kill.
3rd Level: Ancestral Paragon - Convert a General Feat into a 1st Level Ancestry Feat:
Goblin: Bouncy Goblin - Bonuses to Acrobatics and Tumble Through, and sets up for Unbreakable-er Goblin
Goblin: Twitchy - Bonuses versus hazards and to Initative Rolls.
Goblin: Very Sneaky - Bonuses to Stealth and pairs well with halflings' Distracting Shadows, and her sets up for Very Very Sneaky.

[Schreckstoff]

If you do play this I'd consider asking the DM to fast track lvl 1 a little because your lvl 1 is gonna be very awkward.

With a 16 in str and 18 in cha there's not a lot left to invest in dex. Running around with 15-16AC and 15 health is a recipe to die A LOT.
If you go Unbreakable Goblin you'd at least have 19 life.

Come lvl 2 you get Medium armor with Sentinel dedication and lvl 3 heavy with armor proficiency so your AC jumps rapidly if you can afford/have access to armor.

[Ms. Bloodrive]

@Leo that build is juts fantastic! The only thing that bothers me is worshiping Lamashtu but then again it is a goblin so it wouldn't be so rare, Chaotic Neutral I guess

I've been considering torch goblin, not sure if worth it but as you said, bad guys will rather not touch a crazed goblin on fire hehehe! I gotta try something along those lines one of these days, if the game starts at level 3+ all the better to avoid the AC issue

[Gortle]

Armour Specialist and Steel Skin are SKILL feats not CLASS feats. There are quite a few of these now in APG and as far as I know they have not been errated, it was a design choice.

So you have space for some more class feats.

[shroudb]

Schreckstoff wrote:

If you do play this I'd consider asking the DM to fast track lvl 1 a little because your lvl 1 is gonna be very awkward.

With a 16 in str and 18 in cha there's not a lot left to invest in dex. Running around with 15-16AC and 15 health is a recipe to die A LOT.
If you go Unbreakable Goblin you'd at least have 19 life.

Come lvl 2 you get Medium armor with Sentinel dedication and lvl 3 heavy with armor proficiency so your AC jumps rapidly if you can afford/have access to armor.

you also need 14 Int by the time you want to grab Alchemist dedication.

plus bombs are dex based, and while they would still do their splash on the main target on a miss, I think the true strength of them+flame oracle is when you hit and do the persistent on ALL targets (since they would all take the splash damage then)

torch goblin+strength melee is a nice damage bonus, but i believe that instantly setting 2-3 targets with the persistent damage on a single hit is stronger than having to hit each one of them individually with melee strikes.

So it does become extremely MAD build.

Ao i would probably go towards this build with something like this:

ignore strength and Sentinel.

Instead go for a Dex build and pick up Alchemist at 2 instead of 8-10.

You can start with 16 dex, 14 int, 18 cha and a 12 in anything else you want like Con (or 10 in wisdom)

You'd be 1 less AC than going Sentinel, but alternatively you can use some Drakehearts (instead of full alchemist fires) till level 4 and get that +1 to AC from there.

I say till level 4 because at that level two things happen:
a)you get +1 to your armor so there's no longer need for drakeheart
b)but more importantly you can pick up Quick bomber and now you can in the same turn activate your aura and throw a bomb. Plus, having them being 1 action instead of 2 is a pretty massive upgrade

so something like this:
2: alchemist dedication
4: quick bomber
6+8: expert aclhemy+divine access (alchemy gives level 3 bombs access gives fireballs, the order is up to you)
10: whatever you want
12: greater revelation (fussilade)
14: forestall (you can pick up master alchemy here if you dont want forestall for some early level 9 items instead)
16: master alchemy (level 11 bombs)

[Ms. Bloodrive]

Well, the iconic alchemist is now a goblin so it makes a lot of sense... Fireball is pretty much a necessity but I'm not sure if I need to upgrade my bombs at every chance to be stay relevant, I'm not too familiar with with the 2e alchemist, tried to make one like the 1e beastmorph but failed... It's pretty different with the alchemical item being just items and not Spells of sort.

Anyways, I agree that the splash damage is a huge boost to my capacity of setting things on fire, my gm tends to put enemies adjacent to each other or very close.

[shroudb]

Ms. Bloodrive wrote:

Well, the iconic alchemist is now a goblin so it makes a lot of sense... Fireball is pretty much a necessity but I'm not sure if I need to upgrade my bombs at every chance to be stay relevant, I'm not too familiar with with the 2e alchemist, tried to make one like the 1e beastmorph but failed... It's pretty different with the alchemical item being just items and not Spells of sort.

Anyways, I agree that the splash damage is a huge boost to my capacity of setting things on fire, my gm tends to put enemies adjacent to each other or very close.

level 3 bombs (that you can get on level 6 with MC) are basically "+1 striking" and level 11 bombs (that you can get at level 16 with MC) are "+2 greater striking"

So as an MC you are lagging a bit behind them being full on-level runed weapons but are still servicable due to basically changing their splash from "2-3 damage" to "2-3 +3-6d4 persistent"

as i said, you can prioritise fireball ofver level 3 bombs if that fits your playstle more (grab access at 6 and expert alchemy at 8)

upgrading the bombs comes with 2 benefits: higher +attack bonus, and higher main target damage.

If you want to live on edge, you can instead use quicksilver potions, which would keep your +item bonus for bomb attacks on par with max runes (or even better) for your level (+2 at 6 so 4 levels earlier, +3 at 16 so even) with all your bombs.

but that comes with the suicidical -4 to Con basically (-2 hp/level -2 Fort)

---

an alternative way to build is disregarding higher alchemy levels:

if you only want to treat your bombs as easy aoe activators, and have other ways for single target damage (like fussilade at 12+) then you can instead go with something like this:

2: alchemist MC
4: quick bomber
6: divine access

(somepoint after 12): directional bombs

just make sure to buy and keep up to date "alchemist googles" for the +item bonus on Bomb attacks since that one can keep your attack bonus on par with weapon runes even on level 1 bombs.

[Ms. Bloodrive]

That later suggestion seems good to me, I mostly want to use the bombs to set them on fire, knowing my GM he will make foes spend Actions trying to extinguish the fire and that's less action they use to hit me, or so I hope