Pathfinder 2e Life Link Oradin Build?

[RyanH]

One of my favorite characters in terms of diversity of options each round, and being a fun party contributor was a life link Oradin.

I like melee and combat options... could focus on ranged (better for a life-linker), but does anyone have any interesting Lifelink Oradin type builds?

[Blave]

What exactly do you want/expect of your character? It's pretty simple to play a life oracle with champion dedication - or vice versa. Not sure how effective this'll be compared to PF1 though, since I've never seen an oradin in action.

[The Raven Black]

IIRC the Oradin was taking damage in place of their allies and healing themselves through lay on hands when getting too low on HPs, while attacking with the full power of a Paladin the rest of the time.

[Blave]

Yeah, I'm familiar with the basic concept. But it probably wont work too well in PF2 since you can't spam Lay on Hands due to limited Focus Points especially if you already spend one of them on Life Link. Hence my question what part of the build OP wants to focus on.

[HumbleGamer]

Blave wrote:

Yeah, I'm familiar with the basic concept. But it probably wont work too well in PF2 since you can't spam Lay on Hands due to limited Focus Points especially if you already spend one of them on Life Link. Hence my question what part of the build OP wants to focus on.

I feel the same.

@OP: I think that you might find a similar effect by taking the witch dedication for the Basic lesson ( lesson of life > Life boost ).

You'll give your allies fast healing ( which gives them a fast healing factor equal to the hp you would have transfered with a life link spell of the same level, if you had been a pure spellcaster ) from distance ( 30 yd ). This could be played as "your life force", or something similar.

You'd also could provide tanking with your reaction, quick block ( extra shield block ), shield of the righteous, divine reflexes, and so on.

Finally, you are going to have your own familiar!

[SuperBidi]

Rules have changed so much between PF1 and PF2 that I would not expect any build from PF1 to be available in PF2.
In PF2, Paladin and Oracle don't work together much. If you are an Oracle you won't be a martial, if you are a Paladin, you don't benefit much from what the Oracle gives you as casting Life Link will reduce the healing you take and ultimately makes you Flat-Footed.

So, no, the combo isn't there any more.

[Captain Morgan]

Paladins also can now directly draw aggro much better thanks to their reaction. The life link version was nice because you couldn't force an enemy to attack you instead of a friend, which isn't the case anymore. You could also get Shield Other on a champion through multiclassing or the companion crown item.

Starting oracle and going into champion has some appeal. Heavy armor, Lay on Hands, and champion's reaction are all nice for Frontline casting. You won't necessarily see huge gains at first though, as you'll need to pump your strength or over armor penalities. If you can get a decent strength, though, you might as well use your ancestry feats for a good melee weapon.

You won't be able to spam LoH and Life Link in every combat until 11th. And the minor curse reduced the appeal of LoH on yourself and the moderate and major cursed won't be improved by it. You may be better off multiclassing into Angelic Sorcerer, which can provide a bunch of extra spell slots and a focus spell to further amplify them. Or even cleric to get selective channeling.

[AlastarOG]

Life mystery oracle going into redeemer champion is a good way to mitigate damage to your team as well as debuff the ennemies.

Main downside is that you are the weak link in this equation and thus the best target.

[Captain Morgan]

AlastarOG wrote:

Life mystery oracle going into redeemer champion is a good way to mitigate damage to your team as well as debuff the ennemies.

Main downside is that you are the weak link in this equation and thus the best target.

Which is why heavy armor helps, even more so if you can fit a shield into your action routine. You actually wind up with the same 10hp a level most martials have.

[RyanH]

Thanks for all the responses. This gives me some things to mess around with building (will look at the Witch dedication!).

What I was asking about/looking for, was I enjoyed the life link/lay-on-hands all handled with free actions, so still had the ability to do interesting things with the rest of my turn... including melee. Helping my party, and the management of how far to go before laying-on-hands, while taking their and my damage was fun. (Ultimate Mercy for Raise Dead with 10 uses of LOH was pretty handy too.)

[RyanH]

I guess to be more general, without focusing on that exact build, what I'm looking for is a build that allows me to boost/aid my allies in interesting ways while still getting to participate in the violence (have useful combat actions to take.)

And I like choices each round, sometimes painful choices of "do I do this good thing or this other good thing" I like my 1e Magus for the level of combat-round choice, and resource management (do I blow my arcane pool on this or this?)

[HumbleGamer]

RyanH wrote:

I guess to be more general, without focusing on that exact build, what I'm looking for is a build that allows me to boost/aid my allies in interesting ways while still getting to participate in the violence (have useful combat actions to take.)

And I like choices each round, sometimes painful choices of "do I do this good thing or this other good thing" I like my 1e Magus for the level of combat-round choice, and resource management (do I blow my arcane pool on this or this?)

To be honest, I think that if a sword and board fighter in full plate ( or any other martial character sword and board in full plate ) can work as a tank, then a champion with oracle dedication ( permanently flat footed because of the curse ) could easily do the same.

For example a lvl 12 character could rely on life link

Quote:

Heightened (6th) You can target 3 creatures other than you. Increase the initial healing to 6d4 and the maximum damage reduced and Hit Points lost to 10.

Shielding 3 party members for 10 damage per round is pretty huge, and also being able to rely on a champion reaction ( or shield of reckoning, if you took the divine ally shield ) and an extra shield block ( eventually, 2 shield blocks on you if required ).

Your shield cantrip could also come in handy if your sturdy one is about to hit its BT.

As for the action management ( apart from the raise shield ) you could go with skill checks, an extra focus spell per combat, athletics maneuvers ( depends the weapon you are using ). Though I also can see a champion might not have that many choices ( 1 action to stride, 1 to strike, 1 to raise shield. This might end up being your routine ).

Talking about choices, I think spellcasters ( the more they gain levels, and because so spell ) could offer the widest approach.

Or also a fighter with different attacks ( 1/2 actions, press moves, flourish moves, stances, etc, flexibility ).

[RyanH]

@HumbleGamer: and it looks like the life mystery curse diminishes healing by half level, requires I heal myself... not flat-footed.

Yeah... spell casters are always appealing for choice. Want some good melee in there too, I know there's tons of melee/full caster builds.

I want to play all the things.

[HumbleGamer]

RyanH wrote:

@HumbleGamer: and it looks like the life mystery curse diminishes healing by half level, requires I heal myself... not flat-footed.

The intent is for the healer to be exclusively focused on you rather than the party ( all members will take 10 less damage per round, and some of them even more because your reaction or shield block, and even an extra life link just to heal everybody ).

Eventually, depends your deity, you might consider getting the basic healing domain spell, which gives +2 reveived healings.

This would deal in a very good way with your minor curse, allowing the healer to properly heal you ( even with lower level spells ).

RyanH wrote:

Yeah... spell casters are always appealing for choice. Want some good melee in there too, I know there's tons of melee/full caster builds.

I want to play all the things.

I am not quite sure what to suggest.

I kinda like the fighter because of feats and flexibility, but I also love bounded spellcasters ( magus and summoner ) because they can do a lot of things. The summoner is quite cool because of the "act together" activity, as well as the possibility to choose between a wide pool of eidolons and related traditions.

[AlastarOG]

Honestly after having reread life mystery, I think life oracle going into champion redeemer archetype hard might be as close to oradin as you can get.

As a reaction you can mitigate damage and debuff allies. With focus spells you can take on their pain and heal them, then switch to lay on hands (which uses your outrageous focus spell progression but doesn't progress your curse) on yourself as a 1 action every round, allowing you to be offensive magically on top of this great damage mitigation (you do take a penalty to lay on hands with the minor curse, but it's still decent healing).

It flows more than champion into oracle imho, as champion already does most of this on their own and only basically get some ability to cast the heal spell and maybe the first focus spell from going into oracle.

As for the healers blessing spell you can start with it as a life oracle cause you start with a focus spell of either the healing or death domain.

This is a build that would work well with a martial frontline heavy team, I could see this being the core healer of like a fighter/champion/magus/oracle team or something.

[SuperBidi]

RyanH wrote:

I guess to be more general, without focusing on that exact build, what I'm looking for is a build that allows me to boost/aid my allies in interesting ways while still getting to participate in the violence (have useful combat actions to take.)

And I like choices each round, sometimes painful choices of "do I do this good thing or this other good thing" I like my 1e Magus for the level of combat-round choice, and resource management (do I blow my arcane pool on this or this?)

For such builds, my advice would be to take a martial and grab Archetype feats. Medic and/or Blessed One for healing, Martial/Bard or Swashbuckler (One for All) for buff, Champion for the Reaction and Lay on Hands, Spellcaster Archetype for spells, etc... Take also a few combat oriented skills (Intimidation is the most basic one, Medicine and Diplomacy work, too). If you play with Free Archetype (the most common optional rule), you should have the proper feeling by the time you hit level 6. Without Free Archetype, it'll be a bit longer but you can grab a few abilities before level 10. In my opinion, it's the closest to the "do I do this or this" feeling you can get.

I'd not advise you to play a spellcaster. First, they start slowly. And also I don't find they have such "do I do this or this" moment, they mostly cast spells and when you start to master your spell list, you tend to know what to cast without thinking much. Spellcasters have more choices than martials but I think what you want is not the extreme versatility of a caster but a focused versatility: A few things you're good at.

[The Raven Black]

I was thinking a Summoner with good healing abilities might fit the frontliner + healer theme.

[AlastarOG]

The Raven Black wrote:

I was thinking a Summoner with good healing abilities might fit the frontliner + healer theme.

I've found that the limited spell slots kinda preclude that.

Changes if you archetype into oracle obviously.