I just got accepted into my first PF1e AP, Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, and I would like to be the divine caster of the party. I am looking at Cleric, Oracle, and Inquisitor for my class, elf, human, and aasimar for my race, and Desna and Ashava for my deity.
I was wondering if anyone here could give me some advice on where to go from here? I'd like to build a character that can really fit the region of Varisia, and could maybe have a few more RP opportunities in the campaign.
Any advice would be appreciated :)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I tend to focus on characters that can do a bit of everything, so any advice I give should be taken with a bit of skepticism with your preferred playing style.
Out of the choice of the three, I'd lean towards Oracle or Inquisitor depending on how you want to build the character. If combat oriented, the Inquisitor is no slouch especially once it hits the mid-game. Oracle makes a greater caster and support class, though you can focus on combat as well with selection of spells, feats, and Revelations. Why not cleric? I have a personal bias against them as I find them mechanically boring.
Now, if you are going to be the MAIN divine caster of the group, I'd push you towards Oracle as they have the more robust spell list and spells per day. Using Human or Half-Elf, you get to add more spells known with their favored class bonus. Human is good for that extra feat, which I would suggest Extra Revelation.
I would select the Spirit Guide archetype for the Oracle to add to your versatility and give you access to a Shaman spirit and hex that you can change on the daily once you hit level three. This widens your ability to be adaptable to challenges with a day's notice, and particularly suits one of Ashava's themes (lonely spirits).
For a mystery, I'd select Life to get access to channel energy and some of the decent status healing abilities from the Cleric list without having to pick them manually. With just that one revelation, you've already gained most of the important features a cleric would have.
Have you downloaded the Rise of the Runelord's player guide?
These player guides usually have plenty of detail about where the campaign starts and how to have your character mesh into the setting.
i would like to just mention that the advanced player guide have 3 campaign traits for this ap that are somewhat stronger then normal traits.
for the divine caster i'd try:
outlander which has 3 variations and one of them is:
outlander>Missionary:
You have come to town to see about expanding the presence of your chosen faith after receiving visions that told you your faith is needed in the region—what that need is, though, you’re not quite sure. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks, and Knowledge (religion) is a class skill for you. If you cast divine spells, pick three spells on your spell list. You are particularly adept at casting these spells, so they function at +1 caster level when you cast them, and their save DCs (if any) gain a +1 bonus.
How much PF1 experience do you have. You said it's your first AP, but have you played in other ways?
What are you looking to get out of being divine? Has the party asked for that, or is it just your own preference?
Oracles are divine casters, but rarely ever agents of specific gods.
How much PF1 experience do you have. You said it's your first AP, but have you played in other ways?
What are you looking to get out of being divine? Has the party asked for that, or is it just your own preference?
Oracles are divine casters, but rarely ever agents of specific gods.
I have barely one session of Kingmaker under my belt from over a year ago... and that's it lol.
I want to heal and buff the party, get a theme like those provided by domains, mysteries and inquisitions, serve as a source of religious and spiritual info, and RP as someone who receives power and magic from their faith and relationship with the numinous.
Do they not? The material I've found on the wiki talks about Oracles devoted to deities like Lamashtu, Pharasma, and various demigods.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oracles are chosen by the power that grants them their abilities not the other way around. In some cases, the oracle may worship the power, but that is not required at all. In many cases the power granting the oracle power may be a group instead of a specific deity. The oracle can actually be opposed to the power that grants them their abilities. An oracle may not even know who the power granting them power is. If you want to play an oracle devoted to a specific deity you can, but that is not required. You could even be devoted to a deity that is opposed to the ones granting you spells. There is no penalty for an oracle not following the teachings of their “deity”.
I have barely one session of Kingmaker under my belt from over a year ago... and that's it lol.
Hmm, probably shouldn't make it overly complex or overload you with option then.
I want to heal and buff the party, get a theme like those provided by domains, mysteries and inquisitions, serve as a source of religious and spiritual info, and RP as someone who receives power and magic from their faith and relationship with the numinous.
You can certainly do that with an Oracle, probably a bit better than with a just a cleric. For example, a Spirit Guide Oracle with the Life Mystery and picking up either the Life or Restoration spirit can have two separate pools of channel energy, as well as a means to 'bubble' another player with temporary HP.
Don't worry too much about where your power comes from as an Oracle. You can simply decide it is from your deity through less conventional means.
I'd like to build a character that can really fit the region of Varisia, and could maybe have a few more RP opportunities in the campaign.
Since Varisia is more wilderness than civilization, I'd recommend the class that is the most likely to be a freelancer: Oracle.
Both elves and aasimars will meet one of their kind in book 1, although in very different ways. Otherwise human seems like a stronger connection to the campaign, given the mostly human starter town and the secrets you will discover later.
The town has a priest of Desna, so worshipping the same deity would offer some chance to build a bond to a NPC. That's not much, but with Ashava you'd get nothing.
I'm also interested in building up the theme of a nocturnal wanderer or a moonlit mischief-maker. Someone who either has a compulsion to seek out places of beauty in the night and fights to protect those who fear the dark, or someone who experiences the madness of the moon, feeling it pull on their mind like the tides, but who channels it in more positive ways, whether it be in the hunting of evildoers or the offering of strange spiritual guidance.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That reminds me of the lunar mystery for oracles.
A lunar oracle does seem to fit. For the curse maybe shadow bound?
RotR is a pretty melee-heavy campaign that is full of giants who hit really, really hard and have massive 15ft and 20ft AoO reaches, and my group didn't have a ton of crowd control, so it was pretty brutal in some fights.
If you want to be a full divine caster, I'd strongly recommend going with a Shaman and taking the Wings (take Wings x2), Misfortune, and Slumber hexes, and eventually pick up a Rod of Abrupt Hexes for Swift Action: Misfortune----> Standard Action: Slumber Hex or some other Save or Die hex/spell. Crowd Control is really important, and Slumber is a fantastic CC spell that will scale well all game.
Wings Hex is going to be a godsend for your survivability because of the generous amount of melee enemies throughout the campaign. As early as level 8, you'll have eight 1-minute increment uses of Wings Hex and you'll have about 4-5 encounters per day, so you could be flying in every combat encounter of the day and still have some leftover uses.
Shamans are sort of a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none style of caster, but this is actually the strength of the class: massive amounts of utility. There aren't very many situations/problems that a Shaman can't outright solve immediately, or at least reduce/mitigate the difficulty of the problem. They have a fantastic spell list too, heals, buffs, debuffs, nukes, CC, condition removal, ability score restoration, resurrection, just about anything you need.
Another good reason to go Shaman is the roleplaying potential. Without giving any spoilers, I'm just going to say that you're going to have some unique and rewarding roleplaying opportunities if you're in-tune or have some relationship with spirits, especially in the final chapter.