What makes the Oracle playable?

[Northern Spotted Owl]

I read through the Oracle mysteries, and most of them seem a bit awful. As in, mostly wouldn't want to use your focus spell at all. So I must be missing something.

Cosmos & Life looks like the only exceptions.

For the other mysteries, do you just avoid your focus spells entirely? Take the mystery benefit and pretend you don't even have focus spells?

[MEATSHED]

Oracle isn't great, it is probably the best APG class which should tell you about the power level of the classes in that book. Generally the moderate curse is the best middle ground for the curse not being super hard to deal while also actually having a benefit. That said most of them are workable you just kind of have to build with them in mind.

[Macondi Missani]

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

For the other mysteries, do you just avoid your focus spells entirely? Take the mystery benefit and pretend you don't even have focus spells?

Some people do. I have certainly heard that strategy being put forward before.

Though at that point, I am not sure why you wouldn't just play a Sorcerer instead. Extra hit points and armor proficiency?

Oracle is for having fun with. The curse mechanics are interesting. The characters made with Oracle class are all plenty playable. You aren't going to feel like a hindrance to the party. But it is definitely something that you are going to have to work around and change your tactics because of.

[Twiggies]

The vibes are immense.

Seriously, that's why I play and love my flames oracle. The second I saw the description of the curses I was like "ohhh I gotta play this."

Working around the curse can be awkward largely because of the extra 'unused' focus point that's stuck there after the first time you use a focus spell (so archetyping into something that gives another focus spell is nice), but so far I don't feel myself to be weak. In fact the flames oracle focus spell has come in clutch many many times and I often pull it out in most fights unless the situation is unsuited for it. Helps that I have an alchemist in the party who is very happy to lob an alchemist's fire after I set up the aura and get into position (I took the toughness feat so I'm a bit better suited to being in the front area too)

Granted, the flames oracle curse also isn't too bad, but also that's because my GM gave me some extra fire spells to add to my list because dear goodness lord is being required to take a feat to have more than 1 spell that interacts with your curse a massive bummer (shoutout to the tempest oracles who have it even worse off) (Really hoping they fix this in the remaster <3 )

[Gortle]

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

I read through the Oracle mysteries, and most of them seem a bit awful. As in, mostly wouldn't want to use your focus spell at all. So I must be missing something.

Cosmos & Life looks like the only exceptions.

For the other mysteries, do you just avoid your focus spells entirely? Take the mystery benefit and pretend you don't even have focus spells?

Try these for suggestions. I have one for each mystery.

Yes you need to be really careful with some mysteries. Some you want to run hot. Others you want to keep restrained until critical times.

[Deriven Firelion]

Cosmos is really good. Life not bad. Fire not bad. Ash not bad.

My buddy likes Ancestor and Battle. Ancestor is interesting. It was effective for him because he made a Monk Archetype oracle focused on Athletics. So he would let the ancestor spirit determine his actions.

Battle he did for the extra damage as he made an Archer archetype.

The oracle has been playable so far. With sig spells and heal they can be the healer easily.

Oracle seems like another class that if you're the group healer, you can do the heal job while doing other things. You can get creative with your builds around the curse and focus spells.

[Dragonhearthx]

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

I read through the Oracle mysteries, and most of them seem a bit awful. As in, mostly wouldn't want to use your focus spell at all. So I must be missing something.

Cosmos & Life looks like the only exceptions.

For the other mysteries, do you just avoid your focus spells entirely? Take the mystery benefit and pretend you don't even have focus spells?

I am in the same boat, so reading these replies are enlightening.

[breithauptclan]

If you aren't picking your character options for the enjoyment of the game and the fun of the character, then what methods are you using to choose between them?

[Dragonhearthx]

breithauptclan wrote:

If you aren't picking your character options for the enjoyment of the game and the fun of the character, then what methods are you using to choose between them?

for me it's just, I don't know how to operate the class. If I had someone in my party (who knew how) play an oracle, then I could understand it better. Right now it's just an unusable mass.

[Macondi Missani]

Well, you can read through my adventures. They are all play-by-post. Just be respectful.

Not that they are beyond level 1 yet.

And I'm certainly not saying that I know exactly the one right way to play an Oracle. I actually don't think there is a right way to play an Oracle - or any other character.

[The Raven Black]

I feel the Mysteries each change the Oracle into a pretty different class.

[Northern Spotted Owl]

Gortle wrote:

Northern Spotted Owl wrote:

I read through the Oracle mysteries, and most of them seem a bit awful. As in, mostly wouldn't want to use your focus spell at all. So I must be missing something.

Cosmos & Life looks like the only exceptions.

For the other mysteries, do you just avoid your focus spells entirely? Take the mystery benefit and pretend you don't even have focus spells?

Try these for suggestions. I have one for each mystery.

Yes you need to be really careful with some mysteries. Some you want to run hot. Others you want to keep restrained until critical times.

Very nice. Thanks Gortle.

And thanks for all the responses. That gives me a reasonable feel for how folk are handling the oracle.

Cheers.

[Deriven Firelion]

I'll list the oracle characters I've seen so far:

Cosmos Oracle with armor and shield. Character was the group healer, so focused on healing. Elf character. Picked up Otherworldly Magic for an Arcane cantrip: electric arc for a little offense. With the DR, the character could stand in melee.

Ancestors Oracle. Monk archetype with dragon style. Focused on Athletics and was able to trip and grapple. Let the ancestor roll decide actions and built to be able to take advantage of what the ancestor chose.

Battle Oracle. Archer archetype. Mitigated the curse by not being in melee while getting extra damage. Loved using Battle Cry. Human.

Pixie Fire Oracle. Fire blaster mainly with produce flame and fire ray.

Most commonly taken feat: Debilitating Dichotomy. Pretty powerful single target damage spell.

Oracle feats are very flexible and picking up archetypes was very common. Oracle is not what I consider a power class, but it can be fun to play and build. You need to think about a concept and how to build that concept around the curse, focus spells, and feats.

Not sure I'd recommend it if your first foray into PF2, but once you understand character builds you can do something interesting with the Oracle.