Making a Functional Battle Oracle Character

[Ravingdork]

I am attempting to build (and given the opportunity, to play) a Remaster battle oracle that can perform adequately during play. I recognize that there are a lot of problems with the mystery and that it will hardly be optimized, but therein lies the challenge.

Ultimately, I hope to end with something that won't drag the party down and that does not simply ignore the problems of the mystery (such as by simply taking Weapon Familiarity or Weapon Proficiency).

Here is the Pathbuilder progression for my first attempt at a 5th-level battle oracle. How did I do? What do you think can be done to improve upon it?

Some Thoughts:

As stated, the goal is not to ignore or completely bypass weapon trance and other faults, but to get a better idea of how to work with them, as we suspect was intended by the developers.

Did you know that if you fail to sustain something, it ends at the END of your NEXT turn? Is that a change to the Sustain action in the Remaster, or has it always been like that? The way people talk about weapon trance, you'd think it ended immediately.

Since I intend to be in the thick of combat, I invested pretty heavily in defensive options such as heavier Armor Proficiency. I get that some archetypes allow me to do that with less feats, but I wasn't willing to give up the oracle's identity by giving up their class feats. This also influenced my spell selection, adding several options to buff his combat capabilities and/or defenses.

I almost went with a sword and board build, before realizing that shields are martial weapons and I'd be too action starved to make good use of them anyways.

I'm wondering if, rather than a big weapon and a free-hand backup weapon, a pair of one-handed weapons (one martial and one simple) might work better. Surely being able to run around with javelin already in hand frees up an action that would have been used to draw it out, and something like a morningstar would do slightly more damage than a gauntlet. Are there any ranged weapons that don't require hands, such as a wrist-mounted crossbow? If so, that might work well too.

I initially had Incredible Initiative at level 5, to go with Pilgrim's Token, but ended up going with Toughness instead for now, because I imagine he's not always going to have the actions needed to move out of harm's way quickly.

Some spells, such as weapon surge and runic weapon have some stat bonus overlap, but the different action costs and durations (among other things) still make them good to have in different situations. The latter is great for pre-buffing before entering a room (and can be used on allies), while the former is better during combat on rounds in which you've struck an enemy and therefore don't have to spend an action maintaining weapon trance.

As I'm aware that the character will be somewhat action starved some rounds, I focused on quick, 1-action abilities whenever possible.

Later, once we've got it as fleshed out as we think we can manage, I'll try and run it through some scenarios to see how it might perform in play.

[Bluemagetim]

So basically this set up sacrifices cha and uses slots to act closer to a martial.
While spells slots are available attacks are likely to get through and auto sustain trance.
Whispers also gives a boost once per battle per enemy to swing like martials.

But the character still has the ability to give buffs to the party and not just themselves and has cantrips to fall back on for ranged attacks and shield despite using a greatsword.

I think at this level what comparable martials have in place of the slots are abilities like sudden charge and other action compressors, and had the general feet space to get fleet. The battle oracle is going to feel action hungry trying to trance/ cast buffs/ move around with 20ft speed and attack with a greatsword.
But there is always going to be a trade off and later levels the spell casting side of the character will be overwhelmingly the characters main thing.

[steelhead]

I’ve been dreading having to rebuild my ranged battle oracle due to the Remaster, but your perspective of leaning into the challenge is inspiring. I’ll be returning to this thread to see what the community says about your rebuild.

[Gortle]

Ravingdork wrote:

the goal is not to ignore or completely bypass weapon trance and other faults

Sorry I just can't quite bring myself to do that yet. The battle Oracle can be built on, but I would not use any of their 3 focus spells. Domain spells are much better.

[Ravingdork]

Gortle wrote:

Domain spells are much better.

Are there any that you would recommend?

[Easl]

Ravingdork wrote:

Gortle wrote:

Domain spells are much better.

Are there any that you would recommend?

For a L5 Oracle I'd probably go with Cry of Destruction or Weapon Surge. Can't go wrong with added melee damage and their Rank 4 spells are good too. The other two domains I think are more conditional in use.

Summary below.

***

For Battle you get access to the destruction, might, protection, and zeal domain spells.

Cry of destruction: bonus d12s for melee damage. Good for any melee build.

Destructive aura: reduces opponent resistances (but yours too!).

Athletic Rush: +2 to athletic checks and +10 move. Good if you're trying to build a tripper etc.

Enduring Might: grants resistance. Good for tankyness.

Protector's Sacrifice: lets you take an allies' damage -3. Meh?

Protector's sphere: grants resistance to you and maybe allies. Another 'good for tankyness' one.

Weapon surge: bonus to hit and bonus d6s spirit damage. Good for most melee builds

Zeal for battle: best of 2d20 rolls used for initiative for you and an ally. Conditionally very useful.