Good Oracle Builds / Multiclasses / PrCs?

[Yorae]

Looks like I'm the de facto character builder for this upcoming campaign my group is having. =p

Someone else has come to me asking for help in building a kickass oracle. So far they think they want the Life Mystery and the Tongues curse. The player likes the idea of Life Link and my first thought was like "hey, that might work neat with a Soulthief Vitalist", so I checked into that, but being, say, a psychic theurge would totally negate mystery progression and the fun soulthief stuff that would actually be good to combo with it, so no dice there.

Thing is, I can't find much of anything for optimization with Oracles. No fun combos, no powerful interactions, no interesting feat progression, cool prestige classes... =\

I did some handbook searching and pretty much only found this:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WdtrZCESRmVfljXY196wMrMLTnS8Uzk4DEk3oQdVZok/edit#bookmark=id.2ialzm5t4s69

which, tbh, isn't terribly helpful.

Anyone have some pointers on building this character?

[Hirax]

3 levels of divine oracle and an int mod of 15 is all you need to make contact other plane just about foolproof. Because you roll the failure chance twice (divine oracle ability) and have a high enough int mod to never fail the int check, you can shapechange into an elemental weird and use its at will free action SU contact other plane to play 20 questions with the universe indefinitely, supplemented with at will free action SU legend lore.

A full build:
Wizard5/incantatrix10/mindbender1/divine oracle3/loremaster1
Worship Lyris (Complete Warrior), and take the following domains via arcane disciple: destiny (RoD, available by RAW), luck (PHB, available by RAW), and competition (Spell Comp., not given to any Greyhawk deities since it's originally from a FR book, Spell Comp. says it can be given to appropriate deities, and it fits like a shoe). Also take mother cyst if desired.

4 - 18 int
1 - Grey or sun elf, alternatively wiz2/human paragon3, which basically trades a caster level for a feat
5 - 5 leveling, 5 inherent
3 - +6 enhancement item
1 - Persisted necrotic empowerment grants a +8 enhancement instead
2 - Persisted greater visage of the deity
1 - Old age
2 - Mechanus mind spell (Spell Comp.)
For an int mod of 17, and +2 bonus on int based checks.

[Lateral]

I think she means the Pathfinder Oracle, not the Divine Oracle.

[Hirax]

Huh. I should have checked the link, that would have cleared that up. The first few sentences also probably should have tipped me off, but I figured at first they were homebrew or some sort of variant rules. :smallredface:

[Khosan]

They mean Pathfinder's Oracle, not the Divine Oracle from 3.5.

I played one in my last campaign and it's a reasonably effective buffer/healer. Much like a cleric, you can get some really good mileage out of going the CoDzilla route with the Battle Mystery. You can also try the whole 'necromancer horde' route, since a few mysteries (Juju and Bones come to mind) lend themselves to that.

As for Prestige Classes, there's the Rage Prophet for the aforementioned CoDzilla style build but you need at least a few levels of Barbarian to get entry. Same with Agent of the Grave for the necromancy route (though you need to be evil).

But, really, it's just sort of a spontaneous Cleric (with all the spell limitations that implies) with some bonuses in the form of Mysteries/Revelations and your curse.

EDIT: Ninja'd on that first sentence.

[Arbane]

As for Prestige Classes, there's the Rage Prophet for the aforementioned CoDzilla style build but you need at least a few levels of Barbarian to get entry.

I think you only need two levels of Barbarian, just enough to grab Moment of Clarity. But between those and Rage Prophet's 'gap' levels, you'd never be able to get level 9 spells... :smallmad:

[grarrrg]

kickass oracle. ... Life Mystery and the Tongues curse....
Thing is, I can't find much of anything for optimization with Oracles. No fun combos, no powerful interactions, no interesting feat progression, cool prestige classes... =\
...
Anyone have some pointers on building this character?

The only "Oracle-focused" PrC is the Rage Prophet (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/n-r/rage-prophet), which as pointed out, just entering the class ruins your chances of having 9th level spells. You need 2 level of Barb (minimum) to qualify, and it only has 7/10's casting progression.
And while the Prophet levels stack for your Curse/Revelation Powers, you do NOT gain more Revelations (you'd have to take the Extra Revelation Feat for that).

There are plenty of Divine-Casting PrCs you could qualify for though, although none will help Oracle outside of Spell-progression. Although only two are worth more than a glance.

Holy Vindicator (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/e-h/holy-vindicator) is your "Melee" option; Full Bab, d10HD, All Martial, and Heavy Prof., you'll have to waste a feat on entry (and take Life Mystery>Channel), and it only has 7/10 casting (so you'll only want 8 levels max if playing to 20). But it does stack for Channel Energy dice, and has some nifty abilities on the side.

The "casting" option is Pathfinder Savant (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/n-r/pathfinder-savant). 7 level PrC with 6/7 casting, only has 1/2 Bab, and d6HD, BUT every level you gain casting you can add ANY SPELL EVER to your spell list (at possibly +1 level).
You also get nifty UMD options/boosts/etc...


If, on the other hand, they just want to play a "healer" take a look at this build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13120545#post13120545). It is VERY unorthodox, and combines Oracle and Paladin, but can be QUITE effective at in combat healing, without being annoying for the one playing it.


Of course, Straight Oracle is perfectly acceptable.