Bones Oracle

[Chaos018]

I made an account here JUST to call for help, :), but I like this place anyways. May have done it to begin with, :P. okay, my call for help. I am going to a cheese grinder soon and it calls for a lv11 Pathfinder character, point buy of course, giving us 40pts, 100k gold (no item bought may be more than 49k, scrolls and the like cannot be past 13th caster level), and 3 traits I must have for the "cheesiest" character I can make. Max HP as well. Though I may well just die (this kind of thing can happen 10mins or 10hrs in, this labyrthine place is supposedly big time hard), I wanted to make a Bones Oracle. Problem is that....I never play Pathfinder with my group (they prefer DnD 3.5 in the majority, with only one liking PF but he goes to work and NEVER answers my texts) so I do not know what or how to optimize in this system just yet. I want to not just die in that place, lol, but I can't see that not happening unless I optimize/powergame this baby hard. So far, here's what I came up with so far:

Half-Elf Bone Oracle
Str 8
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 20 (w/ +2 racial modifier)

Traits: adopted (to gain human extra feat)
magical knack (oracle) (for a +2 to caster level) (not sure about this one)
gifted adept (+1 caster level for a specific spell)

Revelations: Undead Servitude
Resist Life (may switch for Raise the Dead, /shrug, either seems fine)
Bleeding Wounds
Armor of Bones

Curse: may either be blackened or wasting (2nd one I'm learning towards)

Can't decide whether I should go into an Archetype for my Bones but I've heard that the Elven Lorekeeper is godly for an Oracle (did look into it and it may help me get ahold of some debuff wiz/sorc spells I like using), especially for all sakes and purposes, I count as an elf, :). I've also heard of the Agent of the Grave PrC that could very well help out here, though I cannot seem to find out whether this class is forbidden for this event. So people, can anyone help meh out? Can't decide on feats period, nor skills, nor my orisons known. Thanks for any help though, I do appreciate it.

Oh, I am playing this just to have a little fun, lol. Why not? Most I can do is kill another player for being a jerkoff, not the worst thing ont he world to do if I may so, lol.

[Hyde]

Casters don't need no stinkin feats.

Anyway, you're familiar with d20pfsrd.com, right?

I can't really help with builds, though, I stopped worrying about that kind of thing awhile ago.

[Hyde]

Agent of the Grave is wonderful if you want ALL of the zombies, though.

[Chaos018]

Casters don't need no stinkin feats.

Anyway, you're familiar with d20pfsrd.com, right?

I can't really help with builds, though, I stopped worrying about that kind of thing awhile ago.

I am, and have been perusing the thing for the past couple days (takes me a while to create a good PC, dunno why, just take the time to really tweak it the way I like), but I figure, why not ask here. It couldn't hurt and I am pretty sure there are many ppl here that could very well help me powergame this thing out, hehe.

[Giegue]

First of all, Armor of Bones as a revelation sucks, hard. It's OK at low levels but beyond that it barely keeps up and is about as good as a neglected brestplate. I would get rid of it in favor of Raise the Dead, definitely. Also, some feats you may consider if your into undead minions...

Undead Master: Gives you EVEN MORE undead, and boosts your ability to command undead. Almost mandatory if your a minion-master type.

Skeleton Summoner: If your into minions but tight on gold, this feat will allow you to turn your summon monster spells into necromantic skeleton-summoning spells. While these guys are not permanent like the ones you get from Animate Dead, they don't cost gold and can be summoned when you want them so you don't have to worry about figuring out how to drag them into town without being arrested or killed by the local authorities. Note that Spell Focus: Necromancy is a prerequisite for this feat.

Therodontic Spell: A metamagic feat that lets you use mind-effecting spells on undead. All of the sudden a whole world of buffs that are otherwise useless for your minions become viable. VERY useful for a minion-master type.

[Chaos018]

First of all, Armor of Bones as a revelation sucks, hard. It's OK at low levels but beyond that it barely keeps up and is about as good as a neglected brestplate. I would get rid of it in favor of Raise the Dead, definitely. Also, some feats you may consider if your into undead minions...

Undead Master: Gives you EVEN MORE undead, and boosts your ability to command undead. Almost mandatory if your a minion-master type.

Skeleton Summoner: If your into minions but tight on gold, this feat will allow you to turn your summon monster spells into necromantic skeleton-summoning spells. While these guys are not permanent like the ones you get from Animate Dead, they don't cost gold and can be summoned when you want them so you don't have to worry about figuring out how to drag them into town without being arrested or killed by the local authorities. Note that Spell Focus: Necromancy is a prerequisite for this feat.

Therodontic Spell: A metamagic feat that lets you use mind-effecting spells on undead. All of the sudden a whole world of buffs that are otherwise useless for your minions become viable. VERY useful for a minion-master type.

At the finals of this grinder, the top 6 go into it in an arena type battle. Kinda figured the extra +8 to AC would be nice. I'll consider it, though, seeing as I can get medium armor as an oracle. Never had that before and have no idea on what I will need, lol. Now the Undead Master....I like the sound of that, I will write that down so I can look into it. As well as the skeleton summoner, mainly for the fact that I will have to use the gold I have left after armor and stuff for my castings. What kind of buffs would I be able to do with Therodontic spell? I am unfamiliar with minionmacy, so again learning experience, hehe

[Chaos018]

anymore suggestions? I've written what I could down. more feats I should take? should I take the elven archetype so I can dip into wiz/sorc necromancy spells? magic items I should think of buying with meh gold? do I have my stats minmaxed enough or should I lower my STR further to up my INT? what curse should I go for? spells needed as a Bones Oracle?

[Ravenica]

I'd go with clouded vision over any of the other curses, blindsense out to 30 feet is way better at 1oth and if you aren't blasty you don't need the extra sight range.

I'd drop armor of bones for raise the dead
I'd drop bleeding attack for spirit walk

magical knack is useless if you aren't multiclassing, it never raises your cl over you hd

adopted is hit or miss depending on your DM, in general most dm's will only let you take racial traits from the race traits section in the apg not from the base traits so you will have to clear that first, I'd go with reactionary as an option instead if they don't allow it.

RE: Therodontic spell and buffs: Bless, aid, really all the divine buffs, add a morale bonus, which normally doesn't apply to undead. This also means your average divine debuffs also do not affect them, with this feath you can dominate and charm your way through opposing undead quickly and take control, while buffing your own with all of urgathoa's blessing :smalltongue:

I'll second undead master as a feat as well, counting as 4hd higher is great, especially if you are going for template stacked undead (if not, just go for bloodied skellys, they cant die unless they are killed with positive energy or within a hostile bless spell area)

Quicken spell is the only metamagic you need as a spontaneous caster.

thats about all I can say without knowing more about how you want to play the build

[Arbane]

I don't know how much you have your heart set on being a half-elf, but humans can get an extra spell known per level instead of an extra HP or skill point - that's pretty strong.

[Chaos018]

I'd go with clouded vision over any of the other curses, blindsense out to 30 feet is way better at 1oth and if you aren't blasty you don't need the extra sight range.

I'd drop armor of bones for raise the dead
I'd drop bleeding attack for spirit walk

magical knack is useless if you aren't multiclassing, it never raises your cl over you hd

adopted is hit or miss depending on your DM, in general most dm's will only let you take racial traits from the race traits section in the apg not from the base traits so you will have to clear that first, I'd go with reactionary as an option instead if they don't allow it.

RE: Therodontic spell and buffs: Bless, aid, really all the divine buffs, add a morale bonus, which normally doesn't apply to undead. This also means your average divine debuffs also do not affect them, with this feath you can dominate and charm your way through opposing undead quickly and take control, while buffing your own with all of urgathoa's blessing :smalltongue:

I'll second undead master as a feat as well, counting as 4hd higher is great, especially if you are going for template stacked undead (if not, just go for bloodied skellys, they cant die unless they are killed with positive energy or within a hostile bless spell area)

Quicken spell is the only metamagic you need as a spontaneous caster.

thats about all I can say without knowing more about how you want to play the build

The way I'd like to play it.....not sure, just the thought of having hordes of skeleys between me and whatever wants to kill me is plenty, lol.

The problem with Spirit walk is that, in a multi-session campaign, it is much better, but this is a cheese grinder, will only last 48hrs straight. If you die, you get replaced and this event will have hundreds of people wanting to play (Dragon Con, btw, lol). I just don't know if this will help out. 11 rounds once per ingame day with each minute of the game representing a minute within the game, kinda makes me second guess spirit walk. Bleeding wound was a filler if anything really. Now if I choose Extra Revalation as one of my five (1, 3, 6, 9 with an extra as human), I can have all that, but I haven't chosen really, minus Spell Focus (necromancy), undead master, and threnodic spell. I will check out another trait then for magical adept.

I chose what I chose simply cuz I thought in a short one-shot, these sounded better. I only thought of doing half-elf due to the adopted trait. If I could get that feat whilst getting elven immunities, would've been nice. Especially when I thought about using the elven lorekeeper archetype to gain the chance at necromancy/enchantment debuffing spells from the wizard/sorc list. But if not, I will go human. Never go wrong with human. Course, clouded would be near useless with half elven traits, but if I go human, may well go that way.

Now quickened spell, I will take note of. Powerful in and of itself in 3.5. Gotta be just as good in 3.75, :).

I want minions, lots of them, of all shapes and sizes. A Minotaur skeley if I can manage it, no idea why, lol. For some odd reason, I want to be cruel and actually raise the killed PCs in service to me with all my HDs of dead servants, lol. Especially since I have yet to look and see if I can use Agent of the Grave PrC. But being a cleric, though Tier 1, is just not my thing. I like being different. For example, a lot of sites I been at say enchantment specialist wizards, or any specialist, is useless, one of 2 outright schools to ban ASAP for incantrix or a specialty (if it was ABSOLUTELY necessary), but I love enchantment especially Touch of idiocy, made reaching empowered maximized and twinned. Brain dead is funny, :P. Yet another reason to get the archetype and get those spells readied

@Arbane, Half-elves gain the same thing, so either one in this case is fine, :).

[Ravenica]

Ah I see what you mean about spirit walk, in that case you might want to take deaths touch to keep your minions alive. spirit walk is still a viable option if you want the limited get out of jail free card though heh

at 11th with undead master you can control 60 hd of animated skellys and 15hd with command undead.

I would recommend not raising player skellys as they lose all class HD... if you want powerful skellys the best bet is to raise 6x 10hd creatures with the bloodied template

that will give you 6x 60hp skellys with fast healing 5 and the deathless quality
with a bab of 7 and potentially 2 claw attacks

costs double onyx though so pick up at least 5k of onyx before hand just to make sure no dm gets rules lawyery if possible heh

You'll be limited on spells assuming you won't be able to rest so more skellys than that will probably be unwise, using up too many castings...

summon monster will be a definate must have spell series, and I would consider desecrate just in case you need to raise all your minions at once or want to buff them up. Death knell and antilife shell both fit an undead theme as well. prayer, deathwatch, and status can keep your allies and minions alive (and close to you, making them excellent meat shields in the case of allies)

divine interference might be a fun one, letting you sack spells to force enemies to reroll hits on your minions

echoing spell might be worth it for metamagic, yes it costs you a full round action and a spell slot 3 levels higher but with limited spell power you might need to double up on castings, its not a must have though

[Chaos018]

Ah I see what you mean about spirit walk, in that case you might want to take deaths touch to keep your minions alive. spirit walk is still a viable option if you want the limited get out of jail free card though heh

at 11th with undead master you can control 60 hd of animated skellys and 15hd with command undead.

I would recommend not raising player skellys as they lose all class HD... if you want powerful skellys the best bet is to raise 6x 10hd creatures with the bloodied template

that will give you 6x 60hp skellys with fast healing 5 and the deathless quality
with a bab of 7 and potentially 2 claw attacks

costs double onyx though so pick up at least 5k of onyx before hand just to make sure no dm gets rules lawyery if possible heh

You'll be limited on spells assuming you won't be able to rest so more skellys than that will probably be unwise, using up too many castings...

summon monster will be a definate must have spell series, and I would consider desecrate just in case you need to raise all your minions at once or want to buff them up. Death knell and antilife shell both fit an undead theme as well. prayer, deathwatch, and status can keep your allies and minions alive (and close to you, making them excellent meat shields in the case of allies)

divine interference might be a fun one, letting you sack spells to force enemies to reroll hits on your minions

echoing spell might be worth it for metamagic, yes it costs you a full round action and a spell slot 3 levels higher but with limited spell power you might need to double up on castings, its not a must have though

Double onyx....ugh. I will note that in meh book, along with desecrate and summon monster (not sure why, maybe to diversify a little with fiendish things, lol). I was advised to get Skeleton Summoner and that allows me to use those spells for more skeley, so it could help, I am a little apprehensive about it. Still noted on that one though, :). Divine interference does sound fun, my skeleys are important since they are my shield, and I dunno wan' them ta die, :(.

I will also see about getting magic items that'll give me more diversity, save my spells for later. Wands of Inflict, animate dead, that sorta thing. What magic items should I get? I am definitely getting something for Dex. Initiative being high has always helped me. Got my wizard/artificer's up to +12 by lv5 with feats. With him, you won't survive long, :). No idea on what else though. Rules are telling me I gotta go straight from GM's Guide. No self-crafted period, :(, and no cost cutting at all.

Since I may not go half elf like I want (will see about me getting that extra feat with adopted), and with it, goes my Ancient Lorekeepr archetype, I could go Black-blooded Oracle, fits the theme actually, :). But a -4 on Dex skills kinda hurts bad, as long as it doesn't hurt reflex and initiative, it won't hurt bad bad. It'll hurt my stealth though. Still in the process of making this so not set in stone.

Agent of the Grave PrC is not banned, btw, :). Since it ain't, I am so looking into it. A two level dip will only keep me from gaining slay living and another revalation, a hard choice. But if I get both lvls, I still get my spells and upped caster level. I'll have to print this out along with the website to make sure I don't get qualified and I will make sure to note what I changed just in case I don't get what I want. Who knows?