Must have Cleric spells (3.P)

[rollforeigninit]

So I'm working up an Oracle for an upcoming campaign in a homebrew setting resembling the Crusades in some fashion. My character was a soldier that was wounded in battle and left for dead before being rescued by his deity. He's kind of a Paladin without being a Paladin. He will probably be pulling double duty as a meat shield and healer. I'm leaning towards a Human Battle Oracle for setting flavor reasons but am having trouble figuring out which spells to take. I get all the basic cure spells and my mystery for free but with so few spells known I'd like some input on what you guys would pick. He is LG or maybe NG so some spells are right out. Please note which spells are what level. No books are really unavailable.

[Fates]

Things like Divine Power and other spells that boost combat effectiveness might be to your liking.

[rollforeigninit]

I've always heard it's better to specialize with spontaneous casters but I am wondering if I can cram some utility onto this guy. The rest of the group is pretty green. Divine Power ,Righteous Might, etc are all well and good but I need to have a bit of everything I think. Lots of cleric spells seem to be quite specifically useful but less so in general. I'm ok with Searing Light and the like that have a use when there are no undead but undead bane weapon is a little too narrow.

[navar100]

1) Bless

You will lose count how many times a party member will hit his opponent because you had cast Bless. Every +1 counts and just hitting the bad guy because of the spell happens a lot more often than you'd think.

2) Shield Of Faith

+2 AC at low levels matters a lot. It scales well enough until rings of protection are common in the party to be swapped out later. This is not intended just for you. Your warrior party members will appreciate it, using a shield or not.

3) Obscuring Mist

You never know when you need cover.

4) Bull's Strength

Every warrior wants this. As a spontaneous caster you can spam it if your party has more than one warrior. You can use it on yourself if you're also a warrior-type.

5) Grace

From Ultimate Magic, swift action to cast, until end of your turn you do not provoke an AoO for moving. Too situational for a Cleric, as an Oracle you can cast it whenever you need to. You can move about the battlefield easily.

6) Hold Person

You need some attack spell. It's not a universal attack but it'll do. Swap it out if you find it becomes obsolete.

7) Dispel Magic

Take Dispel Magic. Just do. Don't question. Just do. You will never be sorry.

8) Blindness/Deafness

Hold Person is your will attack against enemy warriors. Blindness is your fortitude attack against enemy arcaners.

9) Blessing Of Fervor

From Ultimate Magic, it's similar to Haste with more options. Everyone in the party benefits, including spellcasters. Everyone will love you.

10) Breath Of Life

Life Mystery Oracles like to be heal bots. Oracles in general don't have to be, but still, some healing is important. When the unfortunate happens, save your party member. When you can use it it's better than Raise Dead.

[avr]

You're a human, so note the racial favored class option and use it every level from 4th onwards.

Protection from Evil is more versatile than Shield of Faith, and I'd recommend Divine Favor over Bless. If nothing else you can't count on other players remembering a temporary +1 to hit that you give them.

If you want to dabble in utility spells, Tap Inner Beauty (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/t/tap-inner-beauty) could be fun. Comprehend Languages likewise.

When 2nd level spells come around, Defending Bone (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/defending-bone) is a defensive buff with a duration measured in hours. Get it. Soothing Word (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/soothing-word) can lessen a variety of conditions which makes it natural for a limited spells known caster doing healing. Silence (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/silence) is the best utility/spellcaster shutdown spell at 2nd level, I'd get it before Hold Person.

3rd level spells? Dispel Magic really is useful. Chain of Perdition (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/chain-of-perdition) offers battlefield control. Protection from Energy is the perfect answer to any question involving energy damage.

Beyond that you'll need to focus on what you want to do a bit more in order to get useful advice.

[Karoht]

Toppling Spell is a surprisingly useful metamagic. Why?

Toppling Spell + Spiritual Weapon + Spiritual Ally = a heck of a lot of attempts to knock something prone every round.
And their damage is Force damage. Just have to beat Spell Resistance.

Because doing damage AND acting as Battlefield Control in two spells and a feat is pretty fun. Combo it up with you smacking something with Weapon of Awe on your weapon, and you buffed up with Divine Power and the like? Yeah.

If you want to be like a paladin, but don't actually want to be one...
Make certain your alignment is Lawful Good.
Pick up a scroll or two of Bestow Grace of Champion, which won't cost you much. You can try on some Paladin levels for size this way, and pick up the spell for real when you hit 7th level spells. And you get some cool features out of the deal. Like Charisma to saves, for one. And Lay on Hands/Channel, And Smite Evil. In fact, I'm pretty sure this spell alone was built for Battle Oracles.
There is a lesser version of it called Bestow Grace (also a Paladin spell, but it's a very cheap scroll to use), and it just does the Charisma to saves thing.

Archon's Aura is very useful. Lower pretty much everything your enemy has by 2. -2 saves means that your other effects are more likely to work.
Holy Smite and Order's Wrath are Cleric AoE blasting with some effects like blind or daze added on. They can both be quite useful.

[ArcturusV]

See a divination on a Cleric List? Take it. Seriously, they are by far your most potent spells and I cannot count the number of times a Speak with Dead, Augury, Commune, etc, has saved my cleric's (And team's) bacon before it even gets in the fire.

It's not a popular role perhaps. Not as Flashy as the Melee Doom Combatant stuff. But hard pressed for general effectiveness.

[navar100]

You're a human, so note the racial favored class option and use it every level from 4th onwards.

Protection from Evil is more versatile than Shield of Faith, and I'd recommend Divine Favor over Bless. If nothing else you can't count on other players remembering a temporary +1 to hit that you give them.



Protection From Evil doesn't work against Neutral foes anymore. Still nice to have for the saving throw bonus and mind-affecting protections against known evil foes, but Shield of Faith is better when you just want the AC.

That's the whole point of Bless. Players will forget the +1. They miss. You remind them about Bless. They add the +1. They hit. That happens a lot. Divine Favor does you no good if you're not a warrior-type Oracle. If you are, great, take it, but for spells every Oracle should have Bless helps the entire party. Divine Favor only helps you if you engage in fighting which not every Oracle will do.

That is what's being asked, "must have" spells for any Oracle. Particular Oracle builds will favor particular spells depending on said build.

As for another spell, if you can spare the 1st level known slot, Sanctuary is a good choice. Take it when you are at least 3rd level. Obviously it's not as great as Invisibility, but that's not a cleric spell. It helps to take the heat off you but also useful for protecting an NPC that needs protecting.

[avr]

Divine Favor does you no good if you're not a warrior-type Oracle. If you are, great, take it, but for spells every Oracle should have Bless helps the entire party. Divine Favor only helps you if you engage in fighting which not every Oracle will do.

That is what's being asked, "must have" spells for any Oracle. Particular Oracle builds will favor particular spells depending on said build.


He's kind of a Paladin without being a Paladin. He will probably be pulling double duty as a meat shield and healer.
From this & other comments I diagnose buff spells (self first, party second), healing spells, & utility spells in that order of priority.

Seriously, reminding everyone about a bonus which has an effect 1/20 of the time at best gets old quickly. I would not recommend Bless.

[u-b]

I would not take things like Obscuring Mist and Resurgence on limited-size list. These might be good, but are just as well when cast off scroll/wand.

[Corlindale]

I play an Oracle right now (lvl 9 at present), so I've been in the same dilemma many times.

The aforementioned Blessings of Fervor is probably the best buff you'll ever get (unless you have an arcanist with Haste prepared). Take it and don't look back.

Grace is incredibly useful for getting around as well.

Prayer is not bad - it may seem like a small bonus/penalty, but the fact that it affects everyone and (almost) everything makes it a lot more attractive.

Blessing of Courage and Life can be quite handy to put on your allies as a sort of "contingent Cure Light Wounds". Lets you do a bit of healing without spending actions in combat.

Lesser Restoration is useful so often that you might as well take it.

Delay Poison is in some ways actually superior to Neutralize Poison (poison immunity for the duration). Sure, you eventually have to deal with the poison, but that will be in an out-of-combat situation with all your allies at hand to help with heal checks and restoration.

[Karoht]

If a spell doesn't scale with level or your main casting stat, don't bother learning it, grab a wand or a few scrolls instead. Lesser Restoration is a great example, as is Delay Poison. Obscuring Mist works pretty well as wand material. Heck, even Bless is a good wand candidate.
I found that I personally got a lot of mileage out of a wand of Blessing of Courage and Life, but never actually used that spell when it was on my list. Just my experience though.