[PF] Favorite Mysteries/Curses for Oracles?

[pitdude243]

As the title asks, what are your favorite?

I've recently read up on them and I've never played Pathfinder before. I think the idea of a Dwarf Barbarian/Oracle with the Occult mystery and Consumed curse would be cool, you could say while poking around in some dark, dark knowledge you got kidnapped by a demon and trapped on Abaddon. I'd go for the Exiled Dwarf because he was exiled after they found out his dabblings in the Occult (He'd have Stubborn and Relentless)

Hopefully I can convince my current gaming group (all close friends) to dip their hands in Pathfinder, since we'll soon be looking for another game to play :smallsmile:

[StreamOfTheSky]

For curses...

- Lame is a great dip for Barbarians, and decent for caster-based Oracles.
- Deaf hurts a lot early on, but the payoff can be well worth worth it.
- Tongues is the perfect low-cost curse for a melee oriented Oracle or a someone dipping Oracle, and one of the best choices for a Dual-Cursed guy's 2nd curse. Note it's bad for caster oracles, b/c their best low level offensive spells are language-dependent.
- Wolf-scarred face is not good on its own, but is a perfect 2nd curse for a Dual-Cursed w/ Deaf already, as it's a free bite attack for no actual loss.
- Haunted can be nice in a very high level game for a caster oracle, but I would avoid it otherwise.
- Wasting can be ok for melee oracles or dippers; kind of defeats the point of being a cha-based character, though.

(caster oracle = primarly uses spells for offense; melee oracle = uses spells to buff and fight up close)

For mysteries...
- Battle is excellent for a melee Oracle. Just excellent.
- Time is great for either kind, but better for caster oracles, I think. Awful bonus spells, but terrific revelations and skills.
- Earth is my favorite of the element-themed ones; earth gliding is very rare, the tripping comes sooner than for Battle's maneuver mastery; and acid on weapon attacks is actually useful.
- I personally find one trick ponies boring, but a Heavens oracle can take down foes with Color Spray all the way through level 8 or higher if you pimp the hell out of your Cha stat. That is literally the only reason to take this mystery, though. Good for caster oracles in low level games (before color spray stops working and you get really depressed over lack of good other revelations).
- Waves is great for a rogue dipping; not so much for a pure oracle. Likewise with Metal for Barbarians dipping oracle.

[Tokuhara]

I'm a big fan of the Ancestor Mystery and the Blind Curse. I ran that on a Serpentkin Wordcaster Oracle who had the words of power seared into his eyes, not blinding him in a traditional sense, but instead all he could see was the words (I used Draconic words from Skyrim on this build) and after a few levels started piecing these words into spells (skinned as Shouts) that'd do what he needed them to do.

[Hylas]

- I personally find one trick ponies boring, but a Heavens oracle can take down foes with Color Spray all the way through level 8 or higher if you pimp the hell out of your Cha stat. That is literally the only reason to take this mystery, though. Good for caster oracles in low level games (before color spray stops working and you get really depressed over lack of good other revelations).

Nah, I gotta try to step up and defend Heavens oracle.

Yes, awesome display is amazing, especially for low level play (I wouldn't think twice about it for E6/E8, even if I were a melee/buff oracle), but there's so much more available. I wouldn't pick up awesome display for a dual-cursed oracle since you lose 2 of the 3 spells affected by it.

Coat of Many Stars - Give yourself armor that scales. If you really want to focus on melee you can pick either Aasimar, Ifrit, or Slyph, and make it scale faster and last longer. Then you cast magic vestments on it at the start of the day for free magical full-plate with no penalties. Extra useful if your DM hates giving out wealth.

Lure of the Heavens - Not the most useful, but it can be used to avoid traps, being followed, walking over that acid pit to tie a rope bridge for your friends, or a boost of extra maneuverability in tense combat situations when overland flight doesn't cut it.

Mantle of Moonlight - Ignore the 1st level ability, it will probably never come up (but it could, depending on your group). Now the ability you get at 5th level is amazing. As a melee touch attack with no save or SR you can put an enemy wizard into a rage for level/rounds.

Moonlight Bridge - Now this one is tricky, but could be amazing. It says you can place a wall of force at your feet and it extends in any direction. Assuming "up" is a direction, you now have a 10 foot wide wall of force you can deploy a charisma bonus number of times per day. Oh and it lasts 24 hours. Still useful even if your DM limits the angle to 45 degrees. Block off hallways, pit traps, and more.

[grarrrg]

Due to the rule that your non-Oracle levels count as 1/2 levels for Curse bonuses, the Lame curse is VERY common for a couple level dip into Oracle on Barbarian builds. Immune to Fatigue helps Rage-cycling, and the loss of movement speed from Lame is offset by the Barbarian's bonus, so "no downside".

Clouded Vision is quite common, as the upsides are quite nice.

As is Deaf. Deaf also has the distinction of being one of the few that has Synergy when used with the Dual Cursed archtype. Pair it up with Wolfscarred, and the "penalty" of being Wolfscarred is completely negated.
Wolfscarred is also handy as a quick way to pick up a Natural Bite attack.

Legalistic and Tongues are the 'go-to' when you want a Curse with minimal downside.


As for Mysteries some are more notable than others.
Life is solid for 'healer' builds (I'm not going to say it. I know that you know that I want to say it, but I'm not going to).

Nature and Lore Mystery have Revelations that give CHA instead of DEX to AC. These can be handy dips for high CHA builds.

Nature's Mount combined with Elf, Aasimar, Ifrit, or Sylph alt-class bonuses gives you a rapid progression companion, with your Mount effectively gaining 3 levels for every 2 of Oracle.

Juju lets you make NOT evil undead (pre-pending errata or whatever designer nonsense is going on).



Nah, I gotta try to step up and defend Heavens oracle.

Coat of Many Stars - Give yourself armor that scales. If you really want to focus on melee you can pick either Aasimar, Ifrit, or Slyph, and make it scale faster and last longer. Then you cast magic vestments on it at the start of the day for free magical full-plate with no penalties. Extra useful if your DM hates giving out wealth.

There are a LOT of Mysteries that give a version of "+4 AC for Hours" (about half of them). The DR can be nice, but I'd prefer the "50% ranged miss chance" from Wind or Ancestor better.

The main problem with Heavens is that most of the abilities have VERY limited number of uses, and half of them are 'meh' effects.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Clouded Vision is the one curse I would never take. No, not even then.

[navar100]

Curses:

Clouded Vision - I've always wanted to play a blind mystic and now I can and am doing so.

Tongues - I find it funny in a good way.

Haunted - Lots of roleplay potential.

Mysteries:

Life - I like playing heal-bots and a Life Mystery Oracle is a grandmaster at it. Spells provide the variety you need so that you're not bored. My Life Oracle virtually doubles the party's hit points. We can take on +2 CR encounters well enough and can even win against +3. The party's Inquisitor told me specifically he can concentrate on offense more than he normally would because he knows I got his back. It's more than once other players have told me I was MVP of the combat.

Dark Tapestry - dark armor, darkvision, polymorph, flight, Confusion, minute mindread, Phantasmal Killer, such juicy stuff to do before you even consider spells.

Ancestors - For Oracles who want to engage in melee combat a lot without going the stereotypical Battle Mystery route. Battle Mystery is more efficient at it, but Ancestors is different enough to be a mystic warrior instead of just a warrior who casts spells.

[Hruken]

I'm a big fan of the wood mystery for a melee oracle. Not the best, but I really like the flavor of it. Free wooden weapon (with keen enchant), free wooden armor (throw a magic vestment spell on it), and the ability to talk to wood.

Metal mystery + lame curse is great for melee oracles. Speed boost to offset the penalty without dipping.

[Crasical]

I'm a big fan of the Juju mystery. Excellent flavor.

[FatherMalkav]

Personally I like the effect of Metal over Battle for an offensive Oracle. The boost from Dance of the Blades is a nice perk and helps offset the Lame Curse, Iron Weapon is a great way to adapt to the needs of any combat (reach, light, Sword & Board, 2 handed) or just for the fun of charging into every fight with a different beaty stick. The Skills aren't perfect but I find most of them worth one point, if not more (I'm talking Intimidate, Mr. Charisma), and the spells aren't bad, if not great.

[Blyte]

Juju + curse of the black blood, is a pretty fun combo

I like gnomish heavens oracles, the effortless trickery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/effortless-trickery) feat allows for great massive crowd control.. with their latter bonus spells.

It's pretty nice throwing up a pattern, looting a place clean, and then flying out, or walking over your rainbow bridge with a sack of gold dragging behind you.

[avr]

Any oracle with the natural divination revelation - available to nature & juju mysteries, or to any other with the seer archetype - is shockingly good at the Spellcraft skill check to make a magic item.