PF melee divine caster

[JungleChicken]

Friend got some PF material and looking to GM.

I was thinking of building a divine casting melee character.

Saw the Cleric and liked it, saw Paladin and thought it was a upgraded from 3.5...but only for things with the evil tag.

Then I saw the Oracle. I like the flavor/fluff of this class and think Battle or Bone would be a good combat build.

thoughts, experiences etc?

[Bacchus]

Battle Oracle hands down

[Metahuman1]

Paladin's best vs straight up evil, but not entirely limited too it. The lay on hands, some of the archatype ability's and the signature weapon and Cha based spell list make it workable.

Oracle is still probably more powerful though.

Druid is also doable. Prepare buffs and give yourself just enough Wis to get your 9's and focus heavily like all the other melee characters on Str, Con and Dex in that order and you'll be fine with buff spells and wild shape.

[navar100]

How much do you want to cast spells? If not much, Paladin. If a lot, Cleric or Oracle. Do you really want the flexibility of changing spells per day. Then play Cleric. If you're pretty much set on having particular spells and just go smashing should you not have the right spell at the moment, play Oracle.

If you want spellcasting but also want other juicy stuff to do, play Oracle. Oracle Revelation are by far a lot better than Cleric Domains. Two Domains gives you four abilities, and a lot of them are mediocre like a 1d6 + 1 per two levels damage attack. You cannot get more domains. Oracle gives you 6 Revelations with abilities such as Charisma for AC, flight, free magic armor, free magic weapon, polymorph, and non-spell use combat buffing. (Not all from the same Mystery.) If there are more revelations in a Mystery you want than you get, spend a feat or two on Extra Revelation.

You can tell where my bias is heading. Unless you absolutely need to be able to change your spells around, and there's nothing wrong with that (Go Cleric. Hooray Cleric.), Oracle is more juicy.

However, there's also another possibility. You may not want to deal with the complexity of Cleric/Oracle spellcasting yet still want something more than Paladin. You may really want a gish yet fighter/cleric multiclassing feels lacking. You may still want to metaphorically smite evil to smithereens but don't want the baggage of a Paladin Code. The class you would then want is Inquisitor. You get bard-like casting that has a mixture of buff spells, investigation spells, and attack spells. You get class abilities that buff you without need of spells. You can roleplay the Holy Terror you always wanted but were afraid you'd fall if you played a Paladin.

[grarrrg]

Then I saw the Oracle. I like the flavor/fluff of this class and think Battle or Bone would be a good combat build.

thoughts, experiences etc?

Oracles make good beatsticks.
Battle and Metal are at the top for Melee-boosting.
Ancestor is close behind.

Metal + Lame Curse, you can take a Revelation that negates the movement penalty.

Wolfscarred Curse, free Bite attack. Feel free to Dual-Cursed with Deaf Curse to negate the chance of spell failure.

[JungleChicken]

I haven't seen metal and ancestor mysteries for the oracle yet. Th GM must not have those books.

I'm liking the oracle flavor. I doubt I will be the party face so wasting would add some good fluff. That or tongues but if I chose that I would want to be true to the curse and wouldn't talk OOG during combat

[grarrrg]

I haven't seen metal and ancestor mysteries for the oracle yet. Th GM must not have those books.

Same book, both are in Ultimate Magic.
Also, both are available online! TO THE LINKS!!
Ancestor (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/ancestor)
Metal (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/metal)

[JungleChicken]

I do have another question. Well a few.

With the Oracle of Battle's revelation surprising charge ability.
Is it a charge attack or just a charge move ability?
It's an immediate action so it can be used on a turn other than my own, but can it be used in response to say an AoE magic attack or does it have to be readied for that purpose?
Also as an immediate action if used on your own turn does it take the place of your move action as well? Surely it doesn't let you move twice on your own turn. I could however see using it just before your turn to charge up to a person and then on your turn you would get your full round of attacks.

Thoughts and uses of this ability?

[grarrrg]

Is it a charge attack or just a charge move ability?
It is a normal Movement Action that only costs you an Immediate Action to use. There is no "charge" involved, that's just the snappy name for it.


Also as an immediate action if used on your own turn does it take the place of your move action as well? Surely it doesn't let you move twice on your own turn. I could however see using it just before your turn to charge up to a person and then on your turn you would get your full round of attacks.

It does NOT take the place of your Move action. You could thus move up to 3 times in one turn (Standard as Move, Move, and Surprising Charge).

The preferred use is using it to Move up to your target, and then unleashing a Full-Attack (similar to Pounce, but with strict daily limits).

[JungleChicken]

Thanks. Now I'm thinking lame or wasting as my curse.

I like the flavor of wasting so I'll probably go with that. Nothing like a frail nearly emaciated guy decked out in heavy armor wielding a great flail to freak you out.

[HylianKnight]

If you're looking at APG stuff, a 3rd of the classes and like half of the Prestige Classes were just attempts to make divine versions of already existing arcane casters (e.g. Inquisitors and Oracles are Divine Bards and Sorcerers respectively).

This means that there are a couple cool PrC options for melee divine casters. Holy Vindicators are cool options for those really wanting to emphasize the battle part of battle clerics. Rage Prophets are really flavorful Barbarian/Oracles that take a lot of cues from Dragon Disciple.

I've never really seen people argue that the PF prestige options are optimized, but they are super-cool :)

[strider24seven]

Oracle with Paragon Surge.

[JungleChicken]

Same book, both are in Ultimate Magic.
Also, both are available online! TO THE LINKS!!
Ancestor (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/ancestor)
Metal (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/metal)

Liking the Ancestor as well as Battle.

Wonder if the DM will consider Ancestor

[Blyte]

paladin, much less prep time to get fully mission capable

[Ravens_cry]

If you get to use the Battle Cleric from the old campaign setting guide (no domains, but you get full BAB and heavy armour proficiency, nifty if you want to run around in mithral full plate) you can make a pretty kick butt battle bot, especially with the buffs.

[JungleChicken]

paladin, much less prep time to get fully mission capable

I do like the paladin, but the risk of falling and honestly if a game has few to no things with an evil tag they are almost a liability. Now if we go against an evil cleric flinging undead like pancakes then they will utterly smash things.

I'm really falling for the Oracle flavor.

[Sayt]

If a game has few/no things which you can hit with Paladin's smite evil, take blackguard instead.

Furthermore, Smite hits any creature with that alignment, not just creatures which have the [evil] subtype.

[Ravens_cry]

If a game has few/no things which you can hit with Paladin's smite evil, take blackguard instead.

Pathfinder doesn't have the Blackguard PrC and the equivalent, the Antipaladin, has an even worse code than the Paladin.