Pathfinder Character Creation Help

[Glarx]

Hey there, folks. Not sure if this is the right forum for this, so if I'm in the wrong place, please just say so and I'll do my best to rectify that situation.

So I'm going to be joining a Pathfinder game, which is apparently similar enough to 3.5 that I shouldn't be entirely lost, but is different enough that my knowledge is relatively useless. We're using some strange form of gestalt, I've got 36 point buy (which, to my knowledge, is far higher-powered than 36 PB for 3.5), and my classes have been selected for me: Cleric 4 | Oracle 4.

Now, I am a serious noob here, and I've got no idea what sorts of anything I ought to be doing. What feats should I select? What mysteries (I think that's what the oracle's class feature thing is called)?

I'm in a group of five other players who are intimately familiar with the game system, and three are self-professed power gamers, so how can my little cleracle be relevant? I'm looking for an obliterator (someone who can channel all the glory of the heavens into beams of death [although which beams of death are the most potent in Pathfinder is something I'm unfamiliar with]) although having some tertiary buffing powers might not be amiss. Although there aren't any straight up meatshields in the group, so things like Enlarge Person would be wasted.

I wish I could tell you what everyone else's classes are, but I'm afraid I don't know. We're all being secretive.

So, is there any help for a poor greenhorn like me? Feel free to ask questions about the situation, and I'll gladly answer what I can as accurately and precisely as I can. Any help would be happily received.

Thank you, regardless!

[Giarc]

Well, first, do you have access to the books or know about the SRD? If not, here is a link to it: www.d20pfsrd.com

[Glarx]

Ah yes, thank you Giarc! I have begun my trek through the SRD to figure things out, yes. I don't have access to anything that isn't the PFSRD, however -- we're restricted to that. I apologize for not pointing that out in the original post.

[Giarc]

Well, first, Oracle and Cleric both use different ability scores for casting, charisma and wisdom respectively. There are two other divine classes that could help with your idea which are Inquisitor (wisdom) and paladin (charisma) depending if you want to focus on wis or cha or just spread it out.

Another thing of note is that there is an archtype for sorcerers that lets them use wisdom as their main casting stat. The wildblooded (empyreal) sorc would get access to some spells on the sorc/wizard spell list if there are any you want.

[Feralventas]

>How can my cleric be relevent?

By way of being a Cleric. Really. Despite some of the minor nerfs they got going from 3.5 to PF, they're still plenty strong, and Oracle gets the same spell list, just as a spontaneous 'caster.

Use Oracle spell list to get to the spells you Know you'll need. Cleric will be your day-to-day variation to prepare for things like unique situations.

If you're going to put the Cleric's Channel Energy ability to use, you'll want the Selective Healing feat so as not to heal enemies or harm allies depending on whether you go positive or negative energy.

Craft Wondrous Item is often a viable option, but the crafting system's a little different. There's no XP cost to craft magic items, but you must make a Spellcraft check which you cannot take a 10 or 20 on with the DC= 10+ The required caster level of the item. This isn't hard to deal with, just make an item with competence bonus to Spellcraft and that should make it easy enough to manage most items. After that it's just a matter of money (1/2 the market price) and time (1 day per 1000gp of the market price, though you can do that at 1 day per 500gp in case you don't have down time and need to craft in the evenings so that you can be on the move.)

After that, just figure out what kinda cleric you want to run as (Domains, and Mystery/Curse for the Oracle) and pick ones out that fit that ideal.

[genesaika]

Forced to play a certain class? Well at least they are fun classes.

If you are allowed to pick archetypes and undead lord cleric, would be interesting. I'm pretty sure you could make the oracle use undead too.

Or maybe and undead lord, haunted life oracle for some interesting roleplay.

Ya lots of fun stuff, I'll have to look at some builds for more ideas.

[Glarx]

Well, first, Oracle and Cleric both use different ability scores for casting, charisma and wisdom respectively. There are two other divine classes that could help with your idea which are Inquisitor (wisdom) and paladin (charisma) depending if you want to focus on wis or cha or just spread it out.

Another thing of note is that there is an archtype for sorcerers that lets them use wisdom as their main casting stat. The wildblooded (empyreal) sorc would get access to some spells on the sorc/wizard spell list if there are any you want.Alas, I can't multiclass out or change my base classes. I hope to be able to prestige class out eventually, but since it isn't relevant to level 4, I haven't bothered to find out yet. I bemoaned the MAD nature of cleracles, but I'd no doubt the other players are dealing with such issues as well. And since I intended to play as the quasi-face of the party anyways, a high wisdom and a high charisma isn't going to damage me too greatly. I just have to prioritize both.

>How can my cleric be relevent?

By way of being a Cleric. Really. Despite some of the minor nerfs they got going from 3.5 to PF, they're still plenty strong, and Oracle gets the same spell list, just as a spontaneous 'caster.

Use Oracle spell list to get to the spells you Know you'll need. Cleric will be your day-to-day variation to prepare for things like unique situations.

If you're going to put the Cleric's Channel Energy ability to use, you'll want the Selective Healing feat so as not to heal enemies or harm allies depending on whether you go positive or negative energy.

Craft Wondrous Item is often a viable option, but the crafting system's a little different. There's no XP cost to craft magic items, but you must make a Spellcraft check which you cannot take a 10 or 20 on with the DC= 10+ The required caster level of the item. This isn't hard to deal with, just make an item with competence bonus to Spellcraft and that should make it easy enough to manage most items. After that it's just a matter of money (1/2 the market price) and time (1 day per 1000gp of the market price, though you can do that at 1 day per 500gp in case you don't have down time and need to craft in the evenings so that you can be on the move.)

After that, just figure out what kinda cleric you want to run as (Domains, and Mystery/Curse for the Oracle) and pick ones out that fit that ideal.Interesting! The changes to crafting sound pretty swell, actually. Without all the cost reduction tricks of 3.5, though, it's probably still absurdly expensive. Still, if I take it at character generation, I can get most magical items half-off, which is groovy. From what I can see from the SRD (the different layout is probably more off-putting than the actual changes to the contents -- I'm just so used to the brown bag look of 3.5's SRD!) the cost for a competence skill bonus item is the same as in 3.5, so that's good.

I do intend to be an Evil cleric, so the Selective Channeling feat sounds pretty great. (I hope you meant Selective Channeling, as I cannot find Selective Healing. It is a simple enough word to switch out, so I've little doubt it's what you meant.)

So Oracle is sorta like Favored Soul, only with some nifty class abilities? And some great curse. Joy of joys. I'll remark on this more in the next block of responses.

Do you (or does anyone?) have any suggestions on which spells are super duper incredibly useful? Which I should devote my Cleric spells per day to, and which I should consider for spontaneous Oracle casting?


Forced to play a certain class? Well at least they are fun classes.

If you are allowed to pick archetypes and undead lord cleric, would be interesting. I'm pretty sure you could make the oracle use undead too.

Or maybe and undead lord, haunted life oracle for some interesting roleplay.

Ya lots of fun stuff, I'll have to look at some builds for more ideas.

Not sure on the archetypes, although undead lord definitely sounds intriguing. Still, we have a 'summoner' already so being a minion master might be overkill for combat.

Are there any oracle mysteries that are considered overwhelmingly powerful? Are there any curses that aren't particularly cursey? I'm considering Legalistic.