Building a Melee Oracle

[Talya]

Race: Aasimar (Muse-touched) +2 dex/cha, Glitterdust.
Alternate Racial Trait: Scion of Humanity (likely dovetailing nicely with the Tongues curse)
25 point buy
Preferred weapons - spears (any kind)
Setting: Castrovel Jungles
Oracle Mystery - Wood.
Level 5

How would you build a character with the constraints above?
I can't figure out how to make a melee oracle remotely effective.

[inertia709]

Race: Aasimar (Muse-touched) +2 dex/cha, Glitterdust.
Alternate Racial Trait: Scion of Humanity (likely dovetailing nicely with the Tongues curse)
25 point buy
Preferred weapons - spears (any kind)
Setting: Castrovel Jungles
Oracle Mystery - Wood.
Level 5

How would you build a character with the constraints above?
I can't figure out how to make a melee oracle remotely effective.

Is there any reason for the above constraints? Because that's pretty restrictive. Wood mystery works better with archers because of the bonuses for using weapons made of wood and the ability to see through (and therefore fire through) plant growth. That being said, you can still make an effective melee oracle: just make sure to get the good buff spells (divine power, righteous might, bull's strength, blessing of fervor) and consider getting a two-handed weapon and power attacking. Elves can work well since you get free proficiencey with the elven curved blade and access to the ancient lorekeeper archetype (and therefore get awesome sorcerer/wizard buffs like enlarge person, false life, haste, etc.). Aasimar + scion of humanity + racial heritage(elf) + ancient lorekeeper also works.

If you are more flexible with your build (and are playing in a relatively high op game), you can try the following build: Choose the lunar mystery. This gives you access to several excellent revelations. The central revelation is form of the beast, which you can pick at 7th level, and gives you a wildshape-like ability. You don't gain the ability to change into an elemental or plant creature like a druid, but you get to turn into magical beasts, which is awesome. Note the hour/level duration. Choose angel-blooded aasimar for alter self so you can get 3 natural attacks as a troglodyte once per day until level 7. Make sure to take the deafened curse for free silenced spells, so that you can cast in (say) dire ape or girillon form. Some more highlights from lunar revelations: You can also get your charisma to AC and reflex saves instead of dexterity, allowing you to dump dex and giving you great AC in beast form; you can get an additional primary natural attack as a swift action (2 at 11th level); and you can get an animal companion, with effective druid level = 1.5*(oracle level) if you always choose the aasimar's favoured class bonus. Take racial heritage(elf) and the ancient lorekeeper archetype for even more awesome.

Ninja Edit: You can get cha to reflex saves, not all saves. You're not a paladin. :smalltongue:

[Talya]

It's really not that specific or constraining. I've set the parameters for my own reasons. I didn't want an exposition on what to do outside of them. I'm looking for what to do with ability scores, feats, spells, revelations up to and past level 5.

Honestly, I think the synergy is already there anyway.

Nature-themed spear-wielding melee type was already planned. The spear (and long spear) are two-handed weapons that qualify for wood-bond. (Elven curved blade is not wood, however.) Scion of Humanity is intended to get Racial Heritage (Half elf) for Paragon Surge. Aasimar has GREAT oracle stats (especially musetouched, +2 dex/cha, both great for this build, with no max-dex cap in rather great wooden armor (as per the revelation), a great spell like ability (glitterdust), and the ability to grab Wings at level 9 without having any means of flight in my mystery.

Lunar was considered and discarded because I don't want to be a furry. :P It is imperative that she look just as sexy in combat as she does the rest of the time.

Nature was heavily considered (because the Aasimar favored class bonus for oracles combined with Bonded Mount is freakin incredible, especially if using a heavy combat capable large creature like a big cat - nothing like having an intelligent animal companion with far more hit dice than you have), but I couldn't figure out how to make the nature oracle good at melee.

[Arutema]

Let's see. Typically melee Oracles go with the Battle or Metal mysteries, but I can see some stuff from the Wood mystery to work with.

The Wood Bond revelation gives a scaling bonus on attack rolls with wooden weapons as your level increases. The Aasimar favored class bonus lets you treat your level as 50% higher for purposes of determining a revelation's effect, so use this at least at early levels to help make up for medium BAB. Only catch is that it's a competence bonus, so it won't stack with Inspire Courage if you have a bard in the group.

You're also playing a race with a Dex bonus, so take combat reflexes and use a longspear to get free attacks as things approach you.

If traits are in play, Fate's Favored turns Divine Favor into a powerful low-level buff.

Beyond that, I can't say, the Wood mystery is somewhat short on must-have revelations.

Edit: Ninja'd.

Honestly, I'd say give the Lunar mystery a second look, just ignore the furrier revelations, as some of the rest are awesome:

Primal Companion - You can have a pet tiger, you can use the aforementioned favored class bonus to advance it to silly levels.
Prophetic Armor - Your Cha will probably end up higher than your Dex, so might as well apply it to your AC instead.
Moonlit Script - Commune once per day without the expensive material component.

[avr]

Well, the wood mystery isn't the battle mystery, that's for sure and you're choosing not to do the quarterstaff/shillelagh combo which might be nice at low levels. The useful spear will be the longspear for the reach I guess. Which means that battlefield control is what you're aiming for.

If you're willing to take the dual-cursed archetype Misfortune can be used against people attacking you or trying to tumble past you. You'd lose a bunch of class skills which it sounds like your concept would like though. Traits may help.

Wood Bond with the aasimar favored class bonus is +1 to hit at L1, +2 at L4, +3 at L7, +4 at L10. IMO this is the best of the options available for the FC bonus.

So maybe (assuming dual-cursed)
Feat 1: Combat Reflexes
Revelation 1: Wood Bond
F3: Antagonise
R3: Misfortune
F5: Power Attack
R5: Thorn Burst (for the caltrop effect more than the damage)
F7: ??
R7: Fortune
F9: Lunge
F11: ??
R11: Tree Shape

[Talya]

Oooh, I could put throwing and calling on a longspear to give it some ranged utility to go with melee.

Edit: Definitely want Wood Armor revelation. By level 11 it's better than full plate with no ACP or max dex. Throw Magic Vestment on it and you're good for the entire day.

[grarrrg]

Wood Armor you mentioned.
Wood Bond is nice, sort of boosting you up to Full Bab.
Tree Form could be handy for the Plant Shape, but I've not dug much into what a good Plant-form would be. The duration of hour per level is good, but only 1/day use? Ugh.
Wooden Weapon can be great for a summoning a backup weapon, but not sure how often that would actually come up.

But for the Aasimar Alt-Favored trait? I'm kinda liking Thorn Burst.
1d6 damage per 2 levels that hits everything within 10ft., gets more uses over time, and the selling point to me is that it's usable as a Swift Action.
Add in the Aasimar bonus and that can jack up the damage, jack up the Save DC, and get you more uses faster.
At level 10 you'd count as level 15 for 4/day uses that deal 7d6 damage with a Save DC of 17+CHA for half.
Level 20 counts as 30 for 7/day uses dealing 15d6 damage with a Save DC of 25+CHA for half.

[Talya]

Wood Armor you mentioned.
Wood Bond is nice, sort of boosting you up to Full Bab.
Tree Form could be handy for the Plant Shape, but I've not dug much into what a good Plant-form would be. The duration of hour per level is good, but only 1/day use? Ugh.
Wooden Weapon can be great for a summoning a backup weapon, but not sure how often that would actually come up.

But for the Aasimar Alt-Favored trait? I'm kinda liking Thorn Burst.
1d6 damage per 2 levels that hits everything within 10ft., gets more uses over time, and the selling point to me is that it's usable as a Swift Action.
Add in the Aasimar bonus and that can jack up the damage, jack up the Save DC, and get you more uses faster.
At level 10 you'd count as level 15 for 4/day uses that deal 7d6 damage with a Save DC of 17+CHA for half.
Level 20 counts as 30 for 7/day uses dealing 15d6 damage with a Save DC of 25+CHA for half.

That's nice with the thorn burst. Hmm.

(Edit: Pretty Sure the thornburst idea is the best. It affects SO MUCH on that revelation that makes it better. It becomes 3/4*level d6s, it boosts the DC by another 1/4 of your level, and it boosts the uses per day, too. That's good enough that it will make it painful when I inevitably want to take advantage of scion of humanity to get myself another spell known as a favored class bonus.)

[inertia709]

Since no-one has mention stats yet, I'll make a suggestion:

Str 16
Dex 14 (+2 racial)
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 15 (+2 racial)
(switch Int and Wis if you want more skill points)

Or:
Str 17
Dex 14 (+2 racial)
Con 14
Int 9
Wis 8
Cha 14 (+2 racial)

I recommend angel-blooded since Str is generally more important for melee than Dex, but glitterdust is admittedly a pretty great SLA at low levels. If you want to focus on melee damage as your primary role, use a longspear and power attack after buffing, standing behind the party tank if you have one (although you should be pretty tanky yourself). For this build, put your stat bonus at level 4 into Cha (first stat block) or Str (second stat block), then probably the rest into Str, depending on how often you find yourself casting save-based spells on enemies. If you have the choice, get a +2 belt of str, then a +2 headband of cha, then a +4 belt of str, etc. until both are +6.

If you plan on having melee as a backup option and being primarily a caster, use the first stat block and a shield and shortspear, and laugh as enemies endlessly fail to hit your ludicrous AC. In this build, the agathion-blooded really shines. Put your all of your level bonuses into cha and let your spells and revelations take care of your melee abilities. Consider getting a quickdraw shield (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/armor/quickdraw-shield) so that you can quickly switch between having great defence when casting spells and having great damage when in melee.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your awesome oracle!

Edit: Did 30 point buy instead of 25 by mistake. Added another stat block.