Oracle Archetype - Viral-Infested -Theperfect25

[theperfect25]

Viral-Infested Oracle Archetype

The Viral-Infested oracle has been infested with a virus that is slowly taking over their body. The origins of this virus is unknown, and most who are exposed to it die soon after. However, some individuals, due to their strong constitution, divine connection, and perhaps luck, can survive the initial infection. With no known cure the virus slowly overrides the body of its host. That said, the power of infection can be harnessed to some extent and in in the best cases localized to a single deformed limb, typically ones arm.

(Note: Depending on the campaign and setting, this Archetype can easily be reflavored into a Fungus-Infested Archetype where the oracle is covered in fungal growths that plague their body. Nearly all cases of the word viral would be replaced with the word fungal)

Curse of Viral-Infestation (Su)
All Viral-Infested oracles share the same curse of viral infection. The skin of the infested is plagued and deformed with growths, pustules and discolorations. One of the viral Infested oracle’s arm has been thoroughly infested and is now significantly larger than normal covered in thick scarified, almost chitinous discolored skin, giving a +2 natural armor bonus and access to Viral-Infested Revelations. Due to the horrible deformation and mutations caused by the infestation, the oracle takes a -2 penalty to their Constitution score at Character Creation. In addition, they take a -2 penalty to all Dex based Skill checks due to the mutation weakening the fine motor controls of their arms and legs.

Lvl 5 - The Viral-Infested oracle’s arm now ends in a large clawed hand. They gain a natural claw attack that deals damage as if they were one size category larger than normal, and automatically receive the Improved Unarmed Strike combat feat.

Lvl 10 - As the virus continues to spread throughout the Viral-Infested oracle’s body, the virus attacks and destroys the lesser ailments of mankind that try to take hold in the body. The Viral-Infested oracle becomes immune to all natural diseases and poisons.

Lvl 15 - The Viral-Infested oracle’s arm is able to stretch itself without causing lasting damage to themselves. Attacks made using the infested arm can now be made as if the natural reach of the oracle was increased by 5ft. Their infested arm is now treated as two size categories larger for damage and CMB.

This ability replaces the oracle’s curse.



Viral-Infested Revelations
All viral-infested oracles have access to the following revelations, regardless of what mystery they choose.

Infested Spells (Su)
The viral infested Oracle may infuse their own spells with the infestation that plagues their own body. By making a melee touch attack, the oracle may infect a target with any touch based spell that they can cast. After every round the infused spell may reach out and infest any target the oracle Designates within 20ft of the previously inflected target. Each target is allowed a similar save to resist the spell. A new target is chosen at the end of every round until a target succeeds on the spells save or a number of targets equal to the oracles CHA modifier is reached. No target can be affected by the same infested spell effect twice. This ability can be used once per day. At 5th level and every 5 thereafter, this ability gains an additional use per day.

Lurking Arm (Su)
As a standard action, A Viral-Infested oracle can plant their infested arm into the ground and allow the virus to run rampant in the earth. This action creates an area oozing with bile and pustules to quickly expand from a designated location within 30ft of the Oracle. The area expands to have a 10 ft radius area of effect. This area is considered difficult terrain and any caster attempting to cast while inside the area must succeed a concentration check equal to 15 +spell level or fail to cast the spell. While this ability is active, the Oracle is rooted to their starting location and flat footed until a move action is used to end the revelation effect.
At level 9, the designated location can be placed within 100ft, and the radius becomes 15 ft. At 15th level, the Lurking arm can be used as an extension of one's arm to deliver infested spells (if multiple possible targets are within the lurking arm, one must be selected as the initial target, it does not affect all possible targets).

Viral-Spine Launcher (Su)
A Viral-Infested oracle as a small claw covered orifice is created in the center of their palm. From this orifice, Viral-Spines can be fired as projectiles. These spines deal damage as a sling for their size category with the exception that the spines deal piercing damage (strength applies to damage just as a sling does). At level 11, they can deliver touch spells through this spine launcher a number of times per day equal to ½ oracle level +CHA mod. When delivering spells, the spines do not deal their normal damage and hit against the enemies touch AC. You must be at least 7th level to select this revelation.



This class is based on Stukov from Heroes of the Storm. Great thanks to HazMatt for the idea and writing of the Archetype.

[ElFi]

To start, this archetype has really cool fluff, and it's a very unique idea that could certainly go interesting places. But it's got issues. In order:

Level 1: No bonus from the curse at this level is the first mark against it, especially since the penalty is generally worse than the Wasting curse (probably the closest Paizo equivalent to this one) aside from the Cha penalty not applying to UMD. One point of Con drain isn't terrible, but continuing to lose more and more constitution as you level is a big no-no for me. No curse that I'm aware of actually gets worse as you level. The problems never go away, sure, but you've got a perfectly worthwhile penalty with just the base effect. No need to make it even harder. Maybe make it so that all constitution damage you take becomes constitution drain instead?

Level 5: Interesting and flavorful, but the constitution penalties from the base curse are already pushing you away from melee combat, so it feels a little out of place for me. And you get another penalty at this level? Even if it's a skill no oracle is likely to invest in, that's not necessary.

Level 10: Weak for this stage in advancement, not to mention sort of incongruous against the "your life force is sapping away" fluff. Again, for a comparison to the Wasted curse, you're outright immune to disease at this level.

Level 15: This is cool and has a neat bit of disturbing fluff attached, but I'm worried that it's a little weak for this level.

Infested Spells: Worded really strangely. It's a neat effect, and I think I get the gist, but parsing through all of that was a pain.

Lurking Arm: Neat. But how does this interact with your claw attack and other infected-arm abilities? Can you not use them while this is active? Also, what's the DC on the concentration check, and what action does it require?

Viral-Spine Launcher: This is pretty cool, though needing to take yet another penalty to your abilities is inherently a little off-putting for me.

Massive Shove: This ability's all over the place for me. You can knock the target hella far and it's a cool ability for melee fighters to control the battlefield or casters to get some breathing room, but the sheer punishment you take just for using it (if it even works, for that matter, and most enemies you'd like to use this on probably have a respectable CMD) makes it practically unusable except as a last-ditch panic button. Take away the damage/fatigue and just give this ability limited uses per day. It'll make it infinitely better.

I have really mixed feelings about this archetype. Like I said, it's got awesome fluff and neat ideas, but using it seems almost as painful as getting infected by the virus your character has. It seems to want to encourage you to be a warrior-type Oracle, but that Con drain's like an infected cut (no pun intended) that just won't go away. This could be really great, but it's not quite there yet.

[HazMatt]

Hi there ElFi, I am one of the players who helped Theperfect25 with this archetype. First of all, Thanks so much for your commentary and suggestions! It's great seeing what other people think, and your commentary will definitely be discussed next time Theperfect25 and I talk about this. I'd like to go through some of the rationale behind some of our decisions in regards to your opinions, and I hope more good discussion is to follow!


Level 1: No bonus from the curse at this level is the first mark against it, especially since the penalty is generally worse than the Wasting curse.

You are totally correct here, however, we based the template for this off of the paizo black-blooded oracle archetype. In this archetype, the curse has no lvl 1 benefits and we believed this is to outweigh the bonus of receiving the ability to take the revelations with any other mystery and thus left it as-is.


One point of Con drain isn't terrible, but continuing to lose more and more constitution as you level is a big no-no for me.

The reason for this decision was because of the relative power of the abilities, most notably the Infested spells revelation which I'll elaborate on in a second. With the point about changing it to con drain, that was how we originally had it, but with being an oracle, by lvl 8 with learning restoration and spending 100gp you can cast restoration and completely negate the effects of the curse. We felt this was a problem, and while I agree it is very crippling in it's current state, it was our best attempt at balancing. We'd love your input.

Level 5: The inclusion of the penalty here was because the closest comparison curse to this (being Hunger) doesn't give one size category larger until level 10, so we added a penalty to compensate. I agree it doesn't follow standards though.


Level 10: Weak for this stage in advancement.

I agree, that was one of my concerns as well, The fluff justification we had in mind is that you are more virus than man as this goes on, so the ailments of man would have less effect, I agree it is weak for the tier, but we didn't want to just copy the wasting curse despite it being more ideal.

Level 15: I'll keep the tier in mind when we look back over it, thanks.


Infested Spells: Worded really strangely. It's a neat effect, and I think I get the gist, but parsing through all of that was a pain.

So this was the big ability that changed how we thought about the rest of the class. We liked the way it worked too much, but we knew it was powerful, so we decided to add more penalties all around to compensate. I'll go through and clean up the writing on it, but to further explain, each turn, the single usage of a spell (say perhaps cure critical wounds) has the potential to double the people affected by it. So essentially, by waiting three turns as it spreads, you can cast that spell on a party of 6 people for the cost of a single spell slot. It's obviously situational, but out of combat, it's potential improves even more. This is a big source of the penalties in our minds, but we didn't want to change the ability too much.



Lurking Arm: Neat. But how does this interact with your claw attack and other infected-arm abilities?

Thanks for bringing that up, we kinda glossed over that bit, we'll flesh out those details.

Viral-Spine Launcher: Again, we were using the penalties to justify infested spells, but I agree it's probably not the best solution.


Massive Shove: This ability's all over the place for me.

Yeah, I think that will be a better solution, thanks. We felt that giving the potential for triple of what bull rush is usually capable of needed a drawback, but that was just kind of the mindset we were in. Thanks for the alternate view on things.


It seems to want to encourage you to be a warrior-type Oracle

Yeah, I think this is something we didn't quite settle on properly. Now that you mention it, there are quite a few conflicting build concepts here. Thanks for pointing it out.

In conclusion, Theperfect25 and I will talk about this next time we meet up, so thank you for your excellent commentary, expect changes in the future, and I hope you'll continue to contribute your opinions!

[Primal Fury]

This is kinda neat, but Infested Spell needs some... I don't know... kind of spell type that it works with. I know it says "touch-based" but is it melee touch only, or also ranged touch attack spells? I'm fairly sure it's just melee, but it's always best to be sure. The wizard's ability to cast spells with their familiar works much the same way, but it specifies spells that "have a range of touch".

EDIT: Also, is the transference automatic, or does it require a save. It seems like it should require as save.

Actually, I don't really like Massive Shove here. I know what it's based on, but it doesn't seem to fit here. All of the other abilities are based on somehow spreading the sickness, but this one is just a big push (honestly I don't like either of Stukov's ultimates). Maybe basing it off of Weighted Pustule would be better? But I guess that and Healing Pathogen were rolled together into a single ability. Hm...

[theperfect25]

Viral-Infested Oracle Archetype

The Viral-Infested oracle has been infested with a virus that is slowly taking over their body. The origins of this virus is unknown, and most who are exposed to it die soon after. However, some individuals, due to their strong constitution, divine connection, and perhaps luck, can survive the initial infection. With no known cure the virus slowly overrides the body of its host. That said, the power of infection can be harnessed to some extent and in in the best cases localized to a single deformed limb, typically ones arm.

(Note: Depending on the campaign and setting, this Archetype can easily be reflavored into a Fungus-Infested Archetype where the oracle is covered in fungal growths that plague their body. Nearly all cases of the word viral would be replaced with the word fungal)


Curse of Viral-Infestation (Su)
All Viral-Infested oracles share the same curse of viral infection. The skin of the infested is plagued and deformed with growths, pustules and discolorations inviting fear and repulsion. One of the viral Infested oracle’s arm has been thoroughly infested and is now significantly larger than normal covered in thick scarified, almost chitinous discolored skin.
Due to her looks, she receives a -2 penalty to all Charisma Checks (except Intimidate and Use magical device) and loses one point of CON at Character creation. In addition, as her life force is being consumed, she takes one point of CON Drain at level 5 and every 5 levels after. This con drain cannot be healed with anything less than a usage of miracle or wish per point.

Lvl 5 - The Viral-Infested oracle’s arm now ends in a large clawed hand. She has a natural claw attack that deals damage as if it was one size category larger than normal, and automatically receives the Improved Unarmed Strike combat feat, however, she receives a -4 penalty to disable device because of the loss of precision in that hand.

Lvl 10 - You gain a +4 competence bonus on saves made against poisons and diseases.

Lvl 15 - The Viral-Infested oracle’s arm is able to stretch itself without causing lasting damage, thus, attacks made using the infested arm can now be made as if the effective reach of the oracle was 10ft. She threatens as if her threat range is 10ft as well.

This ability replaces the oracle’s curse.


Viral-Infested Revelations
All viral-infested oracles have access to the following revelations, regardless of what mystery they choose.


Infested Spells (Su)
Touch based spells can be administered with an infested arm using an inert form of the virus as it’s medium. The effect of the spell delivered can be delayed for a number of rounds equal to her CHA modifier (min. 1). For each turn the spells activation is delayed, the virus can spread to a single designated target within 20 ft of the initial or spread to target. This action on the next delayed turn takes place from all targets who are “infested” with the spell. (i.e turn one, it spreads to an additional target, but turn two, a new target is selected within the range of both the original and spread target.) A target can be infected with only one spell at a time. She can activate the spell as a free action before the last delayed turn, or without action at the end of the last delayed turn. Activation of the spell will affect all targets “infested” by the spell, each receiving their saves as described in the spell description. This ability can be used once per day. At 5th level and every 5 thereafter, this ability gains an additional use per day.


Lurking Arm (Su)
A Viral-Infested oracle can plant her infested arm to the ground and allow the virus to run rampant in the earth. This action creates an area oozing with bile and pustules to quickly expand from a designated location within 20 ft of her. The area expands to have a 20 ft diameter area of difficult terrain. This effect requires a concentration check each turn to continue. At level 7, she can designate a location within 30ft, and the diameter becomes 30 ft. At level 11 the effect persists for 2+ CHA turns after concentration ends. At 15th level, the Lurking arm can be used as an extension of one's arm to deliver infested spells (if multiple possible targets are within the lurking arm, one must be selected as the initial target, it does not affect all possible targets).

Viral-Spine Launcher (Su)
A Viral-Infested oracle loses a size category on their natural claw attack as their claws shrink and a small claw covered orifice is created in the center of their palm. From this orifice, Viral-Spines can be fired as projectiles. These spines deal damage as a sling for their size category with the exception that the spines deal piercing damage. (Strength applies to damage just as a sling does.) At level 11, She can deliver touch spells through this spine launcher a number of times per day equal to ½ oracle level +CHA mod. When delivering spells, the spines do not deal their normal damage and hit against the enemies touch AC. You must be at least 7th level to select this revelation.

Massive Shove (Su)
A Viral-Infested oracle gains the ability to Violently lengthen their infected arm allowing them to perform a bull rush maneuver at range of 20 ft. If the bull rush attempt succeeds, the target is pushed back 5ft plus 5 ft per point her attempt exceeds the targets CMD. Performing this causes the user 1d4 damage per 10 feet the target was pushed, and the user is fatigued for a number of rounds equal to the points that exceeded the target’s CMD. At level 15,she no longer takes damage. At level 19, she is no longer fatigued. You must be at least 11th level to select this revelation.


Changed a multitude of abilities to give a more cohesive feel and use overall to the archetype.