Flame Oracle (with UMD) optimization

[Timy]

Hi here,

I am currently playing a flame oracle in pathfinder.

We use only core and APG.

I just leveled up to 4th level and here is my build so far (before leveling) :

S 7
D 14
C 10
I 12
W 10
C 20

Human flame Oracle with blackened curse (I know, it is not APG but my DM allowed it)

Skills are maxed in acrobatics, spellcraft, and UMD (class skill due to dangerously curious trait) and I put 1 point in every knowledge and face skills in my class skills)

Spell known :
bless
cause fear
shield of faith
(cure spells and burning hand from curse and mystery)

revelations are :
heat aura
cinder dance (from human feat)
touch of flame

feats are :
improved initiative
extra revelation
weapon finesse

party is : me, a longbow ranger and a greataxe barbarian

now my questions :

What build would you go from here and why (spell known, feats, revelation etc) ?
Which wand (or other magic items) would you consider worth buying ?

For my build, I intend to swap cause fear (which will become useless in no time) for sanctuary and add comprehend languages with favored class bonus and add hold person as my first 2nd level spell

After that, I intend to take wing of fire and form of flame and I am not sure about which spell I want ^^

For the wands, I already have a cure light wound one and a knock one and I was thinking about utility spells mainly (my first idea is silent image which can have a lot of different uses !)

(oh and information of note, we probably won't go further than 15th level)

[Timy]

OK, I guess my questions were too global / not specific enough so here are 2 specific questions :

For an Oracle wand user, which spell would you want in your wands ? and which spell known would you take in priority ?

[Albions_Angel]

OK, I guess my questions were too global / not specific enough so here are 2 specific questions :

For an Oracle wand user, which spell would you want in your wands ? and which spell known would you take in priority ?

Even that is a bit open ended. You say Optimization, but the other 2 members of the party are a bow ranger (sub-optimal) and a greataxe barbarian (is this an ubercharger?).

What level of optimization are you aiming at? Are you looking to do some nice damage? Because thats probably not optimal for a spellcaster (opinion from 3.5e, not all that familiar with PF1). Its absolutely fine for playing a game, but its not an optimization challenge.

The other issue is party mismatch.

If you ask for optimization here, franky, people here can take the Truenamer and build a broken bonkers character (though they would probably focus on the race/templates to do it). Hell, famously this forum produced Madness Terrasquekiller - an build that optimized the NAME OF THE CHARACTER!

But that will make your friends feel really bad. Watching someone else have all the fun is, by its nature, not fun.

Tell us more about the party, the world, the threats you will face, what theme you want to go with (you are a Fire Oracle - fire is the most easily resisted element - do you want to stick with it anyway to preserve theme over function?).

[Timy]

Ok.

So maybe, the term "optimization" is not really correct.

What I ask is more like councel on what is "cool" or "really strong in many situation" and "generally overlooked".

We don't really do "optimization" with the group I play with.

And no, I am not looking for "damage" here. More utility, party buff and crowd control is what I am looking for.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Well the Flame mystery's entire kit is really about doing damage and you're picking a curse that doubles down on that. One important thing to note, you shouldn't apply the -4 penalty to attack rolls to spell attacks and to natural attacks (https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2og6x?Blood-of-Angels-FAQ-Candidates#2) (like the ones gained from Form of Flame).

For spell choice, I would recommend scanning an Oracle guide. This is where most of your utility will come from, and since you're devoting some of your limited spells known to blasting you'll want to pick carefully.

You're also restricted to only using Core and APG which really limits your options here. You're locked out of useful feat options for blasting for instance or any of the best archetypes.

Honestly, I'd just grab your basic healing spells, some spells to buff the other two players and lean into the fact that your party is all in on damage. Have a few face skills and just have fun, don't worry about trying to create an optimal build based on forum advice.