Channeling The Cosmos A Guide To The Oracle

Channeling the Cosmos
A Guide to the Oracle

Sean FitzSimon
Part 1: Oracle Class Features

[Part 2: Oracle Spells] [Part 3: Multiclass Options]
Last Updated: October 7, 2014
Contents:
I. Know Thyself: Character roles and expectations
II. Tactics and Techniques: Ways to be successful
III. Children of the Blessing: Races
IV. Measuring Up: Ability arrays
V. Mundane Tools for Divine Entities: Skills and Feats
VI. The Burden: Oracle Curses
VII. Aspects of the Divine: Mysteries
VIII. Deviations of the Divine: Archetypes
Sources:
This guide attempts to remain as close to the loose core as possible, and thus only contains options from the
main line of Pathfinder books. I use PFSRD as my primary source because theyre so fantastically wonderful at
keeping their material in line with current erratas. This guide draws on the following books:
Pathfinder Core Rulebook
Advanced Players Guide
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Magic
Advanced Race Guide
Special Thanks:
While the meat of this guide is from yours truly, there are several posters from the Paizo forums who have
contributed a great deal to my assessment of the guide as well as picked out the numerous times I was a giant
dolt and misread or misinterpreted something. Special thanks go to:
45ur4, Benly, Bigtuna, Cheapy, cp, Dennis Baker, Dingleberry, FallingIcicle, Galnrag, GtFromKI,
Hmm, Kazejin, KrispyXIV, nategar05, Rory, Samurai, ShadowcatX, sunbeam, TarkXT
Other Guides to Peruse:

Lots of people have written very insightful guides on different aspects of the Pathfinder RPG system. Here are a
few that might be worth looking at if youre interested in playing an Oracle. These guides are listed
alphabetically.
Ashiels Guide to Adventure: A fun guide that explores adventuring in the micro as well as the
macro. Highly recommended to those new to the system.
Brewers Guide to the Jargonaut: Brewer wrote a guide about taking advantage of the
exceptionally weak Words of Power alternate rule set. Early in the guide he acknowledges the
weakness of the system and then explores how to make the most of it with a very specific build.
Definitely worth a read if youre interested in Words of Power or other unique builds.
Tips and Traits: A Guide to Pathfinder Traits: Dragonamedrakes guide to traits is fantastic. Ive
referenced it dozens of times for different reasons and Ive always found it both thorough and
useful.
The Viking Irishmans Guide to Weaponry: A quick guide to the mechanical differences between
weapons.
Walters Guide to Deific Obediences: This is a guide about getting the most bang for your buck
from the Inner Sea Gods campaign book. The book is outside of the scope of this guide, but it
contains some truly powerful and unique options. Definitely worth a read.
Know Thyself:
The oracle is a varied and complex class, which is readily apparent when you start looking through the many
different options available in just their introductory book. The class offers a rich variety of different playstyles
and a unique take on the divine caster role. Mechanically speaking the class is the equivalent of a sorcerous
cleric.
Before we actually get into the specifics of what an oracle is, lets go ahead and dispel a particularly common
myth about the oracle/sorcerer: the oracle does not have more spells per day than a cleric. At any given level with
equivalent casting stats, the oracle and cleric are casting roughly the same amount of spells per day. The oracle
slowly passes the cleric in the mid to late teens, but at this point in a characters career the amount of spells per
day is largely inconsequential. The largest mechanical different between the two is the advantages and
disadvantages of a spontaneous vs. prepared spell list.
When comparing the two, the cleric is a generalist and the oracle is a specialist. Even the most highly specialized
cleric is still a generalist; this is because of the spellcasting mechanic that clerics follow. The oracle, on the other
hand, tends to be highly specialized. An oracle who specializes for a particular goal will always be better at that
goal than a cleric aiming towards the same, and thats a great strength of the class. The downside is that youll
need to rely on magic items (like scrolls, wands, & staves) to fulfill the generalist responsibilities of your group.
Because oracles excel at being specialists, its important that you play to that strength. Youve got a lot of options
in and out of combat, but only so many actions per round. Pick a group role for your character and try to build
towards that with most of your choices. Its okay to pick up a minor or two, but dont diversify too much or youll
start to suffer.
The combat roles for an oracle are as follows:
Warrior: This character has placed a large emphasis on the use of weapons in combat,
using her melee presence to shape the flow of battle. The warrior favors a strong strength
score as well as a decent charisma score.
On Ranged Combat: Ranged combat is a very powerful option in Pathfinder,
which of course should lead to the assumption that it can be a powerful option for
an oracle. Unfortunately it doesn't. It requires more feats and stronger stats to be
considered viable which is a mark against it. The most prolific issue with ranged
combat is that it doesnt do anything beyond damage. Melee combat provides a
variety of options for shutting down enemies and preventing them from doing
their big and nasty attacks. Trying to emulate a martial class is a quick way to fail,
which makes ranged combat a poorer choice than melee.
Controller: This character uses her spells, combat maneuvers, and/or skills to shape
the flow of combat around her. This can be done through applying penalties to her
enemies, changing the landscape of the battlefield, or summoning allies. The controller
tends to favor a high charisma score for spell DCs.
Enabler: This character puts a strong emphasis on making sure her allies are as
powerful as they can be. Shell spend her time in combat applying buffs and boons
appropriate to the situation, negating enemy attacks with abjurations, and summoning
allies to assist her companions. The enabler can function successfully even with a poor
charisma score, and makes a good option for characters with lower point buys.
Blaster: This character lives for the thrill of damage. She focuses on spells and abilities
that slather on as much hurt as possible. This role is generally considered inferior to
other roles as damage struggles to scale with the HP of enemy monsters, but several
mysteries appear to be designed to fill this concept. As such, it will be discussed here,
though in the tone that it is an inferior choice. If youre interested in pursuing this role
itd be a good idea to treat my ratings of blast spells/abilities as 1-2 stars greater. Flame
Oracle currently has the most to offer a character interested in blasting. A blaster favors
a high charisma score for spell DCs.
The out of combat roles for an oracle are as follows:
Socialite: Your goal is to navigate social situations, be it through trickery, guile, charm,
or intimidation. Your naturally high charisma and access to skills and magic make you a
good choice for this role.
Medic: Combat brings about its fair share of scrapes and bruises, and youre here to
mend the pieces. Healing is generally best done outside of combat, and may include
repairing hitpoint damage, curing poisons and diseases, and removing ability damage.
Every oracle who chooses the cure wounds option will fill this role to some degree, but
this particular listing is for characters who truly choose to pursue this. Invest in the heal
skill- itll save you a lot of grief early on.
Textbook: Its your job to know things. Be that through knowledge skills, divinations,
scouting, or gathering information around town. Many oracle mysteries can help you
fulfill this role.
Its important to choose a single combat role, but the vast majority of oracles are likely to jump between the out
of combat roles; and thats okay. Dont shy away from a challenge!
Before we go any further in this guide Id like to lay out the rating system well be using. Treantmonk has become
the gold standard for building easy-to-read guides, so Ill be following his example. The ratings are as follows:
RED (*): A very poor option. Should be avoided in nearly all cases.
ORANGE (**): A mediocre, or uncommonly useful option. Generally not worth it.
GREEN (***): A good option. Can also refer to great abilities that arent consistently useful.
BLUE (****): An excellent option. Should be considered in nearly all cases.
The most important thing to take away from this guide is that this is just a series of opinions. My opinions, to be
precise. Most every opinion here is formed based on math, statistical probability, and core assumptions of the
Pathfinder system. Even still, only you can know your particular game, and its up to you to judge and assess the
information here according to your situation. I only hope to offer one viewpoint of the class.
The only other piece of advice I really encourage you to consider is this: nothing is required to play an effective
oracle. There is no single feat, skill, race, spell, or revelation that any oracle must have. An oracle is more than
the sum of her parts, and theres a great amount of flexibility in building one that can be successful. Likewise
there is no single feat, skill, race, spell, or revelation that will ruin your character (with one exception: Read the
Tapestry in the Dark Tapestry mystery). As long as you can meet the mechanical requirements of playing an
oracle (have enough charisma, etc.) then you should feel confident in playing however you like. Some feats arent
as strong as others but help build towards a concept- and I say great! Build your concept. The guide is just here to
educate you on what strong and weak options exist so that you can look at it all and be as well informed as
possible.
Tactics and Techniques:

Weve identified four different types of oracle who all lend themselves to different playstyles. Before really getting
into any of the mechanics of the class its important that you get an idea of how each role should ideally be
played. Keep in mind that these are only my opinions, but they should help you play to each roles strengths.
Warrior: More than any other role, the warrior relies on her equipment. Youll want to wear the best armor you
can afford, usually splintmail early on and then eventually plate. Weapons are really important to you as well.
Warriors can be pretty successful with a weapon/shield combo, especially if they choose to go the buckler route
because you can swap between two-handed attacks and the classic sword and shield style. Wielding a buckler and
using your weapon with two hands negates the bonus to AC and applies a -1 penalty to attack though, so keep
that in mind. Two-handed weapons without the buckler are also something favored by the system, but the loss in
AC can hurt. Keep a second weapon on hand at all times (something lightweight and of a different damage type),
and consider tucking a sling into your belt as well. I mean, hey, you never know.
When entering combat youll tend to spend most of your time mingling among your enemies. Summoning is a
great option for Warrior types but the long casting time means its easy to disrupt- especially when standing near
your potential attacker. If you want an ally then its round 1 to do so, otherwise start moving towards the action
and cast your favorite combat buff. Prioritize spells that hit multiple allies if you can. Once youre in melee you
need to position yourself into flanking to help whichever ally needs it more. Start working towards securing
victory for your team before you really get into hitting your enemies; consider buffs that negate their attacks,
spells that add/modify the surrounding terrain, and/or debuff spells that dont offer a saving throw. Once you
feel confident you should start going to town with that weapon of yours, only pulling back if you feel your team is
losing the upper hand. Remember, youre a spellcaster first.
Controller: Perhaps the most tactically minded type of oracle, and certainly one that the spell list favors. You
need to focus on keeping your charisma as high as possible, followed closely by your constitution. Expect to wade
into battle more than a few times during your career simply because a lot of your offensive spells dont have a
great range.
Round 1 is easily the most important round for the battle- your allies are (probably) still standing together, and
your enemies are likely gathered up close. This is when you want to cast your best crowd control spell. Limit the
enemys ability to reach your allies: walls, fog, persistent area of effect spells, summoned monsters, etc. Round 2
is when you start prioritizing enemies. Focus on the biggest threat first, especially casters and archers. Throw
your most powerful spell at this enemy, remembering that if you can disable it youll save your team a lot of effort
in the long run. If there isnt an identifiable big bad you need to worry about hindering as many enemies as
possible at the same time: multi-target debuffs are key here. Round 3 and beyond is pretty organic. Youve done
your team a great boon thus far, so now you get to have some fun!
Enabler: Everyone loves this character at the table, especially if shes played well. You dont have to worry about
a strong charisma score since very little of what youll be doing requires saving throws. Dispel Magic is a great
choice for this sort of character, as is Summon Monster. In fact, I heartily recommend both for you. Youll also
want to invest in knowledge skills so that you can identify enemies and prepare your allies accordingly.
Combat for an enabler is usually really chaotic, since you cant really rely on the same tactics each time. Start
with your strongest combat buff for your allies. Prioritize anything with a range of touch so that you wont have
to enter melee later on, following that with spells that require allies to be near each other. You need to identify
your enemies as quickly as possible. If you fail, get one of your allies to help you out. Giving your fighter the
ability to pierce alignment based DR, or granting the party resistances to acid are much more useful if theyre
cast before theyre required. After youve got your party buffed you should switch to summoning minions to the
fight. You may not need to do this more than once or twice, but those critters can provide a lot of offense for your
team. Dispel Magic is also fantastic in battles with an enemy caster. Once your team is buffed up you can ready
your standard action to counterspell anything the enemy attempts. Its unique in that it doesnt require a
successful spellcraft roll to use.
Blaster: Blasters are sort of tricky to play in some gaming groups because spells that hit your enemies but miss
your allies arent that common. Like the Controller, you need to keep your charisma score as high as possible.
Youll also want a good dexterity score to help with those blasts that require a ranged touch attack to land. A well
played blaster needs a few spells that she can cast when blasting simply isnt an option. Summoning spells are
great, especially if you pick creatures immune to your attacks. Youll want to invest in knowledge skills to help
you identify elemental weaknesses/strengths in your enemies to prevent you from accidentally casting something
that theyre immune to, or worse, healed by.
When combat begins, dont go straight for your first blast! Instead, cast a spell that will encourage/force your
enemies to remain close to each other. Summoning spells do this pretty well, as do walls and environmental
hazards. The longer your enemies are close together the more you can toss out your favorite area of effect spells
without having to waste the effort on only one or two targets. If your allies and enemies get too mixed up together
youll need to take drastic action: buff your allies with resistance/immunity to your spells. Recklessly hurting
other player characters is a great way to create bad blood. Just remember: more targets are better than fewer
targets, but good damage is never worth passing up a strategic advantage that could easily win your team a
battle. Sometimes that means spending a turn to buff your allies so that they can effectively contribute. Other
times that means disabling a powerful enemy. Pathfinder is a team-based game thats much more fun when you
play together.
The Children of the Blessing:

While the blessing of divine magic probably isnt very picky when it comes to striking a mortal, you as a player at
least get the option of choosing a favorable race for your new character- and there are a lot of options.
Thoughts on a racial stats: Point buy provides us a very straightforward tool in determining
the math of each race. Specifically, how much each stat is truly worth to the oracle. Most oracles
will keep their dexterity, constitution, and intelligence scores somewhere between 10 and 12
points, meaning that any penalty to one of these stats is fine so long as you gain a bonus to one of
the other stats- itll even out when you finally purchase. Most oracles are going to want about an 8
in wisdom to afford their other stats, so a penalty here is similar to the first three stats- as long as
you gain a bonus there the point buy will even out. A bonus to wisdom, however, is actually a nice
boon. It allows the oracle to take a natural 7 (9 with the racial bonus) in the stat and suffer no less
than any other oracle while also gaining 2 points in the point buy. It seems counterintuitive at
first, but the math doesnt lie. This also expands on why strength and charisma are so important
to the oracle. A strength penalty for a caster type is a loss of about 3 points, while for a warrior
type its more likely a loss of 5 points. Similarly a charisma penalty is a 3 to 5 point penalty for all
oracles. The bonuses to these stats are also significant. A bonus to strength equates to roughly 3 to
5 bonus points for a caster and 5 for a warrior. A bonus to charisma is roughly 5 points for all
oracles. A penalty to charisma is even more difficult because you really need to get your charisma
stat to about 15 or 16 for any oracle- almost everything you do is based on this.
A Note on Favored Classes: Each race with a unique favored class bonus has this ability rated
from red to blue, same as anything else in the guide. As a point of reference I consider the core
favored class bonus (one hit point or one skill point) to be a solidly green ability. Its versatile
and strengthens most character concepts. Use this as a guide when determining my thoughts on
specific racial options. This also means that favored class options are not judged against other
favored class options from different races, but instead are judged solely against the core option.
Humans, Aasimar, and Race-Specific Options: Humans have access to a very special feat
from the Advanced Players Guide called Racial Heritage. It allows a human to be considered
another race for pretty much any effect, which may or may not include racial archetypes and
favored class bonuses (the jury is still out on this one since neither are explicitly mentioned). This
is significant because it potentially allows humans to pursue powerful abilities designed for the
less inclined races, such as the Elfs Ancient Lorekeeper archetype or the Wayangs favored class
bonuses. It expressly allows access to the powerful spells of the Catfolk, Half-Elves, and Oread.
Whether any of this works or not is almost entirely up to your DM and how s/he interprets the
feat, but the fact remains that Racial Heritage cheapens the diversity of the races and encourages
the worst kind of min-maxing and cheese in the Pathfinder game. Aasimar are mentioned here
because of their alternate racial trait, Scion of Humanity, which allows them to be treated a
Humans for any purpose and thus allows them to also take this feat.
Dwarf (*): A penalty to charisma makes this a really terrible choice for any player who isnt looking to seriously
challenge themselves, though its got enough going for it to make a passing Warrior oracle. The alternate racial
trait Relentless would work well for an oracle who enjoys combat maneuvers. Dwarves who take a mystery that
offers flight might consider Sky Sentinel for an easy boost in defenses, while Stone oracles will of course select
Stonesinger. Feats allow you to raise your natural armor by 1, boost your knowledges by +2, or gain a series of
additional attacks when using Cleave.
Favored Class (**): Every four levels you get proficiency in a single martial or exotic weapon.
This is decent for Warrior types who want to pursue one of the classes that doesnt provide free
proficiencies, but its still not great. Most dwarves wont get much out of this, or will only take 4
levels worth for their favorite weapon. Still, it expands your options.
Elf (***): No bonus to charisma? Thats rough. Despite this, its still a pretty decent race. Elven Magic is
fantastic for Blasters and Controllers, and extra weapon proficiencies help shore up your crappy selection of
simple weapons. Weapons only tend to matter early on, so this has middling value for the casting focused oracle.
Dreamspeaker has some excellent flavor and gives you a passingly mediocre (though 5th level) spell 1/day, as
well as a boost to your divination DCs. Most elves should seriously consider Fleet-Footed for the bonus to
initiative. But what makes elves a green race? Its access to the stupidly good Ancient Lorekeeper archetype.
Feats allow an additional attack of opportunity per round (ala Combat Reflexes, but with a low dex), boost your
knowledge skills by +2, ignore difficult terrain if its natural, or link with a specific terrain and gain a bunch of
bonuses while within it.
Favored Class (** to ****): This one is tricky. In a shorter campaign, like Pathfinder Societies,
this can be a great way to gain access to some potentially powerful things much earlier (or at
all). Its hard to rate without comparing it to a specific revelation, but ones you can access early
that dont have a hard cap are very strong choices (like armor revelations, Boness Raise the
Dead, or Lifes Channel). In a full one to twenty campaign most revelations will see this as
wasted, though it does provide earlier access may be worth the cost.
Gnome (****): Not the greatest stats, but theyre very solid. Small size is a definite boon for the dedicated
caster, though the 20 land speed may become a hindrance if you choose to pursue heavier armors. The penalty
to strength will be an issue for those looking to go the Warrior route, but casters wont mind too much. Gnome
magic is wonderful for Heavens oracle, Pyromaniac is excellent for the Flame oracle, Fell Magic is great for the
Bones oracle, and Magical Linguist is decent for the rest of them. Eternal Hope is particularly awesome (reroll a
natural 1 once per day?) for any character. Feats allow you to boost your knowledges by +2, speak with
burrowing animals at will, and expand your racial hatred with the Rangers favored enemy list.
Favored Class (** to ***): Some of the curses are really brutal, and this can be a good way to
get over that initial hump. If your campaign runs from one to twenty its a wasted ability, but in
shorter campaigns it can get you access to curse benefits you otherwise might not see. Its also
great for multiclass oracles.
Half-Elf (****): Charisma gets a bonus, so this is at least a decent race. While theyre generally good at being an
oracle, theyre basically just humans with low-light vision and a few skill bonuses instead of bonus skill points.
This is because many oracles are going to pursue Eldritch Heritage, and that starts with Skill Focus. Humans get
a better deal there with Focused Study, but you get better vision. Arcane Training may appear to be a decent
choice, but it requires trading away all your favored class bonuses, which will cost you a large amount of
flexibility. Half-Elves are currently the only official race that has access to two different oracle favored class
bonuses, which they can pick between each level. Socially minded oracles should consider Wary. Feats allow you
to gain the Elven Magic trait (which stacks with Spell Penetration) or the humans bonus skill point per level. All
Human and Elf feats are of course available.
Favored Class (****): One bonus spell at your second-highest level is pretty sweet, but not as
amazing at it might seem. The cleric list is pretty thin on spectacular spells and most oracles can
already get the ones they really want. Use this option to grab those spells that are only
occasionally useful at no real penalty to yourself.
Favored Class (** to ****): Boost in one revelations effective level. See Elf.
Half-Orc (****): Ive loved half-orcs for as long as Ive played D&D, and up until pathfinder they sucked in a big
way. Luckily, thats not the case anymore. In fact, they make spectacular oracles! A boost to charisma is excellent,
and darkvision is as useful as ever. Extra weapon proficiencies help out the poor weapon choices of the oracle,
and Orc Ferocity should never be discounted- especially for a character who always has the option to heal herself.
Chain Fighter is a strong substitute for Warrior types who have access to martial weapon proficiencies. Gate
Crasher and Toothy are very solid changes for the Warrior oracle who feels that she wont get enough use out of
Orc Ferocity, while Sacred Tattoo is great if you arent very interested in melee combat. Shamans Apprentice is a
pretty good trade for Intimidating if you dont have any interest in the skill (and want to pick up Diehard, a
prerequisite for many half-orc feats), and Skilled is basically half of what a human gets at the cost of your
darkvision. Feats allow the nature oracle to expand her choice in mounts, improve Orc Ferocity to true Ferocity
or grant it to your summons, boost your natural armor by 1, gain a bite attack, convert a critical hit against you to
partially nonlethal damage, deny additional targets their dexterity bonus when cleaving, rage along with the
party barbarian, and even deny death by lingering in your corpse to receive healing.
Favored Class (****): One bonus spell. See Half-Elf.
Halfling (****): Before the Advanced Race Guide arrived Halflings were a green race, lingering behind Gnome
as the tiny caster. Now theyve taken solid footing in blue. Halfling Luck is more useful than I think people give
it credit for and should be thoroughly considered before trading away. Underfoot is essentially the Dodge feat for
the vast majority of enemies. Warslinger is still pretty useless. Fleet of Foot is an absolute must for any halfing
and really sets it apart from the Gnome. It costs two lame skill bonuses and puts your speed up with the tall folk.
Low Blow might be useful for warrior types if you dont mind the loss of perception. Adaptable Luck is a decent
trade for a bonus to saves, and has a few feats to help it. Halflings have access to the Community Guardian
archetype that functions similarly to a bard. Feats allow you to boost Adaptive Luck to a +4/+3 benefit and gain
additional uses, boost your AC when fighting defensively, take swings even while using total defense, make saves
for your allies, happen to have exactly the item you need, and get a power attack substitute/supplement that
reduces AC instead of attack.
Favored Class (** to ***): Boost in curses effective level. See Gnome.
Human (****): Ah, masters of all. The boost to charisma makes this a good choice of race, and the alternate
racial abilities helps cement that. Oracles will find plenty of use for that human bonus feat, but if you can bear to
part with it there are some decent options. Heart of the Fields is awesome for the oracle in medium+ armor;
enjoy sleeping in your armor! Heart of the Wilderness is thematically appropriate for several mysteries, but
otherwise its just so awesome that youd be goofy to pass it up. The bonus to survival is fun, but the boosts to
surviving bleeding out are well worth a single skill point each level. Dual Talent is of particular interest to
Warrior types, but be aware that youre trading away all your race features for a second +2 to an ability score.
Humans again gain a unique advantage over other races in pursuing Eldritch Heritage with Focused Study. This
equates to two bonus skill focus feats at no actual cost to you. Socialites should consider Silver Tongued. Feats
allow you to reroll natural 1s for saving throws or critical hits against you, choose a second favored class, gain
both core favored class bonuses instead of choosing just one, gain a +2/+4 bonus on all untrained skills and use
any skill you want, gain a +8/+4 to any d20 roll once per day, or even emulate another race to take their feats.
Advanced Races: With the introduction of the Advanced Races Guide a lot of material was added. Every core
race got a boost, which bumped Elves to green and Halflings to Blue. It also fleshed out many of the bestiary
races into proper player races, including alternate traits and racial feats. Advanced Races are listed separately
because theyre just that: advanced. Many DMs disagree about the power of specific races and thus all of these
should be considered based on DM approval alone.
Aasimar (****): Aasimar are a very strong race for the oracle with bonuses to both charisma and wisdom for
added flexibility in the point buy, as well as assorted boons in all the places youre likely to explore as an oracle.
They dont even have any penalties. Aasimar are also outsiders (native) which grants them immunity to many
different things. The only real issue with Aasimar is that most of their alternate traits trigger are based on
alignment and creature type- an issue common with the cleric spell list. Exalted Resistance is probably more
useful later on than the Celestial Resistance it replaces. Scion of Humanity trades in most of the bonuses for
being an outsider in favor of access to Human feats, and Truespeaker could be a lot of fun if youre interested in
gaining all the languages. Aasimar gain access to a series of surprisingly versatile feats, including Angelic Flesh
(golden) for Heavens oracles, Celestial Servant for Nature oracles, and Angel Wings for any oracle that doesnt
gain access to flight (they can even be a weapon!). Aasimar also gain access to the Purifier archetype.
Catfolk (****): Decent stats with a boost to Charisma- not bad. Cats Luck isnt fantastic, since reflex saves are
the least dangerous, but its a boon none-the-less. Theyve got access to natural weapons (claws) for the Warrior
who wants a good backup, and Clever Cat lets them trade in their skill bonuses for boosts to the Socialite array.
Climber is probably worth it to most oracles, too. Scent is a good option for oracles with the Clouded Vision
curse. Feats allow easy access to claws, pounce for claws only, and better charges/cleaves.
Changeling (****): Changelings start off well with great stats. Theyve got a natural armor bonus and natural
claw attacks, making them an attractive option for Warrior types, especially if they go with the Hulking
Changeling option. She can trade this for a 5% boost in concealment when concealment applies. Feats allow for
additional natural armor, +1 attack/damage to your claws, and spell resistance.
Favored Class (** to ***): Boost in curses effective level. See Gnome.
Dhampir (*** or ****): Solid stats with a boost to charisma, but the Dhampir are a complicated race. Negative
Energy Affinity means that right from the start you need to decide if you want to heal your allies or heal yourself,
since investing in cure/inflict wounds with your actual spells known is an awful idea. Because of this the
Dhampir finds Bones a natural choice, and those oracles should consider this a Blue race. They do boast excellent
defenses and some of the best natural vision in the game, so dont even think about taking the Clouded Vision
curse. Dhampir oracles are going to want to invest in Dayborn to rid themselves of that annoying light sensitivity
(you can take Detect Undead as a spell if you want it), especially Warrior types. Vampiric Empathy could be fun,
but not particularly useful. Feats allow a very selective blooding drinking ability that deals constitution damage
and the ability to take 20 on charisma skills when target humanoids are at least friendly to you.
Drow (****): Again we see solid stats and a boost to charisma, drow are a good choice for the oracle. Spell
Resistance is a double-edged sword if youre hanging with other spellcasters that like to offer buffs, and light
blindness is occasionally frustrating to deal with- especially for Warrior types. Unfortunately the only way to get
rid of the light blindness is to trade away your amazing darkvision. Blasphemous Covenant is a great boost to
demons if youre interested in summoning on the dark side, and Darklands Stalker is totally worth the loss of a
few spell-like abilities. Seducer essentially equates to Spell Focus (Enchantment) if youre interested in that, but
dont expect to get any use out of charm person with your dismal wisdom score. Feats allow you to add spiders to
your summon monster/natures ally lists, or add a few more spell-like abilities to your list (many require wisdom
13).
Duergar (*): Ah, the deep Dwarves. Even worse oracles than their hated cousins, too. A -4 penalty to charisma
makes them nearly unplayable for all point buys.
Fetchling (***): Good stats with a bump to charisma. Fetchlings have the bonus of being outsiders, and can
really make a lot of use of the darkness spells thanks to Shadow Bending. They also gain a series of spell-like
abilities as they rise in level, most of which are at least situationally useful. Theyve got great vision, too. Gloom
Shimmer is fantastic for Warrior sorts, and Subtle Manipulator is a good choice for Socialites who dont care
about disguise self. Theyre not a bad class, but they dont really offer much for the standard oracle because
oracles dont tend to excel in stealth. Feats allow seeing through magical darkness, improved darkvision,
improved combat in darkness, and dimension door as a spell-like ability.
Favored Class (*): Among the most bizarre of favored class options, its also not particularly
useful. By trading in all of your favored class bonuses you can gain access to your spell-like
abilities two or three levels early. The problem here is that none of them are really worth
clamoring over.
Gillman (**): Really decent oracle stats, but potential drops pretty quickly. First youve got the issue of many of
their abilities being useless in a non-aquatic or seafaring campaign. Water Dependant is annoying to be sure, but
its not a huge issue for an oracle with the Create Water orison. Its definitely not worth trading for Riverfolk,
since that grants a larger issue: vulnerability to fire. You could instead choose to trade away basically all your
water-themed abilities with Throwback to lose the Water Dependant issue, but youre not left with much.
Honestly, the stats here are good but everything else is kinda useless. This is flavor only.
Goblin (*): Goblins bring a penalty to your two favorite stats, and a great bonus to one youre not that
interested in. Theyve also got a series of bonuses that dont really do anything to help or hinder the oracle at all.
Goblins are great flavor, but terrible oracles.
Favored Class (*): While this could potentially be useful for a Flames oracle, even then it cant
compare to a bonus skill point or more health.
Grippli (*): These guys are so small! Theyre freakin adorable. The stats arent great, though theyve got a good
speed, and a natural climb speed. Princely (get it?) is a good choice in place of Swamp Strider and proficiency
with a net. You can also get a fairly dull poison attack in place of your bonus to stealth and Swamp Strider. Feats
allow them to use their tongue to make sleight of hand, steal, and disarm attacks at 10 feet. Unfortunately theres
nothing here for an oracle of any kind.
Hobgoblin (**): Hobgoblin stats put you a little ahead in the point buy, but not as much as boost to charisma
or strength would. Sneaky is going to be worthless for most oracles, so its better replaced with Battle-Hardened
for Warrior types, Fearsome for Socialites, or Unfit for the rest of them. Pit Boss could be useful if youre
interested in whips, and Scarred is an easy boost to your AC if you can live without Darkvision. Feats allow you to
extend demoralization from intimidate with each attack, buff an ally with intimidate, and buff allies using the
Dazzling Display feat.
Ifrit (****): Good stats as well as the benefits of being an outsider. They also boast a weak resistance to fire and
a spell-like ability thats going to be useless after a few levels. Fire Affinity also provides no love for the Flames
oracle, though you might convince your DM to rule otherwise. Efreeti Magic is an excellent replacement for
burning hands. Fire Affinity can be traded for the lame healing power of Fire in the Blood, or Fire Insight to
make your second level summoned elemental last six rounds rounds instead of four. All Ifrit oracles should
strongly consider Wildfire Heart, which pushes this race firmly into the blue. Feats allow you to see through
cover/concealment from fire and smoke, and add fire damage to held weapons as a swift action.
Kitsune (**): A penalty to strength hurts, but the bonus to charisma keeps them in the game. Change Shape is
nice for disguise, but otherwise useless beyond roleplaying opportunities. Kitsune Magic however is a free Spell
Focus (Enchantment) for those interested, and her natural form offers a bite attack that would entice Warrior
types if not for the strength penalty. Gregarious is a limited but interesting ability that Socialites might find
useful. Feats allow you to spend basically all your feats to gain a series of mostly unimpressive spell-like abilities.
The race isnt particularly disadvantaged for pursuing oracle, but its not doing anything to impress me either.
Its focus is a bit too wide for either a caster or a warrior.
Favored Class (**): Weapon Proficiency every four levels. See Dwarf.
Kobold (*): These stats are awful. Theyre pretty decent in defenses with several abilities leading to a higher
AC, and are quite quick for a small race. Kobolds, simply put, do not make good Warrior types. Gliding Wings is
a nice replacement for crafty, though technically a kobold cant take ranks in Fly without a fly speed (which this
does not provide). Warrior types can gain a tail attack with the Tail Terror feat, but theyre still awful Warriors.
The race could be workable in a higher point buy with an emphasis on dexterity over strength, but most oracles
should steer clear.
Favored Class (** or ***): There arent a lot of cleric spells that grant armor, but the Nature
oracle is notable for having Barkskin at second level. A Nature oracle could invest heavily in this
and push her defenses further than most other oracles are capable. I cant say if its entirely
worth it, but its a unique goal.
Merfolk (****): Merfolk are awesome, and its not difficult to see why. Theyve got the strongest stats of any
race and can make a great choice for any type of oracle. They start off with a god awful land speed, but can boost
this to 15 feet by taking Strongtail and reducing their swim speed to 30 feet. Theyre also immune to tripping,
have +2 natural armor, and low-light vision. Oh, and theyre amphibious without any true penalty for being out
of the water. Oracles who rely on a lot of language dependant spells should consider Seasinger for an easy +1 DC
to those spells at the cost of their vision. Their incredibly slow speed can be an issue for some parties, so it might
be worthwhile to stick to light armor or invest in the Fleet feat.
Nagaji (****): Excellent stats for any oracle. Theyre also sporting good resistances, natural armor, and decent
sight. Abilities may seem a bit thin, but the race is very solid. Feats allow the Nagaji to spit blinding venom a few
times per day with a scaling DC. Its actually pretty decent.
Orc (*): Strong warriors with a penalty to all three mental stats. They share Ferocity, Weapon Familiarity, and
Vision with the Half-Orcs and come bundled with a bonus Light Sensititivity. Warrior types can trade in Light
sensitivity for a -2 penalty to all ranged attacks. The Orc might be a fair choice for a Warrior in a higher point
buy game, but these stats really hurt.
Oread (*): Oread have some rough stats, but could be maneuvered into a fair Warrior. Theyve got the outsider
type and all the benefits that entails, but are also slow despite being medium creatures and without the benefits
that the dwarf gets in return. They also come bundled with a terrible spell-like ability and another elemental
affinity that completely ignores the poor oracle. Oread can replace their lame energy resistance for a +1 natural
armor bonus, but nothing else is really worth it. This simply isnt a good choice.
Ratfolk (*): I find the ratfolk completely adorable, but their ability scores leave something to be desired. Small
size is a benefit for caster types, and Darkvision is really nice. None of their alternate traits are particularly worth
it for an oracle though. All-in-all, the race has nothing to offer, though they can gain a burrow speed and natural
attacks with feats.
Samsaran (****): If you read the early notes on racial scores youll realize that this is actually a pretty decent
series of ability boosts. Its not as great as a gain in charisma or strength, though. They get some decent antideath defenses, two racial skill bonuses of their choice that become class skills, decent vision, and a couple lame
spells. Samsaran follow this up a really spectacular alternate racial trait: Mystic Past Life. They swap out their
variable racial skills for the ability to add 3 + their charisma modifier spells from any other divine class to their
spell list. Any level, doesnt matter, so long as you choose from level one. Thats freakin amazing. Youve got full
reign over the druid, paladin, ranger, and inquisitor spells. Samsaran also gain access to the Reincarnated Oracle
archetype. The stats here are a little less than Id like, but Mystic Past Life and a strong favored class bonus
pushes this race into the blue.
Strix(**): Bonus to dexterity and a penalty to charisma. Bad start. Strix however have a natural fly speed of 60
feet, which is amazing. Theyve also got bonuses to perception, saves against illusions, excellent vision, and some
fun bonuses to beating up humans. Strix can trade their stealth bonus to add perception to the oracles class list,
and trade their bonus vs. illusions for an additional +1 to fortitude. The real draw of this race is flight from level
one, but it comes at the cost of several mediocre abilities and a penalty to your casting stat. Id say this leaves it as
solidly orange for most mysteries, maybe lower.
Suli (****): Suli are an interesting race, and theyve got fantastic stats. Each starts off with resistance to all four
classical elements and a surprisingly nice ability to add 1d6 elemental damage to her melee weapons as a swift
action for a good duration- this makes them a very good choice for a Warrior sort. Theyve also got the Outsider
type, decent vision, and bonuses for the Socialite. Suli can choose to trade in three of their resistances to focus on
a single element, gaining a bonus power thats perhaps worth it depending on the oracle. Earthfoots ability to 5foot step through rubble seems very useful for a Stone oracle, and Icewalks constant Water Walk just seems
really neat (though not particularly useful). A feat can allow you to break up your Elemental Assault into a
round-by-round basis, thus making it extra damage when you want it and not once per day. This race is easily
blue for the Warrior type, and probably closer to green for the rest of them.
Svirfneblin (*): Like the Duergar, deep gnomes make among the worst oracles with a -4 penalty to charisma
and a -2 penalty to strength. For some unknown reason theyve got a racial favored class option (the best one,
actually) but I still cant push them past red. Perhaps when an archetype arrives that changes the oracles casting
stat. Until then stay far, far away.
Sylph (**): Mediocre stats, the outsider type, and another elemental affinity that ignores the oracle. Feather Fall
is useful only occasionally, but Darkvision is always nice. Breeze-Kissed is of particular interest to Warrior types,
and Like the Wind is an easy trade for Energy Resistance. Sky Speaker is roughly as useful as Feather Fall, so
pick your favorite. Overall its an okay race for the oracle with some particular bonuses but nothing great. Sylphs
can spend feats to gain a fly speed (in light/no armor only) or the ability to no longer breathe.
Tengu (***): Like the Samsaran, Tengu have deceptively decent stats and a lot of tricks for the Warrior.
Swordtrained seems great at first, but it essentially boils down to your favorite bladed weapon and a bunch of
proficiencies you wont use. A bite attack is useful for Warrior types, and Gifted Linguist is a quirky way to get all
the languages rather quickly if you want them. Tengu can trade away Gifted Linguist for an incredibly awkward
Scent ability, and can trade off Swordtrained for a pair of claw attacks and a phantom Improved Unarmed Strike.
If youre interested in an exotic weapon that isnt bladed you can exchange Swordtrained for a number of
proficiencies equal to 3 plus your intelligence modifier. Glide is available as a makeshift featherfall for those
tengu that dont care for languages. These bird-folk are mostly useful for making some of the non-Warrior
mysteries hospitable to the concept. Tengu gain access to the Shigenjo archetype, which changes the oracle into
something of a ninja monk. Feats allow you to add bleed damage to beak attacks, a limited alter self once per day,
the ability to sprout wings once per day, and the ability to transform into a large raven once per day.
Favored Class (** to ***): Boost in curses effective level. See Gnome. Shigenjo oracles may
find less use of this with the Ki ability to boost their curse level by 5 temporarily.
Tiefling (*): Tieflings dont come equipped with great Oracle stats, but do have a few bonuses that help out.
Outsider type is great, and Maw grants access to a bite attack for the Darkness ability. Prehensile Tail gives you
another hand to work with for absolutely no cost to oracle, and Scaled Skin trades two thirds of your resistances
for a +1 to AC. Feats allow for additional natural armor or spectacular vision. Unfortunately the Tiefling just
doesnt do enough to overcome a penalty to charisma.
Undine (**): Undines suffer in much the same way Sylphs do, except swim is marginally less useful than a glide
ability and the Undine has slightly better stats for a Caster. Hydraulic Push is useful occasionally, though trading
it for the Oozes Breaths ability to sicken enemies is a good alternate. Nereid Fascination is actually a pretty great
ability thats useful all the way to twenty if you focus on your charisma score. Feats allow spectacular uses of the
Hydraulic Push spell-like ability (and spell if you take it), adding the water descriptor to fire spells, or gain the
amphibious quality with a boost to swim speed.
Vanara (*): The stats are bad, but could make a fair Warrior if you tried. They come equipped with a racial
climb thats as quick as their land speed, have decent vision, and the fun and useful Prehensile Tail for pulling
potions, scrolls, wands, and rods. Tree Stranger is a fantastic ability for a Textbook who isnt interested in
pursuing a know-it-all mystery. Still, the race doesnt impress and completely falls short where it needs to shine.
Vishkanya (****): Pathfinders other snake-folk, and theyre surprisingly good for a Warrior. Stats are great.
Theyve also got decent vision, a boost to perception, a resistance to poison so high it might as well be freakin
immunity, Poison Use (if you care), proficiency with a few really lame weapons, and the ability to secrete their
own poison. The poison is similar to the Gripplis but potentially has several more uses. A feat allows you to shift
your poison from meh damage to a powerful stagger/sleep combo thats easy to get behind. It wont do much
for the beefy enemies, but there are plenty of enemies that might succumb. And its only a swift action.
Wayang (**): Despite being small creatures, Wayang dont have a penalty to strength. Unfortunately their stats
are really mediocre. Theyve got a resistance to the rarely used shadow subschool, +1 DC to their shadow spells, a
boost to perception, darkvision, and a few spells Im not particularly excited about. Theyve also got the unusual
ability to swap their response to positive/negative energy as an immediate action. I dont see it getting a lot of
play except for necromantic sorts who decided on the dark side, but that doesnt really play well with the rest of
the racial features. Wayang rate orange and not red only if they take advantage of their favored class option.
Favored Class (****): Similar to what the Elfs Ancient Lorekeeper allows you to do, this one is
restricted to only Illusion spells. Fortunately the Illusion school has a huge variety of spells that
are absolutely worth adding to your list, including spells like Blur, Invisibility, the Image series,
and especially the Shadow Conjuration/Evocation for your Shadow Magic boost. The best part is
that you arent forced to use this, though its probably worth it after level 3 or so.
Measuring Up:
When looking at stats youll quickly find that allocation gets a bit complicated. An oracle needs a strong charisma
score to cast spells, and a decent strength score because armor is heavy. Youll also spend a good amount of time
relying on a weapon early on in your career. Wisdom is about the only stat we can reasonably dump. Most oracles
will spend their career in a swanky breastplate, but those that choose to enter the fray will likely upgrade to
platemail. These are simply suggestions for point allocation, and all before racial bonuses. Human(ish) Warriors
should put their floating bonus in strength, while everyone else should put it in charisma. Races with fixed bonus
should try to get their scores as close to these as possible while emphasizing strength and/or charisma.
Warrior Oracle:
10 point buy: -not feasible for this concept15 point buy: Str 16, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 7, Cha 15
20 point buy: Str 16, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 16
Caster Oracle:
If youre absolutely opposed to the idea of a dump stat I cant really blame you. Mechanically speaking it makes
sense to drop one of your scores to a 7 or 8 to get the points you need, but approaching the game from an RP
perspective can make it suck. Its even more dangerous to end with a Wisdom score below 8 because its cutting
into your only good save. Its only really feasible to avoid a dump stat in a 20+ point buy game, and you can do it
in one of two ways: Warrior types can lower their charisma by a single point to make up the difference, and
Caster types can lower their dexterity. The only thing I can say for certain is that you should never choose an 18
in a point buy game. The cost of an 18 over a 17 is the difference between a 10 and a 14 in one of your tertiary
stats. Thats a terrible bargain.
Oracles do have another option here, too, though its not one the guide explores. You can instead choose to dump
your intelligence score in place of your wisdom score. From a mechanical standpoint its a stronger choice for
most mysteries (not Lore) and keeps your saves/perception higher at the cost of a few skillpoints. The real issue
Ive encountered with a low intelligence score is that DMs, and sometimes other players, force the stupid
character persona onto you. Personally, I never dump intelligence because I dont want to be forced to play
Thog. Still, it remains an option. Just be sure to talk to your entire group about what a low intelligence score
means to them. Ive seen bad blood crop up because that one person isnt roleplaying her stats correctly.
Mundane Tools for Divine Entities:

For the Skillfully Inclined
Skills define a large part of what the oracle can do (aside from reshape reality with her mind), so its not
something that should be neglected. Warrior oracles are likely to put their favored class bonus towards hit
points, and intelligence isnt a stat we particularly value. This means that, on the whole, most oracles are going to
be working with 4-6 skill points at each level. There are a lot of really excellent skills for a charismatic character,
which makes this even more difficult.
The most important thing to examine when determining the worth of a skill is this: does this skill favor max
ranks as I level, or will a few points be enough to succeed more than half the time? You can have a really
successful character if youre willing to spread your points around and still be as good as your allies if youre
smart about it. Ill try to hit the skills that might seem like good options for an oracle, as well as those that show
up in bonus class skills. Keep in mind that with bonus class skills its almost always worth putting a single rank
into these anyway, just to get the +3.
Acrobatics (** or ****): The best thing this skill has to offer is the ability to move through threatened spaces
without provoking attacks of opportunity. In 3.5 we called it tumble, and it was a glorious skill! The downside is
that you cant do this if youre in medium or heavy armor, and its really likely that you are. If youre one of the
few oracles who enjoys a chain shirt or an armor revelation, this is an excellent choice. If youre not able to take
advantage of this skill you should still invest 3 ranks- itll boost your dodge bonus from fighting defensively from
+2 to +3. Itll change fighting defensively from the poor mans Combat Expertise to the thrifty mans Combat
Expertise, and thats a good trick to have in your pocket.
Bluff (*): If you get off on lying to other people this can be a fun skill, especially with your strong charisma
score. Otherwise its not bringing a lot to the table for an oracle, and the feint action simply isnt worth your time.
Diplomacy (****): Youve got an excellent charisma score, and this skill makes people like you. Unless youve
got some reason to try to talk down hostiles on a regular basis, theres not much reason to go past a +15 bonus
here.
Fly (****): If youre a flying kinda oracle, this is obviously an investment you need to make. Flying DCs cap at
around 20-25, and most of the disadvantages of flight are completely negated by simply not having wings. Youll
take a penalty to this skill because of your armor, so invest, invest, invest!
Heal (**): This is not a useless skill, but its main advantage is being able to stop bleed effects and deal with
diseases/poisons. A healers kit is enough to overcome your penalty to wisdom, and its a class skill, so youre
probably good with around a +10-15 in this skill if you choose to go this route.
Intimidate (***): This is the gruff mans diplomacy, but also has the ability to be used in combat (its not great,
but its there). Intimidate DCs scale sharply as you level, so you cant slack off on investing in this skill. There are
several feats and spells that interact with intimidate, so it does offer a lot of options.
Knowledge (varies): Every oracle should invest in at least one knowledge skill, and youve got a few to choose
from. There are six monster skills, while the rest probably arent worth investing in more than a few points- if
that. Youll want to keep your monster skill of choice at max ranks. The big four referenced here are the four
monster skills that most creatures fall into.
Arcana (****): One of the big four, but probably only worth pursuing if you can pick it up as a
class skill. This one is really common for the arcanists so you might be able to let someone else take
ranks.
Dungeoneering (**): Aberrations and oozes arent particularly common, which limits the
usefulness of this knowledge. Still, they tend to have unusual properties and its often that nobody at
the table decided to invest in this skill.
Local (**): This only covers humanoids, which isnt great. As far as identifying a humanoid in
combat its even less useful because they all tend to have the same weaknesses: vulnerable to
weapons and magic. This might be occasionally useful, particularly in social campaigns, but its not
a strong choice in terms of monster knowledge.
Nature (****): One of the big four, but probably only worth pursing if you can pick it up as a
class skill. Druids and Rangers tend to be awesome at this, so try not to double up if youre
adventuring with the tree hugging types.
Planes (****): One of the big four, and a class skill for the oracle. A solid choice.
Religion (****): Last of the big four, and another class skill for the oracle. An good choice.
Perception (****): Even if its not a class skill for most oracles, this is still the most useful skill in the game.
Youll want to invest in this to overcome that annoying wisdom penalty you probably have.
Ride (* or ****): Only mounted oracles with Mounted Combat need apply. Other characters likely wont find
use of this skill.
Sense Motive (***): For Socialite oracles this is a great option. Generally your DC is going to be 20, so taking
this beyond +10-15 is of limited use. Its also used as an opposed role with Bluff, but unless that comes up a lot I
wouldnt worry about it. Its a class skill, so that overcomes your crappy wisdom.
Spellcraft (**): The use of this skill falls into four broad categories: using spellbooks, identifying magic items,
counterspelling, and crafting magic items. Spellbooks dont apply to you, counterspelling is generally a poor
option (and Dispel Magic counterspells without a skill check), and crafting magic items is hit or miss depending
on the campaign. If identifying magic items falls to you then go ahead and invest here, but most groups will have
a wizard or bard whos more than happy to take up the mantle. Its perfectly reasonable to assume that the oracle
only understands her own magic.
Stealth (* or ***): Stealth, on its own, is a really crappy skill for most oracles. If your mystery grants you
concealment in some form or another this skill becomes very powerful. Otherwise, ignore it.
Survival (**): Wisdom crops up all over the place, doesnt it? Survival is useful for surviving in the wilderness,
but as an instrument of magic youve pretty much got that covered. Its also good for not getting lost and tracking
things, so its got some marginal use there. Its probably not worth it if you cant get this as a class skill, but it
emphasises the whole wild oracle in a decent way.
Use Magic Device (****): This is the skill for giving the finger to restricted magic items. The problem with
UMD is that the DCs are stupidly high and there are real drawbacks to failing a check. Youll spend the first few
levels staring at this skill before you work up the nerve to start using it, but itll make your life as a spontaneous
caster so much easier.
Feats and Specializations

The standard character will gain around 10 feats in her trek from first level to her last level at twentieth. Your
vision of the oracle will likely vary from that of mine or anyone elses, so Ive attempted to keep this as neutral as
possible. Ive broken the feats into three sections, with a bonus section about Eldritch Heritage after everything.
This should help you sift through your many options. Be aware that Ill be avoiding feats that only function for a
specific mystery with a specific revelation. Its just going to get too cluttered otherwise.
Feats for Every Oracle

Abundant Revelations (**): Generally the revelations with only 1 or 2 uses per day are really powerful, so
this can take the sting off of that. Its only one additional time per day, so its not a great option for a feat.
Augment Summoning (***): Summoning allies is a strong option for casters, and something I wholly
recommend you do. If youre interested in bringing the planes to your enemys feet then this is a good choice,
though it requires the ever-so-crappy Spell Focus (Conjuration).
Superior Summoning (***): This firmly shifts the role of summoning from extra planar ally to
space filling meat puppet. Throwing down 1d3+1 or 1d4+2 balls of hit points is a strong way to
restrict enemy movement and protect your weaker allies.
Craft Wand (* or ****): A wand of Cure Light Wounds is absolutely the most efficient way to keep your
party healed. Not in combat of course, but once youre picking up the pieces. If your campaign doesnt have a
magic item mart with easy access to such wands then grabbing this feat is a solid choice. If it does, laugh
mockingly at this feat and go get something fun.
Defensive Combat Training (**): If youre finding that your DM is using a lot of combat maneuvers
against you this can be a good choice. Id avoid it until after 12th level or so, unless you decided to dip into a
class without full BAB.
Destructive Dispel (**): For those who enjoy dispelling magic from their enemies, this adds a powerful
bite to your tactic. Dispel magic is just as useful for Warriors and Casters alike.
Divine Interference (** or ***): Burn a spell slot as an immediate action to cause an enemy to reroll its
attack (with a penalty) against an ally. This has more value for a Warrior type with spell slots to spare, but its
still a useful trick for Casters.
Dodge (**): Dodge bonuses are great, but I dont see this as being particularly worthy of a feat. This also has
the nasty requirement of Dex 13, so some oracles wont be able to qualify.
Mobility (***): Most oracles wont gain the benefits of the acrobatics skill, so this is a good
replacement. Youre not invulnerable, but +4 vs. attacks of opportunity is enough to save your hide at
least a few times.
Elemental Focus (**): For Blasters who focus on a single element this can be a decent option to boost your
spell DCs. Theres a good chance itll also work on spell-like abilities, thus furthering its usefulness. Feel free
to pick up the greater version as well.
Expanded Arcana (*): Youre on a fixed list, sure, but a feat for 1-2 bonus spells isnt worth the cost. I
promise.
Extra Revelation (****): Generally speaking, a revelation is as powerful if not more powerful than a feat. I
cant think of a single mystery that wouldnt benefit from just one more revelation. Do keep in mind that each
mystery only has so many revelations you want, so plan ahead or youll be stuck taking the lame ones you
scoffed at.
Improved Familiar (***): Certain uses of Eldritch Heritage can net you a fun little ally, and this feat can
turn it into a powerful companion. Keep in mind that it gets half your HP and your BAB, so its arguably more
powerful than an animal companion if you choose wisely.
Improved Initiative (****): Going first means you get to set the tone of combat. You want to go first.
Fleet (**): For the small Lame oracle, this is enough to completely overcome the drawback of the curse.
Great Fortitude (***): Fortitude saves are among the most dangerous to fail, and our fortitude isnt a
favored save.
Iron Will (***): Will saves, like fortitude, are dangerous things. The oracle often dumps her wisdom, so a
boost to this is a welcome thing.
Leadership (-): This is a feat entirely DM fiat, and as such wont be discussed.
Lightning Reflexes (*): A failed reflex save generally results in some lost HP or the entangled condition.
Its not worth worrying about.
Mounted Combat (** or ***): Mounts are a good way to avoid the penalties of the Lame curse, and this
feat lets you keep your fragile pony alive if you happen into combat with it. Nature oracles will get a lot more
use out of this feat, and should definitely consider it.
Prophetic Visionary (*): This ability is duplicated to much better effect in several mysteries and an
archetype, and it wasnt particularly awesome there either.
Skill Focus (**): Its not worth it for everything, but for particularly difficult skills like Use Magic Device it
can pull its own weight. Its also the prerequisite for Eldritch Heritage.
Spell Focus (**): If a lot of your spells fall into the same school of magic this can be a decent choice. Only
the most specialized should take the greater version.
Spell Penetration (***): Spell resistance can be the difference between a heavy strike for your team and an
utterly wasted turn. Enabler and Warrior types can easily get away without this feat, but Controllers and
Blasters will regret it. The greater version may or may not be needed, but spell resistance is very common
among outsiders and aberrations.
Strong Comeback (**): Rerolls appear all over the place, and gaining a +2 might be worth considering for
particular oracles.
Toughness (***): Your hitpoints are the only thing between you and an expensive resurrection spell, so
amass as many as you can. This feat is at its most powerful at level 1, but remains a worthwhile investment
throughout your career. Its particularly useful for Warrior types who didnt have enough points to push
constitution past 12 or so.
Feats for Warriors

A note on Combat Maneuvers: On the whole I dont recommend combat maneuver feats for an
oracle. The oracles medium base attack bonus and dual stat requirement leave your CMB lagging
well behind your enemies and its more often than not a wasted effort. I think combat maneuvers
are great though, and oracles are presented with several options to obtain them in ways that are
significantly stronger than the base feats! Plus, nearly every combat maneuver feat has an
annoying and/or useless feat as a prerequisite.
Antagonize (***): If youre already investing in intimidate this is a really excellent way to put it to use. Its
got a lot of limitations, but youre a tougher target than at least one other member on your team.
Armor Proficiency, Heavy (***): If you decided to pursue one of the less traditional mysteries for the
Warrior path, heavy armor is going to help you out. It only ends up being a +3 to AC, but thats still
something.
Blind Fight (***): The oracle has a lot of ways to get around concealment, but if you missed them all this is
a good option to fall back on.
Bolstered Resilience (**): If you arent using your swift actions, have the Lame curse, and managed to
acquire some of the DR thats floating around a few mysteries then this can be a very decent option. Its a
whole lot of ifs, but its still nice.
Combat Casting (***): Concentration checks arent incredibly easy to make anymore, and yours will suffer
from a lower charisma score. This can help that considerably.
Combat Reflexes (**): Odds are that youve only got a +1 dexterity bonus (if that), but this is effectively
doubling the amount of attacks of opportunity you can make each round. If youve got a way to make your
enemies provoke, this can be a good option.
Stand Still (***): I love this feat. If an enemy provokes from movement you can smack em real good
and make them stop. This is top tier in terms of battlefield control. The downside is that they have to
actually provoke to use this.
Bodyguard (***): This is a pretty good use of those attacks of opportunity youre not using. Pass
them out as free AC to your nearby allies. Sure, its only +2, but thats still a bargain for what youre
giving up.
In Harms Way (**): Generally I dont recommend taking hits for your allies, because
your HP isnt amazing. Still, its useful in dire straights and protecting your sickly friends.
Critical Feats (*): As a oracle youre pulling double duty. Youll spend half your day slamming your weapon
into the skull of an enemy and the other half reshaping the battlefield with your awesome and terrifying
magic. The many, many critical feats available to you arent particularly useless, but they wont offer nearly as
much benefit to you as they might someone who spends their whole day slamming her weapon into the skull
of an enemy.
Enforcer (***): Intimidate can be a really effective tool in combat if you find ways of employing it without
using a standard action- like, for instance, by using this feat. You need to deal nonlethal damage (which some
enemies are immune to) but it lets you make an intimidate check as a free action and applies Shaken for a
number of rounds equal to the damage. Regularly youd only get it for 1 or 2 rounds, but this is likely to last
the entire combat. It also pairs very well with Cleave.
Bludgeoner (***): You need to use a bludgeoning weapon and thats kinda meh. Youve also just
eliminated the -4 penalty to attack, meaning you can safely go back to power attacking for all those
intimidate checks.
Intimidating Prowess (*): Even if youre really set on pursuing intimidate, this is probably an inferior
choice to Skill Focus. Theyll stack, though.
Lunge (*): Its not a bad feat, but the benefits are lost on you. Youre sturdy enough to stand on the front
line most of the time, and if you cant reach an enemy due to crowding or awkward terrain just break out
some of your spells.
Power Attack (****): Oh, you like using weapons? This makes your weapons hurt.
Cleave (***): Cleave was really lame in 3.5 and didnt scale very well at all. These days the feat is
actually a really strong skirmisher feat. Move, and as a standard action attack two adjacent enemies
with your full attack bonus. Youll be moving towards your enemies at least once every combat, and
enemies like to stand together. Its not Pounce, but youll be surprised at how often you use this feat.
You can safely ignore Great Cleave, though. Cleave pairs very well with other feats and abilities that
allow you to debuff enemies you damage.
Cleaving Finish (*): Yep, this is the old 3.5 cleave. Move along, move along.
Dazing Assault (*): This ability is fantastic for fighters, but its pretty crap for you. The penalty to
hit sucks, it targets fortitude, and your base attack bonus isnt going to be anything to have your
enemies quivering. Just go ahead and avoid this one.
Furious Focus (***): Read over this feat and cackle. I get to ignore the power attack penalty to the
first attack I make each round? With no drawback? Do go on.
Step Up (***): Your goal as a Warrior should be to exert the most control over the battlefield as you possibly
can, and preventing an enemy from 5 stepping away from you is great.
Following Step (**): I can see situations where this is useful. You can now do more than a 5 step,
but keep in mind that itll provoke attacks of opportunity. It does alleviate the penalties of Step Up,
but those werent particularly bad.
Step up and Strike (***): And now you get to hit them, too! Hello disruptive casting.
Warrior Priest (***): This is the love child of Combat Casting and Improved Initiative, with its bonuses
applying even during a grapple (that thing that ruins a casters day). Take this, or take Combat Casting, but
its probably not worth taking both.
Weapon Focus (**): You could always use a boost to hit, but youre probably better off choosing a
revelation thatll help you with this or moving into flanking position.
Dazzling Display (**): This is a mediocre use of your time thats probably better left to the Bards
and animal companions.
Gory Finish (**): Much better than Dazzling Display, but you need to make the killing blow
to get your free intimidate check. Youre pretty deep into this tree of mediocre feats for this to
really be worth it.
Metamagic Feats:
No matter what type of oracle youve decided to create, theres one thing all oracles have in common: they are
all full spellcasters. Metamagic feats exist to increase the flexibility of your spells, and as a character with a
short list of spells known you should be able to quickly identify the value of this. Spontaneous casters enjoy
an almost absurd about of flexibility when it comes to metamagic. Rather than knowing if youll need a
specific modification to your spell ahead of time (like a wizard or cleric) you can decide at random. Its
difficult to explain how utterly fantastic this concept is until youve played with both spellcasting mechanics.
Its not without a drawback, of course. Applying metamagic to a spell increases the casting time to a fullround action. This isnt usually a big deal- it just means trading in mobility for a single turn. If the spells
casting time is longer than a standard action it instead requires an additional full round action to cast.
Really, you only want to be using metamagic on standard action spells in combat; few spells are worth two of
your turns.
I thoroughly encourage every single oracle to take at least one metamagic feat in her lifetime. Oracles have
lots of spell slots and few spells known, so its not a huge sacrifice to have the option of changing things up.
What I dont recommend is taking more than a few metamagic feats. Ideally a warrior type will have one or
two, and the caster focused types will have two or three. You want just enough to expand your options, but
not so many as to fail to get your moneys worth.
A Note on Terminology and Mechanics: Throughout this section I refer to the cost of each
metamagic feat in terms of +X spell level, where X is how many levels higher the spell slot is in
comparison to the spell itself. The mechanics are very clear on this, though. For every metamagic
feat you are required to use a higher level spell slot but the spell remains its original level for all
mechanical purposes. Heighten Spell is an explicit exception to this. MrPineapples from the Paizo
forums pointed out that this could be misinterpreted, but despite several attempts I really cant
come up with a simpler and less awkward way to write this. The whole system is somewhat
awkward in its terminology and entirely too verbose when attempting accuracy. So, for sake of
brevity (too late, I know), this entire section will use +X spell level and it will mean to use a
spell slot X levels higher than the level of the spell.
Bouncing Spell (***): A +1 boost to the spell level is a good way to ensure that your spell is going to hit
somebody.
Burning Spell (*): A +2 to your spell level to do 2-14 extra damage a turn later? This is awful.
Concussive Spell (**): There arent a lot of sonic spells on the cleric list (Sound burst is all I can think of),
which limits the usefulness of this metamagic. Its a +2 boost to the spells level, and gives a modest debuff
which most notably includes a -2 penalty to attacks and saving throws. The real saving grace of this feat is
that it applies its debuff to anything that takes damage, and sonic spells often damage even on a successful
save. This could be more useful if you use a method to add additional sonic spells to your list.
Dazing Spell (** or ****): Dazed is a very powerful debuff, and for the significant price of +3 spell levels
you can attempt to daze every victim of your spell. Apply this to your biggest eligible blast to potentially
knock a group of enemies out of combat for several rounds- or wail on them while they stare blankly at you.
The discrepancy in rating here is that there arent a lot of AoE damage spells on the cleric list, particularly at
lower levels. Youll need to rely on access to additional spells through mysteries like Flame (burning hands),
Metal (heat metal), or Stone (stone call). Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) is another solid option if you want to
pick up some really low level options (magic missile is excellent).
Disruptive Spell (**): Its not a terrible choice if you face a lot of casters, since this forces enemy casters to
make concentration checks in order to cast spells. The problem is that the DC for this check is never going to
be higher than the standard cast defensively check, and past level 10 it quickly enters into auto succeed
territory.
Echoing Spell (*): Cast a spell at +3 level and gain the ability to cast that spell again without using a spell
slot. The value of this feat increases as you gain access to 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, but spell slots arent
the biggest issue you face as a spontaneous caster. The question you should ask yourself is this: is an 8th level
spell slot worth two 5th levels? Your highest level spell slots are your most valuable asset, so generally, no, its
not worth it.
Ectoplasmic Spell (*): Two things wrong with this metamagic feat: first, incorporeal/ethereal creatures
arent common enough to spend a feat slot on, and second, just cast a different freaking spell or pick up
something with the [force] descriptor.
Elemental Spell (**): Pay attention, Blasters: eventually youre going to come up against something
immune to your element of choice. Grab this in whatever element is usually opposite yours and keep it on
the back burner.
Empower Spell (**): Gain a 50% boost to the random numeric values of a spell. Commonly used on blasts
to assist the oracle in going nova, this can be a decent option to boost the damage of your favorite spell. For
non-blasters you wont find a lot of spells that can really take advantage of this feat.
Enlarge Spell (*): In your average battle the range of close is usually enough to reach an enemy. If its not,
just use your move action to make it enough. This feat is essentially providing you nothing.
Extend Spell (****): Double duration for +1 spell level is really worth it. You can do some tricky things with
this metamagic feat.
Flaring Spell (*): Dazzled is the biggest joke of a condition when it comes to debuffing your enemies. Its
literally the stuff of orisons.
Focused Spell (***): This is only a good feat if you have a few spells that affect multiple targets, but for one
such target its essentially two feats. Its only a +1 to level, so its not a huge deal to cast.
Heighten Spell (***): I firmly believe that only spontaneous casters truly get the benefits of this spell. You
can already use a higher spell slot to cast a lower level spell, but this will allow you to give it a DC to match.
Intensified Spell (**): A feat for blasters, but a decent one none-the-less. This will let you get more
mileage out of lower level spells.
Lingering Spell (***): This is how you turn a blaster into a controller. Ignore the bit about anything
entering your lingering spell, because your enemies would need the intelligence of an ooze to fall for that.
Rather, the best part here is that anything in your blast (or on the other side of your blast) is now subject to
some significant miss chance. If an enemy wants to avoid this theyll need to spend a move action to
reposition themselves, thus limiting their actions further. Its basically obscuring mist on every area of effect
blast you cast.
Maximize Spell (*): Compared to Empower Spell, this is roughly the same when used on spells with a d6
for damage, and worse when used on spells with a d4. It only becomes a significantly stronger option when
used on spells with a d10 for damage, and those are far and few between. If you want to boost your ability to
do damage you should grab Empower. Its got a lower cost and usually does about the same.
Merciful Spell (* to ****): For most people the ability to inflict nonlethal damage is worthless or wildly
situational at best. For specific campaigns this could be incredibly useful, and it doesnt apply a penalty
beyond increasing your casting time. The value of this feat is going to be very different for any given
character.
Persistent Spell (***): If youre a fan of save-or-suck spells, or are getting frustrated with enemies making
their saves, this +2 level metamagic is a solid choice. Having to roll twice against your spell is a good way to
help ensure that itll stick, particularly against multiple targets.
Piercing Spell (***): Spell penetration is good for when you cast a spell at an enemy and didnt realize it
had spell resistance. If youre good on your monster knowledge and can see that SR coming then this can let
you continue to cast offensively for 2.5 times the bonus of spell penetration. One or the other, but its
generally not worth having both (though they do stack).
Quicken Spell (***): Many people might rank this higher, but by the time this metamagic becomes relevant
you shouldnt have too much difficulty getting your mitts on a metamagic rod. +4 level is quite high, but swift
magic is almost essential in upper levels.
Reach Spell (*): The biggest benefit of this metamagic is changing a touch ranged spell into a close ranged
spell. But doing that makes this a full-round affair, and you could have just walked there by then. Plus its not
as if youre an unarmored mage. In specific instances this can be really useful, but on the whole its a wasted
effort.
Rime Spell (*): Entangled is a fun little debuff that is situationally very useful. On the whole its usually just
a -2 to attack, AC, and reflex saves with the added stipulation that you cant run or charge. The real problem
is that [cold] descriptor spells are about as rare on the cleric list as snowballs are in hell.
Selective Spell (** or ****): The average oracle could probably use the ability to to ignore certain squares
during a spell, but the investment of spellcraft ranks (which you probably didnt want) makes the
requirement a bit more than is palpable for most. However, Blasters will see this as pure blue for its freedom
to lay down the biggest explosions they have and ignore their allies.
Sickening Spell (***): Sickened is a so-so debuff, but at +2 spell levels its not a bad shake. Plus it reduces
the enemys saving throws. The trouble is that a successful save negates the effect, so try to pair this up with
spells that target an enemys weak save or its going to default to fortitude.
Silent/Still Spell (*** or ****): These spells are pretty lame for the prepared spellcaster, but theyre quite
nice for an oracle. Ive put them together because theyre really not worth having unless you take them both.
Silent spell is situationally useful in magical silence, or while stealthing or deafened. Still spell is a lifesaver in
a grapple. But the combination of them both means that you can cast spells in a room full of people with
nobody the wiser that it came from you. In an urban campaign, or one featuring a lot of social situations this
combination is blue.
Thanatopic Spell (* or ***): Unless you have a large reliance on spells that deal in death effects, negative
levels, and energy drain youre going to avoid this feat. If you do rely on those this becomes a great way to
overcome the commonplace immunity to those effects at higher levels. Youll need a few ranks in knowledge
(religion) and the feat Spell Focus (necromancy), but those are likely useful to you anyways.
Threnodic Spell (* or ***): Enchanters, Illusionists, and Necromancers will find a lot of value here, but
everyone else is free to keep moving. Undead make up for a large portion of the immune to mind affecting
spells crowd, so being able to circumvent that on the fly could prove useful to certain casters. On the flip
side, Necromancers with lots of undead allies are now free to apply all sorts of powerful buffs to their
minions.
Thundering Spell (**): Deafened just isnt a great debuff. Its a couple minor penalties (for your enemies)
and a 1 in 5 shot at messing up a verbal spell. For a player this is awful, but for an enemy caster theyre still
going to succeed 80% of the time if you dont have some form of reroll mechanic to apply to them.
Toppling Spell (*): This metamagic feat is awesome! Well, except that clerics dont really get access to
[force] descriptor spells. This feat could have the spell Chain of Perdition pulling double duty in specific
instances, but taking a feat for a single spell isnt exactly good use of your resources. Ignore this if you dont
gain access to other [force] spells.
Widen Spell (**): Boosting the area of a spell by 100% is awesome! Increasing the spells level by 3 is awful.
I feel like this feat breaks even somewhere in the mediocre range, and isnt worth taking unless youve got
some great candidates for the metamagic.
Inheritors of Magic
Ultimate Magic was a good book for all of the casting classes, but it also came bundled with a real gem: Eldritch
Heritage. To fully pursue the feat chain (4-5 feats) youll need a very strong charisma score, but thats not a
problem for the oracle. This series of feats can really flesh out a character and grant a lot of unique and useful
bonuses that might otherwise be missing from particular mysteries.
Before we really delve into the bloodlines, this needs to be stated: in order to be considered a good choice for the
oracle, the powers you obtain through the feats need to be strong choices in succession. If it takes you four feats
to gain a single worthwhile power its not a good choice. Likewise, a poor bloodline skill weighs against the
overall strength of the bloodline as this is a wasted feat.
Abyssal (****): Knowledge (Planes)
Abyssal is a solid choice for the Warrior type oracle who wants some natural weapons. Theyre not fantastic,
but they scale modestly and are available a few rounds a day. The beauty of this bloodline is the 9th level
ability that grants an inherent bonus to strength, scaling up to +6 at level 19.
Arcane(****): Knowledge (Any)
This is a great choice for any oracle of any mystery, hands down. Its so good that you might consider
spending the full 5 feats to gain every power available. It starts off with granting arcane bond, then lets you
perform metamagic on the fly or add 3 wizard spells to your spells known, and ends with a doubled up Spell
Focus. Not bad at all.
Celestial (**): Heal
This one was really close to not being on the list, but I feel its worth mentioning anyway. Heal is a crappy
skill to spend a feat on, and the first level bloodline power will become useless very quickly. The only saving
grace of this bloodline is the 9th level power that grants you flight. Flight is a powerful asset, and is difficult
to accomplish on the clerics list (air walk is pretty much where its at). This is a fair option for oracles who
dont have access to a flight revelation, but spending 3 feats to get it is highly suspect.
Deep Earth (***): Knowledge (Dungeoneering)
The skill is kinda crap in terms of spending a feat, but the very first power is a ranged trip that uses your
character level -2 plus your charisma modifier. Thats a very solid ability. The third level ability grants you
tremorsense 30, and the 15th level ability is burrow. It may not be worth going past the first level ability for
most oracles, but its a very solid investment.
Draconic (***): Perception
Draconic is a strong choice for the Warrior type oracle who wants some natural weapons. Theyre not
fantastic, but they scale modestly and are available a few rounds a day. The 3rd level ability adds some nice
defense to your character, and the 15th level ability is unlimited flight. The flight may be too little, too late for
some oracles, but if your mystery doesnt provide the option it can be very difficult to obtain.
Fey (***): Knowledge (Nature)
Its not a flashy bloodline, but it gives you some good tricks. The first level ability is a no-save debuff that
limits your enemy to only move actions for 1 round- thats no attacks, spells, attacks of opportunity, etc. The
9th level ability is greater invisibility broken up as you see fit. And the 15th level ability is unlimited rerolls on
spell penetration checks. Most oracles might not take the 15th level feature, but 1st and 9th are groovy.
Serpentine (****): Diplomacy
An excellent choice for the Warrior type, and a decent choice for any oracle who enjoys melee every so often.
Diplomacy is a decent choice for Skill Focus, so no harm there. The first ability you get, and perhaps the only
one youll take, is a bite attack with a nasty poison that gets much stronger as you level up. Bite attacks are far
superior to claws because theyre easy to pair up with your normal weapon attacks. The 3rd and 9th level
abilities are a viper familar (character level -4) and some modest defensive boosts, so grab them if you want
them.
Verdant (***): Knowledge (Nature)
The first level ability is probably the only one worth grabbing, but its a great option. A 15 ranged combat
maneuver to perform trip, disarm, or steal? Yes, please. If youre interested in pursuing the bloodline there
are worse things you could spend feats on. The 3rd level abilty frees up a ring slot, and the 15th level ability is
a boost to defense and fast healing 1 when you really need it.
The Burden:
Taking an aspect of the cosmos into your person is bound to have some unusual side effects. Some function
mostly as flavor, while others cripple your character into the bounds of nearly unplayable. Think long and hard
before you take some of these curses!
Clouded Vision (*): How about no? Your vision is now 30, and eventually bumps up to 60. Congratulations,
all of your spells effectively became range: close. Sure, eventually youll be able to see anything in that range, but
often times that wont be enough to see the other side of the room youre in, much less that battle mat youre
engaging in combat on. This curse wont destroy your character, but in most cases youre giving up a lot more
than you ever get back, and that makes it a very poor option.
TarkXT offers a different opinion:
This is hardly ideal for many but its well within charge range of some battle oracles. Also keep
in mind in the cramped environments of dungeons or indoor environments being able to see
past thirty feet makes little difference as you can "hear" or "smell" (in the case of scent for halforcs) just fine. You're not going to be scouting, but there are classes that are superior in that
role anyway.
Deaf (***): Free silent spell and immunity to silence are incredible boons, but being deaf has some significant
drawbacks. According to the Pathfinder Society FAQ players can take a single rank in linguistics and be able to
read lips for any language they know. Its got a lot of clauses, and its not official for anything beyond PFS, but its
a great starting point. Youll still need to rely on your allies, wax tablets, or sign language to communicate with
strangers but now you can listen freely. Youll eventually overcome the official penalties to being deaf and gain
scent and tremorsense, making it a good choice for Warrior types. Youll take penalties to initiative for at least
half of your career, so its hard to give this a blue rating- but its still a decent choice.
Haunted (****): This is a real drawback for some real benefits, but the benefits are sweet as sugar. Every
opponent essentially has greater disarm against you, so this isnt a good option for Warrior oracles who dont
conjure their own weaponry. Additionally, increasing retrieval of items to a standard action negates the best
bonus of a handy haversack and makes using scrolls/wands in combat tricky business. But if youre okay with
those two drawbacks then jump in! Every single spell that this adds to your list is fantastic and absolutely worth
having.
Lame (***): This one really depends on how much you rely on your movement speed. For a mounted oracle this
should be a no-brainer, and that goes double for Metal oracles who can negate this penalty (theres a good chance
itll be erratad though). Even for melee oriented characters it can still be a good option, because you can just cast
a spell while youre (slowly) wading into combat. The bonuses are subtle but nice. Immunity to fatigue means you
can sleep in your armor, and works well with barbarian multiclassing.
Tongues (***): Do you want to play an oracle, but dont want any of these pesky curses that hinder you in some
way? Well, this is your curse. Only being able to understand 1 or 2 languages in combat is easily overcome by
forcing your teammates to take a rank in linguistics. It does scratch a few spells off of your list (like command),
but its not a big sacrifice. Eventually you gain a complete mastery of language, and thats really cool.
Wasting (***): This is tongues for people who also dont mind being ugly. The penalty to charisma checks now
means youre not doing so well at using magic devices, and it may also have some unintended consequences with
particular revelations (like Lore Keeper). The bonuses are mediocre, but the penalties arent bad so it ends up
being a dull but solid choice.
Outside the Loose Core

A note on Other Options: This guide attempts to stick as close to the core line of books as
possible, however, many Oracle specific mechanics exist in the supplementary books.
Below are options that exist outside of the defined limits of this guide, as well as their
specific source book. Unless otherwise noted you wont find other options from that
source book in this guide.
Blackened (* to ***) [PPC: Blood of Angels]: This is a decent choice for Blasters, but nobody else. The
penalty to attack rolls will be a significant hindrance for the first few levels. Dont kid yourself- youll be attacking
with a weapon more often than you realize. You simply wont have the lasting power with your spells and
abilities. The spells added really flesh out a list thats light on blast spells, but Flame Oracles need not apply.
Theres far too much overlap.
Consumed (***) [PPC: Blood of Fiends]: Another curse with a light touch. The penalties are pretty easy to
deal with, particularly if you take the Cure Wounds option when making your Oracle. The bonuses are pretty
mediocre. Auto-stabilize is nice, but since youre taking 50% more damage each battle theres a good chance
youll need it. The 5th and 10th level bonuses are nice but probably rare in application. The level 15 ability is nice,
but again, youre already taking more damage than other party members so youre basically just breaking even.
Legalistic (****) [PPC: Blood of Fiends]: It amuses me that the only downside of this curse can be
circumvented via a loophole. A good DM wont let you skate by, but if youre careful with how you word things
you might never activate the sickened penalty. The bonuses are pretty meager, but a free +4 bonus each day is
really nice. This is a good choice for a Dual Cursed Oracle since the progression bonuses arent amazing and the
base penalty is easily avoided.
Wolfscarred Face (* or ****) [PPC: Blood of Angels]: I love the flavor, but a 20% chance to fail any spell
with a verbal component (read: nearly all of them) means that this is a non-starter for most oracles. The only
exception would be a Dual Cursed Oracle with the deaf curse. That will completely override the only penalty to
the curse and provide you a free bite attack and some great roleplaying opportunities.
Wrecker (*) [PPC: Blood of Fiends]: This is a terrible curse for nearly any type of oracle. Broken weapons
are equivalent to having your strength reduced by 4 and the crit ranges reduced to that of natural weapons.
Broken wands and staves burn twice as many charges. Broken shields only offer half their AC bonus. Broken
tools apply a -2 penalty, which overrides the masterwork bonus. The bonuses are really only good for a Warrior
type, but with an effective -4 strength I really cant recommend it.
Aspects of the Divine:

The oracle is a glorious tool of the cosmos, sharing a sympathetic vibration with an aspect of reality. She
embodies her concept, reshaping the world around her to suit her vision of creation. An oracles mystery defines
her. Interestingly enough, there are no bad mysteries. The wide diversity of the revelations and your ability to
choose which ones you want and dont want means that your character can be equally powerful in any of the
available mysteries. That is, as long as youre willing to play to the mysterys strengths. Ive listed which roles the
mystery itself builds towards, but this is not a limiting factor as to what you can pursue with each one.
The absolute most important thing to keep in mind while going through these is that half of what an oracle has is
flavor. I once played a Battle oracle as a Warrior type, which is a mechanically strong option. I was so utterly
bored out of my mind that I kept looking for opportunities to have the character killed. I tried again later on with
an Ancestor oracle and had an absolute blast. Dont just look at the nuts and bolts of each mystery. Look at it
overall, and how your character might feel to you. A weaker character can be just as fun, and a strong but dull
one can really make you suffer.
A word on Final Revelations: Few campaigns ever make it to 20th level, and even those
few that do generally stop shortly thereafter. Because of this I dont see much point in
even reviewing the Final Revelations of each mystery. Some of them suck, some of them
rock, but in the end it doesnt matter; you wont be using them.
Ancestor: Warrior, Textbook

Skills (****): Linguistics is mediocre, but all of the knowledge skills is excellent. Drop a point in each one to
gain that wonderful class skill bonus.
Bonus Spells (****): These spells rock! Spiritual weapon suffers because it specifically uses your wisdom
score, but the rest of the list is solid and versatile. You even get access to telekinesis, which you lost by not
choosing the haunted curse (you didnt choose the haunted curse, right?).
Ancestral Weapon (****): If youre going to be a warrior type then youll really need a weapon, and what
better weapon than one that you simply cant lose? The scaling bonuses keep this relevant and its worded in
such a way that you can change the weapon each time you summon it (reach, ranged, two-handed, etc.)
making it the most versatile weapon anyone in your party has. If your DM protests, simply claim I come
from a long line of diverse warriors. Its not as good as a weapon your character might otherwise have, but
its also not cutting into your character wealth and youre granted automatic proficiency with it.
Blood of Heroes (**): This bonus is enough shore up your medium base attack bonus and isnt specific to
melee or ranged weapon attacks. It wont stack with heroism or its greater counterpart, but its quicker to
cast. It may not be worth picking up early on, but after 5th level you should consider it.
Phantom Touch (*): Shaken is a mediocre debuff, and requiring a standard action to apply it to a single
opponent drives the usefulness of this ability right down. If youre in melee range of the enemy just hit it with
your weapon.
Sacred Council (**): Requiring a move action means you cant use this as a reactionary ability for the rolls
that might need it most (like saving throws). Still, it works as a modest boost to skill checks, combat
maneuver rolls, charisma checks vs. summoned creatures, and caster level checks to overcome SR or dispel
attempts. Its versatile to be sure, but perhaps not useful enough.
Spirit of the Warrior (***): This ability initially seems amazing, but dont be fooled by the glitz and
glitter. Its a standard action to initiate, meaning youre going to burn one of your few rounds getting it
started. The bonuses are enhancement, meaning they wont stack with the strength or dexterity belt that you
already have. And the rounds are very, very few. Its probably worth grabbing for most people, but youll
likely only use it once a day for an entire battle. But what a glorious battle it will be.
Spirit Shield (*** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a
backup, but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording is ambiguous, but if your DM rules
that you can enchant this armor with Magic Vestment it easily becomes blue. This armor paces levelappropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, and the 50% concealment vs. ranged attacks makes it a
great choice for an experienced oracle.
Spirit Walk (**): Augh, once per day ruins a potentially great ability! Being able to pass through walls is
awesome, but until you get two per day at level 15 you run the risk of being stuck on the other side of that wall
or leaving it as an utterly wasted attempt. Its also good for scouting past noisy doors in a dungeon, but
again... only once per day.
Storm of Souls (*): A truly bland untyped blast that is halved by a fortitude save. Fortitude saves, by the
way, are usually the strongest save a monster has. I dont see this as ever being a decent choice, even if you
want to blast.
Voice of the Grave (***): Speak with Dead is a fantastic interrogation spell, particularly for the shoot
first, ask questions later types. It may not always be worth a spell slot, but doling out your rounds to one or
two questions per encounter and a scaling boost to the DC means that youll get a lot of use from this ability
and itll be as useful at level 3 as it is at level 20. Great questions are whats behind that door over there,
wheres your treasure hoard, and what traps should I watch out for?
Wisdom of the Ancestors (**): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to three decent spells
that essentially allow you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. It can be very useful for some
players/characters, but most will likely find it lacking compared to the other revelations of the Ancestor
mystery.
Battle: Warrior, Controller, Socialite

Skills (****): Perception is a blue skill, and intimidate opens up your options for Socialite.
Bonus Spells (***): The spells are sort of all over the place, but at least it starts strong. Enlarge person is a
nice low-level buff, and youve got some good crowd control spells here as well with wall of fire and fog cloud.
Earthquake, control weather, and storm of vengeance are middling at best, and you likely wont see much use
with mass bulls strength.
Battlecry (**): Its not useless per se, but youll often have something better to do with your standard
action. Its uses are too few to actually be used for the bonus to attack rolls, but gaining a +1-2 to saves can
turn the tide of vicious battles.
Battlefield Clarity (***): Its reactive, sure, but this ability is awesome. The debuffs you get to retry your
saves against will ruin your day, so its a welcome chance at success. Dont pick it up first, but when youve got
a good foundation come back and grab this one.
Combat Healer (**): As a Warrior, spell slots arent exactly at a premium for you- your action economy is.
Being able to cast a cure spell as a swift action is really great. The downside is that healing in combat is
generally a poor choice, and the cure spells are really inefficient for the amount of resources that theyre
consuming. Also, youll need to be adjacent to the ally with a free hand to even get this spell off, so its
usefulness dwindles further. It becomes better with mass cure light wounds, or when you need to heal
yourself, but before then... not so much.
Iron Skin (***): Stoneskin is a fantastic buff with an annoying material component. 1-2 castings of this per
day without that component is very worthwhile, though its strength is less than previous editions. In
Pathfinder its somewhat easier to get through DR/adamantine, but the spell is still worth it.
Maneuver Master (** to ***): Oh man, I love this ability. Wait until level 7 until you pick this up,
otherwise youll be provoking a lot of attacks of opportunity. If youre a fan of combat maneuvers this is a
great way to pursue your favorite, with trip is most commonly useful. The only real problem with this ability
(and combat maneuvers in general) is that it really starts to come into its own when combat maneuvers
become less useful. Its a solid choice for most campaigns, however. If your DM prefers to use huge creatures
and avoids humanoids youre not going to find a lot of use with this.
Resiliency (*): I just dont see a lot of worth with this ability. At low levels its only going to take effect on a
very specific criteria (0 HP). At higher levels, damage is so variable that youre more likely to be outright
killed than knocked into the negatives.
Skill at Arms (****): Congratulations! Youre now officially a battle oracle. Unless youre an elf focused on
archery, every battle oracle is going to grab this.
Surprising Charge (***): Its only a few times per day, but its quite versatile. This can be your makeshift
pounce, your casters rescue, your quick escape, or a fun way to have an enemy mage suddenly casting on the
defensive.
War Sight (****): Its widely established that initiative is everything in Pathfinder, so abilities that make
you even better at going first obviously fall into the category of worth it. This ability will help prevent you
from being flat-footed during the surprise round and weed out crappy initiative rolls.
Weapon Mastery (**): Its not bad, but its competing with a lot of much better abilities. The +1-2 to attack
rolls is good for helping close the gap with full BAB classes, and improved critical is always nice- but youre
also a full spellcaster. Id bump this up to three stars if you choose a weapon that pairs with Maneuver
Mastery.
Bones: Controller, Blaster, Socialite, Textbook

Skills (***): Intimidate is nice if youre interested in it, and disguise has its uses in trying to pretend that
your undead minions arent undead at all. Bluff is likely to be more useful for you, since necromancy isnt
exactly welcomed into most areas.
Bonus Spells (**): Necromantic spell lists always tend to suffer, and this one is no different. Cause fear will
stop being useful very quickly, though False Life is a good way to bolster your HP at lower levels and lasts a
long while. Two spells have nasty material component costs, and a few blasts have snuck onto the list as well.
Fear is hilarious and fun, so all hope is not lost. As a necromancer youll get the full value of Animate Dead,
but its going to be dead weight most days.
Armor of Bones (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a
backup, but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording clearly states that you conjure
armor made of bones which should technically qualify as a target for Magic Vestment, though your DM may
disagree. This armor paces level-appropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but weighs nothing
and is a great choice for the lower strength of most caster types. DR 5/blugeoning is just a fun added bonus.
If your DM rules against enchanting this with Magic Vestment it might still be worth it, but will be outpaced
by a Breastplate most of your career.
Bleeding Wounds (*): Most combats last between 3-10 rounds, which means that this ability is adding (at
most) 3-10 damage, give or take. This is a poor use of resources no matter how you look at it.
Deaths Touch (**): You might have some use for it early on, and then itll be relegated to spot healing your
necromantic minions and perhaps yourself. The +2 channel resistance is nice, but I really doubt youll waste
time in combat with this ability when you could be, I dunno, dealing with whatever is trying to mess with
your undead.
Near Death (***): Half of this stuff is situational, but the bonuses against mind-affecting is where its at.
Youd be surprised at how many abilities this will work against. A nice, modest buff. Immunity would have
been better though.
Raise the Dead (****): Lets be honest here: if youre playing a Bones oracle, youre doing it because you
want to be a master of undeath. This ability is going to let you accomplish that in a reasonable way. Its only
one or two times a day, but it scales with level and doesnt eat into your character wealth (the biggest issue
with necromancy). For most oracles this is a pretty lame ability, but for you this is awesome.
Resist Life (**): Youve probably got more than a few negative energy effects bouncing around your
character sheet, so this will let you take advantage of them in a thematic way. Id be wary of potions from here
on out, though.
Soul Siphon (*): Negative levels suck these days. And this ability only applies a single negative level. To a
single target. Once per day, until 11th level. Awful.
Undead Servitude (***): Who loves their undead minions? Its you, isnt it? The cold fact of the matter is
that this ability is only going to let you enslave a single worthwhile undead at any given time, and you might
struggle to do even that. Still its a no-cost way to flesh out that budding army of yours, and thats your goal,
right?
Dark Tapestry: Warrior, Controller, Blaster, Socialite, Textbook

Skills (****): Knowledge (Arcana) is one of the big four, making it a great addition to your list. Intimidate is
nice if you want it.
Bonus Spells (****): A very, very solid spell list. Entropic shield is pretty lame, and tongues might find
some overlap with particular curses, but everything else is golden. Dust of Twilight is an AoE fatigue, Black
Tentacles is a crowd pleaser in the arcane circles, Feeblemind is the ultimate in anti-caster technology, and
Reverse Gravity is as fun as ever.
Brain Drain (*): This is sort of an odd ability. Its a lame blasting power with a few uses per day that allows
you to make knowledge checks with someone elses knowledge skills. It targets will saves though, which is
very likely a high save on your potential target. As a utility power it requires two turns to use, making it not
worth it in combat- especially because they immediately know it was you. As written you may not even get
anything out of the enemy, but your DM might rule differently and bump this power up to ** or *** stars.
Probably not, though.
Cloak of Darkness (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a
backup, but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording is ambiguous, but if your DM rules
that you can enchant this armor with Magic Vestment it easily becomes blue. This armor paces levelappropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but the boost to stealth is small and useless for most
oracles. If your DM rules against enchanting this with Magic Vestment it might still be worth it, but will be
outpaced by a Breastplate most of your career.
Dweller in Darkness (*): Once per day for a spell that offers two saves and only targets a single creature,
while also being subject to the limitations of fear and mind affecting magic? Pass. Maybe consider it when it
becomes weird at level 17, but at that point why bother?
Gift of Madness (**): Confusion is a really great ability when you can inflict it on multiple people at the
same time. This is because a confused enemy will automatically override the spell and attack the last target
that attacked it. But for a single creature its far less useful. Confused creatures are pretty mindless though,
and the duration is decent after 7th level. They also dont take attacks of opportunity unless its their one and
only target, so theres some use there.
Interstellar Void (*): For a while its just a lame single-target blast that offers a fortitude save to halve.
Then it applies a mediocre debuff negated by the save. Then much, much later it applies a powerful debuff if
they fail their save, which is a fortitude save (and theyre probably gonna make it). Oh, and once per day until
10th level. Awful.
Many Forms (****): Dont discount this ability, because Alter Self is fantastic. Early on its a boost to your
land speed, or better vision, or a natural weapon to pair up with your melee attacks. Later it becomes a tradeoff between casting and being an animal, though access to the magical beasts is pretty spectacular. Eventually
youre taking the form of giants, trolls, huge elementals, etc. This ability is the bees knees, and on its very own
makes a good qualifier for Warrior types. Its also situational flight when you really need it.
Pierce the Veil (** or ***): A modest boon for some oracles, though Half-Orcs wont reap the benefits until
11th level. This is much better if you pair it up with the Deeper Darkness spell.
Read the Tapestry (-): You get to reach into the void and ask an elder god a couple questions while making
an intelligence check to maintain your sanity for 1-5 weeks? For a 34% shot at a one word honest response?
Mind you, intelligence isnt awesome for you, and failing that check renders your charisma at a dismal 8 for
at least a week. No, no, no, and god no. I will physically strike any oracle who tries to tell me with is worth
taking. Its not even one star.
Touch of the Void (*): Mediocre at best when you first get it, and this quickly becomes useless. Fatigue is a
middling debuff, but mostly because it prevents a lot of things from reaching you in a single turn. Since
youre slapping this onto them while standing next to them, its use plummets.
Wings of Darkness (****): Soar above the battlefield conjuring tentacles and unseen horrors upon your
enemies for enough minutes per day to effectively be every combat. You can even trade it in on your non
adventuring days to make trips to neighboring cities!
Flame: Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Skills (**): Intimidate is nice for those who want it, but the rest of this is dead weight.
Bonus Spells (**): Littered with blasts, but what did you expect? Resist energy is useful, and wall of fire
and incendiary cloud function well as battlefield control spells.
Burning Magic (*): Youre likely to be casting a lot of blasty fire magic as a Flame oracle, but the damage
isnt enough to care about. It may be useful against enemy spellcasters in an attempt to inflict concentration
checks vs. ongoing damage, but thats a hedge case at best.
Cinder Dance (***): The Flame mystery has a strong emphasis on blast abilities, so enhanced mobility
becomes a stronger choice than it might be for other casters. This helps you get in and out of sticky situations
to lay down your burning love.
Fire Breath (**): Burning hands? Oh, sorry, burning hands if it fully scaled with level? The range is terrible
and downright dangerous. Still, youve got a lot of options for moving around the battlefield and this ability
does have a few uses per day. Only consider this ability once youve established a good defense for your
character.
Firestorm (**): Its a blast, but as a Flame oracle youre likely to be doing a bit of blasting so lets move past
that. Its shapeable, which is awesome. Its once per day, which is terrible.
Form of Flame (* or ***): Theres no official ruling as to whether or not an elemental has the ability to cast
spells, so its up to your DM. If your DM says no, this ability is downright useless. If your DM says yes, its a
great and groovy boon that offers some decent defenses and style points by the bucket. Mind the cold
damage, though.
Gaze of Flames (***): Considering the amount of vision-hampering abilities you can lay out, this is
actually pretty useful. Its short duration makes it less useful, however.
Heat Aura (*): Range, terrible. Damage, terrible. Duration, terrible. The best thing this ability has going for
it is a quick activation and 20% concealment. It might be worth it at much higher levels when you get more
than two uses from it, but I doubt it even then.
Molten Skin (**): Fire is the most common type of elemental attack, and this ability scales with level. Im
not sure its particularly worth it, but it saves it from being terrible.
Touch of Flame (**): Worth considering at very low levels if your stats dont favor the use of a weapon, but
I dont see this getting much use later on. At level 11 you can transfer the flaming ability to a weapon if you
get bored, and thats always fun.
Wings of Fire (****): Rain fiery death from the skies as you swoop around untouched by your enemies
melee swings. Youll be grabbing this at 7th level.
Heavens: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Skills (****): Fly, Knowledge (Arcana), and Perception are all skills youd be smart to invest in.
Bonus Spells (***): The spell list starts strong and later devolves into some mediocre blast spells.
Regardless, revelations further boost this already decent spell list.
Awesome Display (****): Half of your bonus list is composed of illusion (pattern) spells with HD
restrictions, making this a very powerful option.
Coat of Many Stars (**): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a backup,
but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording is ambiguous, but if your DM rules that you
can enchant this armor with Magic Vestment it easily becomes blue. This armor paces level-appropriate plate
if enchanted with Magic Vestment, and the DR 5/slashing is a nice addition. If your DM rules against
enchanting this with Magic Vestment it might still be worth it, but will be outpaced by a Breastplate most of
your career.
Dweller in Darkness (*): Once per day for a spell that offers two saves and only targets a single creature,
while also being subject to the limitations of fear and mind affecting magic? Pass. Maybe consider it when it
becomes weird at level 17, but at that point why bother?
Guiding Star (**): This is a really specific criteria to meet before you can get the benefits of this ability.
Then, you get to add your charisma modifier to all wisdom based checks (lets face it: its probably just going
to be perception checks) and modify a spell with one of several metamagic feats. There are a lot of tricky
things you could do with this, but the limitations of once per day and outdoors under the night sky really
hamper it.
Interstellar Void (*): For a while its just a lame single-target blast that offers a fortitude save to halve.
Then it applies a mediocre debuff negated by the save. Then much, much later it applies a powerful debuff if
they fail their save, which is a fortitude save (and theyre probably gonna make it). Oh, and once per day until
10th level. Awful.
Lure of the Heavens (***): I love the flavor of this ability, but its usefulness is hampered slightly by
having Overland Flight at exactly the same point as the flight ability kicks in. This is still great for treading
along water, avoiding pit traps & pressure plates, and even minor annoyances like caltrops and what-not.
Mantle of Moonlight (***): All the lycanthropy stuff is going to be largely flavor for most players, with the
only real aspect of this ability comes into play at 5th level. Being able to apply Rage to an ally is a modest buff,
but applying it to an enemy mage is a hilarious debuff that will render them incapable of casting with no save
to resist. The melee range is a real pity, though.
Moonlight Bridge (***): A solid ability that isnt hampered by a laughably small amount of uses. It doesnt
have the flash and pop of some abilities, but its damn useful none-the-less. Circumventing traps, chasms,
and DM plot devices never looked so cool.
Spray of Shooting Stars (**): Low damage, tiny radius, and few uses per day make this a lame ability.
However, its easily targeted and fairly precise for a blast. Being able to loose a few at a time (no overlapping,
though) makes it at least mediocre.
Star Chart (**): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to a decent spell that essentially allows
you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. It can be very useful for some players/characters, but most will
likely find it lacking compared to the other revelations.
Life: Warrior, Enabler, Medic, Textbook

Skills (***): Knowledge (Nature) is a great option for a knowledge skill, but the other two skills are middling
at best.
Bonus Spells (** or ***): Well, if youre interested in playing a Medic, this spell list is entirely what you
want. Its highly situational, with Detect Undead being less than useful, but youll likely get some use out of it
none-the-less. This is a really decent spell list if youre the only character pulling the weight of divine magic.
Channel (****): Channel energy isnt fantastic, so dont think thats what Im saying. Instead, its a strong
option for healing early on in your campaign life that heals the whole party. It continues to scale, and lets be
honest: youre always going to need healing. Its a modest ability that never goes out of style, even if you dont
get excited about it. Your great charisma score will net you many uses of this per day, and it also opens up
some interesting feat and prestige class options for you. Just dont use this in combat.
Combat Healer (***): Being able to cast a cure spell as a swift action is really great. The downside is that
healing in combat is generally a poor choice, and the cure spells are really inefficient for the amount of
resources that theyre consuming. Also, youll need to be adjacent to the ally with a free hand to even get this
spell off, so its usefulness dwindles further. It becomes better with mass cure light wounds, but before then...
not so much. Regardless of all that, youre a life oracle and youve obviously taken a liking to healing your
suicidal allies. Being able to pop a cure spell mid-combat without wasting your turn is a good addition to your
arsenal. This ability pairs well with life link.
Delay Affliction (*): Diseases and poisons arent common enough to warrant this ability, particularly
because it only works on the oracle and doesnt even negate the affliction.
Energy Body (*** or ****): Theres a whole lot about the undead here that you can safely ignore. Its a
mediocre healing ability that wont be worth much later on, though its easy to use. The real beauty of this
ability is the fact that you can grant yourself the Elemental subtype. That means youre immune to bleed,
paralysis, poison, sleep effects, stunning, flanking, critical hits, precision damage, and suffocation. That
seems worth a revelation to me, even if its only a few rounds a day. The lame self healing effect becomes very
relevant when paired with Life Link, boosting this to a blue ability.
Enhanced Cures (**): If youre anything like me you might have seen this as a super cool ability upon first
glance. Its got a lot of problems, though. This ability doesnt kick in until 6th level, so thats strike one. At
10th level youll gain access to Mass Cure Light Wounds, the greatest AoE heal until Mass Heal, and it isnt
affected by the ability at all. Strike two. Two levels later you get your best ability, Heal, which isnt affected by
it at all. This might be a decent pick at very high levels to spend those 1st level spell slots, especially if youve
taken the spell Imbue With Spell Ability. On the whole though, its pretty easily skipped.
Healing Hands (*): The Heal skill is already pretty efficient at what it does, and its not particularly
difficult to use. None of these bonuses appear worthwhile for any but the most dedicated of NPC healers.
Life Link (*** or ****): Think of this as fast healing 5 for everyone in the party, except youre taking all of
the damage it heals. It doesnt scale as you level up, which means that eventually it might not be worth the
trouble when enemies are slamming down 30-40 damage attacks. It does provide the added benefit of
automatically stabilizing dying allies and canceling bleed effects, so thats a bonus. Oracles with Energy Body
will get more use out of this ability, and will enjoy the boost in your action economy.
Lifesense (** or ***): Blindsight is a powerful ability, but the things it negates arent generally a big threat
to caster focused oracles. With the wording it could technically be used with your eyes closed, allowing you to
feign sleeping or avoid gaze attacks. Its much more useful for melee Warrior types.
Safe Curing (**): The early heal spells are melee range only, and thats probably where the monster is.
Concentration checks are harder to perform these days, making this ability much more useful. But healing in
combat isnt something youre likely to be doing very often, making this less useful.
Spirit Boost (**): A fighter missing six hit points fights just as well as a fighter at max HP. The short
duration of this ability means that its only ever going to come into play while in combat, and you shouldnt
be worried about topping off an ally at this point. However, once you start casting Mass Cure Light Wounds
this ability becomes a bit better- youre likely to be healing people who may not even be injured.
Lore: Controller, Textbook

Skills (****): The Lore oracle gets spellcraft... again. But she also gets all of the knowledge skills, so its still
a very solid win.
Bonus Spells (**): This is an odd assortment of divination spells. Identify is occasionally nice if you feel
you wont do well on the spellcraft checks, and tongues is useful when it is. Locate object can be very fun,
while legend lore/vision have long casting times and expensive material components. Contact other plane is
so stupidly useless Im actually deducting a point for this spell alone. Mass Owls Wisdom isnt likely to help
anyone that might benefit from a boost to wisdom, but Time Stop is phenomenal.
Arcane Archivist (*): Off to a bad start. This ability is once per day, uses a higher level spell slot, requires
the spell be scribed into a spellbook, and then has the gall to erase it from the book. No thanks.
Automatic Writing (***): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to three decent spells that
essentially allow you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. Avoiding the material component costs is
helpful, too. Its a very thematically appropriate choice for the Lore oracle, and this is probably the sort of
thing youre looking to do anyways, so it gets a boost in its rating.
you to make knowledge checks with someone elses knowledge skills. It targets will saves, though, which are
very likely a high save on your target. As a utility power it requires two turns to use, making it not worth it in
combat- especially because they immediately know it was you. As written you may not even get anything out
of the enemy, but your DM might rule differently and bump this power up to ** or *** stars. Probably not,
though.
Focused Trance (***): Obviously this isnt something youll be doing in combat, but when you want to
succeed on a knowledge/linguistics/spellcraft check this is going to let you do that. And youve got enough
uses to go around! This ability may interact poorly with Lore Keeper depending on how your DM rules it.
Lore Keeper (***): Youve probably got a crap intelligence score and a great charisma score, so this is a
solid choice for the Textbook types. Your DM may rule that knowledge checks are no longer intelligence
based skills for you, which will interact poorly with Focused Trance. If so, Mental Acuity becomes a much
more attractive revelation.
Mental Acuity (**): Intelligence is great! But not really for you. Particularly because you have other
features that allow you to replace the attribute almost entirely. If taken at level 7 itll start granting bonus skill
points by level 10, so thats something. Its also worth noting that skill points are retroactive, so theres some
worth to this.
Sidestep Secret (****): An excellent ability that allows you neglect your dexterity in a significant way.
Youll likely drop down to light armor, but your reflex saves have never looked sweeter. Keep in mind that
your combat maneuver defense and initiative are still relying on your dexterity score.
Spontaneous Symbology (**): This essentially adds a lot of spells to your spells known, with the potential
to grow as expansion books come out. The problem here is that the symbol spells all kind of suck. They have
awkward ranges and activation methods, and carry very expensive material component requirements.
Think On It (**): Its a sad day when an oracle of Lore fails at a knowledge check, and this is a good way to
wipe the egg off your face. But its only once per day, and it could be avoided entirely with Focused Trance.
This ability is useful in combat if you really need to know what a monster is, but Im not sure that even that is
enough to make this worth taking.
Whirlwind Lesson (*): The manuals and tomes are crazy expensive, and its likely that youll only ever
own one. Why would you waste a revelation on something that requires you to expend one of these
tomes/manuals to grant a temporary benefit to your allies for a relatively short duration? Itll be an awesome
week, sure, but for the rest of your career youll have a wasted gap on your character sheet.
Metal: Warrior, Controller, Socialite, Textbook

Skills (**): Intimidate is an okay addition, but the rest really isnt.
Bonus Spells (****): Excellent at doing what it is you want to do. Chock full of buffs, control spells, and
ways to make your weapon usage even better.
Armor Mastery (**): This ability is really great if you can invest in dexterity, but the fact is that you
probably cant. Otherwise its just okay and lets you move your full speed in a breastplate, which isnt even
useful to Lame oracles. In campaigns where youll have easy access to mithril armor this ability becomes
much more useful, though youll still need heavy armor proficiency so grab Skill At Arms.
Dance of Blades (****): If you chose to go with the Lame curse, youve effectively overridden the only
negative aspect of the curse. In addition, youll gain bonuses to hit during any round you move which is at
least once every combat session, because you have to get to the enemies. And finally you can transform your
weapon into a concealment bonus as a move action during the rounds you choose to cast spells. Very, very
solid.
Iron Constitution (**): Fortitude saves are dangerous to fail, so this ability is obviously useful. The
problem is that its only better than the feat Iron Fortitude after 14th level, and Id rather have that +2 bonus
throughout the lifetime of my oracle. Still, they stack, so thats something.
Iron Skin (***): Stoneskin is a fantastic buff with an annoying material component. 1-2 castings of this per
day without that component is very worthwhile, though its strength is less than previous editions. In
Pathfinder its somewhat easier to get through DR/adamantine, but the spell is still worth it.
Iron Weapon (***): Similar to the Ancestor oracles revelation, but ultimately less useful for the Metal
oracle who has access to Skill at Arms. The ability to change your weapon on the fly is a nice one, and always
having access to a weapon is very useful. Its a great way to cut down on your character wealth, and has loads
of flavor. If you dont care to grab Skill at Arms, this is a very solid pick. Otherwise, avoid it.
Riddle of Steel (*): You gain a +5 bonus to a crafting check once per day with metal. You dont even get
the ability to increase your crafting time by a significant amount, or do anything useful. The only riddle here
is why an oracle would consider this.
Rusting Grasp (*): With too few uses per day, and only working on nonmagical ferrous iron this isnt
worth the space on your character sheet.
Skill at Arms (****): Unlike the Battle oracle, this ability is competing with Iron Weapon. Its probably
better in most cases, but I wouldnt recommend taking both (Unless you really love your options). DR issues
arent a problem once you get Versatile Weapon.
Steel Scarf (*): An initial reading of this ability suggests that you can make attacks with the scarf as a swift
action (woo!), but a recent ruling by Sean K. Reynolds informed us that hardening the scarf was a swift
action while attacking with it was a standard action, and people named Sean are always correct. I might have
rated this orange just for access to a free weapon when you need it, but Iron Weapon is infinitely better. If
your DM rules that using this is a swift action you should treat this as green. Otherwise just skip it, regardless
of the flavor.
Vision of Iron (***): Scrying is a really useful tool for the character willing to employ it, and this lets you
break it up into many rounds per day. Definitely worth having if you can find room in your build.
Nature: Enabler, Textbook

Skills (****): Knowledge (Nature) and Ride are both good investments, but Fly is probably worth ignoring
unless you plan on going crazy with Animal Shapes. The rest is worth a point for the class skill bonuses.
Bonus Spells (***): It doesnt initially appear great, but some of these spells will really earn their keep.
Charm animal is straight up awful, and awaken will very likely never be used due to its expensive material
component. But past that, the list contains some useful buffs, divinations, and utility spells. It could be much
worse. At level 16 you can use Animal Shapes on your bonded mount for a truly ferocious ally.
Bonded Mount (*** or ****): Small oracles are going to appreciate this ability much more, but I
recommend every nature oracle grab this. The companion functions at druid level with an intelligence of 6,
meaning that right off the bat it can select any feats it wants to. I highly recommend building the companion
into a debuff monster using Dazzling Display. Itll really help your offensive spellcasting, and the mount can
still pack quite a wallop.
Erosion Touch (***): Ignore the bit about constructs, because youll likely ever face one or two. The beauty
of this ability is that its an incredibly potent (and easy to achieve) sunder ability. Need a quick escape?
Sunder a wall. Need into a chest? Sunder the lock. Enemy cleric giving you trouble? Sunder a holy symbol. It
starts slow, but the uses per day scale nicely as you level.
Friend to the Animals (**): If this were 3.5 this would have been awesome, but alas, Pathfinder has
changed the rules on us. Summon Monster is almost always a stronger option than Summon Natures Ally,
even for the Nature oracle. Adding your charisma bonus to any animals nearby (like your animal companion)
is a really nice boon, but probably not worth a revelation.
Life Leach (**): Temporary HP is nice, but this ability has too few uses per day to really wow me, and its
based on a fortitude save.
Natural Divination (****): A very versatile and powerful ability that puts you a full head and shoulders
above the competition when you need it. Id wait until it has more than one use per day, but its completely
worth having.
Natures Whispers (****): This is amazing. Keep in mind that your initiative and reflex saves still rely on
your dexterity.
Speak with Animals (**): If you choose to pursue the summoning route this can be a really good ability. A
problem with summoning animals is that its difficult to communicate with them without casting additional
spells. With this ability you can cherry pick the strongest animals on the Summon Monster list as you level
and be able to easily chat them up. Id also recommend picking up whatever youve chosen as your mount.
Spirit of Nature (*): Its not that this ability is bad when its useful, its that this is a situation that
shouldnt come up often enough to warrant spending a revelation on it. If this is the sort of thing thats useful
more than a few times in the length of a campaign you should really reassess your tactical decisions.
Transcendental Bond (**): For the tactically minded this ability can be quite useful, but its brief duration
struggles to make it worthwhile. At 10th level you gain the ability to cast a touch spell through the bond,
boosting its usefulness. But its only once per day.
Undo Artifice (* or ***): This is an unusual ability that suffers from some odd wording. If your DM
decides that this ability renders any magical item into a nonmagical state, thus destroying its value then
ignore this and get Erosion Touch. If your DM instead rules that despite a nonmagical state it retains its
value, this is a very useful ability that allows you to take away the toys of your enemy while not cutting into
your wealth accumulation. In this case its likely a better option than Erosion Touch.
Stone: Warrior, Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Skills (**): Intimidate is a decent addition, but the rest leaves you wanting.
Bonus Spells (***): This list has some pretty good Controller spells, though magic stone is awful and a
rough start to a decent list.
Acid Skin (**): Acid isnt particularly common in terms of elemental damage, but it isnt worthless either.
Clobbering Strike (*): This is neat, but there arent many cleric spells that require an attack roll to
succeed. Additionally, most spells will only crit on a natural 20, making this even more of a hedge case.
Crystal Sight (****): This ability is crazy cool, and absolutely useful. Stone and dirt are the most common
barriers youll run into in a typical campaign, and metal is right behind them. This also lets you see through
your Wall of Stone spell. Combine this ability with Earth Glide for fantastic elemental fun.
Earth Glide (****): Being under the battlefield is probably more useful than being over it, because its even
more difficult to target you now. Combining this with Crystal Sight shores up one of your two weaknesses,
and Move Earth isnt even that common! Consider stuffing your party members into a portable hole to avoid
eating up valuable rounds when bypassing obstacles and powerful enemies.
Mighty Pebble (*): A lame blast with too few uses per day to really be awesome early on. Plus it requires a
ranged attack roll, and youre probably not very good at those. It may hit multiple people, but youre going to
miss more often than not and a reflex save outright negates this damage.
Rock Throwing (* or **): This is a fun trick early on with some decent damage, but youre probably not
very good at ranged attacks. A thrown rock is an improvised weapon, however, and inflicts a -4 penalty to
attack. If you take Throw Anything this might be worth two stars, but I really doubt it. If your DM interprets
the wording of this ability to give you proficiency in rocks it can be a fun ability to keep in your back pocket.
Youll probably need to rely on local rocks, and you wont be able to get many attacks off, but its the
equivalent to a falchion with range.
Shard Explosion (***): A low damage blast with a poor range centered on you that deals piercing damage.
It has very few uses per day, but benefits from making the surrounding area difficult terrain until your next
turn. As a swift action this is some easy damage to apply to adjacent enemies, and it can trap casters near you
by revoking their ability to 5 away without an attack of opportunity.
Steelbreaker Skin (*): This ability requires you to get hit, and thats bad. But it deals damage to the
enemys weapon, which may or may not be good. Its once per day with an unusually long duration. At level
10 youll be immune to nonmagical ammunition, but keep in mind that every +1 enhancement bonus adds 2
hardness and 10 hit points. This ability just really fails to hold up while your enemies are wailing on you.
Stone Stability (****): Trip is fantastic, and dont let anyone tell you otherwise. This ability gives you a
firm bonus to resisting some combat maneuvers and allows you to avoid some annoying prerequisites for trip
line of feats (combat expertise and intelligence 13). At level 10 youll be tripping enemies and hitting them
while theyre down. Its awesome!
Touch of Acid (**): The Stone oracle really lends itself to the Warrior type, and that makes this ability even
sweeter. Dont pick this up until 11th level, because before then youre much better off just hitting it with your
weapon. Adding a +1d6 acid damage to all of your weapon attacks is a nice little boon that will start to add up
over time.
Time: Warrior, Controller, Textbook

Skills (****): Fly is an awkward addition since nothing here actually gives you the ability to fly. Still,
Perception, Knowledge (Arcana), and Use Magic Device leaves the Time oracle with the strongest class skills
of them all.
Spells (**): Wow, this spell list is depressing. Memory Lapse can be a lot of fun out of combat, but gentle
repose and sands of time are borderline useless. Permanency and temporal stasis both have expensive
material components, and contingency can only be active once at a time. Disintegrate is great for dealing with
force magic, threefold aspect offers some mediocre buffs for a Warrior type, and time stop is amazing.
Aging Touch (**): Early on it doesnt do enough strength damage to be worth much, and has too few uses
to matter. Later its a great option for sunder, but the uses per day still keep this from being three stars.
Erase from Time (**): This ability is excellent! At first, anyway. Then you see that its got a fortitude save
to negate (yuck), and you only get 1-2 of them per day. It has a lot of potential, but the drawbacks are severe.
Nategar05 offers some additional insight:
Another possible use of Erase From Time is to remove a potential liability from combat. We've
all played escort missions of shooter games. Not having to bodyguard a dumb npc could be a
good use. It'd avoid the attack roll and their save (assuming they trust you. At any rate, yay
Diplomacy.) and then they come back a few rounds later completely unharmed. Granted, you
have to be higher level for them to be gone long enough.
Knowledge of the Ages (***): Rerolling a failed knowledge check is great, and gaining a bonus is even
better. Youve got enough uses of this ability to simply keep rolling until you succeed in most cases.
Momentary Glimpse (*): You can spend a standard action to give yourself a +2 to a roll a couple times per
day. Having a friend waste their turn assisting other is a better use of resources than this.
Rewind Time (****): Rerolls are a very powerful thing in Pathfinder, and this one isnt even specific
beyond it needing to be a d20. Youll gain another one every few levels, meaning that you wont fail (as often)
on the really important rolls.
Speed or Slow Time (**): Haste is a great buff, and slow is a fantastic debuff, so it seems like this ability
might be worth something, right? Sorta. If theres anyone else in your party who has access to these spells
then theyre almost entirely better off casting them instead of you. Your slow time ability is at least good
because the DC will rise as you level up, making this a decent high level pick when theres more than 1 casting
of it per day.
Temporal Celerity (****): Its widely established that initiative is everything in Pathfinder, so abilities that
make you even better at going first obviously fall into the category of worth it. This ability will help prevent
you from being flat-footed during the surprise round and weed out crappy initiative rolls.
Time Flicker (***): Flat rate concealment is a good way to avoid being hit, and also allows you to stealth
predator style. Id recommend against the Blink version in combat unless youre self-buffing, because its
going to apply a 20% miss chance to all of your attacks and spells. Its still a great way to force yourself
through solid objects, though.
Time Hop (***): You dont particularly get a lot of movement with this ability, but popping past the front
line to the soft and nougaty casters is a trick that will never get old. You can also dive in to rescue your allies
without provoking attacks of opportunity, or teleport yourself out of a grapple.
Time Sight (*** or ****): Its a little late entry for most players, but its a strong ability none-the-less. Itll
negate most of the annoying aspects of higher level monsters and eventually starts providing powerful
bonuses. A strict RAW interpretation of this ability has each spell replacing the previous one, shifting its
power from good, to great, to woefully mediocre. A DM ruling in your favor keeps this in the blue, as does a
campaign that ends before foresight kicks in.
Waves: Controller, Textbook

Note: This mystery is examined from the perspective of a non-aquatic campaign.
Skills (***): Knowledge (Nature) is a good addition.
Bonus Spells (**): Roughly a third of the spells require a body of water to be used, driving down their
usefulness. The spell list suffers early on, when it's needed most.
Blizzard (**): While it initially appears to be a blast, its in fact a powerful controller ability that shuts down
vision and allows shapeable placement. But its only usable once per day, making it far less valuable.
Fluid Nature (**): A few bonuses to defenses. Its nothing spectacular, but its nice to have.
Fluid Travel (*): Without your DM throwing you a series of bones, I dont see this ability being useful
hardly ever.
Freezing Spells (* or ****): This ability applies slowed, as the slow spell (which is actually staggered with
some additional penalties) and is downright amazing for a controller type. The problem is that cold spells
dont start showing up until much later in the game. Unless she invests in the elemental spell metamagic or
arcane Eldritch Heritage there arent many opportunities to use this ability. Definitely grab Cold Ice Strike as
one of your 6th level spells, though- its phenomenal with this revelation.
Ice Armor (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a backup,
but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording clearly states that you conjure armor of ice
which should technically qualify as a target for Magic Vestment, though your DM may disagree. This armor
paces level-appropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but weighs nothing and is a great choice for
the lower strength of most caster types. DR 5/piercing is just a fun added bonus. If your DM rules against
your career. Be aware that the ambiguous natures of very hot and very cold are likely to cause some issues
with interpretation.
Icy Skin (**): Cold is a common type of elemental attack, and this ability scales with level. Im not sure its
particularly worth it, but it saves it from being terrible.
Punitive Transformation (****): Baleful polymorph is a wickedly powerful debuff for a normal caster.
Slapping it into the hands of an oracle with a scaling DC and more uses than the average druid (and two
levels sooner, too) gives the Waves oracle a keen tool to disable the toughest opponent in combat while you
pick off its allies. The only problem youre likely to face is that this ability targets fortitude.
Water Form (* or ***): Theres no official ruling as to whether or not an elemental has the ability to cast
spells, so its up to your DM. If your DM says no, this ability is downright useless. If your DM says yes, its a
great and groovy boon that offers some decent defenses and style points by the bucket.
Water Sight (***): If youre interested in playing the Controller role, this ability lets you use Obscuring
Mist without remorse. Later on it becomes a scrying spell with no material component. Very useful. Arcane
Eldritch Heritage oracles should consider picking up Fog Cloud or Solid Fog as well.
Wintry Touch (**): Worth considering at very low levels if your stats dont favor the use of a weapon, but I
dont see this getting much use later on. At level 11 you can transfer the frost ability to a weapon if you get
bored, and thats always fun.
Wind: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Skills (****): Youll need to invest in Fly more than other oracles because of your wings, but stealth is a
positive addition to this list when paired with Invisibility.
Bonus Spells (***): The spell list is really heavy on control spells and perhaps a bit too situational for its
own good, but its still a strong list.
Air Barrier (***): Early on its equivalent to a chain shirt, so dont bother. At level 13 this ability really
becomes a solid choice, offering 50% concealment vs. everything ranged for essentially the entire adventuring
day. Its also rocking a +8 armor bonus at this point, so you may consider ditching your breastplate if those
armor check penalties are getting in the way.
Gaseous Form (**): Gaseous form is a decent way to get to high places, or through small cracks, or avoid
getting your butt handed back to you. But in terms of combat its a poor choice because you really cant do
anything while nebulous and without limbs. Its best aspect, flight, is surpassed by the 7th level entry, Wings
of Air.
Invisibility (***): Everyone can agree that invisibility is a good thing to have, right? Its minute per level
duration and ability to be used across several sessions intensifies the greatness of this ability. Later on it
becomes Greater Invisibility with a markedly shorter duration, and requires a standard action to activate. Its
still good, but not quite great.
Lightning Breath (**): A few times per day you get a 30 cone of lame damage? Yawn.
Spark Skin (**): Electricity damage isnt particularly unheard of, and the resistance scales, so its got some
use.
Thunderburst (**): Its got a decent range, mediocre damage, and might apply the deafened debuff. Deaf is
fair against casters with verbal components, but they still have an 80% chance to muck up your weekend. Its
uses are too few to really make this a recommendation.
Touch of Electricity (**): Useful early on, but thats about it. You might break this out after it starts
applying its damage to weapons, but maybe not.
Vortex Spells (*): This is neat, but there arent many cleric spells that require an attack roll to succeed.
Additionally, most spells will only crit on a natural 20, making this even more of a hedge case.
Wind Sight (****): You could really cause some trouble with this one. Grab this ability after 7th level and
use it to quickly scout dungeons while standing in the corridor.
Wings of Air (****): Of course the Wind oracle is superior when it comes to flight. Grab this immediately
and never look back. Perfect flight grants a +8 to fly checks, meaning that youll need to invest fewer points in
the fly skill to hover.
Wood: Warrior, Controller, Textbook

Skills (***): Knowledge (Nature) is a good skill, but the rest feel a bit like dead weight.
Bonus Spells (****): This is a very solid list. Shillelagh is a solid buff early on, and Barkskin is worth
casting all the way to 20. You gain the druids teleport, Tree Stride, and a pair of options to conjure wooden
servants. Minor creation is awesome even with its limitations if youre the clever sort. The only real problem
area is Ironwood, which wont be used often enough to be worth its space, and Transmute Metal to Wood,
which may be of limited use. Still, those two spells interact very well with each other (magical ironwood
equipment, anyone?) as well as some of the revelations.
Bend the Grain (**): You gain the use of a couple spells that, quite frankly, arent very good. Warp wood is
ambiguously worded but could be worth it on enemy equipment, and wood shape is just the poor mans stone
shape. Repel wood interacts well with Transmute Metal to Wood, but requires some very specific battlefield
setups to be worth the effort to use. After all that the uses are too few to get excited about, but certain players
could find some value here.
Lignification (**): This is the perfect example of a great revelation marred by a low number of uses per
day. This ability will take an enemy out of the fight for a minimum of 5 rounds when you get it, but you only
get one use until 15th level. Oh, and it targets fortitude, so youre best off aiming this at an arcanist.
Speak with Wood (****): It may not look like it, but this is a really useful ability. Wood is everywhere, and
you can divide your uses up to really strike up a conversation with just about anything. Ask a weapon who its
owners were. Ask a holy symbol what the caster was doing with it. Ask a floorboard if a particular person
came through here recently. Ask a door to describe the person staying in that room. Once you get Transmute
Metal to Wood youve got a whole new set of things that are suddenly really chatty.
Thorn Burst (***): Its got a poor range and poor damage, as well as a nearly useless caltrop effect. The
only thing this blast has going for it is the fact that its activated as a swift action, which bumps it to green
(but only just barely). If youre looking for bonus damage think about picking this up after 10th level when
you get more than 2 uses per day.
Tree Form (*): Tree shape is really dumb. I can see why you might be interested in it from a thematic
standpoint, but in practice its at best a camping spell. Then you get the ability to take the shape of plant
creatures, which should be cool right? Not so much. Plant Shape is among the worst in the line of polymorph
spells based on the simple fact that the worthwhile aspects of plant creatures are almost never transferred
with the spells. At least a druid still has spellcasting going for her when she decides to go all Treant on her
enemies. You dont even get that.
Wood Armor (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a
backup, but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording clearly states that you conjure
wooden armor which should technically qualify as a target for Magic Vestment, though your DM may
disagree. This armor paces level-appropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but weighs nothing
and is a great choice for the lower strength of most caster types. DR 5/slashing is just a fun added bonus. If
your DM rules against enchanting this with Magic Vestment it might still be worth it, but will be outpaced by
a Breastplate most of your career.
Wood Bond (****): Subtle but very effective. This singular ability shores up the gap between you and a full
BAB class, minus the last attack. But who cares about a -15 attack, anyways?
Wood Sight (**): This ability is nice, but it would be much stronger on a druid who has the ability to
conjure up great masses of wood. On you its just a passingly good ability and probably worth learning, but
only if you get a few tricks to pair up with it.
Wood Weapon (****): This ability is excellent! For the first six levels its eligible to be buffed with
Shillelagh, and then later on gains the keen property which really puts these simple weapons on par with your
standard martial weapon. You already want to stick with wooden weapons because of Wood Bond, and this
ability lets you conjure up your very own whenever you need it. Spectacular.
Woodland Stride (**): A thematically appropriate but ultimately mediocre ability. In campaigns that favor
a lot of outdoor travel this could be of more use, but its quite specific in its application.

Juju [AP #39: City of Seven Spears]: Controller, Socialite, Textbook

Skills (****): Bluff and Intimidate both help the budding Socialite, and Knowledge (Nature) rounds out the
list as one of the Big 4. Everything else is just bonus.
Spells (****): This spell list is awesome. Speak with Animals and Charm Monster offer some great Socialite
options, and Hideous Laughter and Fear offer solid control. Create Undead shows up at level 5, but only
works for Juju zombies. Dont worry, these things are amazing. Magic Jar lets you take over your zombie
minions and leave your body safely tucked away. Pretty much all the spells are great, save for Trap The Soul.
Its dead weight, but at this point, who cares? Youll have so many great options before you hit 8th level spells
that youll never feel the sting of a bad spell.
Beast Tongue (*): This ability is an always-on Speak with Animals, which is already on your spell list.
Unless your party has an animal companion that you spend a lot of time talking to, dont bother. This is just
too redundant to take in normal circumstances.
Craft Juju Fetish (*): You can craft a few awkward and limited magic items. Pass.
Dream Haunter (*): Nightmare is a pretty lame spell all on its own, even without the limitations of this
revelation. Pass.
False Death (***): This adds Charm Person and Dominate Person to your spell list, meaning that you can
now use scrolls/wands/staves with these spells even if you never take them as spells known. The downside
here is that your charms are now really, really obvious. Still, adding Dominate Person to your spell list is a
very strong bonus. You wont be able to use the minion for traditional espionage, but it still lets you build
your menagerie.
Juju Sight (*): In a Juju heavy game this could be helpful, but otherwise its nearly worthless.
above the competition when you need it. Id wait until it has more than one use per day, but its completely
worth having.
Path of the Snake (***): Powerful, but with significant limitations. This is a great escape ability or even a
quick scouting option. The limitation of once per day until 15th level is rough, as is the use of a Standard
Action to prematurely end the spell. Still, its a great tool when you need it. Youre just not likely to need it
every day.
Reminder of Death (**): This will expand your command of the undead, but most of your interactions
with Undead are likely to be with your own minion army. Still, itll be a helpful tool in locking down undead
so that you can take control of them with the Undead Servitude revelation. If you discover that you cant
control the undead you can always just destroy it.
Spirit Vessels (****): Holy guacamole, this ability is fantastic. 50% additional HD worth of undead
minions, and all undead that you create have maximum hit points. This is a great choice for your 7th level
revelation if you choose to take Animate Dead. Otherwise make sure to grab it at level 11 when youre making
Juju zombies.
Undead Servitude (***): Who loves their undead minions? Its you, isnt it? The cold fact of the matter is
that this ability is only going to let you enslave a single worthwhile undead at any given time, and you might
struggle to do even that. Still its a no-cost way to flesh out that budding army of yours, and thats your goal,
right?
Lunar [PPC: Blood of the Moon]: Warrior, Controller, Blaster, Socialite, Textbook
Skills (****): Knowledge (Nature) and Perception are both fantastic additions, with acrobatics and survival
padding the edges.
Spells (***): The spells are all over the place. Fumbletongue, Litany of Madness, and Lunar Veil are all
either exceedingly weak or narrowly useful. Rage and Aspect of the Wolf make for solid buffs for the Warrior
or Enabler Type, but Aspect of the Wolf cant be shared with allies. Dust of Twilight, Moonstruck, Blood Mist,
and Polar Midnight make for solid spells for a Controller or Blaster.
Form of the Beast (** to ****): It starts off spotty but then gets really interesting when you introduce
Magical Beasts. Many magical beasts have the ability to speak, making spellcasting possible if you use Still
Spell. Some Magical Beasts actually have genuine spellcasting (Aranea, Blink Dog, Kirin) and a leniant DM
may rule that spellcasting is possible in these forms. Other magical beasts (Jackalwere) have humanoid
bodies and should allow spellcasting and equipment transfers. This is all depending on your DM though, so
its worthwhile to have a conversation first. Even with a strict DM this ability is useful for the different modes
of movement, defense, and plethora of natural attacks.
Eyes of the Moon (*): Color me unimpressed. It grants darkvision (which you may already have) and the
ability to use a limited True Seeing but only in the light of the moon. Its worded in such a way that its
unclear if you even retain darkvision when the moon isnt out. True Seeing is useful, but its on your spell list
and infinitely more powerful when you dont have to justify it with a bunch of qualifiers.
Gift of the Claw and Horn (****): This is a very powerful tool for the Warrior types. Its a swift action to
activate, has lots of uses, and some flexibility in your choices (Bite is probably the best). These natural attacks
will pair well with your physical weapons and scale as you level. Its difficult not to love this ability.
Mantle of Moonlight (***): All the lycanthropy stuff is going to be largely flavor for most players, with the
only real aspect of this ability comes into play at 5th level. Being able to apply Rage to an ally is a modest buff,
but applying it to an enemy mage is a hilarious debuff that will render them incapable of casting with no save
to resist. The melee range is a disadvantage, but Warrior types wont mind too much.
Moonbeam (***): This is the kind of ability that gets a lot of play early in a campaign but remains
somewhat useful through the end. The damage is laughable, and youll need to succeed on a ranged touch
attack, but if they get hit youve got a chance to blind them for 1 round. Its a fortitude save, which sucks, but
if you pick your targets wisely you might get lucky.
Moonlight Bridge (***): A solid ability that isnt hampered by a laughably small amount of uses. It doesnt
have the flash and pop of some abilities, but its damn useful none-the-less. Circumventing traps, chasms,
and DM plot devices never looked so cool.
Moonlight Script (**): Once per day, yuck, and only while you sleep. This ability gives you access to three
decent spells that essentially allow you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. Its helpful that the material
component costs are waived, but the restrictions on use prevent this from being more than orange for most
oracles.
Primal Companion (****): An animal companion meant for combat? Absolutely. Youve got several
choices here and most of them are solid.
Prophetic Armor (****): An excellent ability that allows you neglect your dexterity in a significant way.
Youll likely drop down to light armor, but your reflex saves have never looked sweeter. Keep in mind that
your combat maneuver defense and initiative are still relying on your dexterity score.
Touch of the Moon (* or ****): If you went the Cure Wounds route, this ability is awful. Using two spell
slots for a small amount of temporary hit points that expire pretty quickly is bad. You might use it to bolster
your team before a fight, but thats a bad use of resources. However, if you went Inflict Wounds then this
spell is a lot better. Dont pick it up before 10th level, because Confusion on a single target is worthless
(unless its a caster). Once you start casting Mass Inflict Light Wounds you can selectively pick which targets
to confuse, even if theyre mixed in with your group. Theyll need to make will saves (inflict always damages if
it penetrates SR, regardless of the save) but the save scales with your oracle level, not the spell. Heres the
best part, though: confused creatures act by the chart, unless they were attacked last round. Then they attack
the last creature that attacked them. Cast this into a crowd of enemies and have your allies stop attacking.
Within a round or two more than half of the group should be fighting each other and completely ignoring
your group.
Occult [PCS: Occult Mysteries]: Controller, Enabler, Textbook

Skills (****): Knowledge (Arcana) and Use Magic Device are excellent skills to have. Bluff helps out the
budding Socialite, and Disguise is a freebie.
Spells (**): The list is really heavy on divination and generally weak. Unseen Servant can keep backup
weapons and potions ready for you and your group, and Spectral Hand and Project Image will extend your
range with spells. Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Scrying, Vision, and Astral Projection arent likely to get a lot
of use in the standard campaign, leaving them as mostly dead weight. Contact Other Plane is awful and can
potentially leave you without spellcasting for several weeks on a failed save.
Automatic Writing (***): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to three decent spells that
essentially allow you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. Avoiding the material component costs is
helpful, too. Its a very thematically appropriate choice for the Occult oracle, and this is probably the sort of
thing youre looking to do anyways, so it gets a boost in its rating.
you to make knowledge checks with someone elses knowledge skills. It targets will saves, though, which are
very likely a high save on your target. As a utility power it requires two turns to use, making it not worth it in
combat- especially because they immediately know it was you. As written you may not even get anything out
of the enemy, but your DM might rule differently and bump this power up to ** or *** stars. Probably not,
though.
Ectoplasmic Armor (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than
a backup, but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording clearly states that you conjure
armor made of ectoplasm which should technically qualify as a target for Magic Vestment, though your DM
may disagree. This armor paces level-appropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but weighs
nothing and is a great choice for the lower strength of most caster types. Ghost Touch likely wont come into
play very often, but its still a nice bonus. If your DM rules against enchanting this with Magic Vestment it
might still be worth it, but will be outpaced by a Breastplate most of your career.
Phantom Touch (****): Shaken is nice, and frightened is better, but panicked is stupidly awesome. A
panicked creature will drop anything its holding before running, essentially making it an effective disarm.
You get several uses of this each day and it offers no saving throw. So long as the target isnt immune to
fear or mind affecting abilities itll be completely disabled. That is, if you can lay a hand on it.
Project Psyche (***): This ability cuts out a lot of the issues with the Magic Jar spell by letting you just
jump into your target. You can have a lot of fun taking over enemies on the battlefield and finding new hosts
to ride and abuse. Once per day prevents this from being a blue ability, though.
Shroud of Retribution (*): Anything that requires you to get hit is a bad thing, especially if it doesnt even
negate the hit. Instead you can do a pitiful amount of damage to the attacker, but only a couple times per day.
This is just awful.
Spectral Spells (*): Ectoplasmic Spell is a crappy metamagic spell, which makes this a crappy revelation.
Sure Soul (**): This doesnt become useful until level 7 when you get bonuses vs. death effects and mindaffecting effects. Its a nice bump, but not fantastic.
Outer Rifts [PCS: Inner Sea Magic]: Controller, Warrior, Blaster, Socialite
Skills (****): Knowledge (Arcana) is one of the big four, and Fly will be necessary eventually. Intimidate is
also worth pursuing with the Planar Binding spells and Wings of Terror.
Spells (**): This is not a good list. It starts off really weak, with Vermin Shape being helpful for Warrior
types, and a lot of Planar Binding. Definitely invest in a Socialite skill if you plan on getting anything from
that. Insanity is pretty terrible (single target confusion isnt worth much). Confusion and Imprisonment act
as the only high points on the list.
Balefire (**): Dont bother before level 10, because its a 1/day single target damage effect. After 10 you get
a second use and can stagger enemies without a save. Thats pretty helpful, despite the low duration. It gets
really helpful at level 15 when you can stun enemies with a failed reflex save. The downside is that this ability
doesnt get really good until level 15, and its absolutely hindered by its low uses per day.
Demonhide (***): Early on its equivalent to a chain shirt, so dont bother. At level 13 this ability really
becomes a better option with DR 5/cold iron for essentially the entire adventuring day. Keep in mind that any
weapon with at least a +3 enhancement will overcome this. Its also rocking a +8 armor bonus at this point,
so you may consider ditching your breastplate if those armor check penalties are getting in the way.
Dread Resilience (***): This is a nice, easy bonus to constitution. Thats extra hit points and a better
fortitude save. Depending on when you grab this ability it can be between +1 and +3 to your constitution
score, but its progression is worded so that it does matter when you take it. This revelation is better if you
have an odd constitution score, but only if your campaign is going to make it to the late teens. Keep in mind
that this ability wont stack with the Manual of Bodily Health.
Planar Haze (***): This is a particularly useful revelation for Blasters, but any area of effect spell can
trigger it. Basically you get to place Obscuring Mist and later Fog Cloud as a rider effect for your area of effect
spell. You can only do it a couple times per day, but these are solid spells and only cost a swift action to add
on. This would be stronger if you could use it more often.
Rift Magic (*): Barring a very specific campaign, its just not worth it.
Rift Weapon (**): This can be helpful if you fight a lot of enemies with damage resistance. Its a standard
action to use and can only be used a couple of times per day. Keep in mind that a +3 enhancement bonus
automatically penetrates cold iron and a +5 enhancement bonus automatically penetrates alignment based
DRs. This revelation will eventually become useless, save for summons and under-equipped minions.
Telepathy (***): Telepathy allows for stealth communication, but also serves as a permanent tongues effect
so long as youre speaking with your brain. Nice, simple, and very useful for the Socialite.
Unearthly Terrain (****): Several uses per day right off the bat and useful all the way to 20. Being able to
throw down difficult terrain hinders enemy movement and allows your team to take advantageous positions.
It can also prevent or allow retreats.
Wings of Terror (****): Fly speed, broken up as you see fit. Plus some great bonuses to Intimidate when
youre using them. Yeah, this is pretty great.
Solar [PPC: The Harrow Handbook]: Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Skills (*): Not a great list. Survival and Knowledge (Geography) are fun but not particularly useful. The best
thing about Linguistics is getting a new language for every skill point you spend, and thats not affected by
class skills at all. Fly makes an awkward appearance because this Mystery doesnt grant you the ability to flyso you cant actually take ranks in this skill unless you pick up flight from somewhere else.
Spells (***): This is a decent spell list with a few duds. The blasts here are either multi-round or have a
debuffing/controlling element, which makes them doubly useful. Dimension Door is awesome, but Faerie
Fire, Daylight, and Planar Adaptation are going to be dead weight most days.
Astral Caravan (*): Its a nice flavor ability, and itll allow you to safely travel great distances pretty
quickly, but it doesnt offer much more than that.
Blistered Caress (**): A weak melee touch attack that halves its damage on a successful fortitude save.
Oh, and you can only use it twice a day after 10th level. You can use it to heal plant creatures and eventually
sicken and stagger enemies, but again, only on a failed fortitude save.
Luminous Form (****): Blind is a great debuff, and this lets you slather it onto your melee opponents. Itll
also slather it onto your allies if youre not careful, so watch your positioning. Between the blur effect and
eventually the auto-success blind this is a really powerful tool for the Warrior type. Its probably not worth
getting before the blind effect shows up at level 7.
Many Roads (*): Its a few strong bonuses to mediocre skills. Survival might be nice if youre looking for
that sort of support, but its not a strong skill. Fly is pretty worthless unless youve picked up a flight speed
from somewhere else, since this Mystery wont give you one. The bonus languages are essentially 3 points
into linguistics, which doesnt feel worthwhile. You might be able to pick up a few secret languages if your
DM permits (and you feel thats important or valuable). Id give this one a hard pass every time.
Serpent in the Sun (**): This offers a few nice bonuses, including eventual immunity to fatigue, diseases,
and poison. Requiring 4 hours in the sunlight every day will cause issues for many adventurers, and it takes
entirely too long to get to the good stuff. The ability falls somewhere between orange and green, but Im
inclined to lean orange because of the somewhat awkward requirements you have to meet.
Solar Wind (***): Early in your career this will be a simple ranged blast that quickly becomes useless.
However, at level 7 it becomes a ranged Bull Rush with a small amount of damage. Bull Rush isnt the best
combat maneuver, but it can be very useful for setting up flanks or shoving enemies off of high places.
Starlight Agility (**): Dodge is a nice, modest feat. Wind Stance and Lightning Stance are both exceedingly
specific in their application and arent likely to come up all that often.
Sun Stride (**): This is incredibly useful for getting where you need to go, especially since you can break up
your distance into multiple jumps. However, its got a few problems. First, it comes with all the limitations of
Dimension Door (no actions after a jump). Also, it can only be used in places of bright light. You can take this
revelation at 5th level, but at 40 ft. its probably only good for one jump a day (two if youre careful). At 9th
level it gets much more useful with 80 ft, but at this point the Dimension Door spell has already been added
to your spells known. Thats a lot of strikes against it. Still, Dimension Door is a lifesaver when you need it
and can be used to greatly increase your mobility.
Sungazer (**): This is a problematic ability. First, all of the spells this allows you to cast have really long
casting times. Clairaudience has a casting time of 10 minutes, and Scrying requires a full hour. Only Greater
Scrying at 15th level has a casting time of 1 standard action. Still, Scrying can be useful for scouting once you
hit level 10. Except the target/location must currently be in direct sunlight to be viewed, which limits your
utility by a large margin. You can probably get some use out of this ability, but youre likely to be frustrated
by the limitations of the revelation more often than not.
Torch Touch (***): This ability has a lot of applications for the right kind of character in the right kind of
party. This opens up Stealth quite a bit, and can make espionage campaigns much easier. Doubling light
sources can help shore up weak vision types, and halving light sources can be taken advantage of with
darkvision or even low-light vision. Unfortunately the revelation doesnt affect actual light levels, only radius,
so you cant manipulate light to use with your other light-dependant revelations. Interestingly, this ability
doesnt seem to have a duration and isnt limited in uses per day. It also isnt clear if the effect expires when
you move further than 60 feet away from the target light. You could theoretically use this to open up a lightbased business or curse your enemies with perpetually dark homes.
Spellscar [PCS: Inner Sea Magic]: Controller, Blaster, Enabler, Textbook, Medic
Skills (****): Fantastic choices. Two knowledges in the Big Four, Use Magic Device, and Survival just for
fun.
Spells (**): The list is very anti-mage, which means it wont be useful on a regular basis. Obscure Object and
Break Enchantment are dead weight, which is tough. Dispel Magic, Antimagic Field, and Mages Disjunction
are all great for dealing with magic items or casters, while Lesser Globe of Invulernability, Spell Turning, and
Spell Scar function strictly as anti-mage spells. Ray of Enfeeblement can be a potent debuff for high or low
strength enemies, but the fortitude save hurts.
Animate Primal Forces (***): This is basically Summon Monster II, IV, and V with a quicker casting time
and a shorter duration. Also you can only summon Elementals. Elementals are usually one of the stronger
options from the list, and you get your pick of the bunch, so that isnt much of a drawback. You also get access
to these one level before any other Oracle (the same time a Cleric would get them), and you can summon
them as a standard action instead of the dreaded full-round action. These are all great bonuses. Early on the
duration will be longer than if you had cast the spell, and later the duration will be shorter (but not in a truly
significant way). This would be a blue ability if it werent stuck with just one casting per day until 10th level. A
big downside is that it stops advancing at 10th level, leaving you with Summon Monster V for the rest of your
career.
Eldritch Bolt (**): A lame blast that gets a boost in distance at level 10. Being force damage is useful, but
not overly so.
Eldritch Resistance (**): A small scaling bonus to your resistances vs. the four major energy types. Its
nice that you get a spread, and that it scales, but the rate at which is scales means that itll only ever take the
edge off of elemental damage.
Eldritch Scar (*): This ability reminds me of the Rod of Wonder, except entirely more chaotic and
dangerous for both you and your enemy. It can only be used vs. magically inclined enemies (or enemies with
activation based magic items) and you only get one per day. Oh, and most of the things this ability will inflict
will also affect your allies. And you. Definitely take Primal Mastery if you pick this up. This ability is
frustrating and unwieldy, and is very likely to piss off your fellow tablemates.
Magic Penetration (***): Its not useful on a regular basis, but youve got several spells that will be
boosted by this ability, so that gives it a bump to green.
Mystic Null (**): Sort of like the Dwarf ability, but wider and stronger.
Primal Manipulation (***): This is a useful way to add a few more damage types to your spells known,
and should be considered blue for Blaster types. Overall its just a great way to avoid resistances or target
weaknesses as you encounter them. Keep your knowledge skills high to take advantage of this.
Primal Mastery (****): Youve got a few ways to access these Primal Events, so having some control over
them is incredibly important. Youre still dealing with chance, but its a little less chance. The bonus to saves
will be both helpful and necessary considering how the Primal Events work. The rod of wonder stuff is just
extra.
Trigger Primal Magic Event (**): Like Eldritch Scar, this is a frustrating and random ability. However
youve got more options on how to trigger the event (including yourself as a target), so that gives it a slight
bump. You only have one use per day until 17th level.
Spell Resistance (* or **): If youve got spellcaster friends, dont bother. It requires a standard action to
lower your spell resistance for allies to affect you with anything. If youre the lone spellcaster this acts as
another small boost vs. enemy mages. Most CR appropriate enemy casters will easily punch through this
resistance, but theres at least a small chance they might roll low. Its actually pretty useful at blocking spells
from magic items though.
Winter [PPC: People of the North]: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Skills (****): Knowledge (Nature) and Intimidate are both nice, while Survival and Stealth are mostly just
for fun.
Spells (****): Lots of blast spells, but most of them come with a controlling element that has them pulling
double duty. Endure Elements sucks, but Ice Body makes you immune to basically everything for a really
decent duration.
Blizzard (**): While it initially appears to be a blast, its in fact a powerful controller ability that shuts down
vision and allows shapeable placement. But its only usable once per day, making it far less valuable.
Chill of Winter (***): This ability allows you to ignore nearly all of the difficult terrain you create so long
as its cold based. This isnt strictly necessary but its certainly useful. You also get some nice little bonuses
during the winter months.
Cold Aura (****): Mediocre damage with a short range, but it also provides concealment for the turn and
offers a few uses per day. That makes it green. The fact that you can use it as a swift action makes it blue.
Freezing Spells (****): This ability applies slowed, as the slow spell (which is actually staggered with some
additional penalties) and is downright amazing for a Blaster or Controller type. Youve got several cold spells
to choose from.
Ice Armor (** or ****): Early on its duration is far too short to consider as anything other than a backup,
but after level 7 it starts to become a decent choice. The wording clearly states that you conjure armor of ice
which should technically qualify as a target for Magic Vestment, though your DM may disagree. This armor
paces level-appropriate plate if enchanted with Magic Vestment, but weighs nothing and is a great choice for
the lower strength of most caster types. DR 5/piercing is just a fun added bonus. If your DM rules against
your career. Be aware that the ambiguous natures of very hot and very cold are likely to cause some issues
with interpretation.
Ice Shape (* to ****): Stone Shape is an incredibly useful spell, and having multiple uses a day is going to
be great. However this ability only works on ice or snow, so thats going to be dependent on where your
campaign takes place. If youre dealing with snow and ice on a daily basis itll be blue, but in hot climates you
might not ever get to use it.
Icy Skin (**): Cold is a common type of elemental attack, and this ability scales with level. Im not sure its
particularly worth it, but it saves it from being terrible.
Servant of Winter (*): This is awful. This is essentially Summon Monster once per day (until level 15) to
summon a specific creature. Except you can already summon ice elementals with the regular spell, and this
doesnt even let you cast it faster. The only benefit this provides is that you access the Summon Monster spell
one level earlier than other Oracles. This revelation is not worth your time, even if you were to take Summon
Monster and exclusively summon ice elementals.
Snow Sight (** to ***): This allows you to ignore the perception penalties of some of your spells, so thats
useful. In a snowy environment it has a bit more use, especially with the free Commune with Nature once per
day.
Wintry Touch (**): Worth considering at very low levels if your stats dont favor the use of a weapon, but I
dont see this getting much use later on. At level 11 you can transfer the frost ability to a weapon if you get
bored, and thats always fun.
Deviations of the Divine:

No two oracles are created the same, and thats more true than ever with the addition of archetypes. The
archetypes make a lot of choices for you, apply additional penalties to your character, and offer new and unique
options beyond traditional mysteries. Some are also mystery lite, allowing you to conceptually combine two
mysteries like Lore or Heavens with your personal favorite.
Ancient Lorekeeper (Elf): Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Blaster, Socialite, Medic, Textbook
Skills (****): Two knowledge skills, one of which is one of the big four so this is a solidly good. Plus you
get a free bonus on any kind of knowledge check if it somehow relates to elves. Considering how prolific the
elves are, I dont see this being an issue to use.
Elven Arcana (****): Oh my god, this is amazing. The biggest issue with bonus spells is that even though
some lists are great, theyre still predefined. The best lists offer good spells from other class lists to round out
your abilities. So what youre looking at here is quite possibly the greatest oracle archetype available. You
trade away all of your mysterys spells for ones of your choice. Theyre treated as one level higher but thats a
very small price to pay to be the only oracle whos cherry-picking her favorite wizard spells and casting them
as divine. This here is everything the Mystic Theurge should have been and more. The only true downside is
that youre stuck with a cantrip in your 1st level bonus spell slot.
Community Guardian (Halfling): Enabler, Medic, Textbook

Skills (****): Perception is great, and Knowledge (local) is worth a few points as well.
Bonus Spells (*): Wow, this list is awful. Just a series of marginally useful corner cases. Heroes Feast
might be of some use, but good luck with the rest.
Spirit of Community (**): Sort of like a lesser Inspire Competence that requires everyone to give up their
bonus to help a single ally out. And youre forced to take this as your first revelation.
Renewing Radiance (*): This doesnt have a listed action, which means that it defaults to a standard
action, which further means that its not as great as it might have been. The healing this provides will be very
significant at 3rd level when youre forced to take this, but it quickly becomes useless. Even the tiny boost to
AC wont matter when a full caster is giving up her standard action to heal about a dozen hitpoints or offset a
flanking bonus. Oh, and its once per day, so youre really going to struggle with this oracle at lower levels.
Dual Cursed Oracle: Controller

Oracles Curse (*): You have to take two curses, but one of them never improves. Thats really, really
rough.
Bonus Spells (***): Ill omen is a no-save debuff that requires the target roll twice and take the lower roll 15 times, but they can negate it by spending a move action. Its never particularly amazing unless youre only
fighting a single enemy, but the fact that its no save and has a scaling effect means youll be enjoying this
curse for your entire career. Oracles Burden generally isnt worth the time it takes to cast, though it has the
potential to be more worth it for you. For instance, if you took both the clouded vision and deaf curses. In
which case, why do you hate fun?? Bestow Curse is fun for creative types and lenient DMs, but the
prepackaged curses are just as good.
Revelations (****): You gain two additional revelations over the course of your oracle levels with no
restrictions. This is pure, shiny gold. You even get a few new options!
Misfortune (****): Oh my god, this is amazing. As an immediate action you cause any creature, friend or
foe, to reroll a single d20. Sure, its only once per day for each creature, but it only costs a swift action, doesnt
allow a save, and has unlimited uses. Wag your finger at your DM every time he says Crit! or an ally
fumbles an important roll.
Fortune (****): Rerolls are a very powerful thing in Pathfinder, and this one isnt even specific beyond it
needing to be a d20. Youll gain another one every few levels, meaning that you wont fail (as often) on the
really important rolls.
Enlightened Philosopher: Enabler, Textbook

Alignment Restriction (**): Ok, it wont destroy most character concepts, but alignment restrictions are
never something to get excited about. Its just one way to chip away at your freedoms. Fight the man! Most
oracles wont mind this restriction, but the chaotically inclined (like myself) are going to be frustrated.
Skills (****): Linguistics is thematic but ultimately useless. All of the knowledge skills are amazing.
Bonus Spells (**): You only keep your 2nd level spell, and replace the rest with this truly bland list. Owls
Wisdom, Water Walk, and Discern Lies arent likely to see much play in the average campaign. In fact, the
spell list doesnt even start getting good until the halfway mark. True Seeing and Astral Projection both have
material component costs, and Wind Walk is almost certainly better on a scroll (its a cleric spell anyways).
Ethereal Jaunt and Moment of Prescience are both solid spells worth their space.
Mental Acuity (**): Intelligence is great! But not really for you. It can slowly help your knowledge skills,
and itll start granting bonus skill points by level 10 if youve got an even int score, so thats something.
Planar Oracle: Enabler, Socialite, Textbook

Bonus Spells (**): Wow, this just straight up replaces your entire spell list, but not in a good way. In a
game with an eye towards planar travel this could be very very good, but for your average player half the list
may not ever see use. Youll get Planar adaptation before its useful, and Plane Shift before you can protect
your allies. Elemental Speech gives you the ability to talk to things that potentially dont have language, so
thats fun. At least the list ends strong with Shadow Walk, Etherealness, and Gate.
Planar Resistance (**): Nothing says mediocrity like being forced to take energy resistance that doesnt
even have the decency to properly scale like all of the other energy resistance revelations.
Possessed Oracle: Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Socialite

Oracles Curse (***): You have to choose between Haunted and Tongues, but those are both really good
options and you should have been considering them anyways. Telekinesis is already on your spell list here, so
that lessens the beauty of Haunted (but reverse gravity is still awesome!).
Bonus Spells (***): Sort of a mixed bag here. Ventriloquism is as useless as ever, but Spider Climb is the
spelunkers Fly. Screech is fantastic for Warrior sorts. Youre going to struggle to get any use out of
Sleepwalk, but Animate Objects is fun of beauty and the beast proportions. Divine Vessel is a really solid buff,
just so long as you arent true neutral.
Two Minds (**): Its pretty lame until 7th level, but since its your starting revelation thats a strike against
it. On the whole this is probably a green ability, particularly with the usefulness of retrying a failed will save.
But until level 7 it sucks pretty good, and it hurts the strength of your character the whole time.
Psychic Searcher: Textbook

Spells (***): If you want to play a magical detective, these are the spells to do it. Its a lot of the same, with
Foresight being amazingly weak for a 9th level spell.
Inspiration (****): This pool is really useful, particularly because you can choose to add your bonus after
you roll. You can also add a +1d6 to every diplomacy, sense motive, or select knowledge skill at no cost. Thats
super nice. Its based on Wisdom, which sucks, but I wouldnt suggest dumping Intelligence to raise your
Wisdom score- youre going to need a lot of skill points. This pool also fuels your Psychic Talents.
Psychic Talent: Youre forced to take one of these talents at 3rd level, and then after that youve got the
option to take them in place of your other revelations. Thats not a bad deal, and a lot of these are good.
Amazing Inspiration (***): Bumps your +1d6 to +1d8 and doesnt cost anything.
Eidetic Recollection (***): A fantastic way to make sure youre not failing knowledge checks when
you need them to succeed.
Empathy (***): Sense motive isnt a fantastic skill, but this will let you milk it for all its worth. Its
also a Detect Thoughts once per day that doesnt require a three round setup.
Inspired Alertness (*): Flat Footed isnt particularly debilitating for an oracle, unless youve taken
a revelation to swap your Dexterity for your Charisma bonus. Even then, its not a common enough
condition to warrant taking this.
Item Lore (*): Just take Detect Magic.
Perceptive Tracking (**): Its not bad, but youve got several spells that do this for you. Very useful
if paired with Empathy.
Rogue Talent: Hard to Fool (*): Why would you take this if you can take Empathy?
Tenacious Inspiration (****): This helps keep the averages in your favor.
Purifier (Aasimar): Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Socialite, Medic

Spells (*): These are a lot of spells that arent on your spell list, but unfortunately theyre so specifically
narrow in their focus that most days you wont find a use for these. Seriously, you might not ever use a few of
these at all. Confess might get some use in a social campaign, and Denounce could be fun for starting riots in
town, but nothing else shines here.
Diminished Spellcasting (*): Losing the cure or inflict spells isnt awful, though it sucks. The real issue
here is that youre losing a spell per level, which puts you firmly behind those snooty clerics.
See Sin (*): Its a bonus to sensing enchantments which arent particularly common and really arent that
hard to make. They cap at 25, which means that if youre investing ranks here youll overcome the DC before
your teens. You also gain the same bonus on spellcraft checks for a very select subset of the enchantment
school. Awful.
Celestial Armor (****): Its not flashy, but its a very nice bonus. This will keep you both mobile and
protected throughout your career.
Sin Eater (*): Curses/enchantments/emotion spells are so rare that being able to use this multiple times
per day just isnt exciting. The worst part of this whole ability is that dispel magic gets rid of half of the
abilities, greater dispel magic gets rid of the other half (available 1 level later at 12th), and neither leave the
oracle sickened or require a melee touch.
Sacred Scourge (**): Specifically only hurts outsiders, but it does a good job of laying down the hurt. Too
bad its only effective against outsiders.
Holy Terror (**): Youre really great against evil outsiders. This is useless against everything else.
Celestial Master (***): Something about this ability strikes me as kinda evil, but fluff aside, this is
amazing. Pair this with the Planar Ally series and youll only have to worry about the initial payment (5002500gp) because you can enslave the minion when it arrives. I mean persuade. With magical shackles of
goodness. Or something. The only thing keeping this from blue is that youll still need to spend a lot of cash to
really make this ability worth it. On its own youre unlikely to find celestials just wandering around, and if
youre decent with diplomacy its even less like that they wouldnt want to help you.
Reincarnated Oracle (Samsaran): Controller, Textbook

Oracles Curse (****): Limiting your options sucks, but these are both good curses to choose.
Bonus Spells (***): An odd mix of spells. See alignment probably wont be much use, and Contact Other
Plane is so awful youd be a fool to ever use it- and probably more of a fool afterwards with your severe
penalties to intelligence and charisma. Detect Thoughts works as a fantastic mental radar. Moment of
Prescience means youll never fail another check you really want to make (barring natural 1s, of course), and
Overwhelming Presence is great for any oracle so obviously its good for you.
Location Memories (***): Scent and low-light vision on demand for the low cost of a swift action. You can
use it a lot, too. Even better is that you can put this off until 3rd level so that youll start with something
useful.
Spirit Memories (***): This is a really poorly written mystery. Its listed as both once per day and a
number of times per day equal to 3+your charisma modifier. Maybe its both? I dunno. Perhaps once per day
you can activate this ability and then make a number of attacks equal to 3+cha. Either way, its pretty decent
for an attack. Gaze attacks use the attack action when used against a single creature, so youll gain more uses
per round as your BAB rises. Staggered is a pretty great debuff, and is better when mixed with sickened.
Seer: Textbook
Bonus Spells (***): If you enjoy divination types, this is a really great list. If youre a little less subtle in
your playstyle this list is likely to frustrate you. But this is a seer, so well assume the former. Legend Lore is
wasted space with its stupidly long casting time, and Foresight never quite feels worth a 9th level spell. Still,
if knowing things is what you like to do, this will let you do it.
above the competition when you need it. Taking it at first level isnt awesome because of its limited uses per
day, but its still a really great revelation.
Gift of Prophesy (***): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to three decent spells that
essentially allow you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. Its a very thematically appropriate choice for
the Seer, and this is probably the sort of thing youre looking to do anyways, so it gets a boost in its rating.
Shigenjo (Tengu): Warrior, Blaster, Textbook

Alignment (***): Its limiting, but no worse than the druids have. Youll find something you like.
Skills (****): Hawkward- the Shigenjo adds both religion and planes to her class list, except that shes
already got them from the base oracle package. Still, knowledge (nature) is a great addition and survival is
nice enough.
Bonus Spells (***): True strike is the sort of spell you take Quicken Spell for later in your career, and the
others are nice as well. Alter Self is great for disguises and easy bonuses. Its not hard to find natural
weapons, a swim speed, or any sort of vision youre looking for. Divine Power shows up at exactly the time
you should be picking up Blessing of Fervor, which puts you in an awkward position. Magic Jar has potential
but requires a lot of setup to really be worth its space. Ki shout is awesome if you can get the stun to take.
Moment of prescience is again amazing.
Ki Pool (****): Despite having a slower rate of growth than other ki classes, the oracle will never struggle to
have a large pool. Youll probably spend most of your points boosting your DCs. All tengu will benefit from
the Ki strike ability with their beak attack, and some might even choose to pursue a natural attack routine
with the claws available as an alternate racial trait.
Quivering Palm (**): It kinda sucks for the monk, and it kinda sucks for you. Luckily you dont have to
take this ability, and I really recommend you dont.
Spirit Guide: Controller, Blaster, Enabler, Socialite, Textbook, Medic

Skills (****): All knowledge skills. Yes, please.
Bonded Spirit (****): Wow, this ability is amazing. It costs you 3 revelations, but its so totally worth it.
First, you can pick your spirit every day, which adds a huge amount of flexibility to the Oracle. You start off
with a Hex (using Charisma) that you can choose from your spirits list and can change every day. Thats
awesome. At 4th level you add all the spirits spells (up to your highest spell level) to your spells known. This
is on top of your Mysterys spells, and you can change it by changing your spirit. At 7th and 15th level you get
the Spirit Ability and Greater Spirit Ability. Most of these are roughly equivalent to a revelation or domain
power. And again, you can change these by changing your spirit. The only limitation it comes with is that you
cannot take spirits that are incompatible with your oracle, and thats subject to your DM.
Stargazer: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Skills (****): Perception and Knowledge (Nature) make this an amazing choice. Survival is here if you want
it.
Bonus Spells (**): This list suffers from repetition, but at least two of the spells are good. Faerie Fire is
useful when it is, which is to say not often enough. Glitterdust is an AoE blind that also does everything
Faerie Fire does for a shorter time. Guiding Star just doesnt seem worth it with how little its providing you.
Wandering Star Motes is a fantastic debuff that jumps around each time an enemy shrugs it off. And we
finish up with a bland blast that deals fire damage at 9th level.
Guiding Star (**): This is a really specific criteria to meet before you can get the benefits of this ability.
Then, you get to add your charisma modifier to all wisdom based checks (lets face it: its probably just going
to be perception checks) and modify a spell with one of several metamagic feats. There are a lot of tricky
things you could do with this, but the limitations of once per day and outdoors under the night sky really
hamper it.
Star Chart (**): Once per day, yuck. This ability gives you access to a decent spell that essentially allows
you to quiz your DM about whatever you like. It can be very useful for some players/characters, but most will
likely find it lacking compared to the other revelations.
Warsighted: Warrior
Martial Flexibility (****): Flexibility is the name of the game here. This is a spectacular ability for the
Warrior type, but its going to eat all but 2 of your revelations. This revelation starts out with enough uses per
day to be used in every combat scenario (unless you have 4+ per day) and grows from there. You can, on the
fly, pick a combat feat you qualify for and gain access to it for 1 minute. At 7th and 11th you gain another feat,
allowing you to build into feat chains on a whim. Bonus, you can do this faster and faster as you gain in levels.
Even when you first get the revelation it only requires a move action. Id recommend taking a few common
prerequisite feats early on, like Power Attack or Combat Expertise. Youll likely be spending a lot of your feats
on Extra Revelation to pick up all the revelations you wanted from your Mystery, but thats fine- youll always
have the feats you need for combat.

Black-Blooded Oracle [PCS: Inner Sea Magic]: Textbook

Curse (*** or ****): As far as curses go, this one isnt terrible. It swaps your reaction to positive/negative
energy, but thats not horrible. Youre one of the classes conjuring up the healing magic, and youve got equal
access to all the negative energy versions. Just carry a few wands of inflict light wounds in your bag of healing
wands. You also take a penalty to dexterity based skills, but there arent a lot of those that you actually care
about. Your bonus is that you slowly become immune to cold, which is actually pretty lame. This is probably
green for many oracles just for the fact that its pretty middle of the road, but its definitely blue for oracles
that have other reasons to take the Inflict series over the Cure series.
Black Blood Spray (*): This is optional, and thats great, because this revelation is far from great. Youll
eventually have quite a few uses of this, but only 1 before you hit fourth level- and thats when its most useful
to you. Except its not really all that useful in the long run. It does a poor amount of damage and requires you
to get hit to even activate the ability. Awful.
Dark Resilience (***): Normally this kind of thing is orange, but these are the sorts of attacks that put
your oracle out of commission. Having a few rerolls with a hefty bonus on top to keep playing your character
is very nice.
Darkvision (* to ***): Darkvision can be very useful, but it also depends on your party. If youve already
got darkvision then this isnt great. If you dont, this is probably orange. If you dont and the rest of your
party has darkvision and wants to use darkvision tactics? Thats probably green.
Elementalist Oracle [PPC: People of the Sands]: Warrior, Textbook

Spells (****): A surprisingly good collection of spells, even if you ignore the redundancy of having both
Elemental Body and Elemental Body III. Theres a definite slant towards the Warrior type, but if youve got
claws you can get a lot of mileage out of Elemental Touch.
Elemental Linguist (*): This basically amounts to a few points in linguistics for languages you can easily
justify learning. Its not that this wont be useful, but its certainly a waste of resources.
Elemental Form (****): This is a really great ability because it gives you a few options. Air and Earth are
your best options, but Water could be great in specific campaigns. Fire can safely be ignored.
Seeker [PCS: Pathfinder Society Field Guide]: Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Blaster, Textbook
Tinkering (* to ***): If finding and disabling traps is your thing, this makes it happen and gives you
enough bonuses to practically ensure your success. This seems like such a strange addition to the archetype,
but thats just personal opinion. Each oracle will see different value in this, depending on your party and DM.
Seeker Lore (**): This gives you a few bonuses on only a fifth of your spells known. The boosts are nice
(when they are necessary), and bonus spells tend to be the spells you make your build around, but still I
cant decide if this is red or orange, but Im going to err on the side of generous and give it orange because its
most useful at lower levels.
Seeker Magic (****): I hope you like your bonus spells, because they just got a lot more play. Its not clear
if this reduces the level adjustment by 1 per metamagic feat or simply by 1 overall, so talk to your DM about
that. Either way this is a great ability and not something easily available within the system.

Channeling The Cosmos A Guide To The Oracle

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Channeling the Cosmos

A Guide to the Oracle

Part 1: Oracle Class Features

Other Guides to Peruse:

Tactics and Techniques:

The Children of the Blessing:

Favored Class (****): One bonus spell. See Half-Elf.

Mundane Tools for Divine Entities:

Feats and Specializations

Feats for Every Oracle

Feats for Warriors

Outside the Loose Core

Aspects of the Divine:

Ancestor: Warrior, Textbook

Battle: Warrior, Controller, Socialite

Bones: Controller, Blaster, Socialite, Textbook

Dark Tapestry: Warrior, Controller, Blaster, Socialite, Textbook

Flame: Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Heavens: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Life: Warrior, Enabler, Medic, Textbook

Lore: Controller, Textbook

Metal: Warrior, Controller, Socialite, Textbook

Nature: Enabler, Textbook

Stone: Warrior, Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Time: Warrior, Controller, Textbook

Waves: Controller, Textbook

Wind: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Wood: Warrior, Controller, Textbook

Outside the Loose Core

Juju [AP #39: City of Seven Spears]: Controller, Socialite, Textbook

Occult [PCS: Occult Mysteries]: Controller, Enabler, Textbook

Solar [PPC: The Harrow Handbook]: Controller, Blaster, Socialite

Winter [PPC: People of the North]: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Deviations of the Divine:

Community Guardian (Halfling): Enabler, Medic, Textbook

Dual Cursed Oracle: Controller

Enlightened Philosopher: Enabler, Textbook

Planar Oracle: Enabler, Socialite, Textbook

Possessed Oracle: Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Socialite

Psychic Searcher: Textbook

Purifier (Aasimar): Warrior, Controller, Enabler, Socialite, Medic

Reincarnated Oracle (Samsaran): Controller, Textbook

Shigenjo (Tengu): Warrior, Blaster, Textbook

Spirit Guide: Controller, Blaster, Enabler, Socialite, Textbook, Medic

Stargazer: Controller, Blaster, Textbook

Outside the Loose Core

Black-Blooded Oracle [PCS: Inner Sea Magic]: Textbook

Elementalist Oracle [PPC: People of the Sands]: Warrior, Textbook

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