I love the idea of the Ancestors oracle, it's such a good flavourful concept, but it feels like it'd be very scary to play eg. the party healer who can't heal when they need to.
I've played an Ancestors Oracle and it is flavorful af! It was not scary (at least not for me), but that's the thing m8, who said you need to be the party healer?
Oracle is my favorite class, I've played 4 of them so far. Ancestor is not anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be, most people just haven't ever played one and only BELIEVE it'll be bad. It isn't! You just have to think about the character differently. My recommendation is just make sure you have something to do no matter which ancestor takes over. My Ancestor Oracle was a Kitsune so that gave me an easy ranged attack and I took a Sickle for melee for the trip potential. If you get the Skill ancestor, just throw out a RK or use battle medicine. Spell ancestor is self explanatory. Just remember that you can do ANY OTHER ACTION that isn't a strike/skill/spell depending on the ancestor you get. You can always Step/Stride/prep for Aid/Take Cover/etc. And don't forget that there's almost no reason outside of combat to ever stress about which ancestor is prominent. Losing an action out of combat is meh at worst.
First off - that is a sweet Gnome model that you created! I have an Oracle build that I hope to play one day that takes advantage of the Tall Tale Background (which is perfect for an Oracle IMO). Goblin Cosmos Oracle who learned his magic "from the Man on the Moon." My tribes favorite goat went missing, so I climbed the World's Tallest Mountain (TM), hoped a ride on the moon, and asked the Man on the Moon to help me find our tribes goat. After bringing the goat back, I decided to use the Man on the Moon's magic to help more people find missing things! [Editor's Note: If someone asks which mountain the Goblin Oracle climbed, he will gladly identify it - and it is DEFINITELY not the world's tallest mountain.]
I recently talked to my GM about switching my fighter to a battle mystery oracle. I've only played them as an oracle for one session, but it was the most fun I've had with the character. I quite like complexity which is why I'm drawn to casters. I like casters with some sort of fallback option like a psychic's cantrips, a bard's compositions, or a witch's hexes. It just so happens this particular subclass's fallback is to bonk. Aside from the really clunky focus spell rules. I think I made the right decision. Oracle is a far more mechanically interesting and lore rich option for my campaign. Can't wait to see what they do with it in the remaster! Here's hoping battle oracle gets master proficiency in martial weapons!
Might play a time mystery one soon with a medic free archetype to really get in there with that movement and layered ac bonus vs AoO. I agree. The oracle is dripping with flavor. I do like it a lot even with its downfalls. I feel it really brings the feel of "beware of your own power least you be consumed by it" vibe. Played a life oracle for a one shot recently and found it interesting. We didnt go past early levels. Jumping to time for something different. Glad to see one of yours also went time.
these are cool vids. can you please place your window in a location on the screen that doesn't block the knowledge you are talking to the audience about. It would make it a lot easier to follow along. perhaps upper right corner and smaller.
I hate the oracle. Most times the curse destroys whst you are good at. Like "... but when you do act, you do so with incredible speed. You become slowed 1..." or "You can understand all languages, but you can't speak." What the point in having more focus points when you can't use them? (Like understanding languages but not able to answer or translate it for the others? No other class has such drawbacks when they use class features. And the benefit in return is most times to small to compensate.