r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/Pondthoughts • 20h ago
1E GM Nick of Time Oracle
I’m working on building a DMPC (small party, busy schedules so we are often down a player) with a kind of meta theme, and am looking for any feats or build ideas to push the idea to even sillier heights.
I’m picturing ”Nick de Chrono” as kind of a cheesy deus ex machina build, with erase from time and any other abilities or builds or feats or traits yall can help me come up with to help flesh it out. In a bad spot? boop-enemy gone for just a second while you figure it out. I imagine divine interference will take part in the build. Maybe brilliant planner? Anything that basically lets me help the group through a single focal point, instead of deciding a monster runs off if things are too tough. Also, being able to join the sole melee person in the front lines is preferable.
Its been a bit challenging for the party in places with people dropping in and out, I think this will provide humor, and relief, without having to adapt stats or monsters on the fly or change the pacing of what I’ve written-enough of that happens regardless.
Anyroad, thanks for the help or any suggestions!
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u/Slow-Management-4462 19h ago
Dual-cursed gets you fortune and misfortune revelations, and rerolls as an immediate action sound thematic for Nick. Possibly more so than divine interference.
The possessed and/or shattered psyche curses might be a match on flavour.
Time oracles aren't amazing in melee naturally, but the fate's favored trait and divine favor (later divine power) spell goes a fair way to letting them have some effect. If he's a good guy, Desna's divine fighting technique will let an oracle dump str and still do melee.
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u/Pondthoughts 16h ago
Hmm ok thank you I’ll take a look at those curses.
I agree, standard cleric buffs should be plenty.
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u/OddScraggle 16h ago
I like a Shaman with the Speaker for the Past and Serendipity Shaman archetypes, and the Heavens spirit. You get revelations from the Oracle Time and Ancestors mysteries, hexes like misfortune and fortune, spells from the luck cleric domain, and a heavens spirit hex that mimics Jester’s Jaunt to yank allies out of a bad situation
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u/RegretProper 18h ago
There are just so few "chronemancer" abilitys supported by the pathfinder rules.
And you probably end up more than often with using a "normal" spell and just roleplay it as a time spell. Like even the Cantrip "Daze" can be flavourd into manipulating time and skipping a enemys turn. Deja Vu can catch you in a timeloop. Dismissal still forces the externar to his homeplane but you can play it like he sends the externa to another point in time.... I think you get the idea. Be creativ. And sell it right. Time is an Illusion. So maybe sometime it might be enough to just make them belive you control time
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u/Pondthoughts 16h ago
Word yeah I’ll refluff plenty, doesn’t all have to be time related necessarily, more trying to hide the helping hand so to speak. Thank you for the recommendations.
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u/MofuggerX 15h ago
Liberating Command is a great spell to keep in the back pocket to help an ally out of a grapple.
Beacon Of Luck can let allies give themselves a +2 sacred bonus on a saving throw as an immediate action.
You can do some shenanigans with the Bonded Mind and Share Spells teamwork feats, the caveat is you need a familiar / animal companion / eidolon etcetera. Lunar and Nature mysteries give an animal companion. Getting a familiar is much more feat intensive.
Anyways, the Shared Training spell lets you give others your teamwork feats, and your party only needs to have the Bonded Mind feat so that you can cast spells that normally only target you on your allies (so long as you yourself have the Share Spells feat). This includes the Borrow Fortune spell, which can be cast as an immediate action, and grants a d20 reroll where the better result is kept. The downside is the spell's recipient rolls twice and takes the lower value for every roll over the next two rounds afterwards.
You could also buff allies with Divine Favour or Righteous Might this way. Grace is another personal spell that is a swift action cast, and with the above nonsense it can let allies get into or out of a tight spot.
There's the teamwork feat Take The Hit (which requires Bonded Mind), which allows you to - get this - take the hit for an ally, making "Nick" eat half the attack's damage. This would require giving allies "Nick's" teamwork feats via Shared Training again. Course there is the Shield Other spell, which just does the same thing all the time.
There's also Combat Reflexes and Bodyguard, which again can be optimized with giving allies teamwork feats like Harrying Partners via the Shared Training spell. Boost the bonus given by Aid Another and give "Nick" high DEX to hand out AC boosts whenever needed.
The human racial Defiant Luck / Inexplicable Luck feat chain and Heroic Will feat would allow "Nick" a decent amount of rerolls every day.
A Life Oracle with channel energy can take Quick Channel and then Reactive Healing, it's self-only but can stop "Nick" from getting downed. There's also the Pharasma feat Fateful Channel, giving allies affected by channel a single reroll of their choice. Or the Apsu feat Divine Barrier, which could prevent a ton of damage to "Nick" and the party from an AOE blast.
Hold Person can be flavoured as "Nick" stopping time for the target(s).
You could also have "Nick" use their action economy for counterspells, and flavour it as "Nick" reversing time on the spellcaster to undo their spell. The Improved Counterspell feat could work really well here, since oracles are limited in the spells they know. Dispel Magic can also be used, but it requires a caster level check.
I dunno, I'm really reaching. Sounds like a fun concept but I think it's gonna mostly come down to how you flavour it in describing "Nick's" activities. Hope this gives ideas.
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u/Elliptical_Tangent Your right to RP stops where it infringes on another player's RP 19h ago
The Misfortune Hex, available to any Dual-Cursed Oracle, is amazing party support. Someone failed a save? Misfortune gives a re-roll once per day as an interrupt. Attacking enemy rolled a 20? Misfortune.