Thoughts on this homebrew Oracle Curse?

ryanmiaku

I was brainstorming an Oracle character, one whose devoutly religious to an extreme, and got to thinking about a suitable curse and decided to homebrew one based off the concept of Stigmata. I was wanting some thoughts and feedback on it. The spells I chose were loosely based off ideas of the miracles Jesus Christ performed.

Stigmata

Your body bears the markings of a martyr of your faith. Your hands, chest, forehead, and feet have scabbed over wounds that never heal and occasionally bleed.

Effect

Due to the difficulty brought on by your wounds, you take a -6 to attack rolls and AC, but gain access to Enhance Water and Create Food and Water

At 5th level the penalty is lowered to -5 and you gain access to Stabilize and Celestial Healing

At 10th level the penalty is lowered to -3 and you gain access to Blood of the Martyr

At 15th level the penalty is lowered to -2 and you gain access to Water Walk and Sacred Bond

beardsecond

Interesting concept. I think mechanically the -6 to Attack and AC is way too punishing, though. A character starting with -6 AC will never survive level 1. I would make it a -1 to AC at level 1 (and get rid of the Attack penalty), plus a -2 to all Diplomacy checks, except to other members of his/her religion, which becomes a +2. The Diplomacy penalty never goes away, but the AC penalty goes to 0 at level 5 and becomes +1 at level 10 and +2 at level 15. (You could say the scabs begin to harden and become stronger than iron or something.) Most Curses in the book are more beneficial than harmful by the time you get to level 10. And at level 10 an extra 2 to AC on an Oracle isn't going to be that unbalancing. You should probably also have something cool and blood-themed kick in around level 10. Maybe:

• At 10th level your blood is infused with holy energy. Whenever you are hit by a natural attack which deals slashing or piercing damage, the attacker takes 1d4 fire damage from the holy power within. This increases to 1d6 at level 15.