Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Daeran Build Guide

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous gives you a lot of access to healing spells and companions who can cast them. I guess it makes sense since the plot of the game involves a crusade against demons. There are four companions alone who come pre-equipped with cure spells, but arguably the most important of the bunch would be the snobby, amoral, and incredibly charismatic Aasimar, Daeran. 

Daeran is without a doubt the best healer in Wrath of the Righteous, so with this build guide, were going to go over how you should build him as such for your own playthroughs. 

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Daeran Guide - Recruiting Daeran 

Daeran is pretty easy to recruit but can be missable if you are not careful. You simply need to go to the Kenabres market square ruins, near the church of Desna. There, an emissary from Daeran’s house will show up looking for help. Agree to help him, and a location on your world map will open up the Arendae Party House.

Simply go to the house and meet Daeran and his party guests, and fight off some Demons who crash the party. After that, simply talk to Daeran, and you will eventually be given the option to recruit him. Note that the Arendae Party House is also where you will find Aranka for the Azata Mythic Path. For full details on that, check out the Mythic Path guide. 

After that, Daeran will be an interesting companion to bring along. He is basically a very sassy character who seems spoiled and doesn’t really care about anything. He also is tied to a weird quirk in the game where a severed head will randomly show up in your inventory from time to time, which is directly tied to his backstory...though saying more will be massive spoilers. Suffice to say, he is a walking contradiction.

Daeran Stats and Skills

Race: Aasimar (Musetouched, +2 DEX, +2 CHA)
STR: 7
DEX: 16
CON: 13
INT: 11
WIS: 14
CHA: 20

Class: Oracle 3 (Mystery = Life, Curse = Powerless Prophecy)
Background: Emissary
Taken Feats: Selective Chanelling, Extra Channel.
Tagged Skills: Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (World), Lore (Nature), Lore (Religion), Persuasion

Daeran is a healing machine, with full access to multiple healing spells thanks to his Life Mystery, tons of channelling for healing thanks to high CHA and Extra Channel, and multiple spells per day that are offered for full support. The Life Mystery on him for his Oracle class, combined with his Musetouched Aasimar bloodline, is as perfect as you get. 

His stats also allow Daeran to be incredibly useful for Persuasion checks, as his incredibly high Charisma can give a +20 to the skill by the time reach level 10. 

In truth, Daeran is easily the best healer in the game simply because he is the most consistent healer you can get. Camellia, Ember, Seelah, and Sosiel can all do so as well, but are better suited in other roles for the party with healing being a secondary option. Stick Daeran in the back and let him go to town supporting the party basically. 

The fun part is Daeran can do more than just heal you up (which you will need in Wrath of the Righteous). Daeran has access to some pretty powerful cleric spells, but he also gets a few attack spells to boot, such as Arrow of Law, and Holy Smite, all of which give him a bit of an offensive presence when you need it. Outside of attacking and healing, multiple support spells to buff the party are at his disposal. 

Daeran’s biggest weakness is his lower CON and STR scores, which limit him to be in the back of the party despite some interesting tools that can turn him into a frontline fighter if you wanted. I wouldn’t recommend this, but it is possible to give him Weapon Finesse and let him use Rapiers and Bucklers, which he is proficient with thanks to his Emmisary background, but he is frankly better suited in the backcasting up a storm and occasionally picking off an enemy with a crossbow bolt or an evocation spell.

He also has one other weakness, and that is his Oracle weakness from his Powerless Prophecy effect, where Daeran is automatically staggered for the first round of any encounter. The Powerless Prophecy effect can be mitigated by the time you get to higher levels though. It also comes with a great boon for Daeran; Uncanny Dodge, which means Daeran is never flat-footed at the start of an encounter. 

Support Oracle Build

A full 20 levels in Oracle is really is the only build you need for Daeran, though you can experiment wildly with him if you like. For this build, you want to pump up his CHA score primarily, with maybe an ability score point in CON for extra survivability. Skills should almost all be invested in Persuasion, making Daeran one of the best choices for dialogue choices while he is in the party. Definitely pump up his Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (World) as well. 

Equipment-wise, you should put sets of medium armor on Daeran since the armor does not affect his spell failure chance. There are a lot of equipment options for him; the only weapon to give him would be a crossbow, but that won’t last long as an option since you want Daeran to basically cast spells each turn. You want to give Daeran a solid medium armor that he can carry as well since he has low strength and low encumbrance. Mithril Breastplates tend to be a solid choice overall. A headband of alluring charisma should be on his head, and of course, any ring of protections or amulets of natural armor you have he should also get. 

Feats

Most of Daeran’s support build will focus on really three things, your choice of feats, your choice of spells, and your revelations tied to your Oracle class. If you are going to do full-on healing, buffing, and removing harmful conditions, a key choice for feats should be Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration, which increases your chances of overcoming a target spell resistance. This is great for removing debuffs on your party members or simply overcoming resistance when using offensive evocation attacks. Because of the high resistances of the demons, you will be fighting as well, it’s important to take Spell Penetration as soon as possible.

Another important feat to get is actually the Metamagic (Heighten) feat. Metamagic is a more advanced choice for magical attacks in Pathfinder, and I often recommend players to not try it out unless they know what they are doing.

For Metamagic (Heighten), what it does is increases your own spell level and spell DC, which basically means it has a better chance of harmful effects hitting your enemies. Metamagic (Heighten) basically makes it harder for enemies to avoid large attack spells like Holy Smite. For Wrath of the Righteous, Metamagic (Heighten) is the one metamagic Feat I would consider for every caster in the game. 

Outside of this, your feat choices can be anything you need. I do recommend standards like Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Dodge, but you would only need to select specific feats if you wanted Daeran to do other things. One to also consider is Spell Focus (Evocation), mostly for attack spells like Arrow of Law and Holy Smite. 

For Mythic feats, focus on abundant casting and enduring spells, both of which allow you to cast more, with their effects lasting longer. You should also take the Mythic version of spell penetration as well.

Lastly, you should consider a second mystery feat to get a second set of spells, skills, and revelations into your repertoire. A lot of builds argue for the Bones Mystery for this Mythic feat, mostly because it grants access to more survivability. It is one of the best choices out of the mysteries available. 

Spells

Healing spells are your real bread and butter, with Daeran getting eight-channel positive energy spells at level 3, which only gets bigger as he gains levels and more CHA. Since an Oracle is a spontaneous caster (think a Sorcerer who heals) your selection of spells is fairly limited. 

Daeran starts with 5 level 1 Oracle Spells, Bane, Bless, Cure Light Wounds, Remove Sickness, and Shield of Faith, all of these save for Bane will be incredibly useful for buffing the party. 

Some of the other spells that are a must to pick up (or given to Daeran for free due to his Life Mystery) are the following:

All Cure Wounds spells - Daeran can heal a lot with his Channel Positive Energy ability, but access to spells like Cure Moderate Wounds, Cure Critical Wounds and especially Cure Wounds, Mass, will make him have gobs of healing at your disposal, especially for longer, protracted fights. 

Protection from Alignment, Communal - Almost a must in Wrath of the Righteous, gives the entire party deflection and resistance bonuses and saves against the attacks of different enemies based on Alignment. 

Protection from Energy, Communal - Another one that will be very useful, especially in the later stages of Wrath of the Righteous. Provides immunity to a specific energy type of choice, so long as the attacking spell doesn’t exceed the amount of damage it can absorb. 

Restoration - Cures ability damage while restoring points to a corresponding ability score. It also removes any negative levels. Note that you need 2 Diamond Dusts to cast this, but they are a common ingredient you can stock up on. 

Breath of Life - A spell exclusive to Daeran due to the Life Oracle selection, basically an touch attack that heals 5d8+ caster level in HP, and if a creature is dead for two rounds or less, they are automatically revived.

Resurrection - Revives a fallen ally regardless of how long they are down, and they receive max HP with all of their prepared spells if they have any. Almost essential. 

Holy Aura - Gives all allies a deflection AC bonus and spell resistance against evil creatures specifically, which you will be facing a lot. 

Remove Blindness, Remove Disease, and Neutralize Poison - spells that will remove negative effects that can harm the party, all of which you will definitely run into throughout the game. 

Outside of the ones above, some of the offensive spells I would consider are:

Arrow of Law -  Probably one of your go-to attack spells, Arrow of Law will greatly harm Chaotic outsiders, like Demons, by doing damage and dazing them for one round if they fail a will save. It only does d6 damage at first (or d8 to non Chaotic outsiders) but that max can go as high as 10d6 against demons, and 5d8 against others as it levels up.

Holy Smite - Attacks Evil creatures specifically. Same damage as Arrow of Law (d8 up to 5d8 for non-Evil and d6 for Evil, up to 10d6) but instead it has the chance to blind an Evil outsider for a single round if they fail a will save. 

Revelations

Revelations are described as the following: At 1st level, 3rd level, and every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, and so on), an oracle uncovers a new secret about her mystery that grants her powers and abilities. The oracle must select a revelation from the list of revelations available to her mystery. If a revelation is chosen at a later level, the oracle gains all of the abilities and bonuses granted by that revelation based on her current level. Unless otherwise noted, activating the power of a revelation is a standard action. 

Unless otherwise noted, the DC to save against these revelations is equal to 10 + 1/2 the oracle's level + the oracle's Charisma modifier.

Daeran already starts with the first two revelations, Channel and Safe Curing.

Other choices he should get should be the following in this order: 

Combat Healer - This allows you to cast cure wounds spells as a swift action, allowing you to cast another spell in the same turn. You will be using two spell slots, but you will also be able to cast healing and another spell, say restoration or arrow of law, on the same turn. 

Enhanced Cures - Basically improves your healing spells, meaning the amount of HP you restore is now dependent on your current level versus the spell description. This adds a bonus +X to your healing spell, which by the time you reach the endgame will always be a +20. 

Spirit Boost - Bonus HP is given to Daeran if he over heals allies. It’s basically temporary HP to allow for some survivability.

Life Link - Life Link gives you the ability to ‘bond’ with a party ally, where each round at the start of your turn you heal the bonded ally by 5 HP, at the cost of 5 of your own HP. Especially useful in later stages of the game, providing supplemental healing in a pinch for a front-line character like Seelah or Regill. 

If you chose a second mystery with a mythic feat, you can pick another revelation instead. The reason the Bones mystery is recommended is due to the Armor of Bones revelation, which grants you a +4 Armor Bonus that increases by +2 every four levels after level 7, and DR 5/Bludgeoning. If you did pick the Bones Mystery, replace Life Link with Armor of Bones. 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Daeran is one of the best support options you can have in Wrath of the Righteous. His access to tons of healing and support spells, the few attack options he has sprinkled in, plus the fair amount of versatility of his casting abilities make him a must for higher levels of play. 

Now if he can only get past his nasty habit of leaving heads in your bag...