So my group is having a weekend long dwarf campaign starting at 8th lvl.
I would like to run a healer type (i would be ok with not doing any damage at all) and party buff bot.
We will probably get to lvl 11 or 12, I have never built a caster before so I am looking for advice
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Life Oracles are really good, but sadly the Dwarvish -2 to Cha is not going to be helping an oracle.
First, understand that in most cases, you will not be able to heal people faster than enemies can damage them. Strategically speaking, you're almost always better off simply trying to kill the enemy faster.
...That being said, a healer is definitely an option. Here's what I'd do, though: be a cleric of Sarenrae or Pharasma with the Healing domain (plus another domain of your choice). Grab a longspear, give yourself at least 14 dex and 16 str, and take Combat Reflexes as your level 1 feat. Now, you can walk up to your friends to heal and buff, and if anyone tries to come up and attack, you'll get an attack of opportunity. This is called the "reach cleric" strategy.
You'll probably want Power Attack at level 3, but Heavy Armor Proficiency or the Bodyguard/In Harm's Way chain are both viable options. Metamagic or crafting feats are also good, as is Improved Initiative, since you don't get your attacks of opportunity if the enemy moves first. I would advise against Improved Trip, because if your enemy is Large or bigger their CMB will be too high for you, and if they are medium or smaller you can try a trip attempt without provoking anyway.
If you like to cast spells that affect enemies directly, Wisdom is your most important score, because it makes the DCs on your spells higher. Thus, enemies have to roll better on their saves or suffer your spells. However, if you mostly just cast buffs, then strength will be your most important score, since that way you will hit more often and harder, forcing enemies to pay attention to you (and thus not attacking your friends).
Remember: the best way to heal is to stop the damage from happening in the first place. Good luck!
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Starting at 8, going to 12, and you're a dwarf? Sounds evangalist to me.
Take glory domain.
In 1 round, you can:
*Swift action radiate an "aura of glory" (heroism for everyone, +2 to hit, saves, skills).
*Move action start bardic performance (+2 to hit, +2 damage)
*Standard action cast the buff of your choice (Prayer)
So at the end of this, all allies are +5 to hit, +2 damage, +3 saves; all enemies are -1 to hit -1 saves. You probably also dropped out some magic weapons (which last a full adventuring day) on some allies, so they have +2 weapons floating around now; and you can heroism 1 ally with your domain spell so the heroism sticks around for 80 minutes.
And you can channel (albeit only decently) and cast a few healing spells here and there. Have a few buffing wands available too.
Dwarf Buff-o-matic (Evangalist 8 glory domain), 20 point build
Str: 7
Int: 12
Wis: 20
Dex: 12
Con: 16
Chr: 12
Toss on something to increase your wis and some random buffing magic items for the party, along with some wands.
If you are up for something a little different, a Chirurgeon Alchemist might be pretty fun. I'm playing a healing cleric myself, and this is the backup character I have just in case.
You prepare healing infusions, so you don't have to spend any actions, theoretically, for healing allies. Take the infusion discovery, and you have some nice personal range buffs they can use as well.
Starting at Lvl 8, you can have fast bombs as well as a few bomb discoveries so while your allies are chugging your extracts, you are obliterating enemies!
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Starting at 8, going to 12, and you're a dwarf? Sounds evangalist to me.
Take glory domain.
In 1 round, you can:
*Swift action radiate an "aura of glory" (heroism for everyone, +2 to hit, saves, skills).
*Move action start bardic performance (+2 to hit, +2 damage)
*Standard action cast the buff of your choice (Prayer)So at the end of this, all allies are +5 to hit, +2 damage, +3 saves; all enemies are -1 to hit -1 saves. You probably also dropped out some magic weapons (which last a full adventuring day) on some allies, so they have +2 weapons floating around now; and you can heroism 1 ally with your domain spell so the heroism sticks around for 80 minutes.
And you can channel (albeit only decently) and cast a few healing spells here and there. Have a few buffing wands available too.
Dwarf Buff-o-matic (Evangalist 8 glory domain), 20 point build
Str: 7
Int: 12
Wis: 20
Dex: 12
Con: 16
Chr: 12Toss on something to increase your wis and some random buffing magic items for the party, along with some wands.
"And I say unto thee that by Iomedae's righteous hand and divine might that we shall overcome the hordes of vileness and evil. We shall be the justice meted out bravely with the surety of the goodly people and we shall cast out the darkness and cleanse the lands of the cowardly who rule by injustice and deceit. Whoa unto them I say for they shall be judged as they have judged and their punishment shall be just and true!!!"
tagline.
Ever thought of merciful healer archetype for cleric? We have one in the party, and even we are 6th level, so a bit lower than your starting level, he at now auto empower healing spell, doesn't provoke when cast healing, and channel can either remove a condition as for paladin mercy or if he don't remove, his channel heal as a cleric 2 level above. With a bit of luck in rolling his 3d8 cure wounds, he can heal almost all the damage. And the high channel saves him a lot of spells that he doesn't need to convert.
If you don't plan to deal damage, you can wear heavy armor and use a tower shield without proficiency in either. Non-proficiency only gives you a penalty to your attack, which you don't care about as a pure caster cleric.
As a healer you don't need to match the damage output of the opponents, your healing buys the group more rounds of combat. Say the big bad guy is hitting the tank for 30 damage a round and the tank has 80 hp. With no healing, the tank goes down in 3 rounds. If you can heal 15 damage a round for 4 rounds, it takes 5 rounds to drop the tank, buying 2 more rounds of actions for the group before the tank goes down. So, in a group of 4, your 4 actions buy the group 6 actions and keep the tank alive a bit longer. This is a simplified example, but with strategic healing, you can keep people alive and gain net action advantage for the group.
Some people say you don't need healing until after the fight, but if encounters are that easy, it won't matter if you are not doing damage as the others in the group can handle it.
If you don't plan to deal damage, you can wear heavy armor and use a tower shield without proficiency in either. Non-proficiency only gives you a penalty to your attack, which you don't care about as a pure caster cleric.
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I am sorry if i sound rude, but this is horrible advice. You will get in to situations where having -13 to hit in mithril gear is gonna stink.
I also question the Wisdom of the rest of the post but this was the most important.
I am sorry if i sound rude, but this is horrible advice. You will get in to situations where having -13 to hit in mithril gear is gonna stink.If you don't plan to deal damage, you can wear heavy armor and use a tower shield without proficiency in either. Non-proficiency only gives you a penalty to your attack, which you don't care about as a pure caster cleric.
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This works because the character starts at level 8 and will have plenty of spells to cast. They could have -30 to attack, and not be bothered by that in the least, because they are busy casting spells not swinging a mace. The OP didn't want to make a melee cleric, they wanted to make a healer/caster cleric. Low level clerics need to be viable in combat for when they run out of spells. It takes a while for high level clerics to run out of spells, and when they do, the group needs to rest.
Obviously, everyone can make their own choices about what is good or bad for the character they want to play. I was just giving an idea that I thought would help, and the OP can choose whether or not to use it. If you can explain why an extra +5 AC without the normal feat expenditure is bad, it may help the OP decide in your favor. For example, one drawback is that touch attack spells will not be viable, but spells like Spiritual Weapon will still work fine.
Another idea for the caster cleric, get the Scribe Scroll feat, so you have the right condition removal spell at all times. Memorizing Remove Paralysis is usually a poor choice, but having it on a scroll or two can save the party when it comes up at some point.
As a dedicated healer, I second the Life Oracle, eventhough the racial penalty to cha hurts.
You want to have as high con as possible, and here the dwarf, works just fine.
Basically, effective healing is about maximizing healing output. For your channels, spreading damage around, primarily through Shield Other, works like a charm. Your 6d6 channel energy (with a phylactery) is going to be very nice when spread around on several allies.
Since your spell DCs is going to be a bit low through a low Cha, you should primarily use spells that don't require saves. But buffs, some controls spells, and the odd ranged touch attack should work just fine.
Well depending on other players a Life shaman with the wandering spirit of Lore would be a great healer. Also using the lore arcane hex of Arcane Enlightenment would add sorc/wiz spells for more buffs up to CHA mod.
For straight up healing in those levels a Life oracle can not be beat. For buffs an evangelist cleric does take the lead. For new and uniqueness I would try the shaman tho, as you can change up your wandering spirit daily to fit whats ahead, and you do have a familiar for stat bonus and RP/scouting/other uses.
YMMV
-2 to Cha isn't a problem for an Oracle that only needs spells to heal and buff.
Life Oracle with Life Link and Shield Other will work great for a Dwarf with his +2 bonus in Con.