I want to make a healing paladin, one that life links his companions, but is still a viable combat supplement. Reading up on the Oradin, the Oracle Life Mystery is an option, as is the Life Spirit Shaman. While the Oracle would reduce the MAD, the thought of having a paladin who can Hex enemies and life link is enticing. Is the Life Shaman/Paladin build too MAD and thin as far as DCs? The race is Aasimar, and going total celestial build. Has anyone tried the Shamadin? Many thanks.
I played a super healing Paladin, but I was just a straight Hospitaler without multiclass. I took Fey Foundling, the Tiefling FCB, and Shield Other'd the other party members when I could. I tanked it up and with Quick Channel, I could heal three times per turn for absurd amounts (Standard to Channel, Move to Channel, Swift to LoH myself). Nothing could do enough damage to phase me. The GM actually asked me to never play a healer again (I had, in a previous game, caused him similar issues as a Life Oracle).
Just be aware that the shaman life spirit's life link ability is absolutely terrible compared to the life oracle's. It doesn't do anything at all until someone's hp falls below -5, well into dying. An oracle only has to wait until someone falls 5 below their max hp.
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The Shaman Life Spirit's life link sucks RAW. Talk to your GM, as it sure seems like an editorial error. A close reading shows that the editors probably did a copy-paste, then changed around the words a bit to make it not look like a copy-paste. In the process, they changed the RAW in a way that totally neutered the hex. I really doubt it was intentional. Ask your GM.
If the RAW holds, then Shaman Life Link is utter trash and never worth taking. If your GM quite reasonably rules the RAI is just like Oracle Life Link then you are fine.
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Yeah I agree with what they say on the Shaman Life link sucking.
An Oradin is a very nice thing. I'm not a fan of a dedicated band-aid but an Oradin still offers good combat especially when using reach tactics and his smite evil. Not to mention cutting the MADness of a wisdom class mixing with a paladin. If you get Silver Smite Bracelets you can easily be smiting near your full level. If you have never played one I suggest trying it out.
Personally I think the Oradin build is overkill, straight Hospitaler or Sacred Servant is enough HP healing for most groups. The one thing you do need is a wand of lesser restoration and of course the ubiquitous wand of cure light wounds.
I had a human paladin (15 point buy) that was super awesome at healing!
I think my stats were 14, 13 (14 at 4th), 12, 10, 10, 16 (+2 human).
1. Fey Foundling
1. Power Attack
3. Extra Lay on Hands
5. Mystic Healer (3rd party feat, adds extra dice to healing, scales with level. I think +1d4 at 1st, +1d6 at 4th, 2d6 at 7th, 3d6 at 10th, 4d6 at 13th, and 5d6 at 16th. Kind of powerful, but fun!)
At 5th or 6th level, my lay on hands did 4d6 (+8 to me).
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Personally I think the Oradin build is overkill, straight Hospitaler or Sacred Servant is enough HP healing for most groups. The one thing you do need is a wand of lesser restoration and of course the ubiquitous wand of cure light wounds.
The purpose of the Oradin isn't to heal more. In fact, it tends to heal less than those options you mention. The purpose is to improve action efficiency. An Oradin gets to fight on the front line and heal the party at the same time. Most other healer options need to spend an action to heal, which means they can't also be smashing faces.
if the shaman life link is incorrectly worded, did the 'powers that be' come out and rectify the intent of the life shaman life link? sounds like a stupid ability worded as is.
Sure life link is awesome at topping up everyone for zero in-combat actions, but how often does the whole party take significant damage? In most encounters I usually find that one or two people tend to take the brunt of the damage, and ideally you want your paladin to be one of them. You can make that happen by being in the enemies face doing enough damage to make them the #1 or #2 threat. If you take oracle levels you loose bab, smite and have slower access to LoH and paladin spells. Paladin's don't get many spells but the ones they do get are awesome.