I'd drop both Paladin and Holy Vindicator and go straight Life Oracle. Holy Vindicator because it seems kinda bad and you're only taking it because you want to scale your Channel Energy and Spells, and Paladin because you aren't staying in it enough to really get much healer benefit besides a level cleric's level 1 channel and a 2d6 lay on hands that can only remove one condition.
You'll do more to keep the party in good health by having higher level spells to end fights sooner, and if it comes to the point where you need to be an incombat healer Life Oracle has some cool tricks there. I'd also recommend the Dual Cursed archetype just for the Misfortune revelation alone; it's incredibly useful, though taking the archetype would mean that you would have to pick up lesser restoration as one of your spells known instead of getting it free.
Between life link, quicken channel with selective channel, and combat healer it is almost impossible to die. Also doing 3 things per turn is impressive, and I do recommend Burned hands for a curse.
Lay on hands won't scale so it'll be worthless before too long. Also here's theBlackened curse (Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Angels) Caimbuel was referring to.
I might consider just 2 levels of paladin if you are also planning to melee much. Heavy armor, martial weapons, and a huge boost to your saves.
Otherwise, yeah just straight life oracle means you can nova heal a monstrous number of hitpoints.
Holy vindicator isn't bad at all. Though you have to take the alignment channel or elemental channel feats. But they are sometimes very useful depending upon your campaign.
Remember the vindicators shield only works until you get hit once. But if you don't have another use for all you channels, it can be good.
I'm not sure if I would try to do both paladin 2 and the holy vindicator unless you are going for a primary melee build. They will both slow down your revelations and spell casting.
If you want to be a boss at healing, go straight Life Oracle.
The problem with going Life Oracle, however, is that there isn't much else you'll be able to contribute to a combat aside from healing and a few buff spells. To that end, even though the Holy Vindicator route isn't as strong at healing, but as you note it is still not a bad route to go.
Here are some notes:
A) Channel Energy levels from multiple classes do not stack, so going Life Oracle and taking Channel Energy is a waste of time.
B) If you go Hospitaler Paladin, you'll ultimately be about 4 levels behind a Cleric of your level in terms of your Channel Energy potency. The advantage to this, however, is that you will have a strong pool of Channel Energy and Lay on Hands to work with.
C) Despite being weak because you are not gaining Paladin levels, Lay on Hands is the most supported class ability in the game. Tons of feats and magic items will make you amazing at using Lay on Hands even without levels of Paladin. Here are the big Players:
Greater Mercy is a must-have feat.
Bracers of the Merciful Knight are also your best friend. They'll help ease the pain of your multiclassing a little bit.
Phylactery of Positive Channeling will effectively bridge that gap I mention between you and full-level clerics.
Using your build above, at 10th level you'll have Lay on Hands as an 8th level Paladin and you'll have Channel Energy as a 9th level Cleric, meaning that you'll always be one level behind an actual cleric in terms of when you add a new die of channel energy, which is much, much better.
C) Take the Warrior of the Shining Light archetype. Since you are going to be using the the Holy Vindicator to pump your Oracle spellcasting, the paladin spellcasting isn't going to be much use to you. If you take Warrior of the Shining Light, you can trade the one or two spell slots you would have gotten from the Paladin class for an extra use of Lay on Hands and the ability to spend 1 Lay on Hands to give your allies a morale bonus. The morale bonus is forgettable, but since you're not going to grab any more levels of paladin, the extra lay on hands is arguably more useful than paladin spellcasting. Bonus points if you take the Samsaran race and grab all of the cool, useful spells from the paladin spell list and add them to the oracle spell list.
D) I would personally grab the Nature Mystery so I could use my Charisma instead of my Dexterity on Reflex saves and AC, but going Oracle of Life to focus more on healing is not a bad idea. In terms of Revelations, I would take either Life Link or Safe Curing first and eventually grab Enhanced Cures around level 10. Don't forget that you can take the Extra Revelation feat, and if you want to go gung-ho healer, this isn't a bad option to take. Since you are taking three levels of Oracle, you will be able to protect your entire party at once with Life Link. Another option you might want to consider is grabbing the Dual-Cursed archetype for the Oracle. You are focused to take two curses (I recommend Tongues - Celestial for the one that never improves because its a pretty forgettable penalty) and you give up the Life Mystery's bonus skills. In exchange, you get an extra revelation at 3rd level and 7th level and gain access to two of the best revelations an Oracle can take. Even if you don't grab the rerolling Revelations, getting a free revelation at 3rd level, the last level of oracle that you plan on taking, is nice. It means you could take both Safe Curing and Life Link without needing to blow any feats on Extra Revelation.
I will have to check, but I believe the holy vindicator specifically says its channeling does stack.
Samsarans have an optional race ability that lets you add a few spells from another class.
|
with the samsarans getting the cool stuff from pally to oracle... what do you mean with that / how are you on about doing it?
On a side note, 'get off my lawn' kind of tangent ... good lord please stop saying 'pally' instead of paladin!!!! That has got to be one of my top ten forum pet peaves!
Grrrr!!!
|
I would recommend going strait life oracle for the heals and carrying a Longspear for to do Aid Another buffs in combat if you don't have something else to do. Raise strength as a secondary stat if you want to do damage occasionally. The Holy Vindicator levels are only worth it if you are going to be in melee. The remarkable AC can be gained through spells (shield of faith comes to mind). I'm told that Fey Foundling is a must have feat for life link oracles. If you plan on being a heavy melee (like primary DPS, Tank or Caster Bodyguard), try going like Alexander Auganas suggested. Still, if you single-class Oracle, you get better spells, better heals, and your curse gets full progression. As a race, if you ever think you will get 3rd level spells, Half-Elves have the best racial spell ever, Paragon Surge(in the APG). You get a +2 Dex/Int (which is best if you have nothing to boost Int/Dex, for the +1 skill rank/level and the +1 init and AC), and best of all, any 1 feat you can take. Still, straight life oracle can make a melee build about as well as a healing focused cleric with melee as a secondary aspect.