As a Newb GM with a party of Newb Players, none of whom desire to fill the role of cleric, it has been suggested to me that I find some other way to provide my party with healin'. One such suggestion was an NPC pacifist that follows the party around and only drops the heals, more commonly known as a "Heal-bot".
That's a fun term. Let's take it literally.
Does Pathfinder have any variant rules for creating (for lack of a better term) a Warforged-style race? I can obviously skin anything however I like, but I figured I'd ask everybody first. Maybe there's a company that specializes in providing literal heal-bots: they could be like Marvin the Paranoid Android ("You'll probably just leave me to die") or C-3PO ("Oh, no: goblins! The odds of us surviving this encounter are flurbiddy-durbbidy-zillion to one!"), and you provide a security deposit that you don't get back if the thing is too damaged, or if you don't pay for it they send enforcers after you! Plot hooks!
So: how would YOU build a Heal-bot?
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I'm willing to guess at least one of them can heal right now. What classes are they? Close to half the class get cure spells. If there Newb players and GM it can be a bit to understanding how things work. If you want to give them a easy start let them have a wand of cure light wounds. This will make them able to take on more encounters per day / rest then normal so you might need or want to put in a few more encounters until they start level to 3. I really don't suggest ruining a main npc for a new gm. It is very hard to do as a exp gm because there is so much going on that you need to do.
Hmm... well, you're the GM. If the players are really hooked on the idea of an NPC healbot, then just roll with it. If you can't find any rules on constructs, then just make it some normal race and describe it as a robot with all the traits of that race. A little fluff text (text that is purely descriptive) goes a long way.
If they're just tossing the healbot idea around, there are other options. Maybe an NPC cleric who preaches as he heals, or one with some secret agenda. Or something else crazy, like: (Story time!)
Back in middle school, in one of my first D&D campaigns with my middle-school friends, the GM decided to make this giant mud monster that we fought a bit. However, he kept making up uses for the mud: You could light it on fire, mix it with water for a healing potion, spread it on the ground as a grease spell, etc. We kept making trips back to the mud monster to refill our flasks to do more crazy stuff with it. There weren't any premade game stats for the mud monster, the GM just made it up as he went along. Then again, we were all middle-schoolers, so it was a bit sillier than I'd run it now...
So you could make a magic healing fountain that the players could revisit occasionally to stock up on healing potions, or have a fairy or angelic patron show up every night just after sunset to give advice and heal wounds. Or something.
Of course, a skilled party doesn't need a healer, as long as they work together well enough to not take much damage in the first place. But that does take some skill, so it's not for beginners...
This core idea is very easy to abuse, but keep it in the back of your mind: Just because it isn't in the rulebook, doesn't mean you can't do it. Don't run too far with this, but use it when you need it.
Why am I getting this vision of those robotic bears from the Thundercats cartoon?
