We have a a greatsword-wielding Oath of Vengeance tank paladin (me), a buffing bard (our only healer, good ol' wand of cure light wounds), a ranged ranger/rogue who will eventually become an arcane archer, a ranged ranger, a fighter/rogue and a druid soon joining us.
If one of the party dies, I think the full ranger and the bard are the squishiest, and I'm finding it very difficult to protect and Lay on Hands everyone while trying to protect myself in combat, what class do you think would be a good fit? Obviously people should play what they want to, but if they need advice or suggestions what do you think would help improve the party as a whole? We are currently all level 5. :)
I thought maybe a holy vindicator, as we'd get healing and an extra sword in melee. Related, does a life oracle's channel energy revelation count as a class feature for meeting the holy vindicator's prerequisites?
Without reading your post:Slayer. The most unsolicited advice people are constantly giving around here.
Why not an actual healer instead of another fighter? Before the ACG came out it was the Battle oracle, maybe a cleric or now the Warpriest.
Yeah at level 5 you don't really need a dedicated healer. Until you get Breath of Life and Heal, it's not really worth it while 90% of the time.
A full Arcane caster is probably what you are looking for.
You seem to lack in both battlefield control and some additional healing potential, but be fine in raw combat ability. To that end, I recommend a Witch, an Arcanist with the Unlettered Arcanist or White Mage archetypes, or perhaps a Shaman. All of them are pure casters with access to some of the better battlefield control/buff spells, while having enough clutch/out of combat healing potential to ease the strain on the paladin/bard.
My vote would be for a witch with the ancestor patron. Lots of versatility and debuffs are going to be super efficient with all of your fighter types swinging away. Ancestor gets you blessing of fervor.
I've seen a million of these threads. Not knocking you for making one, just sayin'.
The truth is that the answers you'll get around here are gonna tell you a lot more about the respondent than they will about the game of pathfinder. It's a lot like a Rorschach inkblot test where one guy sees a butterfly and another sees a vagina.
Part of why 3.X is such an interesting game is that for the most part any role (damage dealer, tank, buffer, etc.) is useful in any party.
You seem to lack in both battlefield control and some additional healing potential, but be fine in raw combat ability. To that end, I recommend a Witch, an Arcanist with the Unlettered Arcanist or White Mage archetypes, or perhaps a Shaman. All of them are pure casters with access to some of the better battlefield control/buff spells, while having enough clutch/out of combat healing potential to ease the strain on the paladin/bard.
I agree with all of this. Normally, I recommend witch for a party like this, but I'd be really interested to see how the White Mage Arcanist would do here.
I will vote for the Witch: you lack a full arcane caster and a healer, and the witch can do both.