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Paladins do really well in this campaign and will work great with your part. Iomedae is a huge part so playing a paladin further increases you importance in the game.
Play a paladin of Vengeance, take fey founding, where low are and have an 18 charisma. At higher levels take greater mercy and ultimate mercy.
All you will need is a greatsword and power attack. Take extra LoH a bit and you will be unkillable. Especially after level 4.
Take shield other to absorb damage for the party and after that use Heavy armor. You will get amazing and powerful armors.
With mythic get a legendary sword and be a gaudian. Great damage and protect allies. At higher teir take Dual Path to also be a champion and ramp up damage any more.
Kill, heal, repeat.
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I don't envy you. Have you talked to your GM about your concerns?
You've picked the right class, though - not just to keep your friends alive but also because that AP is full of smiteables. It's also a good class for rallying the monk and ranger.
Build wise I would consider a reach weapon in order to control more space and prevent enemies from getting to your party members. Even without combat reflexes you get one extra attack on enemies moving past you and that can be enough to drop them before they can hit your allies (or, for that matter, you).
There are also paladin spells like Paladin's Sacrifice and Shield Other that allow you to take damage for your party. In fact, you might look into a oradin build.
rolling for HP at level 1
That's a terrible idea, especially for beginners. It's too easy to get a supposed frontliner with 5 starting HP or fewer, which would make it impossible to do their job - and would justify the cowardice you described. Combat is risky enough at low levels.
Human paladin, Power Attack and Fey Foundling at first.
Otherwise, maybe an inquisitor or reach cleric?
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I will recommend Druid, Hunter, or Oracle(Moon). So you can get animal companion to pull some of the melee damage from your character. If you lose the animal companion it dose hurt but not nearly as much as losing a character.
My suggestion is what I made for soloing Giantslayer AP. He has preformed better then expected.
Human
Hunter
Str 17
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 8
Human Race Trait: Eye for Talent (+2Str, or Dex)
Feet
1: Improved Initiative
Animal Companion: I suggest the bear for pure damage. Cat only if you feel the defense is worth the trade off.
Bear: has one of the highest base Str. With animal focus and Eye for Talent the bear can start with Str 19. Giving it three attacks at +5 to hit and +4 damage. At level 4 my hunters bear is +9 to hit, and +9 damage.
Small Cat: has one of the highest base Dex. With animal focus and Eye for talent it starts with a Dex 25. With weapon finesses you have three attacks at +8 to hit and +1 damage + trip. Along with a starting AC Base 10 Natural 1 Dex Mod 7 Size 1 = 19. If you leave it small size at level 4 it will end up with a Dex 28, and AC 23.
The most common mistake for a paladin is to put too much into CHA. STR should be your highest stat, then CHA. Also consider using a falchion for your weapon. As a paladin power attacking with a two handed weapon you want a high critical hit range over a high multiplier. With the scythe you may occasionally get huge damage, but for the most part most of it will be wasted. Doing 80 points over what you need to kill something is not any better than killing it by a single point.
Rich Parents is a trap. Don’t waste a trait on something that is only going to be useful at first level. Take something that will give you a benefit at every level. Armor expert is good for a paladin help with skills like climb, swim or acrobatics. Or if you are worried about your will save Indomitable Faith gives you a +1 will save.
Skip the shield and go the masochist paladin routine. The whole idea behind the masochistic paladin is keep your AC moderately low so that the enemy has a chance to hit you. Then use your lay on hands as a swift action to heal yourself. You want your AC to be low enough that the first attack has a chance to hit you, but latter attacks miss. If your AC is too high the enemy may just not bother attack you. Fey Foundling, Greater Mercy and Extra Lay on Hands help with this.
When you get spells consider bless weapon. It automatically confirms critical threats vs. evil targets. It does not work with Keen or other magical effects, but does work with improved critical. If you use a falchion and have improved critical you will critical on a 15 or better when attack an evil target if you have bless weapon up.
Lawful Good, doesn't mean you can't be a snooty noble looking down at the lesser mortals who you've allowed to carry your baggage. You just have to respect their lives, and demand they respect your title. :-)
I Think playing lawful obnoxious is a bad Way to swing as a paladin with a new group.
And to the OP. A evangalist cleric with a reach weapon is a good alternative to paladin. And so is a Warpriest. Both have more spell support and you Can sidestep the LG that you dont seem to like. I would go for the reach cleric since he is somthing like the Best support character in the game. Fun from level one and effective all the Way. Dont optimize too much since the others are new and you dont want them to leave:)
Human or halforc(sacred tattoes) combat reflexes at level 1. And Fates favored and seeker or reactionary as traits. Have a long spear.
STR 14+2
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 14
Cha 12
Stat gains in str.
Mythic Will allow you to get insane stats along the way.
Perception maxed. As domain heroism is good and so is growth and several others.
This character Will have strong melee precence, both as support and as damage and area control.
These are all EXTREMELY helpful points. Exactly what I was looking for. Are we sure about the weapon, though? I thought the same thing, but based on all the discussions I read, eventually leading to some number-crunched list of weapons in terms of DPS, Scythe was on top behind some Exotic weapon. I really like your ideas about the AC...The most common mistake for a paladin is to put too much into CHA. STR should be your highest stat, then CHA. Also consider using a falchion for your weapon. As a paladin power attacking with a two handed weapon you want a high critical hit range over a high multiplier. With the scythe you may occasionally get huge damage, but for the most part most of it will be wasted. Doing 80 points over what you need to kill something is not any better than killing it by a single point.
Rich Parents is a trap. Don’t waste a trait on something that is only going to be useful at first level. Take something that will give you a benefit at every level. Armor expert is good for a paladin help with skills like climb, swim or acrobatics. Or if you are worried about your will save Indomitable Faith gives you a +1 will save.
Skip the shield and go the masochist paladin routine. The whole idea behind the masochistic paladin is keep your AC moderately low so that the enemy has a chance to hit you. Then use your lay on hands as a swift action to heal yourself. You want your AC to be low enough that the first attack has a chance to hit you, but latter attacks miss. If your AC is too high the enemy may just not bother attack you. Fey Foundling, Greater Mercy and Extra Lay on Hands help with this.
When you get spells consider bless weapon. It automatically confirms critical threats vs. evil targets. It does not work with Keen or other magical effects, but does work with improved critical. If you use a falchion and have improved critical you will critical on a 15 or better when attack an evil target if you have bless weapon up.
I am very sure on the weapon. The point is kill the enemy, not to do massive damage. The Scythe has the potential for more damage, but rarely actually does. You actually do more damage per round on the average with a high critical range. Assuming a 30% chance to hit and power attack the scythe does 7 points of damage per round, to the 8.4 for the falchion at first level. The Scythe has a maximum potential damage of 68 vs. 34 for the falchion. What are you fighting at first level that you need to do 68 points of damage? When you actually do manage to land a critical hit with the scythe chances are it is going to be on something that does not have the HP anyways.
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Stabbing Shot doesn't prevent you from provoking AoO, so if you're surrounded by multiple enemies you're in trouble. And even then you don't qualify until for the feat until at least 5th level.
Paladins make great archers, but archers make poor frontliners.
I've thought about a reach weapon and decided against it. If I'm correct, they can't attack creatures that are close to them, and I couldn't find a way around that so I'd rather just stick with the Scythe for it's critical damage.
You can't attack adjacent enemies with a reach weapon but it's usually not a big deal because you can 5ft step before attacking. Pushing Assault can also help keep people at the right range. And if you wear a gauntlet or spiked armour you can attack at close range (adjacent) in a pinch. Check the boards for "reach cleric tactics."
The naginata also has a x4 critical modifier if you're keen on that, though the bardiche is also a great option with a 19-20 crit range (I would agree with Mysterious Stranger that x4 is often overkill).
Keep in mind as a paladin you don't have to narrow down your style too much in the first few levels - Power Attack works just as well for a scythe as a falchion as a bardiche. You can carry around multiple weapons until you figure out what you like and start investing in more specific feats and weapon enhancements.
The most common mistake for a paladin is to put too much into CHA. STR should be your highest stat, then CHA.
Even for Wrath of the Righteous? I would expect the reliability of Smite Evil to make CHA somewhat more valuable than the average AP.
Smite evil only works vs a single target, and you only have so many per day. As such it works great vs the BBEG, but is useless against lots of smaller evil creatures. Look at it this way 2 points of CHA gives you a +1 to hit a limited number of times per day. 2 points of STR gives you +1 to hit and at least +1 to damage all day. If your STR bonus ends up being even that extra STR is actually giving you +2 to damage when using a two handed weapon. When using smite evil your chance to hit is the same, but you do less damage. When you are not using smite evil you have a harder time hitting and still do less damage. The damage from smite evil comes being able to bypass all DR and adding your level to damage, not from CHA.
Smite evil only works vs a single target, and you only have so many per day. As such it works great vs the BBEG, but is useless against lots of smaller evil creatures. Look at it this way 2 points of CHA gives you a +1 to hit a limited number of times per day. 2 points of STR gives you +1 to hit and at least +1 to damage all day. If your STR bonus ends up being even that extra STR is actually giving you +2 to damage when using a two handed weapon. When using smite evil your chance to hit is the same, but you do less damage. When you are not using smite evil you have a harder time hitting and still do less damage. The damage from smite evil comes being able to bypass all DR and adding your level to damage, not from CHA.
oath of vengence can swap some lay of hands for more smites.
But i'm going to suggest cleric/oracle, tank by preventing people from dying and buffing then close in for melee. take the travel domain for the speed boost and maybe get heavy armor proficiency so you can "dump"(leave at 10) dexterity. Channel to heal in out of combat, in combat try to be a bad touch cleric and lay on the pain(in which case it doesn't matter what your weapon is for the most part).