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Christopher,
If you don't want to play a divine class, then don't. This is the time where you ask the GM, "Hey, can you drop healing wands so that we can do the healing out of combat? I have no inspiration for a healing character." Do this now. The time that he's most likely to change his mind is now, when he needs a new guy.
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That said... Oracles can be just about anything. Seriously, between the mysteries, archetypes, revelations and curses... it's a plastic class that you can build just about anything out of! Warpriests and Inquisitors are both huge combat monsters depending on how you build them. I've seen amazing examples of both in PFS. If you like bards, a fighty evangelist cleric could be fun if you use reach tactics with a spear.
Here's another suggestion, a bit off the beaten path, but it may work for your party. It looks like you have a bunch of dex-based people. Have you thought about being an Urban Skald who boosts dex when he sings?
Spell Kenning (Su): At 5th level, a skald is learned in the magic of other spellcasters, and can use his own magic to duplicate those classes’ spells. Once per day, a skald can cast any spell on the bard, cleric, or sorcerer/wizard spell list as if it were one of his skald spells known, expending a skald spell slot of the same spell level to cast the desired spell. Casting a spell with spell kenning always has a minimum casting time of 1 full round, regardless of the casting time of the spell.
At 11th level, a skald can use this ability twice per day. At 17th level, he can use this ability three times per day.
Spell Kenning is great for emergencies and condition removal, and you wouldn't have to be the healbot to help your party out. If one the other hand, multiple people in your group are strength-based, go with a normal skald.
Hmm
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Play something you like. Fun is priority.
Paladin is great. Mercies, lay on hands, lesser resteration, great defenses and damage.
Cleric is great.
Channels, spontanious heals, best status removal. Can be built for damage, tricks, buffs...
bard/skald seems good with 3 physical characters. Some healing and removal. Saving finale is amazing.
Medium is great.
Champion spirit main but If people need status removal channel the hierophant spirit the next day. The mock gladiator trait lets you melee fine as a hierophant. If you are good at planning the spirit dancer archetype looks awesome. A ranged medium works well too and at 8th lvl you can have the archery feats.
Druid class can fill in as a substitute healer and still function very effectively as a combatant with wild shape,and of course you know you don't have to play a Cleric as a Healbot, you can take that class many different ways, Paladin has some limited healing ability and will shine in combat, but i agree that you shouldn't have to be forced into any role and that talking to your GM is your best bet.
Look at an Oracle of Battle or Metal. They're spontaneous divine casters with full access to the cleric list of spells, with mysteries that make them meant to be front-line melee fighters. Get access to heavy armor and all martial weapons at level 1 with revalation choice, bonus spells to buff melee combat (battle gets enlarge person at level 2 I think). As a bonus, they get all cure spells for free at level. Your spell list will be smaller than a cleric by a mile, but you can take the necessary Restoration spells, get cures for free, then use your other slots to buff combat (magic weapon, divine favor, etc)
I haven't played mine quite yet, but built a backup Half Orc Barbarian 1 Metal Oracle 7 for a campaign I'm likely to die in.
It can move 50 ft in medium armor and because of Half Orc racials and Str/Cha focus, has a sky-high intimidate and uses the Power Attack, Hurtful, Cornugun Smash line with a Cruel weapon.
Current Build on Barb1/Oracle of Metal7:
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
(Can optimize more if you don't mind dumping intel, but I don't like to)
Sacred tattoo w/ Fate's Favored trait for +2 all saves
Intimidating
Darkvision
Weapon/Armor:
+1 Cruel Falchion
+2 Mithril Full Plate
Revalations: Skill at Arms (Martial Proficiency + Heavy Armor), Armor Mastery (full move speed in medium metal armor), Dance of the Blades (+10 Move Speed)
Feats:
1. Power Attack
3. Hurtful
5. Intimidating Prowess
7. Cornugun Smash
Spells:
1. Cure Light Wounds, Lead Blades, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Weapon Wand, Obscuring Mist
2. Cure Mod Wounds, Heat Metal, Resist Energy, Lesser Restoration, Eagle's Splendor
3. Cure Serious Wounds, Magic Vestment, Prayer, Keen Edge
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What about a Shaman?
They are new, OP, and they are divine, but they are very very weird. The number of options is absurd, frankly so I cannot advise a particular build, but even though they are divine, they don't have to be particularly religious or bible-thumping. They get the status removal spells the party needs, but it's a secondary concern and you can use the scrolls and wands.
You can make them a combat beast with battle and Oracle things, but you might want to stand back with the Wizard and throw out your esoteric nukes with him.
It's a bit metagamey, but if you are starting at 8th level you are over the early slog for 9th level casters so I'd prefer to play a full caster in your position. Not sure how combat oriented you want to be either - at this point your number of spells are sufficient that you can cast every round for the daily encounters.
The Oracle suggestions ITT are good too, you can get tooled up and do the drudgery of status removal. Honestly though, OP - casting gets more important by 8th level, think about what would be more fun for you
Mesmerist is not a very good healer, but they have a pretty nice emergency heal- if someone drops below 0, you can trigger the implanted trick for free as about a Cure Moderate Wounds. I think at that level, you can implant tricks in three people at once. Each person can pick from the many options you know, and then it's not your fault if they pick the wrong one.
They're very good at removing a lot of temporary statuses, too.
I would second the idea of a Shaman. I'm playing a Shaman with the Battle spirit and Speaker for the Past archetype through Rise of the Runelords, and he has been a great addition to the group, and a lot of fun to play.
You manage to get enough spells to allow for status condition removal when needed, while also doing some buffing and problem-solving. The revelations from the archetype can also be great. Between spells, hexes and revelations, my character always seems to have lots to contribute. Beyond that, he is quite a credible combatant, largely using reach weapon tactics.
If you're interested, I can give some more specific pointers on how you might build a character out. If you prefer to avoid melee, there are also lots of ways to build a very versatile casting-focused Shaman.
Druid class can fill in as a substitute healer and still function very effectively as a combatant with wild shape.
Though do pick up a potion of Remove Blindness. It's one of the things a druid can't do. It always surprises me how permanently blinding somebody is just a 2nd level spell.
Clerics can be built combat focused and work really well at that. There are great domains for a melee combat class. Then you have some buff spell you cast if you like, and you have the access to the status removal.
for Warpriest, the blessings are a minor boon, not a main draw like domains. Plus check out the arsenal chaplain archetype for it.
Druid class can fill in as a substitute healer and still function very effectively as a combatant with wild shape.Though do pick up a potion of Remove Blindness. It's one of the things a druid can't do. It always surprises me how permanently blinding somebody is just a 2nd level spell.
A druid can remove Blindness the spell via Dispel Magic (but so can the Wizard, and earlier). Save the potion for other causes of blindness or if your dispels fail.
The Iron Gods group I'm GMing for has an Android Alchemist (Chirurgeon) as their healer. They hit rough patches every now and then but that's offset by their healer also being a decent damage dealer when the bombs come out. The party's rogue took a 1 level dip in alchemist and now uses his mutagen since he never did.
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No one mentioned Spiritualist so I will.
They have all the divine spells, a big meaty ghost to stand in the frontlines, and a lot of abilities that coudl be neat.
I agree with the play what you want guys
We can probably find a way to get cure light wounds for you as most things and you can just use a wand from their and hope that the DM drops less status effects since the party has no way to easily deal with them. Also Oracles aren't ideal for status removal anyway, they only have so many spells filling them with situational status removal isn't ideal.
if you take the arsenal chaplain you get a decent blessing and fighter's weapon training
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The thing about Sacred Weapon is that it wouldn't matter for a Molthuni Arsenal Chaplain. They get the main part of Sacred Weapon, the magical enhancements but the damage dice don't matter so much. The MAC is ideal for having some mighty weapon, a great sword for instance, and using that and their Str bonus and the Weapon Training to damage just like a Fighter. A Fighter doesn't get scaling damage dice and aside from their general limitations as a class, weapon damage is never a problem. Sacred Weapon damage only gets past a greatsword at level 20. Or say you are an Iomedean and stick with the longsword, it is only beaten at level 10 - if you are a front line warrior and you still care about those initial damage dice at level 10 you are in real trouble.
The scaling dice is pretty sweet for unarmed strikers and archers, it's a solid and consistent bump that never gets old. For a Str-based two-hander MAC gets a better deal.
But Arsenal Chaplains' Sacred Weapons never rise above 1d6.
Don´t worry, you don´t **have** to take the sacred weapon damage. Get a good polearm, for example, and you will NEVER have lower damage than a regular warpriest - by the time the damage dice of the sacred weapon gets bigger, you will have enough bonus damage from weapon training to compensate - by the time the regular warpriest´s sacred weapon does 2d6 damage, the arsenal chaplain with a halberd gets 1d10+3. That is all before you add in the extra attack and, depending on the DM decision in the matter, advanced weapon training benefits.
plus lets do some maths
at lv5
1d6 to 1d8 is average of 1 damage per hit.
Weapon training is 1 attack and 1 damage. using conversion and you're getting 3 damage instead of average 1.
at level 9 you're getting another 3 damage 1 level before the weapon damage die goes from 1d8 to 1d10, another 1 damage boost.
so at lv10 you're 4 damage up on the sacred weapon scaling damage dice.
then at 13 you're getting another 3 while it'll be 2 more levels till the WP gets 1.5 from sacred weapon.
So, even if using a dagger, IUS, or archery, the arsenal chaplain is better for you than the sacred weapon scaling. And it's just all bonuses for anything that used bigger damage die anyways.
For this the flow is r1 fervor divine favor that DOES use a spell up.
r2 use sacred weapon as a swift action for it's increase
then higher level it's r3 a swift for quickened blessing/greater blessing.
and r4 for the other blessing.