I think you have a good balance there. You have the fighting, the healing, the arcane power, and someone who scout and find traps. It's a classic combo and should see you through this classic adventure path well.
Killing things quickly is the best armor.
I'm a bit concerned that the front line is a bit squishy with Medium Armor being the best we have. A barbarian can be an offensive terror but can he and the oracle go toe to toe with some of the big hitters in the AP ?
I wouldn't be too concerned about the player's AC. In Pathfinder, AC does not scale well with level. So achieving ridiculously high ACs is generally not worth the investment. Granted, at low level the extra AC would be nice.
HP tanking is a lot more viable for long term survival because it scales with level. Your Barbarian should do well at this with his meaty d12 Hit Die (and hopefully a decent CON).
I'm not sure how well the Oracle will do as a front liner. With a d8 Hit Die, he will be a little squishy. But he will have the Barbarian backing him up, so he might be OK. I'd definitely recommend the Combat Casting feat for your Oracle so they can more reliably pull off spells in melee combat.
The Oracle should do fine as the party's dedicated healer. Keep in mind that the Oracle is limited to their known spells. You could run into a situation where the Oracle can't remove a debilitating status condition because they don't know that specific removal spell. The party will definitely want to cover any gaps with healing Scrolls, Potions, and Wands.
Any thoughts ?
I think that's a perfectly well-rounded party - their biggest challenges will be getting comfortable with their roles and those of their fellow PC's... fortunately the campaign gives them a nice learning curve in the beginning.
As an aside, RotRL has become something of a specialty of mine at this point; I've developed a lot of useful tools and additional materials to both expand and streamline the campaign. If there's anything I can do to help you guys out or make your experience a little richer, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Also if, after a few levels, you feel a little too squishy, an Oradin (Oracle/Paladin) is a very popular and effective multi-class. Even a couple of Pally levels would go a long way.
Is the Bard leaning archer or melee?
Not completely sure about the bard yet. The only feat she's taken so far is Lingering Performance to get the most out of the archaeologist luck bonus. We talked a bit about her combat style choice but she has a few levels before she has to make anymore big choices that lock her in to one over the other.
If she tries to go archer then she will need to take at least point blank shot and precise shot or take those nasty shooting into melee penalties regularly.
On the other hand, as a halfling she'll need weapon finesse to help out her melee to hit. ( Though eventually I think she can get that with a rogue talent )
Either route we have to try to figure out how to get any kind of decent damage output from her with a lack of strength and the small size weaponry. We aren't expecting too much in damage from the bard but she does want to feel like she's contributing.
How married to the Archeologist is she? Nothing wrong with it by any means, it's certainly a fun class to play - but I do find that a Bard who doesn't give up Inspired Courage is generally a much bigger help to her party in combat. Not only does she get credit for all the damage the Barbarian deals when he would have otherwise missed, but it also opens up useful spells like Saving Finale or feats like Discordant Voice down the road.
Either way, probably her best option is to focus on buffs and debuffs rather than straight damage dealing. Battle Cry and Blistering Invective are nice and down the road the Wizard may be grateful to have someone ELSE pulling 'Haste' duty in the opening rounds.
Definitely recommend looking at the prestige class Halfling Opportunist, especially for someone who might enjoy the more creative RP aspects of combat.
FWIW, one of the first house-rules we initiated was to remove Weapon Finesse as a feat and reintroduce it as a weapon quality, like Reach. Basically if a weapon is finessible, it gains the quality and anyone welding it can choose to use their DEX mod for determine their attack bonus. After all, no one proficient in the whip or Rapier would attempt to use it to overpower their foes rather than Finesse them. It's really just an unnecessary feat tax holdover from an earlier iteration of the game.
This link should work. Really a dip is all anyone would need but it always seemed to me to be the perfect compliment to the Archaeologist.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/e-h/halfling-o pportunist/
Trapspotter for free is pretty sweet and Excellent Aid makes more effective at assisting party members do their thing... but it's the Exploitative Maneuver that makes it fun.
HP tanking is a lot more viable for long term survival because it scales with level. Your Barbarian should do well at this with his meaty d12 Hit Die (and hopefully a decent CON).I'd definitely recommend the Combat Casting feat for your Oracle so they can more reliably pull off spells in melee combat.
The Oracle should do fine as the party's dedicated healer. Keep in mind that the Oracle is limited to their known spells. You could run into a situation where the Oracle can't remove a debilitating status condition because they don't know that specific removal spell. The party will definitely want to cover any gaps with healing Scrolls, Potions, and Wands.
The barbarian has a 16 Con so he's pretty good there.
The oracle did indeed take combat casting for that exact reason. He knows he's going to be right in the mix.
They have already discussed as players putting aside some party loot for scrolls and wands to help out with healing. The bard can help out with that type of healing too because her UMD is crazy.
Small nit: the Bard can use wands of healing spells (cure * wounds) since those are on her class spell list. No UMD needed. UMD would come in handy for scrolls, wands, etc. for items that have spells neither the oracle nor bard can cast.