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So I've been thinking about a backup character should my current one in an Astral Plane game die or be forced to run from the party. Due to the way we're creating characters one of my options is Shaman(not going to multiclass).
Keeping in mind I'm using this blog post as a basis for the character, what Spirits(we have plenty of healing, so Life isn't necessary) and spells would you suggest and why? Are any archetypes besides Animist and Benefactor secretly helpful? Feats I might look into?
I had a lot of fun in our Hell's Rebels campaign with El Brujo, an aasimar life shaman. I recognize you don't need more healing, so you can pick pretty much anything except lore. Save that for your wandering spirit. The lore spirit's arcane enlightenment hex lets you add a handful of wizard spells to your list, which massively opens up your flexibility, without being terribly powerful. With wandering spirit, arguably you can shift into and out of the lore spirit, changing your wizard spell choices each time, not having to wait until you level up.
El Brujo was very much a "debuff the bad guys so the party can dominate" kind of support character, and being able to acquire arcane spells given a little planning or notice supported that.
Note: El Brujo was our only caster (divine or arcane) for the first half of the campaign, and we were playing with a party of 3. Later on, we lost one player, and each remaining PC was given a free bonus Leadership feat, so we played the rest of the campaign with two PCs and two cohorts (two levels behind the PCs). So at higher level he was joined by a sorcerer cohort for blasting needs. Point is, with this build the shaman managed to be the only caster for most of the game, and only got a delayed-access assistant later on. This works (and was fun).
I have a PFS Shaman with Heavens spirit and always choose Lore for my wandering spirit (arcane enlightenment hex) to good effect.
Heavens has strong spirit magic spells at every level, most which aren't on the Shamans spell list. Heaven's Leap is a great support hex that'll get your party members out of a lot of jams, Enveloping Void is also a great debilitator. Spirit abilities Stardust is essentially Faerie Fire, Void Adaptation you can see in deeper darkness, are always under Endure Elements and don't have to breath, Phantasmagoric Display gives a free casting of Prismatic Wall and Prismatic Spray.
By using arcane enlightement as a wandering hex you can choose different wizard spells everyday.
Spooky, I am currently playing Hell's Rebels with an aasimar life shaman with the lore wandering spirit for arcane enlightenment and who has a cohort (cleric in my case). Did you have a thrush animal spirit with the protector archetype as well?
So close; El Brujo had a parrot animal companion named "Sparrow". Neat.
His age wasn't defined, with him just being a very old man who acted as witch-doctor to the people of Kintargo since before Aroden's fall. He was sort of The Doctor (hence the name), but much more... controlled. Physically, pretty much Ricardo Mantalban as Khan, with an always-open shirt as his aasimar trait allowed him to not eat, being replenished by exposure to the sun.