Creative help building a Life Oracle

[Narrowascent]

So I have loved how creative this community is vs just going with the status quo. I am trying out a new class and a new genre of player type. I have never played a healer before. Even though I have played Paladin it was not at all focused in this direction so this will be new to me.

I am wanting to play a healer class because our party does not have one and we will need one. I however don't want to play just a cleric or Paladin so I was looking at the Life Oracle and wanted to ask out there what a good way or creative way to build this would be. I have heard about double cursed and a few other ideas but what do you all suggest, stats, feats, archetypes, race? Anything amazingly fun you have built?

[Philippe Lam]

Battle Oracle with the Life Spirit (Spirit Guide archetype). It's quite scattered all-around, but the character would be able to decently fight and do healing work at the same time.

The main features :

- Weapon Mastery revelation - at level 1, getting weapon focus with a weapon the character is proficient with - at level 8, Improved Critical with the same weapon - level 12, Greater Weapon Focus

- I would recommend myself the Covetous curse, there's hoping there aren't many situation where the character gets dirty, but speaking from my experience, while benefits aren't that big, there's little drawbacks either (100 gp of clothes/jewels per character level vs +4 on UMD and to identify items with spellcraft)

- Life Spirit comes with Lifelink at level 3, and channels are on at level 7

- Optionally, you can take the Maneuver revelation. I don't exactly remember when you get the Improved version and when does the greater, but it's an opportunity "2 for 1" in later games, which isn't bad.

But other users might bring better ideas forward, or more simple.

[LordKailas]

I don't know if this is the sort of thing that you're looking for but I have a life oracle build that gets a familiar. The oracle can split damage it takes with the familiar basically giving them an extra pool of hitpoints they can use.

Life Oracle (Oracle)

Spoiler:

Key concepts: A Divine Font of healing energy
Alignment: Lawful Good
Race: Human or Half-elf
Key Race Traits: Heart of the Fey & Focused Study(human) or Adaptability (Half-elf)
Traits: House of Green Mothers Pupil and Blessed Touch
Class: Oracle
Suggested Curses: Powerless Prophecy
Archetype: Divine Herbalist
Familiar Arch: Protector
Suggested Archetype: Spirit Guide (lets a non-life oracle, be a life oracle)
Suggested Domains: Medicine, Healing, Community
Mystery: Life
Key Revelations: Channel, Life Link, Enhanced Cures, Safe Curing
Key Feats: Skill Focus[Perception] (1st), Fey Foundling (1st), Familiar Bond(3rd), Improved Familiar Bond(5th), Believer’s Boon (7th), Believer’s Hands (9th), Eldritch Heritage[Solar] (11th), Improved Eldritch Heritage[Cleansing Flame] (13th), Selective Channel(15th), Greater Eldritch Heritage [Healing Fire] (17th)
Suggested Feats: Lifebound, Quick Channel, Reactive Healing, Curative Mastery, Restoration Mastery, Purifying Channel, Improvisational Healer, Incredible Healer, Healer's Hands (Conduit)
Key Features: • Gets +caster level on all cure spells (breaking normal limits)
• Doesn’t provoke when casting healing spells
• May take on the damage of others
• Can split damage taken with familiar

[Narrowascent]

These are really interesting ideas. @Philipe I like yours a lot but looking for more of a healing / support type vs a fighting type but that is really neat. I am new at oracle stuff so I still need to really look into creating one. @LordKailas. Thanks also. That build seems really interesting and closer to what I am looking for. Familiar is interesting also.

[VoodistMonk]

VMC Cleric. Now you can have two pools of Channeling, and a Domain.

Getting the Familiar that shares damage is pure genius, and well worth the two feats.

You're an Oracle, with the Aura and Domain of a Cleric, with a Wizard's familiar...

[Caduceus Via]

I have had a pretty good time with my Oradin here.

Life oracle with life link and channel.

The Paladin aspect allows me to LoH as a swift action. So the party essentially has Fast healing 5, and I keep myself going with the LoH, allowing me to support with spells or melee as needed. Two different channeling pools for some burst healing as well, just in case the party gets hit with an AoE.

[avr]

The Pei Zin practitioner archetype makes for an OK single class oradin.

One thing I'd advise against is making your character pure healing / support. You never know when the GM may force you into an arena with an angry fey elephant. Solo.

[Magda Luckbender]

The OP may not know what is an 'Oradin'. Here's the Oradin Guide. Short version: an Oradin is a first rate healer able to do two things at once: passively heal the party while also fighting as a front line 'tank'.

@OP: I second avr's admonishment against a pure healing / support build. Instead, be good at healing & support and also be a competent at something else.

@OP: The most effective 'healers' mitigate incoming damage to their party in a variety of ways, such that in-combat healing is seldom required. Some methods of damage mitigation:
* Summoned monsters absorb HP damage that would have otherwise gone to allies.
* A reach weapon screen increases your entire team's defensive power and mitigates incoming damage.
* Encourage your allies to avoid doing stupid stuff where they take lots of needless damage. This GM has observed that the presence of a dedicated 'healbot' sometimes makes players stupid. They know they can be stupid and not suffer consequences, because the healbot is on hand to fix their boo boos. One of the most effective ways to mitigate damage, especially for inexperienced players, is to encourage intelligent tactics from your allies.
* Buffing allies brings down foes faster, which reduces incoming damage
* Have a secondary role as beatstick, as this conserves party resources by ending encounters faster.