What do you want out of this? Are you wanting to have more healing than you will probably ever need?
For archetype, you will want either the Pei Zin for extra heals and status removal. Or you’ll want the spirit guard with life mystery and life spirit, for double channels and double life link. Both are good choices, so choose whichever sounds better to you. I like spirit guide because, if you start to find the healing boring or often unnecessary, you could switch to a different spirit and do something else besides heal.
For feats, you will want reach spell. It’s good for staying out of melee while healing, but really good for giving shield other a less restrictive range limit. If you go spirit guide, quick channel can be amazing, once you get your second pool of channels, but it’s a good feat even without that.
Spirit Guide with Life Mystery and Life Spirit and VMC Cleric...
VMC cleric takes way too long to be worthwhile. The earlier weak channels aren’t going to be good for much of anything, And channeling has a lot of feats you’ll want to pick up, so you don’t want to give up so many feats to VMC.Maybe if you were building a level 20 healer it’d be ok, but playing it from level 1 would be a pain.
Not sure which fast healing Lelo is talking about, but life link could already be considered to be fast healing 5.
My fav healer so far is the Shaman with the life mystery. Get yourself a familiar that fast healing familiar with the protector archetype (shield master) and you can life link the party to within 5 of full health after every combat without spending much of anything :) You just offload half the damage to your familiar and it fast heals it away
It's a huge party of about a dozen characters, so a specialized healer isn't too bad a choice. He's played clerics a lot, so was happy to hear about life oracles. I'm helping him with build recommendations. I'm starting with a fey foundling vivacious gnome, and suggesting selective channel, life link, with nods to enhanced cures and energy body. Toughness should be considered. I'm unsure about which curse to recommend, except the third party one - merciful - that grants lay on hands. (they usually allow third party). The favored class special, 1/2 levels on the curse is worth looking at. I intend to suggest shield other and life pact as well.
With the emphasis on a race with a con bonus and a racial trait for more hp, as well as toughness and fey foundling, I get the impression you expect this cleric to be beat on harder than the party barbarian.
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Paladins are really hard to kill with hitpoint damage:
* 1d6 (base Loh per two levels of paladin)
* 1d6 (Greater Mercy)
* 2d6 (Bracers of the Merciful Knight)
* +2hp per LoH die (Fey Foundling)
* +1hp per LoH die (Inheritor's Light longsword)
* +1hp per two levels paladin (halfling, gnome, elf, or half-elf>elf FCB)
At 8th, as a swift-action, they're healing back 7d6+28 = ~52.5 points of damage per round near ten times per day (plus meditation crystals, with are 100gp throwaway items long before that level)
-- Of course you won't be a gnome oracle slinging 9th-level spells, but there is one way to be such a thing while having a small taste of the paladin's durability:
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01 Oracle1 [Pei Zin Practitioner], Fey Foundling
02 Pei Zin2 [Healer’s Way]
(...and you're now a gnome oracle with a pseudo-Lay on Hands class feature that qualifies for LoH feats and gear. Unfortunately you can't take Greater Mercy or make use of Bracers of the Merciful Knight due to their requirements of having Mercy, or of being a paladin, respectively, and you also cannot take the racial LoH-advancing favored-class bonus in paladin.)
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Other options Witch doctor life shaman. Double channel pool, fateful channeling to buff and hexes for unlimited debuffing.
Separatist cleric feather domain and eagle domain. You want a bodyguard animal companion and a protector familiar use shield companion + in harm's way and life link to soak damage and channel to heal. You should be able to ensure a minimum of 4 healing targets every time you need to heal.
Per Zin as above.
These are the three builds I have found to be most effective.
If you want a sidekick in a class with the cleric's spell list, there's also the Divine Commander warpriest archetype. (Aside from the use warpriest rich, creamy goodness, this particular archetype is great for small races, because they get a mount, and thereby at least double if not triple their average move.)