Support / healer build advice

[HeyItsEli]

So my group just swapped over from 3.5, almost everyone is changing characters as a result, outside of the sorcerer who is just swapping from 3.5 version, the current party is the sorcerer, swashbuckler, fighter, cavalier, and a rogue who is there every other week. To fill and cover our bases a divine caster focused on support seems like the obvious choice, issue is I hate the flavor or cleric and the other divine casters, any recommendations or ideas would be a big hel.

[TxSam88]

Look at the Oracle or the witch.

[Tom Sampson]

Well, this is actually an arcane caster but you can use a Skald. He will be mostly healing with a wand of Cure Light Wounds but he can use spell kenning to cast any of the big Cleric healing spells on demand and he can also buff your party's martials quite well thanks to being a more Barbarian-themed Bard, so I believe that would work fairly well with your party. In addition, the Witch is another arcane spellcaster that makes a good support and has access to many healing spells.

As for divine spellcasters, there is the Oracle (Pathfinder's version of a Favored Soul) or you could play a Shaman and use the Human race's favored class bonus to keep filling the spell list with Cleric spells.

[Chuck Mount]

I'm using a life oracle in Carrion Crown. I didn't focus entirely on healing, though. I'm playing and elf and took some feats with the bow, but the channel energy, cure spells, spirit boost (giving temporary HPs when you heal past max HPs) and energy body (which came in surprisingly handy a few times with the elemental subtype), he's actually a very good healer. If I'd have actually focused on that, he'd be even better at it.

[Melkiador]

What sort of "support" would you like to do? Are you just wanting to heal and remove conditions? Are you wanting to buff your allies? What mental stat would you prefer your character to run on?

[thorin001]

The ultimate healer is a gnome life oracle.
As a gnome you take the alternate racial trait vivacious and the fey foundling feat. This means that you get a lot more from being healed than everyone else. To make things even more extreme take the planar infusion (positive energy plane) feat.

As an oracle you take the life mystery and the pei zin practitioner archetype. You will be able to lay hands on yourself as a swift action. You take the revelations that allow you to channel energy and transfer damage from your allies to yourself. You get all the cure spells for free and can take whatever other oracle spells you think will be most beneficial.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The life oracle with the pei zen practitioner archetype looks solid, but I would go for human or half elf for the extra spells from the favored class bonus. The extra healing is nice but I would rather have more spells known for a spontaneous caster. Take the Blackened Curse to get some fire based combat spells.

By 12th level you can take care of most healing just from your mystery and archetype. Your curse gives you some basic combat spells, so you can take whatever support spells you want.

[I grok do u]

Alchemist is also pretty solid for support and healing. Get the infusion discovery and/or grab the chirurgeon archetype and buff and heal away.

The arcane healer bard is a decent support class.

A sorcerer with the unicorn bloodline can do a fair job at healing, and just expands the arcane spells available to the party if the other sorcerer focuses on blasting or battlefield control.

Occultist and medium can get healing spells (well so can other psychic spell users with the right archetype or discipline).

Not to be contrary, but there are a lot of flavors possible with the divine casters, too: oracles, clerics, druids, warpriests, inquisitors, paladins, rangers, and even hunters, especially with the many archetypes.

[Azothath]

do both as wizards are the best casters with support and attack spells...a bit of multiclassing maximizes their support

Azothath: Wizard multiclass with Cleric-VarPlgrm 1 (PFS style & legal) and Elion(longbow) or Feronia(bastard sword with TWF) is a good choice.

Azothath: Mage-killer build FlowMonk2 Wiz(Divnr)7 (PFS style) an anti-caster (martial) build using monk & wizard. Samsaran will net you several witch spells (Cure Lgt Wnds, Cure Mod Wnds) via mythic past life.

Azothath: Wizard-PoleiheiraAdh (PFS style) kinda centric with book in hand.

Azothath: Sor arch Raz Prst at 5th & 11th along with a Clr1 Wiz4|10 for comparison (PFS style) not my fav but some people like the tricksy Sor-RazPriest as I show the multiclass Wiz is better. In the end Eschew Components is better than False Focus unless you drink holy water...

here are some bard builds
Azothath: Bard7 builds (PFS style)

[thorin001]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

The life oracle with the pei zen practitioner archetype looks solid, but I would go for human or half elf for the extra spells from the favored class bonus. The extra healing is nice but I would rather have more spells known for a spontaneous caster. Take the Blackened Curse to get some fire based combat spells.

By 12th level you can take care of most healing just from your mystery and archetype. Your curse gives you some basic combat spells, so you can take whatever support spells you want.

The main reason for gnome is the bonus to con. You can do it with human if you take the dual talent alternate race trait. So you would get a +2 to cha and con and get the extra spells known FCB. But you give up the human extra skill points and feat.

Normally I see people use the FCB for extra HP as life oracles tend to be HP batteries.

[Melkiador]

You want the gnome constitution for the combo with life link and shield other. Combine with fey foundling to make your self healing more efficient. It takes a few more levels to get fully online from the feat starvation, but healing the low levels is easy enough anyway.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The problem with focusing everything on healing is that pigeon holes the character to a role and is honestly quite boring. As long as you can patch up the other characters and remove most condition that is all you really need. Items should also factor in when building a healer. Things like wands of cure light wounds and scrolls can supplement a life oracle just as easily if not more so than a cleric.

The original poster put support before healer in the title. That seems to suggest to me that aspect of the character is as if not more important than the healing. By 12th level a Pe Zin Practitioner with the life mystery and channel energy should be able to take care of any healing needed by the party without having to use take use any more of his spells known for healing. Scrolls can cover anything the mystery spells and lay on hand or channel energy do not.

The blackened curse gives the character some decent low level offensive capability which the cleric/oracle spell list is sorely lacking. This allows the character to focus on support spells, which is what the OP wanted.

With only one other caster in the party they are behind the curve on magic. The fact that the other caster is a sorcerer means the spells available to the party from their casters are extremely limited. Every extra spell is going to be very valuable to this party.