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This will depend of how he want to deal with daily usage resources.
For damage focused blasters basically we have these options: Fire Kineticists, Elemental Sorcerers, Imperial Sorcerers and Spellblending Wizards of School of Battle Magic.
Optionally Druids and Psychics could be added to the options but they lag a little behind in terms of blasting DPR but they will get stronger chassis or some good focus spells respectively. If your adventure will be focused vs unholy/undead creatures we could add divine casters like Clerics too to the list.
Each of these options have their particularities but the main one is it resource control.
Imperial Sorcerers and Spellblending Wizards are very strong but depends too much from their spell slots so your friend will have to deal with the fact that it will only have a small number of good strong damage spells per day:
Obs.: Notice that I only use the top 3 rank spells because bellow of this usually the damage become too weak (about more than 8d6/4d12 weaker than your top level slot, what makes these lower level slots no good for damage just for another buff/debuff/utility uses).
And finally if your friend don't want to ever worry about resources he can play as Fire Kineticist. Well not exactly just Fire but the Fire is currently the more damage focused element due its fire's Impulse Junction and fire's Aura Junction that improves the 2/3-action fire impulses dice size and gives half of kineticist level as fire weakness to enemies in kinetic aura vs your impulses plus a constant per round fire damage with Thermal Nimbus stance that does half kineticist level + fire weakness damage bonus (what means that it does kineticist even level rounded up). In practice this isn't so much damage as a caster does (except when it reaches level 18 and get Ignite the Sun where the DPR improves absurdly) but also doesn't care about resource because they are infinity! The other good point about kinetcists is their chassis that's way stronger than any pure caster including being able to use and get same heavy armor bonuses and proficiency that most martials get, a lot of HP once it's a 8hp per level + its key attribute is constitution and strong saves (better than saves that most casters uses).
And finally we have the special case for adventures focused in fight unholy/undead creatures. In this case Clerics because in this case we have a set of spells and feats that does a lot of damage vs such creatures like sunburst that doubles its damage vs undeads.
About ancestry. IMO there are 2 big choices. Goblins (or get it with Adopted Ancestry) and Elves/Gnomes.
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I do generally like to take a broad approach and cover a range of builds fairly like YuriP is doing. However one class is very clearly favoured for the blaster caster role, the Sorcerer. At level 11 Sorcerous Potency is doing +6 damage with your current top slot and +5 with next slots. Which means they are better than every other casters slots and it starts to make Wizard SpellBlending look bad.
Technically you can run out of slots, but if you take a couple of reasonable damage focus spells and have 3 focus points you aren't going to run out except in very unusual games. How can you do that? Multiclass Oracle and pick from the Cleric Domain spells via Domain Acumen (Fire Ray, Moonbeam, etc) or eventually Debilitating Dichotomy. Or Multi Psychic and pick up Imaginary Weapon. There are plenty of other options for offensive focus spells but they are more build dependant.
Imperial, Undead, Elemental are great bloodline options for Sorcerer. If you are talking about level 11 then Elemental Metal would be my pick for bloodmagic on Chain Lightning.
With Crossblood Evolution any bloodline can pick up bonus damage to bloodline spells that Phoenix, Undead, Elemental get. But Annoint Ally with Explosion of Power works well for more damage too.
Ancestry doesn't matter all that much. Goblin Burn it can help with secondary bonuses on fire spells. I like Shapewrought Fleshwarp if I want to go for Debilitating Dichotomy. Human or Elf have options to pick up extra spells that with Ancestral Blood Magic, Blessed Blood (if divine) and Ancestral Mage can trigger your bloodmagic as well.
Finally take whichever of Arcane Evolution or Primal Evolution you qualify for. Remember you can burn the slot from Primal Evolution through a Staff of Fire for a top level spell slot fire ball. Which may or may not trigger Sorcerous Potency depending on how your GM reads the rules.
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I agree with the others, though would add a little to that specific level range:
The Free Archetype for a Flames Oracle would get you the wonderful Whirling Flames focus spell as well as the Foretell Harm cursebound ability, adding even more damage with rechargeable resources. The Whirling Flames also help you with a problem most non-divine blasters have, which is targeting enemies with AoE's without hitting your allies, as placing a few 5-ft-bursts is easier than placing a big burst, so this focus spell is good for following rounds once melee has begun.
For Crossblooded Evolution I recommend the Psychopomp bloodline, since nothing is really resistant to both vitality & void damage (except constructs), and it's great for triggering weaknesses, as most Sorcerers have trouble getting both vitality & void damage blasts.
Some other choices depending on the campaign and the rest of the party.
For example, if you have a party member who can reliably tell you which weaknesses enemies have, you should absolutely go with the Sorcerer's Energy Fusion feat; this lets you utilize your low-level spell-slots to boost your damage even further and change half the damage to the type triggering the weakness. Thunderstrike and Swallow Light are very low level spells that cover 4 damage types already: electricity, sonic, cold, void.
And if your campaign has very long adventuring days, with 5+ encounters per day (in some dungeon crawls), I can recommend the Wellspring Mage archetype for the Sorcerer (& Oracle).
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I think a Goblin Flames Oracle could be pretty good at this and hasn't been mentioned. Goblin is for Burn It for extra damage on your fire spells.
This nets you a lot of spell slots (including an extra max rank one if you take Gifted Power at 6, which you should), Light Armor and 8 HP per level, so you are more durable than some other casters like Sorcerer/Wizard. Also comes with some pretty nice focus spells like Whirling Flames and Flaming Fusilade at level 12 (which lets you cast a spell and also cast Ignition in one turn). Foretell Harm will add extra damage as well.
I'm a big fan of Reach Spell for an early feat because I like to be able to cast from farther away. YMMV, it's not required.
You get Divine Access at level 11 to pick up some extra spells to put on your list. Take Debilitating Dichotomy at 8 for an extra blast that scales well and doesn't use your spell slots, best used on things with poor Will saves.
Obvious Free Archetype pick is Sorcerer to start since you can get Ancestral Memories and boost your available spells. If your GM lets you, Dangerous Sorcery is a great pick as it adds more damage to your spell slot spells. Note that it doesn't stack with Burn It, but Burn It works on Ignition and Dangerous Sorcery doesn't. Not all GMs will allow this since it wasn't brought forward into the remaster (it was made a class feature), but it is PFS legal so many do.
This can put out quite a lot of firepower with good defenses for a caster and a lot of longevity because you have boatloads of spell slots and two pools of renewable resources in Focus Spells & Cursebound abilities.
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If the player doesn't want to worry about resource management, kineticist is the way to go.
It doesn't deal the most damage per attack, but can throw out damage effects literally every round without having to worry about running out.
Something to understand about caster/kineticist damage is that you will not deal "prodigious" damage to a single target.
A very rough example, because I'm not looking heavily into all the bonus one could get, is a 6th level chain lightning will deal 8d12 damage, with a basic reflex save (and there is a relatively high chance of a successful save against on level enemies). A single melee attack is going to deal something like 3d10 damage. Both have bonuses to those attacks that make this more complicated. But what I'm trying to get at is, on a successful save you're doing roughly the same amount of damage to a single target as a single melee attack. However! Chain lightning can hit a big number of targets, potentially unlimited if they're within 30ft of the previous target and haven't been hit before.
So as long as the player understands "prodigious" damage means hitting lots of enemies for reasonable damage, and not ending a single enemy with 1000 damage then they're in good shape. If they expect "prodigious" damage to mean killing a single enemy with a single spell...well that's basically just not going to happen.
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For magic damage blasting:
Top tier is Kineticist. They have no permanent resource cost for doing it. So they can blast damage every round of every fight all day.
High tier is focus point damage spell casters. Flames Oracle, several types of Psychic, Elemental Sorcerer, Storm Order Druid, things like that. They always have at least one focus point each fight to throw out damage, they have spell slot spells to augment that a few times per day, and can resort to cantrips when they are just mopping up mooks.
Mid tier is 4-slot casters that don't have good damage focus spells. Wizard, Sorcerer, or Oracle other than the ones that have good damage dealing focus spells. They still have plenty of spell slot spells for blasting damage for several fights, but will need to rely on cantrips or consumables to throw damage more than that.
Low tier is 3-slot or less casters that don't have good damage focus spells. Druid, Bard, Witch, etc. For the same reasons as Mid tier, except that they run out of spell slots sooner.
Now, do note that these tier rankings are solely for their ability to throw out magic damage, and primarily on their frequency of doing so. Many of these classes bring more to the table than just their ability to blast damage. Bard, for example, is one of my overall top 3 most powerful classes in the game - even though it is ranked as low tier for blasting damage.
How does Dragon play as a blaster? The starting focus spell d8+d4 per rank on two targets seems like a decent blaster build opening shot, but I've never tried it.
Dragon could be a good blaster but now its breath is restricted again to line/cone due remaster changes and it's just a bit weaker than Sorcerer's Elemental Blast focus spell that allows you to change the AoE on the fly (this is the best thing in this spell for me). Also elemental sorcerers get extra damage vs one enemy by default without need to get it via feat.
Also I prefer Primal tradition than Arcane tradition due access to healing spells for emergencies. Also the Sorcerous Gifts of elemental are better for blasters than those that are in Draconic Bloodline. That's why I usually ignore Draconic Bloodline for damage focused sorcerers.
A very rough example, because I'm not looking heavily into all the bonus one could get, is a 6th level chain lightning will deal 8d12 damage, with a basic reflex save (and there is a relatively high chance of a successful save against on level enemies). A single melee attack is going to deal something like 3d10 damage. Both have bonuses to those attacks that make this more complicated. But what I'm trying to get at is, on a successful save you're doing roughly the same amount of damage to a single target as a single melee attack. However! Chain lightning can hit a big number of targets, potentially unlimited if they're within 30ft of the previous target and haven't been hit before.
The other advantage of casters and kineticists over traditional martials (alchemist isn't a thing that a call as traditional martial and magus are wavecasters bounded spellcasters) is the damage type versatility allowing to avoid enemies immunities/resistances and exploit weakness. Most martials can exploit weakness if happens that its weapon material/rune does that damage but the opposite also is true and they can have part of their damage output resisted without too much options to avoid this.
I write wrong the correct is "just a bit stronger" because Breath is 1d6 stronger but doesn't have the AoE of Sorcerer's Elemental Blast focus spell but can have other energy types beyond fire or physical.
As mentioned, there are quite a few ways to go for a blaster caster.
Animist could probably be added to the list with the selection of Lurker in the Devouring Dark and Steward of Stone and Fire apparitions during daily preparations. The divine list also has a couple unique "blasting" spells, too (may require sanctification). The animist spellshape feats have some interesting add-ons with the Apparition trait, as well. The mix of prepared and spontaneous slots can also be useful in some circumstances.
In addition to goblin Burn It! for a fire blaster, the (legacy) ifrit (now naari) versatile heritage has some useful ancestry feats.
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A wizard goblin (or Teridus' oracle goblin) with Burn it! Is getting +3/+2. Which is smaller, but if you're aiming for the fireball benchmark of 12d6 or so for rank 6, you're talking about an average of 48 vs. 45. Everyone's different, but for me that wouldn't be enough to override a role playing preference.
...How does Dragon play as a blaster?
This particular discussion is really just about damage. Not wider class balance.
You have left out the blood magic effect as well. The damage difference is larger than that. So plus 12 damage versus plus 3 damage.
Draconic is fine as a general sorcerer. It just doesn't trigger blood magic with the right spells. So not ideal as a blaster.
As mentioned, there are quite a few ways to go for a blaster caster.
Animist could probably be added to the list with the selection of Lurker in the Devouring Dark and Steward of Stone and Fire apparitions during daily preparations. The divine list also has a couple unique "blasting" spells, too (may require sanctification). The animist spellshape feats have some interesting add-ons with the Apparition trait, as well. The mix of prepared and spontaneous slots can also be useful in some circumstances.
In addition to goblin Burn It! for a fire blaster, the (legacy) ifrit (now naari) versatile heritage has some useful ancestry feats.
Despite the animist have have some good Vessel Spells I have some difficulty to put it into the top blasters list because in general even with remaster added Spirit damage, that helped a lot the divine tradition, it still the weakest tradition in terms of damage spells and even in adventures focused into fight the unholy the class doesn't help so much because it doesn't get sanctification.
Channeler's Stance helps a lot because you get the spell rank status bonus to both apparition and vessel spells (what's pretty good) but the Apparitions Spells list even of the Steward of Stone and Fire is small and limited and the number of top and top-1 rank spellslot for apparition is just 1 what limits a lot the Animist sustainability and the divine spellslots don't get the additional damage benefit that class gives to its vessel and apparition spells.
So even having some very good and strong focus spells their spellslot spell are a mess in terms of damage spell. IMO the class is more indicated for versatily due it's capacity to swith its Apparitions Spells than into be a focused class.
Oracles are in a similar situation IMO. You can get some extra damage with Foretell Harm allows Flame and Thunder oracles to do some additional damage but it's limited for one time per target and increases your Cursebound so it have limited used and some consequences. Also the lack o sanctified doesn't help if your adventure is focused into fight the unholy.
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I will toss out an experiment I'm doing. This idea came from another forum member that I can't recall their name. They have more experience than I do with this combination and can post on it if they see this.
Imperial Sorcerer
You want to build around Anoint Ally and Explosion of Power.
Then take a mix of good blasting spells. Also remember your one action force barrage becomes very powerful as it is a bloodline spell that activates explosion of power.
You also want to grab Quicken Spell for your once a day big boom.
You want to mark one of your frontline allies as the battle starts, preferably before battle if have a decent scout.
Then you will set up the big blast using Ancestral Memories to blow up around the target, then maybe a 2 action Force Barrage to blow up again hitting a single target or just nuke an AOE like Chain lightning or fireball with the minus. You don't get as much blow up damage, but enough to make it more.
This will be on top of sorcerous potency, so you're stacking damaging effects.
Play around with it and think about how it works, then use it when situationally appropriate to blow up on targets. Hopefully you'll have a good frontline martial like a champion, monk, fighter, or barb to Anoint Ally.
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How does Dragon play as a blaster? The starting focus spell d8+d4 per rank on two targets seems like a decent blaster build opening shot, but I've never tried it.
Dragon is a very good blaster caster, and even better than Elemental below level 10.
The Elemental bloodline suffers a lot from its blasting focus spell only coming on at level 10; before level 10 you only have Elemental Toss, which is a great 3rd action, but not a main blast. Meanwhile the Draconic bloodline has better damage on its Flurry of Claws right from 1st level and gets the Dragon Breath at level 6.
The Draconic bloodline is also extremely versatile in that it can choose any spell-list and even has different damage type options for its Draconic Breath. So if your campaign ends at level 11, I would honestly recommend Draconic over Elemental. If your campaign goes/starts at 10+, then Elemental is stronger since the blasting focus spell is so versatile (choose cone/line/burst each time you cast it).
In regard to the Draconic bloodline, I think it's also extremely important to mention that you are not limited to the Draconic Exemplars given in Player Core 2, as PC2 explicitly states that you can take other Draconic Exemplars and build them with your GM. From my experience every GM out there allows you to switch to the damage types listed in Paizo's PFS Organized Play section which you can find over at this link. The rules also state that you can then fill the 2nd-, 5th-, and 8th-rank bonus spells with a spell from that draconic exemplar's family spellcasting entry.
For example, I'm playing an Umbral Dragon Sorcerer in a Gatewalkers campaign (will continue with Spore Wars), and the GM allowed me to use void damage (instead of fire) on my Flurry of Claws and Dragon Breath. As the bonus spells I chose from the Umbral Dragon spellcasters entry the spells (2) Humanoid Form, (5) Shadow Siphon, and (8) Disappearance; apart from the 2nd-rank spell these are amazing additions to the primal spell-list, where you worry more about having the spells rather than triggering the blood magic effect tbh.
So depending on the campaign it can be quite worthwhile to choose certain damage types for your Dragon blaster. Especially noteworthy are those dragons that combine a spell-list with an atypical damage type or that offer you an atypical/rare saving throw against the Dragon Breath focus spell.
Typical means something like getting mental damage on an occult spellcaster or a Reflex save blast on fire/cold/acid/... ("primal") damage. But Poison & Fort saves are atypical for occult casters, as is void damage vs a Reflex save, or early Will save AoE spells. Thus the most noteworthy dragons are, in my opinion, the Sky Dragon (divine tradition + electricity damage), the Mirage Dragon (arcane tradition + Dragon Breath vs Will save), the Umbral Dragon (primal tradition + void damage vs Reflex), and the Conspirator Dragon (occult tradition + Dragon Breath vs Fortitude).
Finally, it also depends on your variant rules. If you have Free Archetype and go into the Flames Oracle to get Whirling Flames, then the Elemental bloodline focus spell doesn't do much for you anymore, as Whirling Flames already offer a unique and amazing versatility in the positioning of the blasts. In this case I would recommend the Draconic or Imperial bloodline as well, since you want to have arcane spellcasting if you go for a divine spellcasting archetype already.
I'm playing an arcane Dragon + FA: Flames Oracle blaster in Prey for Death atm, and it's a blast. With the Dragon Claws, the Dragon Breath & the Whirling Flames, I have all the versatility in blasting I need from focus spells, use my spell-slots for other blasts, and apply Foretell Harm to up the damage (especially when you hit someone's weakness).
Btw, at levels 11+ you might want to choose utility cantrips over the usual blasting cantrips, as you can a) afford cheap Spellhearts to get blasty cantrips, and b) have enough spell-slots to no longer need to blast with cantrips. For example Message & Tremor Signs for stealth communication, Tangle Vine as free rope, Prestidigidation to clean things up quickly, Eat Fire for defense, Detect Metal to help find hidden doors/traps/items, but most importantly Deep Breath as air poisons and suffocation are bigger threats than at low levels.
As an example, in the aforementioned Prey for Death campaign I had my Sorceress voluntarily engulf herself into the huge fire elemental as she took hardly any damage from being engulfed (high fire resistance), had no need to breathe (Deep Breath), had greater cover against the other enemies, and was also safe from being hit with the elemental's bludgeoning attacks, while the elemental was constantly offguard to her spell attacks; surpassing the Rupture value allows you to escape, but RAW you don't have to. :D
I will toss out an experiment I'm doing. This idea came from another forum member that I can't recall their name. They have more experience than I do with this combination and can post on it if they see this.
Imperial Sorcerer
You want to build around Anoint Ally and Explosion of Power.
Then take a mix of good blasting spells. Also remember your one action force barrage becomes very powerful as it is a bloodline spell that activates explosion of power.
You also want to grab Quicken Spell for your once a day big boom.
You want to mark one of your frontline allies as the battle starts, preferably before battle if have a decent scout.
Then you will set up the big blast using Ancestral Memories to blow up around the target, then maybe a 2 action Force Barrage to blow up again hitting a single target or just nuke an AOE like Chain lightning or fireball with the minus. You don't get as much blow up damage, but enough to make it more.
This will be on top of sorcerous potency, so you're stacking damaging effects.
Play around with it and think about how it works, then use it when situationally appropriate to blow up on targets. Hopefully you'll have a good frontline martial like a champion, monk, fighter, or barb to Anoint Ally.
And you can add: Check with your GM.
Anoint Ally only works when you or an ally would "gain a bloodmagic effect", which is not exactly what Explosion of Power does. So you should expect table variation on that.Around my table, it'd be no as the only ones gaining a "bloodmagic effects" are the ones being blasted. But I would allow you to transfer the effect (the damage) from one ally in the area to your anointed ally.
I also think I'm very much RAW on that, as no effect affects you when you use Explosion of Power. You're just the point of origin of the effect, which is damage.
Why not? Explosion of Power isn't a "blood magic effect" that your are gain? Why if you can emanate it you can't transfer it to be emanated by an ally via Anoint Ally?
It's not an effect targeting enemies it's you emanating an effect that could be harm to anyone in the AoE.
Including the description of Blood Magic almost confirms that every blood magic affects you including those you use to harm the others. They are Blood Magic that you get to use to affect the enemies, the "benefit" term is not used referring to conditions or buffs/debuff that a Blood Magic will generate but to Blood Magic itself:
Whenever you cast a bloodline spell using a Focus Point or a sorcerous gift spell using a spell slot, you choose one blood magic effect you know to benefit from. You begin play with the benefit listed in your bloodline and can gain others through sorcerer feats.
* The bold is mine to put in evidence.
I will toss out an experiment I'm doing. This idea came from another forum member that I can't recall their name. They have more experience than I do with this combination and can post on it if they see this.
Imperial Sorcerer
You want to build around Anoint Ally and Explosion of Power.
Then take a mix of good blasting spells. Also remember your one action force barrage becomes very powerful as it is a bloodline spell that activates explosion of power.
You also want to grab Quicken Spell for your once a day big boom.
You want to mark one of your frontline allies as the battle starts, preferably before battle if have a decent scout.
Then you will set up the big blast using Ancestral Memories to blow up around the target, then maybe a 2 action Force Barrage to blow up again hitting a single target or just nuke an AOE like Chain lightning or fireball with the minus. You don't get as much blow up damage, but enough to make it more.
This will be on top of sorcerous potency, so you're stacking damaging effects.
Play around with it and think about how it works, then use it when situationally appropriate to blow up on targets. Hopefully you'll have a good frontline martial like a champion, monk, fighter, or barb to Anoint Ally.
And you can add: Check with your GM.
Anoint Ally only works when you or an ally would "gain a bloodmagic effect", which is not exactly what Explosion of Power does. So you should expect table variation on that.
Around my table, it'd be no as the only ones gaining a "bloodmagic effects" are the ones being blasted. But I would allow you to transfer the effect (the damage) from one ally in the area to your anointed ally.
I also think I'm very much RAW on that, as no effect affects you when you use Explosion of Power. You're just the point of origin of the effect, which is damage.
The Blood Magic is a blast emanating from you or your ally. RAW it is gaining a blood magic effect. Nowhere does it say it must be a bonus or something of that kind. An emanation blast is still gaining a blood magic effect.
A DM can ban anything, but it doesn't make it by the rules or just their interpretation. Explosion of Power is still a blood magic effect you gain, just in the form of a blast.
You have anointed the ally with your blood and your blood explodes from their location with power as the benefit.