healer w/bodyguard suggestions

[Zanfire]

kinda new to d&d, specially non core and non mele, looking to build a new char around the premise of a distance heal focused caster w/a construct or summon to protect her. was thinking healer/shaper/hierophant. tryna stay away from cleric (cant get past the thematics of a armored mace wielding healer) and keep to low-mid lvs if at all possible, but id b glad for any suggestions what so ever. thanks in advance.

[Forged Fury]

(Cloistered) Cleric/Warlock/Eldritch Disciple w/Healing Blast option and the Eldritch Chain feat. Probably useful to take Extra Turning at least once. Use your cleric spells to boost your bodyguard. Take Craft Construct (pretty feat intensive) or UMD a Golem Manual for your bodyguard.

Alternately, you could almost certainly also make this work with just an artificer and wands with metamagic Reach Cure X Wounds spells or Mass Cure X Wounds spells.

Most will probably tell you in-combat healing is a waste of resources.

[Shpadoinkle]

The problem with in-combat healing is that it's hard to get it to the point that it significantly compares to the damage being dished out every round to the people you're healing. You have to spend multiple rounds to negate the actions of a single round by the enemy.

Which isn't to say it's NEVER worth doing. A well placed Cure Serious Wounds can put the fighter back up to enough HP that he can run back into melee with one hits' worth of HP buffer between him and death, which may be long enough for him to kill the enemy first.

There's also the fact that you could instead be spending time and spells on buffing your allies (which generally gives a bigger advantage than negating a single round's worth of attacks) and/or debuffing enemies (which, when it works, almost always gives a bigger advantage)