Best Pathfinder Buffer?

[Dragon Star]

I'm making a new character for a pathfinder campaign, and as far as I can tell the best thing for me to be is a buffer or maybe battlefield controller. Basically, we have a Summoner, a druid minonmancer, a melee rogue, an archer, and a witch (dunno what role. Might be a buffer already, might be a blaster, might be anything really). Looking at this, it seems like some kind of cleric type would be best. Am I right? If so, what is best for buffing/battlefield control? I've looked at Oracle, Cleric, and Wizard/Sorcerer, but I'm not sure which is best for this group. I played 3.5 for 6 years, but I'm kinda new to pathfinder, and i have never made a buffer before (not really a support type person, but i might as well try it). Thanks in advance!

[ericgrau]

Cleric is good, but thanks to move/swift action singing added in PF bard is better. Bard also gets the better arcane spell buffs to cast in the same round. Try gallant inspiration, haste and greater invisibility as some of the better examples. There's also feather fall, heroic fortune, disguise other, arcane concordance, scroll of mass feather step, phantom steed, and freedom of movement.

If you want to do it as a cleric I'd get bless, shield other, prayer, magic circle against evil, greater magic weapon, freedom of movement, imbue with spell ability + shield other, *blessing of fervor*, and 100 scrolls of remove X. At higher levels there are more too: heroes' feast, air walk and others I probably missed. Get a lesser rod of extend spell or the feat (if you want to extend 4th level spells) to cast the higher duration spells in the morning.

[Bhaakon]

The summoner and druid should already be good buffers (unless the players are purposely ignoring their many quality buff spells).

Though a bit unconventional, an alchemist with the infusion discovery makes an interesting buffer, because it allows you to cast spells that normally have a range of "personal" on other characters (as well as letting you "cast" with other PC's actions, and letting you access a lot of alchemist-specific buffs).

[ericgrau]

The summoner hardly gets any buffs that a wizard or bard doesn't, but the advantage is that you add one more target to be buffed (your eidolon). So that could work very well unless your party is already all beat sticks. On druid all I found was barkskin, stone skin, air walk, freedom of movement and I suppose you could also carry around a scroll of mass feather step. Are there other druid buffs that I missed? Because that hardly seems worthwhile to focus on.

Yeah, I know about the level 2 +2 buffs, and they're usually not worth the round it takes to cast them. Even when you have a buffing round Pathfinder added blessing of fervor and arcane concordance on top of haste and bless so there's no longer any reason left for a focused buffer to fall back on them. Even in 3.5 they were only good when you had nothing better to do pre-combat.

[Menteith]

I would argue the Alchemist is the best buffer. Since it only takes a minute of preparation to create an extract, you can effectively cast anything off your formula list out of combat. This allows for maximized utility - if you're decent at predicting when a given extract will be needed, you'll have it. Additionally, you maximize combat action efficiency. Instead of spending your own actions to buff people, the Barbarian can "cast" Enlarge Person while the Rogue "casts" Improved Invisibility and the Wizard uses your list for a Displacement. On top of that, there are unique buffs that are only available through an Alchemist - Fluid Form, Magic Jar for team, Twin Form, Overland Flight for everyone, Delayed Consumption gives every party member a Contingency - and you can add any spell you want by buying a Scroll. Finally, you can use the 2nd level extract Alchemical Allotment to reuse a potion without consuming it - this gives you Shield of Faith +5, Barkskin +5, Greater Magic Fang +5, Elixir of Perception, and Elixir of Hiding available for a 2nd level spell. You also use either Melee attacks or Bombs as primary attacks, so you don't lose anything by spending slots on buffing people.

tldr - Alchemist's have a significant number of unique spells, any of which can be cast ~spontaneously. The unique spells you have can't be replicated by any other means, and your buff list is huge and easily improved through both Potions and Scrolls. You lose no combat ability by buffing people since spell slots aren't your primary attack.