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Ok, so our 2nd healer in a row bailed, and I'm tired of dealing with this, so I'm "retiring" my fighter, and made an Aasimar Paladin.

As a standard paladin at lvl 5, he currently has 12 Lay on Hands, but 4 of those have to be used as Channels. He also has two 1st level spells, which all in all doesn't do a world of good with healing. I took a trait that will allow my casting of them to be at +1CL, so they'll be 1d8+3 right now. Since I had to sacrifice my fighter for this, I also wanted to have a guy who was good at combat, so he's taking his divine bond with his weapon, leaving him with a Bastard Sword +1 Flaming, and a +10AB with it (before Smite Evil).

So my question is, should I take the Hospitaler archetype. If I did, it would leave me with 8 Lay on Hands at 3d6, and 9 Channels at 1d6 (currently). The only real sacrifice I'd be making for this is fewer Smite Evils per day, but I don't see myself needing them that often, since their primary use will be against the BBEG's of the story arc. I'd also need to drop either Extra Channels, dropping me to 7, or Weapon Focus, so I could take Selective Channel.

So, my healing opportunities as a Hospitaler expand greatly, with a slight mitigation to combat ability. I think it's a good idea, but I've had bad experiences with Archetypes in the past, with them not being as effective in play as they looked in planning, so I figured I'd see if anyone had anything bad to say about it.