I am going to be playing in a level 20, pbp Gestalt game soon and I need help with a certain aspect of character building...optimization.
The character in question is the following...
[Pit Fiend 20]///[Cleric 20]
The pit fiend is a homebrew monster class that has no LA but rather gains all of it's abilities slowly like a standard class would instead of all at once. The links to the class and monster class info are placed below..
NOTE: If you don't care about fluff and me ranting on this character's roll in the party, skip down to Mechanic guidelines.
The idea behind the build is to create character wise a "tyrant" type who was exiled from hell(In this campaign setting hell/the outer planes are handeled very differently...it's actually posible to get to the outer planes from the materal plane by boat.) for staging a failed coup and now he has taken over a section of the material plane and uses it as his base of operations to complete his plan of making himself a god. He is a powerful tyrant who can smite people with divine magic or even engage in combat if it came down to that.
He also has an army of minions(which includes his followers who where exiled with him and monsters from the material plane which have been rallied to serve him. However, they are will not be a factor since the DM dose not want use of leadership beyond maybe a single cohort in the game and in fact this build had to be changed to accommodate that(Originally the cleric side of the gestalt was 10 cleric/10 dreadmaster(refluffed).)
Also, a note on divine magic, a pit fiend/cleric may seam kinda odd, but in this setting Divine Magic dose not come from the gods but rather introspection and channeling the power within you.(Sounds kinda like a sorcerer..XD) Arcane magic comes from good old fashion academic study and using the power around you.
As for the game mechanics, this guy is a potent spellcaster and and a good meleer. He has full cleric spellcasting plus Pit Fiend spell-like abilities which include some of the most powerful wizard/sorcerer spells such as greater teleport and wish. As for his melee, he gets heavy armor from cleric and the same BAB as a fighter from Pit Fiend. He also gets +7 to strength from pit fiend and all the cleric buffs from full cleric spellcasting, making him a good gish. Also, as far as melee goes he gets some natural weapons and his large size has nice synergy with things like Knockdown.
As for what my roll will be with this character gameplay wise? Well, I can be a tank and will most likely get into melee with persisted cleric buffs and other such things. However, I am also am also one of the parties's only full divine casters, the other being a [spirit shaman]//[Outsider/Hexblade] .The necromancer only gets divine spells of 0-8 since the lich template LA makes cloistered cleric end at level 16 instead of 9 and the other party members are either arcanists meleers or psionists, with almost all of them being arcane casters of some kind. In fact, the only two characters without arcane casting are myself and the chimera monk I mentioned earler and only one character has spellcasting on neither side of his gestalt(The monk.) Everybody else has casting on both sides of their gestlat(including myself if you count the fiend SLAs as "casting"). So my party roll? Full divine caster, melee fighter. I can even be the party face in a pinch with a good charisma and get 6+int modifer skill points from Pit Fiend.
So, now, the important part...
"Mechanics Guidelines:
Level 20 Gestalt
No multiclassing penalties
You must qualify for dual progression classes on one side of the gestalt
Ability scores: 32 point buy, except all abilities start at 10 (44 buy equivalency). Don't forget the 5 extra points from leveling.
Hit points: Max HP
Alignment: Any (Evil is definitely okay, and so is good- but keep in mind I want the party to be able to work together, so I might have to lean towards one or the other overall)
Flaws and Traits: You may have a maximum of 2 flaws and 4 traits. You may take the Pathetic flaw, but only with my approval (you must have a good reason for wanting a below average ability score).
Level Adjustment: You may take races with LA, but there is no buyoff. LA is on one side of the gestalt.
Wealth and Magic items:
-800,000 starting gold
-Magic Armor and Weapon costs works somewhat differently. The enhancement bonus and special abilities track separately in terms of price, and you add the two to determine the price. For example, a +3 keen, flaming sword would have +3 enhancement, and +2 special abilities, costing 18,000 and 8,000 respectively, giving a total price of 26,000.
-A weapon or suit of armor may not have more than a +5 enhancement bonus. A weapon or suit of armor is also limited to +10 in special abilities (though enhancement bonuses do not count against your +10 special ability total).
-Weapon or armor with a +5 enhancement bonus can carry two augment crystals.
-Masterwork and base weapon/armor cost is now considered to be included in the enchanting price. Special materials still cost the same to add.
-I encourage item combination. Feel free to utilize the combining magic items rules on page 233-234 of the MIC. For most items, I will allow combining at no extra cost (exceptions being things like Augment Crystals). In general, I heavily prefer characters to have a few powerful and interesting artifacts, as opposed to being decorated like a Christmas tree with little magic items.
Sources: WotC material is approved, though if you use any setting specific material, please quote it, as I am less familiar with it.
Dragon Magazine material approved on case by case basis (though I may need references or write ups).
Homebrew: Material by Krimm Blackleaf, The Demented One and Fax Celestis are encouraged, and will most likely be approved (I do want you to ask, but mostly only so that I know what you're doing). Other homebrew on a case by case basis (and there is some great stuff out there).
Progression Past Level 20:
One feat per level.
You gain one virtual class level, which does not add to your HD or skill rank maximum.
You may never have more than +20 BAB, +12 base save, 184 base skill points (23 ranks), or 240 base HP. Most other abilities are capped at effective level of 20 for class benefits (you can have 20 caster level, or initiator level from classes, for example, but no higher).
(Base skill points are skill points from class total alone. It does not count intelligence modifier, feats, or the human bonus. Base HP is HP before feats, constitution modifier, and other such things).
(Constitution modifier and other level based HP bonuses only apply for the first 20 levels)."- Quoted from the campaign info put up by the DM
Seeing those rules, what would be good ability scores, magic items and feats for this guy? I have already come up with some ability score lineups on my own, but I know there are some people out there who can be greatly efficient at ability score generation and squeeze high stats out of what seams like nothing. The most important thing however is magic items. I simply don't know all the magic items that exist and as such I am most likely to miss something good for this character.
So any questions?
The character in question is the following...
[Pit Fiend 20]///[Cleric 20]
The pit fiend is a homebrew monster class that has no LA but rather gains all of it's abilities slowly like a standard class would instead of all at once. The links to the class and monster class info are placed below..
Monster Class homebrew info:
[3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-taking requests! - Giant in the Playground Forums
Pit Fiend Monster Class:
Giant in the Playground Forums - View Single Post - [3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-taking requests!
[3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-taking requests! - Giant in the Playground Forums
Pit Fiend Monster Class:
Giant in the Playground Forums - View Single Post - [3.5]Improved monster classes: adapting creatures for player use-taking requests!
NOTE: If you don't care about fluff and me ranting on this character's roll in the party, skip down to Mechanic guidelines.
The idea behind the build is to create character wise a "tyrant" type who was exiled from hell(In this campaign setting hell/the outer planes are handeled very differently...it's actually posible to get to the outer planes from the materal plane by boat.) for staging a failed coup and now he has taken over a section of the material plane and uses it as his base of operations to complete his plan of making himself a god. He is a powerful tyrant who can smite people with divine magic or even engage in combat if it came down to that.
He also has an army of minions(which includes his followers who where exiled with him and monsters from the material plane which have been rallied to serve him. However, they are will not be a factor since the DM dose not want use of leadership beyond maybe a single cohort in the game and in fact this build had to be changed to accommodate that(Originally the cleric side of the gestalt was 10 cleric/10 dreadmaster(refluffed).)
Also, a note on divine magic, a pit fiend/cleric may seam kinda odd, but in this setting Divine Magic dose not come from the gods but rather introspection and channeling the power within you.(Sounds kinda like a sorcerer..XD) Arcane magic comes from good old fashion academic study and using the power around you.
As for the game mechanics, this guy is a potent spellcaster and and a good meleer. He has full cleric spellcasting plus Pit Fiend spell-like abilities which include some of the most powerful wizard/sorcerer spells such as greater teleport and wish. As for his melee, he gets heavy armor from cleric and the same BAB as a fighter from Pit Fiend. He also gets +7 to strength from pit fiend and all the cleric buffs from full cleric spellcasting, making him a good gish. Also, as far as melee goes he gets some natural weapons and his large size has nice synergy with things like Knockdown.
As for what my roll will be with this character gameplay wise? Well, I can be a tank and will most likely get into melee with persisted cleric buffs and other such things. However, I am also am also one of the parties's only full divine casters, the other being a [spirit shaman]//[Outsider/Hexblade] .The necromancer only gets divine spells of 0-8 since the lich template LA makes cloistered cleric end at level 16 instead of 9 and the other party members are either arcanists meleers or psionists, with almost all of them being arcane casters of some kind. In fact, the only two characters without arcane casting are myself and the chimera monk I mentioned earler and only one character has spellcasting on neither side of his gestalt(The monk.) Everybody else has casting on both sides of their gestlat(including myself if you count the fiend SLAs as "casting"). So my party roll? Full divine caster, melee fighter. I can even be the party face in a pinch with a good charisma and get 6+int modifer skill points from Pit Fiend.
So, now, the important part...
"Mechanics Guidelines:
Level 20 Gestalt
No multiclassing penalties
You must qualify for dual progression classes on one side of the gestalt
Ability scores: 32 point buy, except all abilities start at 10 (44 buy equivalency). Don't forget the 5 extra points from leveling.
Hit points: Max HP
Alignment: Any (Evil is definitely okay, and so is good- but keep in mind I want the party to be able to work together, so I might have to lean towards one or the other overall)
Flaws and Traits: You may have a maximum of 2 flaws and 4 traits. You may take the Pathetic flaw, but only with my approval (you must have a good reason for wanting a below average ability score).
Level Adjustment: You may take races with LA, but there is no buyoff. LA is on one side of the gestalt.
Wealth and Magic items:
-800,000 starting gold
-Magic Armor and Weapon costs works somewhat differently. The enhancement bonus and special abilities track separately in terms of price, and you add the two to determine the price. For example, a +3 keen, flaming sword would have +3 enhancement, and +2 special abilities, costing 18,000 and 8,000 respectively, giving a total price of 26,000.
-A weapon or suit of armor may not have more than a +5 enhancement bonus. A weapon or suit of armor is also limited to +10 in special abilities (though enhancement bonuses do not count against your +10 special ability total).
-Weapon or armor with a +5 enhancement bonus can carry two augment crystals.
-Masterwork and base weapon/armor cost is now considered to be included in the enchanting price. Special materials still cost the same to add.
-I encourage item combination. Feel free to utilize the combining magic items rules on page 233-234 of the MIC. For most items, I will allow combining at no extra cost (exceptions being things like Augment Crystals). In general, I heavily prefer characters to have a few powerful and interesting artifacts, as opposed to being decorated like a Christmas tree with little magic items.
Sources: WotC material is approved, though if you use any setting specific material, please quote it, as I am less familiar with it.
Dragon Magazine material approved on case by case basis (though I may need references or write ups).
Homebrew: Material by Krimm Blackleaf, The Demented One and Fax Celestis are encouraged, and will most likely be approved (I do want you to ask, but mostly only so that I know what you're doing). Other homebrew on a case by case basis (and there is some great stuff out there).
Progression Past Level 20:
One feat per level.
You gain one virtual class level, which does not add to your HD or skill rank maximum.
You may never have more than +20 BAB, +12 base save, 184 base skill points (23 ranks), or 240 base HP. Most other abilities are capped at effective level of 20 for class benefits (you can have 20 caster level, or initiator level from classes, for example, but no higher).
(Base skill points are skill points from class total alone. It does not count intelligence modifier, feats, or the human bonus. Base HP is HP before feats, constitution modifier, and other such things).
(Constitution modifier and other level based HP bonuses only apply for the first 20 levels)."- Quoted from the campaign info put up by the DM
Seeing those rules, what would be good ability scores, magic items and feats for this guy? I have already come up with some ability score lineups on my own, but I know there are some people out there who can be greatly efficient at ability score generation and squeeze high stats out of what seams like nothing. The most important thing however is magic items. I simply don't know all the magic items that exist and as such I am most likely to miss something good for this character.
So any questions?
