Please help with Gestalt Cleric/Paladin

[foxwick]

Next weekend I'm flying back to Vancouver for a company Xmas party, and while there I'll be hooking up with my old gaming group for a one-shot adventure. The DM has instructed us to make 8th level Gestalt characters. I volunteered to be the party healer again*, and the DM has said "There will be undead & demonic types".

*The last time I was in town we did the same thing and I played a Cleric 6/Paladin 2, thrown together a couple of hours before we played. His particulars:

Name: Vale Thunderright
Class: Cleric 6/Paladin 2
Race: Human
Size: M
Gender: M
Alignment: LG
Deity: Heironeous

Str: 14 +2     Level: 8        XP: 28000
Dex: 12 +1     BAB: +5         HP: 52
Con: 11 +0     Grapple: +7     Dmg Red: -/-
Int: 11 +0     Speed: 15'      Spell Res: --
Wis: 18 +4     Init: +1        Spell Save: --
Cha: 14 +2     AC: 24          Spell Fail: --%

       Base  Armor Shld  Dex  Size   Nat  Misc  Total
Armor: 10    +9    +4    +1   +0     +0   +0    24
Touch: 11              Flatfooted: 23

       Base  Mod  Misc  Total
Fort:  +7    +0   +2    +9
Ref:   +2    +1   +2    +5
Will:  +5    +4   +2    +11

Weapon             Attack   Damage  Critical
Keen Longsword +1  +9       1d8+3   17-20x2

Languages: Common

--Cleric--
Turn Undead (5/day)
Domains: Good, War

--Paladin--
Aura of Good (Ex)
Detect Evil (Sp)
Smite Evil (Su) (1/day)
Divine Grace (Su)
Lay on Hands (Su)

Feats:

    * Weapon Focus (Longsword) - from War Domain
    * Combat Casting
    * Toughness
    * Toughness
    * Toughness

Skills                 Ranks  Mod  Misc  Total
Concentration          11                +11
Diplomacy              5      +2   +2    +9
Heal                   4      +4   +2    +10
Knowledge (Religion)   8                 +8
Sense Motive           5      +4         +9

Magic Items              Cost    Weight
Longsword, Keen +1       8000gp  4 lb
Shield, Hvy, steel +2    4000gp  15 lb
Periapt of Wisdom        4000gp  -
Full Plate +1            1000gp  50 lb
Wand of CMW              4500gp  -
Gauntlets of Ogre Power  4000gp  2 lb

Be gentle on the ridicule - I had never built a Cleric before and only had a PHB and a short amount of time. The Toughness feats were due to crappy HP rolls, IIRC. We were granted the normal 27000gp for an eighth level starting character, but told all mundane stuff was free - same deal this time around.

Now, I've never built a Gestalt character, so I'm a little lost pulling everything together. I was originally thinking a straight Cleric/Paladin (because I don't have much time), but now I'm considering Favoured Soul and some cherrypicked Fighter or Marshall levels.

Any ideas or guidance anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Thanee]

Straight Favored Soul|Paladin sounds like a pretty good idea, actually.

Bye
Thanee

 

[XCorvis]

Favored Soul/Paladin is very good. Make your charisma high and you'll reap the spellcasting benefits, plus lay on hands and divine grace (on top of all good saves) and a better smite. It all stacks very nicely.

You can get away with having a fairly low wisdom if you choose your spells carefully. Just make sure they don't have saves. Take buff spells to offset your weaknesses - if your hp still suck, take bear's endurance. You've already got some healing from the paladin side of things so you don't need to blow Favored Soul slots on healing spells. If you want attack spells, look for ones that require a touch/ranged touch attack but don't have a save. You'll be very good at those.

 

[foxwick]

Ok, here is what I have.

It is a 40 point buy for abilities, both level bonuses (4 and 8) went into CHA. By following the advice about spell choice, I was able to leave WIS just high enough to get an extra Paladin 1st level spell.

The bold parts I'm not 100% decided on, and I'm not 100% confident in my spell selection - any comments, suggestions?

Name: Vale Thunderright
Class: Favoured Soul/Paladin 8
Race: Human
Size: M
Gender: M
Alignment: LG
Deity: Heironeous

Str: 16 +3     Level: 8        XP: 28000
Dex: 12 +1     BAB: +8         HP: 7d10+26 (61)
Con: 14 +2     Grapple: +10     Dmg Red: -/-
Int: 12 +1     Speed: 15'      Spell Res: --
Wis: 12 +1     Init: +1        Spell Save: --
Cha: 22 +6     AC: 25          Spell Fail: --%

       Base  Armor Shld  Dex  Size   Nat  Def  Total
Armor: 10    +9    +4    +1   +0     +0   +1    25
Touch: 12              Flatfooted: 24

       Base  Mod  Misc*  Total
Fort:  +6    +2   +6    +14
Ref:   +6    +1   +6    +13
Will:  +6    +1   +6    +13
*Divine Grace

Weapon             Attack   Damage  Critical
Keen Longsword +1  +12/+7       1d8+3   17-20x2

Languages: Common

Class Abilities:
Diety's Weapon Focus (Longsword)
Energy Resistance 10 ([b]Fire?[/b])
Aura of Good (Ex)
Detect Evil (Sp)
Smite Evil (Su) (4/day) (Extra Smiting)
Divine Grace (Su)
Lay on Hands (Su)
Aura of Courage
Divine Health
Turn Undead (9/day)
Remove Disease (1/week)

Feats:
Sacred Healing (Complete Divine)
[b]Combat Casting
Empower Turning (Complete Divine)
Extra Smiting (Complete Warrior)[/b]

Skills(44)                      Ranks  Mod  Misc  Total
Concentration                   11     +2         +13
Diplomacy                       1      +6         +7
Heal                            6      +1         +7
Knowledge (Arcana)              5      +1         +6
Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty)  5      +1         +6
Knowledge (Religion)            9      +1         +10
Sense Motive                    6      +1         +7
Spellcraft                      5      +1         +6

Magic Items              Cost    Weight
Longsword, Keen +1       8000gp  4 lb
Shield, Hvy, steel +2    4000gp  15 lb
Full Plate +1            1000gp  50 lb
Cloak of Charisma        4000gp  2 lb
Gauntlets of Ogre Power  4000gp  2 lb
[b]Ring of Protection +1    2000gp  -[/b]
Wand of CMW (20 charges) 1800gp  -

2200gp left for potions presently

Spells (Favoured Soul):

Level 0 (8 known, 6/day)
Create Water
Detect Magic
Detect Poison
Light
Read Magic
Mending
Cure Minor Wound
Guidance

Level 1 (6 known, 6/day)
Bless
Divine Favour
Shield of Faith
Nimbus of Light (Complete Divine)
Ray of Resurgence (Lost Empires of Faerun)
Touch of Jorasco (Races of Eberron)

Level 2 (5 known, 6/day)
Augury
Consecrate
Silence
Spiritual Weapon
Resist Energy

Level 3 (4 known, 5/day)
Searing Light
Vigor (Complete Divine)
Protection from Negative Energy (Libris Mortis)
Sheltered Vitality (Libris Mortis)

Level 4 (3 known, 3/day)
Divine Power
Death Ward
Restoration
Recitation (Complete Divine)

Spells Memorized (Paladin):

Level 1
Restoration, Lesser (2)

 

[Darklone]

No Divine Might with Cha 22 for a melee build?

 

[foxwick]

Good question. I'd have to invest in Power Attack first to get Divine Might. Since the adventure is likely to be quite dark and demonic (read: Evil), I'm figuring that Extra Smiting will have almost the same impact. 4 times vs. 9 (if I used all the turning attempts for Divine Might - not likely), and the Smite is +6 to attack, +8 to damage vs. +0 to attack, +6 to damage.

 

[XCorvis]

Lookin good. Consider Bless Weapon for one of your prepared paladin spells. It makes your weapon magical, good-aligned and you auto-confirm crits. (Except when you use a keen weapon, unfortunately.) Maybe carry around a mw silver or cold iron scimitar as a backup weapon.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Are you really sold on Combat Casting? Your Concentration modifier is high enough without it that you probably won't ever need it, and Skill Focus (Concentration) is more broadly applicable.

 

[foxwick]

Both good suggestions.

I had chosen Restoration, Lesser for the Paladin spells because I didn't put any Restoration on the Favoured Soul list (mistake above - only 3 supposed to be known). I'll consider a different weapon enhancement (other than Keen) in order to help decide if I should pick up Bless.

Combat Casting was partially in the list because I considered taking it's followup - Shielded Casting. Since I dropped that, I should probably review the prereq compared to alternatives - thanks.

 

[Cabral]

What is Shielded Casting?