Best Gestalt Combo for Wizard

[StreamOfTheSky]

I've been considering trying a Warlock/Rogue build centered around Darkness and Devil's Sight for EB+Sneak attack every round, but I get the feeling the rest of the party would object to Darkness every combat.

Currently playing a (homebrew) Ninja // Cloistered Cleric / Shadowcraft Mage in my game. I wanted to keep Deeper Darkness up 24/7 on my character, but the party balked. (And yes, walking around in daytime with it would be the opposite of sneaky, but it'd look so badass!) He had a class feature to gain miss chance in darkness, blind-fight feat, lowlight and darkvision (no actual help in this case).... But they just refused. So...I cast it on a rock and keep it in his pocket most of the time.

Hmmm...anyone have an idea of how to finish a pick-up like that starts, "Is that a black hole in your pants, or...?"

 

[kopliu]

Top 2 Gesalt Chars I've played were a cleric/wizard who took True Necromancer / Pale Master combo. wasn't that powerful stat wise but once I got General of Undeath (+10x your lvl to # of undead you can control) spell it worked pretty well with some wandering hulks (20 hd)

If you want all around power go for a Barbarian / Warlock with Vow of Poverty. the charismatic barbarian may seem a bit of an oxymoron but hideous blow (arcane blast is added to melee damage) + all of the warlocks passive abilities + the Vow removes the need to wear armor + the fact that later on you can kill dragons with the aforementioned wooden spoon makes it an awesome butkicker. if you skip the Vow get the feat to allow you to use Medium armor otherwise you will get hurt ALOT.

Great Thread

EDITS: General of Undeath is a Ghostscape Spell

 

[jedavis]

Eh... Hideous Blow is not so great, unless they patched it since I last played a warlock. Provoking an AoO to improve melee damage with a standard action (thereby preventing full attacking) is not optimal. Rogue // Barbarian is better for improving melee damage through sneak attack, since you can use full attack with sneak attack, and it also has the rogue skills and Evasion.

Your necromancer reminds me of the last gestalt game I played, with a Ghoul/Evolved Undead/Exemplar // True Sorcerer. TruSorcs run on Cha-based Spellcraft to cast their spells, so Exemplar let him take 10 on casting in combat, which was awesome and Ghoul and Evolved Undead boosted his Charisma through the roof. TruSorcs also take subdual damage for casting; being undead negated this effect, allowing infinite spellcasting, since damage is the main balancing mechanism. He got banned from a gestalt monster campaign after one use. I then went with a significantly more balanced Incubus / Exemplar // TruSorc, who worked nicely.

Also of note in that campaign were an evil Pixie Fighter/Rogue with a spiked chain and far too many AoOs per round and an Earth Element Half-Ogre Crusader. We had to take monster levels from Savage Species on one side and classes on the other; it allowed for interesting characters while also using SS's nerfed monsters.

 

[Thanee]

True Necromancer / Pale Master combo

But you know you cannot take two Prestige Classes at the same time with the Gestalt rules, yes?

Oh, and True Necromancer is also a type of PrC, which you shouldn't use at all with the Gestalt rules (as said there).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Herobizkit]

Rogue // Barbarian is better for improving melee damage through sneak attack, since you can use full attack with sneak attack, and it also has the rogue skills and Evasion.

True story. I have a Gnoll Barbarian//Rogue NPC that has a disgusting damage output using a +2 Keen Falchion. He favors scythes, though... woe to the beast upon which he rolls a 20.

 

[Sunking]

Had a Monk//Rogue/assasin with a scythe ohh dat was the good times!!!

But take fighter //wizard then use the alternative class feture Armored mage from Com. Mage
costs prof with medium and heavy armor
gains the ability to cast arcane spells without ASF in light armor
(max up to spell lvl = fighter lvl+1)

Now you have 2 ways to go
1) the easy and most smelling of cheese: i underdark there are a +3 enchantment named halfweight wich makes any armor light...

2) after lvl 8 fighter (so you can cast up til lvl 9 spells without ASF) you find a PRC that grants you the armor profs you sold back, now take the Battle caster feat from Com. arcane (wich ops your ability to cast without ASF to medium armor) now build heavy armor with mithril (wich takes it down to medium armor )= Warmage

Ohh yea almost forgot add the feat Arcane Strike from Com. Warrior and you are set for go

this is the gestalt kombo for straight gish and people who like warmage and or Eldrick knight and or spellsword and or (inset arcane caster meele type her)

 

[Nifft]

Eh... Hideous Blow is not so great, unless they patched it since I last played a warlock.

Nope, you're right. It sucks. Eldritch Glaive is decent, though.

We had to take monster levels from Savage Species on one side and classes on the other; it allowed for interesting characters while also using SS's nerfed monsters.

This is 100% broken.

First off, SS didn't nerf monsters. It allowed them to be played from level 1, by breaking down their HD and LA into discrete PC-sized levels you could work through.

Second, allowing LA on only one side is broken. Flat out, if it's allowed, there is nothing more optimal in the game than putting all of one side as LA: throw on those templates, pump your stats, get free powers, etc. Gestalt is fiddly enough when working as intended, using LA on one side only breaks it entirely.

Cheers, -- N

 

[jedavis]

Nope, you're right. It sucks. Eldritch Glaive is decent, though.

Where is the Glaive from?

This is 100% broken.

First off, SS didn't nerf monsters. It allowed them to be played from level 1, by breaking down their HD and LA into discrete PC-sized levels you could work through.

Second, allowing LA on only one side is broken. Flat out, if it's allowed, there is nothing more optimal in the game than putting all of one side as LA: throw on those templates, pump your stats, get free powers, etc. Gestalt is fiddly enough when working as intended, using LA on one side only breaks it entirely.

Cheers, -- N

Yeah, it was very broken. But it was fun, and the concept of the game was to try it out, so it was within the social contract. You're probably right about the templates (which have seen standard play in our group with some success), but we had found the monster classes to not be so great; too few HD and low base saves, so they weren't durable enough for characters of their level unless you're playing a monster type that is heavily defensive. Just our impression, though.

We tried it at 8th level or so to see how it would work at mid-levels, and went up against gestalt dwarves in powered armor using modified D20 Future mecha rules, then cranked it up to 20th level and laid waste to three clones of the Elemental Prince of Cold and Evil (he was in Dragon a while back... CR24 or so) plus a small hoard of his minions.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Where is the Glaive from?

Dragon Magic. The advantages are that you can get multiple attacks from high BAB and it acts as a reach weapon so you can get lots of AoOs.

 

[Nifft]

Dragon Magic. The advantages are that you can get multiple attacks from high BAB and it acts as a reach weapon so you can get lots of AoOs.

Yep, exactly.

Yeah, it was very broken. But it was fun, and the concept of the game was to try it out, so it was within the social contract. You're probably right about the templates (which have seen standard play in our group with some success), but we had found the monster classes to not be so great; too few HD and low base saves, so they weren't durable enough for characters of their level unless you're playing a monster type that is heavily defensive. Just our impression, though.

What you're describing is the general problem with LA: past one or two lost levels, you become more of a glass cannon than even a normal Wizard, because hit dice are so very important.

Thus, the benefits of high LA are huge to "balance" this discrepancy, but if you're allowed to put LA "on one side" of a Gestalt, then you get just the huge benefits and none of the painful-to-the-point-of-unplayable penalties. This is LA's fault for having no mass transit being poorly designed in the first place.

Cheers, -- N