Best Gestalt Combo for Wizard

[Metus]

Hey everybody. I'm going to be a player in the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder adventure. However, it's just going to be me and another player. We're getting to do gestalt in an effort to balance things out a bit.

I've decided I'm going to play a wizard; maybe not the best choice but I have my heart set on it. What would be the best second class to take, in your opinion? The supplementary base classes, like Dragon Shaman and Ninja and whatnot, are available as choices.

You might ask what the second player is going to pick. He's still thinking about it as well, but he's leaning towards fighter/cleric, which would be nice. Regardless of what he picks, I was just looking for synergy for my character's gestalt combo.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It really depends on what you like to play the most.

1) Wizard/Warrior combos give you nice HP and such, but you'll have to find a way to deal with the whole armor issue.

2) Wizard/Druid or Cleric is nice- lots of spells and that means lots of flexibility, and your weapon and armor are going to be nearly as good as #1 above.

3) Wizard/Rogue, Scout, Ninja, Spellthief, Lurk, Bard, etc.- armor is less of an issue, and you'll have some nifty class abilities to go along with your spells.

4) Wizard/Psion- 3 words: Blast! Blast! Blast! This combo makes you into a human howitzer.

5) Wizard/Warlock- similar to the Psion combo, but a little more subtle. However, you'll NEVER run out of zapping power.

6) Wizard/Monk- a classic mystic, mixing spells and martial arts prowess. You'll be able to do all the tricks you see in the martial arts movies.

 

[Metus]

Aha! The wizard/psion combo had slipped my mind! That does seem a bit crazy over-powered. I'll have to think on that one.

I liked the warlock idea, but I don't like the alignment restriction at all.

Also thought about monk as well, but I was worried about having to spread my stats to thin to make it work.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...I was worried about having to spread my stats to thin to make it work.

When gestalting- as with any form of multiclassing- you don't try to superoptimize so that he can use all of his class abilities to the max. You find what distribution of stats will make the PC fun for you to run.

For example, with a Wiz/Monk, I'd max Int, Dex, and Wis...probably in that order. The rest of the stuff is minor. If you emphasize ranged touch attacks, your Dex will do multiple duty by improving your AC AND your attacks. Going with the more common Str build monk would 1) Hurt your AC; 2) Wouldn't positively affect the efficacy of any of your possible spells; 3) May tempt you into melee combat...and you don't want to be there.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

You might want to go Wizard//Factotum (from Dungeonscape). Looks like your buddy has the melee and divine slots covered, and the Factotum is almost 90% Int-based. Skills monkey, Int to AC and attack and damage and saves, limited healing, extra actions...what's not to love?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Which reminds me- the "Rogue-y" classes tend to have good Int synergies as well.

 

[milo]

I would say rogue, the sneak attack on spells is a nice boost and int would help with skills. It works well together. If you want spells all day pick up the reserve feat acidic splatter and just keep one of your highest spell slots filled with an acid spell and you have a ranged touch attack that you can apply sneak attack damage to with relative ease through other spells like improved invis.

 

[Thanee]

It's generally best to match two very different classes (i.e. either Wizard / Fighter or Wizard / Ranger or Wizard / Rogue or Wizard / Spellthief or somesuch).

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Anything with Psion in it is crazy overpowered, Gestalt or not.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Try not to give yourself too much MAD. I'd stick with other int-focused classes and just jack that up -- Factotem, Psion, Warblade, Duskblade. I personally don't like duskblade, and for you, it'd be a lot of stuff you could get as wizard spells anyway.

Facototem gives you int to MANY things,and with inspiration points, you can do things like auto-beat SR. there are spells for that too, though. The best thing is the versatility the class offers, and you cna choose any skills to put ranks in, they're all class skills.

Psion is just crazy casting power. One problem is that powers and spells are separate, which means even though you both use int, unliek a wizard/cleric, you'd need to take metamagic feats twice and such to affect both classes. Mildly annoying. I think this is a bad gestalt though, because you retain your crap HD and BAB, gain no extra good saves, and...no matter how much you can cast, you still only get your one turn per round.

Warblade is just nice. Adds d12 HD, full BAB, good fort saves, slightly more skill points and skills (including useful ones, like tumble), and maneuvers. both something touse to stretch out your spellusage at early levels and something to do when you have no spells useful for the situation.Also adds int to a fair number of things, including reflex saves (so you'd effectively have all good saves).

I'd say do Wizard/factotem if your friend does cleric/fighter, or wizard/warblade if he does cleric / rogue type. In any case, try to cover the 4 main class types (warrior, skills guy, arcanist, divine caster) between you two, and it's better to not have only one person with all the casting. Both for limits of actions and in case one of you is incapacitated.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There is also the question of exactly how nutty or stereotypical you want your build to be- there are some class/feat combos that could lead to some oddball fun in a gestalted PC.

For instance, the Heritage feats- Infernal, Celestial and Draconic- are open to sorcerers only (Draconic is open to any class, if you use Dragon Magic), and let you convert ANY arcane spells into attacks like breath weapons. Gestalting 2 arcane spellcasting classes gets you a bunch of arcane spells, letting you burn some for your breath weapons while retaining situational flexibility. You could effectively be something like a Focused Specialist (Enchanter)/Sorcerer and still have a LOT blasting power, even if you give up Evocation & Conjuration.

Similarly, a double caster gestalted PC would get a LOT of use out of the various Reserve Feats.