Best Gestalt Combo for Wizard

[Drowbane]

My favorite Int-based gestalt is Psion | Warblade (warforged, of course). I suppose a Warblade | Wizard wouldn't be too bad... Psi has the advantage of not getting screwed for wearing armor.

Psi | Wizard would be interesting. Wizard mainly for utility spells, Psi for blasting and ablative shielding. But as another mentioned, you're still stuck with a d4 HD and two bad saves.

 

[Metus]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I appreciate it. I'll take a closer look at some of the classes and do some deciding.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Heh...I've wanted to play an Adamantine body warforged Marshal/Sorcerer for some time and only use spells without somatic components. If I could swing it, I'd also take one of the "Heritage" feats or Spellfire or something, anything letting him channel spell energy into attacks.

 

[Darklone]

Warblade/wizard.

 

[irdeggman]

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.

Try a sorcerer/warlock instead of wizard.

Better synergy, less MAD - max on Charisma and Dex.

The fey heritage feat chain from Complete Mage is a must (at least through Fey Power (+1 to CL and saving throws for Enchantment spells and warlock invocations). The Fey Skin feat grants DR/Cold iron which stacks with essentially everything except DR from spells and items (e.g., it stacks with the warlock's class ability).

The alignment restriction for a warlock is not really that bad - chaotic or evil.

It is generally pretty easy to play a chaotic good PC (in fact most of the players I have gamed with run that alignment whether or not they actually have chosen it).

Go with human for the bonus feat.

Sorcerer spells focused on enchantments (for synergy with the Fey Power feat) and warlock invocations for pure power.

Another interesting combination, well at least to me, is a warlock/soul knife. While it doesn't fit your wizard concept it is still pretty good in concept. They are never weaponless and do not depend tremendously on Strength. The mindblade enhancements make up for the Str damage - and if you focus on Dex with two weapon fighting you can attack with two short swords both having the enhancement applied (albeit with the straight up + reduced, the "special" qualities apply to both blades)

 

[Elethiomel]

Another possibility is a Wizard | Swashbuckler. Int to damage, decent skill list, free Weapon Finesse, full BAB... it may even be worth picking up 3 levels of swashbuckler on the Warblade side if you decide to go Wizard | Warblade.

 

[Drowbane]

Heh...I've wanted to play an Adamantine body warforged Marshal/Sorcerer for some time and only use spells without somatic components. If I could swing it, I'd also take one of the "Heritage" feats or Spellfire or something, anything letting him channel spell energy into attacks.

very cool concept.

warforged marshal 1 / crusader 5 | sorc 6

feats flaws (2): ??? ???
1 adamantine body, draconic heritage: (choose a true dragon), draconic breath (use a spellslot to power a cone or line BW-type attack)
3 thick-skinned (improves DR to 4/adamantine)
6 arcane strike (use a spellslot to give a +spell-level to hit and +spell-level d4 to dmg)

edit: added flaws, RAW 3.5 is feat-starved (my group uses feat per level, and we're still feat-starved)

...It is generally pretty easy to play a chaotic good PC (in fact most of the players I have gamed with run that alignment whether or not they actually have chosen it)...

Agreed!

IME, the majority of PCs seem to be either C/G or N/E in play... alignment on paper be damned.

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm amazed that no one has mentioned Paladin/Wizard (and especially Paladin/Sorcerer). While Paladins are that annyoing LG, they offer a wealth of bonuses. Sure, you suffer a casting penalty for wearing armor, but you can minimize this with the right gear (Mithril Bucker, for example). Or, you can just forego armor and cast mage armor and/or shield when you really need it. (If you choose Sorcerer, you get more pops/day with a specialized spell list and couples nicely with Paladin's healing bonuses for high Cha.)

Bard/Wizard (and again, Bard/Sorc is prolly better) is your jack-of-all-trades, now with more casting power! More spells is always better. If you're module-busting, you want to have as many skills as possible; high Int will help your Bard maximize his skills list.

Druid/Wizard. FTW. When you run out of nuking powers, you still have nuking (and healing) powers to spare. And instant Summon Nature's Ally spells means more bodies to absorb hits when the guano hits the fan. Plus, shapeshifting!

Heck, go Bard/Druid and be thematically awesome AND effective.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

very cool concept.

warforged marshal 1 / crusader 5 | sorc 6

feats flaws (2): ??? ???
1 adamantine body, draconic heritage: (choose a true dragon), draconic breath (use a spellslot to power a cone or line BW-type attack)
3 thick-skinned (improves DR to 4/adamantine)
6 arcane strike (use a spellslot to give a +spell-level to hit and +spell-level d4 to dmg)

edit: added flaws, RAW 3.5 is feat-starved (my group uses feat per level, and we're still feat-starved)

Well, we don't use Bo9S, so those Crusader levels would disappear- they'd either be more Marshal or Sorc levels, or perhaps Fighter.

Ideally, though, I'd love to put some Wilder levels in there, and take Expanded Knowledge to add Expansion...but most of the DMs in our group don't like Psionics, so that's just a pipe dream.

 

[Nifft]

Warblade/wizard.

Yeah. This would be my first pick.

If you can't use Warblade, then I'd go for Wizard // Ranger.

In either case, it's easy enough to pick up a level or two of a PrC that reduces (or removes) your arcane spell failure chance for light enough armors.

I'm amazed that no one has mentioned Paladin/Wizard (and especially Paladin/Sorcerer).

Perhaps that's because Paladin // Wizard would suck? Paladins need a lot of stats, and Int is very high on the dumpable list. Wizards need Int, period.

Sorcerer // Paladin is a very different beast, and quite viable.

Cheers, -- N