Hrothgar Rannúlfr
Explorer
I just checked my Complete Arcane and it doesn't show any alignment restrictions that I can find. Are you sure there's an alignment restriction?
EDIT: I found it. Any evil or chaotic.
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Best Gestalt Combo for Wizard
- Thread starter Metus
- Start date
EDIT: I found it. Any evil or chaotic.
Not at all helpful to the OP since this thread is so old, but my two cents:
3.5's action economy means that wizard/any caster is going to not be much better than a wizard. Much of the power of these classes is tied up in their spells, and you can still only cast 1 a round, just like a single classed wizard. It means you will be more versatile, sure. . .about as versatile as an Artificer, maybe?
For our Gestalt campaign I went Kobold Sorcerer/Dragon Shaman. The Dragon Shaman is perfect for Gestalt since his power comes from auras that take no action to use. He brings two good saves to the table and d10 hit die. Oh, and 3/4 BAB. You only really need focus on Cha, like a single classed Sorc. I also went with Dex pretty high, and used the advantage of the higher than normal BAB to take ranged touch spells and make them awesome. Kobold was for a couple of nice feats in Races of the Dragon, and Copper Dragon so I could walk on walls.
Basically a Sorcerer+. I think a good Gestalt works by using one class to really pump up the other. My good friend went Ranger/Artificer, and used the Artificer infusions to make his Ranger's arrows that much more effective. A Ranger+.
If I were stuck with wizard. . .I'd probably use it to emphasize the second class. Wizard/Barbarian for the full BAB and d12 HD, use the wizard half to buff the Barbarian half. Rage means no spell casting, but the spells you have already cast remain. You become kind of an Uber CODzilla, with more HD and rages. When not raging use your full bab and high STR to cast melee touch spells. There aren't a lot, but you can use metamagic to fill up slots that might not have a touch spell you like.
That's my (late) advice.
Jay
3.5's action economy means that wizard/any caster is going to not be much better than a wizard. Much of the power of these classes is tied up in their spells, and you can still only cast 1 a round, just like a single classed wizard. It means you will be more versatile, sure. . .about as versatile as an Artificer, maybe?
For our Gestalt campaign I went Kobold Sorcerer/Dragon Shaman. The Dragon Shaman is perfect for Gestalt since his power comes from auras that take no action to use. He brings two good saves to the table and d10 hit die. Oh, and 3/4 BAB. You only really need focus on Cha, like a single classed Sorc. I also went with Dex pretty high, and used the advantage of the higher than normal BAB to take ranged touch spells and make them awesome. Kobold was for a couple of nice feats in Races of the Dragon, and Copper Dragon so I could walk on walls.
Basically a Sorcerer+. I think a good Gestalt works by using one class to really pump up the other. My good friend went Ranger/Artificer, and used the Artificer infusions to make his Ranger's arrows that much more effective. A Ranger+.
If I were stuck with wizard. . .I'd probably use it to emphasize the second class. Wizard/Barbarian for the full BAB and d12 HD, use the wizard half to buff the Barbarian half. Rage means no spell casting, but the spells you have already cast remain. You become kind of an Uber CODzilla, with more HD and rages. When not raging use your full bab and high STR to cast melee touch spells. There aren't a lot, but you can use metamagic to fill up slots that might not have a touch spell you like.
That's my (late) advice.
Jay
jedavis
First Post
On the Glaive: very cool. I'll have to remember that one.
On LA: yeah, that's pretty much the necessary conclusion of using the LA rules.
Turtlejay: I could actually see using Barbarian for Wizard+. Use the d12 to make yourself less squishy, use the BaB to make your ranged touch attacks superbly effective, enjoy the fast movement and boosted Fort, and save Rage for when you get grappled. The d12 in particular I could see as a springboard for some of the riskier books in the Encyclopedia Arcane series... Blood Magic has bloodrites that you can keep casting as long as you have the hit points to pay, Dragon Magic has draconic words of power that do subdual damage when cast but are otherwise usable without limit, and Demonology... let's just say that when the demons break loose, having extra hp handy is a Good Thing.
That's just how I might play it, though.
I might also go Rogue+; not a whole lot of MAD, don't lose out on much armor, and Improved Invisibility Sneak Attack Rays are always fun.
On LA: yeah, that's pretty much the necessary conclusion of using the LA rules.
Turtlejay: I could actually see using Barbarian for Wizard+. Use the d12 to make yourself less squishy, use the BaB to make your ranged touch attacks superbly effective, enjoy the fast movement and boosted Fort, and save Rage for when you get grappled. The d12 in particular I could see as a springboard for some of the riskier books in the Encyclopedia Arcane series... Blood Magic has bloodrites that you can keep casting as long as you have the hit points to pay, Dragon Magic has draconic words of power that do subdual damage when cast but are otherwise usable without limit, and Demonology... let's just say that when the demons break loose, having extra hp handy is a Good Thing.
That's just how I might play it, though.
I might also go Rogue+; not a whole lot of MAD, don't lose out on much armor, and Improved Invisibility Sneak Attack Rays are always fun.
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
I think it is important to point out that on the flip side, LA is more costly in gestalt if it's taking up an entire level each time. That's because in gestalt each level is worth more -- higher BAB, HD, saves, skills, more class features, etc... You're giving up more stuff than you would in a normal game. Now, in my experience, most people just play human anyway. Even in a non-gestalt game, most will consider the LA not worth it. So I'd be hesitant to make LA races even less appealing. I also do think it's unbalanced to let it only take one side, though.
When i ran a gestalt game, I had LA affect your starting point buy for stats instead of detracting from your level, a cue I took from the E6 rules. That seemed to work out. Most people still made humans.
If you don't typically allow LA buyoff from UA, running a gestalt game where LA costs both sides but can be bought off might work as a compromise, too.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
On the other hand, I'm pretty okay making LA races less appealing. The choice I see is either:
- Make sub-optimal choices even less powerful; or
- Break the game.
That's if you use LA as written. It is a blunt tool, which barely does its job even before we throw Gestalt into the mix. I'm sure one can re-write the game to fix LA, but I'm not sure it's worth saving... I find that humans are pretty cool dudes.
Finally, if a group wanted to play a game with wacky races, the DM ccould give a specific "free LA" to each character, to spend on racial LA (and nothing else). In that way, you get much of the intended benefit, without being grossly rewarded for exploiting a hole in the system.
Cheers, -- N
