Building a gestalt pali-bard

[Halivar]

I'm building a level 1 gestalt bardic paladin for our new campaign. The chaotic requirement for the bard has been dropped, and everyone is taking elite array stats. My DM gave my character a 15 to intelligence, so I can drop the lowest ability score and work with the other five. Also, I won't have bardic knowledge, but will have a feat of my choice instead.

Guys, I don't even begin to know how to build a gestalt character... I'm so divided! What would you guys do?

 

[Lord_Fergus]

Why not just use the chaotic version of the paladin listed in the UA since you are already using gestalt rules? Further - it is MHO that Bardic Knowledge is worth more than 1 feat... I wouldn't give it up.

 

[The Souljourner]

The non-lawful restriction on bards is by far the most stupid alignment restriction in D&D. Everything else makes sense, but that? You can have lawful rogues that sneak attack you, but you can't have lawful bards that umm... sing?

I think it's an awesome idea to have a bardic paladin. I really like both classes, and they compliment each other nicely.

Lingering Song, from Song and Silence, if you can get it, totally rocks the casbah. It doubles the length of time songs stay in effect after you stop singing. For inspire courage, that means it'll last 10 rounds, which is plenty long enough. My bard used it and *loved* it. He'd start inspire courage, then cast spells or whatever as needed.

Spell focus: Enchantment is a great thing for a bard. Power attack is needed for Divine Might which is practically a must have for paladins...

Have fun with this! I think this character has more opportunity for roleplaying than practically any I've heard about. I'm jealous.

-The Souljourner

 

[Darklone]

Hmm, Inspire Courage + Divine Favor + Holy Sword + Divine Might while using Mirror Image... Yihaa. Not enough time to buff!

Wanna try a TWF paladin? Divine Might makes it worthwhile...

 

[monboesen]

And factor in Arcane strike later on, the one hit potential is just ugly.

 

[Halivar]

Hrmm... from the looks of it, I may have been going about this wrong. I was figuring that given the arcane spell failure rate, the best I could hope for in combat was Inspire Courage, while leaving bardic spells for noncombat use. Is there a way I can make up for not having armor and a shield in combat? I'm going to be the party tank, is why I ask.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm. Doubleweapon high dex paladin with TWF chain, Arcane Strike and Divine Might? Guess you don't have enough feats for that...

Guess a big twohanded weapon with Power Attack is better, considering all your nice bonuses to hit. Bards Heroism at level 2 is surely handy since it stacks with almost everything.

 

[two]

Hrmm... from the looks of it, I may have been going about this wrong. I was figuring that given the arcane spell failure rate, the best I could hope for in combat was Inspire Courage, while leaving bardic spells for noncombat use. Is there a way I can make up for not having armor and a shield in combat? I'm going to be the party tank, is why I ask.

Well, bards don't have spell failure in light armor, so grab a mithril breastplate or chain shirt and a mithril buckler and you are set. Cast away.

You can tank OK probably, for a while, using Mirror Image -- that will keep a lot of damage from hitting.

 

[Darklone]

What are your stats?

 

[Halivar]

Right now, a 15 to Int is set in stone (RP reasons). The rest are 17, 15, 13, 12, and 11. I haven't assigned them, yet.

EDIT: We've already played a couple sessions (before the group gets together) with me as a lvl 1 commoner questing to become a paladin. Along the way I got a magic longsword (pretty nice for level 1). So any weapon feats will probably build on that.