Ha ha, just done lots of typing...over there
OK, you can read it on the OP forum, but to keep it all in one place, here's it is c/ped
So far my idea is something along these lines:
- race: halfling (Mike, I think if MD’s Ravenloft game goes ahead I’m going to change that PC to gnome as it fits with the clockmaker/craftsman idea better)
- class: rogue, or if gestalt rogue/paladin (bear with me…)
- ‘role’: warrior, but with good skill selection
- character sketch: taking the ‘nimble and happy-go-lucky’ halfling archetype to the max, so getting the best advantage out of his racial bonuses in DEX and CHA. STR as good as I can get without crippling him for stat points, likewise CON. INT if possible, although skills won’t be a problem, see below, but not the wisest though…
- background idea: my (as yet unnamed PC) is a hero, yes sir. He left his sleepy little halfling village at the first opportunity so he could head to the big city and enlist in paladin school or wherever they train them shiny knights. Ever since he was little (ha ha) he had imagined himself in gleaming armour, fighting dragons and rescuing maidens when he grew up, and he’s done nothing but badger his friends and relatives about it ever since. His mother worries about him (naturally) but most of the rest of the village are, actually, quite glad to see the back of him, at least for a while. ‘He’ll be back’ they say. After all, how can a simple halfling be a mighty hero?
And there was a bit of truth in that, because when he rolled up at warrior school in Absalom they took one look at him and laughed. In his face.
Disappointed, but not deterred he decided he didn’t need training anyway; he was going to do it his way. Cue wandering around town looking for trouble – which duly found him, and he was lucky to escape with his life after an encounter with (insert gang/organisation/individual for plot purposes).
It is at this point he meets (insert suitable NPC mentor) who takes him under his wing, and shows him how to handle a sword properly, as well as giving him a few words of wisdom about looking before you leap etc
And at this point, it depends on whether we are single classing or going gestalt.
If single, I’ll go rogue. He’s not going to be the best fighter in the world with a medium attack bonus and less than stellar strength. Oh, and lack of fighter feats. Or ability with anything other than a couple of weapons. But he means well, and dag nabbit, he’s going to be a hero even if it, er, kills him…
I’m abstracting slightly by considering his sneak attack as a sort of ‘little guy happens to stab people on the right place’ idea (much helped by Pathfinder’s lifting of some of the restrictions on what can/can’t be ‘sneaked’ – I can’t see this working in 3.5!). This hopefully will help him take a useful part in combat.
Further down the line, I can use rogue talents to pick up a couple of fighter feats to help with this side of things, although he’s never going to be very good at standing in front of BBEG for long.
And on the upside, he’ll have a load of skills for out of combat activities!
So you can probably guess where I’m going if we gestalt
Yep, add Paladin to Rogue. Not only was his mentor rather successful in teaching him weapon skills, his goodness of heart means he became, what I have termed in the past, a ‘passive’ paladin ie he gets all the mechanical benefits of being a paladin, but it’s not really a conscious decision on the part of the character, if that makes sense? He has been touched by a higher power, so while he thinks he’s being a hero, because he’s living up to the ideals of a paladin, some entity somewhere has looked down from on high and actually bestowed those powers on him.
For the purposes of this idea, the 2 classes actually synergise rather well. He’ll get a good attack bonus from paladin, 2 good saves from paladin, plus good in the other from rogue, divine grace at the appropriate level and his halfling save bonus. HP will be decent, and he should be able to keep out of the worst of trouble even if he stays relatively lightly armoured. Overall, I don’t see it as one of the more powerful gestalt combos as he won’t really be the best fighter in the world, but I think he can contribute in that role, and as mentioned will have significantly more skills than an equivalent fighter.
Feel free to dissect that, and make any comments. Until I’ve statted him up I don’t have a complete picture of how it might play out. It might turn out if we don’t gestalt I have to dip a couple of levels to keep up with the curve, or possibly even rethink it completely. Time will tell!
Hey, stop editing while I'm editing! 
And having channel energy is a life saver, so probably take cleric over druid. Never played Gestalt, but I am up for anything fun. 
I hit the Swag down in your sig. and then it asks me to log in. Which I do and then it says to me "Sorry, you are not authorized to view this page, (403)"
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
After everyone has their classes chosen we'll move on to the stat generation and other crunch stuff.
