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View Full Version : Gestalt Character - Suggestions welcome,



vampire2948
2009-07-04, 04:57 AM
Hey all,

I've written a Healer 20 MoMF 1 // Druid 15 / MoMF 6 for a gestalt game that will be starting soon. [And for everyone who is about to say something like "Can't have MoMF on both sides of the progression, think about it this way:

5 levels of healer / 5 levels of druid
1 level of MoMF / 1 level of druid
15 levels of healer / 9 levels of druid and 6 levels of MoMF

See, works perfectly]

Now, this is all well and good, but:

Someone else in the group is playing a MoMF, and has expressed a desire to be the only one. And I want to look into alternatives for this.

The reason for my healer having druid and MoMF levels is that I need 18th level druid animal companion bonuses (I have the feat that gives +3 effective druid levels for calculating that) and lets me morph into useful things occasionally, but still cast my spells of pre-epic healery.

I'd like suggestions of what to do with my 7 levels of Master of Many Forms. Or else suggestions about any class or prestige class that will give druid animal companion abilities. My limited knowledge tells me that these do not exist, hopefully I am incorrect.

Thank you for your time,

Vampire2948,

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-07-04, 05:27 AM
Druid alone should offer enough useful forms, you don't really need MoMF to augment that. Healer is an extremely weak class, you never want to be healing anyone during combat and your Druid spellcasting alone is enough to heal people outside of combat. In the epic levels, you want to defeat an encounter as quickly as possible, because no matter how good you are at healing, your opponents will always be able to deal more damage per round than you can heal per round. Defeating your enemies is more efficient than healing during combat at any level, especially in the epic levels. If you're taking the class for the unicorn companion, there's a prestige class in BoED called Beloved of Valarian that can do that, and also a feat called Exalted Companion that allows you to get a Unicorn as your animal companion. You could go Druid 21 on one side, get one level of Beastmaster from Complete Adventurer on the other side along with Natural Bond and Exalted Companion, and still count as a level 21 Druid for its extra HD and other benefits. Then you can take twenty levels of a useful class, such as Swordsage or especially the Arcane Swordsage variant and have a much better character overall.

Talic
2009-07-04, 05:36 AM
My opinion?

WildShape Ranger 5 / MoMF 7 / Warshaper 5 / Nature's Warrior 4 // Paladin of Freedom 21

Why this?

Favor of the Martyr + Form that regenerates = Practically immune to damage. Add in DMM persist on that, and stay in Troll form all day. Advertise as a Troll paladin, correcting the poor public image such creatures have.

Seriously, though, MoMF is generally weak. Druid 20 / Hierophant 1 would be much better. If you want other forms? Shapechange trumps wildshape in every way but duration. One metamagic reducer, and you can have Extended Shapechange pretty easy. Boost CL to 24, and that's an 8 hour spell. 3 slots a day, and you're like unlimited wildshaping, to more forms, more powerfully, and as a free action.

vampire2948
2009-07-04, 06:18 AM
I like the healer class, and with my feat and other things combined, I heal for about 1d8+104 with CLW (at 30' range from myself or my companion), and more with the others, of course. Which is quite a bit of healing.

I also have an astral dragon companion statted up, which works quite well.

So - if we keep the Healer 20 / Druid 15, what should my 7 levels of MoMF be swapped for?

Perhaps boost that druid level to 21, in preparation for epic druid spellcasting? And take a level in some sort of prestige class?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-07-04, 07:50 AM
No matter how powerful your healing spells get, no matter how much HP you heal per casting, you're still better off spending your actions to defeat your opponents than trying to heal everyone. This isn't a MMO with 3-5 minute fights where you need a dedicated healer, the fights will last 4 rounds at most unless nobody is doing it right. If someone at this level will die due to HP damage in a few rounds, either that character was so weak he deserved to die, or he got killed in one hit or one full attack that wouldn't have happened if you'd killed or disabled that opponent instead of trying to heal during combat.

Healing in combat, especially in the epic levels, goes something like this:
Your turn: People are hurt, you cast a spell to put everyone at full HP, nobody is hurt any more.
Opponent's turn: Someone in your party goes from full hp to -10, because you didn't cast a useful spell that would have disabled or killed that opponent. Your healing spell was thus a worthless waste of time.
That doesn't necessarily happen every encounter, but it's definitely a possible outcome of every encounter. Neutralizing the threat = preventative healing, because they can no longer deal damage.

Gnaeus
2009-07-04, 08:30 AM
I like the healer class, and with my feat and other things combined, I heal for about 1d8+104 with CLW (at 30' range from myself or my companion), and more with the others, of course. Which is quite a bit of healing.

What about Cleric 21/Druid 21. Fill every cleric slot level 6 and above with Heal, Metamagiced heal or mass heal. Then use your turn attempts to power Divine metamagic, and either DMM persist your best buffs (like shapechange) or DMM quicken your heals, so that you can cast your heal spell and still do something useful in the same round?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-07-04, 08:49 AM
What about Cleric 21/Druid 21. Fill every cleric slot level 6 and above with Heal, Metamagiced heal or mass heal. Then use your turn attempts to power Divine metamagic, and either DMM persist your best buffs (like shapechange) or DMM quicken your heals, so that you can cast your heal spell and still do something useful in the same round?

Or take the Healing domain with the Spontaneous Domain Casting variant from PH2, so you can spontaneously convert any prepared spell into a Heal or Mass Heal.

GreatWyrmGold
2009-07-04, 09:49 AM
More forms? See if your DM allows this class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116875).
Yeah, I like MoMF. But Shapechange is better except in duration, as I have been told.
Another idea: Healer 20//Druid 5/MoMF 10/Warshaper 5, if you want to ignore your friend.
Or just Healer 20//Druid 15/Warshaper 5.