Gestalt Rakshasa

[The_Scourge]

So I'm going to be playing in a gestalt game in the new year. Very high powered, everything from 3.5 and pathfinder goes. Including Savage Species.

The DM picked the races for the party. I took the Rakshasa, I love the feel of the sneaky backhanded ways of the race. My question now becomes, what to put on the other side. The massive Charisma boost points to Paladin (of some flavour) or bard. I considered flipping back and forth between rogue and sorcerer to make up for the LA no casting levels. Swiftblade was also an idea because of its inherent ridiculosity.
Thoughts?

[Ernir]

Gestalt? Prioritize filling in the Sorcerer casting gaps. Which means a total of 7 Sorcerer-casting-progression-advancing levels taken alongside the Rakshasa progression.

I'd fill the rest with charisma synergizing thingies. The standard Paladin of Tyranny/Hexblade combo fits perfectly with finishing up the Rakshasa progression at ECL 14. You can do... pretty much whatever you want afterwards. What is the starting level, and how high do you think this game will go?

[gbprime]

Swiftblade is indeed an excellent idea. But you don't need to take sorcerer levels.


Starting at 2nd level, a rakshasa casts spells as a sorcerer of a level equal to its Hide Dice from Class levels...

So all you need are the hit dice, not the sorcerer class. That makes qualifying for swiftblade amazingly easy. Take something with BAB and skill points to fill in the levels where you don't get anything from Rakshasa. Swordsage, perhaps. (It's one shortcoming is lower BAB, but gestalt Rakshasa gets BAB at 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th when swordsage does not. Perfect.)

[kestrel404]

Swiftblade is indeed an excellent idea. But you don't need to take sorcerer levels.

On the contrary - the 'class levels' specified by the Spells class feature of Rakshasa are pretty clearly 'Rakshasa' class levels, just like 'class levels' specified in a cleric's domain powers are Cleric class levels (or at least, whichever class gave you that domain). You still only get casting progression from the Rakshasa's 7 hit dice.

You're getting an Outsider HD at every even level - Outsiders get good BAB, good skills, and all god saves. That's awesome. Each HD also gives you a level of Sorc casting (plus access to 1st level cleric spells, which could come in handy for some PrC qualifications).

For 1st level, take a level of sorceror - you're gaining the sorceror casting at 2nd level, so it's not a 'stacking class feature' for gestalt purposes.

At 2nd level, gestalt with something that gives Full BAB, decent skills, and good saves - why give up what you've already got? Ranger is a good choice.

3rd level, add a level of a utility class, something that goes well with anything. Binder would be cool. So would Warlock.

4th level Another level of ranger - you'll lose a level of Sorc casting, but it gets you early entry into...

5th level Warshaper! Rakshasa is on the list of races that meet the shapechange ability requirement, and the only other requirement is +4 BAB.

6th level You've got 4 levels or sorceror casting, +5 BAB, and you can easily have picked up the Combat Casting feat. Abjurant Champion sounds perfect!

7th level Warshaper again, because it's tasty.

The rest: After 7th level, you qualify for Swiftblade. The casting progression is somewhat Odd, so you're probably going to be bouncing between Swiftblade, Warshaper and Abjurant Champion for the remaining levels (just so long as you're advancing your casting at every level, you're good).

BTW: Ranger can be replaced by either Hexblade or Duskblade or Paladin of Tyranny, or anything else with Full BAB (even fighter, if you feel you need the feats), but I chose ranger because it gets lots of skills, and with your Ousider skill points, you can make a backup skillmonkey. For this reason, you may want to choose a class with Trapfinding for your 3rd level dip.

Also, verify with your GM whether you get the feats listed at 1st, 5th and 11th levels - these are supposed to be your 1st, 3rd and 6th level feats spread out by the LA, but who knows, he might be feeling generous.

[The_Scourge]

What is the starting level, and how high do you think this game will go?
We're starting right from level one, but the way things are looking we could end up getting well into epic.


Also, verify with your GM whether you get the feats listed at 1st, 5th and 11th levels - these are supposed to be your 1st, 3rd and 6th level feats spread out by the LA, but who knows, he might be feeling generous.
I'm not familiar with warshaper or abjdurant champion, what are their benefits?
He's feeling very generous actually, he's giving us pathfinder feat progression (every odd level)

[kestrel404]

Warshaper: 4 levels of warshaper gets you +1 size category to all natural weapons, +4 str/con, +5' reach and fast healing 2 (while in a different form), but it's got no spellcasting advancement.

Abjurant Champion is the de-facto gish class, with full BAB and 5/5 spellcasting progression, plus class features that boost abjuration spells, including automatically extending (double duration all abjurations) and quickening them (1st and 2nd level spells only).

Swiftblade is a better gish class, but Abjurant Champion is easier to get into.