Gestalt Warforged Pathfinder Soulknife/X?

[Kittenwolf]

Hey all.
I'm looking at putting together a Warforged Soulknife, using the Pathfinder Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) rather than the usual one (note, this is a 3.5 campaign, I'm just being allowed to use the Pathfinder class because it doesn't suck)
This will be for a 'no arcane or divine casting (or artificer)' Gestalt campaign (lvl 1-10).

I'm a little uncertain about exactly what to Gestalt this new Soulknife with. I figured I could go either Psychic Warrior for the goodies there, Psion (Egoist) or Ardent for more powers but still a decent amount of augmentation, or go straight to Book of Nine Swords and take.. well, anything from there.
Or dip a couple of levels of Psychic Warrior for the feats & powers then go something else.
I did also briefly consider Warforged Juggernought but honestly I'm finding it a little meh. I guess the other option is go Kensai for a "Meet my +50 weapon bitches!" build

Anyone have any ideas? Ideally I'm just looking for a "belt the dude with a big arse sword" style of build with a few extra tricks thrown in. As a Soulknife I'll of course be more specialised towards single large hits rather than multiple attacks in a round, so something involving Psionic Weapon/Deep Impact, Spring Attack & Martial Strikes could go quite well.

[RaginChangeling]

Straight Soulknife//Warblade would mesh well with your ideas. Personally though, I'd go with something more like,


Soulknife//Psychic Warrior 4/Swordsage 2/ and either Psychic Warrior 12/Swordsage 2 or Swordsage 14 depending on if you want Powers or Maneuvers.

BaB won't be an issue and the two have some wis-synergy. In addition, Swordsage dips will get you more maneuvers than a Warblade dip and more options in combat. I'd probably focus on Diamond Mind and Tiger Claw or Desert Wind for their mobility with the obligatory Shadow Stride/Blink if you have a high enough initiator level. If you also dip a level of Barbarian, you should be an incredibly mobile combatant with the right powers and maneuvers and Pounce if you can get the ACF.

[Kittenwolf]

Pounce is certainly useful, though we'll see how much the build ends up needing it :). I doubt I'd have the feats for Spring Attack but it would be hilarious if I did. (at low levels, Move+Bonecrusher+Psychic Strike+Punishing Stance+Psionic Weapon, then moving away again would be just a little rude)

I did think about the Wis synergy, but with the Warforged -2 to Wis it seemed a little better off going the Warblade route. Plus only going to lvl 10 does rather restrict getting high-level maneuvers and psywar powers if I'm multiclassing/dipping.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd say definitely go Psion, and maybe take Improved Fortification and use your powers to heal yourself when needed, and/or get the Egoist 5 ACF (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) to be an efficient fixer-of-party-members since there's no actual spellcasting available. Sangehirn (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625c) wouldn't be a bad choice, though you would have to pick and choose when you take levels in it based on what powers known you want to learn at a given level. Take Linked Power from Complete Psionic for more efficient buffing (do a swift buff and link a standard action buff to it to go off the next round without spending any actions).

Get a Psicrystal and use Share Pain on it, its Hardness 8 will prevent most of the damage it would take and you can manifest Vigor and share it so you both gain temporary HP. Use Schism to put your buffs up during combat and to rebuff Vigor for better action economy. Get Expanded Knowledge for Control Body along with Solicit Psicrystal, manifest Control Body targeting yourself and Solicit it so the Psicrystal can direct your physical actions while you can still take purely mental actions every round such as manifesting more powers and charging Psychic Strike.

[Viktyr Gehrig]

There's no such thing as a Soulknife build that would not benefit from 1 level in Soulbow, unless you are desperately skill or feat starved. It triples your effective range and allows you to make multiple ranged attacks eight levels earlier than the Soulknife can gain the ability. In exchange, you lose one Blade Skill and 1 point of BAB. Unless you put Soulbow on the other side.

Normally, I recommend the Sangehirn (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625c) for most psionic Warforged builds, especially in Gestalt, but you're not going to reach high enough levels for it to matter.

It's not a big arse sword, but you might consider Swashbuckler 3/Fighter 2/Soulbow 1/Duelist X. Take Mithril Body at 1st level and dump all of your points into Dexterity and Intelligence. If you can talk the DM into it, the Pathfinder Duelist's Precise Strike starts at 1st level and is a simple + level to eligible weapon damage.

edit: Short Sword is a Shadow Hand weapon. One feat and a Swordsage dip renders Strength irrelevant.

[Tokuhara]

I actually prefer this idea:

Race: Warforged
Class: Soulknife 5/Kensei 10/Exotic Weapon Master 5 (Bastard Sword )//OA Samurai 5/Iaijutsu Master 10/Exemplar 5 (Iaijutsu Focus)

You are an "Unarmed" Robot samurai who in the blink of an eye can create a katana all Shaman King-style and slice someone's head off in one swing.

[Viktyr Gehrig]

That's not bad, but he said he's not going to reach those levels and Kensei doesn't do anything that Soulknife doesn't already do better. I've never seen Iaijutsu Focus on a Soulknife before, but that's actually a really good idea, since the Soulknife has no problem drawing a new weapon every round.