3.5 Gestalt Build Suggestions

[Aegis013]

A friend of mine is running a 3.5 gestalt solo game for me, and though I have the options of allies, I'm not sure I want allies. So what I ask of you is this; what gestalt builds can basically be a 1 man adventure party (primarily combat focused).

I've heard Cleric/Druid is quite good, but with basically the infinite magic-mart always available, I'm not sure I want to spend extra WBL on wilding clasps.

All 3.5 material available as long as we can find it (so Dragon Magazine is not as easy, unless it's on the SRD). Any ideas?

I typically like to play Wizards in most games, if that matters.

[Hirax]

If it's a solo campaign, I'd throw a wizard on one side and psion on the other. Psions (as seers) have unbeatable divinations that even get around mind blank, and can succeed if you've never seen or heard of the target. The combo of hypercognition and metafaculty win at getting you information. Too much divination might also causes headaches for your DM, because it can cause plot havoc if you use it too much. Psions are fun to play anyway, which is why I mentioned them, and they can be self contained with no prestige classes on one side of the build, simply due to there being fewer useful psionic feats.

On the other side, wizard with 10 levels of incantatrix (Player's Guide to Faerun version, there's nothing setting specific about the class, so it slots in fine in any campaign world) will allow you to have heaps up buffs active. 4 levels of archmage and 1 of mindbender round out 20 levels nicely if you're interested in picking up mindsight or any archmage abilities. 4 levels of fatespinner is also nice.

Have you ever played a swiftblade (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327)? That's a fun prestige class to play if you've never done so before. Be a gray elf and you can meat the martial weapon requirement, with a bonus to your into too. Just don't take the 10th level of swiftblade, it will cause you to lose 9th level spells and doesn't give any good abilities. Abjurant champion pairs nicely with swiftblades. If your DM is nice and allows fractional BAB stacking, you could go wizard5/mindbender1/swiftblade9/ab champ 5 (not necessarily in that order), and you'd wind up with a BAB of 17. If you're good and can cast sanctified spells from the Book of Exalted Deeds, then definitely look into the spell greater luminous armor. Once you get your 5th level of abjurant champ, in one round you can cast shield and greater luminous armor for +22 to AC.

Also, be a domain wizard. Free spells like a specialist, but no need to drop schools. The hummingbird familiar (Dragon 323) gives you a +4 bonus to initiative, and the 3rd level elf racial sub ability (Races of the Wild) doubles that to +8 (though check with your DM since it doesn't specifically say it applies to initiative).

Uncanny forethought (Exemplars of Evil) becomes incredible at high levels, so if you'll be playing into the high teens it's definitely worth considering. Spontaneous divination (Complete Champion) is another nice ability. These two things in one build can basically obsolete sorcerers at high levels, and being a domain wizard will only put you one spell per day per spell level behind them.

One other thing I'll plug is taking the arcane disciple feat from Complete Divine to get the winter domain from Frostburn. Quickened snowsight+blizzard is one of the best battlefield control combos in the game. Snowsight allows you to see in snow, for everyone else, for being in a blizzard their spot and listen checks automatically fail, no save, no SR, etc. Piercing cold (Frostburn) or searing spell (Sandstorm) are also handy because they can help you deal with things high levels of cold and hot resistance, and even bypass fire and cold immunity, respectively.

[hoverfrog]

You want high skills, good combat ability, some spell casting and some healing if you're playing solo. Druid\Bard covers the basics quite well. Paladin\Ranger also fits nicely though it is weak on the spell casting. A cleric with the magic domain is useful and a rogue with Use Magic Device maxed out is also great. If you want a good all rounder that can do anything then go for Artificer as a main class and then alternate between sorcerer and cleric or druid for the other class. If you want a killer then few things are tougher toe to toe than a barbarian\fighter.

It all rather depends on what sort of character you want to play.

[FearlessGnome]

Warblade//Druid will let you stomp just about anything into the dirt. Full BAB, d12 hd, wildshape, maneuvers, stances, wildshape...
And your Animal Companion can take a punch or two, as well.

Alternatively, I hear Druid//Sorcerer is fun. Turn into a dashingly handsome dinosaur and pick sorcerer spells that compliment your Druid spellcasting.

[Dragonsoul]

I think Factotum/Wizard would work far better IMO, you don't need a butt load of spells after 5th level because of rope trick and the trap finding of the factotum stops the GM just killing you out of hand with a DC 25 trap and at level 8 the ability to actual balance the action economy back in your favour is really nice and you are SAD to Intelligence...did I mention the crazy amount of skill points you'll be getting?

[classy one]

Monk1/psionX on one side with monastery training and talorhosa (sp?) is almost a monk//psion gestalt. The talorhosa feat will progress all your important monk features and you only lose one ML. So put another INT based class on the other side like wizard or factotum and be a triple gestalt.

[Emperor Tippy]

Grey Elf Generalist Domain Wizard 5/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 3/Orlin Gish 1/Mind Bender 1//Factotum 19/Swordsage 1

Make use of the Elf Generalist and Spontaneous Divination sub levels.

Use Chaos Shuffle to turn your Elf weapon proficiencies into Metamagic.

Grab Faerie Mysteries Initiate as one of your feats for Int to HP.

Factotum will take care of all your skill needs and make up for a lot of your short comings, although you have to do some real cheese to get the feats to really make the Factotum side impressive (as in things that don't make for fun playing if you start at level 1).

This is a build that, with a reasonably intelligent player who actually thinks before acting, can fairly easily go from level 1 to 20 without dying and remain fun to play.

---
If you don't want to be that powerful, Psion//Factotum makes a great Gestalt build that can be fun as hell to play while still remaining quite competitive. In this case, dump most of your feats into Font of Inspiration and use your Psion side more for utility and buffs.

[Godskook]

@Tippy, personally, I'd prefer Swordsage 2 over Factotum 19. While cunning brilliance is nice, its highly limited(use each Ex once, total 3/day), and expensive on the IP.

@OP, how's your DM running gestalt rules? The RAW is a bit screwy and not entirely there.

As for a suggestion, I'd consider Druid//Ardent 18/Swordsage 2. If you want to make it a bit abusive, consider adding Shou Disciple to the mix.

[Aegis013]

Well, we are pretty much playing it by ear. If something comes up, we'll look around online for other people's ruling and decide what makes sense/fits.

Also, if I were to go Elf Wizard/Factotum as Tippy suggested, what would my general combat strategy be? Blast 'em?

Edit: Also, for the domain wizard, are any of the domains exceptionally good? Some of them seemed pretty good, but I didn't see anything that blatantly showed more power than the others. Maybe Transmutation for extra 9th level slot for Shapechange?

[Emperor Tippy]

Well first, think about your character from an IC perspective.

You are an Elf, that means that barring accidents you can expect several centuries of life. You will likely inherently favor less risky options.

You are incredibly intelligent (as in make any human who has ever lived in real life look like an idiot), that means planning and having backup plans for your plans. Even if you only have a few minutes to think of a plan in game, you can spend hours working on it and refining it out of game; it's about the only way to actually role play that kind of Int.

You are choosing to be an adventurer. This is an inherently dangerous profession where the slightest mistake or bad luck can cost you not just your life but your very soul. Weigh the risks you take compared to the rewards offered very carefully. To survive your chosen career path will require extreme paranoia and careful planning.

---
If LA buy off is allowed, take the Dark template (Tome of Magic) to pick up Hide in Plain sight.

You will generally use your wizard half for 3 things; 1) personal defensive buffs, 2) utility effects, and 3) killing targets that would otherwise be a problem.

Your factotum half (grab the Darkstalker feat) will give you hide and move silently checks high enough to ensure that you aren't found. Combine with Mind Blank + Invisibility and you can sneak up on pretty much anybody. Cunning Breach allows you to ignore SR for the round for 2 IP, it's a great way to deliver spells that would otherwise be iffy or not work. Cunning Surge picks up extra actions (although without Font of Inspiration the number will be limited).

Between Wizard and Factotum you can, on a daily basis (or even more often), pretty much switch up to fill any role. Blaster, Utility caster, Skill Monkey, melee combatant, spy, face.

Although you should look for ways to use your factotum abilities instead of your wizard abilities.

EDIT: Abjuration Domain picks up spells that you will almost always have prepared anyways, so it doesn't give you slots you won't use.

Anti-magic domain is much the same way. Especially if you have Sanctum Spell, Sculpt Spell, and Mastery of Shaping.

Battle Domain gives useful 8th and 9th level slots but the rest would mostly just end up spent on Spontaneous Divination's

Transmutation gets you Shapechange, Reverse Gravity, and Disintegrate.

I personally favor either antimagic or Abjuration.