[3.P]Charisma without Casting

[Rhaegar14]

Are there any base classes that are heavily Charisma-based, but have no spellcasting, that would be of use gestalted with a Dragonrider (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/dragonrider)/Cavalier build?

My group is starting a new gestalt campaign from level 1 in a low-magic setting, and I'd like to be able to play a people person (who actually has the ability scores to back it up).

[SilverLeaf167]

Take a couple levels of Paladin for Cha-based abilities.
Crusader uses it a little.
Marshal uses it, but is considered fairly crummy.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much everything.

[Justyn]

Are there any base classes that are heavily Charisma-based, but have no spellcasting, that would be of use gestalted with a Dragonrider (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/dragonrider)/Cavalier build?

My group is starting a new gestalt campaign from level 1 in a low-magic setting, and I'd like to be able to play a people person (who actually has the ability scores to back it up).

Not really. There is the NPC Aristocrat class; it gives a lot of skills that are good for social interaction, but aside from that, it's not a very good class. The only thing that the Aristocrat class has going for it is that it starts with more gold than any other class.

[Coidzor]

Can't think of any base classes offhand other than Battledancer which is fairly subpar but can be found in the Dragon Compendium.

The Iajutsu Master PrC from Oriental Adventures, on the other hand, gets +CHA to initiative and some other things, IIRC.

[FMArthur]

Marshal is actually pretty nice as a 1 level dip on a Charisma-heavy character. 3 levels aren't bad on a severely Charisma-powered dude. Minor auras are no joke when you have +8 Charisma or so. The most commonly used ones are Motivate Dexterity for Initiative and Motivate Charisma to get Charisma again to your Charisma skills. But there's one that gives it to all combat maneuvers, another one that gives it to charge damage, one for damage while flanking, and ones for each save that might be situationally useful. They benefit your entire party when active, so cranking up Initiative and then switching to the charge one is probably a decent way to get your whole team overwhelming the enemy in the first round. The problem with taking more levels in marshal is that you don't get much in the way of actual abilities and the chassis isn't up to snuff, but that's probably mitigated a fair bit in gestalt, especially when you're looking for a passive side.

1 level in Paladin gets you 1 Smite Evil, which in Pathfinder is a long lasting buff of Charisma to attack (and Paladin level to damage), and the 2nd level gets you Charisma to all saves. Grab Extra Smiting from Complete Warrior to get 2 more Smites if you like.

Hellreaver from Fiendish Codex II is a class that uses Charisma to fuel a point pool that gives it a variety of bonuses. It's almost like a Factotum's features but instead of adding the stat to things from a fixed pool, you add some fixed bonuses (pretty heavy bonuses actually) from a pool based on your stat. Hellreaver is a class for fighting against evil by the way; it's Paladin-esque in flavor, so an honorable type makes it work just fine.

[Hirax]

Start poaching classes off this list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732). Just look under the charisma section.

[Swok]

Pathfinder Ninja gets quite a bit out of charisma, though I'm unsure how magical the ki abilities would be considered. It's at least possible to ignore the more overt spell-likes in favor of (ex) abilities...the ki pool at that point is a daily based pool of extra attacks and speed.

[Zaq]

A smite build that jumps around from smite-granter to smite-granter would probably not end up with too much casting, and that's CHA-based.

Binders are CHA-based, but they don't get any explicit spells. Still pretty magical, of course.

[Stone Heart]

The Warrior of Holy Light Paladin archetype trades away its spellcasting, but still gets the other stuff, except for one of the auras.

[The-Mage-King]

Ahem. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11335643&postcount=5)


Well, if Binder doesn't count as magical...

[gorfnab]

Dragon Shaman (PHBII) is Cha and Con based.