Gestalt Fox Hengeyokai Sorcadin

[BillyBobJoe]

So, I am attempting to build a Fox Hengeyokai Gestalt Sorcerer/Paladin of Freedom, who is a Sword Mage. No, not a fighter/mage. A mage who uses spells like Mordenkainen's Sword, Blade of Pain and Fear, Sword of Deception, spells like that. The character is 10th level gestalt, and I can use any official 3.5 books. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

[Urpriest]

I've heard good things about the spell Thunderlance. You'll probably want to be able to Persist your sword-spell of choice. This is tricky for an arcane character, but you could probably do it with Incantatrix or similar.

You probably don't want the full ten levels of Paladin of Freedom. I'd just grab four levels (five if you really like the horse) and make the rest Crusader.

[BillyBobJoe]

Yeah, I was only going to stay in Paladin of Freedom until 5th level, but I didn't know what to do afterwards. Crusader works just fine. :smallbiggrin:

[Manateee]

Harmonious Knight is the only way I can see this working. With some Inspire Courage boosters, Dragonfire Inspiration and Melodic Casting (Sorcerer levels will let you choose Force as an Element), you should be able to get a decent attack bonus onto the spells and milk some tolerable damage out of them.

Another thing this could let you do is specialize on the Whirling Blade Spell, which would let you apply Paladin melee bonuses (Power Attack, Divine Might, etc) to sword-based area blasting from level 4.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't need Paladin 5, just cast Phantom Steed.

Starting at level 10, I'd go with the following:

Hengeyokai, +1 LA bought off (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm) for 3,000 XP.

Paladin 4/ Warshaper 2/ Fighter 2/ Crusader 2// Sorcerer 6/ Incantatrix 3/ Paragnostic Apostle 1; Mind Over Matter for Paragnostic Apostle, Metamagic Specialist (PH2) for Sorcerer, Dungeoncrasher (Dungeonscape) for Fighter, Harmonious Knight (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a) (optional) for Paladin.

Future levels should be Crusader to 20th along side of Abjurant Champion 5, more Paragnostic Apostle if you want to get more abilities from it, and then finish with more Incantatrix.

Take Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) and make it a custom Runestaff (MIC), put on it any 1/day buffs you want to use/persist such as Shield, Thunderlance, Greater Magic Weapon, Wraithstrike, Bladeweave, Swift Fly, Swift Expeditious Retreat, etc. Get it as early as possible (3rd level) and use its Invest Skill Ranks ability to get as large a bonus to Spellcraft as possible, so you can use Cooperative Metamagic and Metamagic Effect from Incantatrix to Persist your highest level spells at any given level (always take ten on those checks). Note that there's no limit to the number of spells a given Runestaff can have on it, it just says there's usually from two to five spells, so since you can upgrade it yourself you can add as many as you want. The 10% XP bonus from Item Familiar will be more than enough to catch you back up after buying off the +1 LA, and there will be plenty left over to spend on the item creation costs of upgrading it. Note that an Item Familiar is an intelligent item, which is treated as a construct, so it can't be dispelled or disjoined and functions in antimagic or dead magic. You should keep it tucked under your clothes so it's out of line of sight/effect so that it can't be sundered, disarmed, pickpocketed, or directly targeted by any spells or other effects.

Get Combat Reflexes, considering you'll have a natural reach of 20 ft. with the Persistent Thunderlance. Be sure to include Arcane Preparation so you can use Sanctified spells and cast (Greater) Luminous Armor every day. Power Attack, Leap Attack, Arcane Strike, and Divine Might are all highly recommended. Definitely get Minor Shapeshift in CM for a constant supply of temporary HP.

Be sure to learn Heart of Air/Water/Fire/Earth from CM, Whirling Blade, Melf's Unicorn Arrow in PH2 (with Dungeoncrashing), and a few choice AoE crowd controls like Web, Glitterdust, Black Tentacles, Freezing Fog, etc.

Good items to have would include (Lesser, Standard) Rods of Extend, a Circlet of Rapid Casting (MIC) with an Enhancement bonus to Cha added (MIC p234), and other standard gish items. Definitely have an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Hound of Doom (CW), and be sure to give that critter a name, it's way cooler than a Paladin mount.

An alternative start would be Warblade 1/ Crusader 1/ etc. for Idiot Crusader shenanigans with White Raven Tactics. You're liable to get knocked unconscious by flying books, so use at your own risk. In this case, make the Paladin side go Warblade 1/ Crusader 1/ Paladin 2/ Warshaper 2/ Fighter 2/ Warblade+, and get Martial Study at 1st and 9th for (any 1st level maneuver a Crusader could pick) and to add White Raven Tactics to your Crusader maneuvers known. You'll need Extra Granted Maneuver, and with that you can start play with WRT-spam.

[BillyBobJoe]

-kasnip-

Wow, thank you very much! One note though: Hengeyokai were updated to be LA 0 in the Dragon Magazine update to 3.5. But yeah, this is very nice. :smallsmile: