[3.5]Gestalt - Swift (Hunter) Soulbow?

[RMS Oceanic]

My brother and I have been itching for a new campaign, and I think I've buttered him up to try a Gestalt Game, so I'd like to try combining a Soulbow build with a Swift Hunter. It helps I got excellent stats out of a stat generator. I'm thinking my standard combat strategy would be Move and then Greater Manyshot. I know for a Straight Soulbow this is suboptimal, but I think the Skirmish Damage would make up for it.

So my basic build at least to level ten looks like this:

Race: Human
Scout 4/Ranger 6//Soulknife 6/Soulbow 4
(No Shiba Protector allowed, and I need clarification before considering Swordsage)

STR 13
DEX 18
CON 17
INT 15
WIS 20 (2 level adjustments)
CHA 11

Feats
1: Scout//Soulknife: Point Blank Shot, (H) Precise Shot, Flaws (???, See Question 1) (SK) Weapon Focus (Mind Blade), (SK) Hidden Talent (See Question 2)
2: Ranger//Soulknife: (R) Track (Or Urban Track depending on campaign)
3: Ranger//Soulknife: (R) Rapid Shot, (SK) Exchange Psychic Strike for Practised Mind Blade (Question 3), Zen Archery
4: Scout//Soulknife:
5: Scout//Soulknife:
6: Scout//Soulknife: Improved Skirmish, (S) Swift Hunter, (SK) Speed of Thought
7: Ranger//Soulbow: (R) Endurance, (SB) Manyshot (Retrain for ??? at Ranger 6)
8: Ranger//Soulbow:
9: Ranger//Soulbow: ???, (SB) Greater Manyshot
10: Ranger//Soulbow: (R) Manyshot

Questions
1. What other feats are great to take early? What flaws would I take to get them?
2. What's a good power for a Swift Soulbow?
3. Does Practised Mind Blade stack with Mind Arrow? Does a Soulknife 6/Soulbow X with PMB have the Mindblade of a Soulknife 10/Soulbow X?
4. They say the Mind Arrow enhancements don't stack with the Soulknife enhancements. I assume this means you can't pool the +2 from Soulknife with the +1 from Mind Arrow and then produce a +3 ability like speed or splitting. Is that correct?
5. How does the "adds to BAB" thing work? If it's too confusing I've half a mind to ignore it.
6. Any advanced feat recommendations?
7. Any recommendations for replacing my animal companion?
8. What magic items best support this build?
9. If I fit in Swordsage, what stance/maneuvers are effective for ranged characters?
10. What Ranger Spells best compliment a ranged build?

Thanks for the advice.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You have too many Soulknife levels, you only need two and as bad as the class is, you should not take more than two.

Get some way of moving as a free/swift action. You can TWF with Mind Arrows, or Multiweapon Fight if you go with a many-armed race such as Thri-Kreen. The nonpsionic version of Thri-Kreen found in MM2 and Shining South has only a +1 LA with its two racial HD, and it only loses the psi-like abilities and naturally psionic powerpoints.

I'd grab a Cloistered Cleric dip for Knowledge Devotion, Travel Devotion, and either Animal Devotion or the Celerity domain. Use your Turn Undead ability to fuel Travel Devotion, and Knowledge Devotion will always give you at least +1 to attack and damage. You can also use wands of Cleric spells.

A Swordsage dip to get your Wis bonus to AC and maybe Sudden Leap is highly recommended. If you go the TWF/MWF route, the Xing Mongoose boosts would also come in handy. Definitely get Swordsage at 1st level for the x6 skill points.

Any manifesting class that gets Hustle (Ardent with the Freedom mantle is probably the best Wis-SAD choice) will give you another source of action-free movement. It also opens up plenty of Dorjes for higher-level powers. A Dorje of Hustle (get a gauntlet with a wand chamber) would actually be a decent choice if your other sources of movement run out.

If you can get an Outsider creature type along with a source of Polymorph (Suel Arcanamach comes to mind) you can take the form of an Arrow Demon. With that, if your main hand fires six Mind Arrows (BAB +16, Rapid Shot, Haste), your three other hands will also each fire six Mind Arrows at the same attack bonuses. You can even use Draconic Polymorph with Persistent Spell, possibly via Incantatrix or maybe more Cleric casting with the Spell domain and Divine Metamagic. Ranger casting is superb for this, since you can also persist Swift Haste.

1. Noncombatant (-2 to melee attacks) should be an obvious flaw. TWF is definitely up there, but not if you're only making Greater Manyshots. Darkstalker from Lords of Madness is also highly recommended, see below.
2. Pick Chameleon, and you can use a Dorje of Chameleon plus a Wand of Camouflage (via Ranger) for +20 Hide, which makes up for sniping penalties.
3. There is no such official feat, so it would be entirely up to DM interpretation if it's even allowed in the first place. I wouldn't even bother, just put Lucky on your Mind Arrows and every shot that initially misses will get a one-time reroll.
4. Lucky, and then probably Bane for whatever you're currently fighting.
5. If something increases your BAB, it allows you to make iterative attacks at an earlier level. Just add that number to your BAB to determine whether you've reached the +6/+11/+16 thresholds.
6. Woodland Archer from Races of the Wild.
7. PH2 has a nice ACF.
8. Bracers of Archery (DMG), Night Sticks (LM) to power devotion feats, Dorjes and Wands.
9. Sudden Leap is good for Skirmish, Hunter's Sense is a decent stance. The Shadow Hand teleport maneuvers can really come in handy.

[RMS Oceanic]

Why do I only need two levels of Soulknife, apart from the Throw Mind Blade feature? What about improving the Blade's enhancement bonus/abilities?

I don't see the need to specialise in Sniping, as if I'm reading it right you attack then move, thus rendering Skirmish useless.

I don't need to take Swordsage at level 1, Scout has 8 (and 8x4) skill points.

You misunderstood my question 4, although I'm naturally taking Lucky as one of my enhancements. Say I have Mind Blade ability maximum +1 and Mind Arrow ability +2. Can I do two different abilities totalling +3, or does "doesn't stack" mean I can only do +2?

[hex0]

For any swift hunter gestalt, Dragon Devotee makes for some good fill. (races of the dragon). The prereqs are easy and if gives you free sorcerer casting, increases your skirmish damage, and gives you some other goodies.

Edit: It also gives some free cha boosts, so you may be able fit some prestige paladin in there for fun and profit.

Edit, edit: if you can homebrew a psychic hunter (psionic ranger) it would be to your benefit. Removing the rangers spellcasting and replacing it with psychic warrior manifesting with 3/5 (rounded down)
is the easiest way! In other words you max out as a 12th level psychic warrior at 20th level ranger (only knowing 4th level powers).

[Godskook]

Imho, one of teh best features of an archer is the ability to have a generic bow combined with specialty arrows to reach an effective +23* weapon, when normal characters can only get a +14**. Going soulbow ruins this.

*An archer has a +10 bow, of which, +9 is abilities. He has +10 arrows, of which +9 is also abilities(but not the same as the bow). When he fires those arrows, he gets an 'effective' +19 weapon. Combine with GMW for the last +4(+18 worth of special abilities and +5 enhancement).
**A regular character is stuck with a +10 weapon with +9 abilities, with GMW makes +14.

As other options, how about Artificer? You'd turn yourself into Green Arrow, basically. It'd also give you the ability to add even *more* +'s without significant cost with the infusions(including bane with a spontaneous creature type).

[RMS Oceanic]

A Swift Artificer would require decent Intelligence and Charisma on top of Dexterity and Wisdom. I was kinda hoping Wisdom could do my heavy living without having to worry too much about the other stats. Also I was liking the thematic idea of someone who does the scouting and appears completely unarmed until he has to.

Also, to improve my Effective Ability Bonus, there are the Mind Blade Gauntlets. With the intention of having Lucky and Splitting on my main Mind Arrows, what other abilities would be good to invest in these gauntlets, keeping in mind I can use two different ones?

[RMS Oceanic]

By scanning other Dragon Magazine articles, I found a great Scout feat: Ranged Skirmish, which for the price of also taking Far Shot raises the Skirmish range to 60 ft. I think it makes sense to take that. :smallsmile:

Can someone explain why, other than it being the barebones minimum level needed to qualify for Soulbow, I shouldn't take more than two levels of Soulknife? Surely it would makes sense to help raise your Mind Blade's Enhancement bonus so as to also raise your Mind Arrow's bonus as well.

Also reiterating my request for Mind Blade Gauntlet abilities.

[Siosilvar]

Can someone explain why, other than it being the barebones minimum level needed to qualify for Soulbow, I shouldn't take more than two levels of Soulknife? Surely it would makes sense to help raise your Mind Blade's Enhancement bonus so as to also raise your Mind Arrow's bonus as well.

Because the benefits of taking Soulknife past 2nd level is overshadowed by the benefits of taking a couple of levels of Fighter. Two levels of Fighter gets you two feats of your choosing. Two levels of Soulknife gets you halfway to +1 to hit and damage as well as, depending on what two levels, a pretty wimpy feat.

[Godskook]

A Swift Artificer would require decent Intelligence and Charisma on top of Dexterity and Wisdom. I was kinda hoping Wisdom could do my heavy living without having to worry too much about the other stats.

1.A swift hunter has no mental stat dependance except for skillmonkey issues. Without soulbow, you have no wisdom dependance.

2.Artificers don't need a high Int to function cause infusions typically don't offer saves(that matter). A 12 or 14 base plus some item support will be sufficient.

3.While Artificers need a strong UMD score, Charisma isn't the only way to do it. And with ability to craft custom skill items, you can have a negative charisma and still be fine.


Also I was liking the thematic idea of someone who does the scouting and appears completely unarmed until he has to.

That, on the other hand, will be a problem.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you can use Dragon magazine material, the Mystic Ranger variant from Dragon 336 would be a superb choice. Definitely go single-classed Ranger on one side of your build if you do this, and maybe even get Sword of the Arcane Order from Champions of Valor.

For any Skirmish build, you'll want a Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) dip for Travel Devotion, and you should also get Knowledge Devotion while you're at it. For your third domain, either Elf or Celerity is a pretty good choice. That also opens up the possibility of using DMM: Persistent on Ranger buffs like Swift Haste, Guided Shot, Find the Gap, etc. It will take a lot of Night Sticks to also fuel Travel Devotion, but having those spells up all day will definitely be worth it.

Check this guide (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=642.0) for weapon properties to put on those gauntlets. Keep in mind that it only takes one hand to fire a Mind Arrow, so a given arrow may only benefit from the gauntlet worn on the hand that fires it.