Gestalt wizard / party face?

[Acidic]

Ok, so I'm about to be a character in an evil gestalt game. This is my first gestalt game, and I've never played a wizard. So one side of my gestalt will be a wizard (conjuration focus for abrupt jaunt / summons).

I'm playing a character who, well, wants to rule the world honestly. So I'd like decent social skills as well. I'm set on conjuration wizard, and I'm fairly set on Changeling Recaster(Races of Eberron) as one of my PrCs. If you don't know the Recaster, you can add other class spells to the list, and you get lots of free metamagic goodies, such as free max 5/day, free empower 5/day, and free sculpt spell... all for the loss of 1 CL (which I will make up for by taking wizard on the other side).

So I'm debating between the following:

Wizard/Factotum: Hopefully this is obvious... this is win. Extra standard actions (by level 9 or 10 on my build), int to all str/dex skills/checks, int to AC/atk/damage early on a few times an encounter... just lots of goodies here. The bad: d8hp and bad fort.

Wizard/Warblade: Another win. d12hp, all good saves++ (once you factor in the int to reflex boost), along with concentration to all saves once/encounter. Downside: mediocre skill list with only 4+int skills.

Wizard/psionic rogue: Interesting. I'd probably get Wild Talent(Astral Construct) at level 1. Between the astral construct(2-3x a day) and abrupt jaunt, I may survive a while. Downside: d6 HD and bad fort.

Wizard/rogue(using chameleon sub): 10+int skill points at first level. Bad fort. =(

Wizard/totemist: Using city-dweller sub, I would have sense motive as a class skill. 1st level I would probably choose Able Learner, then at 3 and 6 choose Shape Soulmeld(Vitality Belt) and Shape Soulmeld(Silvertongue Mask). Vitality Belt + Totem Avatar would give me nice hp and an AC boost. Early on, one of the Diehard giving soulmelds would really help. Silvertongue Mask would make up for not having bluff . Also, all good saves. Downside: Feat intensive and only 4+int skills, although the soulmelds help.

Wizard/incarnate: Less skill points than totemis, but less feat intensive as well. Smaller hit dice too (d6). Poor reflex, but that isn't much of a downside as that can be buffed easily, and evasion can be chakra'd.

Wizard/psion(or Ardent): Can get over the hp deficit by gaining 5 temp hp / level with a cast. Telepath gets all the skills I want as class skills, but only 2+int/level. Bad fort and ref, only d4(but temp hp helps). Ardent is also easier to multiclass with.

Wizard/Wilder: 4+int skill points (gets bluff and sense motive), d6. Still only one good save. Charisma to AC is nice.

This guy will not be meleeing. Early on he may range a bit with a xbow or bow. Essentially I want a wizard who is non-squishy and who can double as party face. And before it's brought up, NO THRALLHERD!

Thanks!

[Waker]

Be prepared to hear this quite a bit in this threat, but consider Wizard/Beguiler. They are both Int-based spellcasters, but Beguiler is spontaneous and focused mostly on Illusion/Enchantment effects. Beguilers also come with 6 + Int worth of skills, a large skill list, bonuses like Trapfinding, Silent and Still Spell as bonus feats and so on. The biggest downside is that you wouldn't get any increase in BAB, Fort or Refl saves, leaving just as a mage with an overabundance of arcane might...sigh.

Since you feel like being a big talker and not a sneak as much, try talking your DM into allowing you to trade away the Beguiler's Trapfinding for the Changeling Rogue's Social Intuition acf.

It's not great, but one way to help shore up your low Refl save is to take Insightful Reflexes from CAdv, subbing Int for Dex.

[Randomguy]

You'll want skill pionts points in bluff, diplomacy, sense motive, maybe gather information, maybe forgery (It has tons of uses), concentration, and Decipher Script, and probably a few knowledge skills (I can see knoweledge (nobility and royalty) being useful), so that means you'll need at least 5 skill points per level, but you're better off more. With a high int, 4+int skill points per level should be enough.

There's no point in going warblade since you aren't going into melee, so cross off that option.
None of the incarnum classes really give you the class skills that you need, but if you play a human you could take a few levels of factotum and the able learner feat to counteract that. If you had to choose one of them, I'd choose incarnate, but 2 levels of totemist are a huge power boost.
Wilder has a bit too much MAD, and not enough relevent class skills (again, you can fix this if you want). Telepath might work though, but it leaves you being sort of squishy. You'd need to buff up as much as you could.


I really think factotum is your best option here, since not only are you significantly less squishy then a normal wizard, but you also have more then enough skill points to be the party face.

[Acidic]

Ah! Thanks about Able Learner. I completely forgot about that. That makes something like wiz X//factotum 1/other Y or wiz X//changeling rogue 1/other Y much more appealing, even if the other class only has 4+int.

Since the Chameleon PrC says that Changelings can take the class, and a pre-req for taking the class is the feat Able Learner... that pretty much implies Changelings can take Able Learner.

We don't know the stats yet, will know tomorrow. Stats are typically either 32-point buy or 5d6 and keep 3. I'm assuming at least 14con/16int/14cha... if not I'll template it somehow to get close to those stats.

As for Warblade, I was only thinking about taking it for the "concentration to X" saves. The d12 and good fort wouldn't hurt either Perhaps a one or two-level dip for those maneuvers would work if I wanted to go that route.

[Randomguy]

If you only want those maneuvers, you could get them through feats or by just taking a 1 or 2 level dip when you're high enough level to get all the necessary maneuvers (because other classes still add 1/2 to your initiator level).

[Waker]

While I do like the Chameleon PrC quite a bit, I think it loses some of it's charm in a gestalt game.
Anyways, as said before I think the two best classes for you to consider pairing with Wizard in order to be a party face are Factotum or Beguiler.
Factotum will give you several bonuses over Beguiler: better HD, Refl svs, Brains Over Brawn will add your Int to Initiative, extra actions and automatically overcoming SR, more skills to choose from. You also get some limited healing abilities.
Beguiler bonuses over Factotum: Far superior spellcasting, couple bonus feats, slightly increasing the DC of spells on unaware targets. Since you are specializing on the wizard side, you could put Illusion and Enchantment schools on your forbidden list and still have access to the spells.

Having a dip in Changeling Rogue will greatly increase your social skills, but as said, if you could get the DM to allow Factotum or Beguiler to drop Trapfinding for it, that would be great. Spontaneous Divination from CCha is a great acf, especially for a PrCed wizard, effectively giving you spontaneous divination spells in exchange for one feat.

[Greyfeld85]

Why not just take Rogue for the other side of your gestalt?

[Acidic]

Why not just take Rogue for the other side of your gestalt?

Factotum >> Rogue, especially when I could get extra standard actions to cast even more spells.

And yea, I'll check with the DM about giving up trapfinding for social intuition. Taking 10 on those social skills is nice. =)

Honestly, right now I'm looking at Wizard 5 / Recaster 5 / X 10 (maybe Unseen Seer?) // Factotum 1 / Archivist 19. I could grab a couple of Font of Inspirations and add my int AC/saves/atk 5(or 8) times per encounter.

That build has dual 9's based on int, 4+int (6+int on unseen seer), all skills as class skills, good Fort/Will...

That or do some kind of PrC alternating, such as:
1) Wiz // Factotum
2) Wiz // Factotum
3) Wiz // Factotum
4) Wiz // Factotum
5) Wiz // Factotum
6) Recaster // Wiz (Recaster does not improve CL here)
7) Recaster // Factotum
8) Recaster // Factotum
9) Recaster // Factotum
10) Recaster // Factotum
11) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
12) Wyrm Wizard // Wiz (Wyrm Wizard does not improve CL here)
13) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
14) Wyrm Wizard // Wiz (Wyrm Wizard does not improve CL here)
15) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
16) Wyrm Wizard // Wiz (Wyrm Wizard does not improve CL here)
17) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
18) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
19) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum
20) Wyrm Wizard // Factotum

More skill points than archivist, more metamagic goodness from Recaster and Wyrm Wizard, and LOTS of spells (7) added to spell list (including some sorc only ones like Wings of Flurry, Arcane Fusion, and Arcane Spellsurge).

[Waker]

Almost forgot, but since you said you wanted to go with a lot of conjuration spells, you might want to consider replacing Immediate Magic (Abrupt Jaunt) with Rapid Summoning from Unearthed Arcana. I know how much everyone loves teleporting, but getting out a summon as a standard action as opposed to one full round is very appealing.

[Myth]

Wizard/Factotum for the action economy. This will make you very close to Tier 0 if played correctly.

Social skills are overrated unless you're abusing Diplomacy. Look into things like Mindrape or a form to shapechange into that has at-will Dominate to fulfil your world domination needs.

[Acidic]

Well, I went with Factotum // Wizard (conjuration spec, banned enchantment and illusion), and we've actually started now. Made it through level 1 (whew) and at level 2.

str 14
dex 12
con 15
int 18
wis 10
cha 14

Feats:
Font of Inspiration, Font of Inspiration, Primitive Caster

Primitive caster essentially improves my caster level when I add verbal, somatic, or material components to spells that don't have... +1 CL for each. This let met cast Summon Monster / Undead I for 2 rounds at level 1. It's found in Frostburn and one of the Faerun books(forget which).

Due to the campaign, the DM gave us a free exotic weapon proficiency (any but spiked chain) and Tomb-tainted soul for free. Yay for healing myself and party members with Negative Energy Ray(spell from Tome and Blood).

Cunning damage on a magic missile for 9 damage was nice, or Hail of Stone for 8 damage to a group... as was having 5 inspiration points to use on melee with a Greathammer. =)

So yea, going Wizard/Recaster/Wyrm Wizard // Factotum/wizard, and having wizard levels fill in for the CL skips at Recaster1 and Wyrm Wizard2/4/6.

I think I'm really going to like this character...

[Acidic]

Oh, and I took Abrupt jaunt instead of Rapid Summoning. Saved my butt quite a few times versus various CR3-4 monsters at level 1... especially when one of them could pounce.

I'm debating my level 3 feats now:

Rapid Summoning (got the OK to pick up Obtain familiar and swap it out for Rapid Summoning ACF)

Fiery Burst (all day long, and if I want, add +int to damage. Should stay useful a decent amount of my career... and 2d6+4 fire damage in a small AoE at level 3 isn't shabby)

Knowledge Devotion (Will I really want to melee that much? I don't see this being that useful, due to me not rolling too many damage rolls, and even fewer attack rolls)

[TheMooch]

Rapid Summoning hands down, take it never look back.

[Slipperychicken]

Fiery Burst (all day long, and if I want, add +int to damage. Should stay useful a decent amount of my career... and 2d6+4 fire damage in a small AoE at level 3 isn't shabby)

Knowledge Devotion (Will I really want to melee that much? I don't see this being that useful, due to me not rolling too many damage rolls, and even fewer attack rolls)

Reserve feats are good if you have long days, or just want something to do on off-rounds that doesn't blow spell slots. Has the side effect of letting you be Tim the Enchanter (from Monty Python).

Be sure to take Factotum to at least 11, so Spell Resistance will never cramp your style ever again.

A good option for any Wizard is Uncanny Forethought. Has one prereq (spell mastery), but lets you prepare [Int-mod] slots to be spontaneous, so you can scribe all the obscure, situational spells you want, and have them all on-hand. It might work for Arcane Dilettante, but don't quote me on that. If you care about which spells you have Mastered, or are just worried about your survivability right now, you might want to take it later (like 6th and 9th?).

[Acidic]

Reserve feats are good if you have long days, or just want something to do on off-rounds that doesn't blow spell slots. Has the side effect of letting you be Tim the Enchanter (from Monty Python).

Be sure to take Factotum to at least 11, so Spell Resistance will never cramp your style ever again.

A good option for any Wizard is Uncanny Forethought. Has one prereq (spell mastery), but lets you prepare [Int-mod] slots to be spontaneous, so you can scribe all the obscure, situational spells you want, and have them all on-hand. It might work for Arcane Dilettante, but don't quote me on that. If you care about which spells you have Mastered, or are just worried about your survivability right now, you might want to take it later (like 6th and 9th?).

Yea, I saw Uncanny Forethought. Thing is, I need my 5th level wizard feat and my level 6 feat for Empower and Maximize, for prereqs for Recaster. Recaster gets, at level 2, Recaster times per day Maximize and at level 4 Recaster times per day Empower. So at level 10, I'll essentially have 5 sudden maximized and 5 sudden empowers. Not to mention free sculpt spell at level 10. It's REALLY hard to give that up.

I'm thinking maybe level 9 and 12 having Spell Mastery and Uncanny Forethought. What are some good spells, level 5 and below to have with Spell Mastery? I'm thinking something like Polymorph at 4, Teleport at 5... and 1 more... maybe something as simple as the level 1 spell "summon component". I dunno... that last one is up in the air.

That or more font of inspirations instead of Uncanny Forethought.

Alternatively, I can pick up the level 5 ACF from Complete Champion that lets me spontaneously convert arcane spells to any divination spell... that would be useful, but since Recaster requires 2 meta feats, I'd need to pick a meta feat at 3rd level...

Decisions decisions.

Oh, and this guy has +19 disguise at level 2. It's really helping him lure "good guys" into the "bad guys" dungeon, acting as a female elf who's long lost love has fallen into the hands of an evil necromancer. =)

[Slipperychicken]

Oh, and this guy has +19 disguise at level 2. It's really helping him lure "good guys" into the "bad guys" dungeon, acting as a female elf who's long lost love has fallen into the hands of an evil necromancer. =)

If this kind of thing looks like it'll work out for a while, and no one's touching your character physically during the act, you can pick up a Hat of Disguise (or just cast Disguise Self, if you weren't doing that already) for another +10. And a Disguise Kit for +2 on ten disguises before you have to replace it. Remember your penalties for different race and sex.

You'll probably want to master spells which will be absolutely essential should you lose your book. Also, looking into spellbook protection guides might be helpful. Taking UF at 12 is actually recommended, so you can have 6th level spells in there. Also depends on how high level the game's going.

Can't go wrong with Font of Inspiration. Once you hit Factotum8 and get Cunning Surge, your inspiration points basically translate into (IP/3 round down) no-action castings per encounter, allowing you to set off combos that would be otherwise impossible. Then the books start flying...

[Acidic]

If this kind of thing looks like it'll work out for a while, and no one's touching your character physically during the act, you can pick up a Hat of Disguise (or just cast Disguise Self, if you weren't doing that already) for another +10. And a Disguise Kit for +2 on ten disguises before you have to replace it. Remember your penalties for different race and sex.


The wording on the Changeling Minor Change Shape is kinda odd. It says it is similar to Disguise Self, but the change is physical instead of illusionary. So the rules are kinda fuzzy, but we're house ruling it that it's no save on interaction (like Disguise Self has), so if I'm in half-orc form and they touch my tusk, it's really there. However, adding Disguise Self on top of that probably won't stack, as they're both circumstance bonuses I believe.

Now I will get a masterwork disguise kit soon. I just had to pick up MW thieves tools first. Our games are typically low-money games. =(

[Acidic]

Be sure to take Factotum to at least 11, so Spell Resistance will never cramp your style ever again.


I found an interesting combination. This character won't get it until 20, but it's possible as early as 16:

Factotums get Cunning Breach, which says "By spending 2 inspiration points ... The target automatically fails any spell resistance check that she attempts to avoid your spell."

Wyrm Wizards get Break Spell Resistance, which says "Whenever you succeed on a caster level check to overcome a target's spell resistance, you can lose a prepared spell as a free action to negate the target's spell resistance. The target loses its spell resistance for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell you expended."

Removing spell resistance at the cost of 2 inspiration points and a 3rd level spell is pretty amazing. If you, as a 16th level wizard, can't kill, or at least incapacitate for an extended period, anything in 3 rounds, you're doing it wrong.

So yea, just thought I'd share that neat little combo. Also, Wyrm Wizard can give you nifty sorc-only spells like Wings of Flurry, Arcane Fusion, and Arcane Spellsurge. Or pick up Heal at 9th or 10th level, before the cleric does. =) It's an often-overlooked class due to the 3 CL loss... but with gestalt, it's pure gold.

[Slipperychicken]

Removing spell resistance at the cost of 2 inspiration points and a 3rd level spell is pretty amazing. If you, as a 16th level wizard, can't kill, or at least incapacitate for an extended period, anything in 3 rounds, you're doing it wrong.


Eh. If your target isn't too bright, you can just Maze it. If its Int score is less than 10, that gives you ten minutes to buff or run. Otherwise, if it has SR, cunning breach, then target its weak save (or no save) as usual. You know the drill: squishies get Fortitude, dumb guys get Will, big guys get Reflex.


On an unrelated note, a surprising number of spellcasters don't keep spare Component Pouches or Holy Symbols, so it's a good idea to have a few spares yourself. You can target an enemy's, but make it good: your GM won't fall for it twice.