Cloistered Cleric -vs- Psion, Shadowlord Gestalt

[Amoren]

Alright, so, I have a concept for an assassin who's in fact a healer (not just masquerading as one, but a legitimate, spends time helping orphans and poor and petting puppies and kittens in the day, healer, but doesn't have to be the class). For this purpose, I've decided on the other side of his gestalt to be Cloistered Cleric or Psion (likely Egoist, or Nomad); I decided against the Healer class because the animal companion didn't fit.

The problem is... I don't know what to go with. So far I've calculated the benefits as much as I can;

Cloistered Cleric Gets
+2 Skill points per level (a good thing, I'm going to need a lot of them)
Better buff spells (divine power, magic weapon, etc etc)
Bardic Knowledge (interesting flavor?)
Knowledge Devotation (Nature + Local, will reach +35 at level 20 for guaranteed +5 hit/damage)

Psion, However...
Does not require Academic Priest (Character needs to be intelligence focused)
Better utility and, more importantly, MORE TELEPORTS!
Scism + Psycoportation powers from Minds Eye mean 3 teleports per round for only ~5 PP per turn!
Psionic Bonus Feats
Manifestations are stealthy!

Damage wise... They'll be 11d6 Sneak Attack, and an additional attack per round due to other feats at a further -2. Assuming magic weapon + divine power + knowledge devotion for cleric, and the two offense buff spells for psion, each's attack cycle (not factoring in dexterity/strength core other than the +3 bonus from Divine Power, because character is still in the planning stages) is as follows;

Cloistered Cleric: +26/26/24/21/21/16/16/11 for weapon +11d6+33 damage

Psion: +20/20/20/20/20/20/18/18/18/15/15/15/15/15/15/10/10/10/10/10/10/ for 11d6+28 damage.

At first glance the huge bonus for Psion's teleportation gambit seems to be an overwhelming winner, but I'm not sure what the average AC for enemies would be, so Cloistered Cleric, being much more accurate, might be the winner... Although Psion could research the psionic magic weapon to gain another +5 to hit and damage to catch it up and make them fairly even, even though that power is expensive to manifest.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What other class(es) are you taking with this gestalt character? What level are you starting out at, and what level do you expect to play to?

For an assassin type character, I'll strongly recommend Psychic Assassin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d), just because at the 5th level you can get Mind Cripple which is far, far better at quickly disabling opponents than any other ability. If the evil alignment doesn't fit, just drop the Death Attack class feature in exchange for ignoring the alignment and special prerequisites.

With Psion, you can use the True Healer (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) ACF at Egoist 5 to get access to healing powers that aren't range: personal. There's also the Sangehirn (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625c) which allows you to use a few specific personal-range powers at touch range, but I wouldn't take more than five levels in that because it severely hinders your choices of powers known.

[Amoren]

Well, the gestalt is using the best progression rules (So class features on one side of the gestalt don't stack with those on the other side). The one side is currently Rogue 5/Assassin 9/Shadowlord 6, since Death Attack will likely be useful in this campaign. The other side, currently, is x 1/human paragon 3/x+16 (going paragon for the intelligence boost for more skills + casting, and the need for more feats).

I was already contemplating the True Healer ACF, since it was right up his ally, and Sangehirn looked nice but I wasn't sure how well it'd flesh with everything else (especially since True Healer alone likely gives all the healing emphasis he needs), but maybe a 3-5 level dip would work (I'd have to not take the True Healer ACF and use both psion feats for it, I'm already considering dropping two levels of rogue for fighter on the rogue side to make up for how many feats this character will likely need).

As for starting, starting at 1, but the DM typically has characters level faster than normal (I once shot straight from 2 to 5 with one character I played with him), so high level play should eventually come into play. Also, combat isn't the emphasis of the game, but might be important. So whatever the other side should be should support his assassinations and healing concepts rather than just blast fools with spells/powers.

[HunterOfJello]

If you can take Academic Priest, then you should go into Archivist. You'd have TONS of awesome spells, be able to heal all you like, you'd have good saves all around, and get all the nifty Dark Knowledge abilities.

Archivists get all of the spells from the Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Cleric Domains and Druid list at a minimum. That's freaking awesome.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Crinti Shadow Marauder from Shining South gets Shadow Pounce at its 5th level, and it's a lot easier to qualify for than Telflammar Shadowlord.

I don't see where you're getting 11d6 sneak attack, you'll have 8d6 by level 14 and it won't be increasing after that. Your damage won't even matter at all with Mind Cripple, with enough attacks per round you can disable opponents by reducing them to Int 0.

I'd go with the following build:

1. Rogue 1// Psion 1, Egoist, TWF, Psicrystal Affinity
2. Human Paragon 1// Psion 2
3. Rogue 2// Human Paragon 2, Weapon Finesse, Craven
4. Rogue 3// Human Paragon 3, +2 Int
5. Rogue 4// Psion 3
6. Psychic Assassin 1// Psion 4, Blind-Fight
7. Psychic Assassin 2// Swordsage 1, Flame's Blessing stance
8. Psychic Assassin 3// Psion 5, True Healer
9. Psychic Assassin 4// Fighter 1, Desert Wind Dodge, ITWF
10. Psychic Assassin 5// Psion 6, Mind Cripple
11. Psychic Assassin 6// Fighter 2, Mobility
12. Psychic Assassin 7// Psion 7, Spring Attack
13. Psychic Assassin 8// Swordsage 2, Assassin's Stance
14. Psychic Assassin 9// Psion 8, Shadow Jump
15. Shadowlord 1// Psion 9, GTWF
16. Shadowlord 2// Psion 10, Extend Power
17. Shadowlord 3// Psion 11
18. Shadowlord 4// Psion 12, Persistent Power (from d20 modern (http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/msrd/ArcanaOccupationsandFeats.rtf))
19. Shadowlord 5// Psion 13
20. Shadowlord 6// Psion 14

Some alternatives would be to include Swashbuckler 3 to add your Int bonus to damage, maybe work in the feat Shadow Blade to add your Dex bonus to damage, and maybe replace Rogue with Psychic Rogue (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b).

[Amoren]

I thought about going the psychic rogue/psychic assassin route, but the DM's already ruled that power points from one side of the progression will be kept separate from power points on the other side. For that reason I thought I might as well just keep the spellcasting assassin to flesh better with Shadowlord and keep the assassin spells from Spell Compendium/whatever.

11d6 Sneak Attack is from a homebrew feat on Myth-Weavers, which gives 1d6-3d6 sneak attack depending on the user's ranks in heal. It's a very flavorful feat which fleshes the healing concept of the character with his assassination tasks. I'm also looking for other feats that uses heal for assassination purposes, but have so far come up empty (but I could have sworn there was at least one in an official source!).

[Mithril Leaf]

I'd personally recommend psion with a bit of XP spent researching psionic minor creation at some point. Unlimited sources of black lotus extract for assassin type characters? Yes please.

[Amoren]

Alright, I have a question in relation to a psionic power, Body Control. My question is, if you have this in combination with a way to use actions (ie. solicite psicrystal [whatever that is] to make your psicrystal control it, or swift concentration skill trick) and used it on yourself... Could my above build then use its actions to teleport (activating shadow pounce), and deliver all of its attacks with intelligence to hit and damage instead of str/dex? I'm guessing no, because Body Control isn't 'forcing' you to attack (it's a product of a willing action to use a power to teleport, and take advantage of that teleport).

[LeshLush]

Crinti Shadow Marauder from Shining South gets Shadow Pounce at its 5th level, and it's a lot easier to qualify for than Telflammar Shadowlord.
Crinit Shadow Marauder's Shadow Pounce only works if you're on your mount.

[Zilzmaer]

Crinit Shadow Marauder's Shadow Pounce only works if you're on your mount.

Actually, Shadow Ride only works when mounted, but Shadow Pounce works either way.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Alright, I have a question in relation to a psionic power, Body Control. My question is, if you have this in combination with a way to use actions (ie. solicite psicrystal [whatever that is] to make your psicrystal control it, or swift concentration skill trick) and used it on yourself... Could my above build then use its actions to teleport (activating shadow pounce), and deliver all of its attacks with intelligence to hit and damage instead of str/dex? I'm guessing no, because Body Control isn't 'forcing' you to attack (it's a product of a willing action to use a power to teleport, and take advantage of that teleport).

It's really up to your DM, but here's how I would rule it:

Control Body controls all of your physical actions, so anything your character physically does must be done through that power's effect, thus you'll use Int instead of Str/Dex. Keep in mind you lose your Dex bonus to AC under its effect, and you probably can't make AoOs unless you have Combat Reflexes.

Your mental actions are still free to perform purely mental actions such as concentrating on Control Body, or manifesting powers. You cannot cast spells with verbal or somatic components while under the effect of Control Power. Your body's physical actions are occupied at the same time as your mental actions are taking place.

With Swift Concentration, your character is still in control of his physical actions via Control Body and should be able to Shadow Pounce. If you use Solicit Psicrystal, then your psicrystal is in control of your physical actions via Control Body and it does not have the Shadow Pounce class feature. Your psicrystal also doesn't have Sneak Attack or any of your other class features, so I'd say Solicit Psicrystal is probably not a good choice for this character.

[LeshLush]

Actually, Shadow Ride only works when mounted, but Shadow Pounce works either way.
Wow, you're right.