3.5 Incarnate/Bard Gestalt

[Kaustic]

Throwing around some ideas for a Snowflake Wardance build in a Gestalt game I'm in.

Incarnate 20//Bard10/Crusader 10 is what I have initially as a build. The focus is to use the Incarnate to modify the combat abilities of the Wardance once active. I'm not even sure Crusader 10 or Bard 10 is truely what I want all the way. Incarnate 20 is locked down though. I am playing a Totemist currently and I really do enjoy the versatility of the Soulmelds.

Bard is where I'm hoping to help the party out and myself too. Dragonfire Inspiration is a big step there, so any synergy with increasing Inspire Courage is helpful.

Crusader really shores up some Defenses of having some low Hit Points, WRT and Song of the White Raven are pretty obvious for abuse/synergy.

Feats so far look like this:(No Flaws Allowed)
Human: Dragontouched(1st) Dragonfire Inspiration(Human), Song of the White Raven(3rd), Snowflake Wardance(6th)

Though I am very tempted to push SotWR and SWD to later levels in lieu of picking up Draconic Heritage(Battle Dragon) to change the Dragonfire Inspiration bonus Damage to Sonic.

Any suggestions on synergizing the build a bit more?

[LTwerewolf]

Silverbrow human from dragon magic gives you dragonblood subtype, saving you a feat, while still giving the bonus feat of a human.

This (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9830) should help you out as well.

[Keld Denar]

Are you going to be attacking with an Incarnum weapon (per the soulmeld) or actual manufactured weapons? You won't have a great BAB with many bard levels, so you won't have a super large number of attacks, especially if you don't TWF, so I would instead focus on getting more bang for your buck. Most Crusader maneuvers are strikes, which also synergizes with single attacks. Deliver strikes with your Incarnum weapon while using your move action to charge it up for the stun (while bound to your arms) is pretty effective. Unfortunately, you can't two hand Power Attack with SFWD, so that takes away that massive source of bonus damage.

It might be worth while to consider not using DFI, and maybe not even using SFWD. 2 handed PA returns 3 damage per point of IC, compared to the 3.5 average from DFI. If you max out just IC, you can still get some dramatic performance out of it, and you will save some feats. An Incarnum weapon is 1 handed, so you could 2 hand them if you wanted.

I'd actually think about building Bard4/Crusader16//Law Incarnate20 and focus on boosting your attack bonus as high as possible so you can PA for a lot and still reliably hit with your Crusader strikes.

What level are you starting at? That might make some difference.

[Kaustic]

I was thinking of using Manufactured Weapons and going with Bluesteel Bracers for the extra Insight Bonus to Initiative and Weapon Damage Rolls. If I threw the character together to play in the game I'm in now, I would be about 6/7th level.

[eggs]

The thing that really bothers me about this combination is how much redundancy they have in the abilities that make them good in melee.

If trying to avoid the overlap between Knowledge Devotion/Inspire Courage/magic weapons and the standard array of combat soulmeld bonuses, I'd go Evil, use Necrocarnum Weapon heavily and combine the sing-to-undead feat (I'm blanking on the name) with a bound Necrocarnum Circlet.

But a straight-classed Bardic Knack Bard//Incarnate with the Improvisation spell could make a very solid skillmonkey.

[Kaustic]

I would consider Necrocarnum, however, the DM doesn't like his players to be Evil. It would be really odd as well, considering we have a Monk/Paladin in the party.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

The thing that really bothers me about this combination is how much redundancy they have in the abilities that make them good in melee.

If trying to avoid the overlap between Knowledge Devotion/Inspire Courage/magic weapons and the standard array of combat soulmeld bonuses, I'd go Evil, use Necrocarnum Weapon heavily and combine the sing-to-undead feat (I'm blanking on the name) with a bound Necrocarnum Circlet.

But a straight-classed Bardic Knack Bard//Incarnate with the Improvisation spell could make a very solid skillmonkey.Knowledge Devotion gives +[1-5] insight to attack and damage. Incarnate granted insight bonuses that I see are Bluesteel Bracers (essentia investment) and Incarnate Avatar for non-good alignments.

Inspire Courage gives +X morale to attack and damage (and fear saves, but whatever). There are plenty of incarnum morale bonuses, but the only one I see that applies to attack and/or damage is bloodwar gauntlets, an evil-only meld.

Solution: If you really care about incarnate avatar, go good incarnate. Also, if you really want to shape Bluesteel Bracers, just don't invest essentia. Boom, no more stacking issues; really it gets much worse with a Cleric, who can get bonuses of most types by himself.