Help making a Knight Templar.

[Ageir]

Hey guys, I'm working on a character for my brothers game. Its gestalt 3.5 and I can use any of the books. As the title says the toon is a knight templar. So far I have my heart set on cleric. The diety is one my brother made up. the Templar is LN and is supposed to be a little cut throat. Anyways I'm having trouble picking the other side. Here are his ability scores. Oh and he's a human with.the half celestial template.

STR 22
DEX 18
CON 20
INT 16
WIS 22
CHA 22

I was thinking of a swordsage dip. I'm willing to go lawful good and get a few levels of paladin and serenity. any ideas?

[dwlc2000]

The knight class from phb2. Great for melee.

[Ageir]

I thought about knight but Cale (The templar) fights dirty. He's really impolite about his fighting style.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I just finished this build (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275093#5) if you're interested. Just Paladin 20// Cloistered Cleric 20 should work out fine, spend a feat on Martial Study: Devoted Spirit to get Intimidate as a class skill.

[Arcanist]

It really depends on what kind of Knight you want.

[dascarletm]

Where do you want to be on a scale of martial to caster?

[Ageir]

Well the idea is to be a melee combatant. but buff myself to extremes with cleric. Id like to get 9ths but I don't really have a super high interest in save or dies.

[ArcturusV]

My gut would say not to even do Gestalt, but just go straight Cleric. I mean the flavor you wanted, Knight Templar, is basically the original inspiration for Clerics, theme-wise. And that theme is still there, especially since they no longer have restrictions like blunt weapons only.

You might want to go something like Cleric//Fighter/Barbarian/Rogue, mix or so. The usual Melee Mess that people do with dips because level 3-6 or somewhere in there is the Chump Level.

[dascarletm]

I assume the first 4 levels of your gestalt class is going to be the half celestial template, unless you are buying it off or something. So the other side i suppose straight 20 cleric works just fine.:smallbiggrin:

The other side I would think about paladin/warpriest. On warpriest levels with spell progression (for your cleric) take pious templar on the cleric side, or something else.

This is probably horrible optimization, overcomplicated or just bad.

It's what first comes to mind for me. Maybe you can build off it?

[Ageir]

What do you lot think about cleric// sword sage 3 paladin 7 Divine champion?

[Slipperychicken]

Have you considered Crusader? It's very tanky and knight-ish. Not as much focus on the dirty-fighting aspect.

Warblade could be nice, especially for FIGHTING SPIRIT! Iron Heart Surge. Some maneuvers can be used to emphasize unconventional fighting.

Factotum is nice if you have some feats to blow on Font of Inspiration. Extra actions (quick buffing?), all skills unlocked, and sneak-attack are all indicative of cutthroat tactics. Also scores you some Sorc/Wiz spells (you know how Cleric-players gaze enviously at the sorc/wiz list), and synergizes well with Knowledge Devotion (gives attacks some oomph, and studying your opponent's weaknesses seems in-character).

[Ageir]

I gave some thought to crusader. My dm already told me that nightsticks stack. So i was foing to be persisting divine power ect. I'm going to be wearing mithril breatplate so I'm going to be counted as in light armor. I was looking at swordaage because of the wis to ac while in light or no armor. What exactly is Iron heart surge? I should point out that this game is very combat heavy.

[SilverLeaf167]

I gave some thought to crusader. My dm already told me that nightsticks stack. So i was foing to be persisting divine power ect. I'm going to be wearing mithril breatplate so I'm going to be counted as in light armor. I was looking at swordaage because of the wis to ac while in light or no armor. What exactly is Iron heart surge? I should point out that this game is very combat heavy.
Do you know how Tome in Battle, and the "Martial Initiators" therein work in general? I'm assuming you do, since you mentioned Swordsages and Crusaders.

Iron Heart Surge is basically a maneuver that allows the user to negate any status effect on himself (as long as he's capable of taking standard actions). It's very handy and very memetic on these boards, but a little questionably written. It's in the Iron Heart discipline.

[FyreByrd]

Cleric 4/Crusader 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10/Cleric 5//Factotum 8/Something Else X

Get all your knightly goodness on one side with level 9 spells, and decent manouver progression, get your cut-throat on the other side with all the skill points you'll ever need, action economy breaking, plus more damage stacking.

Admittidly is a little MAD, and might make your DM a little MAD, however if he's allowing nightsticks to stack, he gets what he deserves!

[Slipperychicken]

Cleric 4/Crusader 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10/Cleric 5//Factotum 8/Something Else X


Before you replace Cleric levels with Crusader, think about whether maneuvers are worth nerfing your spell progression. Also, I'd personally take Factotum up to 19. Although 8 is a popular cutoff point, the class still has tons to offer afterward (spell progression, ignoring DR/SR can be big if you use Moonblade, cheat death, the capstone) and is solid throughout.