"Yeah, I can do that, and *without* 8 hours of prep" Gestalt build?

[danzibr]

I was recently thinking of good gestalt combo's, how some classes have great synergy. Then I got to thinking... the most boring part of any session is when you can't contribute. Aerial combat and you're melee? Sneak into enemy camp and your Move Silently is -4?

What I'm thinking doesn't really fall into a tier. For tiers it seems versatility and power both increase at the same time. Tier 3 does one thing very well and can often contribute outside of their expertise. Tier 2 has a couple ways of bending the game over and can contribute in most situations. I'm thinking something more like... can somewhat contribute in any situation, but not necessarily any way to break the game.

I'm currently thinking Psion//Incarnate. With the right powers and soulmelds you can probably be prepared to contribute to any (or, well, almost any) situation at the drop of a hat.

[Greenish]

Reshaping soulmelds requires 8 hours of rest, though, and Rapid Meldshaping only gets you that far. Still, not a bad choice.


Skillmonkey//Caster in general has probably quite a good shot at contributing in anything, and if you slap a skillmonkey&caster like Beguiler or Bard on the other side, you can probably even devote the other to a narrow role like melee combat.

[Fax Celestis]

Pick one:
Binder
Dragonfire Adept
Warlock
Psychic Rogue
Beguiler

Pick one:
Totemist
Incarnate
Factotum
Chameleon

Mix together. Serve over nice.

[Greenish]

Aside from casting, being able to change shape opens up a large selection of options. A wildshape ranger//warlock (for a low-ish tier example) would have melee, ranged, sneaking, face, flight, etc. aspects covered.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Wildshape Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms (some)/Warshaper 5/Master of Many Forms (the rest) is pretty crazy. Multimorph (the Warshaper capstone) lets you change shape an unspecified "multiple times" within one Wild Shape; Master of Many Forms lets you Wild Shape into practically anything, and pick up (Ex) special qualities to boot. Given that by level 20 you'll be able to spend 165 hours per day Wild Shaped, you'll never be caught unprepared for anything, ever. Put Totemist 2/Incarnate 18 on the other side and enjoy a ridiculous range of almost-magic-item quality effects that persist when you're shapeshifted.

[IamL]

Factotum is already pretty close to that, just gestalt with Warlock or a soulmeld class, add Rapid Meldshaping, and you're pretty much good.

[Beelzebub1111]

Warblade//Dragon Shaman

Nothing fancy there. There's not much overlap with action economy between abilities (especially with Quicken Breath since it makes your breath weapon a FREE action) Good BaB, only need 5 minutes to prep at most and you refresh easily, Immunity to an energy at an early level and improved uncanny dodge at the same level, A Natural armor bonus that isn't an enhancement bonus, No more MAD than a Warblade on its own (You'd just need a little charisma, and even then it doesn't matter that much) It's a solid versatile gestalt in my opinion.

[Slipperychicken]

Gray Elf Generalist Wizard//Beguiler6/Rainbow Servant10/Beguiler+X

Wizard ACFs: Spontaneous Divination, Elven Generalist, Domain Wizard, Eidetic Spellcaster

Take Uncanny Forethought (and the prereq Spell Mastery), Nexus Method (cast Summon Monster spontaneously).


Good skillpoints from high Intelligence.
No spellbook.
Cast entire Cleric and Beguiler lists spontaneously.
May spontaneously convert any prepared spell on the Wizard side into a Summon Monster of its spell level or lower.
May spontaneously cast all known Wizard Divination spells.
May spontaneously cast any known Wizard spells from Int-modifier number of spell slots per day via Uncanny Forethought. As a full-round action, even if the regular casting time was longer. Spells selected with Spell Mastery may be cast as a Standard action.


Yeah, this guy can do damn near anything at the drop of a hat. He also still has room for metamagic feats to fit blasting in there too. He could also take reserve feats if people whine about "endurance".

If you can't find a way to contribute with this build, you aren't trying.

EDIT:
Versatility can be further improved by taking a level in that rune-PrC so spells are only 1 page per spell, and using WBL to buy ~3 Blessed Books (which eliminate scribing costs), allowing you to know every Wizard spell in the game relatively cheaply.

[Vaz]

Wu Jen 5/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 5

Use Body Outside Body SLA to bring into being clones who use their SLA's to grant you every buff in the game near enough for free (this includes Psionic powers) which is then, Persisted, Extended, and any other type of metamagic you can dream of: because they can Psyref themselves to give you new metamagic and they can metamagic effect on spells/powers which were normally ineligible for it. They can complete the Dark Chaos Shuffle combined with granting you bonus feats through heroics.

On the other side of the build, Archivist 20 gets you Druid Spells and Domain spells, or you can go for Druid, gaining you Wild Shape.

[Flickerdart]

Divine casters don't require sleep to prepare spells, so use one of those.

[strider24seven]

Warforged Crusader//XXX, where XXX is any class. You can go all day.

Alternatively Psion//XXX, where XXX is any class, preferably psionic. Get a PP recharge method of your choice, and take Psychic Reformation as a power known.

[Greenish]

If you can't find a way to contribute with this build, it's because you're buried under your spell list.Fixed that for you.

[Roguenewb]

Factotum//Beguiller sounds awesome. Still not mega flexible (DPS is not good). But you are the GOD of skillmonkeys.

[dspeyer]

I suspect the best bet is a spontaneous caster with really versatile spells. Things like shapechanging, shadow X and summoning from big lists. Best combo might be psion//beguiler using advanced learning for the shadow spells. That gets a good set of skills too.