Feats for a Gish

[ZhanStrider]

Hello there!
I'm wondering what SRD feats are good for a Gish Build. I am also allowed to use the Tome of Battle. I'm playing a Jade Pheonix Mage that's more on the melee side. Dual wields a Scimitar and a dagger. Bonus points if you can guess what two disciplines I'm mainly using! Thanks in advance Playgrounders!

[A_S]

If you're going JPM, it may be worth it to blow a few feats on Martial Study/Stance to get access to some higher level maneuvers in schools other than Devoted Spirit and Desert Wind (the two JPM gets access to).

Extend and Persistent Spell are excellent for gishes. Possibly Quicken, too, if you don't have other plans for your swift actions. Depends on your maneuver loadout (conflicts with boosts and counters), and whether you're going to be using Arcane Spellsurge.

See if you can get Arcane Strike okayed (from Complete Warrior). It's the best gish feat in the game, and it synergizes with dual wielding well (which is pretty bad if you don't have a source of bonus damage dice).

[Vin Robinson]

A_S hit the Cheer Leader on the button nose here, but for great emphasis Arcane Strike is a real gem.

[Manly Man]

Take Practiced Spellcaster. Even if you're focusing on melee, being able to have more spells and a higher caster level available to you is a huge boon. It will give you more options, which is, as far as I know, pretty much what ToB was all about; your main thing may be as a meleer, but it's always good to be able to do more when one option is no longer viable.

As well, if you haven't invested too much into the scimitar and dagger, you could go for the Lightning Mace feat combo'd with a +1 keen kukri of aptitude in each hand. Use Arcane Strike for some extra damage bonuses on top of that; the whole thing costs you six feats, which isn't too huge of an issue if you're human, even if you're not allowed flaws.

Assuming the build uses Crusader and Wizard, perhaps something like Cr 1/Wi 4/Cr 1/JPM 10/Cr 4

H: Weapon Focus (light mace)
1: Two-Weapon Fighting
Wi: (Open for whatever you'd like; Extend Spell is great if you want to use your spellcasting levels for buffs)
3: Combat Reflexes
6: Lightning Mace
9: Practiced Spellcaster
12: Arcane Strike

The rest of the feats would be up to you, really. You could probably do well with taking a level of Spellsword at level 7 instead of going into Jade Phoenix Mage immediately, so as to help prevent an extra 10% of ASF, or just go for a +1 twilight mithral chain shirt, since money's a lot easier to make up for than a regrettable choice in class. Also, considering that it's four levels being used, this is also doable with Sorcerer instead of Wizard, which would allow for a bi of synergy with the Crusader's Charisma-based abilities.

[ZhanStrider]

If you're going JPM, it may be worth it to blow a few feats on Martial Study/Stance to get access to some higher level maneuvers in schools other than Devoted Spirit and Desert Wind (the two JPM gets access to).

Extend and Persistent Spell are excellent for gishes. Possibly Quicken, too, if you don't have other plans for your swift actions. Depends on your maneuver loadout (conflicts with boosts and counters), and whether you're going to be using Arcane Spellsurge.

See if you can get Arcane Strike okayed (from Complete Warrior). It's the best gish feat in the game, and it synergizes with dual wielding well (which is pretty bad if you don't have a source of bonus damage dice).

I've seen that Extend and Persistent are good for gishes several times and never been quite sure why. Are they any better for a gish than a regular caster? honestly I've never been to keen on them, i guess i'm missing the point.

[Mithril Leaf]

I've seen that Extend and Persistent are good for gishes several times and never been quite sure why. Are they any better for a gish than a regular caster? honestly I've never been to keen on them, i guess i'm missing the point.

A gish's main method of improving his ability to fight is through extensive use of buffs. These metamagics drastically improve your ability to buff. For regular casters they usually just give you some money to spare because you've got all the basics covered all day by spells.

[Akal Saris]

Persist is better on clerics, who can sidestep the high metamagic adjustment with a feat. If you don't have any way to negate or reduce metamagic costs, it might be good just to get extend, or metamagic rods of extend.

I'm not crazy about Arcane Strike either, since the jade phoenix mage already gets its own version of the ability (the two stack somewhat if I recall though).

I'd agree that Martial Study/Stance are good. What class are you entering through? If you're a crusader then extra granted maneuver is good, for example.

Otherwise, picking up two-weapon fighting and the greater version would be good too. I'm a fan of the Minor Shapeshift reserve feat from Complete Mage on any gish that I build, as well.

[ZhanStrider]

Persist is better on clerics, who can sidestep the high metamagic adjustment with a feat. If you don't have any way to negate or reduce metamagic costs, it might be good just to get extend, or metamagic rods of extend.

I'm not crazy about Arcane Strike either, since the jade phoenix mage already gets its own version of the ability (the two stack somewhat if I recall though).

I'd agree that Martial Study/Stance are good. What class are you entering through? If you're a crusader then extra granted maneuver is good, for example.

Otherwise, picking up two-weapon fighting and the greater version would be good too. I'm a fan of the Minor Shapeshift reserve feat from Complete Mage on any gish that I build, as well.

I'm already a Swordsage, and I'd prefer not to multi-class too much. I planned on TWF of course. Arcane Strike and Minor Shapeshift are out, though, SRD and ToB only sadly.

[Norin]

Take Practiced Spellcaster. Even if you're focusing on melee, being able to have more spells and a higher caster level available to you [snip]

Practiced spellcaster does not affect you number of spells known or spells per day though.

[Manly Man]

Practiced spellcaster does not affect you number of spells known or spells per day though.

Ah, yes. My brain was thinking too hard about the classes to put in there first. Still, it's a good idea. It'll let you cancel out those two levels in JPM that don't advance spellcasting.

[ZhanStrider]

Ah, yes. My brain was thinking too hard about the classes to put in there first. Still, it's a good idea. It'll let you cancel out those two levels in JPM that don't advance spellcasting.

Just asked the DM, complete Arcane is not allowed until further notice, so no practiced spellcaster

[mattie_p]

Just asked the DM, complete Arcane is not allowed until further notice, so no practiced spellcaster

Honestly, if you are limited to SRD + ToB, there is very little we can recommend that hasn't already been brought up. Maybe some psionics if you are interested in mobility, Up the Walls almost never hurt anyone (although, if you grab levitate, the purpose is kind of defeated). Elocater helps a charger as you get to ignore terrain (one level only, please).

[Devronq]

Just asked the DM, complete Arcane is not allowed until further notice, so no practiced spellcaster

Slightly off topic I've never heard of a DM allowing tob but not allowing one of the complete books like TOB is a very common thing for DMs to disallow seems silly :p

[Blueiji]

Slightly off topic I've never heard of a DM allowing tob but not allowing one of the complete books like TOB is a very common thing for DMs to disallow seems silly :p

It may be a matter of what books the DM has access to.