Help with Gestalt Pathfinder build please

[togapika]

Looking for assistance with a 1st level gestalt build for pathfinder.
Assume high stats due to our stat rolling method

Roll 24 d6's and then use all the numbers to make stats. Stats must use a minimum of 2 dice, but no maximum amount of dice. Maximum stat before racial modifiers is an 18. When using a dice, you must use all of it (no splitting a 6 into 3+3 for example)

I was thinking of playing a Druid/Monk going for the Storm Kindler prestige class (Paths of Prestige) focusing on melee since our other characters are a Rogue/Fighter focused on Archery and a Gunslinger/Cleric who only took Cleric because we didn't have a healer. Neither of these characters are particularly optimized at all.

The Druid's weak armor proficiencies can be supplemented by the monk's Wisdom to AC, as well as unarmed strike serving for melee until I can wild shape or storm shape. Also since the damage storm shape does is based off unarmed strike...


Is this a decent idea? Are there ways to maximize the effectiveness of this build or am I being foolish and should make something else?

Really as long as I can be decently tanky and enough of a threat to get the monsters to stay near me...

[Gnaeus]

Druid//monk is likely to work fine. Make sure you take the quingong and hungry ghost monk archetypes to ensure regular Ki, and trade out the more useless monk abilities. Also get improved trip and improved grapple. Those 2 will be useful in many animal forms.

Lastly, in PF, its pretty important to remember that druids can't really work well as BOTH melee monsters and casters. Since 1. it looks like you are aiming at melee monster anyway and 2. You will benefit from bonus feats and full BAB on combat maneuvers, you will probably be aiming in that direction. I am playing a similar character now (a druid//rogue) and it works great, as long as I don't try to think of myself too much as a 3.5 tier 1 caster.

[togapika]

Useful Stuff

Thanks for the reply! Got any info on the build you're using so I have some idea of a starting point?

[JohnStone]

are you sure the others aren't optimized...

a fighter//rogue fills two major spots in the party, he will likely have High AC Sneak attack and Fighter feats. As well as being a skill monkey for Out-of-combat and stealth

The Cleric//Gunlinger is a divine caster that can dish out damage from range. Also i belive thier is a particularly nasty gestalt build that is based of these two classes (dont have time to look)

you may want to go with some sort of Arcane Caster mix it with maybe magus(for wiz) or try to build to charisma using sorceror and another CHA class (paladin?)

All that said a druid//monk is definetly an optimized, versatile character

[Gnaeus]

Well, I am in a campaign where everyone is class x //rogue. I came in a couple of years in, so I started at level 9, now level 10. So I didn't pick druid//rogue because it was an optimum combo, I took druid because it gestalts well with rogue.

As a rogue, my goal was multiple attacks as riders for sneak attack, combined with methods of ensuring sneak. I took the scout rogue archetype, so I can pounce and deliver multiple sneaks. Fogcutter goggles, so I can cover the field with fog and sneak everything that can't see me. Hellcat stealth, so I can hide in plain sight for sneaking, and of course my pet is a potential flanker for more sneak. We are on a ship, so right now, huge squid is my go to form, since it has 4 good attacks and absurd reach with 3 of them. I used my rogue bonus feats for multiattack and weapon finesse (given how much of my damage is sneak, I can do brutal things as anything with multiple attacks, like a housecat.) On land, I would probably be aiming at a pounce form, like a tiger. Its almost always good to take a crafting feat (craft wondrous is best unless the cleric took it), if you are willing to take the OOC time to make it work and if your game has IC downtime. My one complaint was that I intentionally made a melee character, because we already had a wizard//rogue who was doing the crowd control thing and our group was short on melee, and then the wizard//rogue died and I found myself to be lacking the tools to do buffing and crowd control well (other than just by grappling)

[Jack_Simth]

Well, like most things, 'decent' and 'good' depends on the optimization level of the table, as well as what you plan to do with it. The build you suggest is fairly solid in Gestalt - Wisdom SAD, lots of passive defences from Monk, lots of active offence from Druid. When Wildshape comes online, you've got a lot of nice things too. You might also consider replacing the initial monk level with Pseudodragon (Monsters as PC rules - it replaces a single class level). Boosts your con and Wis slightly, your Dex significantly, your AC noticably (2 natural, 2 size), gives you an at-will save-or-lose. You can then continue on with Monk later, of course.

The community can pretty much always suggest tweaks to make your character stronger, of course, but stronger isn't necessarily better for the real reason for the game: Fun.

[Drachasor]

Personally, I'd go with a Synthesis Summoner/Druid for that old 3.5 feel -- also insane numbers of summons.