A fightery type that throws fireballs

[tyriuth]

Starting a new gestalt campaign this weekend, and one of my players want to have a fightery type character that throws fireballs. What combination of classes would you guys suggest? I kinda want to keep away from Fighter//Wizard as we have a Duskblade//Wiz, a Fighter//Wiz already in the party. The other members are a Psionic rogue//Ardent, a Warlock//rogue and a Cleric//Paladin.

[Silva Stormrage]

Psion//Warblade would be an interesting option.

You could do Archivist//Wizard if you could get DMM Persist somehow for Divine Power. That one might be a bit high op for the group though not sure on the group's optimization level.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Desert Wind Swordsage and/or Pyrokineticist would both give excellent fire-throwing abilities.

[aleucard]

A Melee Specialist//Mailman sounds like it'd fit your bill perfectly. If you go Crusader and (I think) Marshall, you get good Charisma synergy, too. You being in a party with several other casters also frees you up to take the spells that are interesting but not strong/versatile/etc. enough, as well as take advantage of the melee buffs you may have access to. If your DM allows you to take Base Caster levels on levels of Casting PrC's where you'd otherwise lose casting levels, that opens up several books' worth of options that are otherwise too costly, for instance the Spellsword (http://dndtools.eu/classes/spellsword/) with the Channel Spell ability being thematically perfect. If you want to be more Pyro-ish, Elemental Savant (http://dndtools.eu/classes/elemental-savant/) is decent if you're fine with sacrificing your ability to do damage with spells of a different element (since the Lv. 1 ability forces all spells that deal elemental damage to deal whatever your picked element is, which is a VERY iffy thing if that element is Fire), but the only other thing I can find that focuses on a specific element like this is Pyrokineticist (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/pyrokineticist.htm), but if you can convince your DM to either convert it to Arcane or allow you to take Psionics (whether as a dip into whatever your preferred option is or taking it instead of Sorcerer), then this will help massively in the Pyro department.

[AnonymousPepper]

Here's the problem with the Mailman plus most beatsticks - you're denying the Mailman actions, and he's really, really action-hungry. In particular, while Arcane Fusions and normal spells still work assuming Arcane Spellsurge, metamagic doesn't until level 9 (barring the Metamagic Specialist ACF from PHB2, but that's 3+INT per day and requires you to give up your familiar). Even then, taking the Rapid Metamagic feat from Complete Mage, while worthwhile, still denies the Mailman his real power - the ability to pop out four Fusion'd spells per turn under the effects of Arcane Spellsurge, as this relies on metamagic increasing casting time which no longer happens with the feat.

That being said, a standard "full attack action" abuse Telflammar Shadowlord/Ardent/etc. build would actually be pretty decent gestalted with the Mailman, if you absolutely must bring a DD caster+melee attacker to the table. Since it only takes a full attack and not specifically a full round action, its action abuse shenanigans still work, albeit in a reduced capacity - whereas other classes that, sanely, actually need to spend a full round action to get all their attacks off will get gimped by only getting to swing once. Reduced might not matter in this case, though. While using Arcane Spellsurge, spit out a Greater Arcane Fusion->True Casting+Avasculate, cutting the target's HP in half, and then use the Ardent Telflammar Shadowlord's action abuse shenanigans to land like 15 melee attacks with sneak attack dice on the poor sap in one turn. That will kill quite a lot of things in D&D, needless to say. If it doesn't, I'm around 99% sure that taking the next turn to drop an Arcane Fusion->Empowered Orb of Force+True Strike and a second Arcane Fusion, this time with a True Strike and a Maxipowered Orb of Force (something you can get away with, with Practical Metamagic [you mean you're NOT a kobold/silverbrow human?!] plus Incantatrix) or a GAF->True Casting+Maximized Disintegrate will.

That being said, I think the Mailman would nova harder than his gestalted brother. Metamagic Disintegrates - or, if you think you can get away with it, Fingers of Death with Assay SRs thrown out beforehand - do still hit harder than Telflammar shenanigans. But, Sorcs DO run out of spells, and they do it faster than the Ardent would run out of PP. And then the TflSl still has his weapons.

The whole thing will be a little feat-heavy, though. For which I'd suggest whipping out the Arms and Equipment Guide and praying that the DM allows the items for feats bit, or just buying metamagic rods. One of the two will be necessary to make it really work.

Oh, another bonus to gestalting, though, is that the TflSl list is very very nice and saves you having to get certain utility and stealth spells.

[AnonymousPepper]

Alternatively, Artificer+(insert ToB class of your choice) also works very well. That'd be my other suggestion. And the party would love it because who doesn't love an Artificer in the party?

[nedz]

A Cleric with the Sun or Fire domains and the Fiery Burst Reserve feat. You can do this with some of the templar classes too.

[Vorandril]

Fighter/Binder? Not actual fireballs, but you could do all sorts of crazy stuff.

More legitimately perhaps: Barbarian/Psychokinetic? "MY RAGE IS EVER BURNING!" could be hilarious.

[VoxRationis]

Full fighter, Necklace of Fireballs. Don't get hit by fire damage.

[nedz]

Full fighter, Necklace of Fireballs. Don't get hit by fire damage.

Well that's a bit like UMD Fighter with a Wand of Fireballs.

[VoxRationis]

The suggestion was a little tongue-in-cheek. I don't like "builds" that revolve around specific items. Your character should be impressive because of who they are, not which magic items they bought.
Also, I don't think Necklace of Fireballs requires UMD.

[tyriuth]

Thanks guys; I'll be going with a mailman-esque//gravity warrior (D&D wiki homebrew). I hadn't encountered the Mailman before; it shall be hitting my bookmarks shortly...

[Forrestfire]

My first thought is to use a Telepath//Warblade/stuff. Lots of Int synergy, and at level 7, you can use Schism to get an extra mental action to shoot your fireballs with each round.

My second thought is a bit different in flavor (and a much more complex build), but could also be cool, depending on if it works. Focused Specialist Transmuter//Fighter 2/Warblade 3/Master Thrower 4/Master of the Unseen Hand 5/Master Thrower some more and probably more warblade, too.

Depending on how Telekinesis works with metamagic, it might be possible to use Snowcasting, Flash Frost, and Energy Substitution (fire) to make all the damage dealt by Violent Thrusted weapons into fire damage, which could be really cool. The Extraordinary Concentration feat or the Swift Concentration skill trick lets you concentrate on telekinesis as a swift action for when you want to do full attacks (and MotUH makes it a move action normally, so you can keep it up while using strikes as well), and you can toss out a bunch of "fireballs" as a standard action whenever Violent Thrust comes off cooldown. It's a bit different, concept-wise, and comes online a bit late (level 9), but it could be a really neat idea if the player also likes the telekinetic aspects of it.

[ericgrau]

The big issue is indeed that you can't slash and boom at the same time; you need to pick one or the other each round. BUT it does sound like a lot of fun, and fun trumps all. What he might do instead is use boom for area damage which it is better at, and use slash for single target damage, which it is better at. Go with fireballs and other area spells with other damage types. Shaping to exclude allies and some kind of energy substitution is really helpful too. Once you're down to 1 or 2 foes in a cluster, slash away

Mage armor, false, heart of X, and other hour/level spells kept up 24 hours will be really helpful for the melee side. As will a spell storing weapon + vampiric touch. Gear should mostly revolve around the melee side since it is able to utilize it more. The build & feats (besides fighter bonus feats) should mostly revolve around the casting though, since it benefits more from those. In combat the first round should usually be casting an area spell, and perhaps the 2nd and 3rd round if there's a good opportunity. Then once he switches to melee he sticks with it for the rest of the combat. If there's only 1 foe in a group then he might melee the whole time.

[JusticeZero]

Might also consider back porting a PF Magus.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Crusader//Warmage, and get an adaptation of Rainbow Servant switching Couatl for the Phoenix in MM2. Get Warmage//Pheonix Servant at the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th levels of the PrC to keep up full casting, and consider grabbing Jade Phoenix Mage afterward, in which case I'd grab Factotum levels with that whenever it advances spellcasting and Warmage when it doesn't. Phoenix Servant should grant the Good, Fire, and Renewal domains, and probably switch Detect Thoughts for Remove Fear or See Invisibility, but everything else would only be changed cosmetically.

With two flaws, go something like the following:
(Silverbrow) Human
1. Crusader 1// Warmage 1, Versatile Spellcaster, Sanctum Spell, Extra Granted Maneuver, Battle Caster
2. Phoenix Servant 1// Warmage 2
3. Crusader 2// Phoenix Servant 2, Feat (Empower Spell)
4. Crusader 3// Phoenix Servant 3
5. Phoenix Servant 4// Warmage 3
6. Crusader 4// Phoenix Servant 5, Feat (Practical Metamagic: Empower Spell, RotD)
7. Crusader 5// Phoenix Servant 6
8. Phoenix Servant 7// Warmage 4
9. Crusader 6// Phoenix Servant 8, Feat (Split Ray or Fell Drain Spell or Fell Frighten Spell)
10. Crusader 7// Phoenix Servant 9
11. Phoenix Servant 10// Warmage 5
12. Jade Phoenix Mage 1// Warmage 6, Feat (Practical Metamagic for that last one)
13. Jade Phoenix Mage 2// Factotum 1
14. Jade Phoenix Mage 3// Factotum 2
15. Jade Phoenix Mage 4// Factotum 3, Feat (Defensive Sweep, PH2)
16. Jade Phoenix Mage 5// Factotum 4
17. Jade Phoenix Mage 6// Warmage 7, Sudden Empower
18. Jade Phoenix Mage 7// Factotum 5, Feat (Rapid Metamagic)
19. Jade Phoenix Mage 8// Factotum 6
20. Jade Phoenix Mage 9// Factotum 7

Note that when he takes Phoenix Servant//Warmage, one of the two classes is at an even-numbered level so each of those levels will grant +1 BAB.

[Darrin]

Sounds to me like this might be an ideal Junkyard contest: Fighter + Fireball - Wizard.

[Ellowryn]

Another PrC to look at War Wizard of Cormyr (Magic of Faerun). Costs 2 subpar metamagic feats, but you get them back later but gain 1 + Cha mod per day immediate application of widen without time/level adjustment and +50% area increase from widen. Not the greatest, but if you are going for the hit-as-many-as-possible route it will help.

[DMVerdandi]

What is everyone saying? Actions? Can't do both at once? What is this?
Have you all forgotten smiting spell? Spell storing weapons? Arcane strike?
Those are the bread and butter of a gish build. Not only that, but weapon spells.
My friends. This is something trivial.

-OP, take as I said Take the feats [smiting spell & arcane strike], Obtain weapon spells, obtain a spell storing weapon[Preferably take shaping, sizing, and metalline as well], and also take a decent reserve feat.

-For such a load out, you are probably going to need wizard on the casting side, just for the feats, but you could take war blade on the other side.

-For extra fighter feats, cast heroics.

-For the wizard side, you may want to prestige in either a geometer/incantatrix build, or somehow shadow craft mage route. Both are great. I prefer the flavor of shadow craft mage though...

-And get eidetic spell caster.

[Ruethgar]

You could try for a thrower build utilizing Produce Flame. There are a few ways to get it infinitely(or near enough). There are several feats that can give it to you as a persisted SLA 1/day and another to make it 3/day.

[DMVerdandi]

You could try for a thrower build utilizing Produce Flame. There are a few ways to get it infinitely(or near enough). There are several feats that can give it to you as a persisted SLA 1/day and another to make it 3/day.

Fiery blast has a lower range, but a higher damage potential. Up to 9d6 at 30 feet in a five foot burst. It's essentially infinite grenades. And you get +1 CL to fire spells.
Range is the only thing that is worse.

[Zaq]

Fiery blast has a lower range, but a higher damage potential. Up to 9d6 at 30 feet in a five foot burst. It's essentially infinite grenades. And you get +1 CL to fire spells.
Range is the only thing that is worse.

Debatable. Fiery Blast is very simple, just a one-and-done Reflex save. Produce Flame is an attack, so anything that triggers on an attack (like, for example, Sneak Attack) will play nice with it.

The two look similar, but they have very different paths of optimization.

[ericgrau]

What is everyone saying? Actions? Can't do both at once? What is this?
Have you all forgotten smiting spell? Spell storing weapons? Arcane strike?
Those are the bread and butter of a gish build. Not only that, but weapon spells.
My friends. This is something trivial.

-OP, take as I said Take the feats [smiting spell & arcane strike], Obtain weapon spells, obtain a spell storing weapon[Preferably take shaping, sizing, and metalline as well], and also take a decent reserve feat.

-For such a load out, you are probably going to need wizard on the casting side, just for the feats, but you could take war blade on the other side.

-For extra fighter feats, cast heroics.

-For the wizard side, you may want to prestige in either a geometer/incantatrix build, or somehow shadow craft mage route. Both are great. I prefer the flavor of shadow craft mage though...

-And get eidetic spell caster.
I did suggest spell storing. Those aren't really fireballs though. It's a little bit of bonus damage that's only a little better than making the weapon holy or some such or not having a gestalt at all. And thematically it's likewise just a fiery weapon or some such.

I was thinking you could switch between area damage (primarily magic) and single target damage (primarily weapon) as needed. Some fights you might do all of one or the other, though usually you'd open with area to get the most targets and finish with single target. Magic does less single target damage than a weapon, so it's a bit of a waste for that except to augment the weapon like you said. Area damage against 2 or more foes however does much more damage than even a spell storing weapon, and since it's often your first round you can follow it up with a move action to prep for a full attack next round if needed. I think the build itself should revolve primarily around this. Not that it shouldn't swing with magically charged strikes, it absolutely should, but that an area damage build requires more and benefits more from the build.

Ray sneak attack casting is also fun but is likewise narrow blasts rather than fireballs. But if the player likes it it can work decently.