Need help with a gestalt build

[questionmark693]

So I've got a friend who's starting a campaign, and he said he wants us to push limits of optimization. It's pathfinder, but almost all 3.5 material is allowed. The campaign is starting at level five, and I expect it to go to at least level twenty. So far, I have a dragonwrought kobold Archivist 5//Wizard 5. On the Wizard side, I'm intending to take Force Missile Mage, then Incantatrix. On the Archivist side, I's like to be taking Dweomerkeeper, but I need a way to get the magic domain to qualify. I'm aware of singer of concordance, but its not very fluff appropriate for my characters intended background, so is there any other way the playground knows of to get access to a domain?

tl;dr I'm an archivist 5//wizard 5 hoping to get into dweomerkeeper, any ideas?

[Kennisiou]

This is coming from the perspective of mostly 3.5 material. While PF has changed a lot of things, the fact that "almost all" 3.5 material is allowed will make this work a lot better for you.

Archivist//Wizard is honestly not a great base for gestalt. You'll find you don't actually gain much extra flexibility by stacking those two spell lists together. Also, in general, you want to look at two types of classes for gestalt, one "passive" class that mostly just has good "always on" features or means of action economy manipulation and one "active" class that has the features you're actually going to spend your actions on. Wizard is generally an "active" class, as is Archivist. While they both have "passive" qualities in the form of long duration/persisted buffs, they tend to work both actively and passively the same way. Not really what you want. Wizard//Factotum is a classic, as wizard's spells give you great things to do with actions while Factotum's superior skill points, superior hitdie, superior BaB, and int-focused class features give you a ton of things to do while you're not casting spells and a bunch of ways to make your casting work better. Additionally, their level eight ability to take additional standard actions is just stellar for wizard. Substituting Archivist, Psion, or Artificer for Wizard all work nicely as well. Any int-based caster works there. Warblade//Factotum works nicely as well with a greater focus on dealing combat damage. Warblade//Wizard makes an excellent gestalt gish, especially if you do some prestige class shenanigans with actual gishing classes. Wizard//Psion and Wizard//Artificer are also notable, as both psion and artificer - while strong "active" classes - have a lot of "passive" features that Wizard lacks, and their mutual int dependancy works nicely. Cryptic//Factotum, Cryptic//Wizard, and Cryptic//Artificer could all probably work nicely as well for gestalt. And Cryptic//Warblade would be utterly brutal in terms of damage output while still performing nice as a skill monkey thanks to Warblade maneuvers, Cryptic powers, complimentary class skill lists, and the "brutal disruptor" archetype. Cryptic's powers and disrupt pattern give it strong active qualities, but its mysteries and a few long-duration buffing powers as well as its strong skill list make it a solid passive class. Warblade's in a similar spot with maneuvers making it good actively but class features making it good passively as well.

Oh, and Magic of Incarnum classes are great in gestalt. Seriously. All of them basically go up a ton in tiering because the biggest weakness most of those classes had was not having a lot of strong active qualities -- they were basically classes whose class features were "have custom magic items." That suddenly becomes a really good class feature when you have a whole other class providing value for those bonuses! Totemist and Incarnate are the big two, Soulborn still winds up looking pretty awful in gestalt.

Also, a one-level monk dip with the kung-fu genius feat will be great for any int-dependant build. You get int to AC without losing caster/manifester levels, and the other l1 monk class features aren't awful either.

Binder from Tome of Magic is another great gestalt class, as you can change what you bind day-to-day to be flexible in how you deal with threats, and binding gives a lot of great passive features as well as a diverse enough array of active ones that you'll usually find something that your class can't do (for example, binder//wizard can bind tenebrous to gain turn undead).

Finally, some advice about feats: look at 3.5 feats more than PF feats. The strong 3.5 feats tend to be a lot stronger, and having them allowed but at the PF feat progression rate is a big advantage. 3.5 has a lot of great metamagic reduction feats, as well as some neat special feats like the devotion feats and craven that are a lot stronger than most of what PF has to offer.

[questionmark693]

Awesome, thank you for all the pointers, I really appreciate it :) I'm going to be super busy looking at all these options now XD

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't need both Archivist and Wizard, because Archivist alone can cast nearly every spell in the game (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1023251).

Go Archivist 5// Cloistered Cleric 1/ Dread Necromancer 4, and get Versatile Spellcaster so you can spend two DN spell slots of the same level to cast any spell you know (including Archivist and Cleric spells) of one level higher. Trade your Cleric Turn Undead for Rebuke Dragons in Dragon Magic, which can still be used to power divine feats. Your domains should be Planning, Undeath, and Knowledge Devotion. Get DMM: Persistent and use it with Ice Axe, Mass Lesser Vigor, Magic Circle Against Evil, Bite of the Werecreature, and tons of other buffs. Take Magical Training in PGtF for a spellbook, according to the Rules Compendium you'll be able to add more spells to it just like a Wizard does. You have to learn those spells before you put them into your spellbook, so you can consider them among your spells known so you can cast them using Versatile Spellcaster. Get two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) for two extra feats, so you'll have Extra Turning, Extend Spell, and Knowledge Devotion from domains, along with Persistent Spell, DMM: Persistent, Magical Training, and Versatile Spellcaster. You don't even need an extra human bonus feat, so make your character an Illumian with the Naenhoon runeword and you can use that to persist two arcane spells each day, such as Shield, Wraithstrike, Alter Self, Draconic Polymorph, etc. Pick up a level of anything that gets you Turn Undead and doesn't require a good alignment asap (Master of Radiance depending on your DM's interpretation), and you'll triple the benefit of any sources of additional turn undead uses you get, such as Extra Turning, Reliquary Holy Symbol, Night Sticks, etc. I'd also get Fell Drain and/or Fell Frighten, to use with persistent spells like Fire Shield (twice), Ice Axe, Flame Blade (with Gloves of the Balanced Hand), Cloud of Knives, etc.

[defiantdan]

Abomination White Dragon Spawn venerable dragonwraught Dragonborn desert kobold Spellhoarding loredrake
Greater Draconic rite of Passage
Ritual of Alignment Change (evil)
Familiar:Imp (improved Familiar)
Abjurer 1/Master specialist 3/Incantatrix 3/Tainted Scholar 2/Initiate of the sevenfold Veil 7/Mindbender 1/Archmage 3//Factotum 20

Important feat:
Laborious Training(for early entry on skills)

Call it a day as your going to wreck anything in your path. You're +5 effective wizard levels above your ECL. You can buy off the +2 LA. You have as high as you want taint score. you get the best features of incantatrix and Initiate of sevenfold veil gives you immediate actions to become unkillable. Mindbender + mindsight gives you 100ft of I see everything that isn't immune to mind affecting. Archmage because I don't know how to cap off the build? Factotum gives you a bunch of int synergy + more actions. Flaws help this build. if your not limited to two flaws just grab as many as you can from Dragondex. metamagic feats you really only need extend and persistant spell.

[defiantdan]

Forgot to mention. Worship an elder evil for more feats. Also your taint score gives you 4 bonus feats.