Tankiest Gestalt combination?

[Tanuki Tales]

Out of curiosity, is there a tankier gestalt than Crusader on one side and War Priest with the Healing Blessing on the other?

Let's assume no cheese, no flat out avoiding/ignoring/preventing damage entirely, full backwards compatibility with 3.X, Dreamscarred press material allowed, and as little use of Tier 1 and 2 classes as possible.

No particular level in general is being examined here for this exercise.

[Vhaidara]

Path of War's Warder should be in there, since it's basically Crusader 2.0: The Knight-Initiatior. By which I mean it gets Heavy Armor, aggro pull, d12 HD, and Area lockdown.

[Nihilarian]

Crusader or Warder/Incarnate, probably. One of their soulmelds gives them hundreds of HP.

[PsyBomb]

Paladin//Warder will probably come out supreme here. Go for the Zweihander Sentinel archetype, nab some Iron Tortoise maneuvers, and avoid the ones that allow saves. Get 14 Cha on the starting score for saves and spells. You can ignore Int, mostly, and (oddly for a tank) Con doesn't need to be too high.

[aleucard]

I've heard Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil being called the "Don't Die, Ever" PrC. Maybe Paladin/Crusader/RKV//Arcane Caster/Initiate/Abjurant Champion with Battle Blessing for good measure, and maybe Runesmith to top it off for all the fun that entails if there's not enough levels on the Arcane side?

[Forrestfire]

My first thought was that a Crusader//Synthesist Summoner would be fun as hell and equally tanky, but that uses a T2 class...

[Tanuki Tales]

Path of War's Warder should be in there, since it's basically Crusader 2.0: The Knight-Initiatior. By which I mean it gets Heavy Armor, aggro pull, d12 HD, and Area lockdown.

I've heard that the Path of War stuff is subpar compared to ToB though, power wise.


Crusader or Warder/Incarnate, probably. One of their soulmelds gives them hundreds of HP.

News to me; which soul meld?


I've heard Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil being called the "Don't Die, Ever" PrC. Maybe Paladin/Crusader/RKV//Arcane Caster/Initiate/Abjurant Champion with Battle Blessing for good measure, and maybe Runesmith to top it off for all the fun that entails if there's not enough levels on the Arcane side?

Both of your suggestions seem to go over the soft tier limit for this exercise though. Mind, I can't remember if the Ruby Windicator was higher than tier 3 without Cleric in there.

[Prime32]

Synthesist gestalted with a d12 HD class, using Martial Power and a tower shield? Aegis//Synthesist is fun for the option to become Colossal; note the Toughened Suit feat which lets you expend 1pp when you form your astral suit to gain temporary hp.

Stalwart sorcerer gets +2 HD per level, and has access to wings of cover. There's a racial substitution level for dwarves which lets them use Cha + Con for bonus spells, so maybe use it on a dragonborn dream dwarf? The Draconic Vigor feat lets you heal hp equal to spell level whenever you cast, which is minor but it fits.

[deuxhero]

Egoist//Warder?

[Zaq]

News to me; which soul meld?


The Vitality belt gives you your meldshaper level times E extra HP, where E is the amount of essentia you have invested in the Vitality Belt. It's not easy to turn it into "hundreds," but it's still a lot of HP.

[Extra Anchovies]

The Vitality belt gives you your meldshaper level times E extra HP, where E is the amount of essentia you have invested in the Vitality Belt. It's not easy to turn it into "hundreds," but it's still a lot of HP.

It can give you up to 140 extra HP if you take Expanded Soulmeld Capacity, stick with Incarnate for at least 15 levels, and invest the maximum amount of essentia possible. All it takes up is one of your soulmelds (you don't even need it bound!) and one feat. Or, assign your Expanded Soulmeld Capacity to Spellward Shirt and max its essentia as well, for a total (between the two) of +120 HP and SR 33 (enough to give even BBEG pause). Bind Adamant Pauldrons to shoulders for 50% crit/precision damage immunity. If you're NG, you could shape Incarnate Avatar for +Essentia to AC (and you'd also get +5 AC from Incarnum Radiance). If your DM allows Share Soulmeld to apply to Soulspark Familiar, shape Soulspark Familiar and Lifebond Vestments (bound to Heart) and put at least 1 essentia into SSF for at-will healing (Soulspark Familiar heals you or another and takes half the healing as damage, then fast heals it away). Strongheart Vest can let you laugh off ability damage, and ability drain as well (if bound to waist). Shape Soulmeld (Wormtail Belt) can get you an up to +8 enhancement bonus to natural armor, but also takes up the waist slot.

...if the Incarnate didn't have such a crappy HD/BAB/skill chasis, I would really want to play one right now.

[Feint's End]

Warder//psion ... use share pain + vigor and you become unkillable by hp damage (also helps breaking the action economy). Buff up for other resistances.
....
????
Win the game


Seriously though this is probably the tankiest gestalt. Maybe wizard//warder works too even though they have bigger problems with hp.

Alternatively psychic warrior//cleric (or something along those lines ... main tankyness comes from psywar)

Also your assessment (or what you heard) is wrong ... POW classes are superior to TOB classes (in 90% of the cases that is)

[Tanuki Tales]

Again, using tier 1 and 2 classes kind of defeats the purpose I set up for this thread.

I know spells/powers are broken and can do anything, including making a competent tank.

[Feint's End]

Again, using tier 1 and 2 classes kind of defeats the purpose I set up for this thread.

I know spells/powers are broken and can do anything, including making a competent tank.

Well then gestalt psywar ... They are t3.

If you want it without spells/powers then warder on one side is fantastic ... The other side is pretty open depending on what you want.

[Tanuki Tales]

Well then gestalt psywar ... They are t3.

If you want it without spells/powers then warder on one side is fantastic ... The other side is pretty open depending on what you want.

I don't mind spells/powers, just on a tier 3 chassis where they're more restricted.

I also looked over the Warder and I fail to see how it is, in anyway, more durable than the Crusader. It does a tank's job better, since it has several mechanics to grab attention and mitigate ally damage, but that wasn't the point here.

Though a Warder//Crusader might be interesting.

[nolongerchaos]

If you're looking to tank for a party, perhaps Warder//Vitalist. With the right maneuvers and feats, you can block attacks for your allies, minimize damage from attacks, siphon damage from allies (and possibly redirecting it to enemies depending on your Method); a very healthy ammount of tanking coupled with an excellent ability to mitigate damage across the party seems like a pretty solid win.

[Seerow]

I was going to suggest Warder//Incarnate, but it seems I've already been beaten to the punch on both of those classes.


Honestly I really like the Aegis//Synthesist Summoner combo suggested, even if it meant giving up major class features (like spellcasting or spontaneous summoning) to bring its tier down. But if Summoner is off the table, Aegis//Warder could probably be fun. Really Aegis in general makes for a great Gestalt partner, since it gets a lot of neat toys, but the majority of them are passive buffs, which lends itself great to comboing up with a Spellcaster or Initiator that gets great action economy usage.

[aethel27]

If using Paizo only material
Dwarven Stonelord(Paladin racial Archetype)//Forgepriest (Warpriest Archetype)

or Dwarven Stonelord//Alchemist or Ragechemist


dat str score at lvl 4.....
18 base +4 from defensive stance +6 from ragechemist...28 specialize in reach weaponry and wear a boulder helmet...use enlarge person, long arm, and bulls strength extracts for more fun.
str increases to 32 and you can hit anything up to 25 ft away with you dwarven long hammer and head bash anything 5-10 ft away with your helmet.... que dm rage

[grarrrg]

Quick and dirty Pathfinder only, no Tier 1/2, no 3rd party:

Paladin/Inquisitor

Paladin gets Heavy Armor, a variety of Immunities, CHA to all Saves and can use Lay on Hands on self as a Swift. Smite Evil also grants CHA to AC.
Inquisitor gets Judgements, at level 20 they can choose 3 of the following: +5 AC, +5 Saves, Energy Resist 14, and/or Fast Healing 7.
At level 20 Paladins get DR 10/Evil, and Lay on Hands is maximized (Inquisitors can also get DR, but the best possible for this build would only be DR 5/Chaos).

As for the MAD, I'd suggest keep WIS fairly low and getting to 16 WIS by way of Items/Tomes.

[aleucard]

If you want to take it literal, then Armor-Bonded is fun. Crashdown's awesome for simulating ODST, and few more awesome ways of making an entrance as a martial exist than goomba-stomping someone from LEO. Some method of mitigating the fall damage will probably be appreciated, though.

[aethel27]

ahh taking a walk with my dog gave me some time to think....
here is an unorthodox paizo only gestalt tank :P

3 points of a tank

Hard to hurt
Deals enough damage they need to be taken out
can take quite a few hits

now then on to the concept

A tiefling Swashbuckler// Bladebound Kensai Magus

Stats
STR: 10 DEX: 19 CON: 14 INT: 19 WIS: 8 CHA: 5
stat increse is balanced between dex and int
for panache grab extra panache feat for extra points
its good at dodging hits with spells like mage armor shield mirror image and blur, greater invisibility also helps alot.
decent melee damage from swash's precise damage add in melee touch attack spells and gets one more attack a turn per round
dimension door via casting, going through right behind the enemy and quickened intensified shocking grasp for a free attack.....

with dex to damage and int+dex+spells to armor you are hard to hit and do damage and very mobile