Totemist gestalt Help

[Nosta]

First off hello. I am new and came to see if i can get help with a build i've been wanting to do for a while

I've always wanted to do a magic of Incarnum build and sense my gm is doing a gestalt game i figure you fine people may be able to help me


to be quick here i want to know what race would best suit a Totemist/warblade level 8

and show me an example build of one only cause totemist confuse me.

all material is welcome

and the gm is giving us 7 feats to start


I am so sorry if i posted this in the wrong area, i am very new here and just want to seek advice from those more experienced than myself

[Rebel7284]

Why that particular combination? While the full BAB is nice, the tome of battle classes tend to favor strikes, while the totemist is all about attacking with tons of natural weapons.

[Grod_The_Giant]

First off, have a handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2943.10).

Now, for your specific combination-- which will be vicious no matter which way you go-- you have to make a choice: do you want to use natural weapons or not? There are a lot of strikes that don't combo spectacularly with the Totemist's normal "grow as many natural weapons as possible, obtain Pounce, and eat faces" method of combat, so if you're going that route I'd pick mostly Boosts and Counters. On the other hand, there are also a lot of Totem melds that don't give you natural weapons, so you can use those to support a standard Warblade's death-stabbings.

For the first build, I'd look at melds like Landshark Boots, Grillon Arms, Sphinx Claws, Dread Carapace, and so on. For the second, I'd be more interested in guys like Frost Helm, Pegasus Cloak, and Blink Shirt.

[Nosta]

well if not warblade what class would you all offer me as a way to make the pc as strong as it can be?

[Rebel7284]

well if not warblade what class would you all offer me as a way to make the pc as strong as it can be?

Druid. 100% druid.

The fact that your melds replace item slots matters less when items normally merge with you anyway. While a tiger/bear with several EXTRA attacks is even scarier. Also, you end up having casting for those cases when "jump in, eat face" is not the answer. :)

There are other good combinations (wildshape ranger, scout for a manticore belt build), but they are not as good as druid.

[Nosta]

i really hate to ask this but can some one show me a level 8 build using druid and Totemist with the best race (la of +1 are ok) and 7 feats that work best. I want to make this girl as dangerous as she can be

[eggynack]

There are other good combinations (wildshape ranger, scout for a manticore belt build), but they are not as good as druid.
Likely true, though the one issue there is that you're really running a druid rather than a totemist at that point, because the druid side is so active and overpowering.

[gawwy]

full totemist on one side barbarian/fist of the forest/bear warrior on the other could be neat tho i think you would get one level of bear warrior like that? lots of str much punch.

Another one is wildshape ranger 5/MoMF 3 next to totemist. Lots of shapes and natural attacks on top.

if you want to go rougeish you could aim for Teflammar Shadowlord and pick up blink shift for shadow pounce 24/7


i do remember there being a barbarian/essentia prc that lets you add some essentia to rages. ill go find it and report back.

[Nosta]

my problem is i have no idea how to build the totemist half but i really want to play one

[Troacctid]

Maybe you'd do better with Incarnate? It has a wider variety of utility soulmelds that are easy to pair with any class. With gestalt, you can duct tape it onto any other build and it will always perform well. It also has more synergy with Tome of Battle classes, if that's something you're into, since it has things like Lightning Gauntlets that complement standard action strikes very well, as opposed to natural weapons that conflict with them.

[Nosta]

Maybe you'd do better with Incarnate? It has a wider variety of utility soulmelds that are easy to pair with any class. With gestalt, you can duct tape it onto any other build and it will always perform well. It also has more synergy with Tome of Battle classes, if that's something you're into, since it has things like Lightning Gauntlets that complement standard action strikes very well, as opposed to natural weapons that conflict with them.

It dose? Well could you please tell me what race and what feats would be best for a Incarnate/warblade level 8 with 7 feats and a point buy of 48

all material is welcome from 3.5 and 3.0 and d20 and races with a la of +1 are ok to use

[Troacctid]

Okay, uh, race is Azurin for the bonus feat and bonus essentia. For feats, you're definitely going to want Expanded Soulmeld Capacity and Bonus Essentia. Open Least Chakra (Hands) if your DM rules that it gives you an extra bind (the text is ambiguous). If online sources are allowed, see if you can take Wild Cohort and Share Soulmeld--that's a good combo.

Bind Lightning Gauntlets to your hands, choose it for expanded capacity, and max out its essentia at 4 points. This will add 5d6 electricity damage to your melee attacks, making you even more formidable at dealing damage than a normal Warblade (and a normal Warblade is pretty formidable).

For other melds, you'll want Vitality Belt, which will supercharge your HP into the stratosphere. Airstep Sandals on your feet will allow you to fly, or alternatively Cerulean Sandals bound to your feet will increase your speed and allow you to teleport and walk on water. If you're evil, Necrocarnum Circlet gives you a decent zombie minion; if not, no big deal. Then you can choose more melds to pump your AC, attack, initiative, skills, or whatever--you can always change them later if you want.

[gawwy]

Im gonna make you up a stub during my luch break but kinda want to ask what you want.

would you want to be a tank with loads of hp and resistances?

would you want a lock down build?

would you want a highly mobile high damage build?

a fear build?

a retaliation build?

do you want to be good evil neutral? (important on the incarnate side)

[Nosta]

Im gonna make you up a stub during my luch break but kinda want to ask what you want.

would you want to be a tank with loads of hp and resistances?

would you want a lock down build?

would you want a highly mobile high damage build?

a fear build?

a retaliation build?

do you want to be good evil neutral? (important on the incarnate side)

I'd like high damage please
and I the Pc is good

[Red Fel]

Okay. My advice? Take a Dragonblood race. Silverbrow Human is easy, Dragonborn anything is also an option. But I'd go with an Elf if possible. Here's why.

You're going to go Totemist 20 // Warblade 10/ Eternal Blade 10. For that, you need Elf.

Thanks to being a Dragonblood race, you qualify for Draconic soulmelds (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4). Great thing about Claws of the Wyrm and Dragon Tail is that they don't have to be bound to give you natural weapons - they function shaped, which means you can use them and still benefit from magic items. You're also going to want to have Girallon Arms, shaped and bound to totem, for additional claw attacks. (You can take the Dragon Tail feat to get a tail attack without soulmelds, but that's an expensive feat for a non-scaling ability.)

Basically, you want to load up on natural weapons, and here's why - you're going to grab Stormguard Warrior. That feat (which requires Ironheart Aura as a prereq) allows you to spend one round of combat dealing no damage. On your next turn, for every attack that connected and dealt no damage, all of your attacks will deal +5 damage. With an arsenal of natural weapons plus your iterative attacks, that will be absolutely brutal. To give you some idea, using only those soulmelds above - Claws of the Wyrm, Dragon Tail, and Girallon Arms - you will have, at level 20, 4 iterative attacks, 2 claws from Dragon Claws, 4 more claws from Girallon Arms, and a tail whip - a total of 11 attacks per round. If you use Stormguard Warrior to abstain from dealing damage one round, on the next round, each of your attacks - your 11 attacks - will deal +55 damage. Assuming all 11 attacks connect, that's a whopping 605 damage. And you can do that every other turn.

Now, I want you to imagine that, but add to it the Diamond Mind maneuver Time Stands Still, and the Eternal Blade ability Island in Time. You will absolutely crush everything that dares to stand before you.

To add insult to injury, swap a level of Totemist for Barbarian 1, and take the Whirling Frenzy variant and the Spirit Lion Totem ACF. The former will give you an extra attack while raging, the latter will replace your Fast Movement with Pounce, allowing you to make a full attack on a charge. And because you get Pounce from Barbarian, you don't need to bind Sphinx Claws to get that benefit.

[SinsI]

A prestige class worth considering is Warshaper. 4 levels in it improves all natural attacks and adds some extra (so incredible synergy with Totemist), grants immunity to stunning and critical hits, increases reach by +5, adds +4 Str and +4 Con (great for meldshapers), and gives fast healing 2. Easiest way to qualify via being a Changeling.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

NG, Mongrelfolk, Dragonborn of Bahamut: Medium Humanoid (Human, Dragonblood), 30 ft. land speed, Dex -2, Con +6, Int -2, Cha -4, Dragonborn traits. Ability scores should be Wis > Con > Int > everything else is a dump stat.

Druid 8// Totemist 6/ Warshaper 2; future levels are Druid to 20th with one more Warshaper and then more Totemist.

Get Two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (Love of Nature and Bestial Instinct (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) for two extra feats. Flaws must be taken 'when creating a character' so they can give you feats you qualified for on character creation, not just feats you could qualify for at 1st level. Start with Azure Charge, Natural Bond, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, and Natural Spell. Future feats can be anything you want, I would include Combat Reflexes and Frozen Wild Shape.

Soulmelds, Chakras: Girallon Arms (arms, totem chakra), Dread Carapace (feet chakra), Wormtail Belt (waist), Kruthik Claws (shoulders).

Equipment: Monk's Belt + Wilding Clasp, two Lesser Metamagic Rods of Extend, Rod of Bodily Restoration, Wand of Lesser Vigor, 150 gp. Keep in mind, an item with a Wilding Clasp on it 'continues to function' when you wild shape. A function of a belt, whether magic or mundane, is to hold other items, so it continues to serve this function when you wild shape. Thus any other items that your belt is holding (rods, wands, etc.) will also not meld into you when you wild shape and will remain usable.

Your animal companion is a Fleshraker dinosaur, which you used the Handle Animal skill to add the Warbeast template to. Considering your Natural Bond feat, you calculate its benefits as an (8-3+3)=8th level Druid. It has 9 HD, five additional skill points (spend four on two cross-class Spellcraft ranks), two extra feats (include Mage Slayer), and it's probably a more powerful melee combatant than any given character in the party.

Your daily buffs should include Longstrider, Luminous Armor, Heart of Air, Heart of Water, Heart of Earth, Greater Resistance, and Greater Magic Fang (+1 to all) on yourself, and Greater Magic Fang (+1 to all) on your animal companion. Also put Venomfire on yourself and your animal companion if available. Use the Lesser Rods of Extend on as many of those as possible, particularly the Greater Magic Fangs and Luminous Armor. Your remaining spells should include efficient crowd controls such as Wall of Smoke, Entangle, Kelpstrand, and Sleet Storm. You can also cast (Extended) Produce Flame and per holding the charge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#standardCastaSpell) on touch spells it will add fire damage to all of your natural weapon attacks.

Wild shape form of choice should be a Fleshraker dinosaur. Between your buffs, your soulmelds/chakras, your items, and Warshaper, you should have the following stats for at least sixteen hours/day:
Medium size (still humanoid post-errata)
Str 21, Dex 19, Con 19
Speed 60 ft.
AC 30-35 (+4 Dex, +8-10 natural, +5 armor, +1+Wis bonus monk)
Full attack will depend on your investment in Dread Carapace and Girallon Arms, but with zero invested in both it should look like this:
2 claws +10 melee (1d8+6 plus poison) and 2 claws +10 melee (1d6+4) and bite +10 melee (1d8+5) and tail +10 melee (1d8+4 plus poison) and one gore (warshaper) +10 melee (1d8+4) and one rake on a leaping pounce +10 melee (1d8+4)
Each point (up to two) of essentia invested into Dread Carapace will reduce your attack bonus by one, and increase your damage by one point, or two points for your bite.

That's eight attacks per round, which if all of them hit will deal 6d8+2d6+37 (or +46 or +55 investing in Dread Carapace) and deliver three doses of poison. If you're able to use Venomfire, you'll add an extra 8d6 acid damage per attack that delivers poison. That's an average of 173 damage per full attack.

[Rebel7284]

@Biffoniacus_Furiou, a good build, a few things I don't like:

1. Not sure if a warbeast animal remains a valid animal companion. After all, the animal companion should be a typical specimen of its type. Also, there is NO NEED to boost a fleshraker animal companion, it's already as powerful as most totemists out of the box!

2. Venomfire doesn't exist. It's a figment of your imagination. Seriously, there is a way to make this a good character without using the most unbalanced druid spell before shapechange.

3. Note that Morphic Weapons needs a houserule on how it works with adding natural weapons. By a certain reading, you can walk around with any number of tentacles.

I have been doing some research about builds, may post later.

[eggynack]

Longstrider
You should probably swap this out for snowshoes from the spell compendium. It's a spell that should probably say something about how the speed bonus only works on snowy or icy ground, or even something about how it only impacts base land speed, but it doesn't do either of those things, and then also provides little bonuses on top of that. Just an excellent little spell in general.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

@Biffoniacus_Furiou, a good build, a few things I don't like:

1. Not sure if a warbeast animal remains a valid animal companion. After all, the animal companion should be a typical specimen of its type. Also, there is NO NEED to boost a fleshraker animal companion, it's already as powerful as most totemists out of the box!

2. Venomfire doesn't exist. It's a figment of your imagination. Seriously, there is a way to make this a good character without using the most unbalanced druid spell before shapechange.

3. Note that Morphic Weapons needs a houserule on how it works with adding natural weapons. By a certain reading, you can walk around with any number of tentacles.

I have been doing some research about builds, may post later.

1. Warbeast basically turns any animal into a waranimal, for example, it would make a horse into a warhorse. A warhorse is a perfectly valid choice for an animal companion. You are gaining a typical specimen, but then you spend enough time and effort training it to make it into a warbeast.

2. I did mention that it may not be available, and it's absolutely not necessary for the build to be extremely strong.

3. I only included one extra natural weapon (gore) and one weapon size increase to everything from it, so I kept it reasonable. Warshaper is mostly there for all the other stuff it gets anyway.

[Rebel7284]

Dragonborn Mongrelfolk

I too recommend Monk's Belt and a Wilding Clasp
Druid 8 // Totemist 7/Fist of the Forest 1

You mentioned 7 feats. Are there particular levels you need to take them?

Feats:
Great Fortitude
Improved Unarmed Strike
Power Attack
Natural Spell
Multiattack
Improved Multiattack
Improved Natural Attack, Claw

For soulmelds, you can either wildshape into something with a bunch of natural weapons and take binds like Heart of Fire and Totem Avatar to boost them, or, alternatively, take a strong form and add more attacks.

Taking a Brown Bear/Polar Bear, for Example.

Chose two defensive melds from: [waist]Wormtail Belt OR [throat]Ankheg Breastplate OR [shoulders]Lammasu Mantle
[feet]Worg Pelt
[hands]Sphinx Claws [Bound to totem via hands]
[arms]Girallon Arms [Bound to totem via arms]

Your attack routine becomes:

2 Unarmed Strike +13/+8 (2d6+8)
2 Bear Claws +13/+13 (2d6+4)
2 Girallon Claws +13/+13 (1d8+4)
Bite +13 (2d6+4 trip)

You can also do all of this on a charge.
You can, of course, use Power Attack.

You can see a stark improvement over the normal bear.
- Pounce and Trip are both great.
- Girallon Claws give up to +6 bonus to grapples and 2 additional chances to start a grapple. Basically, you can "hug" most other large creatures to death without really trying. Also, +2 to attack and damage if they are fully invested.
- Con bonus to AC is nice, and the defensive soulmelds can give you up to +8 AC or +6AC and a bonus to saves!

Also, Fist of the Forest, Totemist, and Druid share a lot of flavor!

edit: thinking about it more, Azure Wildshape is probably better in the long run than Improved Natural Attack as it does not force you to use claws. So, for example, if you go into water, you can be a Giant Octopus with Heart of Fire/Totem Avatar and not need claws. =)

[danzibr]

Aww dang, Grod linked a handbook and I got excited.

This handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?287304-danzibr-s-Totemist-Handbook) has a blurb on gestalt.

[Deophaun]

To give you some idea, using only those soulmelds above - Claws of the Wyrm, Dragon Tail, and Girallon Arms - you will have, at level 20, 4 iterative attacks, 2 claws from Dragon Claws, 4 more claws from Girallon Arms, and a tail whip - a total of 11 attacks per round.
Whether Dragon Claws and Girallon Arms stack for determining number of claw attacks is a very open question. Normally, it is assumed that you can have a number of claw attacks no greater than your number of forelimbs. Otherwise, you could get a crazy number of claw attacks through a liberal use of low-level spell slots.

[Troacctid]

Whether Dragon Claws and Girallon Arms stack for determining number of claw attacks is a very open question. Normally, it is assumed that you can have a number of claw attacks no greater than your number of forelimbs. Otherwise, you could get a crazy number of claw attacks through a liberal use of low-level spell slots.

Spells shmells. The natural attack rules say you generally get "one attack per claw". The illustration for the Sphinx Claws soulmeld depicts a dwarf with 4 claws on each hand. If you don't make the reasonable inference that it's supposed to be per limb, then that's 8 attacks.