gish ideas

[Nosta]

I was wondering if people could throw me some ideas for a gish build in a level 9 gestalt game

kinda wanna be the swordsmen who can use both martial and magicl techniques in battle as well as being able to mix the two well

[Rebel7284]

The best level 9 gish is probably something like this:
Martial Wizard 5/Swiftblade 1/Spelldancer 1/Swiftblade+2
Factotum 5/Wizard 1/Factotum 3

Extra actions
Ability to dance to make your spells last all day
Int to everything

Alternatively, you can always do some variant of Wizard 9//Warblade 9.

[Forrestfire]

If it's gestalt, talk to your DM about Gish PrCs before starting to build, because it's possible the "don't use class-mixing classes" applies to them, given that Eldritch Knight is listed as one in the gestalt rules.

Now, if that rule isn't stopping you, I think that a really fun gish build would be to this:


1) Wizard 1 // Monk 1 (Kung Fu Genius)
2) Wizard 2 // Duskblade 1
3) Wizard 3 // Duskblade 2
4) Wizard 4 // Duskblade 3
5) Wizard 5 // Duskblade 4
6) Enlightened Fist 1 // Wizard 6
7) Enlightened Fist 2 // Duskblade 5
8) Enlightened Fist 3 // Duskblade 6
9) Enlightened Fist 4 // Duskblade 7
10) Enlightened Fist 5 // Duskblade 8
11) Enlightened Fist 6 // Wizard 7
12) Enlightened Fist 7 // Duskblade 9
13) Abjurant Champion 1 // Duskblade 10
14) Abjurant Champion 2 // Duskblade 11
15) Abjurant Champion 3 // Duskblade 12
16) Abjurant Champion 4 // Duskblade 13
17) Abjurant Champion 5 // open slot
18) Wizard progression // open slot
19) Wizard progression // open slot
20) Wizard progression // open slot


The prestige classes keep wizard progression to full, and your BAB will be quite good. The key to the build is that Arcane Channeling works on all spells you can use, so you can grab the really fun touch spells from Wizard to poke people with in an attack. The other major part of the build is Enlightened Fist's level 7 ability, Hold Ray, which lets you convert any rays into touch spells... Which you can then channel. Duskblade 13's full attack channeling is a major powerspike as well, and might be worth shuffling levels around to delay Wizard spellcasting to get it at 13, rather than 16.

Make sure to grab the Ocular Spell feat at some point before level 12 as well, so you can turn any spell with a range other than Personal into a ray... Which you hold and channel through your weapon. Fun times for all.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Human, ability scores are Int > Con > Str 13+ > everything else is a dump stat.
1. Fast Movement Ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) or Barbarian 1// Martial Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard) 1, [Feat], [Feat], [Fighter Feat]
2. Human Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#humanParagon) 1/ Wizard 2
3. Warblade 1// Human Paragon 2, [Feat], [Feat]
4. Warblade 2// Human Paragon 3
5. Warblade 3// Wizard 2
6. Warblade 4// Incantatrix 1, [Feat], [Metamagic Feat]
7. Warblade 5// Incantatrix 2, [Warblade Feat]
8. Warblade 6// Incantatrix 3
9. Warblade 7// Abjurant Champion 1, [Feat]

Future Levels: Warblade all the way down; one more Abjurant Champion, one more Incantatrix at your 11th level, the remaining three Abjurant Champion levels, then the rest of Incantatrix.

Whether you take Ranger or Barbarian at 1st level depends entirely on whether or not you can substitute the Fast Movement that Ranger gets (which is identical to the Barbarian class feature) for the Lion Spirit ACF in CC. Being identical should mean that it has the same alternate class feature options, but that's up to your DM. If that won't work, just go with Lion Spirit Barbarian at 1st and never worry about using Rage. Get two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (City Slicker, Love of Nature) for two extra feats, and trade Ride for Tumble as a class skill (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a). Wizard should be a specialist Conjurer with Enchantment and Necromancy prohibited, trade your familiar for Abrupt Jaunt. Your Human Paragon permanent class skill is Use Magic Device, and the +2 goes on Intelligence, as well as all of your level-up points. Say you visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Iron Will for 3,000 gp instead of spending a feat on it.

You'll have six general feats, plus two more from flaws, two of which must be Combat Casting and Extend Spell, one Fighter bonus feat which should be Power Attack, one bonus metamagic feat which should be Persistent Spell, and one Warblade bonus feat which should be Combat Reflexes. That means you have six more general feats to pick, or four if you're not able to use flaws. Your 3rd level feat should be Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm), and you should invest every skill point you get starting from 4th level into that for the greatest possible return, more on that later. Your remaining feats should include Spell Focus: Transmutation and Ability Enhancer from Dragon Compendium, and Fell Drain Spell. If you have flaws, also get Leap Attack and Fell Frighten Spell. Your Incantatrix 4 feat, taken at your 11th level, should be Selective Spell in Shining South, more on that later.

The three most important things that makes a gish viable are buffs, buffs, buffs. Incantatrix gives you Metamagic Effect and Cooperative Metamagic, which allow you to add metamagic feats to spells by making a Spellcraft check. You can use Cooperative Metamagic on your own spells when outside of combat because the action economy system only exists during initiative. You can take ten on the Spellcraft checks to use those abilities, and your Item Familiar's invested skill ranks will be giving you a bonus equal to your ranks. You can upgrade your Item Familiar yourself as though you had the right item creation feats, so you can add a Competence bonus to Spellcraft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm) to it for (bonus squared) x 100 gp. That bonus needs to be (15 - Int bonus) at your current level, which including your 12 ranks, +12 for the Item Familiar, +2 synergy, and taking ten gets a result of 51, which is the DC to add Persistent Spell to a 5th level spell via those Incantatrix abilities. The DC to persist your highest level spells goes up by three for every two character levels, and your Spellcraft bonus goes up by four for every two character levels (2 ranks, +2 for the item familiar), so that Competence bonus never needs to be upgraded.

The item familiar itself should begin as a Ring of Protection +1, which you paid 2,000 gp for. You can upgrade it yourself as though you have all the right item creation feats, and a ring can have a +1 Deflection bonus to AC in addition to any other magical properties for no more than two standalone items per MIC p234. Combining multiple effects on an item makes all but the most expensive property cost 50% more, but the Deflection bonus to AC is not affected by this and not considered when determining the prices of the other magical properties. You should make it a Ring of Enduring Arcana (6,000 gp, if most expensive), Ring of Sustenance (3,750 gp, secondary effect), plus a Competence bonus to Spellcraft (bonus squared x 150 gp if +7 or lower, or bonus squared x 100 gp if +8 or higher and Enduring Arcana is 9,000 gp), plus it has a +1 Deflection bonus to AC (2,000 gp). Everything but the Deflection bonus to AC was added by you personally, so each cost half the listed price in gold and 1/25 the listed price in experience. An item familiar is an intelligent item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/intelligentItems.htm), which means it's regarded as a construct, and constructs cannot be disabled or destroyed by dispelling or disjoining and they continue to function in antimagic and dead magic areas, though such effects can temporarily interrupt your own benefits from the Item Familiar feat. You should always wear a glove or gauntlet over the ring so opponents will never have line of sight or line of effect to it, so it's impossible to target it directly or slight of hand it.

Your daily buffs will be numerous. The most important ones, which you add Persistent Spell to via Incantatrix, are Draconic Polymorph in the Draconomicon to take the form of a War Troll in MM3, Shield, Wraithstrike, Swift Fly, Greater Invisibility, Fell Drain/Frighten Fire Shield twice, Ray Deflection, Bite of the Werewolf (Ability Enhancer increases the ability score bonuses by two points each), Fell Drain/Frighten Cloud of Knives (multiple times if possible), Expeditious Retreat, and Magic Circle Against Evil. You should also cast (Extended) Greater Luminous Armor, (Extended) Greater Magic Weapon, (Extended) Greater Mighty Wallop if applicable, Greater Resistance, Anticipate Teleportation, Endure Elements, and (Extended) Heart of Air/Water/Earth/Fire. At 11th level you should use Cooperative Metamagic to cast Selective Antimagic Field, which you get to ignore the effects of but nobody else does, and make it Persistent. That means whenever anyone else's attacks and special abilities are being resolved you're in an AMF from their perspective (and they may be in it as well), but whenever you're using any of your own attacks, spells, items, or other special abilities you get to completely ignore the AMF, though opponents' items and buffs who are in the AMF are still suppressed.

Other items should include a Rod of Bodily Restoration to fix the Str damage sacrifice that happens when Greater Luminous Armor ends, a Circlet of Rapid Casting with an Enhancement bonus to Int added (MIC p234), Armbands of Might, and any other necessary effects (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) that your spells don't cover. At your current level your ability scores with buffs will be Str 43, Dex 22, Con 37, with an AC of 48. You can Power Attack for -9 to hit to get +20 damage with the armbands, which becomes +40 damage if you Leap Attack. You'll still have +17 to hit against their touch AC plus you're invisible, and they'll have to save vs the War Troll Dazing Blow ability on every hit. This is all in addition to your Warblade maneuvers and stances, of course. When you're not laying waste to everything you can reach, you can use the Circlet of Rapid Casting to throw out a Web or Glitterdust to prevent several opponents from posing a threat to the party while you massacre each one in turn.