3.P Gestalt Character Advice

[AincradSurvivor]

Alright so I am playing in a PF system game but we are allowed to use 3.5 material such as Tome of Battle and the complete books and a handful of other things.

Well what I wanted to do was make a very powerful character who is not gonna be lightly pushed about.
STP Erudite X//Factotum 8/Warblade X

Now that is a common build I know, its got the magic down and useful skill focuses all based around Int.

The Race is going to be the Elan (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/races/elan) from Dreamscarred Press.
Due to their never aging bodies they dont take negs to physicals which is nice, but as far as my DM is concerned if you play them as venerable you can get a nice +3 to all mentals.

Now all this makes them badass, but not as awesome and OP as I kind of want.
Half-Illithid (http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/halfillithid.shtml) however does. It changes the adjustment on mentals to +7 which means even at a low point buy or crappy rolls I would be solid.

Now the reason I picked Elan for the Half-Illithid is one they are abberations and so Half-Illithid works, and two is for their ability to be sustained by paying a single power point, which should count for the brain eating too.

Should I bother with the Factotum levels and go straight Warblade or keep it as it?
Game starts at 5th level.

[Coventry]

Half-Illithid is +5 Level Adjustment, which is expensive if you're starting at level 5 ... assuming that your DM will even allow you to take the template on one side of the gestalt, and a class on the other side.

The first rule of being a primary caster is that every caster level you give up along the way is costing you power. So, to maximize your OP at the end of the game, you will start as a STPE 5//Half-Illithid ... and will be quite squishy with your 5d4 HD.

[bootzin]

I'll be hones with you, I don't think factotum has much to add to your build..

Of course it has the stupidly broken cunning surge, and maybe you are interested in Iaijutsu Focus, but I don't think you should spend 8 levels on it just because of this ability and a class skill.

IMHO, you should add a few levels of Warblade, only so that you qualify for the Eternal Blade PrC. The 10th level ability from it allows you to take an entire turn as an immediate action once per encounter (You woudln't do much more than this with the Factotum anyway). Additionally, it grants you the Blade Guide (Which you could use as a really easy way to get a flanking buddy) and even better: You can, for the duration of one encounter (And I guess 3 times per day) add your INT modifier to both attack and damage. That is a really nice buff on an INT based character.

Also, you should definitely dip a level or 2 in Crusader or Swordsage. The Thicket of Blades and Assassins Stance can do wonders for you (Qualifying for Cranve, for instance), and the former one is, IMO, the best stance regarding battlefield control.

I've made and INT based character completely rid of spells, if you want, I could give you some advices later on

[AincradSurvivor]

Half-Illithid is +5 Level Adjustment, which is expensive if you're starting at level 5 ... assuming that your DM will even allow you to take the template on one side of the gestalt, and a class on the other side.

The first rule of being a primary caster is that every caster level you give up along the way is costing you power. So, to maximize your OP at the end of the game, you will start as a STPE 5//Half-Illithid ... and will be quite squishy with your 5d4 HD.

PF uses the CR as the level adjust it does away with LA in that sense. So it would be a CR 3 race and we basically treat it as Erudite 5//CR 3/Warblade 2. At level 6 I drop 1 CR fr a class level and at level 9 I do as well. I finish at level 12 when I gain all normal class levels.