Build question

[thecrimsondawn]

I am playing a Gestalt game with only 2 players atm (3 soon but hes moving), so I was forced to make an incredibly powerful character to make sure we did not die. Right now our party consists of a half minotaur Goliath Barbarian/Binder going frenzy next level (currently lv 6) and myself - a DW kobold with loredrake, riddled, spellhoarding, and white dragonspawn. My class is wiz 5, about to level into incantatrix on one side, but I have no idea what to take for my other side.

I am looking for options and opinions :)

Right now after a little research, Archivist is looking rather dam sweet with my crazy INT bonus, but Artificer looks kinda bad ass too. However those are just base classes, and the beauty of 3.5 is the vast options of our PrC selection.

[Aegis013]

If you haven't discussed this course of action with the other player and the DM, I highly recommend that you do. Your character is likely to be powerful enough to make the Barb/Binder totally redundant.


However, if you're still going forward with this and have spoken with other player and the DM. I recommend Factotum for its passive capabilities and Int synergy or Incarnate for passive benefits. Archivist will give you a greater availability of spells, but you only have one set of actions with which to cast those spells, so you'll probably feel more powerful if you get abilities that aren't going to compete for your actions.

[FocusWolf413]

You have options galore. You really can't mess up.
Some good choices are:
Warblade (if only for iron heart surge)
Artificer
Archivist
Rogue (possibly of the fighter feat variety), swashbuckler, and invisible blade
Beguiler
Various Psionic classes

[Troacctid]

Artificer would be a better choice than Archivist, since Archivist is just giving you more of what you already have as a Wizard, whereas Artificer gives you powerful new options.

Really, you have a ton of options, because as a full caster, you're going to end up being powerful basically no matter what you do with your other side. What I would do is use the other side to shore up your weaknesses. For a Wizard, your biggest weakness is that you take time to really get into your stride; at low levels, you're frail and squishy, and you don't have much gas in your tank. So pick a class that deletes that weakness--something that makes you more resilient and and reduces your reliance on nova abilities.

Warblade is a classic example of this: it shores up your Fortitude and Reflex, boosts your hit die to a d12, and gives you a selection of powerful melee attacks that, while less impressive at high levels, are totally overpowered at low levels. On the downside, it does require you to invest in Strength (or Dexterity + Weapon Finesse).

Another example is Dragonfire Adept: it boosts your hit die and Fortitude, and you can take the Entangling Exhalation feat to become a veritable monster at low levels, with guaranteed damage in an AoE plus a crippling debuff stapled on.

Incarnate and Totemist are good options as well, boosting your saves and giving you lots of extra passive utility with soulmelds, as well as enabling some downright filthy action economy shenanigans with Share Soulmeld.

[thecrimsondawn]

Well lets look at it this way. The options are to gain more spells, gain more passive bonuses using my current stats, or to improve upon my week areas.

With Incantatrix, what are some spell options I could persist that would merit taking other class levels? That could count as any of those 3

[BilltheCynic]

How about Monk with the Kung Fu Genius feat (use intelligence instead of wisdom for all monk abilities that require wisdom)? Monk is terrible on its own, but as a chassis that you build wizard on it gives a lot of nice passive bonuses. You basically become a wizard with a better HD, better skills, faster movement, all good saves, better BAB, better AC, and a whole bunch of other passive buffs and immunities for being monk. You also get a nifty melee attack in case you can't or don't want to use spells.

[thecrimsondawn]

How about Monk with the Kung Fu Genius feat (use intelligence instead of wisdom for all monk abilities that require wisdom)? Monk is terrible on its own, but as a chassis that you build wizard on it gives a lot of nice passive bonuses. You basically become a wizard with a better HD, better skills, faster movement, all good saves, better BAB, better AC, and a whole bunch of other passive buffs and immunities for being monk. You also get a nifty melee attack in case you can't or don't want to use spells.

THIS is a good idea!
On top of that I am a huge fan of the variant fighting styles too. As such, I could nab dodge and mobility at lvs 1 and 2, and drop the class there. That would net me a +10 bonus to ac. if its untyped ac, then that means I would have an ac of 45 buffed! :D

Im gonna take a look at X to Y now since you said that. Thanks!

[gorfnab]

Factotum would be a great option too. Int based abilities and a way to get extra standard actions (so two spells in a round) at level eight.

[thecrimsondawn]

Factotum would be a great option too. Int based abilities and a way to get extra standard actions (so two spells in a round) at level eight.

I can also get that with a belt of battle, so I could get 3 spells a round - 4 if no swift action was accounted for (not sure if using the belt is swift or the class feature)

I have reviewed what everyone has said so far, and I think I am dead set on archivist.
While I will be subject to the action economy, with the spell point system we are playing with, I will be combining the spell points from both classes instead of keeping two spell point pools. That with 50 int translates to unlimited magic more or less.

It nets me high fort and will saves and low ref saves, but frankly, evocation is much less a threat then ability/level damage/drain. I have a high enough con score to survive quite a few aoe attacks, and buffed - a high enough touch ac to negate being hit most of the time. Mixed up with death ward, heal spells, restore spells, and the slew of buffs I will be able to persist, I feel its simply a good option.

I will not be the guy in the front lines killing people, that is our Vbsf. Keeping him buffed, alive, and otherwise unbeatable, mixed up with control spells, I feel that this will be a solid team.
I will lack the skills of a bard or rogue, but with magic I can cover even that with little more then an hour to re prep spells.


So this brings me to a new situation - what PrC to go into from archivist?

Im going to start looking just now :)

Edit:

I think I have decided.
On one side I am going Dweomerkeeper 10
On the other side I am going Incantatrix 10

Thanks to gestalt, that will be an insane end game with metamagic. With this however I feel that dropping Evocation may not be the best idea anymore.
Necromancy is not going to happen, I love being able to end all my issues with a single touch.
Illusion nets me invisibility, mirror image, and a couple of useful RP spells, but I really dont use it much. I am much bigger on using Enchantment to get my way.

thoughts?

[Xerlith]

Just one - unless you're houseruling, gestalt doesn't allow for prestige classes on both sides at once.

[Troacctid]

Remember that banning a school as a Wizard does not affect your spells from other classes. If you have Archivist on the other side, you can just prepare banned spells in your Archivist slots.

[thecrimsondawn]

Remember that banning a school as a Wizard does not affect your spells from other classes. If you have Archivist on the other side, you can just prepare banned spells in your Archivist slots.

Right, I was thinking about banning evocation and taking war mage - greatly increasing my available spell selection, but he goes off of CHA not int. Even if I was to get all the cleric spells, it would not be till end game levels.

As an Archivist, I get far more spell points, higher save DCs, better hit die and skills, access to EVERY divine spell - giving me really unlimited persistent spell options.

@ Xerlith
I did not know this. I will bring this up to the DM. Not much will change on my end tho other then when I get access to lower metamagic costs.

I think I understand why it says you cant do that. When you pick up a PrC, you add its bab and saves to you. If you take the two I am taking - that would be +4 will in one level. I would just rule it that you loose out on +2 will as you only take the better of the two classes tho in this case.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will inquire about this