Gestalt Minotaur Duskblade

[Nosta]

I know its crazy but i kinda wanna build it
any one have ideas that can help
I want it to be based of of a white buffalo who uses shocking grasp as his main bag
weapon ideas, other items idea
Heck back ground suggestions would be nice

[Ephemeral_Being]

The first question in helping you with this build is "Which Minotaur are you using?"

There's a version in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting that has an LA of zero. There's another, more common version with 6 RHD and an LA of +2. If you're using the Dragonlance version, you're medium size like any other player character. You have fewer of the bonuses, obviously, but it's probably easier to build around. The one you'd find on the SRD is large, with a ton of racial bonuses.

So. Which are you using?

[Troacctid]

Incarnate would be a good class to fill out the other side of the gestalt once you've got the Minotaur racial ECL done with. Lightning Gauntlets are effectively a second Shocking Grasp on every attack.

[Rebel7284]

There is also a half minotaur template in dragon magazine. Very powerful template that gives you a size category (up to large) for LA+1

[Nosta]

The first question in helping you with this build is "Which Minotaur are you using?"

There's a version in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting that has an LA of zero. There's another, more common version with 6 RHD and an LA of +2. If you're using the Dragonlance version, you're medium size like any other player character. You have fewer of the bonuses, obviously, but it's probably easier to build around. The one you'd find on the SRD is large, with a ton of racial bonuses.

So. Which are you using?

Most likely the one with a la of +2

[danzibr]

Seconding Incarnate.

In fact, if you do the no-LA Faerun Minotaur, you could go Duskblade ?//Incarnate ?. That would be simple and respectable.

[Brova]

Assuming some version of Minotaur that has LA +0 or +1 and no racial hit dice, Duskblade 20 || ToB Build 20 (probably idiot Crusader and/or Master of Nine) is a totally respectable life choice. You get two throw together two of the closest things WotC printed to "viable melee classes" and maneuvers make up for the fact that you can't full attack channel for most of your life. A character of a more arcane bent might pick up Warmage (more damage dealing spells to channel) or Dread Necromancer (more debuffs to channel) along with a bunch of Arcane Disciple feats. Various things you might do with Ranger or Rogue are not terrible (for example, Wild Shape Ranger into Master of Many Forms).

Side Note: If you can't be a no LA Minotaur I strongly recommend Wild Shape Ranger into Master of Many Forms and simply wildshaping into a Minotaur. You get to be a Minotaur, but you don't have to invest a bunch of levels in being a Fighter that doesn't get bonus feats. Incidentally, this option comes online at exactly the level being a MM Minotaur does.

If you're locked into being a MM Minotaur and don't like the Master of Many Forms option, you're locked on being a ToB build of some sort, because that allows your racial levels to count for anything at all. You're probably looking at Duskblade 20 || Is a Minotaur 8/Warblade 1/Swordsage 1/Work Towards Master of Nine 10.

I hope that didn't sound too critical, the concept is cool. It's just that the rules for monsters as PCs are ... not good. An appropriate challenge for a PC Minotaur is 4 Minotaurs. No, really.

As far as specific builds go, here are a couple (all assuming LA +1 or +0):

Minotaur Duskblade 20 || Swordsage 1/Warblade 1/Barbarian 1/Crusader 1/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6/Master of Nine 5/Various Initiator Classes 5

You get a bunch of maneuvers, refreshing every round as a Crusader (yay Idiot Crusader powers!) and whenever you make a normal melee attack (including channeling) as a Warblade. You've got a big chunk of the options that are out there for melee types, and bull rushing people as a Dungeoncrasher is cool and thematic. Your combat routine probably involves single attacks, enhanced by maneuvers, arcane channeling, or bull rushes.

Cons: This build involves a lot of dips at low level, and DMs may veto the Idiot Crusader trick. You also have very few free feats if you want to get into Master of Nine.

Minotaur Duskblade 20 || Warmage (or Dread Necro) 6/Rainbow Servant 10/Something 4 (War Weaver and Incantatrix are cool)

Warmage and Dread Necromancer both give you a lot of spells to use with your channel, and let you pick up some of the weight of primary caster. Rainbow Servant is there for all cleric spells, cast spontaneously (remember, text trumps table). You don't have to take it, but it is probably the best PrC for either of those classes. If you are a Dread Necromancer, take 8 levels of your base class before PrCing out.

Cons: Your DM may rule that text does not trump table.

Minotaur Duskblade 20 || Trickster Spellthief 1/Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/Ultimate Magus 10/Incantatrix 4

This is a cheese build. It's not TO or anything, but it will give you a great deal of power alongside very large numbers.

So the deal here is that you want to get a large caster level. You start out by taking a level of Trickster Spellthief and Practiced Spellcaster (Trickster Spellthief). Then you do the same thing with Beguiler. Then you take some wizard levels. At sixth level, you take Master Spellthief. That makes your "spellthief and arcane spellcaster levels also stack when determining your caster level for all arcane spells". Right now that means you have a caster level of 20 for all arcane spells (6 Duskblade + 1 Trickster Spellthief + 1 Beguiler + 4 Practiced Spellcaster + 4 Practiced Spellcaster + 4 Wizard). At level six. That's good, but we can do better. This is where Ultimate Magus joins the party. It offers two benefits. The first is that your tied caster levels allow you to advance any spellcasting class (you chose Wizard). The second is that you get +1 to caster level for all your classes at level 1/4/7/10 of Ultimate Magus. By the end of that progression, you get a caster level of 63 (16 Duskblade + 16 Ultimate Magus [+4 once for each of your classes] + 14 Wizard + 8 Beguiler + 1 Trickster Spellthief + 8 Practiced Spellcaster [Once each for Trickster Spellthief and Beguiler]). At some point you took Arcane Disciple for one of the "kill things with HD lower than CL" spells. You win every encounter forever. Then, to add insult to injury, you become an Incantatrix.

Cons: You need a flaw or a 5th level of Wizard to get a metamagic feat to enter Ultimate Magus. Also, no DM is going to allow you to play this character. Also, I may be wrong to include Duskblade in CL calculations.

I recommend the first build, because it gives you a lot of options without giving you too much power. I also recommend that you pick up a Ring of Wizardry at some point, because it doubles your spell slots, letting you channel stuff for longer. If you want to optimize shocking grasp, you can probably actually do that - Arcane Thesis works wonders.