Help with Gestalt Level 10 Warblade/Wizard

[DiscipleofBob]

It's been a while since I've been in a 3.5 game, and level 10 gestalt is outside my comfort zone for even that. On top of that, while I've played a Warblade, most of the time when I've played an arcane caster it was a sorcerer or something similar, so even Wizard is new for me.

Level 10. Gestalt. Looking at Warblade / Wizard and if possible I'd rather avoid prestige classes or class dips.
50,000 gold to play with. I'm looking for suggestions for feats, maneuvers, spells, and equipment to make this work with the least amount of hassle, like spell failure for armor.

If possible, I want to avoid going to other sourcebooks unless absolutely necessary, just to keep things easier from a bookkeeping perspective.

Looking at some other ideas posted online, right now a sword-and-board with emphasis in Iron Heart, White Raven, and maybe a bit of Stone Dragon

Thanks in advance.

[thethird]

If possible, I want to avoid going to other sourcebooks unless absolutely necessary, just to keep things easier from a bookkeeping perspective.

Other than the PHB and the Tome of Battle what sourcebooks are okay? Keeping it to only those 2 books is mostly going to be core wizard advice with a better chasis focusing on defensive maneuvers.

[Lerondiel]

It's been a while since I've been in a 3.5 game, and level 10 gestalt is outside my comfort zone for even that. On top of that, while I've played a Warblade, most of the time when I've played an arcane caster it was a sorcerer or something similar, so even Wizard is new for me.

Level 10. Gestalt. Looking at Warblade / Wizard and if possible I'd rather avoid prestige classes or class dips.
50,000 gold to play with. I'm looking for suggestions for feats, maneuvers, spells, and equipment to make this work with the least amount of hassle, like spell failure for armor.

If possible, I want to avoid going to other sourcebooks unless absolutely necessary, just to keep things easier from a bookkeeping perspective.

Looking at some other ideas posted online, right now a sword-and-board with emphasis in Iron Heart, White Raven, and maybe a bit of Stone Dragon

Thanks in advance.

First question: Do you have another wizard in the party?

If not, parties suffer without spell slots put aside for the usual problem solving - teleport, dispel, fly, grt invis, dim/anchor, perhaps knock, energy resistance or haste etc

If you do, then this is the chance to buff yourself into an unstoppable killing machine.

If you cant be swayed by the usual gish prestige classes like swiftblade, abj champion or master transmogrifist, you can at least turn into something big powerful, invisible, immune to metal etc....but you really really want Diamond Mind maneuvers....by the time youre 13th level as an enlarged gargantuan werebear sun giant making full power attack Wraithstrikes with Avalanche of Blades and a luck feat/item....well, by that time youre reminding the DM how much work it is to challenge gestalt parties even restricted to only a couple of books. :)

[defiantdan]

Basically your classes suffer from both being active classes. So you will need to decide which class will be active. Gish usually means you want to fight in melee using magic to boost your numbers. If going this route it is optimal to grab a two handed weapon (minotaur Greathammer). Then grab Power attack. Now for spells you really want to use polymorph. Google for the polymorph thread to find good forms with high str. Use Greater mighty wallop on your greathammer. Use spells as required to fill in your gaps. Superior resistance, flight, different methods of vision, extra movement. I'd recommend saving two spell slots for celerity and teleport incase you have an "oh poop I'm going to die" moments.

I'd shy away from sword and board. It rarely performs as desired. D&D does not benefit from the "tank" archetype because smart enemies will not try to hit something that is hard to hit. They will move right past or use range to attack easier to hit targets. So the strategy should be to be a massive threat, to kill before they get a turn, or to deny movement/vision/actions via battlefield control.

[DiscipleofBob]

No sourcebooks are explicitly banned that I know of, but for bookkeeping purposes, I'd prefer to stick to Bo9S and core unless there's something that's just absolutely perfect and necessary. I'm already having to transcribe the relevant Bo9S stuff and print it out.

No other Wizard. My wife's making a Favored Soul / Sorcerer but that's it as far as arcane goes, and the others are various combinations of Druid, Rogue, Barbarian, and Paladin.

Sword and board is negotiable. It just seemed the more appropriate flavor-wise.

I figure since most maneuvers are purely damage or at least combat oriented, my spells should probably focus on utilitarian stuff.

No idea how long this campaign will go on for, so for now I'm not planning ahead for future levels, just focusing on what I can do now at level 10.

[Lerondiel]

I think with hundreds of pages of extra spells for a wizard, the Spell Compendium safely sits under 'absolutely perfect and necessary'

If your Druid & Paladin players aren't already using it they'll be glad you brought it

[Khedrac]

My wife's making a Favored Soul / Sorcerer

Try to persuade her against this. As people have said the problem is you have two active classes, and one of them is not great at all (Favored Soul). It should good for Spells/Day, but you can still only cast 1 spell per round.

Much better is to go for class that has passive utility (like Fighter or Rogue) on the other side.

[Brova]

One spell I strongly recommend for a build like this is heroics. The obvious use is that you can pop spell slots to grab fighter bonus feats that seem useful today (super bonus synergy if you can convince your DM to let you buy or make a magic item of permanent mirror move). But martial study and martial stance are both fighter bonus feats. So you can grab any three maneuvers you want every day. That's a pretty sweet deal, especially given that you can take maneuvers from schools you couldn't normally learn.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You can focus your wizard on out-of-combat and buff magic, and do your fighting on the warblade side. Three levels incantatrix would be nice to persist those buffs, that way you can avoid timekeeping as well. Go with stuff the whole party will enjoy - fly, shield, greater magic weapon and -vestment.

[Brova]

You can focus your wizard on out-of-combat and buff magic, and do your fighting on the warblade side. Three levels incantatrix would be nice to persist those buffs, that way you can avoid timekeeping as well. Go with stuff the whole party will enjoy - fly, shield, greater magic weapon and -vestment.

I might go Warblade 10 || Wizard 5/Incantatrix 5. Take a bunch of metamagic feats (Extend + Persist, Empower, Twin, etc) and run around stabbing people unless you can't get to melee. Then whip out the wand of scorching ray with metamagic spell trigger for Empower, Maximize and Twin. Also useful for buffs with Persist or Chain.

[Gabrosin]

It's easy enough to make Warblade the passive class here. You just think of yourself as a level 10 wizard, but with a d12 hit die and a bunch of defensive maneuvers. All the save replacers, Iron Heart Surge, White Raven Tactics... let the Warblade side focus entirely on using your swift actions to save your butt, and rain down fire with your spellcasting.

Going the gish route might be more exciting, but it's also a lot more complicated.

[razorback]

Probably not the direction you want to go but I think that Psion meshes better with Warblade.
Less bookkeeping but you are still, no spell failure for armor, but you are still fighting for actions, especially swifts. Less utility but more flexibility within powers known based on PP usage.

[Brova]

Probably not the direction you want to go but I think that Psion meshes better with Warblade.
Less bookkeeping but you are still, no spell failure for armor, but you are still fighting for actions, especially swifts. Less utility but more flexibility within powers known based on PP usage.

If we're suggesting changes to the Gestalt, Warblade (or really any ToB build, ideally Idiot Crusader) || Factotum is pretty good. A big pile of extra maneuvers every combat, plus some useful skills is sweet. You can also do Factotum || Wizard, but that tends to be a way to burn a bunch of extra spells to solve encounters faster - there's not any real gain. My build would be either Warblade 20 || Factotum 8/Cleric 1/Barbarian 1/Chameleon 10 (eight levels of Factotum for extra actions - be sure to take font of inspiration once, Cleric for DMM: Persist, Barbarian for charge and Chameleon for buffs) or Idiot Crusader || Factotum 20.

[DiscipleofBob]

Sadly I don't have Spell Compendium, nor do I the source books for Incantatrix or Factotum. I was lucky enough to find a PDF for ToB. What I do have is PHB and PHBII, as well as Complete Champion, Scoundrel, Adventurer, and Divine. Also BoEF, but I'm not sure there's anything in there I'd want to use.

The goal is for some kind of gish build, someone that can stay on the front lines with all the other big, beefy guys in the party but then turn around and do all the useful, utilitarian stuff that arcane magic brings to the table.

I definitely want Iron Heart Surge and White Raven Tactics, and the last time I played a Warblade the Mountain Hammer attacks and its variant were extremely useful due to ignoring DR. Beyond those staples I'm still browsing for maneuvers I absolutely want to keep, especially the 5th-level maneuvers.

[Brova]

Sadly I don't have Spell Compendium, nor do I the source books for Incantatrix or Factotum. I was lucky enough to find a PDF for ToB. What I do have is PHB and PHBII, as well as Complete Champion, Scoundrel, Adventurer, and Divine. Also BoEF, but I'm not sure there's anything in there I'd want to use.

With those books, you might be better off as a Cleric (for DMM) instead. You get very little out of divine power, but persisting things is very useful to a gish.

[Ellowryn]

Ouch, no Players Guide to Faerun (Incantatrix), Complete Mage(Abjurant Champion), or Spell Compendium (Bite of the Wear-X spell line) hurts alot with trying a gish build. There are of course ways to get access to the content in those books if you poke around the web, but i do not know how well online content flies at your table. You also do not appear to have Heroes of Horror so Archivist is out sadly (think Divine Wizard).

If you still want Wizard then realize that most if not all of your spells per day are going to be combat buffs as most of the good ones last only rounds to minutes per level. So definitely look to make your Warblade side the active one and focus everything on mobility and power.