lawful evil incarnate gestalt help

[Nosta]

so I am building another Npc
this time I am trying out the Incarnate class and I was wondering if A lawful evil paladin would be a could gestalt combo with incarnate


also what is the easy way to increase Essentia for my Npc?

[Red Fel]

so I am building another Npc
this time I am trying out the Incarnate class and I was wondering if A lawful evil paladin would be a could gestalt combo with incarnate

No, because an Incarnate must have a Neutral component to its alignment. Per the class description:
Alignment: Incarnates hold to one alignment extreme. As an incarnate, you must choose one alignment component: good, evil, law, or chaos. This alignment component defines you and serves as your guiding principle. For incarnates, though, this is more than just belief, because incarnates channel souls that contain the very essence of this alignment component. Because their devotion to one ideal is so great, an incarnate can only pick one extreme alignment component (good, evil, law, or chaos) and must be neutral in regards to the other alignment component. This means that the only possible alignments for incarnates are neutral good, neutral evil, lawful neutral, or chaotic neutral.
So Lawful Evil is out. LE can be either a Soulborn or Totemist. I'd suggest Totemist, personally.


also what is the easy way to increase Essentia for my Npc?

The Bonus Essentia feat increases your Essentia by 1, or by 2 if you are capable of shaping soulmelds.

[Chronos]

And this is one place where it'd be tricky to relax the alignment rules, because incarnates get different class features depending on their alignment. Would a Lawful Evil incarnate get both the Lawful and the Evil abilities?

[Red Fel]

And this is one place where it'd be tricky to relax the alignment rules, because incarnates get different class features depending on their alignment. Would a Lawful Evil incarnate get both the Lawful and the Evil abilities?

Precisely. Incarnates are designed around precisely one alignment component. Now, the Ex-Incarnates section notes that you can shift around the border - say, from NG to NE or CN - but it must have one Neutral component, or else you lose your relevant abilities and cannot advance in the class.

You were asking in another thread, Nostra, about the better melee meldshaper. Well, that's Totemist, who coincidentally doesn't have alignment restrictions. Gestalting Totemist and Paladin... Well, it isn't a terrible plan. It's a strict upgrade over the Paladin, certainly. Full BAB, two good saves, and a host of natural weapons.

Incarnate, though? Incarnate is really the caster of the Incarnum system - primarily skill boosts and utility tricks, less so with actual melee abilities. Their melee chassis isn't terrific, either. More importantly, the alignment restriction is substantial, and influenced by more than just fluff - it is and should be fairly non-negotiable.

Soulborn is bad and should feel bad.

[Quertus]

Ever one to hate on the D&D alignment system, I say just refluff the classes to make it work.

The character was a lawful incarnum, whose dedication to law was so great, they were easily seduced to the dark side by a charismatic anti-paladin.

They still believe whole-heartedly in law, and treat incarnum as though they were Ln.

Or just create an alignment-agnostic version of the class, that chooses between one of four sets of powers.

[Aleolus]

Or, if you're married to the idea of an incarnate npc, use one of the allowable alignments and use a different class with it. Cleric would be an excellent choice in that case

[Troacctid]

You were asking in another thread, Nostra, about the better melee meldshaper. Well, that's Totemist, who coincidentally doesn't have alignment restrictions. Gestalting Totemist and Paladin... Well, it isn't a terrible plan. It's a strict upgrade over the Paladin, certainly. Full BAB, two good saves, and a host of natural weapons.

Incarnate, though? Incarnate is really the caster of the Incarnum system - primarily skill boosts and utility tricks, less so with actual melee abilities. Their melee chassis isn't terrific, either.

Incarnates are tankier than Totemists. Vitality Belt in particular gives you a lot of HP, especially in gestalt where you have full meldshaper level and a bigger starting hit die. If you're gestalting with something like Crusader, then Incarnate will probably synergize better with standard action strikes. Totemist works well with classes like Barbarian that rely on full attacks, or classes like Rogue that can stack bonus damage on the multiple attacks.