Octalt Madness!

[JNAProductions]

So someone here on this very playground is recruiting for an Octalt (that is 8X gestalt, you read that correctly) game.

I really want to play in it, but I am still a 3.5 newb. Any advice from the playground on something simple but effective in octalt play?

[the_archduke]

Um, pick 8 random classes? I am not sure how you could screw that up if you tried.

What would be the worst character you could make with 8x gestalt? CW Samurai//Aristocrat//Warrior//Commoner//Expert//Fighter//Monk//Ninja?

[JNAProductions]

Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner. :P

Though I actually kinda want to play Undyne from Undertale, as such I'd like to be a spear-chucking aquatic bad ass. Any advice for how to create that?

[Ryuuk]

Normal rules for gestalt are to pick an 'Active' (Wizard, Psion, Cleric, etc) class and a 'Passive' class (Factotum, Rogue, Binder, etc). This is to use more of your class features per turn and not have them go to waste.

With 8 classes, well, I guess the principal still stands, but odds are you are going to have multiple 'Active' classes. You are looking at a lot of bookkeeping through spells and passive abilities no matter what you do.

I guess your best bet would be to make sure that feats, your finite resource, can help out in multiple classes, at least that's what I would try to do. As in, don't try to use both metamagic and metapsionic feat unless you can get a source of bonus feats, which you most likely can with so many parallel classes.

To be honest, this seems needlessly complicated. Odds are everyone is going to have a d12 HD, all good saves, full BAB, 6+ skill points, seems kind of hard for a party to specialize and differentiate themselves.

EDIT: Spearchucking aquatic badass... Whirling Blade (a 2nd level arcane spell) and Bloodstorm Blade (Prestige class from Tome of Battle) are my first thought if you want to throw large weapons effectively. The aquatic part could be any of the races from Stormwrack, binding Focalor (Tome of Magic) or a way to cast Waterbreathing or Siren's Grace (a spell in the Spell Compendium)

[AmberVael]

Your best bet for a simple but effective character with so many different classes will be to focus as hard as possible on the passive style classes that Ryuuk mentioned.

I suggest strongly considering Warlock, and possibly Incarnate or Totemist. One of the strong points of Warlock is having long duration buffs, so just pick stuff like See the Unseen and Swimming the Styx (solves your aquatic issues forever) and just forget that you have eldritch blast. Incarnate and Totemist give you some more versatility in what buffs you get, but ultimately can add some new abilities and bonuses that won't require many actions to use properly.

I might be considering a build something along the lines of:

Warblade // Psion // Factotum // Binder // Warlock // Incarnate // Fighter // Scout

[Kraken]

If I had to make an 8x gestalt character, I would definitely pick 6-7 of the classes as passive, such that I could sort of just forget about them. Otherwise I'd go insane with bookkeeping. Something like druid or wizard as the active class, then 7 passive classes consisting of fighter, incarnate, marshall, some monster race to completely fill up one column, preferably with outsider hit dice, rogue, and, uhhh, cleric for healbotting and all-day buffs to fire off and forget about? No, forget it, way too much work to make such a character, I'd pass on this game personally. Even thinking about giving you advice has started to hurt my brain.

[The Glyphstone]

I've played a tristalt game - gestalt plus a third 'monster/template' line, and it was about as much as I can handle. I cannot wrap my brain around octalt.

[nedz]

Needs more Cat and Tentacles.

This sounds like far too much hard work and the characters won't have any definition. Also you will all forget about more than half of your abilities more than half of the time, so you won't see the power.

What level are you starting at ?

What are your stats, or needn't I ask ?
You build would be likely totally MAD.

I'd stack lots of spontaneous casters - so you only have to do the book-keeping when you level up - with plenty of passives. All four threats too - just choose your classes.

[JNAProductions]

40 point buy.

[ben-zayb]

Peronally, I'd probably try to organize it likewise:

Side A: bloodlines, paragon classes, and PrCs (likely passive, unless used for active combos)
Side B: template stacking (likely passive)
Side C: 9ths-based (likely depends on side-B)
Side D: martial-based (likely depends on side-A)
Side E: skill-based (likely passive)
Side F: other party-support (likely passive)
Side G-H: base classes for niche combos/roles and X-to-Y stacking (combos are likely active)


Using that, I'd probably try to do a simple theme/concept and stick with it. Something like:
The Windrunner
Grey Elf Fey-Bloodline // Winter Unseelie Fey / Dark 1 // Dread Necromancer 1 // Sneak-Attack Hit-and-Run Dungeoncrasher Fighter 1 // Scout 1 // Marshal 1 // Binder 1 // Dragonfire Adept

Feat: Blend into Shadows

Side A: Fey-Bloodline 3 / Elf Paragon 2 / Master of the Unseen Hand 4 / Mindbender 1 / Dread Witch 5 / Unseen Seer 5
Side B: Winter Unseelie Fey / Dark 1 / Shadow 3 / Ghost 5 / Evolved Undead X / some more templates Y
Side C: Dread Necromancer 19 / Decisive-Strike Monk 1
Side D: Sneak-Attack Hit-&-Run Dungeoncrasher Zhentarim Fighter 20
Side E: Scout 20
Side F: Marshal 20
Side G: Binder 20
Side H: Dragonfire Adept 10 / Paladin of Tyranny 3 / Blackguard 3 / Dark-Companion Hexblade 4

It can be anywhere between T2-3 depending on optimization, and still won't overshadow the party.

[JNAProductions]

As I said, I wanted to make a spear throwing bad ass. I got help from Avatar Vecna and made this:

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=651162

[ExLibrisMortis]

Fighter, feat rogue etc. are good ones for passive classes, as feats are the thing that doesn't scale up when you gestalt. Downside is, they're all fighter feats, which may not be terrible for a spear-chucker, but it's limiting overall. AvatarVecna's build is good (for some reason without Bloodstorm Blade, I presume you requested that?), but you see that a lot of options are basically 'well, I got a feat left, so...'. Consider the psychic warrior for access to some useful psychic focus feats.

One of the good things about polystalting is that you can start using class features that rely on class level, because you have way too many of those. Things like Lay On Hands and Knight's Challenge get a lot better with 160 levels available. Trouble is, I'm not sure there are any good ones for throwers. There is the fighter kensai ACF (from Dragon 310), which grants an attack bonus with a certain weapon, up to +5 at level 20, in place of a single feat. It must be a melee weapon, but spears can be meleed with and thrown, and if you go Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade (which I'd recommend), you get to resolve your thrown attacks as melee attacks (including Power Attack and all that jazz). I'd also squeeze in a line of incarnate, and warlock as previously mentioned.

Perhaps a flying bloodstorm blade//dungeoncrasher fighter is worth going for. Ram people into the ground by throwing javelins at them.

The other good thing is that half-casting prestige classes can easily be compensated for. On the topic of prestige classes, how many can you take at once?

[Psyren]

Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Commoner//Warblade//Wizard//Factotum :P

Fixed that for you :smallwink:

[Charizander]

If you want to focus on being a badass thrower build, add in 10 levels of bloodstorm blade, 20 levels of psychic warrior (using the soulbound weapon ACF), 10 levels of psychic weapon master, and 20 levels of Chaotic incarnate. At least 6 levels of dungeoncrasher fighter would be good, too, especially if you focus on ranged bull rushes.

Crafting wouldn't be amiss, either.

How about something like artificer 20//warblade 10/bloodstorm blade 10//soulbound psywar 20//Chaotic incarnate 20//psion 10/psychic weapon master 10//dungeoncrasher fighter 10 (with lots of other ACFs)/kensai 10//DMM-focused cloistered cleric 5/RKV 10/divine PrC 5//ACF monk 6/war mind 5/swordsage 9?

A lot of what's there will improve your ability to throw (and affect your throwing as though it was melee). Artificer will let you craft some amazing equipment, warblade/bloodstorm blade massively boosts your ability to throw, psywar will give you lots of feats and a weapon you can swap out at will, along with some great powers to use to both improve your throwing, improve your melee, and some utility, all of which helps for when your main schtick isn't ideal. Chaotic incarnates have a lot of utility soulmelds and lots of ranged-enhancing ones, too. Psion/psychic weapon master gives some great access to action economy breakage and more utility (and the pp pool stacks with the other psionic classes you've got, along with more psionic feats). Dungeoncrasher gives you more damage and area control with your throwing and melee attacks. Kensai and psychic weapon master both let you focus a lot of energy into one or two main weapons. DMM cleric gives you access to lots of healing effects to keep yourself going, as well as some very nice buffs to prevent yourself getting hit with, say, death effects and whatnot. RKV helps even more with action economy. Monks have some very nice ACFs to play with, along with improving your ability to enhance your unarmed strikes nicely through buffs. War mind gives more power points for your pp pool, as well as the ability to attack multiple targets each time you make a melee attack (or ranged-as-melee attack), multiplying your potential damage. And swordsage has a LOT going for it, utility- and mobility-wise, that are hard to get elsewhere.

It covers a lot of bases while putting lots of focus in a few areas and not neglecting other areas that you're not focusing on.

[Mr Adventurer]

Factotum
Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade
Binder
Wizard
Rogue
Swordsage
Healer
Beguiler

Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade gives you your javelin shenanigans, with Swordsage adding the other Disciplines and a shedload of manoeuvres. Rogue and Factotum make you a skill expert and add sneak attack. Healer adds recovery magic. Beguiler adds general adventuring magic (potential crossover with sirine deceptiveness if that's part of the sea analogy you're going for). Wizard for everything else. Binder for snagging special effects you might want on a day to day basis.

This will be a nightmare to play.