(3.5) Gish swiftblade/ubercharger feat help

[zyggythorn]

So I'm building a character for a gestalt game, and I'm running out of feats to use.

Yes, seriously.

The DM gave all players a good few feats for free, so long as they qualify. The important ones being Combat Casting, Dodge, Mobility, and Eschew Materials.

I've got a 7 level build at the moment, using just a touch of Swiss.

So for that Gish build - stats: str15, dex18, con16, int 18, Wis 17, cha 16

Qualifies for all the bonus feats at lv1
Tristan Leonhart CN
lion totem bbn1/fighter (dungeon crasher acf) 2/ Ranger2 (solo hunter acf, lunar acf)2/abjurant champ1/swiftblade 1//cloistered Cleric (fharlanghn-celerity, ebberon weather domain, knowledge domain)1/wiz4 (hummingbird familiar)/cloistered Cleric 2/wiz5.

Feats:
Lv1: EWP: Elven Thinblade
Human: monkey grip
Flaw: frail: power attack
Flaw: inattentive: improved bullrush
Lion bbn: Run
Fight1: (yet undecided)
Wiz: scribe scroll
Familiar: improved initiative
Lv3: ancestral relic- Claimh Solais (Large Elven Thinblade. Has had it since lv 1.)
Rng1: track
Lv6: shocktrooper
Wiz5: (yet undecided)

I plan on taking Wolf Pack Tactics and Knowledge Devotion in the future.

The major thing I'm looking for is something to give me armored casting: light, and that's simply for flavor and armor as DR rules.

Any suggestions?

[Troacctid]

You can trade away your medium and heavy armor proficiency from the fighter class to gain the ability to cast wizard spells in light armor, via the Armored Mage variant from Complete Mage. It only works for spells of a level equal to or less than your fighter level + 1, though.

Or, alternately, if you want to be able to cast in light armor, you could try luminous armor. It is technically "light" armor.

[Rebel7284]

Unclear why you are taking that second cloistered cleric level? taking wizard at level 1 instead would improve your casting in a meaningful way. If you are trying to stick double casting progression into the build, I advice against it.

I think you may be using the wrong Lion Totem barbarian. Check the one in Complete Champion that gives you pounce, not the run feat.

Monkey Grip is terrible. You can google why, but basically just Power Attack for 2 is usually the same damage with the same attack bonus, plus you can get Monkey Grip on an item (without that pesky penalty even) if MIC is allowed.

You can also use the wizard variant that turns those metamagic feats, including scribe scroll, into fighter bonus feats which are probably better for you.

To improve your armor, take one level of Spellsword and use a mithral breastplate with one of the following abilities: feycrafted (DMG2), githcrafted(DMG2), or that padding from RotW.

Some good feats to look at:
- Elusive Target
- Leap Attack
- Knock Down (if 3.0 sources are allowed)
- Animal Devotion or Law Devotion


Also, in general, factotum is a better combination with Swiftblade because of the ability to add Int to everything and get extra actions. Also spelldancer, because free Persistent Spell is amazing.
Something like:
Wizard 5/Swiftblade 1/Spelldancer 1/Swiftblade 2-9/Abjurant Champion 5
//
Factotum 5/Wizard +1/Factotum 3/Wizard +1/Factotum +2/Wizard +1/Factotum +1/anything 6

[zyggythorn]

Lion totem fixed in my notes, as for cloistered Cleric levels, they are story relevant. The guy failed his paladin exam and is a bit bitter about it. Left the faith because of it. So most def no Law on this guy.
Story reasons also, with grip and EWP. It is a family heirloom, passed down from the family's founder x number of generations ago. Tristan stole it, because he was jealous.
Armored mage ACF noted for fighter.
I'm trying to stick around the builds current power level, simply because (knowing the fellow players) I'm way higher on the op-list, and also general Wheaton's Law within the party.

[Troacctid]

Why three levels of cloistered cleric? It's a fine dip, and I see the story reasons for having it, but the value drops dramatically after the first level.

Also, why not swap out your Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion? You want the feat, and it doesn't look like you need the domain, so...

[Rebel7284]

Why three levels of cloistered cleric? It's a fine dip, and I see the story reasons for having it, but the value drops dramatically after the first level.

Also, why not swap out your Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion? You want the feat, and it doesn't look like you need the domain, so...

Based on context clues, the Cleric 2 part is actually Cleric +1.

Still, yeah, the second level is mostly a waste.

[zyggythorn]

Build is only a 7 level stub at the moment. I've got the higher up stuff basically good, what with using reserve feats and a few meta-magics, plus DMM.

The reason for the extra levels of Cleric is (again, knowing the party) an extra touch of heals will help immensely.

Cloistered Cleric only has 2 class skills without knowledge domain, otherwise i would have traded it for knowledge Devotion.

Thanks for the feat suggestions, they work perfectly with my plan for the build.

[Troacctid]

Cloistered Cleric only has 2 class skills without knowledge domain, otherwise i would have traded it for knowledge Devotion.
One, you're a gestalt character, you have all the class skills of both classes. Two, cloistered clerics have all the class skills of the standard cleric, plus Decipher Script, Speak Language, and, if you trade the Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion, one additional Knowledge skill of your choice. That's thirteen skills, by my count, and that's taking Craft and Profession as one skill each.

[zyggythorn]

I'm just hitting 5 levels of Cloistered over the full 20, so that explains part of it. The skill point bonus is something I would like (in general) and I'll have to look over the standard skill list for Cleric (AFB right now)

The big story thing is slowly walking back to his faith, to the point of officially worshipping both Farhlarghn and Pelor, end game of NG.

Some touches of Arthurian mythos that the DM has picked up (and enjoys greatly) gives me leverage for certain shenanigans I may or may not pull later.

The only thing beyond all of this is that I may or may not pick up a second ancestral relic (or similar feat- aiming to actually get the item is more certain) at a much higher lv (about 15, min)

Also note that 'goes fast ' is a fairly important bit for this Build's back story (hence Celerity domain)

On that note, what is the concencus on Arcane Thesis: haste?

[Troacctid]

Well, if you're going to take the extra cleric levels, you should at least arrange them so you don't lose wizard casting. Something like this:

1. Ranger//Wizard
2. Barbarian//Wizard
3. Fighter//Wizard
4. Fighter//Wizard
5. Ranger//Wizard
6. Swiftblade//Wizard
7. Swiftblade//Cloistered Cleric
8. Swiftblade//Cloistered Cleric
9. Swiftblade//Wizard
10. Swiftblade//Cloistered Cleric
11. Swiftblade//Cloistered Cleric
12. Swiftblade//Wizard
13. Swiftblade//Cloistered Cleric

If you want the cleric early in the build, you can still put the first level at 1st and then take later levels at 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th.

IMO, since swiftblade already gives 4+ Int skill points, upgrading to 6 + Int isn't a super impressive boost—if I wanted more skills, I'd be more inclined to go with rogue or scout. Scout seems to fit the theme pretty well.


On that note, what is the concencus on Arcane Thesis: haste?
Pointless—you already have it on your class spell list.