What is the coolest gish build you can think of?

[EisenKreutzer]

Gishes are fun. Self-buffing and wading into combat (often with a class not really intended for full frontal assault) can be truly hilarious.

So, whats the coolest Pathfinder gish build you can come up with, using all Paizo material and DSP?
What makes it unique and fun to play?

[Particle_Man]

Well with the Prestigious Spellcaster feat (meaning no spellcaster levels are lost if you take that feat 3x (plus its prerequisite feat) I want to try Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Sorcerer out and see how it fares. Angel-blooded Aasimar would be a pretty good race for it.

Maybe not the most effective Gish out there, but hey, you are becoming a Dragon! That has to have some cool factor built into it.

[Coretron03]

A Beastmorph Vivectionist alchemists using that feat that lets you drink stuff as a swift action, Consume mutagen, grab a potion of Caster level 20 magic fang and use it for your natural attacks without consuming it using alchemical allocation, cast greater invisbility as a swift action, Go to town with a uber amount of sneak attacks.

[Zanos]

Necromancer, obviously. Why play a fighter when you can play build-a-fighter? Necrocrafts especially are pretty cool.

[Lormador]

A Beastmorph Vivectionist alchemists using that feat that lets you drink stuff as a swift action, Consume mutagen, grab a potion of Caster level 20 magic fang and use it for your natural attacks without consuming it using alchemical allocation, cast greater invisbility as a swift action, Go to town with a uber amount of sneak attacks.

Could you combine that with some number of Aberrant Aegis levels, stacking on a bunch of tentacle attacks and extra arms customizations? And of course a tumor familiar, which would be chanting "Chug! Chug! Chug!" whilst all these hands/arms/appendages grab out liquid buffs to pour down your throat.

[Serafina]

In a bit of old self-promotion: Spellgun Magus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478211-Staff-and-Gun-a-miniguide-to-the-Eldritch-Gunslinger-(or-How-to-be-Harry-Dresden)).
Eldritch Archer Magus with a one-level dip into Spellslinger Wizard. You shoot magic bullets, dishing out damage, hard to resist debuffs, and you can even do it all while dual-wielding.

Not a melee-build, and more focussed on casting spells during combat than actual pre-buffing.
However, if you want to do a bit more of that, you can grab a Dragoon Musket from the Villain Codex and use Reloading Hands to turn into a veritable sniper.

[Morphic tide]

A Beastmorph Vivectionist alchemists using that feat that lets you drink stuff as a swift action, Consume mutagen, grab a potion of Caster level 20 magic fang and use it for your natural attacks without consuming it using alchemical allocation, cast greater invisbility as a swift action, Go to town with a uber amount of sneak attacks.

I add Synthesist Summoner for the extra natural attacks and HP and ability to mostly-safely dump Con and get non-spell Flight and so many more things.

But, more specifically, the idea is to spam attacks as hard as possible to maximize the effectiveness of Amulet of Mighty Fists while minimizing reliance on other equipment. +1d6 doesn't sound like much, but when you start multiplying they by your bloated attack count... And, of course, you have some Summoner spells, so you can get some buffs from non-potion sources.

In Gestalt, the other side makes up for lost Sneak Attack progression from Summoner levels and gets some stuff to further improve the odds of getting off Sneak Attack on the... like, 5 or 6 attacks per round. Can result in piles of d6s larger than most mailman builds(largely because mailman builds get much of their damage from Maximize and other non-dice damage)

Basically, rider damage monster. Stack the per-attack damage boosts, then stack the number of attacks, using the WBL efficiency tricks of natural attack spam and Alchemist to get much more stuff than you'd normally have.

[upho]

Depending on what you mean by "coolest" and what your definition of "fun to play" is, I can think of quite a few gish builds which are both cool and fun to play, on top of being very effective combatants. A few melee examples:

Cleric/Ordained Defender Warder/Battle Templar The ultimate "Divine Wis-Gish" tank. Pile up those great divine buffs and support your allies while you go to town with maneuvers. Not very unique though, and basically plays like a boosted initiating Warpriest.
Wilder/Zealot/Awakened Blade The ultimate "Psionic Cha-Gish" tank. Rage and grow gargantuan, get a 50'+ melee reach and utterly dominate the battlefield with AoOs, superior action economy and awesome control and debuff shenanigans, all while buffing both yourself and your entire party. Can be made into one of the most powerful combatants possible in the game, and very fun to play, despite typically also being very complex in combat with its tons of moving parts and options. (Example (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21556361&postcount=89) with description of basic combos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21556450&postcount=91).)
Magus/Harbinger/Bladecaster The ultimate "Arcane Int-Gish" striker. Serious true offensive gishing, seamlessly blending attack spells and skirmishing melee via Spell Combat, Spellstrike, Battlecaster's Strike and Arcane Assault. Flavor and mechanics combines especially well with the supernatural Elemental Flux, Riven Hourglass, Shattered Mirror and Veiled Moon disciplines. This is the most classically gishy gish I can imagine, and poofaporting around the battlefield to electrocute and deep-freeze opponents with your sword is always fun.



In a bit of old self-promotion: Spellgun Magus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478211-Staff-and-Gun-a-miniguide-to-the-Eldritch-Gunslinger-(or-How-to-be-Harry-Dresden)).
Eldritch Archer Magus with a one-level dip into Spellslinger Wizard. You shoot magic bullets, dishing out damage, hard to resist debuffs, and you can even do it all while dual-wielding.

Not a melee-build, and more focussed on casting spells during combat than actual pre-buffing.
However, if you want to do a bit more of that, you can grab a Dragoon Musket from the Villain Codex and use Reloading Hands to turn into a veritable sniper.And in order to boost this considerably, add a level of harbinger and preferably all ten levels of Bladecaster. Continuing in the self-promotion vein, here's an example of a similar build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21337028&postcount=528) I've played (although it lacks the wizard level, has myrmidon trench fighter levels instead of harbinger levels for Dex to damage, and uses a houserule allowing MWF with Ranged Spellstrike). Fun in play and definitely feels unique, although like other ranged builds its primary combat strength is a bit limited to damage and it can feel somewhat repetitive IMO.

[EisenKreutzer]

Depending on what you mean by "coolest" and what your definition of "fun to play" is, I can think of quite a few gish builds which are both cool and fun to play, on top of being very effective combatants. A few melee examples:

Cleric/Ordained Defender Warder/Battle Templar The ultimate "Divine Wis-Gish" tank. Pile up those great divine buffs and support your allies while you go to town with maneuvers. Not very unique though, and basically plays like a boosted initiating Warpriest.
Wilder/Zealot/Awakened Blade The ultimate "Psionic Cha-Gish" tank. Rage and grow gargantuan, get a 50'+ melee reach and utterly dominate the battlefield with AoOs, superior action economy and awesome control and debuff shenanigans, all while buffing both yourself and your entire party. Can be made into one of the most powerful combatants possible in the game, and very fun to play, despite typically also being very complex in combat with its tons of moving parts and options. (Example (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21556361&postcount=89) with description of basic combos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21556450&postcount=91).)
Magus/Harbinger/Bladecaster The ultimate "Arcane Int-Gish" striker. Serious true offensive gishing, seamlessly blending attack spells and skirmishing melee via Spell Combat, Spellstrike, Battlecaster's Strike and Arcane Assault. Flavor and mechanics combines especially well with the supernatural Elemental Flux, Riven Hourglass, Shattered Mirror and Veiled Moon disciplines. This is the most classically gishy gish I can imagine, and poofaporting around the battlefield to electrocute and deep-freeze opponents with your sword is always fun.


It was actually building a Magus/Harbinger/Bladecaster that prompted me to make this post!
This build has serious potential. The Bladecaster and Magus complement each other very well, but the cool part is the Harbinger. Since you only take about two Harbinger levels, your Dark Claim only lasts a single turn, meaning it is practically always spammable. Combine that with Grasp of Darkness and you can recover two maneuvers every turn you have a swift action available.

It's just an all-round solid build!

[NamelessNPC]

Well, a straight druid is probably the most powerful, but I have a nice build in the think tank that I've never had the chance to play.
Druid 1/ranger 1/ druid x
You have to be a samsaran, and get Instant Enemy and anything else you want from the ranger list at 1st level. Then, at 5, you get Shapeshifting Hunter, which makes your druid and ranger levels stack for favored enemy and uses of wildshape.
You only lose 1 caster level, and you can cast instant enemy starting level 6, and more times per day than a straight ranger. You end up as a really cool neutral paladin with its own alignment agnostic "smite". A green knight.