Gesault character help.

[keeper2161]

So in a previous post I wanted to make a protoss zealot from starcraft. Someone brought on the idea of soulknife/magus mindblade. The campaign I am playing in is using the 20 point buy system. My original plan was to do soulknife/psychic warrior. Is it worth doing the soulknife/magus? I don't honestly think the soulknife really needs wisdom. I plan to do the nimble blade archetype for the soulknife and none of it's abilities rely on wisdom. The stats would be 10 14 14 16 10 10. I plan to be an Elan either build. I was thinking the +2 would go into dex to make it 10 16 14 16 10 10. Any input would be appreciated.

[Ualaa]

I'm going to assume pathfinder, since you said Magus.

The Soulknife gets you:
d10 HD, full BAB, good Ref & Will, 4+INT skills

A perfect Gestalt mix for you would be:
good Fort and 6/8 skills per level.

In general, with Gestalt, you want a passive side where your class abilities are always active without an action, and then an active side where you cast or do something else.
The Magus is an active side, although they're primarily a melee for their casting.

The Magus is strong Fort/Will; it doesn't improve your skills per level, but otherwise is a good gestalt match.
You end up with full BAB, d10 HD, three good saves, 4+INT skills per level.

I like going with Focused Offense (level 2 blade skill) and Focused Defense (level 4 blade skill). The former allows for WIS mod (in place of) STR for attack/damage rolls, while the latter adds WIS mod to AC (as a dodge bonus) when you either fight defensively or use Combat Expertise.
That works while wearing armor, so you can get a fairly decent armor class that route.
You'd qualify for the Combat Expertise, since the Magus uses INT for their spells.
Going WIS allows for not needing a very high Str or Dex.

Most of the damage is going to come from the Shocking Grasp, from the Magus.
That's a level one spell.
You'll want the trait, 'Magical Lineage' for a Magus build.
That allows you to treat your spell's adjust level as one lower, when you apply metamagic feats to it.
Naturally that spell is Shocking Grasp.
Shocking Grasp is 1d6/level (cap of 5d6).
The metamagic 'Intensified' increases your cap on spells by 5 levels.... so it becomes 1d6/level (max 10d6 at level 10), for the cost of +1 spell level... except that with the trait, it is at the base spell level.

So your first level spell (and you can memorize it in higher slots too), deals 1d6 per level (cap 10d6), and if you score a confirmed critical hit then that damage will be increased...

You'll want a balance between offensive, defensive and utility spells on the Magus.
But spellstrike will be the bread and butter.

You may want to consider going 'Gifted Blade' on the Soulknife.
That trades away the Psychic Strike (which is a scaling d8, bonus damage to an intelligent (not mindless) opponent, which requires expending psionic focus).
If you're going with Focused Offense and Focused Defense routes, you'll want to maintain focus all of the time.
Gifted Blade, starts to get psionic powers as the Soulknife, at class level minus three... so it starts at 4th level.
A pretty decent power is 'Force Screen', which is a 4 point shield bonus to AC, very similar to the 'Shield' spell except that it doesn't auto block magic missiles; 1 power point, will last all battle... and the Magus needs an open hand for the spell strike, so that's the missing shield AC.
The psionic progression isn't the best, but it's extra options to buff with.

If you're tempted to multiclass, I'd do it on the Soulknife side, not the Magus side.
The Magus is the caster... so caster levels are worth a lot more than non-caster levels.
The Soulknife can take the feat 'Fighter's Blade', which increases their Soulknife level by 4, for the purpose of their Mindblade enhancement bonus and allowed Blade Skills, to a maximum of their actual character level.
So you could in theory be a Soulknife 4/Something Else 4/Soulknife X || Magus 8+X, and have a fully functional Mindblade.

If you know what the common opposition will be in the campaign, then the Bladeskill 'Additional Configuration' is pretty sweet.
Make one of the properties on the mindblade 'Bane', which makes the weapon +2 (to hit and damage) better than normal, against that creature type, and it adds +2d6 damage dice.
So if you're playing in Wrath of the Righteous, make that Bane Chaotic Evil Outsiders, or if you're in Rise of the Drow then Bane Humanoids (Elves)...
Additional Configuration lets you have two configurations on the blade, one would Bane for whatever the common bad guy type is, and the other would be a generic type that is good against everything.

I like to mix an Aegis with the Soulknife...
Three levels of Aegis qualifies for it's Fighter's Blade like feat, 'Student of the Astral Suit', which can get you some decent bonuses on armor.
For a damage type the medium... chain like armor, is probably the best bet.
It comes with some damage boosters on it, and you can add +6 CON or Str/Dex boosts, but those count as Enhancement bonuses, so won't stack with the physical belts.
Still, having Evasion & Stalwart on your medium (or heavy) armor, and flight, and +6 enhancement bonus to your not dumped CON... using WIS as your attack stat, and you're in very good shape for the important Fort/Will saves, and you have some DEX and strong Reflex saves for all of your Soulknife levels, with Evasion there too.
Aegis is d10, full BAB, Fort/Will, 4+INT skills, so poor Reflex save shared by the Magus.