Pathfinder Gestalt Caster

[Ualaa]

Our group has been playing Spheres of Power and Path of War for the last few years. Recently, a buddy has returned to gaming and plans to run a campaign, but will not be using either system.

The rules are plain Pathfinder, with Vancian casting (which I am now a little less than familiar with) and Paizo only classes; archetypes are fine.

We played the start of this, maybe half a dozen sessions back in 4e, before he quit D&D.
What we know about the campaign...
The focus is on Dragons.
The world has not seen any in a thousand years or more, but the Chromatic ones have appeared and are organized.
A church of Takhisis has appeared, with teams of five knights (one per color) that we'll encounter periodically; these guys will improve over time if any survive an encounter.
I'll guess that Tiamat, or something similar is the big bad, along with progressively harder dragons throughout.

His campaign will be two classes, one on either side of the build, both 01 to 20 without prestige classes.
So no dipping.

One player has indicated he'll be playing a Paladin | Sorcerer.
Another player loves his big 2H weapons; he used to mix Fighter (2H archetype), Aegis, and Soulknife, but his last couple were Bloodragers (I'm not sure if Aegis/Soulknife would be allowed or not, so he's probably a Bloodrager|Fighter).
Both of these two optimize as hard as they can.

The other two, no clue really.
But one optimizes fairly well, and the other not as much so.

I want to play the ultimate caster.
To that end, I was planning Druid (Halcyon) | Summoner (Synthesist).

On the synthesist side, I want resistances and defenses mostly.
I want to be capable in melee (Halcyon gives up Wildshape), but will purposely not outshine the 2H fighter, as that is what he has chosen to shine at.
Synthesist has an arcane spell list focused around buffing/enabling.

The Druid has the Druid spell list, which has a lot of flexibility.
Halcyon will give two spells of each spell rank, from the Wizard spell list.

For race, I was thinking Samsaran with the Mystic Past Life racial.
I can either tie that to the Druid or the Synthesist, and was leaning towards the Druid.
That will add either Divine or Arcane magic, probably four or five spells not on the Druid/Synthesist list (whichever I tie it to).

I'm interested in assistance on the extra spells.
The best 2x Wizard spells of each level.
01
02 Scorching Ray
03
04
05
06
07
08
09

And the Samsaran spells...
3 or 4 divine spells (unless you feel non Wizard/Sorcerer 3-4 Arcane spells is stronger)
Either healing or buffing that a Druid/Summoner cannot cast.
01
02
03
04

I'm leaning towards focusing on Spell Perfection with Scorching Ray.
Quicken, Elemental Spell (for energy type), Heighten Spell (for using other spell level slots).

[Geddy2112]

Off the bat, druids are proficient with scythes which are fairly nasty 2 handed weapons. With a positive strength modifier from your synthesist summons, you are nothing to scoff at in melee. Combined with your buff spells you will be a threat when you need, but so long as you don't invest feats into combat you will be fine. Your feats should be focused on casting anyways. I would also consider extra evolution for your synthesist side, to add in more defenses and resistances.

Considering you have a sorcerer, I would lean towards buffing your druid side with divine casting. This way you can pull some niche cleric spells. I really like aid, silence and death ward. If you wanna buff your melee power more, divine favor and righteous might are worth looking into.

[Psyren]

This combination is MAD so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have very high stats, and probably not even then (Halcyon Druid is Wis while Synthesist Summoner is Cha.) I'd probably consider the Spiritualist instead (they are Wis-based and get a Phantom instead of an Eidolon but the overall concept is similar.)

[upho]

Note: I don't really know what sort of flavor you're looking for, or the recommended/expected power level for this game (if any), and the other likely PCs in the party seem like they could differ quite a lot in this regard. But since it's gestalt I'm just gonna assume you're mostly looking for advice from a purely mechanical optimization PoV. Just keep in mind some of this may not be suitable or applicable.


I want to play the ultimate caster.
To that end, I was planning Druid (Halcyon) | Summoner (Synthesist).The druid can certainly be a fantastic caster, but if "ultimate caster" is the goal, I think the synth is off. It's typically less of a caster than vanilla summoners and most other summoner archetypes due to its often greatly decreased action economy, and it's of course not as much of a caster as any of the, you know, full casters.


On the synthesist side, I want resistances and defenses mostly.
I want to be capable in melee (Halcyon gives up Wildshape), but will purposely not outshine the 2H fighter, as that is what he has chosen to shine at.
Synthesist has an arcane spell list focused around buffing/enabling.And here's the second potential issue with the synth; its primary strength is that it can easily make you an absolute (and literal) monster in melee, and focusing on the defensive evos is effectively the same as wasting a lot of unique offensive potential and overall power.

But actually taking advantage of that strength unfortunately means you're practically guaranteed to outshine the 2H bloodrager//fighter in many fights no later than 13th level. I mean, Gargantuan size and at least +18 Str, +8 Con and +5 NA is just... :smallsigh: The only possible exception to this I can think of would be if they're not going for max damage, but an optimized dirty trick and spell sunder control/anti-caster build (say aberrant bloodline Primalist bloodrager//Lore Warden fighter). Which seems unlikely AFAICT, but if it does happen, you can probably safely optimize your melee damage capabilities as hard as you like without there being much risk of you surpassing their melee combat effectiveness (and the same goes for surpassing their dispelling power).

And while the ability to basically dump all physical stats is arguably an equally great advantage of the synth, a full caster combo can quite easily compensate for their lower total ability scores and remain at the very least good in melee. And most importantly, this advantage doesn't help making you a caster comparable to a full caster combo using a matching casting stat.

So basically, I'd say the synth is actually a much better fit for your group's 2H melee fan than it is for you. Especially a pouncing Kali-style multi-weapon bloodrager//synth with Mad Magic (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/mad-magic-combat/) has a lot of synergy and quite insane melee potential, easily providing both more versatility and a lot more pure combat power than any combo of aegis, soulknife or other Paizo class (without PoW) I can think of.


The Druid has the Druid spell list, which has a lot of flexibility.Considering the Sorcadin and expected bloodrager//X both have incentives to invest in Cha, I'd look at a Wis or Int full casting combo granting both divine and arcane spells. So perhaps Empyreal sorcerer//cleric, druid or shaman, depending of preferences.


Halcyon will give two spells of each spell rank, from the Wizard spell list.The Halcyon's great, but decidedly less so in a gestalt with an arcane full caster. I'd especially consider any archetype which boosts your melee capacity a bit, and/or anything granting you a great combat AC to sub for you during the earliest levels and vastly improve your combat prowess potential in levels thereafter. And speaking of, the aforementioned Empyreal sorc's bloodline bonus feats include Mounted Combat and Ride-by Attack, so riding an allosaurus, roc, elasmotherium, griffon, warcat or even a devil monkey might actually be a great idea.


For race, I was thinking Samsaran with the Mystic Past Life racial.I'd suggest a race suiting with a SAD caster class combo, and preferably one without a Con penalty. For example, a garuda-blooded aasimar would be pretty perfect for the above Empyreal "sorcivine" suggestion.


I can either tie that to the Druid or the Synthesist, and was leaning towards the Druid.If you go this route, I'd definitely tie this to the druid as the party already has an arcane caster and the druid is prepared with access to their full list, including your chosen Past Life spells.


This combination is MAD so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have very high stats, and probably not even then (Halcyon Druid is Wis while Synthesist Summoner is Cha.)I second this.

(Though it may be worth noting that the synth does allow for considerably more MAD builds to work, as they can actually have crazy stat distributions like (assuming 20-point) 7, 7, 7, 12, 18, 17. But I probably wouldn't recommend that for a game starting at 1st, since you'd be darn fragile if anything catches you by surprise while you're not fused with wearing your "living extra-planar power armor"...)


I'd probably consider the Spiritualist instead (they are Wis-based and get a Phantom instead of an Eidolon but the overall concept is similar.)And this. At least if you're looking for an actual pet rather than a "living extra-planar power armor" which so far only the synth provides.

Yeah, you should listen to Psyren, he knows his stuff!