I need help with my gestalt build. Level 6 Incarnate//Crusader

[Dayaz]

Hello,

Recently, I've joined into a gestalt Evil campaign. I am playing a 'crippled' Mind Flayer who doesn't have access to his innate psionic abilities and was thus cast out. The idea is that he learned to manipulate his own soul after dedicating himself to growing strong enough to war war against his own people. However, I'm not particularly sure about either of the source books for either side of his build, and was hoping for a bit of help.

My stats are
Str 20
Dex 14
Con 20
Int 20
Wis 20
Cha 22

NE Mind Flayer Crusader//Incarnate 6

I'm trying to fulfil the role of being a battlefield healer and a tactical fighter, largely by making use of Devoted Spirit and White Raven maneuvers, as well as the Lifebond Vestments and the Therapeutic Mantle soulbinds. The only problem is I'm not super sure on how to properly attribute my feats and what all equipment to get. We have 27000 gold and no more than 12000 can be on one item. The only thing I've for sure decided to buy is a set of Mithril Mountain Plate, and a Ring of Arming, so I can don and remove my armor as a standard action. We are allowed to take 2 flaws, so if you have any ideas for which ones to take and what feats to get for them please let me know.

[weckar]

Anything else different about the race we should know about? Because even without psi it is nowhere near ECL0.

[Dayaz]

Anything else different about the race we should know about? Because even without psi it is nowhere near ECL0.

The DM is using his own rules on race. Basically I just don't get any of the hit die, or the feats/skills that would come with it.

[Fouredged Sword]

The DM is using his own rules on race. Basically I just don't get any of the hit die, or the feats/skills that would come with it.

Can you still auto-rip people's brains out by passing a sufficient number of grapple checks to connect your mount tentacles to them? There are several soulmelds that can be used to give you large grapple check bonuses, but most of them are on the totemist list. Still, they are one feat away.

Do you have mind blast? Because at will stun is massively powerful and picking up feats that augment the DC are powerful.

Otherwise the illithid part is more or less just fluff and we can ignore it.

Here is my general build thoughts
- Familiarize yourself with the various incarnate soulmends that give skill check bonuses. You are going to want to shift around your melds based on what skills you think you will need in the next day and what skills your party lacks
- Crusader is going to do most of the heavy lifting for your character in combat. I strongly recommend the Stone Dragon "ignore DR and hardness, add dice of damage" strikes. They are generally just always applicable to your situation. Remember that as a crusader you won't always be able to pick what strike you can use each round, and with incarnate filling in utility you can afford to focus more on general combat power strikes rather than feeling like you need to add in utility maneuvers you may or may not have readied when you need them.
- Your character is trying to use incarnum to replace psionics. Consider some of the soulmelds from this article
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a
Specially take a look at the Astral Vambraces. They are the single most flexible soul meld in the game. As a base they grant you 2 Dr/magic that you will really enjoy as a in their face melee character that augments with +2 Dr per essence invested. Running around ignoring the first 6 damage of any non-magic attack will make you a LOT tougher, but the real joy is the arm bind. The arm bind gives you the ability to simply select an option from the astral construct menu A and apply it to yourself. Highlights include a 20ft (average) fly speed, a 30ft swim speed, 5 extra HP, +10ft to your base move speed, any one feat of the list - Mobility, Power attack, Improved natural attack, Improved Bull Rush, Cleave, and energy resistance 5 to one of a select subset of common energies. - I like the fly speed. It lets you charge 40ft over any rough terrain and attack, makes you immune to fall damage, and generally allows you to move freely around your environment.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If you don't get illithid RHD, skills, or feats, but you do get the ability scores... that's crazy. Good for your ability scores, but crazy.

I have an incarnate/crusader build in my signature. In gestalt, it'd look a bit like this:


Crusader 6//incarnate 6
1) Combat Expertise
f) Combat Reflexes
f) Improved Trip
3) Midnight Dodge
6) Karmic Strike

Normally, you'd be an azurin with Extra Granted Maneuver or Expanded Soulmeld Capacity, but the ability score boosts granted by a no-RHD illithid are better.

If you want more combat ability, I'd recommend combining feat rogue (a.k.a. martial rogue or simple rogue) with crusader. Good skill points and some bonus feats. Throw in Spell Reflection while you're at it. Monk can help too, especially if you go Decisive Strike, but that can add some feat requirements--Pole Master is particularly good.

A version of this I've actually played looks like this:


Desert arctic azurin
fighter 1//rogue 1
mariner 1//incarnate 1
crusader 1//monk 1
1) Combat Reflexes
azurin) Karmic Strike
rogue) Weapon Focus (dwarven warpike)
f) Combat Expertise
f) Midnight Dodge
mariner) Improved Trip
3) Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
monk) Improved Unarmed Strike
monk) Pole Fighter

Exoticist fighter, feat rogue, martial decisive strike monk. Technically, you also need a houserule that lets Pole Fighter work with Decisive Strike.

You could easily advance this with more incarnate/crusader. Mind you, it's a build that has definite weaknesses* and doesn't scale too well. The original version (linked in my signature) is ECL 8, but that's honestly about as high as I'd want to play such a character. At higher levels, you can still use Martial Spirit + Therapeutic Mantle, but Astral Vambraces become obsolete, and you'll need some other defence (maybe Elusive Target + Temerad Mastery).


*When I played it, it completely dominated all melee encounters, but was stopped dead by a druid with entangle. Stupid spell. Stupid radius.

[weckar]

Desert arctic azurin What. Just... What?

[ExLibrisMortis]

What. Just... What?
Arctic is there because it's actually useful--the Constitution bonus helps you qualify for Expanded Soulmeld Capacity. However, the Arctic template has a +1 bonus on saves vs. cold, and a -1 penalty against saves vs. fire, and I hate tracking that stuff. Luckily, the Desert template has the exact opposite bonuses, so you can stack them together to get rid of the penalty (you also pick up an extra +2 Survival and create water 1/day, but that's not why I like it :smalltongue:).

If anyone asks, you're from the Gobi desert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_Desert): dry, annual mean temperature below freezing, extremes above thirty degrees Celcius and below minus thirty, occasional snow over sand dunes.

[Rebel7284]

Belt of Battle is exactly 12,000 GP and is one of the best items in the game. Not terribly familiar with incarnate to offer good build advise.