GESTALT Artificer in story based game:

[madangrypally]

I am in a D&D group that meets once a month and it is more about learning to write than D&D but it is being used as its basis. This means RAI is more important as RAW and cheesing things does not fly as much. This changes some elements as backstory and character build has to make actual sense and no jumping classes willy nilly without story reason.

Destroying Magic items of certain nature will be a big part of my story. Hence the Retain option will be a major feature.

A few things to note for crafting that is not RAW:
1: Charges on items can be recharged but it cost XP and spells. IE: A normal 4500 gold wand cost 180XP to craft (2nd spell level and 3rd CL). For 1 charge it would cost 4XP to recharge 1 charge (always round up). The spell must also be known that is being recharged and 5 x SL of (10 spell levels in this case) must be spent to recharge it, or an Artificer can roll the DC check but the XP is lost if it fails).
2: Crafting can never be cheaper than half the normal crafting cost. IE: 4500 gold wand normally cost 2750 gold to craft and 180 XP. Even stacking feats and other abilities it is impossible to get lower than 1,375 gold and 90 XP.
3: Craft Contingency has a limit of 1 at a time.

As an Artificer I was thinking of slowly making magic items to build my survivability and being able to handle many different types of situations. Scrolls, Potions, Wands, a Staff, and all the other good things. Being able to cast a lot of higher level spells in a day can come in very handy and unless I am missing some rules I do not see a restriction disallowing it. It will just have a high cost and generally I will try not to use the consumables but they will be a nice backup. With the amount of downtime the biggest hurdle will be XP and I hope the Retain feature will help offset it.

My main issue now is what to make the second side of the Gestalt character. I am also struggling on Race. Looking for Ideas.

One thing I was thinking of is the Chameleon Prestige class. The 2nd level floating feat is very nice. This means I can use Magical Artisan
for whatever I am creating and switch it out for another type later when crafting something else. I could also switch it out to combat related feats or one of many other types when the situation warrants. I just wish there was more sources for floating feats. I was thinking of taking 10 levels in the class as the rest of the class is also great.

This leaves what to do with the other levels.

Ways to make my magic items better.
Social Interactions.
Survivability (Will saves will be important) and so will AC/HPs.
Gathering information (Love the tibit cat form and with Human Heritage I should be able to still qualify for Chameleon but correct me if I am wrong and there may be other better ways to get a tiny animal form to sneak around gathering intel).
Ways to find magic items easier (sniff them out).


I am thinking keeping it simple and going 10 Changeling Rogue (will have to give up my Tibit but I may be able to craft a magic item to turn me into a cat). I will get 10 + Int skill points and if I can make Int my main focus and if I use Medium Armor and Shield I wont need high Dex and Dex enhancements can meet what will be needed when I get better armor that allows more dex. If I go Adventure Rogue I can get feats that will help though I wish they was not only from the fighter list. Edited: I think I misread how Substitution levels work and it will only be 8 + Int normally for the rogue and 10 + int only when taking the substitution levels. Not sure if I will other than 1st level as other ACF are better for the other levels.

Another option I was looking at is the Warlock for the invocations and not so much for the Eldritch Blast. There are some very nice invocations that are tempting.

I wanted to avoid multiclass as much as possible and decided each side of the Gestalt will have at most 2 classes (3 if a Prestige class is taken to the end).

Anything I may be missing or advice on build?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

On the theme of floating features, either Incarnate or Binder prior to Chameleon wouldn't be a bad choice. Neither requires any feat investment, and you can use your Chameleon floating feat for Improved Binding on the days you want to use a 4th level vestige.

[sreservoir]

As a "passive" side of a gestalt, the biggest thing artificer offers other than crafting is some of the best persistomancy available:


If you can afford wand/staff/scepter charges, metamagic item (or metamagic spell trigger!) and go
If you can afford small amounts of XP, power surge (+ the up-front cost of wand/staff/scepter)
If you can afford small amounts of XP and want to use your own caster level for a low-level spell, spell storing item
From 11th and up, you can afford the up-front cost of a minor schema, metamagic spell completion


The class itself doesn't, however, give you a whole lot of actions to take on the scale of less than a few minutes. Now, a few minutes and a few castings of spell storing item to pull out some low-level spells off any list on the fly and you can work some minor miracles, but it's all about the prep, both in- and out-of-universe. So you'll probably want the other side of your gestalt to cover that.

If you do want to lean on the artificer-ness or the floating features, though, you'll probably appreciate five levels of binder and Improved Binding, because EBL 7 gives access to 4th-level vestiges, including Astaroth, Unjustly Fallen (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a)'s floating item creation feat.

[Troacctid]

Obviously I'm biased since I'm the local warlock expert, but I think warlock would be a good choice.

Good flavor match, since you can have your invocations be integrated gadgets.
It gives you some really strong, simple powers that you can be very good at and use regularly, which means you don't have to constantly lean on the brain-melting infinite possibilities of artificery.
Take 10 on UMD!
If you go into hellfire warlock, you can really soup up your magic items.
Detect magic at will to sniff out magic items.
Strong social abilities.

Incarnate could also work well, since it hits a lot of the same beats.

[madangrypally]

Thanks for the response. I looked at the Binder class as I see it recommended in a lot of builds but the flavor and story implications for the type of character I plan to build makes me wary of it.


I am able to use the SRD site and for the most part use whatever is on there. I found an interesting thing (up all night) in the Clerics ACFs about Improved Domains Powers and the Magic Domain feature. This allows me to use something like a Wand/Staff without expending a charge but is limited to 1 per 2 cleric levels. If I decided to go straight Cleric to 18 that would give me 9 charges per day for free plus 9th level cleric spells. The main issue is I would be feat starved but the free charges would save me a ton of gold/XP in the long run.

Will have to change race to Human for the extra feat and more skills but a cleric has more versatility. I could also just drop the Chameleon idea which will mean I do not need Able Learner which will free up a feat. I could also begin looking at other races.

[Maat Mons]

Personally, I'd go Elan Psion / Crystal Master // Psionic Artificer.

[Rebel7284]

Some thoughts:
- Truenamer 11 can pick up Rebuild Item. Combined with certain things like Skull Talismans, this can give you infinite use of spell effects. Also, since Truenamer is typically considered a hilariously bad class, using it effectively is, as they say, mad flex.
- Factotum 8 gives you extra standard actions, a better reflex save, and Int to everything. In addition, some minor spellcasting and adding your Factotum level to a skill 1/day/skill is nifty.
- Chameleon is indeed good. Whether you're taking it to level 2 for the feat or to level 10 for the stat boosts and minor spellcasting, it's a solid class.
- Warblade is a fun class you could take mostly for the chasis, but also the save replacing maneuvers and White Raven Tactics/Iron Heart Surge/Sudden Leap are good for anyone.
- There have been whole handbooks written on dipping 1 level of cleric. It's so good and flexible.
- Any full caster or full manifester is going to be good based on just the raw power of having a daily allotment of level-appropriate spells.
- Cannith Wand Adept is always a fun class for dual wand use.
- Heartfire Fanner allows you to give feats that you have OR fighter feats to party members by using bardic music. Combine with the floating feat feature and your party will be so much more prepared for any encounters at hand!