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icefractal
2024-02-16, 04:16 PM
I was looking at PF1 stuff the other day, and noticed how much of it was available via feats, if you had enough of them. Which then brought to mind the thought - just how many power systems could I get on one single gestalt character?

Parameters:
3PP allowed obviously
20th level gestalt
100 feats


So my initial thoughts:
Spheres of Power: Available via feats at reduced power, but needs class levels for full power
Arcane Casting (Sor/Wiz list): Can be done by a SoP caster with the Spell Adept feat
Divine Casting: Needs class levels
Psychic Casting: Needs class levels. However, a lot of these are on the Sor/Wiz list.
Psionics: Needs class levels
Path of War: Available via feats at reduced power, but needs class levels for full power.
Spheres of Might: Available entirely via feats, but needs full BAB for full power
Spheres of Guile: Available entirely via feats
Akashic Veils: Available at full power via the Veilweaving sphere, I think?

So if you did something like:
SoP full-caster // full-BAB Path of War
You get Sor/Wiz spells, SoP, SoM, SoG, PoW, and Akashic (all at close to full power), but miss out on divine casting, psychic casting, and psionics.

Divine Casting // Psionics (and everything else via feats) gives you a larger amount of power systems, but more of them are at low-strength that might not be very helpful in practice.


This is more like a brainstorm than a contest, so it's not necessary to do complete builds, but any ideas are welcome.

Morphic tide
2024-02-16, 04:55 PM
With DSP, the Pathwalker archetype (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/classes/psychic-warrior/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/pathwalker-psychic-warrior-archetype/) for Psychic Warrior gives you both Path of War and Psionics on one base class. Similarly, the Polymath (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/path-of-war/classes/martial-class-templates/polymath-template/) and Warpath Follower (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/path-of-war/classes/martial-class-templates/warpath-follower-template/) class templates allow you Vancian progression alongside the PoW Maneuvers.

The trivial/joke answer here is "Aegis 20 with 100 Extra Customization points, other side does not matter", because there's a frankly disgusting amout of subsystem access in that suit.

Serafina
2024-02-16, 05:03 PM
You forgot about Path of War.


Guru with the Psychometabolist (https://metzo.miraheze.org/wiki/Guru_Philosophies#Psychometabolist) philosophy gains psionics. With Dancer of the Seven Veils (https://metzo.miraheze.org/wiki/Dancer_of_the_Seven_Veils), they get Path of War maneuvers. With Sphere Guru (https://metzo.miraheze.org/wiki/Sphere_Guru), they get Spherecasting. And obviously they get Veilbinds natively.

Dahlia's Psionic Halo (https://metzo.miraheze.org/wiki/Dahlia%27s_Psionic_Halo) is a Veil that grants Psionic Powers. It's only on the Guru-list, so it works perfectly with the above - or with the Veilweaver-sphere, because you can by default take any veil with that.


For maximum Shenanigans, you'll want to use Trinity Angel (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/trinity-angel) and Trinity Knight (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/trinity-knight). They're basically Gestalt already, especially if you use Spherecasting (where levels stack really well), throw in Aegis to get Psychic Synergy (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/aegis#toc35) for extra Caster Levels, and it works well with Path of War too.


To get Arcane/Divine/Psychic Magic, you could simply go with Rituals (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/rituals). In theory, every spell can be replicated via Ritual - assuming a permissive GM, but if a GM lets you access this much stuff, that is nearly a given. There isn't anything that I'm aware of that restricts this to arcane spells - unless you mean the casting method? But like, it just outright has e.g. Heal as an example ritual.
Use the Spell Dabbler and Spell Adept feat to cast them like actual spells, rather than as rituals.


I've actually played a character that had full Spherecaster level, full Veilweaver level, full Path of War Initiator level (non-archetype), and made use of Spell-Rituals.
They were pretty much held in check by the game being of mythic power level.

If the whim strikes me tomorrow (it's later here), I might post a build that includes Psionics based off that characters build - though with Gestalt, that'd be a simple matter of making their Gestalt-half a Psion or such, if you want it non-optimised.

CactusAir
2024-02-17, 12:40 AM
Off the top of my head, a (Unchained) Rogue can, just by archetype stacking, easily get some limited Spheres of Power access, Access to Spirit Binding (Pact Magic) per Grimorie of Lost Souls, and either Path of War or Spheres of Might. You can also access certain veils using Rogue Talents.

So without any multiclassing or gestalt, that's at least 4 power systems.

A Guru can easily trade out it's veils for SoP, get a philosophy (Psychometabolist) that grants psionic manifesting (and supplement it with the Dahlia's Psionic Halo veil, which it can pick back up from Veilweaving sphere anyway), and trade it's Chakra Disruption abilities for either SoM or PoW progression. Which is I think the most you can stack while retaining base class Psionics.