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Burley
2008-02-18, 01:10 PM
So, I'm starting a new campaign and we're tasked with 6th level gestalt characters, but, I've never done gestalt before. It's new and frightening.
So, I'm planning on a Specialized Wizard//Dragonfire Adept. I'm specializing in Transmutation, and giving up Evocation and Necromance. (Don't try to talk me out of it. I've already made the backstory.) I'm hoping to eventually PrC into Effigy Master.
Can somebody help me with this build? I don't have stats, since we rolled them at a meet-&-greet that i couldn't get to. I'm gonna need high INT, and charisma's not really that important, since I don't use invocations that require saves (usually...).
So, help me out, please?

P.S.-I beleive most books are fair game, but please put the name of the book if you use something outside of core. Thanks.

Zincorium
2008-02-18, 01:54 PM
Honestly, the main problem I can see is that you're a single-role character with pretty much no class synergy. You can't heal or buff all that well, you need to stay way out of melee combat, and your skill list is a bit lacking. You should probably look at one of those areas and develop it as a secondary focus.

You should avoid effigy master, you don't need it to make effigies and the abilities it does have aren't worth the skill cost and lost caster level.

Lastly, since you've got a breath weapon attack that's effectively limitless, look at spending your feats on the various breath-enhancements from draconomicon, I believe there are also some good ones in dragon magic itself.


A key point of gestalt which will probably get driven home at some point is that while your character has much greater flexibility, you need to capitalize on that flexibility as much as possible. Unearthed arcana recommends CRs of 2 points higher for the average encounter.

By this guide, you guys should be fighting things like 9-headed hydras as a warm up. An adult black dragon is not out of the question as a BBEG for a 4 person party of your level. Take this into consideration when building your character, seriously.

Squash Monster
2008-02-18, 01:59 PM
Specialist Transmuter dropping Evocation and Necromancy is very good. You could switch the Necromancy drop to Enchantment to make it a little better, but you chose quite well already so it's not needed. Congrats on dropping Evocation, lots of players are afraid to do it.

For your attempt to pick up Effigy Master, you'll want to have already picked up Craft Wonderous Item, since you can qualify for the prestige class at 7th level and pick it up at 8th. You can use your 5th level wizard feat for that.

Your two classes don't need any special trickery to get them working together, which makes this easier. Stat-wise, you probably want int highest, then con, then dex, then cha, then wis, then strength. Swap dex and cha if you feel like using more invocations with saving throws, but I think your Dragonfire Adept side should focus on the breath weapon. Racially, Human is probably the best, though you might want to go into Dragonborn later for the bonus to con (and the wings).

You need to look through Draconomicon, the metabreath feats are your friend. They up the power of your breath attacks at the cost of making you wait longer to use them again, but you can spend the extra time casting more spells.

Here are some metabreath feats I'd recommend:
Clinging Breath - this is fantastic. Your breath weapon sticks to people, doing damage over time (although at a weakening rate). Better yet, each round of stickyness is only one extra round of recharge time. Better still, it lets you qualify for this next one:
Lingering Breath - even better. Your breath weapon stays as a cloud wherever you put it. Combine this with pretty much any non-damage effect and you suddenly have free battlefield control
Quicken Breath - later on, you'll be suffering from an action defecit. And this fixes it.
Recover Breath - this makes some of the cheaper metabreath uses free

I'd take the first two now at least. You might also want Recover, but Quicken can definitely wait a while (and it kinda has to).

Finally, look through the Draconomicon for metabreath spells. These stack deliciously with Lingering Breath.

Burley
2008-02-18, 03:27 PM
Specialist Transmuter dropping Evocation and Necromancy is very good. You could switch the Necromancy drop to Enchantment to make it a little better, but you chose quite well already so it's not needed. Congrats on dropping Evocation, lots of players are afraid to do it.

Yeah. I figured I had a breath weapon...why do I need a weaker set of the same thing?


Your two classes don't need any special trickery to get them working together, which makes this easier. Stat-wise, you probably want int highest, then con, then dex, then cha, then wis, then strength. Swap dex and cha if you feel like using more invocations with saving throws, but I think your Dragonfire Adept side should focus on the breath weapon. Racially, Human is probably the best, though you might want to go into Dragonborn later for the bonus to con (and the wings).

That's the main reason I picked them. I'll probably end up being a human, but this Dragonborn thing: Is that the new racial stuff from Dragon Magic that I completely skipped or is it somewhere esle...that I completely skipped?


METABREATH JONT

I'll keep those in mind.

For bonus points: The character's main goal is to build an effigy of a dragon that he can get into (yes...like a mech) and use as a mount kinda thing. I'd be able to use my breath weapon and invocations through it, in the same round that it attacks and all that goodness. (Awesome, yes?) Anyways: bonus points if you can get me enough info to build a dragon effigy of Large size (one size up for a mount, right?).

Extra Bonus Points: I'm trying to make up a magic item that'll store my effigies safely and discreetly. I'm thinking an box with Shrink Item cast on it. It'd contain a space for one item shrunk down to Tiny, two for Diminutive, and three/four for Fine. It's called the Effigy Case. Can anybody help with the cost of this? The box would NOT be an extradimensional space, so, it can be stored in one. It would be a wonderous item that casts Shrink Item 6-7 times everyday, automatically. So, whatever the cost of an item with 6-7 charges of a 3rd level spell...How much gp and exp?

Keld Denar
2008-02-18, 03:48 PM
I'll 2nd the metabreath. Take a look at the Blinding Breath spell. If your foe fails the save vs your breath, they are blinded....permanantly. This is glitterdust on crack, a real reflex save or lose. Entangling Breath metabreath feat doubly screws them, since it takes them down to 1/4 movement, massive penalities to hit anything. You'll be the ultimate debuffer. Pick up some fort save and will save spells to round out your target areas, and maybe some no saves for when all that doesn't work and maybe some buffs and you'll be all set.

Squash Monster
2008-02-18, 05:26 PM
Dragonborn is an option you can find in Races of the Dragon. It's kinda odd, like a prestige-race of sorts. But it's +2 con, -2 dex, lose certain racial features, and gain your pick of three other ones.

And yes, Blinding Breath is awesome. A lingering, entangling, blinding breath weapon is a scary combination of battlefield control and save-or-die.