Gestalt party build help!

[DrizztFan24]

So we are almost ready to start our new campaign that will be run gestalt. Each of us has a decent idea of what we would like to do (party of 3). Or player that dibbed the arcanist wants to be the malconvoker with a gold dragon wyrmling familiar. The dibbed "thief" wants to be a rogue with something that has "either really high armor class or can really kick butt!"

So we have our magic and rogue covered, but none of us can think of the other half of our gestalt.
--The malconvoker is jumping all over the place with ideas, I am thinking either beguiler or bard so that he gets bluff as a class skill. They both would provide a nice benefit to his spellcasting. Oh and he wants to be a svirfneblin.
--The rogue thinks that she will go with bard, i suggested beguiler. I think she is planning on going with a gnome also.
--So far it doesnt look like we have a healer or front-liner meat shield. So I figure that I will use a druid (as previously figured, hehe Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear and then he wildshaped into a dinosaur) and then I also am not sure of what to use for the other end. I was toying with the idea of using either a scout or ranger. I do not want to become too MAD (I will anyways because of gestalt but we get 37 point buy starting at 8).

Suggestions? Builds? Races? Other halves of the builds?

[MeklorIlavator]

How is your group allotting for LA? Because if its only on one side, the svirfneblin is a bit lackluster. If its on both sides, then the svirfneblin is a very bad idea.

At 37 point buy, the treat of mad is severely reduced, so that's not much of a problem. After all, with wild shape you can dump str and dex(these get replaced by the animals scores).

What books do you have access to? That will effect our recommendations.

[dman11235]

Well, druids are just all around good. If you want to, druid 20//monk 5/Warshaper 5/Master of Many Forms 10 is a really solid gestalt build. Not that order though, you don't qualify for Warshaper at level 5, it needs +4 BAB. Just be sure to take Natural Spell, and at level 8, you're in wildshape all day.

[DrizztFan24]

Never mind, he wants to be a dragonborn elf. But we still don't know what to put on the other side. I still think beguiler would be nice to complement his spellcasting and give him bluff. Its still based on INT for spellcasting also.

Yea I realize I get a stat dump so I am not too worried. But I also don't know what to put on the other side.

We are starting at level 1 also.

EDIT:
We ahve access to Core, CompArc, SompScdrl, PHBII, SpellComp., Libris Mortis, Drow of the Underdark, Draconomicon, and a bunch of books that are PDF online, someone was kind enough to post some. One of them is CompDiv.

[Jack_Simth]

So everybody has their "active" side; all they need now is their "passive" side. Monk works very well for that, as does Paladin - both have fairly nice defensive packages.

Mind you, with nobody wanting to play a healer, I'd suggest everyone take Druid as their second class. Animal companions give you the meatshields so that you don't need to melee (Of the core selections, I would advise a Riding Dog at 1st-3rd, and an Ape after that, for raw combat ability (make sure to keep Reduce Animal prepared at all times - you don't want to leave them behind when you go into a medium-sized dungeon); there's a point of diminishing returns, though - after about 10th level, give or take, animal companions are no longer reasonable meat shields for what you'll be facing), everyone has some amount of healing available, and everyone's a Full Caster for higher levels when Full Casting is what dominates the game. Nobody plays a boring heal-bot, because everyone can heal to some degree. Plus they've got good saves for the two important ones, and Wild Shape removes the need for putting points into Strength or Dex.

[DrizztFan24]

Mind you, with nobody wanting to play a healer

I'd planned on covering that after I get SNAIV with the Unicorn trick. and the Vigor Line.

[Jack_Simth]

I'd planned on covering that after I get SNAIV with the Unicorn trick. and the Vigor Line.
Neither of which cover the occasionally needed in-battle healing. And it will go much smoother if everyone has some amount of access to healing - plus, a party of all-druids makes things easier on the DM in some regards - you've all got the same built-in plot hooks that you'll follow, it makes some amount of sense that you'd be traveling together, and so on.

[dman11235]

You realize that you should just play the character you want to play, right? Well, if there's going to be a front-liner and the character you wanted to play would front-line circles around said front-liner, then don't do it, but you should just play what you want to.

[DrizztFan24]

You realize that you should just play the character you want to play, right?

Yes, and usually I do. However, my other players (my bro and sis) are not exactly...gifted with the foresight of covering party holes. Often times we have to run a party with a big gaping hole in it; example... we ran a party without an arcane caster....it was a Drizzt clone, Rogue1/MonkX, DruidX/fighter due to accquirying lycanthropy, and a fighterish cleric. Not cool. We got our butts handed to us after about level 7. I have decided that I will not play something that REALLY interests me (artificer or batman...maybe another Drizzt clone with bloodclaw master) and take something that will none the less be fun and effective.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For a front-liner, you may wish to consider Druid/MoMF/Warshaper//Swordsage (Unarmed Variant).

Basically, you get access to all four disciplines that has unarmed as a favored weapon, which you can use to do stuff from the old kung-fu movies... as whatever you like to shift into. Imagine a Bear doing wire-fu stuff from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon... or a T-Rex

[Riffington]

You're overestimating the importance of Bluff to a Malconvoker. It sounds like he wants to be a Wizard, so he is unlikely to want a high charisma. Crossclass Bluff is just fine for him (and safer for the rest of you, since he's a gorram malconvoker...) So the other half can pick something with some AC and/or HP... warblade, monk, warblade, druid, warblade, swashbuckler, or possibly warblade. Swashbuckler is actually decent in this case, since it's got good defense, synergy with int, Bluff as a class skill, and its relatively-low-punch swordplay is just fine if you can cast spells.

The Rogue can do anything, but I'd advocate for the other half to be full-caster or full-offense... why take Bard or Beguiler when you already get 8 skill points? If you take fighter or warblade, you can kill everything you can sneak attack. If you take sorcerer, cleric, or druid, you have real casting.

As for you... just make sure there is at least one full arcane caster, at least one full divine caster, and that everyone has some defense (whether high HP, high AC, or both). You're playing gestalt; your bases are super easy to cover.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For the Rogue, I would suggest pairing with Warlock. It gives you some arcane backup, although nothing like what a Sorcerer or Wizard brings, and Eldrich Blast + Sneak Attack = Good Times. Specially with things like Walk Unseen (Invisibility at will).

For you, well, I already made my suggestion to be a meat shield.

For the Malconvoker, well, I'm not all that familiar with Malconvokers in general, but if they're an arcane casting class, you can pick up a feat from Complete Divine to be able to cast from one Domain, and he can pick up the Healing domain to be able to heal when he's not blasting things. Then he can pick up something with a high HD and BAB to pair with it.

[DrizztFan24]

Ok so i tried to bargain with the DM to let me use the whisper gnome and get the extra feat for being raised by humans; told him I would lose the +4 AC and the +1 attack and other such things....he didn't buy it....but he was perfectly willing to take my bonuses with no give back. So do I take human and lose the CON bonus or go gnome and lose the feat?

Also, I have no idea why you suggested warshaper on the druid side. It didn't advance my companion or my spellcasting. That is kind of important at levels 15-20 is it not?
I was thinking Druid5/MoMF10/*fill-in*//Monk2/SwordsageX?/Warshaper5?/*fill-in*. Any good? Sadly no Faiths of Eberron or THAT class might have sneaked its way into the build.

[Chronos]

Master of Many Forms doesn't advance spellcasting, either. If you're going to be giving up ten spellcasting levels to make yourself better at melee, you might as well give up five more, too. Alternately, you could focus on your spellcasting, and give up the MoMF levels for something that advances that. Or you could just stay pure Druid, and advance all three of your primary class features (an especially attractive option in Gestalt, since that leaves you free to take whatever PrCs you want on your other side).

[DrizztFan24]

So I can take druid PrC on my other half? I didn't know that. But it very...delicious...

[dman11235]

Right. And since monk gives you wis to AC and some other goodies, I'd suggest druid 20//monk 5/warshaper 5/MoMF 10. Like I did earlier. I'd advise against Swordsage, since only 5 levels doesn't get you much. It gives you wis to AC. Woopdy-do, monk gives you that, evasion, two bonus feats, faster speeds, and Still Mind (heh). And most importantly: FoB (or Decisive Strike, but I'd say FoB is better in this case)

[Chronos]

To be fair, Swordsage 5 would also give you a third-level stance (you won't have the actions available for most maneuvers, though), +2 to initiative, an extra 2 skill points per level (which go well with the extra 2 useful class skills you get with either), and free Weapon Focus: Claws. And the interaction between Flurry of Blows and natural attacks is peculiar, to say the least, but under the generally-accepted interpretation, you can't really get much use out of it in bear form (though YDMMV).

[dman11235]

True, but the maneuvers are a wasted class feature. And the stances, while some are nice, aren't going to get you far at high levels. As for FoB, I'd say let them flurry with USs, and then use the natural weapons afterwards. And Weapon Focus isn't all that hot. It's nice, but not worth going out of your way for.