Quote Originally Posted by Chronos View Post
You might want to mention Midgard Dwarves (Frostburn) in your races section. On the plus side, they get a bunch of good crafting abilities. On the minus side, they have LA and a bunch of RHD. Back on the plus side again, those RHD are outsider-type, which means they're not much of a problem (though the LA still is). And on the question-mark side, it's not clear that they technically count as dwarves (though they really should).
Added. Also, looking at Frostburn, they have the Dwarven Blood feature, qualifying them as Dwarves.

And I don't see a section on good soulmelds to shape. One that deserves mention is Vitality Belt: It's pretty useless if you're just dipping an incarnum class or taking the Shape Soulmeld feat, since it scales with meldshaper level... But in a build that actually does advance meldshaper level, you can get an insane amount of HP from it.
Yeah, I haven't gotten around to it, yet. But I added a preliminary note. Thanks!

Also, in your section on prestige classes, you downrank some for having high-level requirements, but there's no reason you can't just take those classes after you're done with forgemaster, not before.
I don't just downgrade them because of requirements, although that's part of it. I downgrade them based on what you can get. For example, Runescarred Berserker. Even assuming you take it after Ironsoul Forgemaster - which means you have to wait before having spells you can work into your items - your levels are limited. Let's assume the minimum. You need 8 Craft ranks and 2 Knowledge ranks to get into Ironsoul. The good news is that both are class skills for Incarnate. The bad news is the level delay. Your maximum rank in a class skill is your character level +3, meaning that, to get Craft 8, you need 5 character levels, a mix of Barbarian and Incarnate. Assuming you go straight into Ironsoul Forgemaster, that means you're level 15 before you can take Runescarred Berserker. You get a maximum of 5 levels of that class, granting you two extra rages, +1 natural AC, DR 1/--, cold resist 5, and a total of six spells known, up to 3rd level. Further, you miss out on two Scribe Runescar slots, because you're likely going to cover your chest with armor, and you have to touch the scars to trigger them. Yes, you're getting full BAB and solid Fort save, but honestly, for those five levels, you're kind of missing out. If your goal is gishing or gaining spell access, there are better classes; if your goal is to be melee-heavy, there are better classes. It simply doesn't seem to be a solid choice for what you're getting.

As an aside, my class recommendations are based upon the assumption that the player is taking all 10 levels of Forgemaster. That's because crafting is such an integral part of the class, and 10 levels gets you 30 CL for crafting purposes, which is major. If a player took fewer levels of Forgemaster, obviously, the recommendations would change.