[3.5] Gestalt Bard//Rogue

[ghost_warlock]

In an upcoming evil campaign a buddy of mine is thinking about playing an incubus-type character. Although we think we've got a good idea about what to do for the build, we're stumped when it comes to race and the majority of his feats.

What we've got so far:
{table=head]Level|Classes|BAB|

Feat

|

Sneak Attack

1st|Bard 1//Rogue 1|

+0

|Captivating Melody, Darkstalker, Melodic Casting|

1d6

2nd|Bard 2//Swashbuckler 1|

+1

|Weapon Finesse|

1d6

3rd|Bard 3//Brigand 1|

+2

|Extra Music|

2d6

4th|Bard 4//Rogue 2|

+3

|

-

|

2d6

5th|Bard 5//Rogue 3|

+4

|

-

|

3d6

6th|Mindbender 1//Swashbuckler 2|

+5

|Daring Outlaw|

4d6

7th|Bard 6//Assassin 1|

+5

|

-

|

5d6

8th|Bard 7//Swordsage 1|

+5

|

-

|

5d6

9th|Virtuoso 1//Swordsage 2|

+6

|Shadow Blade|

7d6

10th|Virtuoso 2//Brigand 2|

+7

|

-

|

7d6

11th|Sublime Chord 1//Swashbuckler 3|

+8

|

-

|

7d6

12th|Sublime Chord 2//Rogue 4|

+9

|Gloom Razor|

8d6

13th|Virtuoso 3//Rogue 5|

+9

|

-

|

8d6

14th|Virtuoso 4//Rogue 6|

+10

|

-

|

9d6

15th|Virtuoso 5//Rogue 7|

+11

|Lyric Spell|

9d6

16th|Virtuoso 6//Rogue 8|

+12

|

-

|

10d6

17th|Virtuoso 7//Rogue 9|

+12

|

-

|

10d6

18th|Virtuoso 8//Rogue 10|

+13

|Extra Music|

11d6

19th|Virtuoso 9//Rogue 11|

+14

|

-

|

11d6

20th|Virtuoso 10//Rogue 12|

+15

|

-

|

12d6

[/table]

Ability scores will be generated using the 32-point buy method. We'll begin play at 6th level.

We'll probably be using Traits & Flaws so he'll have 2 bonus feats at 1st-level (included above).

Brigand is in my sig. The second level of it is taken to avoid annoying multiclass XP penalties.

[Draz74]

Any build with Swordsage levels and Shadow Blade probably wants Gloom Razor.

Bards who want to focus on their casting are always feat-starved. Captivating Melody is great. Metamagic Song is fantastic, if you can still afford to take it after taking Quicken Spell, Rapid Metamagic, and any other decent Metamagic feat. And once you have Metamagic Song you naturally want Extra Music too. Unfortunately taking these feats is largely an all-or-nothing deal, as they don't work very well separately (for example, Quicken is useless to a Bard without Rapid MM).

... Bards want Extra Music anyway, especially if they're planning to PrC. Versatile Performer never hurts either.

Any stealthy build should take Darkstalker from Lords of Madness.

Two-Weapon Fighting (and related feats) is always tempting on a Swordsage build.

Savvy Rogue is a great feat, but this build may not be focused enough on its Rogue side. It would be a lot more appealing if the build made it to Rogue 13 instead of 12. This might be a reason to drop your Assassin level or both your Brigand levels.

EDIT: It's kind of standard to use Fractional Save/BAB rules for Gestalt characters. This will hurt your saves, but it will make your BAB +17 in the end.

[ghost_warlock]

The Quicken Spell route seems a bit too feat-intensive, but Darkstalker & Captivating Melody sound like strong choices; thanks for the suggestions! Build editted.

We've talked with the DM about fractional BAB & saves but it looks like we're probably going to use the standard system.

As for the assassin and brigand levels, they're primarily in there to boost the Sneak Attack progression. We may be able to swap out the second brigand level for a rogue level if the DM decides not to worry about multiclass XP penalties, but he wouldn't get to rogue 13 until nearly epic level anyway. As it stands, he'd be getting his 21st level feat at the same level as rogue 13.

Any suggestions for what race the character should be? Changeling? Something else?