Would this gestalt combination be terrible?

[Kris Strife]

I'm wondering what people here would think of a Dragon Flame Adept//Paladin gestalt? Any glaring weaknesses other than the MADness of that paladins have anyways?

Probably be a humanoid paladin of Bahamut or other draconic deity.

[Gnaeus]

It isn't terrible.

It isn't awesome. Not equal to a gestalt that gets full casting or initator levels, like paladin/sorcerer or wizard warblade. I see no real way for it to break the action economy, although battle blessing will help it.

On the other hand, it gets good hp, bab, fort and will saves. Charisma synergy. 4 skill points per level. Invocations give it some out of combat utility. I have seen much worse.

[sonofzeal]

No real synergy, besides roughly similar stat spreads. Paladins are mostly about hitting people in the face, and DFA invocations/breaths don't really help with that; DFAs are mostly about roasting people with breaths and trapping them via Entangling Exhalation, and Paladin spells/smites don't really help with that. In essence, you get two unrelated ways to fight.

On the other hand, having two unrelated ways to fight means you can switch back and forth as needed, and can be at least somewhat useful most of the time.

DFA//Crusader might get what you're going for, and be a little stronger. Good choice of stances especially can help you a lot.

[Eldariel]

I second DFA//Crusader; Crusader is very good with AoOs and reach weapons so you can in effect be breathing people into oblivion while AoOing; AoOs are a great way to cheat the action economy, and Entangling Breath + Combat Reflexes/Stand Still means you're a great field controller, being able to make very strict limitations on where your opponents can move and how they can act. That's a great way to dismantle an opposing force.

[Gnaeus]

No real synergy, besides roughly similar stat spreads. Paladins are mostly about hitting people in the face, and DFA invocations/breaths don't really help with that; DFAs are mostly about roasting people with breaths and trapping them via Entangling Exhalation, and Paladin spells/smites don't really help with that. In essence, you get two unrelated ways to fight.

On the other hand, having two unrelated ways to fight means you can switch back and forth as needed, and can be at least somewhat useful most of the time.

DFA//Crusader might get what you're going for, and be a little stronger. Good choice of stances especially can help you a lot.

There is some synergy. DFA gives natural armor bonuses and (weak) DR, both of which will help the paladin. Also the invocations (like flight and blindsense) would be nice for allowing him to be useful in fights that normally shut down paladins.

Can't argue with DFA//Crusader.

[Tshern]

I second DFA//Crusader; Crusader is very good with AoOs and reach weapons so you can in effect be breathing people into oblivion while AoOing; AoOs are a great way to cheat the action economy, and Entangling Breath + Combat Reflexes/Stand Still means you're a great field controller, being able to make very strict limitations on where your opponents can move and how they can act. That's a great way to dismantle an opposing force.

Dude, when you unleash your breath weapon they already should be unable to move. I really don't think the synergy is all that great, since the AoO Crusader and DFA combination goes against all common sense. Both are designed to stop the enemies and deal damage. In gestalt I would aim for a lot greater diversity.

[Eldariel]

Dude, when you unleash your breath weapon they already should be unable to move. I really don't think the synergy is all that great, since the AoO Crusader and DFA combination goes against all common sense. Both are designed to stop the enemies and deal damage. In gestalt I would aim for a lot greater diversity.

Meh, I suppose. At least you can easily cover a lot of ground when there's a lot of folks to deal with, and can deliver more Mage Slayer AoOs on the casters that managed to fail avoiding getting entangled and eventually Defensive Sweep every damn time and so on. Meh, not amazing, but at least some use of the melee weapon too.

[Tshern]

Meh, I suppose. At least you can easily cover a lot of ground when there's a lot of folks to deal with, and can deliver more Mage Slayer AoOs on the casters that managed to fail avoiding getting entangled and eventually Defensive Sweep every damn time and so on. Meh, not amazing, but at least some use of the melee weapon too.

I suppose so. Just that I find having two sides of a gestalt build focusing on attack of opportunities to be redundant. Really redundant. Even a normal Crusader 20 or so can do that with decent effectiveness.

[Eldariel]

I suppose so. Just that I find having two sides of a gestalt build focusing on attack of opportunities to be redundant. Really redundant. Even a normal Crusader 20 or so can do that with decent effectiveness.

True, true. At least DFA makes active use of your actions to screw people over while Crusader uses non-actions to keep screwing them over. It's really quite the screwfest where you screw everyone over...at least until they whip out the big guns.

But yeah, it's got nothing on an actual Passive/Active Gestalt. There's only so much Crusader gets that's passive, though I suppose you could focus on counters and White Raven while using your Breath Weapon as your primary active element along with utility Invocations to get at least something out of the whole mess.