[3.5] SAD Party of DOOM!

[strider24seven]

So, after a TPK, the group DM offered us a deal: a new game with a very specific party. Since there were six of us, each player was assigned an ability (STR, DEX, etc.) and had to build a character around that ability. I was lucky and got Intelligence.

Some of the characters are new to DnD, and I'd like to offer them some constructive advice. I thought I'd throw this one to the Playgrounders and let them have fun with it.

Here's some important info:
-Gestalt from UA, starting at level 10, ending at TPK or boredom.
-Stats: 4 6 6 8 8 20 distributed how we please.
-Ability boosting items are disallowed. Ability boosting spells, e.g. Bull's Strength, are discouraged but still allowed for difficult fights. Class abilities like Rage are fine.
-None of the players can have the same "main" class or theme. Dips are fine, i.e. the STR and CON players can both dip 2 levels in Fighter, but both cannot be Fighter 10.
-All books except 3.0 and Dragon Magazine are fine. 3.0 and DM are case-by-case. Oriental Adventures is disallowed.
-DMM is strongly discouraged, but is fine if it is not abused.
-Races/Templates with LA/HD are allowed but fluff is usually needed. +1 LA is free, e.g. a Goliath has no LA. LA buyoff from level-ups in-game are allowed (i.e. you can't buyoff right away, but you can at the next available opportunity).

Here is what I've come up with so far (and yes, I have seen the X Stat to Y page):

Strength- The BA. Definately at least a dip in Barbarian. Probably going to be a charger/dragoon type of character. Or a grappler. Or a charging grappler. The player (a n00b) has expressed interest in the Black Blood Cultist with Improved Grab from something.

Dexterity- Obviously a mobility character. Definately an Elf for Champion of Corellon. The character is going to end up a shadowpouncing monstrosity of some sorts, as the player loves Telflammar Shadowlords and has expressed interest in Battle Jump.

Constitution- The tank. Definately a Dwarf for Deepwarden & Fist of the Forest. Probably going to be a Bear Warrior for stupid high CON.

Intelligence- That's me! The Mastermind. Definately a Factotum on one side, with Faerie Mysteries Initiate and Keen Intellect. Probably a Psion on the other side for Control Body shenanigans. Possibly a Swashbuckler/Illithid Slayer for good measure.

Wisdom- The voice of reason, another newbie, probably going to end up a Tashalatora build of some kind. Definately at least a Swordsage dip. Possibly CoDzilla.

Charisma- Thankfully the face is a veteran player who wants to go Wilder//Diphappy. Not going to be a ghost, so he's not going to totally
outshine the rest of us.

Ideas for all six are very welcome and will be appreciated. Shenanigans and Tomfoolery are allowed, but the idea is not to have one character completely outshine the others or suck completely. Builds through level 20 are extremely welcome. Tactics are even better. And yes, the other five players are all going to be roleplaying characters with less than 8 Intelligence...

[Evil laughter ensues]


P.S. A cookie and half an internet to anyone who gets the A team references. An extra cookie if you find all three.

[Draz74]

Hmmm. If I were making a party with these rules ...

STR: Tough one. Maybe a Warblade//dip-happy grappler?

DEX: Definitely some Swordsage. Actually the shadowpouncing Champion of Corellon sounds like a pretty sweet combo.

CON: Dragonfire Adept//Totemist!

INT: Yeah, Factotum//Psion with FMI, like you're planning. I personally wouldn't bother trying to be good at melee, but if you're wanting to, I'd actually dip Warblade rather than Swashbuckler.

WIS: Psychic Warrior//Swordsage with Intuitive Attack. Or maybe Ardent/Fighter//Swordsage.

CHA: Wilder//dip-happy sounds good.

[strider24seven]

DEX: Definitely some Swordsage. Actually the shadowpouncing Champion of Corellon sounds like a pretty sweet combo.

Yeah, he got the idea at the BG fora. With Battle Jump, it is godly. Can you say >6 full attacks every other round? He wanted to take Wizard with Abrupt Jaunt, but he could only do it 1/day, with the stupidity and all.

And I totally forgot about DA for the CON guy. And intuitive attack for WIS.

Response appreciated.

[absolmorph]

Cleric, druid and Psychic Warrior all work well for Wisdom.

Hulking Hurler for Strength. DO IT. You know you want to. If he has any disagreements, tell him that he'll be able to throw enemies into each other, hitting their weak points for MASSIVE DAMAGE!
Basically, get Fighter 6 (Dungeoncrasher variant), Hulking Hurler, Bloodstorm Blade's Thunderous Throw (your ranged attacks are treated as melee attacks), War Hulk (MORE STRENGTH), and take Power Attack, Knockback and Shock Trooper. Oh, and Brutal Throw and Master Thrower, for more throwing-goodness.

Ranger 3/Monk 2/Fist of the Forest 1/Deepwarden 2 will get you Con to AC. Twice. Steadfast Determination (PHBII) allows you to get Con to Will saves (instead of Wis) and Kensai 5 lets you make Concentration checks for Reflex saves.

Use X to Y bonus for more ideas.

[the_archduke]

A one level dip into monk + kung fu genius gives you into to AC.
Normally that would hurt your manifesting too much, but in gestalt it rocks

edit: And obviously the dip works great for the Wis character, and the Cha character can get it too with a Monk dip + Ascetic Mage Feat

[The Dark Fiddler]

Druid would be very good for the Wisdom player, so you can just Wildshape away the weaksauce physicals.

[Eldariel]

The issue with all but Dragonfire Adept (err, the Con-one) is gonna be the whole "you don't have HP"-part. Int can get by with Faerie Mysteries Initiate, but the rest pretty much have to go undead to have any HP at all (though then, with the crafting stuff, they can have some very nice HP).


Either way, I think there's a bunch of really clear ones:
- Str: Crusader, Barbarian or Warblade. Str SAD Crusader can fare just fine between self-healing, Delayed Damage Pool, Stone Power & D10 HD, while Barbarian helps the Con out a bit and Warblade...well, Warblade is still D12. I'd probably go Crusader here; seems least gimped (though they're all pretty bad; I'd probably just dip 2 levels of Barbarian for Improved Trip, Rage (NOT Whirling Frenzy) and Pounce or something). Should prolly be Feral.

- Dex: Ok, this guy needs to not-be-detected. Otherwise he's dead as ever. All classes with solid Dex synergy tend to be low HP so gestalting with a d12 HD could be useful, but the emphasis needs to be on Darkstalker+obscene Hide. Dark-template.

- Con: Yeah, this one is way too obvious. Mite even want Mineral Warrior. Next.

- Int: Infinite options with FMI; Wizard/Psion/Artificer/Archivist all work perfectly well here with Factotum on the other side as a default. These can even work without FMI with some levels as their defensive powers are such that they can just avoid hits entirely, and Psion could just Vigor/Share Pain infi HP too. Phrenic template seems about right.

- Wis: Cleric, Druid or Ardent. Other side, suit to taste. If SS is already taken, Monk is somewhat alright as a substitute. I wouldn't bother with Psy War/Swordsage as there's an awful lot of redundancy there. If interested in frontlining (such as usual with Druid or Cleric), Corpsecrafted/etc. Necropolitan is a solid alternative.

- Cha: Yeah. Well, Ghost would of course be better as would anything with Unholy Toughness, but yeah. Multilevelstack on the other side (Pally/Arcane Duelist/Hexblade/whatever) with Cha-caster on the other is obvious (Sorc/Wilder/Warmage+Rainbow Rainbow Servant/Bard/whatever).

[strider24seven]

Good call on Crusader. That's definately the Strength player's class now. He's pretty much married to the Black Blood Cultist grappler idea though. Can he have it both ways? Can you use a maneuver in a grapple (I'm AFB right now)?

DEX character is considering a Jaunter/Telflammar Shadowlord build (I LOVE those) with Champion of Corellon in. Darkstalker+Dark Template (courtesy of Eldariel)+Craven. Sneak Attack is from Swordsage's Assassin Stance. With an absurd 6 Full attacks +6 extra attacks from Shadowpounce+Battle Jump+Sun School+Snap Kick. If only he could throw on Power Attack+Shocktrooper....

I totally forgot about Steadfast Determination. Every time I see that feat, though, I want to build a Frenzied Berzerker/Bear Warrior. A frenzied BEARzerker, you might say. But I could bearly bear that bulid. Just thought that bears mentioning...

The WIS character is shying away from CoDzilla at the moment, in favor of a Tashalatora War Mind/Monk. I'm trying to convince him of at least a Wildshape Ranger. Master of Many Forms maybe?

A dip in monk+carmendine monk is good for me. Maybe on the Factotum side so it doesn't screw my ML? A preliminary build:

Factotum 1-8/Monk 1/Factotum 9-19//Psion 1-5/Slayer 1-2/Anarchic Initiate 1-4/Slayer 3-10/Psion 6

Decent BAB, HD, and Saves. Versatility out the wazoo. Perhaps fewer levels in Slayer and a 2 level dip in Chameleon for a floating feat? I just wish I could fit in Warblade and "Carmendine" Swordsage.

Much appreciated everyone. This is looking to be a wicked game so far.

[shadow_archmagi]

Oh god.

So, one of you has high INT, one of you was high WIS, one of you has high CHA, but otherwise you all have abysmal mental scores?

That sounds HILARIOUS to watch.

[Eldariel]

Good call on Crusader. That's definately the Strength player's class now. He's pretty much married to the Black Blood Cultist grappler idea though. Can he have it both ways? Can you use a maneuver in a grapple (I'm AFB right now)?

Well, yes and no. The book doesn't really spell it out except that "some maneuvers are useless in grapple" so it should be a fair game. Worth noting that Crushing Weight of the Mountain is a v. good stance for Grappling, and Pouncing Charge makes for much more effective turn 1s of Grappling.

DEX character is considering a Jaunter/Teflammar Shadowlord build (I LOVE those) with Champion of Corellon in. Darkstalker+Dark Template (courtesy of Eldariel)+Craven. Sneak Attack is from Swordsage's Assassin Stance. With an absurd 6 Full attacks +6 extra attacks from Shadowpounce+Battle Jump+Sun School+Snap Kick. If only he could throw on Power Attack+Shocktrooper....

Monk could get him Power Attack & Improved Bull Rush. Shock Trooper doesn't have Str-prerequisites and neither does Leap Attack. So he's good with a 2-level Monk-dip using Overwhelming Attack Monk. Also, Swordsage gets Shadow Blink + Shadow Stride + Shadow Jaunt for 3xDD per turn. Have fun with Telflammar Shadowlord.

The WIS character is shying away from CoDzilla at the moment, in favor of a Tashalatora War Mind/Monk. I'm trying to convince him of at least a Wildshape Ranger. Master of Many Forms maybe?

Cute. Did someone tell him his Wisdom is totally useless to him this way? Even Moon-Warded Ranger (it's from Dragon Magazine; you can find it in Crystalkeep Index) MoMF with Monk-dip would be pretty weak though he'd at least have AC. Find a way to get him some damn HP. Well, Tashalatora isn't bad; get him to Tashalatora with Ardent or Psychic Warrior and we're talking. Psionics can get him out of his HP jam. Hell, the other side could be wildshaping; who's to say Psy War/Monk//Ranger/MoMF isn't awesome?

A dip in monk+carmendine monk is good for me. Maybe on the Factotum side so it doesn't screw my ML? A preliminary build:

Factotum 1-8/Monk 1/Factotum 9-19//Psion 1-5/Slayer 1-2/Anarchic Initiate 1-4/Slayer 3-10/Psion 6

Decent BAB, HD, and Saves. Versatility out the wazoo. Perhaps fewer levels in Slayer and a 2 level dip in Chameleon for a floating feat? I just wish I could fit in Warblade and "Carmendine" Swordsage.

Much appreciated everyone. This is looking to be a wicked game so far.

Seems fine.

[strider24seven]

Well, yes and no. The book doesn't really spell it out except that "some maneuvers are useless in grapple" so it should be a fair game. Worth noting that Crushing Weight of the Mountain is a v. good stance for Grappling, and Pouncing Charge makes for much more effective turn 1s of Grappling.

Nice. Pouncing charge hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm more of a Shadow Hand and Diamond Mind person, myself.

Monk could get him Power Attack & Improved Bull Rush. Shock Trooper doesn't have Str-prerequisites and neither does Leap Attack. So he's good with a 2-level Monk-dip using Overwhelming Attack Monk. Also, Swordsage gets Shadow Blink + Shadow Stride + Shadow Jaunt for 3xDD per turn. Have fun with Telflammar Shadowlord.

Extra niceness. Maybe he can wield a spiked chain, since its finessable, is a shadow hand weapon, and has reach, and can trip. Too bad it's not a Champion of Corellon weapon too. Is there a way to modify it to act like an elven greatblade (the one that's finessable but has full PA damage)?

Cute. Did someone tell him his Wisdom is totally useless to him this way? Even Moon-Warded Ranger (it's from Dragon Magazine; you can find it in Crystalkeep Index) MoMF with Monk-dip would be pretty weak though he'd at least have AC. Find a way to get him some damn HP. Well, Tashalatora isn't bad; get him to Tashalatora with Ardent or Psychic Warrior and we're talking. Psionics can get him out of his HP jam. Hell, the other side could be wildshaping; who's to say Psy War/Monk//Ranger/MoMF isn't awesome?

If he goes Tashalatora, Psionic Body could nab him some extra HP's. Now that I think about it, if I go Factotum/Psion, it could grab me some extra HP's too...

[Amphetryon]

STR-monkey should strongly consider using Mongrelfolk as the race, just so he has some HP from the get-go. It means he forgoes battle control in favor of charge-o-rama, but that's inevitable with those stats anyway.

I like Dwarf for the DEXophile for similar reasons.

[Volkov]

So, after a TPK, the group DM offered us a deal: a new game with a very specific party. Since there were six of us, each player was assigned an ability (STR, DEX, etc.) and had to build a character around that ability. I was lucky and got Intelligence.

Some of the characters are new to DnD, and I'd like to offer them some constructive advice. I thought I'd throw this one to the Playgrounders and let them have fun with it.

Here's some important info:
-Gestalt from UA, starting at level 10, ending at TPK or boredom.
-Stats: 4 6 6 8 8 20 distributed how we please.
-Ability boosting items are disallowed. Ability boosting spells, e.g. Bull's Strength, are discouraged but still allowed for difficult fights. Class abilities like Rage are fine.
-None of the players can have the same "main" class or theme. Dips are fine, i.e. the STR and CON players can both dip 2 levels in Fighter, but both cannot be Fighter 10.
-All books except 3.0 and Dragon Magazine are fine. 3.0 and DM are case-by-case. Oriental Adventures is disallowed.
-DMM is strongly discouraged, but is fine if it is not abused.
-Races/Templates with LA/HD are allowed but fluff is usually needed. +1 LA is free, e.g. a Goliath has no LA. LA buyoff from level-ups in-game are allowed (i.e. you can't buyoff right away, but you can at the next available opportunity).

Here is what I've come up with so far (and yes, I have seen the X Stat to Y page):

Strength- The BA. Definately at least a dip in Barbarian. Probably going to be a charger/dragoon type of character. Or a grappler. Or a charging grappler. The player (a n00b) has expressed interest in the Black Blood Cultist with Improved Grab from something.

Dexterity- Obviously a mobility character. Definately an Elf for Champion of Corellon. The character is going to end up a shadowpouncing monstrosity of some sorts, as the player loves Teflammar Shadowlords and has expressed interest in Battle Jump.

Constitution- The tank. Definately a Dwarf for Deepwarden & Fist of the Forest. Probably going to be a Bear Warrior for stupid high CON.

Intelligence- That's me! The Mastermind. Definately a Factotum on one side, with Faerie Mysteries Initiate and Keen Intellect. Probably a Psion on the other side for Control Body shenanigans. Possibly a Swashbuckler/Illithid Slayer for good measure.

Wisdom- The voice of reason, another newbie, probably going to end up a Tashalatora build of some kind. Definately at least a Swordsage dip. Possibly CoDzilla.

Charisma- Thankfully the face is a veteran player who wants to go Wilder//Diphappy. Not going to be a ghost, so he's not going to totally
outshine the rest of us.

Ideas for all six are very welcome and will be appreciated. Shenanigans and Tomfoolery are allowed, but the idea is not to have one character completely outshine the others or suck completely. Builds through level 20 are extremely welcome. Tactics are even better. And yes, the other five players are all going to be roleplaying characters with less than 8 Intelligence...

[Evil laughter ensues]


P.S. A cookie and half an internet to anyone who gets the A team references. An extra cookie if you find all three.

My god.....NUKE IT FROM ORBIT!!!! It's the only way to be sure!

[alisbin]

not much to add, but the con player might seriously consider taking the spellfire wielder feat and a dip into the PrC. gives him/her some ranged damage, minor healing (at least enough to stabilize someone if neccesary) AND the ability to tank against some spells which isn't bad for 1 feat and a few levels (especially with gestalt).

[Eldariel]

STR-monkey should strongly consider using Mongrelfolk as the race, just so he has some HP from the get-go. It means he forgoes battle control in favor of charge-o-rama, but that's inevitable with those stats anyway.

I probably prefer Warforged just for the bucketload of immunities it brings along. However, failing that, small Warblade-dip on the other side for Diamond Mind saves is a no-brainer. Sure, your Concentration isn't what it could be, but it's still better than what you'd work with otherwise. Now that I think about it, Mineral Warrior would be nice there too. DR 8/Adamantine goes great with Stone Power & Delayed Damage pool in ensuring you don't take much damage.

[Runestar]

One interesting option for the str-monkey might be to use the berserker strength variant fron PHB2. It grants rage when your hp falls to below 5xbarb lv. With negative con, this is almost all the time, effectively giving you perma-rage.

Then at 5th lv, go necropolitan for the immunities so your poor stats are no longer a liability.

[magic9mushroom]

Str: Hulking Hurler. Season to taste.

Dex: Swordsage seems useful here, but I'm not precisely sure what to do. You could probably make a decent sniper with SA on one side and Swordsage on the other... Not sure.

Con: Yeah, Dragonfire Adept. Not sure what the other side would be, though - Spellfire Channeler could conceivably come in handy.

Int: Factotum is obvious. The rest, well, my inner cheesegolem cries out "Spell to Power Erudite!", but given DMM's discouraged I'm imagining StPE would be nuked from orbit. So probably Psion, possibly with a level of Monk (using Kung Fu Genius, Tashalatora and Faerie Mysteries Initiate).

Wis: Druidzilla, all the way. Unsure what to pair it with, though... possibly Ardent.

Cha: Well, again, my inner cheesegolem cries "Phaerimm!". That aside, Cha caster//diphappy sounds pretty good.

[strider24seven]

Spellfire Channeler is actually a good idea!
[Frantically searches for Faerun books...]

Warforged isn't bad for the Strength-monger, if only for the pseudo-crit immunities+adamantine body. Mineral Warrior would work for either STR or CON. Which would be better?

Cha: Well, again, my inner cheesegolem cries "Phaerimm!". That aside, Cha caster//diphappy sounds pretty good.

Can I buy a half-cheese golem graft from you?

[Eldariel]

Well, if you can only give Mineral Warrior to one guy, the Str-guy needs it more. If anything, make the Str-guy Feral Mineral Warrior. That way, he'll at least have some hardiness. Fast Healing and DR compound his survivability a great deal. Interestingly, you'd want a +2 Int race (Sharakim [RoD]?) to avoid falling into Animal Intellect with all the mental penalties (which causes problems already).

Feral + Mineral is +6 Str, -2 Dex, +6 Con, -6 Int, -2 Cha (Wis-bonus and penalty cancel out). So there are no other worries except for Int. Int under 3 is bad for you. So...yeah. The Con-guy can just be Dragonborn Mongrelfolk or something for massive Con.

[Eloel]

Cha guy could go Sorcerer 10, with Gravetouched Ghoul/Evolved Undead on the other side, probably with 2 level dip into some variant Paladin at some point. Unleash the fury with the +2 Cha every level. And yes, as a bonus, if they're somehow stuck in an AMF, they can just whip out a club and bash some heads with the +2 Str/level.

(Heck, the Str guy could go Hulking Hurler//Evolved Undead, for WTF? amounts of Str)

[Draz74]

who's to say Psy War/Monk//Ranger/MoMF isn't awesome?

That actually sounds really fun.

If he goes Tashalatora, Psionic Body could nab him some extra HP's. Now that I think about it, if I go Factotum/Psion, it could grab me some extra HP's too...

Ugh. Psionic Body is a terrible feat; I can't see how anyone ever takes it.

The number of Psionic feats (note: this doesn't include Metapsionic feats, or several other popular choices for psionic characters) you have to take to make Psionic Body better than Improved Toughness is ... prohibitive. Even on a pure Psychic Warrior, with all those bonus feats, I've never seen a situation where it was worth it. Except a high-level Core Only game.

No, the way psionics can save you (and especially the WISophile) from crappy HP is via the Vigor power. Possibly with some Psicrystal/Share Pain goodness.

[Tinydwarfman]

Why is everyone suggesting Psion for INT instead of Wizard? Because it gestalts better w/ factotum somehow?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Why is everyone suggesting Psion for INT instead of Wizard? Because it gestalts better w/ factotum somehow?

More (or easier) ways to break action economy?

[AmberVael]

Why is everyone suggesting Psion for INT instead of Wizard? Because it gestalts better w/ factotum somehow?

Psion just has a bunch of nice little benefits, and also is a little more fair. =P

Part of it is that Psionics don't have to bother with Spell Failure, part of it may be that they can have fun with action economy much more simply (Schism, quicken power, Temporal Acceleration), and some of it is for simplicity. Psionics are a bit more streamlined than Spells, and you don't have to bother with all that spellbook nonsense.

Wizard might theoretically be more powerful, but psion is just... neater, I'd say.

[Starbuck_II]

I also think Psion is funner than Wizard, but fun is subjective.

[Jack_Simth]

Let's see... one of the big problems with this for most of the builds will be HP.

LA on both sides, or one side only? Makes a very large difference.

For the three mental stat types, I'd suggest Elans, with a psionic class based on that stat - Wilder for Charisma (Expanded Psionic Handbook), Erudite for Intelligence (Complete Psionic), Ardent for Wisdom (Complete Psionic). Then take Enhanced Elan Resilience (Complete Psionic, page 52), Psionic Body, and as many psionic feats as you can fit in (possibly simply Psionic Talent over & over again). Faerie Mysteries Initiate for the Int-based character, of course. Alternately, the Charisma-based character can go Sorcerer+PrC's, get the Dragonblooded subtype, and take Wings of Cover (Races of the Dragon) - keeps the entire party away from the worst attacks.

If LA is one-side only, then stack templates - for the Str/Dex people, you want Con (although the Dex-based character can get away with a stealth build). Charisma is one of the easier ones - it doesn't do much, of itself, so it's used by a lot of PrC's and classes to do other stuff - which is really good for the Charisma-based player.

If LA is not one-side-only, then dip lots of classes that make good use of that ability, or cover for not having a given ability. Warblade gets Diamond Mind manuevers... and Diamond Mind has counters that let you use a Concentration checks in place of saves. Concentration, being a skill, is much easier to boost than other things - making it VERY handy for anyone who'll need to make a save.

Ugh. Psionic Body is a terrible feat; I can't see how anyone ever takes it.

Any psionic character can take Psionic Body at 1st. Improved Toughness has stiffer requirements (and the two stack). Psionic body is handy for the low-Con types that get bonus Psionic feats... like the Psion, or even better, the Psychic Warrior.

The number of Psionic feats (note: this doesn't include Metapsionic feats, or several other popular choices for psionic characters) you have to take to make Psionic Body better than Improved Toughness is ... prohibitive. Even on a pure Psychic Warrior, with all those bonus feats, I've never seen a situation where it was worth it. Except a high-level Core Only game.

No, the way psionics can save you (and especially the WISophile) from crappy HP is via the Vigor power. Possibly with some Psicrystal/Share Pain goodness.

Vigor will help, yes, but it's the Elan, with Enhanced Elan Resilience (Complete Psionic) that'll really help.

[magic9mushroom]

Can I buy a half-cheese golem graft from you?

Spend too long on here and you'll get the Half-Cheese Golem template for free.

[Eldariel]

No, the way psionics can save you (and especially the WISophile) from crappy HP is via the Vigor power. Possibly with some Psicrystal/Share Pain goodness.

Hear the man. This is how Psionics gets you HP. Lots of it. And it's Hours/Level to boot! Sure, you're still very mortal, but you're at least as durable as normal characters, quite possibly more so, which is really all you can ask for without a Con-score.

[Dr Bwaa]

For the Cha-based guy--go Druid//Sorcerer ++ Arcane Heirophant with Fey Blood.

[strider24seven]

Why is everyone suggesting Psion for INT instead of Wizard? Because it gestalts better w/ factotum somehow?

1) Control Body+Solict Psicrystal= INT to attack, damage, and AC instead of strength and dexterity, and (subjectively) partial immunity to a lot of daze-type effects

2) More flexibility. Psion gets a lot more use out of 1st level powers than a Wizard does with 1st level spells. 5d4+5 Magic Missile vs. 20d10 Mind Thrust. A poor example, as the Psion can only do that a few times per day, but it is an example nonetheless.

3) Wizard is just... vanilla. Vanilla flavored cheese.

LA is on one side of gestalt. If we have HD and LA, they go on both sides, e.g. A thri-keen looks like RHD 2/Fighter 8//LA 2/Swordsage 8. DM's example, not mine.

Elans are awesome. The ability to soak damage with PP is fantastic, especially at low levels.

Arcane Heirophant is a dual-progression PrC, is it not?

Oh, and as for Psionic Body: [Facepalm] Forgot about Improved Toughness. And Vigor+Share Pain shenanigans.

So far, in case anyone cares, the builds look like:

STR: Mineral Warrior Half-Giant
LA 2/Lion Totem Barbarian 2/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6//Crusader 5/Warblade 5
With Kockback, Shock Trooper, Pounce, and Dungeoncrasher, a brutal charger/controller. Possibly to go Frenzied Berzerker if we can find a way for him to not fail his Will Save. Edit: Fixed the Fighter level.

DEX: Dark Drow Elf
LA 3/Crusader 2/Warblade 2/Swordsage 3//Hit and Run Fighter 2/Monk 2/Jaunter 1/Champion of Corellon 2/Telflammar Shadowlord 3
Next level he gets Shadowpounce and becomes stupidly powerful. Has Darkstalker, Craven, and Battle Jump. The DM let him use monk to get combat expertise for CoC. I can't wait to read his fluff.

CON: Dragonborn Arctic Dwarf
LA 2/Warblade 6/Crusader 2//Ranger 1/Lion Totem Barbarian 2/Fighter 1/Fist of the Forest 1/Deepwarden 2/Bear Warrior 1/Frostrager 2
Possbly to take Poison Healer and Drunken Master to become fueled by ale. But that would necesitate levels in Monk. But the fluff is pretty awesome now.

INT: Elan
Factotum 9/Carmendine Monk 1//Psion 5/Anarchic Initiate 4/Slayer 1
I hate to take only the dead Slayer level to start with, but I have to take it sometime. Will finish out Slayer and Factotum. I really want to go Phrenic Human, but then I lose the Elan's awesomesauce. And I'm the only one with no LA.

WIS: Elan (a template would be nice)
Monk 2/Psychic Warrior 8//Wildshape Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms 5
Tried to talk him into Ardent//Druid, but he's adamant about having (mostly) full BAB. Will probably take Warshaper after he's finished MoMF.

CHA: Phrenic Human
LA 2/Hexblade 4/Paladin of Tyranny 2/Marshal 2//Wilder 10
Is considering taking either Thrallherd+Elocater on the Wilder Side for extra powers known or PrC diphappiness on the other side. The DM lets the whole "Phrenic on a non-psionic character" thing go for a first level psionic class only, i.e. this is fine, but a Phrenic Elan is not.

Just for reference, the DM doesn't enforce multiclassing penalties becuase its too much of a hassle in gestalt, but we try to follow it just the same.