Best Class to Gestalt with an Artificer

[EdroGrimshell]

Okay, my friend has joined into a gestalt game starting at 5th level and is playing an artificer on one side but he's not sure what to do on the other side. We are playing in a cityscape campaign with a lot of intrigue, stealth, and investigation style play with an even heavier emphasis on role-playing.

The rest of the part is
- A rogue//warlock (Me)
- A ranger//urban druid
- A spellthief//beguiler
- And a cloistered cleric//binder

Every member is human except me (i'm playing a changeling) and have a generally neutral alignment on the good-evil axis.

[aivanther]

Probably ninjaed, Factocum is my first intuition. Warblade might not be bad either.

[PId6]

Factotum is the best in a vacuum. However, your party seems to have a bunch of skillmonkeys already, and could use another frontliner, so I'd go with warblade here.

Alternatively, wizard could provide some nice utility arcane casting if needed.

[EdroGrimshell]

Factotum is the best in a vacuum. However, your party seems to have a bunch of skillmonkeys already, and could use another frontliner, so I'd go with warblade here.

Alternatively, wizard could provide some nice utility arcane casting if needed.

No ToB. Factotum is not allowed.

[Wings of Peace]

Psionic Artificer

[EdroGrimshell]

Psionic Artificer

Their variants of one another and are considered the same class, it's not allowed

[PId6]

No ToB. Factotum is not allowed.

Then just wizard or psion. More casting never hurts.

[shadow_archmagi]

Psion goes quite well with artificer because it gives you plenty of flexible every-day spells which you can supplement by making "In case this ever comes up" scrolls

[Lycanthromancer]

I made a shaper//artificer at one point. He could solo encounters that obliterated the whole rest of the party. He used his shaper abilities for utility, and his artificer abilities to blow stuff up.

It was awesome.

Except the party hated me.

[EdroGrimshell]

I made a shaper//artificer at one point. He could solo encounters that obliterated the whole rest of the party. He used his shaper abilities for utility, and his artificer abilities to blow stuff up.

It was awesome.

Except the party hated me.

We're really not trying to optimize, his character is a former member of House Cannith who was disowned because of some of his experiments (he's the mad scientist type). He's now on the run and hiding in the city where they would not expect him to stay.

[ShadowsGrnEyes]

You want a mad scientist?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Wizard. . . Wizards make great mad scientists. . .
then Go master specialist Transmuter. . . very mad scientisty

if your not terribly optimized, have him prestige into Effigy master for flavor

[vampire2948]

Oooh, oooh!!

Get your DM to approve a half-golem monster class, then go half-golem//Artificer.

Fits the mad scientist theme?

Vampire2948,

[urbanpirate]

adchivist or stp erudite

or he could have been a druid/artificer, something like an ancient green technology engineer, and since his experiments/outlook did not fit the philosophy of the times/region he was vilified and outcast as an enviornmental terrorist

[aivanther]

Duskblade might be another idea, if you don't like Wizard. Not sure if it fits the mad scientist schtick or not, though you can probably get it in there some where.

[EdroGrimshell]

You want a mad scientist?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Wizard. . . Wizards make great mad scientists. . .
then Go master specialist Transmuter. . . very mad scientisty

if your not terribly optimized, have him prestige into Effigy master for flavor

Probably gonna go with this. My DM is so going to hate him later .

[DementedFellow]

Fleshwarper would fit in well.

[Morithias]

Archviest + wizard + mystic thergue.

The artificer's power to use UMD to make any scroll allows to to gain almost every spell in existence. Especially those rare druids and paladin spells that most Dm's will never let you buy a scroll of.

[FelixG]

Oooh, oooh!!

Get your DM to approve a half-golem monster class, then go half-golem//Artificer.

Fits the mad scientist theme?

Vampire2948,

Where is that class found? i have never seen it before? or do you mean the half golem template from MM2?

[Escheton]

If you like combining it with totemist and such, that take up slots. Why not just go fighter. Dungeoncrasher fighter. Make rings of the ram. Have a field day.

[balistafreak]

If you like combining it with totemist and such, that take up slots.

Only Chakra Binds do, not plain ol' soulmelds. Your most important Chakra Bind provides its own slot as a class feature, feats can be taken to let Chakra Binds and magic items share slots if you absolutely have to have them, and until really high levels you can just pick Chakra Binds that don't interfere with magic items. And it's not as if your soulmelds are set in stone - if you find a shiny new item that is better than your current Chakra Bind, switch the thing out! People seem to forget that you can reshape soulmelds every day.

/rules

[Zeta Kai]

Archviest + wizard + mystic thergue.

The artificer's power to use UMD to make any scroll allows to to gain almost every spell in existence. Especially those rare druids and paladin spells that most Dm's will never let you buy a scroll of.

That actually sounds like a good build. You'll be the party's Swiss army knife, a spell for every occasion.

[ImperiousLeader]

I played a Warforged Artificer//Incarnate once. A heck of a lot of fun. Feats are tight, but Incarnate melds can augment Artificer inclinations and provide him things to do when he runs out of infusions and needs to save his magic items.

[true_shinken]

I actually think Swashbuckler//Artificer would work pretty well. Keeps your Int focus, you get lots of passive abilities, better hit die and better base attack bonus. Even adds a few skills to your class list.

[T.G. Oskar]

I'd say Psion||Artificer for the heck of it, but mostly because that would make you the near-absolute forger of the party. You already have a craft reserve, the infusions, and the feats to create items; why not also create psionic items using the artificer skills?

Though, I'd also go with Craft Construct and a few infusions (or schemas, if possible) of Iron Construct, so that your meatshield (or rather, pseudo-golem) takes all the heat. The Cleric||Binder can work itself into a strong fighting position even if the variant isn't built for such, and the Ranger might also lend its fighting prowess (and that of its companion), so I don't feel there's a loss of frontline prowess. However, it does need a strong blaster, and nothing like the Psion to deliver pain in augmented bursts.

Might be a bit too late for this, but I don't believe it's a bad idea.

[Lycanthromancer]

That actually sounds like a good build. You'll be the party's Swiss army knife, a spell for every occasion.

Don't you have to have divine scrolls to learn them? Artificer scrolls are neither arcane nor divine.

Also, another take on psion: artificer//shaper/constructor. Those astral constructs of yours are going to be incredibly powerful, especially if you make use of those aurorum dye arrows of spell/power storing and returning. Throw out buffs on them like nobody's business, and watch as they throw your foes around like ragdolls.