Swordsage // Cloistered Cleric [3.5]

[kite11355]

I want to make a Swordsage // Cloistered Cleric for a gestalt game my friend is running. The character needs to be fairly optimized, which I'm not very good at doing. My stats are 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 16 and through my friends I have access to pretty much any book. I want to focus in shadow hand for Swordsage and I have no idea for Cleric side. Any suggestions for build?

[Reynard]

"My stats are 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 16"

How on Earth? I want your dice.

Why Shadow Hand? Diamond Mind would go really well with a caster on the other side, since it makes use of your Concentration skill to screw over your opponents even more.

[Greenish]

Why Shadow Hand? Diamond Mind would go really well with a caster on the other side, since it makes use of your Concentration skill to screw over your opponents even more.

Shadow Hand has nifty abilities and boosts, and keys off wisdom for the save DCs.

Besides, it's not like he's limited to just one discipline.

[Tinydwarfman]

First, nice combo, I heartily approve. Second, we really need a starting level. It can drastically change your build focus.

[kite11355]

Sorry about that, I'm not sure what level we're starting on it's either level 1 or 5.

I got crazy luck on my stats and I don't want to let this chance go to waste.

[true_shinken]

Dude, with those stats on a Swordsage//Cloistered Cleric, you can't go wrong.

[Reynard]

Well, one 18 goes to wisdom, no question there. The other should go to Dex, for the Shadow Hand discipline works well with high dex. Put some points into the stealth skills, profit from it.

The 17s.
One in Str, probably. Or Con, if you take that feat that adds Dex to damage.
One in Int, for many, many skill points.

16s.
Whatever you didn't chose from Str/Con, and Cha. Becuase Cha is Cha.

[Keld Denar]

Damn, those are some sick stats.

I'd go:
Str 17
Dex 17
Con 18
Int 16
Wis 18
Cha 16

Swap out Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion and have your other 2 domains be War(some god with daggers or shortswords as weapons) and something else like Travel or Destiny or Trickery or Luck.

For feats:
1 Two Weapon Fighting
3 Shadow Blade
6 Craven?
9 Holy Warrior
12 Improved Two Weapon Fighting
15 [Anything]
18 Greater Two Weapon Fighting

With Knowledge Devotion, Holy Warrior, SA (from Assassin Stance) and Craven as bonus damage, you'll be a holy blender of doom. Do it.

[Fouredged Sword]

You can't go very wrong with those classes. I would take some manuvers from dimond mind and desert wind to mix things up though. You then have fire damage, cold / negative energy damage, and the dimond mind ability to hit anything. I would consider takeing a two handed weapon if you are not going to use Tiger style. Replace the TWF for combat expertise / imp trip + and later improved unarmed strike + snapkick. Nothing says I control space like a trip/stab/kick to stop them dead.

[Tokuhara]

Well, with Swordsage, you have the most options (Discipline-Wise) and with Cloistered Cleric, you can have any spells you want (Pick Spell and Glory domains. Worship the ideals!), then have fun.

My idea (this if dual PrCing is available)

Swordsage 10/Shadow Sun Ninja 10//Coistered Cleric 10/Paragonistic Apostle 10

[Greenish]

Praised be The Traveller! CN God (or Goddess, gender unknown), both Travel and Trickery domains.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You'll probably want to be good-aligned so you can use (Greater) Luminous Armor. Note that you can cast Magic Vestment on it to add an enhancement bonus to your current armor bonus. You probably won't want to worship any specific deity.

You may be a bit short on feats, you'll want to have DMM: Persist along with Adaptive Style, and with Shadow Blade you'll also want TWF. You can start out Human with two flaws and get the Planning domain to have all of that by level 3. I'd use a two-handed weapon with Power Attack, and skip Shadow Blade since the only two-handed weapon it can be used with requires EWP.

Take the Spell domain so you can use Anyspell to get Wraithstrike and DMM: Persist it. Get a 3rd level Pearl of Power so you can recover Anyspell and use it to cast Shield, and DMM: Persist that as well. Note that you can cast Magic Vestment on it to add an enhancement bonus to your current shield bonus. You can later use Greater Anyspell to get Draconic Polymorph and DMM: Persist that as well. You'll want the Outsider creature type so you can Polymorph yourself into Outsider forms.

If you're starting higher than 1st level, say you visited the Frog God's Fane detailed in Complete Scoundrel, which will give you Skill Focus: Kn: Religion for 2,000 gp without spending a feat on it, otherwise be sure to visit that location before taking Divine Oracle. Include Contemplative to get the Destiny domain so you can have DMM: Persistent Choose Destiny, it's in Races of Destiny. Your first Discipline Focus should be in a discipline with a few two-handed favored weapons so you get Weapon Focus with something you're going to actually use. Get plenty of Night Sticks to power Divine Metamagic.

I'd make the character a Wood Elf with Str 20, Dex 19, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 16 after racial adjustments. Go Swordsage 20// Cloistered Cleric 5/ Ruathar 2/ Seeker of the Misty Isle 1/ Divine Oracle 6/ Contemplative 6, start with the Spell and Planning domains, and get Travel, Oracle, Destiny, and Celerity from your prestige classes. You may want to take the third Ruathar level if you start getting close to middle-age, otherwise pick it up in the epic levels if you get that far. Your feats should be Extend Spell (Planning), Knowledge Devotion (instead of the domain), Persistent Spell (flaw), Adaptive Style (flaw), Otherworldly (1), Power Attack (3), Skill Focus: Kn: Religion (Frog God's Fane), DMM: Persistent (6), Leap Attack (9), Travel Devotion (12), Quicken Spell (15), and DMM: Quicken (18).


For something completely different, consider using a Shadowcraft Mage build:
Gnome, Swordsage 20// Cloistered Cleric 3/ Shadowcraft Mage 5/ Shadowcrafter 8/ Divine Oracle 4, domains are Gnome, Illusion, and Knowledge, with the PH2 ACF to spontaneously cast spells from either Gnome or Illusion. Get Spell Focus: Illusion (flaw), Earth Sense (flaw), Heighten Spell (1), DMM: Heighten (3), Earth Spell (6), Greater Spell Focus: Illusion (9), Residual Magic (12), Enhanced Shadow Reality (15), Skill Focus: Kn: Religion (Frog God's Fane), and Shadow Trickster (18). If you don't know how a Shadowcraft Mage works, google up the Killer Gnome thread.