Gestalted Dwarven Cleric

[Ralasha]

So far, for a level 15 gestalt game, I'm thinking of going Dwarf, Cleric 5/Battlesmith 5/Cleric 5 on one side, and Fighter 7/Hammer of Moradin 8 on the other. Anyone have any ideas on how best to optimize this build?
We have 40 PB, so I've got a 15 strength, 17 dexterity, 16 con, 12 intelligence, 16 wisdom, 12 charisma.
We get 1 feat at each level. Ideas for feats would be good too.
I'm considering taking Dwarven Armor Proficiency to wear Battle Plate, the TWF tree, the weapon Focus tree, and intend to craft my own weapons and armor. We get 112500 experience, which gives my 7.5k XP to work with for making armors.

I have diehard, a homebrewed improved diehard, the faerunian tireless feat, monkey grip, improved toughness, iron will, and indomitable will. I also have Dodge, and a homebrewed Improved Dodge feat, which gives an addition 1 dodge bonus.

[Ernir]

How much of this can be changed? Are the aspects you mentioned in the title (Dwarf, Cleric) the only constants, or are there other things that are somewhat sacred to you?

Because, uh, if you're going for power, you're going to end up with something very different from what you have now.

[Ralasha]

I'm going for an overbearing Moradin Cleric. All Dwarf, all the time. I'm rather wanting to keep the classes I have, I'm just asking for help optimizing my current build. I even have Oversized TWF so my two warhammers are large size, without a huge penalty. I got Craft Magical Arms and Armor from Battle Smith. My casterlevel for making items is 20.

[Duke of URL]

The "standard" gestalt rules generally frown on taking two PrCs at the same time, so you may have to change that build plan in any case unless your DM has waived that rule.

That said, other than some BAB and even more feats, of which you're already getting plenty, I fail to see why you'd want Fighter at all. Any other full BAB class is likely going to be better, and if you can get one with a good Reflex save, all the better.

Reflex aside, since you seem to be making a TWF tank (and odd combination, but the extra feats allow for it), you might want to consider ToB Crusader or Warblade.

Neither of your chosen prestige classes allow entry before level 8, due to the Craft 10 ranks requirement. Since the PrCs don't advance Cleric casting, I'd leave the Cleric side alone -- while it doesn't have any class features of note, spellcasting is awesome enough on its own:

Cleric 15+ // Crusader 7 / Battlesmith 5 / Hammer of Moradin 3+

[Ralasha]

Fixable with Skill Specialization, thanks. I forgot about that. And now, as far as the skill goes, I have met the skill requirement at level 4. ^_^ Took fighter for extra feats. and yes, we are allowed to take 2 PrCs simultaneously.

[Greenish]

Fixable with Skill Specialization, thanks. I forgot about that. And now, as far as the skill goes, I have met the skill requirement at level 4.

How's that work then?

[Ralasha]

Skill Specialization is a feat which adds 3 to the maximum ranks of a skill. You still have to have the skill points to put into it though, and the feat to use on skill specialization.

[Ernir]

Woah. Where did you drag that feat from? It's broken as all hell!

Which will help. Because your character, as-is, is dealing with several problems...

• The Battlesmith PrC isn't very good.
• The Hammer of Moradin PrC isn't very good.
• The Fighter class is not very good, made even worse by how available feats are under your houserules.
• Two-weapon Fighting is not very good. It is a salvageable strategy if you have a good source of bonus damage, such as Sneak Attack, but otherwise, it's hard to use.
• Oversized TWF is not good at all.
• Monkey Grip is a so-called trap. Using it effectively makes your character less capable in combat.
• You are losing five Cleric caster levels. This is a bad idea. Don't PrC out of Cleric into something that does not have "+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class" on every single level. Even if you ignore everything else I'm saying, please listen to this!

So. For every one of these you can move away from, the easier your build will be to work with.

But enough negativity, here's some actual stuff you might want to look at.

• Brutal Throw from Complete Adventurer. Allows you to use your Strength modifier to throw your warhammer(s), which in turn allows you to not pump Dexterity as high as you have.
• Strongarm Bracers from the Magic Item Compendium. They do the same thing Monkey Grip does, only better.
• The Holy Warrior feat from Complete Champion, which is an OK source of bonus damage for your hammers. If you have the skill points for it, Knowledge Devotion (Complete Champion as well) could do good things for you as well.
• The Cloistered Cleric variant from Unearthed Arcana. You're gestalting with high-BAB classes anyway, might as well get more skill points.
• The Ironsoul Forgemaster PrC in Magic of Incarnum. It's an awesome "badass dwarven battlesmith" PrC.
• The Divine Metamagic feat (Complete Divine) combined with the Persistent Spell feat from Complete Arcane. It's a tried and true way to make Clerics simply more powerful. If you spend some of those bajillion feats you have on Extra Turning, you can get quite a few spells operating continuously (get a Nightstick from Libris Mortis as well, while you are at it). Honestly, this option is good enough to make up for almost anything other than giving up caster levels.

[Ralasha]

Well, as it stood, I was getting x1.5 strength mod with each hammer, from hammer of moradin, wisdom mod to damage from battle smith, axiomatic, and a few other nice abilities. However, dropping my dex will prevent me from getting the TWF feats, which this build kinda needs. Any solutions for that? I suppose I could take Improved Buckler Defense, but that would be pretty expensive if I wanted to make it magical, as is I'll barely be able to afford the XP for what I'm doing.

[Ernir]

Well, as it stood, I was getting x1.5 strength mod with each hammer, from hammer of moradin, wisdom mod to damage from battle smith, axiomatic, and a few other nice abilities. However, dropping my dex will prevent me from getting the TWF feats, which this build kinda needs. Any solutions for that? I suppose I could take Improved Buckler Defense, but that would be pretty expensive if I wanted to make it magical, as is I'll barely be able to afford the XP for what I'm doing.

You could ignore getting Greater Two-weapon Fighting, and instead just take Two-weapon Fighting and buy some Gloves of the Balanced Hand (from the Magic Item Compendium), which give you Improved TWF if you already have TWF. That would allow you to keep your dexterity at 15, or less if your DM allows you to use items to serve as the prerequisites for feats.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd suggest the following changes to what you already have:

Cloistered Cleric is better than PHB Cleric, especially for a gestalt character.

A high Dex isn't very useful with heavy armor. Consider picking up two levels of Deepwarden from RoS to add your Con bonus to AC instead of your Dex bonus.

If wearing heavy armor, you'll probably want to get the feat Deflective Armor in RoS. That requires you to be a psionic character, so maybe go Fighter 2/ Psychic Warrior 4/ Deepwarden 2/ Hammer of Moradin 7 starting out. You would need either the Travel domain or get Skill Specialization: Survival, assuming it can be used on cross-class skills. That way you could also get Psionic Dodge on top of regular Dodge and your Improved Dodge. Depending on how your DM does gestalt BAB, you could take that first Psychic Warrior level along side of Cloistered Cleric 2, and get the +1 BAB from the Cleric level instead of the +0 from Psychic Warrior. That way you'll still get full BAB for your character's career, and you'll only need three Psychic Warrior levels so you can still start out with Hammer of Moradin 8.

Say your character visited the Otyugh Hole, a location detailed in Complete Scoundrel. For 3,000 gp you get Iron Will without spending a feat on it, definitely worth it at this level. Also say you visited the Frog God's Fane, in the same book, to get Skill Focus: Kn: Religion for 2,000 gp without spending a feat on it, and take Divine Oracle in CD after you've maxed out Battlesmith. That gives Uncanny Dodge and a heavy armor version of Evasion, along with a few other benefits. Contemplative also in CD is another prestige class worth considering. You could go Cloistered Cleric 5/ Battlesmith 5/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 1 starting out, and take Contemplative to 6th level for another bonus domain by 20th level.

Get Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell, along with a few Night Sticks.

[grarrrg]

However, dropping my dex will prevent me from getting the TWF feats, which this build kinda needs. Any solutions for that?

Too many conflicting things you want to do.
You want to be a "Dwarf's Dwarf", AND Two Weapon Fight, AND Cleric, AND etc...
Something will have to give somewhere. Here's my take.
Drop Dex, wear Light Armor. Just follow along, it makes sense.

I'd recommend using Earth Dwarf, it gets you an extra +2 Str at the cost of -2 Dex, and your stone/metal craft bonus increases to 4.

Stats, level 15 (+3), Earth Dwarf (+2 Str, -2 Dex, +2 Con, -2 Cha):
Str: 16 (base 14, +2 race)
Dex: 10 (base 12, -2 race)
Con: 18 (base 16, +2 race)
Int: 12
Wis: 16
Cha: 12 (base 14, -2 race)
Add in your Level-up bonuses, tweak as desired, the important bit being that Dex is now a dump stat.

Side A: Take Cleric (or Cloistered, doesn't matter), feel free to add in a "divine casting" PrC here.

Side B: Take Ranger for 6 levels. This will get you Full Bab, skill points, Endurance, and Improved-Two-Weapon-Fighting (ignoring the pre-reqs!)
Take Deepwarden for 2 levels, you get 2d12hd, Full Bab, good skills, and Con to AC.
Top off with Hammer of Moradin as desired.