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molten_dragon
2010-05-26, 02:36 PM
My wife's had an idea for a solo campaign she wants to run, so I'm trying to come up with a character for it. I'll be playing gestalt, starting at 1st level, and it'll be somewhat post-apocalyptic setting, where there aren't a lot of other people or towns around. Therefore, I want to play something that's very self-sufficient, that can take care of myself without the help of others.

I'm leaning pretty heavily towards druid for 1 half of the gestalt, since druids are pretty much the most self sufficient class out there, with good melee capabilities (at least once I get wild shape), full spellcasting (including healing), and an animal companion. Any suggestions for the other half of the gestalt? Or any suggestions of something better than druid for the 1st half?

Thanks.

DragoonWraith
2010-05-26, 02:38 PM
Totemist is the other "I really don't need items all that much" class, along (somewhat less, from what I understand) the Incarnate.

Though I think having levels of Factotum would help immensely, because you get so many different abilities that you'd normally be able to rely on a teammate to have.

Force
2010-05-26, 02:39 PM
Unarmed swordsage to give your wildshape forms some extra oomph?

Greenish
2010-05-26, 02:39 PM
Warforged Artificer. On the other side, tag whatever you like, factotum, warblade, crusader, wizard…

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-26, 02:52 PM
Only slightly MAD, but druid//factotum would be excellent.

I tried a warforged artificer//factotum/egoist once, and it turned out that I literally had so many options on what I could do that I could never figure out what it is that I WANTED to do. I mean, I had 250,000 gp in items at level 10 (including thousands upon thousands of gp in scrolls and wands), could buff myself to hell and back (including metamorphosis at will via psychoactive skin, which alone could manage with most situations), could sneak all over the place, could blast, could melee, could sit back and snipe while summons took care of melee duties, could simply sneak past obstacles, could diplomacize instead of fight, could assassinate from the shadows, and so on and so on and so on.

Flickerdart
2010-05-26, 02:54 PM
Only slightly MAD, but druid//factotum would be excellent.

I tried a warforged artificer//factotum/egoist once, and it turned out that I literally had so many options on what I could do that I could never figure out what it is that I WANTED to do. I mean, I had 250,000 gp in items at level 10 (including thousands upon thousands of gp in scrolls and wands), could buff myself to hell and back (including metamorphosis at will via psychoactive skin, which alone could manage with most situations), could sneak all over the place, could blast, could melee, could sit back and snipe while summons took care of melee duties, could simply sneak past obstacles, could diplomacize instead of fight, could assassinate from the shadows, and so on and so on and so on.
But could you know why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

Draz74
2010-05-26, 02:58 PM
I vote Psion//Factotum with Vow of Poverty. Great INT synergy, and anytime you need equipment you can just create it with your mind. :smallwink:

Ormagoden
2010-05-26, 03:00 PM
Factotum/Warblade

Making sure to make room for chameleon.

Telonius
2010-05-26, 03:01 PM
I think the standard "survivor" classes are Warlock and Monk. Both tend to work well in Gestalt, though you might get a bit more mileage out of Monk than Warlock with the Wisdom synergy, natural attack progression and the fact that you're already a caster.

Scipio
2010-05-26, 03:06 PM
A druid monk works well in gestalt. The SAD wisdom benefits are very nice. There are a lot of ways to go with the build, but grappling is king.

klemdakherzbag
2010-05-26, 03:13 PM
also think of Elan for the racial ability to spend 1 PP and not have to eat or drink for a day....

Ferrin
2010-05-26, 03:13 PM
I think the standard "survivor" classes are Warlock and Monk. Both tend to work well in Gestalt, though you might get a bit more mileage out of Monk than Warlock with the Wisdom synergy, natural attack progression and the fact that you're already a caster.

Monk is a two level dip class. As for the warlock; HP is a resource as well, you might not run out of spells, but you sure do run out of HP. Every action should be an effective one. Warlocks, compared to druids, wizards, archivists, and psions, do not have what it takes to be an active side of a gestalt, and give to little to be a passive side.(Barring some invocations, and I do love a warlock/crusader) Overall, the top tier classes together with a factotum generally do better then any others.


also think of Elan for the racial ability to spend 1 PP and not have to eat or drink for a day....

Yes, Elan's are awesome, but I like the spend 1 PP for +4 to saves more. :smallbiggrin:

Prime32
2010-05-26, 03:16 PM
Monk is a two level dip class.Fixed. Two levels gets you evasion and another bonus feat.

Ferrin
2010-05-26, 03:20 PM
Fixed. Two levels gets you evasion and another bonus feat.

I... really thought I typed two, my mistake. I never meant to type one. :smallconfused:

-fixes-

Jeff240sx
2010-05-26, 03:27 PM
My wife's had an idea for a solo campaign she wants to run, so I'm trying to come up with a character for it. I'll be playing gestalt, starting at 1st level, and it'll be somewhat post-apocalyptic setting, where there aren't a lot of other people or towns around. Therefore, I want to play something that's very self-sufficient, that can take care of myself without the help of others.

I'm leaning pretty heavily towards druid for 1 half of the gestalt, since druids are pretty much the most self sufficient class out there, with good melee capabilities (at least once I get wild shape), full spellcasting (including healing), and an animal companion. Any suggestions for the other half of the gestalt? Or any suggestions of something better than druid for the 1st half?

Thanks.

Druid // Fighter 1/ Sorcerer 1 / (Cobra Strike from UA) Monk 2 / Fighter 1 / AbChamp 5 / Swiftblade 10

Full 20BAB. 9th divine and 6th Arcane casting.
Wis to AC. AbChamp to AC. Wildshape to AC.

Cobra Strike Monk2 gives you entrance feats to Swiftblade, which then gives you free-action haste, another attack, 50% miss chances, and Timestop in your 6th level slots.

It's not optimized - because optimization focuses on doing one [thing, build, triple 9s] flawlessly, but creates many hard-to-play characters.

This gets good HP, full BAB, Monk save bonuses, Evasion, Imp. Unarmed Strike, all of which compliment your Druid side.

Hell.. to optimize, just go Druid 10 / Planar Shepherd 10. LOL! *ducks*

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-05-26, 03:30 PM
I had a build around here called "Juan", short for "Party of Juan".

IIRC, it was a Warforged Sorcerer/Iot7V//Crusader

However, I would suggest, as an improvement:

Crusader//Warlock6/Mindbender1/Chameleon2/Binder1/HFW3/Legacy Champion7

In brief:

Crusader nets you Tanking and self-healing. Warlock + HFW + LC = damage output. Chameleon2 means never having to worry about toys, because you can always Craft them. It also means a good bit of flexibility. Mindbender = Mindsight so it is almost impossible to sneak up on you. I don't recall if the 2nd lost caster level from LC is before or after 7th... if it is after, you only loose one level there, so you still get Dark invocations. Which means your floating feat can be used as a Greater Invocation through the Extra Invocation feat.

Telonius
2010-05-26, 03:38 PM
Monk is a two level dip class. As for the warlock; HP is a resource as well, you might not run out of spells, but you sure do run out of HP. Every action should be an effective one. Warlocks, compared to druids, wizards, archivists, and psions, do not have what it takes to be an active side of a gestalt, and give to little to be a passive side.(Barring some invocations, and I do love a warlock/crusader) Overall, the top tier classes together with a factotum generally do better then any others.

Agreed in general, but this specific situation is going to be postapocalyptic. As in, not very many resources to draw on. That would especially hurt something like a Wizard or an Archivist, where most of their power tends to come from scrolls scribed into their spellbooks. Those scrolls might not exist in the setting. That's also why I excluded things like Artificer, which doesn't synergize particularly well with Druid anyway, but is still a lot more powerful than Monk. (Psion would probably still be a solid pick - but I'm not very experienced in Psionics at all and couldn't tell you for sure).

For something like Monk or Warlock, their abilities function independently of them having access to any resources.

Ferrin
2010-05-26, 03:40 PM
Agreed in general, but this specific situation is going to be postapocalyptic. As in, not very many resources to draw on. That would especially hurt something like a Wizard or an Archivist, where most of their power tends to come from scrolls scribed into their spellbooks. Those scrolls might not exist in the setting. That's also why I excluded things like Artificer, which doesn't synergize particularly well with Druid anyway, but is still a lot more powerful than Monk. (Psion would probably still be a solid pick - but I'm not very experienced in Psionics at all and couldn't tell you for sure).

For something like Monk or Warlock, their abilities function independently of them having access to any resources.

Then it's settled, isn't it? Psion/Factotum.

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-05-26, 03:46 PM
For something like Monk or Warlock, their abilities function independently of them having access to any resources.

Chameleon 2 for a bonus floating feat. This plus Warlock12 means making as many toys as you want. Then pick up Mindbender1 for Mindsight. From there, you may as well HFW, or you can do something else.

molten_dragon
2010-05-26, 03:50 PM
Can someone explain what HFW is? I'm not familiar with the term.

sonofzeal
2010-05-26, 03:50 PM
Totemist//Monk with VoP wouldn't be the most powerful ever, but would be hilariously independent.

Greenish
2010-05-26, 03:51 PM
Can someone explain what HFW is? I'm not familiar with the term.Hellfire Warlock, a warlock PrC that boosts Eldritch Blast damage into respectable levels.

paddyfool
2010-05-26, 03:53 PM
HFW=Hellfire Warlock

EDIT: Cursed helpful ninjas.

Havelock
2010-05-26, 03:58 PM
If high enough level: Beguiler/Rainbow Servant //something that'll keep you alive.

Beguiler X/Rainbow Servant10/other PrC with full CL progression (though Beguiler10/Rainbow Servant10 do get some faily nice stuff from the Beguiler levels). Is the "I get as many spell slots per day as the Sorcerer does, and I know every single Cleric spell*"

*with the restrictions as per alignment and such normal Clerics does face.

I don't really know of anything that is as simple as putting a base and prestige class together that gives the same sort of power.

Hyooz
2010-05-26, 04:00 PM
Warforged Warlock//Dragonfire Adept >.>

Grumman
2010-05-26, 04:10 PM
Warforged Charger Dungeoncrasher 2 / Hellreaver 10 // Crusader 5 / Warforged Juggernaut 5 / Crusader +10?

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-05-26, 04:41 PM
If high enough level: Beguiler/Rainbow Servant //something that'll keep you alive.

Beguiler X/Rainbow Servant10/other PrC with full CL progression (though Beguiler10/Rainbow Servant10 do get some faily nice stuff from the Beguiler levels). Is the "I get as many spell slots per day as the Sorcerer does, and I know every single Cleric spell*"

*with the restrictions as per alignment and such normal Clerics does face.

I don't really know of anything that is as simple as putting a base and prestige class together that gives the same sort of power.

Warblade or Crusader would be my suggestion here to go with Beguiler/RS. Full BAB, high HD, and maneuvers for 'no' buttons and damage output. Crusader would give you early-game healing, wheras Warblade gets you Iron Heart Surge and a better selection of maneuvers.

Optimystik
2010-05-26, 04:45 PM
also think of Elan for the racial ability to spend 1 PP and not have to eat or drink for a day....

They have racial feat in CPsi that allows them to never have to eat or drink again, as well.

(Though I'd rather lose 1 PP than a feat, myself.)

Jack_Simth
2010-05-26, 08:05 PM
Starting at 1st?

The specific scenario makes the Vow of Poverty a good idea: no equipment dependence, and eventually deals with the little things, like food and water.

There's a couple builds that are particularly good:

(any race) Druid//Ninja (Wis-based)
Full Spellcasting, d8 Hit Die, 3/4 BAB, all good saves, 6 skill points/level, trapfinding, swift-action invisibility (at 2nd, based on Wis), Sudden Strike (goes well with Wildshaping into Pouncing forms and the invisibility), and a meatshield for low levels (at 1st, you want the Riding Dog; at 4th, pick one of: Ape, a Pouncing Cat, or the Dire Bat (as a mount)), and Survival as a class skill.

Elan Warblade//Psion (Int-based)
Full Manifesting, full Martial Manuevers, d12 Hit Die, Full BAB, the ability to replace saves with Concentration checks, and the ability to deny damage

Elan Factotum//Psion (Int-based)
Full Manifesting, Int to just about everything, and eventually the ability to get extra actions pretty much at-whim. Makes a killer blaster.

Sorcerer//Paladin/Monk (Cha-based)
Take both Ascetic Mage and Ascetic Knight with this build:
After a few levels, you have: Charisma to AC, Charisma to Saves, Charisma-based spellcasting, good BAB, good hit dice.

If you really, really want a VERY self-sufficient character:
Use one of the Psions and add a recharge build (Midnight Augmentation + Psycharnum Infusion + Bestow Power+ Psicrystal Affinity + Psicrystal Containment; no equipment needed - the feat investment and essentia required means it takes a while to pull off, though)

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-26, 08:38 PM
Take Tomb-Tainted Soul, and go druid//dread necromancer? Oh the flavorful fun to be had...

Godskook
2010-05-26, 08:49 PM
Find out how which prestige classes your wife allows, as by RAW, there's very slim pickings, and the first to go are all middle-roaders, while the worst "OMG-LOL" ones are all definitely A-OK.

mikethepoor
2010-05-26, 10:19 PM
What about psychic warrior? Its manifesting goes well with the druid's WIS dependence, and you pick up fighter bonus feats and some powers that can be used as swift actions. The big problem is that your HD/BAB/saves aren't really any better than a single-classed druid.

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-26, 10:22 PM
What about psychic warrior? Its manifesting goes well with the druid's WIS dependence, and you pick up fighter bonus feats and some powers that can be used as swift actions. The big problem is that your HD/BAB/saves aren't really any better than a single-classed druid.There's ardent, too, if you don't mind losing the feats. More powers and more power points. Dominant Ideal is insane, too.

Thurbane
2010-05-26, 10:28 PM
I would say Binder/KotSS//Dragonfire Adept...not optimal, but plenty of options...