[3.5 Gestalt] Ideas for divine caster

[RebelRogue]

My gaming group have decided that we'll do a(nother) Gestalt campaign soon, and since all the other players had ideas for what they wanted to do, I sort of got defaulted to fill the divine caster niche. I'm not complaining, but I have no real ideas for builds/concepts at the moment. The campaign will be 6th level (and probably quite short, so no need to consider any significant amount of levels beyond that) and I think we'll be bent slightly towards the Good end of alignment (but suggest away - I like to have something to pick from ).

[kamikasei]

What are the sources you have available?

What sort of power level or build style are you aiming for? If you know what the others are playing, that could be a help.

Off the top of my head, for gestalt, I'd suggest an Archivist//Warblade for int synergy, highest HD, good armor/shield/weapon proficiencies, good saves etc. But that's a completely off-the-cuff idea. If you don't want to have your two sides covering for one another's weaknesses but instead reinforcing strengths, you could go with any number of caster combos... hard to go wrong with a cleric//druid.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

My gaming group have decided that we'll do a(nother) Gestalt campaign soon, and since all the other players had ideas for what they wanted to do, I sort of got defaulted to fill the divine caster niche. I'm not complaining, but I have no real ideas for builds/concepts at the moment. The campaign will be 6th level (and probably quite short, so no need to consider any significant amount of levels beyond that) and I think we'll be bent slightly towards the Good end of alignment (but suggest away - I like to have something to pick from ).

Filling the 'divine caster nitche' is silly easy to accomplish, the big question is: what else do you want to do?

Do you want to be a melee monster as well? Sounds like a job for Crusader. Do you want to be debuffer as well? Either Warlock or Sorcerer would be good to pair with Cleric/Cloistered Cleric. Bard might be an interesting choice to pair with Cleric as well.

Do you want to do a bunch of curing plus being otherwise obnoxious? Druid with the feat Spontaneous Healer (Complete Divine). And that's just on one side, you've still get another side to play with. Ranger has good synergy, with full BAB and good Fort/Ref saves, plus being good flavor.

Monk/Cloistered Cleric is a good combo. It's surprisingly difficult to take down, with awesome Wis synergy

If you want to do the whole "Cleric of Olli", you could go Cloistered Cleric/Rogue. Remember, a paralyzed person is considered helpless... CDG for max sneak attack damage.

[RebelRogue]

What are the sources you have available?

What sort of power level or build style are you aiming for? If you know what the others are playing, that could be a help.

Most sources are available in principle, but I usually stick with core/complete series as a general guideline. I've never really gotten into the whole ToB thing, for instance, so I'd prefer builds without it. The playstyle is pretty casual. I'd like something that is moderately optimized, not necessarily dripping with cheese.

I've actually been thinking of Favored Soul coupled with Bard or Sorcerer for Cha synergy, but I've heard less than great things about favores souls from some people...

Edit: Or what about Favored Soul/Warlock?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The key with Gestalt is to have overlap in needs but no overlap in abilities. Cleric//Fighter is great for beatdowns, but Cloistered Cleric is even better. Unfortunately, I'm not well-up on Divine magic, and Divine casters are harder to Gestalt anyways. Archivist can be crossed with a lot, though, including Duskblade, Warblade, or Factotum, to be very nice. Monk/C.Cleric is pretty nice, too. Paladin/C.Cleric is surprisingly dangerous.

[jcsw]

Play something completely different!

Cleric/Sovereign Speaker//Binder

Use the bonus domains from sovereign speaker (faiths of eberron) to take devotion feats (complete champion) instead.

Use binder to bind tenebrous to gain free turn undeads to power said devotion feats.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Most sources are available in principle, but I usually stick with core/complete series as a general guideline. I've never really gotten into the whole ToB thing, for instance, so I'd prefer builds without it. The playstyle is pretty casual. I'd like something that is moderately optimized, not necessarily dripping with cheese.

I've actually been thinking of Favored Soul coupled with Bard or Sorcerer for Cha synergy, but I've heard less than great things about favores souls from some people...

Edit: Or what about Favored Soul/Warlock?

Here's the thing about Gestalting:

You get the best of BAB, the better of the Saves, the higher of the HD. Favored Soul/Warlock looks good for Cha synergy, but you will be very limited in what you can do, and you've got too much overlap. They have the same BAB, same HD... not very effective.

If you go with Cloistered Cleric/Warlock, or Bard if you prefer, you still get Cha synergy with their Turning, and have more options. Cloistered Cleric trades away the 3/4 BAB for 1/2 and has a lower HD in exchange for and additional domain and some more skills. So if you pair it with Warlock, ou get the 3/4 BAB back, and the HD back, keep your extra stuff, and also do all the Warlock stuff.

However, Warlock isn't really all that good for party support, they're more offense than defense. Bard is a decent choice, I guess, but Sorc would probably be better. In that case, go Cleric/Sorc, because you get the BAB and HD from the Cleric. Basically, an improved version of Mystic Theurge. Pick up the utility/buffs that you CANNOT GET from Cleric, and you'll be pretty well off.

If you're wanting survivability, go Cloistered Cleric/Monk. Monks get all good saves, decent HD, 3/4 BAB, so you loose nothing by going Cloistered. In addition, you get progressively stronger unarmed attack, flurry, and Evasion.

[Fax Celestis]

Play something completely different!

Cleric/Sovereign Speaker//Binder

Use the bonus domains from sovereign speaker (faiths of eberron) to take devotion feats (complete champion) instead.

Use binder to bind tenebrous to gain free turn undeads to power said devotion feats.

I was actually going to recommend Favored Soul/Combat Medic//Binder with the PHB-II Favored Soul alt class feature. Cha-synergy, extra-nice buffs and heals, and all the goodies of binding. Full divine casting, full binding, full BAB, d8 HD, and two good saves. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

[RebelRogue]

I've never looked much into ToM, except for quick skims. I guess now is as good a time as any

Should that fail, I guess the (Cloistered) Cleric/Sorcerer thing might be a simple, yet effective idea (actually, I'm pretty sure the original Gestalt rules describe it as "Mystic Theurge on steroids" )