Yet again, I seek the Playground of Giants

[*.*.*.*]

A friend of mine has decided to run a gestalt game for me and ( so far ), two other players. I need assistance with my character and some suggestions for my friends well.

All books open with 3.5/3.0 and PF, with 3.5 taking precedence usually.
Starting level will be low, around 3 or 4
The world has wild magic areas, so I do need to plan for that
Gestalt with theurges and PrCing at the same time allowed
Stats are 1d8+10, so MAD isn't a huge issue

I would like to make a descently flexible theurge Gish who synergizes well with the other two. I NEED to be able to get both 9th level sorc and spontaneous cleric casting for fluff. The character in question is a prince of a fallen nation who has royal blood of both a phoenix and dragon ancestor. His goals are to revive his kingdom and achieve divinity.

My first friend is interested in playing a tiefling shadowlord, but is unsure of what to do on the other side of the gestalt. His character is supposed to be my "shadow" and be whatever my character needs. My second friend is unsure right now, but he is planning on doing a tiger claw focused war blade. I'm thinking about suggesting he go psychic rogue or maybe bard to round himself out.

Any help would be appreciated

[Taveena]

Jade Phoenix Mage seems like an appropriate class, but with two lost caster levels through the progression the only way to get ninths with it would be using Martial Study/Stance to get in. Still, Sorceror 6/JPM 10/Abjurant Champion 4 has a bunch of neat 1/encounter abilities and a BAB of 17. On the other side... well, how spontaneous do you want to get? You could go Favored Soul or Oracle, which is certainly spontaneous casting off the Cleric list, but if you were to go Warmage or Dread Necromancer 6/Rainbow Servant 10/??? 4, you'd be able to spontaneously cast off the ENTIRE list, functionally knowing every single spell there.

[LurKing]

Gestalt with theurges and PrCing at the same time allowed.
I NEED to be able to get both 9th level sorc and spontaneous cleric casting for fluff.

Normally this would be really difficult, but if you're allowed to theurge and double-PrC it should be doable. The "must get 9th sorc spells" is going to make the gish build difficult though, since sorcerers can only afford to lose 2 casting levels.

As Taveena mentioned, the most effective means of spontaneous cleric casting is via the Rainbow Servant on a class like the Beguiler or Warmage. Assuming you're allowed flaws, you can get into Rainbow Servant after just a single level of the base class. On the other side, you can take your level of sorcerer and then prestige class out, since it doesn't have any class features beyond first level.

Example Build:

Beguiler 1 / Rainbow Servant 10 / War Weaver 3 / Mystic Theurge 1** / War Weaver 2 / Mystic Theurge 1(2)** /Spelldancer 1 / Paragnostic Apostle 1(4) // Sorcerer 2 / Paragnostic Apostle 3 / Warblade 1 / Swiftblade 3 / Abjurant Champion 5 / Swiftblade 6(4-9)

** Mystic Theurge levels taken at the same time as Swiftblade levels 4 and 7 to prevent losing caster level.

Loses one caster level on the Beguiler side (which grants divine spellcasting via Rainbow Servant so it can be Theurged) and two levels on the Sorcerer side. Some improvement can no doubt be made, but this will get you all 4 iterative attacks, spontaneous 9ths from the entire Cleric list, 9ths as a Sorcerer, good personal gish ability thanks to Abjurant and Swiftblade, and outright freaking insane party buffing due to War Weaver. Spelldancer is a natural choice since you already have the prereqs from Swiftblade, and it synergizes well with War Weaver.

If you're starting around level 3, you'll probably want to mostly stay in a support role until a little later. (I believe there's a Battle Sorcerer variant in Unearthed Arcana or Complete Mage that gets you free weapon focus in exchange for loss of one spell known, which is little sacrifice when you have access to the entire cleric list.) One thing you may wish to examine more closely if you decide to build a character similar to this is the placement of the Warblade level. If it were delayed until level 9, you could pick up Iron Heart Surge and White Raven Tactics, but I couldn't figure out how to manage the levels to meet prereqs and still have room for 5 Abjurant and 9 Swiftblade levels.

[*.*.*.*]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will give a more detailed post later. I do want to clear something up, rainbow servant does not fit the concept and doesn't come online quick enough. I would prefer no more suggestions about it. When I meant spontaneous cleric, I was referring to the evangelist cleric from Dragon Mag or the Cleric variant from UA.

[Immabozo]

for you melee friend, War hulk would be an interesting PrC on the other side of his gestalt. 0 BAB progression and +2 str perlevel makes for a very nice gestalt

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

"Gestalt with theurges and PrCing at the same time allowed"

Take one of the various dragon bloodlines, considering Bloodline levels don't count toward your character level for purposes of xp or when you level up. So at 1st level once you'd gained 1,000 xp and leveled up, if you spent that on a bloodline level you're still a 1st level character at 1,000 xp and still need to gain your second level, or you need to gain another 1,000 xp to gain second level. RAW every level of Bloodline taken this way is either free or it only costs you 1,000 xp.

1. Sorcerer 1// Cloistered Cleric 1
Bloodline X
2. Sorcerer 2// Cloistered Cleric 2
3. Crusader 1// Mystic Theurge 1
4. Crusader 2// Mystic Theurge 2
5. Crusader 3// Mystic Theurge 3
6. Crusader 4// Mystic Theurge 4
7. Jade Phoenix Mage 1// Mystic Theurge 5
8. Jade Phoenix Mage 2// Divine Oracle 1
9. Jade Phoenix Mage 3// Divine Oracle 2
10. Jade Phoenix Mage 4// Divine Oracle 3
11. Jade Phoenix Mage 5// Contemplative 1
12. Jade Phoenix Mage 6// Mystic Theurge 6
13. Jade Phoenix Mage 7// Divine Oracle 4
14. Jade Phoenix Mage 8// Paragnostic Apostle 1
15. Jade Phoenix Mage 9// Paragnostic Apostle 2
16. Jade Phoenix Mage 10// Contemplative 2
17. Abjurant Champion 1// Contemplative 3
18. Abjurant Champion 2// Contemplative 4
19. Abjurant Champion 3// Contemplative 5
20. Abjurant Champion 4// Contemplative 6

[Taveena]

Well, Spontaneous Cleric//Sorceror is a plenty fine gish in itself? DMM: Persist Divine Power, Righteous Might, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, etc. You could dip Prestige Paladin for a few levels for the extra spells on your list and Cha to saves.

[Troacctid]

I think Jade Phoenix Mage pretty much has to be the way to go for a character with actual phoenix ancestry. I mean, come on, the flavor! As others have mentioned, putting Mystic Theurge on half of the gestalt at the appropriate spots makes it easy to avoid losing caster levels. Take Crusader//Mystic Theurge at 5th level and boom, you're in at 6th.

As for the Cleric side, you have a lot of options. If it were me, I'd go Sapphire Hierarch, because I'm a big fan of incarnum in gestalt (it synergizes especially well with a gish build, and Share Soulmeld does nasty things to the action economy), and if you can theurge on both sides then you might as well take advantage of it. It might not fit your concept, though, since you need to be lawful with the Law domain and it has flavor ties to the Sapphire Eidolon.

[*.*.*.*]

As for the Cleric side, you have a lot of options. If it were me, I'd go Sapphire Hierarch, because I'm a big fan of incarnum in gestalt (it synergizes especially well with a gish build, and Share Soulmeld does nasty things to the action economy), and if you can theurge on both sides then you might as well take advantage of it. It might not fit your concept, though, since you need to be lawful with the Law domain and it has flavor ties to the Sapphire Eidolon.

Agreed completely on JPM

I had tossed around the idea of meddling with incarnum, but with Sapphire Hierarch having no binds upsets me a tad. Do you guys think a crusader/RKV/JPM//sorc/cleric/MT/Soul Caster/Sapphire Hierarch could work?

[Troacctid]

Sapphire Hierarch advances casting, and the Open Chakra spells are on your class spell list, so it's kind of like you're getting binds.

Soulcaster/Ruby Knight Vindicator would work fine too, though. I actually like it better than Sapphire Hierarch, since DR and smites are not nearly as interesting as Arcane Investment and unlocking chakras. Take the Incarnum domain on the Cleric side and you can get the prerequisite Incarnum Spellshaping for free.

1. Sorcerer 1//Cleric 1 (Feats: Shape Soulmeld, Share Soulmeld)
2. Sorcerer 2//Cleric 2
3. Sorcerer 3//Cleric 3 (Feat: I don't know, maybe Midnight Metamagic or something?)
4. Incarnate 1//Mystic Theurge 1
5. Crusader 1//Mystic Theurge 2
6. RKV 1//Mystic Theurge 3 (Feat: Open Least Chakra)
7. RKV 2//Soulcaster 1
etc.

Make sure to squeeze Prestige Paladin in there too, since the special mount can also share soulmelds.

[TheMooch]

Oh man I almost have the perfect character for this.

1. Duskblade 1/spellthief 1
2. Duskblade 2/Cloistered cleric 1
3. Duskblade 3/Sha'ir 1
4. Duskblade 4/Sha'ir 2
5. Duskblade 5/Sha'ir 3
6. Duskblade 6/Unseen Seer 1
7. Duskblade 7/Unseen Seer 2
8. Duskblade 8/Incantatrix 1
9. Duskblade 9/Incantatrix 2
10. Duskblade 10/Incantatrix 3
11. Duskblade 11/Crusader 1
12. Duskblade 12/Ruby Knight Vindicator 1
13. Duskblade 13/Ruby Knight Vindicator 2
14. Swiftblade 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 3
15. Telflammar shadowlord 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 4
16. Telflammar shadowlord 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 5
17. Telflammar shadowlord 3/Ruby Knight Vindicator 6
18. Telflammar shadowlord 4/Ruby Knight Vindicator 7
19. Telflammar shadowlord 5/Ruby Knight Vindicator 8
20. Swiftblade 2/Incantatrix 4

You are a little short on casting levels but sha'ir gives you both arcane and divine casting. The idea is you use your manuevers to teleport around full attacking and getting to channel spells on every one. You can persist some nice buffs from incantatrix and you have CHA synergy to gain extra swift actions.

[herrhauptmann]

Couldn't you just do a Sorcadin gestalted with a Favored Soul?

Sorc5/Pal2/abjurantchamp5/Sacred Exorcist 8//Favored Soul20?
Yeah you miss out on JPM for the phoenix flavor; but since the JPM is really a reincarnated ancient master of the sublime way and not a phoenix. Nor are you taking levels in a theurge class. But just because you CAN take levels in a theurge doesn't mean you have to.

For your friends: warlock/hellfirewarlock/binder//warblade? Maybe //paladin of terror/zhent fighter-thug9 (fear and debuff build)
Wizard/abjurantchamp/incantatrix//warblade or //swordsage?

edit: Anytime I suggest a single class on one side, throw in any PrC that looks good to you. Remember active//passive is a good thumbrule for building gestalts.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Go with one of the all-spells-known classes like Beguiler (Int, skill points) or Warmage (Cha, armored casting). Take Magical Training for a spellbook that you can put more spells into per Rules Compendium, spells which you must first learn, and use Versatile Spellcaster to spend spell slots to cast any spell you know for spontaneous access to the entire Wizard spell list. Dip into Archivist and copy any divine spell into your prayerbook to cast via Versatile Spellcaster as well. Adapt Rainbow Servant to a Phoenix instead of a Couatl, and you can have all ten levels of it by your 11th character level. A Phoenix Servant would probably get the Good, Fire, and Renewal domains, and most of the rest of its class features would be cosmetic changes.