HELP gestalt d&d 3.5 gaara of the desert

[Shinigami-Punk]

It's my first gestalt campaign and i wanted to do something fun like a character i like alot and Gaara came to mind. So i was thinking the sand shaper route would be best but what should i take before that and what class(classes) would complement it the most?

[Extra Anchovies]

Hm, gestalt...

Sorcerer 5/Sand Shaper 10/casting PrCs 5 should be one side, but I'm not sure about the other. Maybe a Swordsage? Gives more HP, more skill points, more BAB, and you'll be maxing Concentration anyways so Diamond Mind is a natural choice to focus on.

[Troacctid]

Sand Shaper is obvious; you can pretty much lock that in. How about Demonbinder (from Drow of the Underdark) on the other side? If you fluff it as armoring yourself in a shapeable exoskeleton of sand, I think it fits the feel really nicely. You need to be a Drow to qualify, but Half-Drow counts.

[Forrestfire]

I'd go with Sorcerer/Sand Shaper/Whatever else (Abjurant Champion if you can convince the DM. It might fall under the theurge rule), as suggested above, with the second track of gestalt likely being a mix of stuff for both unarmed and armed combat.

Grab wings of cover, (greater) mage armor, and shield and refluff them into sand (avoid Spell Thematics, by the way - there's a passage in the DMG that says refluffing spell effects is fine as long as the mechanics stay the same), and grab Diamond Mind counters for "blocking" spells with the sand. For your weapon, probably use your unarmed strike with greater mighty wallop to represent hitting things at close range with sand, and maybe use some blasting effects as well.

How I'd do it:

Level: Class [feats]
1st: Sorcerer 1 // Monk 1 [Improved Unarmed Strike^b, Monastic Training (Psychic Warrior)^b, two open slots]
2nd: Sorcerer 2 // Psychic Warrior 1 [Psicrystal Affinity^b]
3rd: Sorcerer 3 // Monk 2 [Tashalatora^b, Touchstone (City of the Dead)]
4th: Sorcerer 4 // Psychic Warrior 2 (Mantled Warrior* or an open feat slot]
5th: Sorcerer 5 // Psychic Warrior 3
6th: Sand Shaper 1 // Psychic Warrior 4 [Expanded Knowledge (psionic minor creation)^b**, Ascetic Mage]
7th: Sand Shaper 2 // Psychic Warrior 5
8th: Sand Shaper 3 // Psychic Warrior 6 [Practiced Manifester (Psychic Warrior)^b]
9th: Sand Shaper 4 // Psychic Warrior 7 [open slot]
10th: Sand Shaper 5 // Psychic Warrior 8 [open slot^b]
11th: Sand Shaper 6 // Psychic Warrior 9
12th: Sand Shaper 7 // Psychic Warrior 10 [open slot^b, open slot]
13th: Sand Shaper 8 // Psychic Warrior 11
14th: Sand Shaper 9 // Psychic Warrior 12 [open slot^b]
15th: Sand Shaper 10 // Psychic Warrior 13 [Expanded Knowledge (schism)]
16th: Full Casting PrC 1 // Psychic Warrior 14 [open slot^b]
17th: Full Casting PrC 2 // Psychic Warrior 15
18th: Full Casting PrC 3 // Psychic Warrior 16 [open slot^b, open slot]
19th: Full Casting PrC 4 // Psychic Warrior 17
20th: Full Casting PrC 5 // Psychic Warrior 18 [open slot^b]

Fluff your Psicrystal as that sand-eye that Gaara occasionally summons, use Psychic Warrior powers for extra buffs or combat utility, and grab spells and feats you think would be cool.

*Mantled Warrior gives you some off-list stuff added to your available powers. If you can convince your DM to let you grab schism through the Substitute Powers ACF of the Ardent by having a mantle, you should do that. Schism is useful here because it lets you use powers to move you around, buff yourself, debuff, and the like, while still casting spells and/or attacking.

**See if you can use psionic minor creation to make matter usable for Sand Shaping. It seems reasonable to make some sort of plant ground into dirt or dust, but your DM might think otherwise. If it doesn't work, swap this for another bonus feat probably.

Spells Known you should grab:
1st: Mage armor (swapped away at some point)
2nd: Wings of cover
3rd: Greater mighty wallop, greater magic weapon (if using weapons instead of unarmed strikes***), greater mage armor
4th: Otiluke's resilient sphere (a.k.a. the thing Gaara did against Sasuke), polymorph (maybe. If you want to do the shapeshifty stuff he did)
5th: Telekinesis (this is a big one. Lets you shape small weapons (DC 0) out of sand and Violent Thrust them at things for fun and profit)
6th: Move earth
7th: Not sure
8th: Not sure
9th: Not sure

Shield isn't on this list because Psychic Warrior can get force screen, which provides a better bonus. Greater mage armor is generally better than inertial armor on account of Metamagic Rods of Extend existing, though. Grabbing blasting spells in addition to these could work pretty nicely, too.

***If you are using unarmed strikes, ask your DM if you can use the learning spells off-list clause to grab greater magic fang.

For gear, you're looking for a Necklace of Natural Attacks if fighting unarmed, or magic weapons if using weapons, the normal generic +numbers stuff, and probably a Monk's Belt for even more unarmed damage. Metamagic Rods of Extend Spell are incredibly useful as well, thanks to your hours/level buff spells.

[Extra Anchovies]

Also, grab the Launch Bolt cantrip. There's no specification that the bolt launched must be of your size, so go with Colossal heavy crossbow bolts for 6d8 damage from a cantrip. With Sand Shaper, it's a DC 0 to make a bolt of that size. Cheesy? Not really. You're making a single non-touch attacks with Sorcerer BAB (which is why you'd almost definitely want a higher-BAB class on the other side).

[ben-zayb]

You may find this recent thread useful.

Basically, my suggestion is a sand-refluffed Telekinesis, and a gourd-refluffed Ring of Telekinesis. If you have plenty of levels to work with (gestalt), I suggest checking the Master of the Unseen Hand prestige class in Complete Warrior.

[Forrestfire]

You may find this recent thread useful.

Basically, my suggestion is a sand-refluffed Telekinesis, and a gourd-refluffed Ring of Telekinesis. If you have plenty of levels to work with (gestalt), I suggest checking the Master of the Unseen Hand prestige class in Complete Warrior.

And on that note, if you want to go the refluff Telekinesis entirely and just handwave having sand, then the best way to do it is to take two or more levels of the Ghost Savage Progression.

Normally this would be pretty wonky, because you're an incorporeal undead creature... Enter two feats, Human Heritage and Ghostly Grasp. The former makes you a Humanoid (Human) outright, but lets you keep the traits of your previous form. So you're now a living Humanoid with Con - and a pile of immunities, and immunity to turning and stuff that hits undead (you get healed by both positive and negative energy, too).

The second feat lets you interact with the world as if you were corporeal, picking up and attacking with objects and the like. Normally I suggest this combination of options to have a Danny Phantom-esque character, but in this case, well, let's look at what you've got:

• 100% miss chance against normal attacks
• 50% miss chance against magical (read: ninjutsu) attacks
• Pile of immunities and protection from various debilitating effects

Sounds like an "Ultimate Defense" to me

Anyone who manages to hit you past a combination of AC and miss chance can just be seen as someone fast enough to get around your sand defenses. After the two levels of Ghost Savage Progression, add whatever combination of stuff you want. I personally like Master of the Unseen Hand and/or Psion/Psychic Warrior (for schism to let you telekinesis things with your bonus action).

Make the main side Sorcerer/Sand Shaper for more sand shaping, and use telekinesis with shape sand'd projectiles for your attacks.

[Shinigami-Punk]

Thanks for the help all of that sounds awesome! Thanks for taking time out of your day to help me out.

[Extra Anchovies]

And on that note, if you want to go the refluff Telekinesis entirely and just handwave having sand, then the best way to do it is to take two or more levels of the Ghost Savage Progression.

Normally this would be pretty wonky, because you're an incorporeal undead creature... Enter two feats, Human Heritage and Ghostly Grasp. The former makes you a Humanoid (Human) outright, but lets you keep the traits of your previous form. So you're now a living Humanoid with Con - and a pile of immunities, and immunity to turning and stuff that hits undead (you get healed by both positive and negative energy, too).

The second feat lets you interact with the world as if you were corporeal, picking up and attacking with objects and the like. Normally I suggest this combination of options to have a Danny Phantom-esque character, but in this case, well, let's look at what you've got:

• 100% miss chance against normal attacks
• 50% miss chance against magical (read: ninjutsu) attacks
• Pile of immunities and protection from various debilitating effects

Sounds like an "Ultimate Defense" to me

Anyone who manages to hit you past a combination of AC and miss chance can just be seen as someone fast enough to get around your sand defenses. After the two levels of Ghost Savage Progression, add whatever combination of stuff you want. I personally like Master of the Unseen Hand and/or Psion/Psychic Warrior (for schism to let you telekinesis things with your bonus action).

Make the main side Sorcerer/Sand Shaper for more sand shaping, and use telekinesis with shape sand'd projectiles for your attacks.

This is awesome. I very much want to try this sometime.

Also, you refluffed "being a ghost" into "sand". That's pretty impressive.

[Forrestfire]

Oh yeah, I'd definitely recommend gutting incorporeality's ability to sequence-break dungeons (i.e. don't hide in or go through walls using your ability). Speaking from experience playing such a character, it's bad for the game until higher-levels. Very fun otherwise, though.

[Thealtruistorc]

Why does everyone want to model their character after Gaara? Temari seems more along the lines of a character I would enjoy playing.

I have found this(warning: links to wizards forums) to be handy and useable.

[Forrestfire]

Honestly? Because Gaara's ability is generally cooler. Sand-based telekinesis is just neat. Temari's is still cool, though. I'd likely model her as a sorcerer as well, using Wings of Cover and Wings of Flurry for defensive and offensive wind blasts, respectively, a high-level summon, and then a gish build for the melee.

Kankuro is best modeled as a Shaper Psion/Constructor, with his puppets as Astral Constructs. He can grab telekinesis powers, too, to complete his kit.