So basically I've got Centuar race, LA buy off and Gestalt Three things I've never used before.
Would anyone mind making me a level breakdown showing how many feats he gets at each levels, BAB, Base Saving throws, and Figureing out the LA buyoff. Also the second class Gestalt. I'm thinking fighter for the extra feats, but if you know something better that would go with knight I am open for suggestions. All source books are allowed. Hes also told us that he has his own method for rolling stats and we can go ahead and expect at least an 18 in our main stat.
I'll say that buying off LA is already complicated enough (you'll need 6 class levels before you could buy down the +2 to +1 and 3 more for a total of 9 class level before you finally buy off the last of your LA) that you really should NOT try doing it with a gestalt character. I really can't see an easy way of "buying off" LA when using gestalt unless it delays everything which hits you twice as hard.
When it comes to LA and racial HD with gestalt I have two ways of thinking: I either split them up or treat it all as a single class. Here is what I mean:
4th level gestalt character: Centaur4//LA+2/Knight2
6th level gestalt character: Centar4/LA+2//Knight6
Spliting them up allow you to play with LA much earlier with all the LA standing in for one side of the gestalt build. It would let you play a Half-Dragon Sorcerer as a 3rd-level gestalt character for example. This method would let you play the character earlier but you'll have a few levels where you are essentially taking only one class.
The second method is putting ALL of the "monster's" eCL on one side of the equation. You should still have some levels of one class advancing against LA but you now have the option to run some other class against the racial HD if you wanted. Using this method does mean you need to have a higher starting level as you still should have all the monsterous eCL paid off before you start play.
I hope you can see the distinction between the two concepts but I strongly recommend using one of them instead of messing with LA buy off on a gestalt character.
Well heres the thing, we are starting off at lvl 13 or ECL Equivelent.
Then I'd say you should be fine going with my second concept where it would be Centaur(4+2)/classes7//classes13. You can have 13 class levels on one side and 7 on the other side to go with the six levels that centaur equates to.
I'm not about to offer you up an actual "build" except to say that you should maybe consider something other then the Knight class to build your knight character. You may want to find one of the ubercharger builds and work that into to your character. While you aren't actually mounted I believe you could make use of the Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge, and Trample feats. Considering that Ranger is a centaur's favored class you may want to find a mounted variation of that and see what it offers. Also take a look in the ToB.
When you talk about your fighting style I'll just mention that "preferred dual large Greatswords" just isn't practical. The problems with that are that a large greatsword is already a two-handed weapon for the centaur which would make it very costly (in terms of feats and penalties) to wield with one hand. You then go and throw is dual wielding opening up a whole new set of problems that take even more feats and probably doesn't help your effectiveness. Looking at the picture I'd say he has a lance and shield but he also has a quiver so he probably has a good composite longbow to use his STR; the big sword we see is probably a single greatsword although it could be a large longsword or a bastardsword. This character may want to charge into battle using a lance but after dropping that going with the greatsword/longbow as the weapon pairing makes good sense.
And I'm not sure if thats minus the exp from buyoff or not but I'm pretty sure it is. Problem is I need to be able to show the DM the math on the LA buyoff, and hes a math teacher so yeah. But if you think not messing with LA is better thats Viable as well, Personally the benifits of a Centuar outweight the drag caused by the +2 LA IMHO.
Gosh darn it. Editing posts while they are getting replied to just sucks. Especially when it changes the meaning of the post.
Here's the thing about "showing the math" with LA buyoff: you can't really do that. You're talking about levels when buy-offs would be about XP but the thing about that is that when you are "behind" after buying off some LA you'll actually earn more XP then the rest of your adventuring group. At worst I figure this character could be a level behind the other characters but when you throw in gestalt everything gets mixed up. Throwing in gestalt and then maybe one side should be "behind" but like I say everything is a mess.
I'd encourage you to show this thread to your GM. If you're dealing with LA and gestalt is will be far easier to just put that LA up as one side of the character beside another HD granting level. It would mean that for a few levels the character MUST choose the HD, BAB, saves, and skills all from one side of the gestalt but that is just erasing the normal drawback of having LA. You may not get some of the sick synergy that gestalt can provide but you still get a lot of power.
Going back to my first post that Centaur//Knight6 could draw a lot from just his Knight levels but then he'll get all the stuff from Centaur without being any HD behind his other party members.
I was actually trying to get a second sword added on the What do YOU think MY character looks like thread. For the use of it one handed I was going to go with the Monkey Grip feat, I figured that because a Centaur is classified as a large creature it would work. Although I have been trying to weigh the difference between TWF and having the additional AC provided by the shield. I will have to take a look at the ToB, unfortunatly its one I don't have access to but I'm sure I can find it online somewhere in pdf format.
There you go again. Posting while I'm formulating a reply. Now just don't think that this is how these boards always run.
Monkey Grip is a massive trap. I'll also point out that it does nothing to reduce the "handedness" requirement so you'd technically need to use HUGE longswords instead of large greatsword. Also note that it does NOT let you wield a larger weapon in your off-hand which should kill the thought of using TWF while wielding two huge longswords as a large creature. Also remember the -2 attack penalty that comes with using larger weapons; you can use Power Attack to get a damage increase that is almost the same size with the same attack penalty.
For your character what you really should be weighing is not the difference between using TWF vs. the AC benefit a shield provides but instead comparing them to how much damage you could do wielding two-handed weapons. I'll remind you that you could "dual wield" a shield as a weapon as part of TWF but it isn't always the wisest thing to do. Remember that using a single two-handed weapon allows you to be more accurate with less work (and if accuracy isn't an issue you could use Power Attack to transfer some of that into more damage) and also lets you focus your STR bonus into a single attack. Being able to make one big attack is also great because you don't need to stand still to deliver the full attack which is needed to make multiple attacks. As a Centaur you have that 50' movement rate so figure out how to take advantage of it.
Oh, and the DM found this thread. I got an email this morning, What is this? Look what I found! and a link to the thread :D So I guess that saves me the trouble of directing him to the thread. Although I had planned to anyway if he accepted my application, once we started getting down to the nitty gritty of the character building with stats, etc.
Id do something like Centaur 6/Knight 4/Kensai 10 // Lion Barbarian 1/ Scout 3/Ranger 16
Wear Mithril Breastplate, which counts as Light armor. Say you don't wear leg armor because you are centaur, but this basically visually will look like full plate.
Take the feats improved skirmish and swift hunter. Also take the ubercharger feats.
Charge in with a lance and a hefty BAB. Make multiple attacks, all of which are going to be power attacked for a low, but also get some of the scouts skirmish bonus.
Kensai fits nicely with the whole "Knight" theme.