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#1 lordothemorning Dec 04, 2011 1:01:48

Me and two friends are starting a new Gestalt campaign.  The setting is a tremendous city.  After some brainstorming, we came up with the idea to play a trio of halflings who wear an enormous trenchcoat and masquerade as a 9-foot tall, 6-armed vigilante with a mask. Obviously that means we're going to be making use of swarmfighting.  The general idea is sort of a "Lost Vikings" set up.  The basic idea is to sit on eachother's shoulders, have other people think we are just one person (albeit a very tall person), and form an impenetrable phalanx that defends, deals damage, and self-sustains.  We've got a damage dealing spiked chain build (with some lockdown on the side), a mystic theurge war weaver, and some kind of shield monkey.  Before I get started, here's some things you should know:  -DM uses a 3.0 interpretation of darkness.  -DM doesn't enforce multiclassing exp penalties. -We are gestalt characters, but our DM ruled that he won't allows to take two prestige classes at once (unless with special permission in the case of underpowered PrCs). -This is a city campaign involving some kind of madness mechanic, and abberations will be the main enemy.  We've been forbidden to go into classes specifically geared against abberations (UNTIL they show up in-game, in which case we are encouraged to). -Pretty low magic.  Wizards exist, but they are uncommon. -40 Point buy. -We start at level 3 Here's what we've figured out so far: Things all three of us will be taking: -Strongheart Halfling -Swarmfighting (obviously) -1 level dip in Warlock for the Devil's Sight invocation to have some fun with darkness. -Hopefully 1-3 levels of rogue for evasion and skill points.  We're all going to need high ranks in balance, disguise and climb since we'll be on eachothers shoulders a lot and we need to keep people confused as to what we really are.  Since we're Gestalt, it should hopefully be easier to afford level dips. -We're each going to need enough strength to carry the other two on our shoulders.  This means about 16 strength for to have it as a light load, and 10-11 as a heavy load.  We're hoping our DM won't enforce this, because the standing-on-eachothers-shoulders is mostly a matter of fluff, but we want to be prepared for it if he does. -Offensive Halfling:  We need to optimize this build for full BAB (which means ideally always taking one of two gestalt levels in a perfect progression), sneak attack, and dextrous damage.  Lockdown is not the chief objective, but it's an added bonus. -1 level dip (or possible more) in swordsage for Island of Blades stance. -1 level dip in warlock (see above) -1 or more levels in Exoticist (Dragon magazine fighter variant for free EWP) -Levels in rogue (for sneak attack) -Levels in a full BAB class. -Feats: Definitely Shadow Blade, Weapon Finesse, EWP: Spiked Chain, Power Attack, and Combat Reflexes.  Probably Craven, Improved trip, and Knockdown (although abberations may not be very tripable i.e. beholders or multilegged creatures. -As many sneak attack dice as possible -Nightsong Enforcer for improved flanking and oppornunist. -This is the halfling on the top of the totem.  He can utitilize the +2 morale bonus from swarm fighting, as well as +1 for high ground (hilarious, I know) by getting a 2:1 damage return on power attack with his spiked chain. Support/Spellcasting Halfling:  We need to optimize this build for high saves (because when the cleric goes down, you have problems), buffs, and having a large spell list. -Most likely levels as a cleric/sorcerer until qualifying for mystic theurge. -At least a 1 level dip in War weaver so he can buff the three of us at once. -1 level dip in Warlock (see above) -Wields a kusarigama to flank with Damage halfling (doesn't actually need procficiency). -Feats:  Dunno?  We want invisible spell to add to our disguisability, but apart from that I guess it's just typical wizard feats.  Maybe Divine Metamagic if it works with arcane spells (or even if it doesn't) This halfling is the one in the middle of the totem pole so he can easily touch us with his buffs.  He's designed to improve quality of life, for the most part, but the uses of a mystic theurge obviously don't stop there.  Using warweaver with cleric buffs should be quite effective.  High saves are a good thing to have because he's the one who'll be casting Heal or Resurgance if we fail some kind of save-or-suck. Defender Halfling:  This player, unfortunately, chose to roll instead of going with the point-buy, and it ended up giving him somewhat gimped stats.  His stats are something like 14, 14, 13, 12, 11, 9 (not an exact figure).  This halfling needs to be optimized for high AC.  He needs to be a tank that can get in the enemy's way and take hits that were supposed to be aimed at the other two of us. -Wields a tower shield and provides the team with cover.  The original idea was to dual wield shields, but then we remembered it didn't stack.  I don't really know much about using shields, unfortunately.  I've never played a character that uses them.  This is primarily where I need the help of the CO boards. -Probably should avoid wearing armor that weighs too much if possible, although high ac takes priority over this. -Takes Constant Guardian and Dutiful Guardian feats from DotU.  Uses these feats to grant us additional AC, and can also swap places with us as an immediate action to take hits for us. -Take the Shield Block Maneuver (either via martial study or levels of crusader) to give us +8 AC as an immediate action, but that might be redundant with dutiful guardian already as an immediate action. -Weapon ideas?  Type of armor?  He'll probably also go with a Kusari-gama if there's nothing that'd help him play more defensively. -Class ideas?  Again, this is the halfling that isn't very well fleshed out yet.  Ideally something that can work with low stats. General combat strategy: Mystic Theurge Halfling drops darkness, giving us concealment.  Damage Halfling, sitting on the other two's shoulders, gets a significant + to attack from swarmfighting, hight advantage, and buffs from mystic theurge halfling.  He can use this to get extra damage from power attack (with his full BaB, hopefully), and from Shadow Blade combined with at least an 18 dex.  Can play lockdown and prevent enemies from approaching the team's square with improved trip.  With Island of Blades stance and multiple people using reach weapons, anyone who the team threatens is automatically flanked, allowing Damage Halfling to sneak attack every time and giving additional bonuses to attack.  When we take a hit, Defender halfling swaps them and hopefully doesn't get hit due to his high AC, but either way he keeps the other two safe, especially our spellcaster.  Meanwhile, Mystic Theurge, after setting up his buffs (which is easier thanks to warweaver), can throw out save-or-sucks like no tomorrow. That's pretty much the idea.  I need help keeping Damage Halfling's BAB as high as possible, but I'd prefer to keep his saves high at the same time.  Fighter/Rogue seems a bit unambitious.  Something with full BAB, and favored Fort and Will would be nice.  Duskblade comes to mind, but that might spoil the thematics a little. I straight up need ideas for the Defender halfling.  He needs high HP, high AC, and the ability to deflect attacks on allies.  Probably the least "useful" of the three, but if he can do that job well, his stats hopefully won't bite him in the butt. The Mystic Theurge seems pretty straightforward, but any suggestions are still welcome.