So far, I have a Dwarf with Barbarian 4 on one side, and the other side undecided. Cleric could work, but Moradin's lack of the Strength domain irks me. I'd like to do Axe and Shield, but I'm not completely committed to the idea. We've already got a massive melee damage output guy, trapfinding with huge modifiers in Search and Disable Device, and both types of spellcasting covered.
My main goal with this character is to stop up the battlefield by posing as an unbreakable, unmovable barrier between the enemy and the squishies. I don't remember the alignment restrictions for Dwarven Defender, but if I have to be lawful, I can drop Barb. LA applies to both sides, racial HD only to one, and I'd like to keep my HD and HP as high as possible, so most templates are out.
If you have any suggestions for feats, ability arrays(40 point buy), or future planning, I'd love to hear them. We'll be allowed one trait and one flaw apiece, and I'd like to use them to boost my HP, AC, and saves. Speed is not too big of an issue, because I'll probably be mounted. Thanks in advance!
My main goal with this character is to stop up the battlefield by posing as an [unbreakable, unmovable barrier between the enemy and the squishies.
how are you going to force the enemy to attack you instead of the squishies? This is something you need to consider, if you are in defensive stance with only a 5 or even 10' reach, most intelligent foes will probably just ignore you in favor of the wizard dropping fireballs, etc. You need a way to discourage them from doing this, the usual way is with a reach weapon and stand still feat (XPH) improved trip, knight abilities from PHB2, or tome of battle stuff.
get deepwarden from races of stone, it lets you apply con to AC
probably consider some levels or warblade or crusader from tome of battle, too.
Go for Mechanus Gear (Planar Handbook, and being a dwarf means you don't lose speed in it), get heavy armour optimisation and greater heavy armour optimisation (from races of stone) to increase the armour it gives from +10 to +12 and reduce the armour check penalty from -10 to i think -6. Then pick up a heavy shield and pick the shield specialisation (Heavy) (Players Handbook II), and maybe shield ward to apply your shield bonus to touch attacks. A dwarven waraxe is a good choice for you. But generally defensive feats or something akin to that would be good for you.
Later on you can add the nimbleness enchant to your mechanus gear to raise its maximum dex bonus from +0 to +1 and reducing its armour check penalty by a further 2. This is a +1 ability, and effectively gives you +1 AC but also added maneovreability.
Without magic, thats 25 Armour class at level 2 :P. (26 with knight ability)
I could probably reccomend more, but i'm going in the bath now.
how are you going to force the enemy to attack you instead of the squishies? This is something you need to consider, if you are in defensive stance with only a 5 or even 10' reach, most intelligent foes will probably just ignore you in favor of the wizard dropping fireballs, etc. You need a way to discourage them from doing this, the usual way is with a reach weapon and stand still feat (XPH) improved trip, knight abilities from PHB2, or tome of battle stuff.
get deepwarden from races of stone, it lets you apply con to AC
probably consider some levels or warblade or crusader from tome of battle, too.
+1 to these ideas.
Crusaders are awesome. Iron Guard's Glare does the tanking at low levels, and once you put Thicket of Blades + Stand Still + Combat Reflexes + Reach weapons together, you become pretty impassable. As far as hit points go, if you use Stone Power, you can effectively just gain temporary hit points each round to mitigate damage.
JaronK
Knight 5
Dwarf Paragon 3
Deep Warden 2
Dwarven Defender 10
Started with the following stats:
Str 14
Dex 13
Con 20
Int 13
Wis 14
Cha 8
At 20th: HP (assuming average rolls): 433 (473 while in stance)
Armor class: 59 (65 in stance): Adamantine full plate +5 Heavy Steel Shield +5 Ring of Protection + 5, defending waraxe +4
Deepwarden changes con to AC instead of dex
Touch AC: (Con applies to touch since it counts for dex) 28 (34 in stance)
Con: began with 20: 5 pts from level ups, 5 pts from book, 6 points from amulet, 2 points from dwarf paragon = 38
Feat Progression:
1c: Imp. Toughness (dm let me take it instead of toughness for Dw. Def)
3c: Dodge
5knight: endurance
6c: Combat focus
9c: combat stability
12c: Armor spec
15c: Combat vigor
18c: Steadfast Determination (Use con for will saves instead of wisdom)
Fort: +32 in stance (+3 vs. poison/spell)
Ref: +8 in stance (+3 vs. Spell)
Will: +34 in combat focus / stance (+3 vs. spell)
Damage Reduction: 11/-
Your other class: Whatever...
Build
Dwarven Defender is very meh. Defender of Sealtiel does it better (still not my #1 pick though).
OP asked for HP, I give OP HP... ;)
OP asked for HP, I give OP HP... ;)
Well if he just wants HP, barbarian 20.
Knight +feats force opponents to attack you, and with a high Cha Mod, high level Knights take forever to kill by conventional means (d12 HD, too). Dragon Shaman's touch of Vitality makes you the most efficient one shot healer out there, using Cha synergy, and gives you FH 4 if you drop below half hp. Nat Armor and energy immunity doesn't hurt, either.
Now just add a bunch of Cha/Con items, grab Improved Toughness, and... yeah. Lots of hp. Using a similar build (but with no knight levels), and just standing still, it took an optimized 15th level warblade a copious amount of time to knock me out.
I know that you are avoiding BoED, for good reason, but the Retributive Amulet and Starmantle are so effective, you may want to check those out too.
...
Alternately, you could try Knight/IoSV with Arcane Disciple(Healing)... that gives you a host of Immunities, some minor healing ability (and ability to use wands of CLW), and the above Knight abilities.
...for totally impregnable wall of gestalt, that is probably the way to go.
JaronK
Dragonborn Mongrelfolk
Barbarian1/Monk1
Fighter1/Stoneblessed1
Fighter2/Stonblessed2
Fighter3/Stoneblessed3
Fighter4/Ranger1
Deepwarden1/Fist of the Forest1
Deepwarden2/Fist of the Forest2
Bear Warrior1/Fist of the Forest3
Bear Warrior2/Fist of the Forest4
Bear Warrior3/Fist of the Forest5
Bear Warrior4/Warshaper1
Bear Warrior5/Natures Warrior1
Bear Warrior6/Warshaper2
Bear Warrior7/Warshaper3
Bear Warrior8/Warshaper4
Bear Warrior9/Warshaper5
Bear Warrior10/???
+3 levels stuff....
There, Rage into a Bear, and maul things dead with your massive bear str and con score. When you grapple, you can constrict with Serpents Coils. You get 2x con + wisdom to AC. Assuming a starting con of 18, with +6 from Dragonborn Mongerelfolk and 2 from Stoneblessed, you'd be at a 30 before gear is you sink 4/5 level bumps in it. Then you Rage and shift into a large brown bear, and your AC actually goes up due to the massive con gain.
Too bad its technically not legal, due to having PrCs on both sides. At least its not advancing 4 different spellcasting trees at once like some gestalt builds....
But what everyone else said has very significant merit.
I would highly, highly reccomend one of the lock builds to accompany this.
If you're not familair with it, a lock build allows you to stop people from moving, if they even remotely think about it. This is usually combined with basic mage distruption to obtain very crazy battlefield control.
Now, unless you have this type of control, enemies are going to pass you by like you're a joke, and you will be. You may be the last person alive in an encounter, but it doesn't matter if you can't stop them from getting to your very squishy buddies.
Now your biggest problem is that, since both builds were created seperately, then you will have to work on getting the feats to mesh. I would focus on getting everything from the lock build of your choice, and getting extra feats for your defenses from fighter levels.
AFB, so can't make this build itself, but the concept can be rather sound and would be fantastic. Personally though, I having been thinking of whether I could combine the shadowpouncer with a lock build, but that's for another day.
Here's my mega HP dwarf build:
Knight 5
Dwarf Paragon 3
Deep Warden 2
Dwarven Defender 10
Started with the following stats:
Str 14
Dex 13
Con 20
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 8
At 20th: HP (assuming average rolls): 433 (493 while in stance)
Armor class: 59 (65 in stance): Adamantine full plate +5 Heavy Steel Shield +5 Ring of Protection + 5, defending waraxe +4
Deepwarden changes con to AC instead of dex
Touch AC: (Con applies to touch since it counts for dex) 28 (34 in stance)
Con: began with 20: 5 pts from level ups, 5 pts from book, 6 points from amulet, 2 points from dwarf paragon = 38
Feat Progression:
1c: Imp. Toughness (dm let me take it instead of toughness for Dw. Def)
3c: Dodge
5knight: endurance
6c: Combat focus
9c: combat stability
12c: Armor spec
15c: Combat vigor
18c: Steadfast Determination (Use con for will saves instead of wisdom)
Fort: +32 in stance (+3 vs. poison/spell)
Ref: +8 in stance (+3 vs. Spell)
Will: +34 in combat focus / stance (+3 vs. spell)
Damage Reduction: 11/-
Your other class: Whatever...
Too bad its technically not legal, due to having PrCs on both sides. At least its not advancing 4 different spellcasting trees at once like some gestalt builds....
I thought only PrCs that advanced dual casting classes, like Mystic Theurge, were prohibited in gestalt. There's IIRC nothing that prevents you from taking multiple PrCs.
IIRC RAW says, you can't have 2 PrCs at the same time at any given level, but that rule is typically ignored.
It's not RAW to combine crazy PrCs, but DMs easily overlook it, so if you want to try it, go ahead. Your DM probably won't notice, but yeah, it's not allowed.
That's why my DM almost starting throwing his books at me for bringing in a Cleric/Warlock/Eldritch Disciple//Dread Necro/Druid//Mystic Theurge. I beat hit pretty bad with a nerf bat then.
No, dual advancing PrCs are discouraged, but not prohibited. Read the rules.
IIRC RAW says, you can't have 2 PrCs at the same time at any given level, but that rule is typically ignored.
It's not RAW to combine crazy PrCs, but DMs easily overlook it, so if you want to try it, go ahead. Your DM probably won't notice, but yeah, it's not allowed.
Is that really good CO?
It was my impression that we build within the rules, not loophole our way out of the ones DMs don't pay attention to (except multiclass XP penalties of course :P).
Unfortunately I tend to think that referring to gestalt as RAW is somewhat ridiculous, but I understand the sentiments. Gestalt is an alternate ruleset, so basically it's a suggested house rule system you can utilize.
Often this is just simplified to the basics and most people overlook the exact details.
I don't recommend you lying to your DM, and if you are trying to get away with something that would earn yourself a a hard thunk to the head, don't. But if your campaign is using gestalt to play a very high powered campaign where your DM has never referred to the rules in UA and is just allowing gestalt on principle, then go ahead. If your DM has a problem, he will tell you.
If I ask for for character help, I often will put in the house rule that we're using gestalt rules, minus the double PrC restriction.