Building a Claymore (manga) using Gestalt

[Umbral Reaver]

I'm looking to make a character a lot like a Claymore using gestalt rules.

Claymores are warriors instilled with demonic flesh and blood that gives them supernatural strength and agility. The more they draw on their energy, the stronger they become but the more they are influenced by their demonic side. They wield two-handed swords and often display uncanny martial techniques. They typically have no 'outward' force of magic. All their supernatural abilities enhance their bodies.

Here's the rules:

25 point buy, Gestalt. Weapon Finesse is free, though I'll probably aim at a strength build. Levelwise, likely to be level 4 or so.

Right now I'm considering Bloodrager for one side of the class, picking spells that best portray enhanced physical abilities and mobility.

The problem is the other side of the gestalt. Sohei/Quingong might work, but Sohei is so damned self-contradictory that I don't know if I can wrangle it.

Any advice?

[Kazaan]

I'd say at least 2 levels of Titan Mauler to get Jotungrip as one-handing your Claymore is kind of their shtick. Rage also mimics their "released" state. That kind of rules out Bloodrager, though, since it counts as having levels in both Sorc and Barb as an alternate class to both. Ranger would probably be a close second choice as Favored Enemy is quite fitting and they also tend to be more "wilderness survival" themed since few towns would harbor them.

So I'd say first 2 levels are Ranger/Titan Mauler and levels after that are either Fighter/Ranger if you are more of a Defense type or Fighter/Barb if you're an Offensive type. Good Ranger archetypes to use would be Trapper or Skirmisher if you want to eschew spells or maybe Nirmathi Irregular if you really want to focus on your single favored enemy. For Fighter archetypes, Two-handed would be thematic, as would Weapon Master. Mobile Fighter would serve to represent someone like Phantom Miria while Two-Weapon Warrior could represent Deneve's style, wielding a pair of Greatswords. Of course, your Ranger combat style should probably be two-handed weapon by default, unless you're taking the two-weapon approach.

As far as race goes, you could go Teifling, but that's not precisely the flavor they have. Human with Eldritch Heritage(Abyssal) may be better.

[Umbral Reaver]

It would be pretty easy to do Miria by relying strongly on mirror image. Bloodrager can cast that while raging. What's the problem with bloodrager? It gets both rage and the ability to cast spells (to mimic the special techniques). No rage talents innately, but those can be picked up with feats and other means if needed.

[The Shaman]

Would psionic material work? To me they work great as psychic warriors/slayers, but a barbarian/wilder can also work fluff-wise with the right ability selection - psionic powers have no somatic or verbal components so you don´t need the mummery to do your job. BTW, you can also use ranger as the martial class - favored enemy works pretty well for them, and the bonus feats can´t hurt.

Speaking about race, the tiefling could work, but the subtle differences can also be represented by having them be changed to elans with minor fluff differences.

[Deadmanwalking]

I'd personally go Barbarian/Inquisitor. You'd need to do some buffs pre-Rage, but almost nobody is as good at self-buffing as an Inquisitor. Combined with good skill points and Class skills, and a very appropriate theme, it seems a winning combo.

Select your spells to avoid overt magic and you should be good to go.

Bloodrager/Inquisitor would also work, possibly even better, but Bloodrager has some problems that'd make me want to wait till the final version is released before I played one.

[Kryzbyn]

Not only that, but the visual side effects could be refluffed as the changes in her appearance...

EDIT: This was in reference to the psionic suggestions...

[Umbral Reaver]

I haven't looked too closely at bloodrager, aside from knowing it's basically a barbarian that trades rage powers for diminished magus casting. What's the trouble? It seemed ideal at first glance.

[Kazaan]

You know how Ninja is an alternate class to Rogue and Samurai is an alternate class to Cavalier? That means that they are, essentially, the same exact class so you can't, say, take a level in Rogue and a level in Ninja because that would be like trying to multi-class as a Rogue 1/Rogue 1. Well, the "combo classes" like Bloodrager are basically alternate classes to both their constituent classes so a Bloodrager can't take levels in either Barbarian or Sorcerer and a character with levels in either Sorc or Barb can't take levels in Bloodrager. So if you're going to take Titan Mauler Barb up to lvl 2 to get Jotungrip, you won't be able to take levels in Bloodrager.

[Deadmanwalking]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

I haven't looked too closely at bloodrager, aside from knowing it's basically a barbarian that trades rage powers for diminished magus casting. What's the trouble? It seemed ideal at first glance.

Eh...the spell list is kinda wonky, a lot of class features and bonus spells (like more than half, barring Rage) don't kick in until 12th level plus, many quite a bit plus (almost a third don't kick in until 16th level or later) Abyssal Bloodline is not balanced with the others (it's miles better in just about every way), etc.

In short...it's a playtest class that needed that playtesting.

[Umbral Reaver]

Yes, I know that. I wasn't planning on getting any titan mauler.

[mswbear]

I would go barbarian/inquisitor the judgement and bane class abilities combined with rage fits the theme pretty well....also Inquisitor gets a lot of spells that they can cast on themselves for boosts and bonuses which fits the theme nicely.

if you want to go bloodrager I would still gestalt with inquisitor just because thematically it fits nicely with the monster lore, judgement, bane, unnerving gaze. Then also you would have twice as many spells to choose from although I will agree that the spell selection for bloodrager is a bit wonky.

[The Shaman]

Titan mauler works for fluff reasons so you can use a larger weapon. You can probably just get a bastard sword and call it a day, though. BTW, if psionics is allowed, a ranger/ (raging) wilder would probably be my best choice. Sure, you would need the right power selection, but wilders don´t get a ton of powers anyway.

[Utarga]

If you can use Ultimate Psionics as source material (pdf is currently available), then you could create an Aegis. I believe I read about an archetype that modifies their body instead of creating armor.

EDIT: It's the Aberrant archetype.

[Petty Alchemy]

Is it a villains campaign?

The Fiend Totem is not as good as pounce, but it can still be pretty good if you face a lot of non-evil opponents. The Greater Fiend Totem power auto-shakens adjacent non-evil creatures, and the feat Shatter Defense renders them flat-footed. I normally like casting on one half in gestalt, but you could go rogue/ninja/vivisectionist and guarantee yourself SA on your enemies. Vivisectionist will allow you some extra buffs ala Mutagen and Enlarge Person and such, so it may play into your theme further.