I'm playing in a very small group and the GM is running a Gestalt game where everyone is an unchained monk/whatever. Based on the theme and the story of the game, it felt appropriate for me to play a paladin. I'm also playing a theme based race from this homebrew world that doesn't give me any bonus starting feats.
I'm trying to build/plan my character so that I can be an effective front line melee while still embracing the theme of being a no armor monk. I'm also looking at going Sentinel (custom deity, basically Iomeade but with unarmed strike)
I'm looking for some advise on how to build a character that will be able to fill my role (front line melee) effectively. I have pretty great stats (except my INT blows), so I should qualify for most feats.
Any thoughts on how I could be more efficient?
1) Jabbing Style
1) Dodge (monk bonus)
2) Mobility (monk bonus)
3) Weapon Focus: Fist
4) Ki Power: Qinggog Power (Barkskin)
5) Deific Obedience
5) Style Strike: Defensive Spin
6) Improved Trip
6) Ki Power: Light Steps
7) Power Attack (sentinel bonus feat)
7) Jabbing Dancer
8) Ki Power: Furious Defense
9) Jabbing Master
9) Style Strike: Flying Kick
10) Medusa's Wrath (monk bonus)
10) Ki Power: Elementail Fury
11) Hammer the Gap
???
I typically don't plan much past 12th level as most games start to fall apart, but since this time around we're a much smaller group (3 players and a GM) it seems like we could go much closer to 20.
I am pretty locked into just playing the unchained monk as it's the theme based given that everyone has in common, and on the paladin side I'm limited to taking either paladin levels or sentinel levels. My plan was to start taking them at 6th level and finish that before going back to paladin levels.
Given my limited number of feats, I'm looking for some advise on what I can do better. I should also note that the style of the GM I'm gaming with doesn't really allow for us to just 'buy' magic items at given levels. We typically just have to use what we are given, so I generally try to build my characters so as to not rely too much on magic items. - I want the character to be cool without the magic items defining him.
Thanks!