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The game I'll play in just changed from six-person 3.5 to two person gestalt Pathfinder. I'm to play a gish. My stats are: 17,18,16,14,9,9. Starting level is 6. What would be the best combination of classes for this enterprise? My goal is to be party face, so I'll need high Charisma score and lots of skills. So, Fighter/Bard perhaps? GM allows traits from Iron Heroes, so I'll take Weapon Bond for sure.
Fighter/ Sorcerer
For the fightery class, I'd go fighter or ranger - depends on style you want. For casting class, I'd go bard, or maybe summoner.
A paladin/sorcerer or paladin/summoner might be really nice too.
Note that you can't cast with a heavy shield and weapon, even if you get your ACP down, unless you have Quick Draw. Same thing with TWF, so you're down to using a single weapon - I propose a big g&@%$~n sword. Or, if you go paladin/sorcerer, you might maybe take the draconic bloodline and use the claws - don't know how viable that is.
A paladin/sorcerer going into Dragon Disciple with his sorcerer levels might be a cool idea.
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My personl pick Paladin/Orical Mystery of Battle.
Full BAB ( Paladin )
Full Divine Casting ( Orical )
Paladin abilitys and Orical spell casting off one stat.
Revelations add to the abilitys of the paladin. With out spiting your focus. Using a heavy flail (Disarm,Trip weapon) with manuver mastery. Improved and Greater manuver for free.
Paladin/Bard is close to the same thing. Bards are arcane casters so no heavy armor for you.
Paladin/Sorcerer see above
Paladin/Summoner see above
Rogue/Sorcerer This is a nice combo. Lets you be a skills based charter with the power of a Sorcerer.
Cleric/Monk A divine caster with a AC that most people can only dream of.
Bard/Summoner Duble the fun eidolon meets bard buffs. You can see where this is going.
Full Divine Casting ( Orical )
Not trying to be rude or anything, just wanted to point out that it's spelled "oracle". It's a great idea though, but divine fighter/casters aren't usually seen as "gishes"; I think he was going more for an arcane style.
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Yes, I am going with arcane gish, if that's not a repetitive term. Since Iron Heroes traits are available, I plan to take Weapon Bond, which states: "Select a single simple, martial, or exotic weapon from. You are automatically proficient with this weapon, even if your class does not normally grant access to it. You feel so comfortable with the weapon, it feels like an extension of your body, personality, and intellect. You may choose an ability score other than Strength to modify your attacks and damage with the bonded weapon; consider the chosen ability score’s bonus your Strength bonus for these purposes. For example, you still gain 1.5 times the ability’s bonus to damage when using a two-handed weapon. You do not gain the bonus for Strength and your chosen ability when using your bonded weapon type. You gain the benefits of only one of them, and you may switch between the two as a free action." So, I'd take bastard sword for my bonded weapon and tie it to Intelligence. Then, I was thinking of taking levels in ranger with two-weapon fighting style, combined with magus. Alternatively, Fighter/Magus would bring me more feats at the expense of skill points.
Half-Orc Bard//Paladin
18 Str (+1 advancement), 16 Dex, 14 Con, 9 Int, 9 Wis, 20 Cha (+2 race)
Double Slice, Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting
Uses an orc double axe; as a double weapon, you can let go with one hand to cast spells as a free action, as well as switching between two-handed and two-weapon use as desired. Optionally, you can be human and also take the Weapon Bond feat using Cha for an extra +1 on attack and damage rolls (although with heroism as a bard and Smite Evil as a paladin, it's probably not necessary). A bow or several javelins are probably needed for a ranged attack.
Wears a mithral breastplate (4,200 gp) for 19 AC (not counting any magic enhancements); since it's mithral, it counts as light for bard spellcasting and as a paladin you have proficiency.
The bard brings skills and a variety of buffs and SoS/SoL (battlefield control) spells/abilities, the paladin brings lots of good bonuses and can kick serious butt against evil foes. In Pathfinder RPG, they're both Cha-based casters, too.
Another possibility is a human Barbarian//Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple.
18 Str, 14 Dex, 16 Con, 9 Int, 9 Wis, 20 Cha
Arcane Armor Training, Arcane Strike, Power Attack, Weapon Bond (whatever exotic weapon suits; elven curve blade is probably the best choice, although investment in keen/Improved Critical and other crit boosters will be necessary to gain the full benefit)
Depending on the rage powers (the Beast Totem ones are probably good choices, along with Moment of Clarity), you may be better off skipping Weapon Bond for Extra Rage Power.
Armor is a +1 mithral chain shirt (2,100 gp) for a 19 AC (counting natural armor) before other enhancements.
This character is more of a blaster/melee type, although Weapon Focus/Dazzling Display can be a good way to demoralize opponents (take instead of Arcane Strike/Weapon Bond and be content with a falchion or greatsword).
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Ability Scores are the reason the Gishes don't work well in 3.0, 3.5, or pathfinder. With the ability scores being set up. You have one primary score. If you fail to keap that one score caped out. The set of abilitys related to it fail. For a Melee you need Str to hit and damage. For a Caster you need your casting score for spell DC. So you go with Paladin/Bard this is a good choic. They use some of the same ability scores. You are limited to light armor. You are limited to melee for damage Str primary and Cha as a secondary score. Thes means most of your bard spells and abilitys. Will not effect targets of your CR or = post level 7. That leaves you with inspire courage, Bardic Knowlage, Versatile Performance, and buffing/healing spells. It hase noting to do with limited spells, or any thing other then you can't keap two stats high. You can keap Str high and keap your to hit and damage, or you can keap your Cha high and keap your spells and bard/paladin abilitys.
This is where the Oracle dose a much better job. Divine casters can use any armor. They have the best self buffing spells. They have the top healing spells. They have other abilitys that boost there melee abilitys. So there is no real lose in abilitys.
Thats just how the numbers work. Nothing to do with any figher/mage from 2nd ed. Now with how ability scores are done. It's just not the same game as it was. Now that combo dose not work well. The main difrence in 2nd and 3rd ed. The ability scores go up as you level. You do not start with the same numbers you end with. Thes was done to stop this type of build. For example with how multiclassing was done in 2nd. Figher/Theaf/Mage was a realy nice combo. Sneek attak with a fire ball any one. That is why it got stoped cold when they did 3rd.
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Well, when Weapon Bond trait is applied, I can use the same stat for casting and for fighting.
The stats I rolled are these: 17,18,16,14,9,9. So I was thinking something like this:
Weapon Bond Bastard Sword, use Charisma instead of Strength to calculate damage and attack bonuses.
Human
Str 9
Dex 17
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 9
Cha 18
Human +2 ability score bonus would go to Charisma. I was thinking of Elric-type of character, that would be weak without his "magical" sword. I'd go with Paladin/Bard perhaps, since that would give the character nice BaB, saves and skill points, and I'd burn some feats to get Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar later in the game, because of story reasons. I'd take Leadership feat for a cohort - perhaps something like an old family retainer that takes care of this "mage knight", but something with role playing potential, like halfling bodyguard, or something. What I need are archetypes for paladin and bard. Ideas?
I like your paladin/bard idea. It's an excellent choice for a face.
It will work especially well with the Weapon Bond ability. Also, bastard sword is definitely the right weapon if you're getting the proficiency for free! You may want to carry a shield, but be prepared to drop it for spellcasting.
You may want to take the Heirloom Weapon trait, since you'll always be using the same weapon anyway. Free hit bonus!
Most important question, what is the other player making?