Over on Myth-Weaver, I recently noticed a game based on on the premise of two alternate version of the world crashing together, causing everyone to be gestalts. And for some reason hermaphrodites.... I've had a little trouble wrapping my head around the fluff, but HERE it is if you want to take a look.
Anyways, I was thinking that it would be interesting to build a Changeling Witch||Paladin. I know the stats don't exactly blend well but I'm wanting to try it anyways. Planning on reducing Spell Failure as much as possible. Here are the build rules:
Subtle wrote: Level: 6th level gestalt.
Point buy: 25 (For HP the average at every level beyond first)
Wealth: Standard for 6th level
Races: Any with approval from the GM, including some third party. I won't approve just anything though, but try me.
Classes: Any Pazio (Including Occult playtest) plus any open game Dreamscarred Press classes. Pazio+Psionics, basically. I would allow more DSP material if I had access to it.
Story: Both of your characters former selves should have brief history and description, and your new gestalt self should have a more detailed one. Goals, how they spent the last month, their evolving personality, that kind of stuff.
Special: You may submit up to 3 applications, and one of the unselected ones can be used as a cohort for leadership later on. (I will also allow players to use strength in place of charisma for leadership if they would like. I am okay with everyone having a cohort in play by post) Due to the cosmic nature of the demigod's death, please set your gender to gestalt.
Any advice on fluff would be appreciated as well, I'm open for brainstorming on more than just the build :)
Hmm if you're allowed 3rd party races consider being an Illumian, you'll be able to base your bonus spells off of Strength, meaning that you don't have to invest as much into Intelligence and Charsima (although you will still want to invest heavily in Intelligence if you plan on using lots of hexes or save-or-sucks). Hex Strike can be a lot of fun if you want to for an unarmed build. Can't really help you with the fluff too much unless you have a bit of an idea where you want to take it.
What are you figuring is interesting about that setup? Knowing that might help plot out a build.
Well from what I can understand about the world, it seems that everyone has merged semi-smoothly with a second person. Because of the alternate world thing going on, I thought it would be interesting to combine a young Changeling who had fallen prey to her mother's call and a paladin, slayer of evil and exemplar of righteousness. The paladin would have become dominant in the merging, but the corrupted Changeling won out physically and the character has to deal with maintaining their paladin's oath while struggling under the temptations that bled through the Changeling side. Did that make sense? If not, I'll try explaining better.
Also, I should probably add that I haven't made a character above 3rd level before, so suggestions for useful equipment and magical gear would be something nice.
Ooh, neat! Full casting + full BAB is always nice. The tricky part here is going to be taking advantage of the Paladin's Smite Evil and melee prowess with the witch's casting and hexes - the standard Evil Eye/Cackle/Misfortune debuffer is doable but kind of uninspired.
From a fluff perspective, I think this is a great opportunity for the Paladin to realize that fighting to protect the innocent isn't limited to just human peasants. Taking hexes like Disguise and Feral Speech could open up a lot of fun roleplaying options - if the Paladin is used to riding around as a knight in shining armor and automatically getting respect, trying to be humble and having to stop himself from strangling people that treat him as inferior would be a great learning experience and opportunity for character development.
For the build, Hex Strike with Evil Eye would be a great way to dispense debuffs while laying down the law. It does give you a bit of a swift action glut between Smite Evil, Lay on Hands, Hex Strike, swift action Paladin spells, and quickened Witch spells, but it works well if you were already planning on a natural attack build using the changeling's claws and Witch spells like Chill Touch.
Can paladins really do too much debuffing without breaking their oaths? I mean, they're not allowed to even use poison in some games. Could they use curse-y hexes like misfortune?
Also, would Hex Strike even work with claw attacks, and is spending two out of my three feats worth it anyways? Claws aren't really unarmed strikes, so I doubt it would function that way.
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I've gotten some more fluff done on the character, by the way. They're a paladin of Shelyn, goddess of love and beauty. So I'm also looking for items, feats, and spells that could help me deal nonlethal damage, cast arcane spells in medium armor, and fight with a reach weapon (mostly glaives).
If you're looking for nonlethal damage, it's hard to beat Merciful Spell. Maximized Widened Merciful Fireballs do wonders for riot control. Casting well in armor costs at least two feats and takes up your swift action, so a one or two level dip in monk instead might be worth it on the paladin side for +Wis to AC and a couple free feats.
Merciful Spell looks great, I'll definitely be taking that. Maybe not to start with, but probably at the next level to grab a feat.
Wisdom is the paladin's dump stat when it's not Intelligent, so I'll have to pass on that one.
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