for a gestalt paladin magus

[Rogar Stonebow]

Would the divine bond and arcane pool weapon abilities work well together? Possibly adding +3 to your current weapon by level 5?

If one focuses on keeping the stats at 14 each for str, con, int, and charisma, would it work?

[kestral287]

Would the abilities work together: sure. Though I'd probably go for the other Divine Bond.

Stats: ... eh.

14 Int is really not enough to effectively run an Arcane Pool. Not if you plan to keep them balanced going forward.

It makes me twitch every time I suggest it, but I'd seriously consider the Eldritch Scion here to get some stat synergy going. Trying to manage four stats is going to suck. Trying to do that when one of them isn't Dex and you're locked into Light Armor (unless you're starting at a higher level?) is really going to suck as you redefine the phrase "glass cannon".

[CalethosVB]

What is it you want from each class? If it's just the enhancement bonus to your weapon them there are certainly better ways to go about it. Enhancement bonuses from different sources don't stack, you take the better bonus. When you can use your Arcane Pool to add abilities though, then it starts to look good.

Other than that, what else do you want from Paladin or Magus?

[kestral287]

Magus and Paladin both explicitly increase the existing bonus, so they should stack fine.

[Rogar Stonebow]

I'm looking to increase existing bonuses and ultimately getting quick access to a brilliant energy vorpal sword.

Also want the majority of damage to come through dmg spikes using spell combat.

[kestral287]

You won't be able to get access to Brilliant Energy or Vorpal any faster. The two still add and apply their bonuses independently, so you still need to be able to add a +4 with Magus before you can add Brilliant Energy.

Only real advantage is you can take a +1 sword and, at the really high levels, add Brilliant Energy and Vorpal at the same time. But it's still level 17ish before you can do that.

[nate lange]

yeah... Kestral's right... trying to keep up 4 stats when none of them is Dex is going to be rough...

if you want to play a pally/magus gestalt you really should go with eldritch scion, but do so knowing that up until 8th level it'll cause some challenges. that let's you drop Int, so now there's only 3 stats to worry about.

also, your swift action economy is going to be crowded but LoH really will (or at least should) solve a lot of survivability issues... that lets you worry less about your Con- that just leaves Str and Cha, and you can actually be pretty decent at both of those.

You want to make use of spell combat, which means no 2hander... so you should consider a Dex build- magi have the tools to do that well (particularly picking up precise strike as an arcana) and it will up your AC and initiative without sacrificing damage over a 1hand Str build.

[Kaouse]

Ask for a third party archetype, the Primagus. Uses Charisma, can rage away low stat issues, and can select Barbarian Rage Powers instead of Arcana. You will have to deal with lowered armor though, but that's nothing Blur and Mirror Image cant fix