Gestalt Pirates!

[Rylar]

Getting ready for a pirate themed game and would like some ideas on what to suggest if my players get stuck on their character theme. Also I'm planning on putting together a rival crew (or 2) to feud with them. Looking for thematic concepts over super powered concepts.

What will work for pirates that wouldn't work elsewhere?

There is also a slavery vs freedom theme in this campaign.

[Hazrond]

what about a Picaroon Swashbuckler//Mysterious Stranger Pistolero Gunslinger? Grit and panache would stack to make a rather large pool and who can hate on the good old pistol n rapier style for a pirate? ^_^

[Avoron]

Waves Shaman//Vanguard Slayer

[Rylar]

My instincts go towards swashbuckler pretty quickly too. There is a good bit of flavor for a pistol wielding gunslinger on the secondary side as well.

Waves shaman would have a larger than normal area to shine in. Not sure where vanguard slayer comes in though. Would you elaborate?

I was thinking about running a druid with some sort of aquatic pet. Maybe a crocodile or a squid? Not sure where to go with his gestalt side though.

[avr]

A siege gunner gunslinger // grenadier alchemist could be someone you don't want to approach when he's tinkering with a cannon, his bombs or his dragon pistol. The sounds of occasional explosions or the fumes of various alchemical treatments will fill his quarters.

A sea singer bard // elemental (air) bloodrager can whistle up a wind and strike with the power of the storm.

Someone who can fix the ship will always be welcome. A dwarven iron priest cleric // trapper ranger can certainly do that, but she has this urge to improve everything she fixes too.

You might expect a halfling tattooed fey sorcerer // rogue to be on the side of freedom. Not so; she likes her creature comforts a great deal and wants others to serve her.

An investigator // bounty hunter slayer works with the halfling and has tracked down more than a few escaped slaves in his time.

Opposing them, a ninja // seeker solar oracle who can vanish in broad daylight to slip in and out of secure locations.

Allied with the ninja, a barbarian // white haired witch he freed once.

Do you want more detail than these?

[Avoron]

First of all,

Why Slayer:

Slayer in general combines really well with Shaman in a gestalt. Slayer provides all of the things that Shaman lacks: full BAB, good Fort and Ref saves, d10 hit die, and 6+Int skill points per level.

Secondly, it seems to me that the slayer skills and abilities provide for a sufficiently pirate-themed character, with the potential to effectively perform all sorts of illicit activities.

Thirdly, the slayer's abilities work quite well with the time-honored tactic of casting Obscuring Mist or Fog Cloud and being able to see through it with your Water Sight hex.

The fourth reason has to do with the Terrain Mastery slayer talent, and I'll get to that in a minute.

Looking back over the vanguard archetype, it's not as good for these purposes as I initially thought. My reasoning was that a Shaman would have some room for some useful teamwork feats, which they could share with their familiar using the Valet familiar archetype and with the rest of the crew using the Tactician ability. Plus, an initiative bonus is definitely more useful to a spellcaster than tracking, especially when you're on a boat. But it swaps out the slayer's first two slayer talents, and there's a much better way to use those talents.

Along that line, here's my new suggestion:
Waves Shaman X // Slayer 2/Warden Ranger 4/Horizon Walker X
You can select Water as your first favored terrain for Warden Ranger. Then you can select the Terrain Mastery slayer talent over and over again with Extra Slayer Talent, each time boosting your bonus for Water as well. You'll get spectacular skill bonuses when you're by the water, and once you get to level 3 horizon walker these will turn into more spectacular skill, attack, and damage bonuses when dealing with creatures native to the water. You also get to breathe and move normally underwater. And you still have great combat and spellcasting capabilities wherever you are.

[Rednal]

I must guiltily admit to having once created a Swashbuckler/Ninja.

On the magic side, someone that can control the wind and move the ship better is probably a good idea. Maybe a wind/water themed caster.

At the very least, I would start by noting down the various positions onboard the ship, then thinking about builds that would work well for each category.

[Hazrond]

Rednal wrote:

I must guiltily admit to having once created a Swashbuckler/Ninja.

On the magic side, someone that can control the wind and move the ship better is probably a good idea. Maybe a wind/water themed caster.

At the very least, I would start by noting down the various positions onboard the ship, then thinking about builds that would work well for each category.

When in doubt, add swashbuckler! :D

[Avoron]

Unless you're already a full BAB martial. In that case, when in doubt, add druid!

[Charon's Little Helper]

Have the opposing crew all be various bard archetypes (so they stack), and whenever they show up play The Pirates of Penzance. By the 3rd time, you can start playing the music just as the players see a ship on the horizon - and they'll know!

For a gesalt (per title of thread) - Arcane Duelist Bard/Daring Champ Cavalier is really quite good. All high saves - both gain advantage from Cha, d10 HD, full BAB, good skills, and spell-casting in armor. The only negative is that you'll use Arcane Strike rarely as Daring Champs are already swift action starved.

[Charon's Little Helper]

Avoron wrote:

Unless you're already a full BAB martial. In that case, when in doubt, add druid!

If you want a stupid OP gesalt - go druid/monk. And you might as well go Unchained monk as you'll still have all high saves. But - neither are very pirate themed.

[Just a Mort]

Druid/rogue

Cleric(of besmara)/Ranger

Aquatic bloodline sorcerer/waves oracle

[Rylar]

Rednal wrote:

At the very least, I would start by noting down the various positions onboard the ship, then thinking about builds that would work well for each category.

This is a good approach. So, what positions do we need to fill.

Captain

First mate

Enforcer

Siege weaponmaster?

Magi?

I've decided to put together 2 crews one will be the elite crew that they aren't supposed to fight and the other will be a rival party that will level up along side them to antagonize them with.

[Hazrond]

Rylar wrote:

Rednal wrote:

At the very least, I would start by noting down the various positions onboard the ship, then thinking about builds that would work well for each category.

This is a good approach. So, what positions do we need to fill.

Captain

Swashbuckler//bladebound kensai magus

Quote:

First mate

???

Quote:

Enforcer

master of many styles monk//swashbuckler going down the cudgeler, snake, and crane styles in that order

Quote:

Siege weaponmaster?

Siege Mage Wizard//???

Quote:

Magi?

Hydrokineticist//(waves shaman or druid) (maybe watersinger bard?)

[Rednal]

Incidentally, when building a team for fun, my first mate was said Swashbuckler/Ninja. I'd thought about it for a bit, and I figured that a "skillful" type of character (good at getting things done on a ship, maybe even teaching others how to do various tasks - and good at getting practically anywhere they need to be under any conceivable circumstances) was a good fit for the position.

[Weirdo]

Roles would be more like this:

Captain: Could be anything but high Cha and ability to wade into frontline combat would both be useful. Good place for a bard//swashbuckler or bard//daring champion cavalier.

Quartermaster (keep everyone fed and paid): anything with appraise.

Ship master (keep the boat on course): This would be the best person to be able to control weather, and the Survival skill plus Knowledge (Geography) are used for navigation so druid is a solid first half. Fighter or brawler make good complements for combat, or inquisitor if you're looking for skills and an increased range of spells. Consider the sacred huntmaster inquisitor - get a pet from inquisitor and grab a domain as a druid! Druid//Ranger isn't bad either but there's potentially a lot of overlap.

Boatswain (keep the boat working): In addition to mundane repair using Knowledge (engineering) and Craft (ships), spells from Mending to Fabricate would be useful here, and since these are situational spells you want a prepared caster - so wizard or arcanist. Inspired blade swashbuckler is an easy thematic other half since you get a rapier, panache from Int, a second good save, and decent combat skill (including an AC bonus in light or no armour). Or get more skills and extra part-casting with bard or investigator - the latter being more powerful thanks to Int synergy but slightly less thematic (bards = sea shanties, sea singer & watersinger archetypes, etc).

Doctor (keep the crew working): Probably a divine caster of some sort. Just a Mort's suggestion of Cleric(of besmara)//Ranger is a good one - strong combatant, lots of skills, covers the healing basics. You could also use a Waves Oracle with sorcerer (aquatic?), bard, or swashbuckler on the other half - though I'd warn you that oracles can miss certain condition removal spells like Break Enchantment so this Doc would need help from scrolls or another caster. Witch(Sea Witch?)//Alchemist(Chirgeon) works too, though with the next suggestion that would make three Int-based characters...

Master gunner (keep the weapons working): Gunslinger (Siege Gunner)//Alchemist (Grenadier) works well - avr mentioned it above. Full BAB, Int synergy, two good saves, lots of artillery - use bullets for DPS and bombs for control effects.

[Atarlost]

The thing about pirates is that they aren't generally in a position to be bigoted. You can justify almost anything that doesn't have alignment restrictions. And as GM in some cases you can get away with suspending those alignment restrictions.

Martial Artist Sensei Monk//Wizard: Some pirates want to get rich. Some pirates want to live a life of drunken debauchery. Some pirates are just misanthropes. Some pirates are bibliophiles who know that merchant captains -- as generally literate people who have little access to other diversions for long periods of time -- tend to have pretty good libraries. Probably best used as a captain.

Samurai (ronin order)//Rogue: Often a ronin has to resort to increasingly dishonorable means to survive, but it's not really dishonorable if nobody knows and gaijin don't really count.

Urban Barbarian//Swashbuckler: He didn't mean to kill that gnome in that duel. The little twerp just kept taunting him. Unfortunately the local authorities were unenlightened enough to consider gnome murder a crime and a life on the run eventually ended up with drugged wine and impressment. It's an improvement.

[Kyle '88]

Just a couple of ideas. Inspired Blade Swashbuckler/Blackblade Magus or Storm/Tempest Druid/Wild Child Brawler.

[nate lange]

Here's a few that I like a flavor-wise but are all also strong mechanically (all have full BAB, all good saves, decent skills, and some stat synergy):

Magus/Swashbuckler is good- at low levels inspired blade is a good option for stat synergy; eldritch scion is a bad archetype at low levels but after 8th an eldritch scion/vanilla swashbuckler is probably better than an inspired blade/other magus...

Daring Champion cavalier/Bard has been mentioned but I'll repeat it... I like the arcane duelist archetype for this but the archaeologist has some potential too. Mechanically, one of the dervish archetypes is probably best but I don't really like their flavor for pirates.

Divine Tracker ranger/Druid has a lot of synergy, can get an aquatic/amphibious companion, has water and weather control abilities, gets blessings for flavor, can wild shape into sea creatures... I haven't looked much at them but the tempest or aquatic Druid archetypes might fit well in this style game.

Eldritch Guardian fighter/Buccaneer, Savage Skald bard requires a little explanation... Take a parrot for your familiar and give it the sage archetype, dump your Int- now you're a bard that sucks at knowledges but your talking parrot has them covered, lol; you're still a hard fighting salty dog who always has a sea chanty at the ready when it comes to blows.

Mutation Warrior fighter/Steelhound inquisitor doesn't gain bombs but is otherwise a gunslinging alchemist (on steroids)- could be fun as the ship's cook/brewmaster (or the quartermaster).

Gunslinger/Inquisitor is all about proper god/philosophy selection... Mechanically it's a bit of a powerhouse (judgement and bane on your guns can be pretty sick), but you need to worship the right god to get the right flavor- either one strongly in favor of slavery or one vehemently against it will make him the token zealot who truly is concerned with that conflict above loot or crew or anything else. (Gunslinger/Warpriest could probably do this well too.)

Stygian Slayer slayer/Arcanist (or Wizard) would make for a mysterious/shadowy enemy who can track or scry, use stealth or invisibility, and eventually can dimension door (or teleport) in and out of their ship as he pleases.