We're starting up another gestalt campaign, I missed the last session though from what I hear I'm in charge or arcane stuff & some knowledges. The rest of the party consists of a cleric / gunslinger going for a debugging style. He follows Caiden Caylen and has the charm and chaos domains. He sacrificed a feat to roll on a random chart and got a free oracle curse without the drawbacks. He might switch to a cleric/monk but I think he's going for the gunslinger. I don't know what the rest of the party is, except that they're supposed to consist of one rogue like character and one frontline warrior character, as well as a DMPC of an unknown style.
So far I'm thinking of an arcanist/investigator, I rolled 16/13/12/11/9/7 for my stats. I'm thinking of going with periblooded aasimar and steel hound for the investigator, because a ranged build can dump more stats than a meter build. I'm only going with the investigator so far because of the skills, hp, and reflex save, the other classes I was considering pairing with the arcanist was witch and wizard. Note that bards and summoners are banned, and that we're starting at level one - what do you guys think of a wizardly character?
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Sounds workable. Though Witch is almost certainly better with those stats. Investigator adds skills and combat power, but you'll have loads of Int anyway and lack the stats to make good use of the combat power.
Witch, on the other hand, lets you get each level of casting a level earlier, gives you Hexes, and is just neater in several ways.
Take Cosmopolitan and Suspicious, and you can be a face, and likely knowledge-monkey pretty readily. The extra Hp are one Feat (Toughness) away, too.
Steel hound investigator really wants to be paired with a class which gives full BAB and/or bonus feats in gestalt. Arcanist obviously doesn't qualify and will leave your gunslinging ability too poor to be worth using in most situations, especially with only a 12-13 dex and minimal bonus damage from the classes.
If you want arcane magic, knowledge skills and some ranged ability, an alchemist with the inspired chemist archetype gets bombs and inspiration. Bombs are a far better backup plan than a gun without extra feats or ideal class features. Alternately, a psychic searcher oracle can buff then shoot people in a more traditional way, and also gets inspiration.
Hmmm, both of those sound good, what if I combined them? If I went with a witch/alchemist then I'd get the skill points, hp, full saves, 3/4 BAB, some ranged bomb capabilities, inspiration, alchemist discoveries, and wizard spell progression. Not to mention that if I go with the hexes, I can cast evil eye to make it easier for the cleric to debuff, which I think synergies well. Then if I take the Student of Philosophy I can cover some of the social skills as well.
I would be losing out on the arcane exploits, as well as the flexibility of the arcanist spell list. I could dump charisma then though, and become dex/int focused - this would open up a few races to choose from: elf, Vetala-Born dhamphir, tiefling, ratfolk, sylph, or android if my GM allows it. What do you guys think of that combo, or is there something I'm missing?
Should be good. Be careful if you take elf though, with those stats that means starting with no con bonus. Remember alchemist also gets something like spells which should help noticeably with flexibility due to the extra slots and different list.
Just came up, should I trade a feat slot to roll on this table (is what my GM is offering the party).
Edit: He's let me roll to see what comes up, and I got nine (animal companion). I'm thinking that I'm going to take that instead of a feat at first level - or at least, I assume a full animal companion is worth a feat?
Edit *2: Alright, so I'm excited about my new animal companion, assuming I stick with witch / alchemist (which seems pretty likely at this point), what kind of animal companion should I be looking for?
You mean a familiar, right? Witches get a familiar. If you're looking to optimize the only real choice is the compy for +4 initiative; if you're not interested in that I like the raven since it makes a good scout/rp buddy.
I forgot about that actually, if I rolled a nine on the table does this mean that I get both a familiar and a full druid animal companion? The compsognathus is typically my go-to familiar, so I don't disagree with you there. I've never really played a class with an animal companion though so I'm at a bit of a loss where to start. Cheetah looks good, as does the wolf or horse. Which of these (or something else I've missed) would you choose?
Big cats and the Deinonychus are the best options because they come with pounce. Nothing really competes with them in terms of sheer effectiveness.
Alright, thanks for the suggestions. As far as animal companions go then, what about Allosaurus? It gets pounce as well. For the races, I'm still stuck between elf, human, half elf, vetala born dhamphir, tiefling, ratfolk, sylph, lashunta, or android
Bump
Human for the bonus feat; with two classes using different feats to focus on you'll want it.
What feat would you recommend a level one character then? I have two to work with, though I'm likely using one on the animal companion. There's an option to spend my second feat for another roll on the table, but I'm not sure if I should chance it (even if I get something awesome like 25). Otherwise the feats I'm looking at are: Accursed hex, extra hex (cackle, so that I can use evil eye), improved initiative, scribe scroll, split hex, extra discovery, point blank shot, precise shot.
Also, we're using these revised feats if that makes a difference.
In those revised feats point blank and precise shot are combined, so that's a strong contender to make your bombs better. You can't take extra discovery until you have at least one discovery (alchemist 2), split hex requires 10 levels of witch, as a gestalt character you have enough options that accursed hex shouldn't be necessary. Personally I'd get the slumber hex before evil eye anyway, YMMV. Scribe scroll's usefulness depends on your playstyle a lot, it might be better than any or worse than any, I can't judge.
Between PBS+Precise Shot and Improved Initiative I'd probably take the former. The roll on the table has a good chance of being equal or better (at least 3/4 I think) but there is a real chance it'd be worse; are you a gambler? There's also a chance it'd be good but would screw with your concept.
Not so much at first level but consider later on the feats Ability Focus (your favorite hex), Persistent Spell, Spell Penetration, Splash Weapon Mastery and Spirit Talker in addition to those you've named.
Alright, so far I'm looking at a witch/alchemist (inspired chemist) with a big cat companion. My stats will be str 7, dex 13, con 12, int 18 (16+2 racial), wis 11, cha 9. I'll be human, and my two feats will go towards 1. Getting an animal companion, & 2. The PBS/Precise Shot combo.
I'm thinking of trading the human extra skill point towards the comprehensive education racial trait. I've talked it over with my GM and we both agreed that the original wording was way to OP, so I'll get all knowledges as class skills, as well as a +1 to arcana, history, nature, & planes.
I'm still not sure about languages, I've asked my GM to see if he has any recommendations and he just said "choose standard adventuring languages."
For the familiar, my GM is now uncomfortable with the compsognathus (thinks the flavour of dinosaur isn't his thing), and will get back to me in an hour. Is the green sting scorpion a better fit for the character if he vetoes it or should I look at something else?
Skill-wise I'm looking at 10 skill points a level (I'm likely putting my FCB into HP, unless I'm missing something good). For first level I'm looking at: Craft (alchemy), handle animal, knowledge: arcana, local, nature, planes, & religion, perception, spellcraft, & use magic device
What do you guys think of that so far?
Bumping
I think the way you're doing comprehensive education is the way it's written, so I'm not sure what you think you've changed there.
You're probably not going to use the familiar to deliver touch spells so a scorpion should be fine.
Int +4, 4 base skill points, +1 FCB gives you 9 skill points/level. You don't get the human bonus skill point if you trade out the skilled racial trait, by definition.
Looks fine otherwise.