Ok, so I've got this Gestalt build.....

[Albion, The Eye]

And I would obviously like some advice/input on it ;)

The base idea is a whirling Dervish of Doom (Dawn), shining the light of Sarenrae wherever she goes (and she will be going to a VERY dark place believe me) - since the game is Gestalt, I decided to go Bard/Paladin as the Core, because Paladins are a bomb and because I think Bards complement them VERY nicely as far as skills and spells go. I also decided to go mainly melee (though not exclusively) because well... Scimitar and style :D

The character comes in at level 5, so I have:

Classes side ONE of Gestalt: Bard (Dervish of Dawn) 5
Classes side TWO of Gestalt: Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) 2 / Monk(UC Master of Many Styles) 1 / Fighter 1 / Cleric (Crusader) 1

Already I sense she is all over the place, but please bear with me for a few more seconds - I will try to explain this mess :D

#1: She is going to be running around swinging her scimitar like there is no tomorrow, and is basically a melee character, so I would like to have the following feat chassis running at level 5:

-- Feats --

Lvl1 (Bard1/Paladin1): Fey Foundling
Lvl2 (Bard2/Paladin1,Cleric1): Weapon focus (Scimitar)
Lvl3 (Bard3/Paladin2,Cleric1): Dodge
Lvl4 (Bard4/Paladin2,Cleric1,Monk1): Crane Style
Lvl5 (Bard4/Paladin2,Cleric1,Monk1,Fighter1): Power Attack (Fighter Bonus) + Crusader Flurry

I am on the fence on a LOT of things, namely:

- The plan is to be Paladin from here onwards (though I may consider another level of monk for Crane Wing for example, or of Fighter for another feat), but still it kinda feels I already went too many places with my first five levels. What do you think?
- Power Attack vs. Arcane Strike (or none of them)
- Is Crane Style/Wing actually worth it after all the nerfs? The way I see it, it allows me a faster progression than Combat Expertise in pumping my AC, which brings me to the next point;
- How good is Crusader Flurry here actually? For this character it means an additional attack at the cost of not being able to wear any armor. If I simply dropped it, I could be packing an Agile Mithril Breastplate right off the bat...

----------------------------

We are using Automatic Progression, and she has 5k gold to spend. Stats are generated with fixed array 16,15,14,13,12,11, so at level 5 Gestalt, as an Azata blooded aasimar, the character wades in at:

STR 13, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 11, WIS 16, CHA 16

AC: 22 = 10 + 3[Dex] + 3[Wis] + 1[Dodge] + 1[Armor attunement +1 (maybe clothes or bracers?)]+ 1[Deflection +1] + 3[Fighting Defensively w/ Crane Style]

-- Important Note --
Mage armor (I could get a wand of level 2) would take this to AC26, OR Bracers of Protection +2 could take this to AC24 - I'm not really sure which route to take here...

To Hit: +6/+6 +5[BAB] +3[Dex] +1[Weapon attunement +1] +1[Weapon Focus] -2[Fighting Defensively] -2[Power Attack]

Damage: +8 +3[Dex] +4[Power Attack] +1[Weapon Attunement +1]

-- Important Note --
Inspire Courage (available 15 rounds/day) pushes this up respectably to +8/+8 to hit and +12 to damage.

====================

There are still several considerations regarding traits, spells, etc. But I wanted to hear your opinion on what I have so far, in regards to dealing decent damage, having great defenses overall (AC, defensive spells and Saves), and being versatile as far as Skills go (thanks to the Bard side). And also if she could be put into practice in another, better way.

[avr]

Something I like to do is to imagine the character fighting her mirror. In this case with mage armor, inspire courage & flurry operating you get about 0.3 hits per round, so you've created a character which leans heavily towards defence. If you're fine with that, go for it. Though I think you have +4 BAB not +5 if you're using fractional BAB, which is normal practice in gestalt.

If you went paladin 4/fighter 1 you'd have more paladinly stuff, BAB +5, real armor, you could rearrange stats to drop wisdom and raise one of dex or cha, and you might pick up an extra attack at least some of the time via combat reflexes and weapon trick (one handed) - see stylish riposte.

[Albion, The Eye]

Actually I made a mistake there - Inspire Courage should buff her attacks to +10/+10 to hit and +12 to damage.

But I do think I know what you mean though - you are analyzing the chances I would have to hit myself, is that correct? Which in that case would actually mean 0.4 hits (0.38 rounded up with the corrected +10 to hit).

Even though I have the feeling that percentage requires some additional correction (because I would be swinging twice per round), I can see perfectly what you mean. Thank you for the feedback avr.

[Cult of Vorg]

Where are you getting flurry from if you're going MoMS monk?

[Albion, The Eye]

Actually... You may have found a fundamental mistake in the build... Though as it stands I don't need MoMS to get Crane Style, so I can just drop it I guess.

I can take the Brawler archetype for the Fighter, which will open up the chance to take Crane Wing by just taking another Ftr level.

[Lady-J]

if your going to dip monk in a paladin bard gestalt i would suggest unchained scaled fist(uses cha instead of wis for ac) also why are you going cleric? you can get challenging class feature with 4 levels of paladin and can pick up wis to ac if you go sacred fist warprist so if you go paladin 4, unchained monk 1/bard4, warpriest 1 you can get full 5 bab crusader flurry along with cha and wis to ac and cmd when not wearing armor plus you will have the good flurry(unchained version) cha to saves cha to deflection bonus to ac when smiting you can take the tempered champion paladin archetype (gets rid of paladins spells but gains bonus feats and uses paladin level as fighter level for determining prerequisites also see if your dm will let you trade your SLA for something on the roll 100 table you can get a +2 to any of your ability scores that way

[Balancer]

Personally since the Paladin is a very level dependent class I would stick with it, dipping into fighter for the feat, dropping crane style and grabbing power attack/furious focus and toughness then building towards whatever you want.

I would also suggest grabbing the trait that boosts CL by 2 up to your HD and choosing paladin that way you can cast Blade tutor's spirit at a higher to CL to offset the penalties from power attack.

Edit: Also how are you plannign on flurrying with a scimitar when it doesn't have the monk quality.

And you should look at going for the Unhindered shield feat:
Unhindering Shield (Shield Mastery)
You are accustomed to fighting with your shield.
Prerequisites: Shield Focus, base attack bonus +6 or fighter level 4th, proficiency with bucklers.
Benefit: You still gain a buckler's bonus to AC even if you use your shield hand for some other purpose. When you wield a buckler, your shield hand is considered free for the purposes of casting spells, wielding weapons, and using any other abilities that require you to have a free hand or interact with your shield, such as the swashbuckler's precise strike deed or the Weapon Finesse feat.
Special: A monk with this feat is not considered to be using a shield for the purposes of his AC bonus, fast movement, or flurry of blows.

[Lady-J]

Balancer wrote:

Edit: Also how are you plannign on flurrying with a scimitar when it doesn't have the monk quality.

crusaders flurry lets you flurry with your gods favoured weapon in this case its a scimitar

[Balancer]

Oh, very nice.

[Lady-J]

i would also highly recommend swapping your wisdom and charisma around so you have a 14 wis 18 cha it will be a lot better for you