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Sorcerer with the Imperious bloodline would be good for adding to those Morale and Competence bonuses, but you could also get that through Eldritch Heritage so... I'm thinking a certain kind of channel-focused Hospitaler Paladin could be really effective what with your high Charisma. Take a gander at Variant Channeling; there are some really good support ones so that you can support as you heal. Battle/Wrath, Luck, Protection and Strength seem good for a Bard.
If you can also get some form of Mascot familiar for Aiding purposes, that would be really cool too.
Basically their are two ways to think about Gestalt, either using it to shore up weaknesses or using it to gain synergy. Sometimes, you can manage both but usually you have to choose.
Generally speaking I find shoring up weaknesses to result in a more 'fun' character.
With the idea of a bard on one side, you don't have a good Fort save, don't have full Bab, and only have 6 (not 9) potential levels of spells. Solving any two of those is fairly easy, but you aren't going to find full Bab and full casting together in a class. So probably the first thing to think about is would you prefer a full bab option or 9 level casting, and given that choice try and find something good that will take advantage of good CHR if possible. With the exception of Cavalier, full Bab classes don't offer a lot in the way of support, and their support tends to pale in comparison to what a 9 level caster can offer.
The only 9 level caster that has good fort save is the cleric, not ideal with CHR based character, but as a support caster you don't need high DCs and 14s or 16s in your casting classes would be plenty. You will have a ton of spells so you will always have something you can do. The cleric will let you function not only as buffing support but emergency medic as well. I'd probably be looking at the feather subdomain for the nice perception bonus and an animal companion I'd use strictly as a mount to move around the battlefield (especially useful for the emergency medic aspect.)
If you wanted more of a combat and support guy I'd go a slightly different way. Rather than bard, I'd go with a cleric with the evangelist archetype (get your bardsong back at the cost of some channel energy basically) and pair that with a Zen Archer Monk. You would spend a round or two in the support role, and then fire off arrows.
I think you would be best off Bard + Oracle
Logic
Martials have weak support compared to full caster so full caster
Cleric spell list has the best support spells. So oracle or cleric
I prefer to have to double cha class and spend what you would have on wis on con instead. Oracle mysteries provide very nice support abilities. Also double cha means you have more viable spells for both classes as your save dcs will be high
I haven't considered Summoner. I'm guessing Unchained?
I'll ask confirmation, but as far as I know we don't have a summoner. I'll check it!
As a fan of summoners, I would not suggest playing one in such a large party. One round of combat is already going to take a long time, and even an extra prepared summoner will take a longer turn than normal. You probably want to stay away from pet classes entirely.
What's the party composition? A skald might be fun.
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Sorcerer with the Imperious bloodline would be good for adding to those Morale and Competence bonuses, but you could also get that through Eldritch Heritage so... I'm thinking a certain kind of channel-focused Hospitaler Paladin could be really effective what with your high Charisma. Take a gander at Variant Channeling; there are some really good support ones so that you can support as you heal. Battle/Wrath, Luck, Protection and Strength seem good for a Bard.
If you can also get some form of Mascot familiar for Aiding purposes, that would be really cool too.
The Imperious bloodline gives the bonus only to me, which don't come much in handy to the rest of the team.
I love the 11th level ability of Hospitaliser Paladins, but before then it seems default-paladin is a safer bet.
Nope!
If you receive a morale effect (or a competence effect at 9th level) that affects an area or multiple targets, as an immediate action you can share your increased bonus with all other recipients. This increase to other participants lasts a number of rounds equal to your Charisma bonus. You can use this ability once per day, plus one time per three levels after 3rd.
See! You get to improve your Bard-ness for everyone! Maybe not as often as you'd like though, which I do understand.
I'm not so sure about the Animal Companion. Wouldn't a small one be more useful? I don't think the dungeon has much space for a mount...
Support bard and caster is actually stronger with a small character than a medium on usually. Basically you are getting a better change to hit and a less chance to be hit in exchange for doing less weapon damage, if you aren't going to deal weapon damage that is a pretty good trade. That would let you use a medium mount (which would also overcome the issue of reduced speed.)
If you are going to be medium sized anyway, then the animal companion 'narrow frame' is a pretty good one.
Really though it doesn't matter a whole lot. The purpose of the mount with this build is to give you better mobility (while not being quite as squishy as a purchased animal.) If you are in a situation where it isn't going to help, don't use it. Your build doesn't depend on it, and it isn't designed for dealing damage anyway (I wouldn't be wasting a feat on boon companion for instance.) In situations where it is useful, i.e. large open areas it can be quite a literally be a life saver, if the move of your mount lets you get to a companion for breath of life when your own movement wouldn't have sufficed.
One huge advantage of a support caster in being mounted is action economy. Being able to move (via your mount) and perform a move equivalent and a standard action can be pretty impressive. One particular tactic I like is having most condition removal spells be scrolls rather then memorized, especially for the rarer ones. With a handy haversack, I can retrieve my scroll, get next to an afflicted character and cast the spell from the scroll all in a single round.
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Must have misread it, thanks! It's interesting, but at 7th level I could only do it twice a day, which I assume means 2 rounds. Or am I mistaken?
If you receive a morale effect (or a competence effect at 9th level) that affects an area or multiple targets, as an immediate action you can share your increased bonus with all other recipients. This increase to other participants lasts a number of rounds equal to your Charisma bonus. You can use this ability once per day, plus one time per three levels after 3rd.See! You get to improve your Bard-ness for everyone! Maybe not as often as you'd like though, which I do understand.
Twice per day for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier each time.
Bard/hunter and TRULY have the most terrifying animal companion ever created.
Edit: Bard hunter has the added benefit of providing a vehicle for any melee who might benefit from dipping into some of the lower tier teamwork feats like Paired Opportunists or Outflank
Paladin/Bard is quite nice, lots of simple abilities
Bard/Summoner or Master Summoner could be killer, you could even go Synthesist, using Summons and support spells
Bard/Scaled fist Monk with Linnorm Style, can fight with Cha
I'd go Bard//Paladin.
I think it's the most powerful option out there to go along with bard, unless you venture into the full casters like oracle, summoner or sorcerer.
I Recommend Bard//Spirit Guide Oracle
9th Level Divine to help fix all problems
6th Level Arcane with some of the best buffs in the game
All the skills you could desire
If you want to get Power Gamey you could Do a CHA build. Way of the Shooting Star for attack and damage, Nobel Scion of War for CHA to Initiative, CHA for Reflex and AC. This is one of those Super SAD builds.
You could also go Bard//Paladin
You will be able to heal for sure and Smite is great. CHA to saves.
But your in Light armor. Your stuck as LG which you can't use Way of the Shooting star. But with smite and Full BaB it more than makes up for that fact.
Bard//Dragon Unmonk is a great combo as well if you want to be awesome at punching people in the face while buffing your party. Good CHA focus.
Bard (buff party)/Witch (de-buff enemies) is a favorite combo of mine.
Sounds like your party is light on the skill monkey/sneaky bastard side, so perhaps Rogue (unchained of course) would be a wise choice [not all support happens in combat]. The more traps you avoid, the better, and Rappan Athuk is loaded with traps.
If 3pp is allowed, go Time Thief, for roguish support...and cool time manipulating abilities.
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The only 9 level caster that has good fort save is the cleric, not ideal with CHR based character,
Not quite.
Druid gets a good Fort save and comes in Cha-based. When gestalting with bard you don't benefit from the Feyspeaker's increased number of skills, but you do keep your 3/4 BAB.
Healing is not as good as a cleric since you don't get Channel and are missing some of the condition removal spells. But you do get some pretty good buffs from the druid casting - I'm a huge fan of Barkskin - and being less MAD may be worth it depending on how you're handling stats. If you've got at least one paladin in the group then they can do some healing, and you will probably have a pretty good UMD for scrolls.