I'm part of a living world group that uses gestalt and allows multiple characters. I need to adjust one of my characters to fit the gestalt.
Originally the plan was a starting level of Inspired Blade Swashbuckler followed by 3 levels of Eldritch Scion Magus. Then two levels of Oathbound Paladin before finishing out with more Magus. I was also planning on using my first arcana to get a familiar.
For the gestalt, I plan to go full-in on Magus on one side while using the single level of Swash on the other side going into Paladin for the rest. Since Paladin gives a mount, I don't think I need a familiar since I don't need two pets on a single character.
Now this group uses EITR feat taxes so I get Weapon Finesse for free. Since Swash gets it as a bonus, I can take any combat feat I qualify for instead. So I can still get dex to damage immediately but I still have my level one feat open.
This was my original feat/arcana plan:
1: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus Rapier, Fencing Grace
3: Combat Reflexes
4: Arcana - Familiar
5: Dodge
7: Battle Cry
8: Dueling Cape Deed
9: Acrobatic
9: Arcana - Wand Wielder
11: Aerial Roll
12: Arcana - Accurate Strike
Now I no longer need that first arcana so I can move Wand Wielder up. Accurate Strike still needs 9 levels of Magus so it'll have to stay the third arcana. I can move Battle Cry up as well since it needs 5 BAB and he'll have that then. Aerial Roll can't be moved since it needs 10 skill ranks.
So the new plan would be structed as this:
1: Weapon Focus Rapier, Fencing Grace, Dodge
3: Combat Reflexes, Arcana - Wand Wielder
4: Mercy - ?
5: Battle Cry, Dueling Cape Deed
6: Arcana -?
7: Acrobatic, Mercy - ?
9: Feat - ? Arcana - Accurate Strike
10: Mercy - ?
11: Aerial Roll, bonus feat - ?
12: Arcana - ?
13: Feat - ? Mercy - ?
I know Dueling Cape Deed isn't all that mechanically good, but it's cool so I want to keep it.
The race I'm using is Wyvaran so he can fly and I'm being allowed to apply to change the mount to a griffin. I know an animal companion is nothing like a familiar, but as I said, I don't need two pets and the archetypes that change out the mount alter Smite Evil so don't combine with the Oath I'm going with.
Any thoughts?
Arcane accuracy is a buff which you can get rather earlier than accurate strike if you wish. It also works better with the opportune parry & riposte deed. And yes it works from Cha if you're an eldritch scion.
I don't know why you're getting the acrobatic feat. Also if you have a mount then you might well want mounted combat feats.
It's been a little while since I made the original sheet. Pretty sure I wanted the bonus to the Fly skill. I might switch it to the one that gives more pool points instead.
I was thinking of going with griffin for the mount. I'm unsure if I will actually use it as a mount or just as a regular animal companion. It can't carry someone while flying, but I am constrained to companions that start off Large.
If you're getting a 'mount' that you don't ride and you have some Cha, beastmaster style is worth a look, and maybe its follow up feats too.
Looks like it could be handy. I could put it at level 7 instead of Acrobatic and Alertness at 9. Question is, do I want to put both Salvation and Ire at level 11 and move Aerial Roll to 13? Or leave Aerial Roll where it is and get Ire at 13? Tough decision.
Another consideration there is that you're only getting 2 skill points (+int bonus if any) per level. The beastmaster line needs a lot of ranks of handle animal (maxed, preferably) and some of sense motive, and aerial roll needs a lot of the fly skill. If your game uses background skills that'd help. You might leave b. ire for later if you're having difficulty fitting those in.
They do, thankfully. It's been a lifesaver for my warpriest Kotri. 3 craft skills AND Spellcraft!
We also use the Background and Occupation rules. Sadly the only ones that give Alertness are Hermit and Investigator which don't fit the character at all. I'm leaning towards Arcane Student.
Couple of thoughts.
If you're going CHA-based and you're saving feats then the Vanilla Ssashbuckler is basically better than Inspired Blade. Yes Inspired Blade gives you a little more panache at the start of the day, but you only regain panache from crits - not from kills. If you can spare the feat I'd recommend dropping the Swashbuckler archetype .
If you do want a Griffin you can ride, look at MONSTROUS MOUNT MASTERY. It' at least 2 feats and 8 skill points , but it'll get you there. Actually your GM may let you scrap some prerequisites, so you could check?
I picked Inspired Blade for the immediate dex-to-damage rather than the increased panache. While I can still get the dex to damage thanks to the EITR, using Inspired Blade will let me put a third feat at level one which vanilla Swash won't.
I don't really care if I can ride the griffin or not. I just can't switch out the mount feature and didn't want to keep track of both a mount and a familiar. I'm grateful the GM is allowing me to change the mount to something else. The list is so short for paladins.
Well, I still need to pick a bloodline for my guy. Draconic is pretty on theme being Wyvaran, but seems a little redundant. I'm thinking Elemental would be useful.
I just re-read the Character Creation Guide my group has. We can make custom backgrounds! I can grab Alertness at level one with that.
I'll call it Illegitimate Heir. So Alertness will fit the theme since he'll always have to be on his guard. The class skills will be Knowledge History, Knowledge Nobility, and Disguise.
I'd strongly suggest going Inspired Blade Swashbuckler and Kensai Bladebound Magus. At level 11, Inspired Blade basically gets the ability to crit on demand, which makes the Kensai extremely deadly, since they can increase their crit modifier. Bladebound saves you a lot of gold and gives a few great abilities to boot. Hyper focus INT.
While Bladebound does look cool, it doesn't fit the theme of this character. Being a Paladin is pretty important for me here so I need a good amount of Cha. And Eldritch Scion works on Cha just fine while Kensai doesn't. Sadly, they both replace Spell Recall so they don't stack.