Random DM nagging 2: Endless nagging

[Iron Dragoon]

Hidden sheathes for daggers; can I make them via Vestment of Many Styles, or do you want me to purchase them as an item? If so, how much (custom item, not in any book I've seen).

Also, Complete Scoundrel has Lead Lining to hide magical items. Could I get a set of Vestment of Many Styles with lead lining built in? It's listed at 10 GP for a hidden pocket.

[Anastasia]

Hidden sheathes for daggers; can I make them via Vestment of Many Styles, or do you want me to purchase them as an item? If so, how much (custom item, not in any book I've seen).

Also, Complete Scoundrel has Lead Lining to hide magical items. Could I get a set of Vestment of Many Styles with lead lining built in? It's listed at 10 GP for a hidden pocket.

First one's fine with the Vestment.

Yes to the second, but due to the difficulty of integrating it, you'd need to pay 30 gp per pocket you want possible. Tally that into the final item cost.

[Nephrite]

Do I get all the SLA of Pixies from the Monster Manual? Or is that just for creatures and not for characters?

[Merc]

You don't get irresistible dance. You should get the rest though.

[Anastasia]

Do I get all the SLA of Pixies from the Monster Manual? Or is that just for creatures and not for characters?

You get everything but irresistible dance. That costs another 2 LA and is widely regarded as not worth it.

[Nephrite]

Time to add stuff!

[Rukatin]

Am I good so far on my character so far? I'm having trouble figuring out how many spells I have and can cast per day. Also, can I assume Common and Celestial are automatic languages for a Half-celestial?

[Merc]

Right now you're not applying half-celestial correct. Half Celestial is an LA+4 template, so on the duskblade side you're fine. On the other side, however, you cannot be Fighter 4/Sorceror 4 in addition to Half-Celestial 4.

[Rukatin]

Dammit, what'd I screw up this time?

[Merc]

Okay, to help you walk through gestalt, level adjustment, templates, chargen, etc:

***

Level-adjustment is a modifier that a race or template takes on their actual level.

A template is something you add to a race to make it more powerful at the cost of some penalty (sometimes attribute penalties, but often level-adjustment modifiers), thus making it unique.

***

As stated in the house rules, you need to play a race that totals LA+4.

What this means is that you can play an:
> LA+0 race with an LA+4 template
> LA+0 race with two LA+2 templates
> LA+0 race with an LA+1 and LA+3 template
> LA+0 race with two LA+1 templates plus another LA+2 template
> LA+1 race with an LA+3 template
> etc...

(You could also add a bunch of LA+0 templates, but we'll ignore those since they're not relevant to your character)

***

In this case, you've stated that you want to play a Half-Celestial. Per the SRD:
"Half-celestial" is an inherited template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or higher and nonevil alignment (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfCelestial.htm

Further down that link, you also see that it has an LA+4 modifier.

So based on the house rules, you can only select an LA+0 race. LA+0 races are all of the standard races, such as human, elf, dwarf, gnome, etc.

I am going to assume a human for now, simply because its racial bonuses are simple to replace if you decide on another standard race:
> One bonus feat
> +1 skill points per level (with +4 at level 1 only)

***

To show level-adjustment in play, let's look at a human fighter and a human half-celestial fighter. Let's assume that these two fighters had an effective character level (ECL) of 8.

In the case of the first fighter, he would be a human fighter level 8 if he has ECL8: He gets BAB+8, Fort+6, Ref+2, Will+2, and nine feats (five feats from fighter 8, one bonus feat for being human, three feats from level).

In the case of the second fighter, with ECL8, he would be a human half-celestial fighter level 4 and have: BAB+4, Fort+4, Ref+1, Will+1, six feats (three feats from fighter 4, one bonus feat for being human, two feats from level).

In exchange for the four levels he had his ECL adjusted by (since half-celestial has LA+4, so half-celestial LA+4 plus fighter level 4 equal ECL 8), he gains the bonuses of the half-celestial template, which are improved stats, spell-like abilities, flight, and other special qualities.

For comparison, here are the two fighters built with:
- base stats array of 18,16,14,12,10,8 and with bonus points for level 4/8 both put into DEX
- assuming average HP rolls
- only gear is a greatsword and some cheap clothes

"Human Fighter Level 8": ShowHide

Name: Faito NoLA
Race: Human
Type: Humanoid (Human)
Level: Fighter 8

Scores:
STR 18 (+4)
DEX 14 (+2)
CON 16 (+3)
INT 14 (+2)
WIS 10 (+0)
CHA 8 (-1)

HP: 69 (3*8+10+5*7)
AC: 12 (10+2)
Init: +6 (2+4)
Speed: 30 (land)
BAB: +8/+3
Saves: Fort+9, Ref+4, Will+2

Attack: +13/+8 (Greatsword, 2d6+8 damage)
CMB: +12 (8+4+0)
CMD: 24 (10+8+4+2+0+0)

Feats:
Fighter 1 - Power Attack
Fighter 2 - Weapon Focus(Greatsword) [+1 atk]
Fighter 4 - Weapon Specialization(Greatsword) [+2 dmg]
Fighter 6 - Cleave
Fighter 8 - Great Cleave
Human Bonus - Improved Initiative [+4 Init]
Level 1 - Combat Expertise
Level 3 - Improved Trip
Level 6 - Improved Sunder

Skills:
(2+4+1+2)x4+(2+4+1+2)x7 = 99 skill points

Special Abilities: None
Special Qualities: None

"Human Half-Celestial Fighter Level 4": ShowHide

Name: Faito HasLA
Race: Half-Celestial Human
Type: Outsider (Human)
Level: Half-Celestial 4 / Fighter 4

Scores:
STR 22 (+6)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 20 (+5)
INT 16 (+3)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 12 (+1)

HP: 45 (5*4+10+5*3)
AC: 13 (10+3)
Init: +7 (3+4)
Speed: 30 (land), 60 (flight, good maneuverability)
BAB: +4
Saves: Fort+11, Ref+5, Will+4

Attack: +11 (Greatsword, 2d6+11 damage)
CMB: +10 (4+6+0)
CMD: 23 (10+4+6+3+0+0)

Feats:
Fighter 1 - Power Attack
Fighter 2 - Weapon Focus(Greatsword) [+1 atk]
Fighter 4 - Weapon Specialization(Greatsword) [+2 dmg]
Human Bonus - Improved Initiative [+4 Init]
Level 1 - Combat Expertise
Level 3 - Improved Trip

Skills:
(2+4+1+3)x4+(2+4+1+3)x3 = 70 skill points

Special Abilities: Daylight, Smite Evil, SLAs (Protection from evil, bless, aid, detect evil)
Special Qualities: Darkvision, immunity to disease, resistance acid 10/cold 10/electricity 10, DR 5/magic, SR 14, +4 fort vs poison

Highlighted red text where one fighter was superior to the other for comparison.

***

Now for gestalt, what you want to do is consider two separate characters and then join their abilities together, taking the BAB/saves from one of the two characters, the best skill points/scores from one of the two characters, and all of their abilities together.

So what we want to do is pick a race, a template, and classes for first character and classes for second character. In your case, you have duskblade for first character, and half-celestial fighter for the second character

Then to build it together what you do is:
Name: Gestalt Guy
Race: Half-Celestial Human
Type: Outsider (human)
Level: Duskblade 8 // Half-Celestial 4/Fighter 4

Take your rolled scores, add the bonuses for race (none for human), add the bonuses for template (half-celestial), add the bonus for levels:
(your rolled stats were 18, 17, 15, 14, 13, 12)
STR 18+4+0 = 22 (+6)
DEX 14+2+0 = 16 (+3)
CON 15+4+1 = 20 (+5)
INT 17+2+1 = 20 (+5)
WIS 12+4+0 = 16 (+3)
CHA 13+4+0 = 17 (+3)

Note: Your sheet didn't include bonus points from level 4 and level 8. I presumed to add one to CON and one to INT.

For your hit points, compare the HP from both sides:
- On the first side, you'd get d8 for levels 1-8 (for duskblade).
- On the second side, you'd get no hit die for levels 1-4 (half-celestial template adjusted 4 levels out), but you'd get d10 for levels 5-8 (for fighter)

Comparing the two die at each level, for levels 1-4, a d8 beats 0, and for levels 5-8, a d10 beats d8.

So your hit die would be: 8+3d8+4d10 (at level 1 you get max HP, so the d8 becomes 8), and then modified for constitution bonuses.
Given the following rolls:
3d8: 6, 8, 1 = 15
4d10: 10, 6, 2, 9 = 27

Con Mod +5
5X8=40

8+15+27+40 = 90 HP

Your initiative and speed are correct.

Your base attack bonus (BAB) was calculated incorrectly (mostly because you jumped straight to attack bonus, which is BAB modified for strength, feats, etc):
For side one, duskblade 8 your BAB is +8/+3. For side two, half-celestial 4/fighter 4 your BAB is +4. Typically you'd pick BAB+8/+3 over BAB+4, but Dune's house rules say you have to pick BAB and saves from same side, so hold off to check all of that.

Your base saves are calculated:
-For side one, duskblade 8 you get fort+6, ref+2, will+6.
-For side two, half-celestial 4/fighter 4 you get fort+4, ref+1, will+1.

Obviously, side one gets better base saves as well, so pick side one for BAB/saves.

So result is:
BAB: +8/+3
Saves: Fort+11, Ref+5, Will+9 (modified for the bonuses from CON/DEX/WIS respectively, including the half-celestial bonuses)

Your attack modifiers would be what you currently have listed under BAB (+14/+9 melee or +11/+6 ranged).

For CMB/CMD, follow the equations from pathfinder:
CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier
CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + miscellaneous modifiers

CMB: +14 (+8+6+0)
CMD: 27 (10+8+6+3+0+0)

For skills, as with HP, you want to compare the skill points per level between the two sides:
-For side one, duskblade 8 gets 2+INT skill points per level (x4 at level 1), for levels 1-8
-For side two, half-celestial 4/fighter 4 gets no skill points for levels 1-4 due to the template, but gets 2+INT skill points per level for levels 5-8.

For levels 1-4, no contest, 2+INT beats 0. For levels 5-8, both sides get 2+INT, so no difference is made (note that if you were half-celestial 4/rogue 4, then you'd get 8+INT for levels 5-8).

Of course, you also get +1 skill point per level for being human (unless of course you change races), and +4 skill points per level from Dune's house rule on skill points.

So you'd get:
- At level 1, you'd get (2+5+1+4)x4 skill points, or 12x4 points
- At levels 2-8, you'd get (2+5+1+4) skill points, or 12 points/level, for 7 levels.

Altogether: 12*4+12*7=12*11 = 132 skill points to spend, with max rank of 11 on class skills and 5 on cross-class skills.

From this point on, you just get every bonus from each side. Starting with feats:
You get three feats for level (one for level 1, for level 3, and for level 6)
You get one feat for being human
You get three feats from Fighter (one for level 1, for level 2, and for level 4)
You get Combat Casting as a bonus feat from Duskblade (for level 2)

For a total of seven feats + Combat Casting.

You get all the special abilities of being a duskblade level 8:
Arcane Attunement, Armored Mage (light/medium/heavy shield), Arcane Channeling, Quick Cast 1/day, Spell power+2, and spells.

For spells, you get:
6x level 0 spells
7x level 1 spells
6x level 2 spells

Of course, duskblades get bonus spells from high INT, so per the table for bonus spells:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm#tableAbilityModifiersandBonusSpells

For INT 20, you get: +2 level 1 spells, +1 level 2 spells, +1 level 3 spells, +1 level 4 spells, +1 level 5 spells. Note that as the class does not yet have access to level 3-5 spells, you don't get those bonus spells yet. You'll get those when you hit level 9, level 13, level 17 respectively for levels 3, 4, 5 spells.

The duskblade spell list is in page 24 of PHB II. They know -all- spells on their spell list, but as a result their spell lists are limited, and they can't learn new spells like wizards or sorcerors.

You also get the special abilities and special qualities from the half-celestial template:
Special Abilities: Daylight, Smite Evil, SLAs (Protection from evil, bless, aid, detect evil, cure serious wounds, neutralize poison, holy smite, remove disease)
Special Qualities: Darkvision, immunity to disease, resistance acid 10/cold 10/electricity 10, DR 5/magic, SR 14, +4 fort vs poison

Note that this is identical to the half-celestial 4/fighter 4 example above, except that you get more spell-like abilities since in gestalt you are considered level 8 (HD 8), even though on the half-celestial side you are level 4 (HD 4).

Other than that...you still have to pick feats, skills, and gear. You also need to decide if you want to go with human for your LA+0 race or pick something else like gnome or half-orc or whatever.

[Anastasia]

Wow, I go to watch a football game and Merc knocks it out of the park. He's generally right, and if you make any mistakes I'll point them out when I do sheet audits.

[Rukatin]

It also says a Half-celestial has 'Natural Weapons' or Something.

You've pretty much set up everything for me. Thank you so much.

I also get class skills from Fighter too right?

[Merc]

The natural weapons line only matters if your race gets a natural weapon to fight with.

Unarmed strikes are probably the only natural weapon you'd get, barring you somehow becoming able to attack with your wings or getting claws, bites, tail slap, etc as attacks.

[Rukatin]

Ah, that makes sense. So I have holy punches. FEAR ME.

[Rukatin]

Corwin's are main spell caster, I'm our fighter/combat Mage, Ebris is our cat-rogue-psion, and Nephrite's our Bard. I wonder what Dragoon's playing.