D&D 3.5: "The Lost Realm"

[Anastasia]

Sure, I'm familiar with them and it's a solid class. What about the other side of the gestalt?

[Rukatin]

I don't know what gestalt means. Also, where do I roll my ability scores?

[Anastasia]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm

- Character generation will be the best of two sets from Hatbot in #elysium. Make sure I'm in there to witness the rolls. There will be a topic on the game board for you to post your rolls and choose which set you take. Rerolls may be allowed at my discretion and any set will be rerolled if the total ability score modifiers are +1 or less.

- We will be using the gestalt rules, as seen here. You are allowed as many classes as you please, though I prefer if you don't get too insane with dipping. Base attack bonus and saves will be calculated by choosing the progression from one side and staying with it. Ergo, there isn't as much save inflation and you can't manipulate full BAB at all times. If you want to be a warrior, you'll likely want one side of your gestalt to have full BAB classes.

So on IRC when I'm around. I'm here for another hour before work if you want to get them done now.

[Rukatin]

...So i can't just be a Duskblade?

[Anastasia]

...So i can't just be a Duskblade?

Gestalt means you get two sets of classes, basically. So yes, you can be a duskblade. You also have another side that can be something else. If you don't want to greatly alter that, I'd take something simple like fighter to fill out the other side of the gestalt.

[Merc]

You'd pick two classes minimum. You treat one side as duskblade the other side is some other class. One of the two sides needs to be the half-celestial.

As an example, say you want one side to be Duskblade 8. The other side you want to be Half-Celestial 4 / Rogue 4.

Then on the duskblade 8 side, you get BAB+8, Fort+6, Ref+2, Will+6, and a bunch of class abilities.

On the other side, you get the half celestial template stuff, and then rogue 4 stuff which is BAB+3, Fort+1, Ref+4, Will+1, and rogue class abilities.

Putting gestalt together, you get BAB+8 (best BAB of two sides), Fort+6, Ref+4, Will+6, and class abilities of both duskblade 8 and rogue 4.

[Anastasia]

(Thanks Merc, I'm trying to do this and tech support at the same time. I'm being slow on typing out longer answer than that.)

[Merc]

Not a problem!

[Rukatin]

OOOOOHHHHHH......

But then I get only half of my racial abilities right? I think?

I am so confused.

[Merc]

No, you get all things from both classes, as long as they're not same type of bonus (hence why BAB, Fort, Ref, and Will saves you pick the best of).

[Rukatin]

So what would you recommend for another class besides Rogue? A duskblade is already basically a Fighter/Sorcerer.

I'm sorry if I'm frustrating you guys. I haven't done something like this before! 

[Iron Dragoon]

So what would you recommend for another class besides Rogue? A duskblade is already basically a Fighter/Sorcerer.

I'm sorry if I'm frustrating you guys. I haven't done something like this before! 

I've attached an excel sheet that's set up for gestalt. The skills are still set for the traditional D&D 3.5 set, so you'll have to add/subtract them to match Pathfinder (http://paizo.com/PRD/skillDescriptions.html).

Hopefully helps at least a little.

[Merc]

Going by the example above, we'll say side A is Duskblade level 8, and side B is Half-Celestial Rogue 4.

The character would have:
BAB+8 (side A)
Fort+6 (side A)
Ref+4 (side B)
Will+6 (side A)
All racial abilities from Half-Celestial (side B): natural armor, flight, Daylight (Su), Smite Evil (Su), various SLAs, darkvision, ability modifiers of Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4, etc.
Duskblade 8 abilities and spells
Rogue 4 abilities and spells.

You'd also get whatever normal racial traits your half-celestial belongs to, so if you're a dwarf, you'd get +2 con, -2 cha, for example.

***

And as for classes that go well with duskblade, if you want to semi-optimize, then rogue goes well simply for the skill points and boosting reflex save. If you did a combat rogue (feats instead of sneak attack), you can improve your melee combat options. If you go to the Balmuria 3 board, my character Ithea is an example of a Duskblade/Rogue gestalt at epic levels.

Other classes that work well are those that also use Int since that's the duskblade spellcasting or something that boosts reflex save since that's where duskblades can be weak, or something that gives you skill points. Hence why rogue works well. Factotum also fits that well. For a mix of stuff then various psychic classes, swashbuckler, bard, wizard, etc, all work.

I would probably recommend against another caster class or psychic classes just because you're asking yourself to track too much stuff in something you're unfamiliar with.

You can also just pick some melee class if you want to get something that will give you abilities that will support your combat capabilities as a duskblade like fighter.

And don't worry about questions. I'm not even playing! So clearly I'm just volunteering with answers =p

Dune's just busy with some other stuff due to his tech support stuff, or he'd be helping you more.

[Anastasia]

One quick correction, Merc.

As far as saves and BAB go, you choose one side and get that side. You don't pick the best.

For example, if you're a fighter 8//rogue 8, you could choose between BAB+8, Fort+6, Ref+2 and Will+2 OR BAB+6, Fort+2, Ref+6 and Will+2.

[Anastasia]

In any case, I'll sit down and talk to you about all this once I have a chance to on IRC. Today's just a crappy day for me.