I blame Kestral for this. Just sayin'
So, the last time I did a gestalt build (ie, the first time I did a gestalt build for one of these entries), I wound up somewhat dissatisfied with it after the fact because, let's face it, gestalt characters are meant to be kind of epic. Now, I won't go into the absurd power levels of the Signis game (at least not until I hit one of the versions of Gideon) but I will use a couple of house rules just to have fun with the build; namely a feat every other level and using character flaws and/or traits.
Now, Marsarlis 113th. His
original entry talked about Marsarlis' history along with his
legacy item which will be kept for this version. That being said (and linked) I won't be going over it again. Same kind of idea from before with an emphasis on extreme speed that comes from ties with the elemental plane of air and air elementals.
So the question becomes how does Marsarlis' build change?
The answer to that is mostly in the details -- overall the general outline is the same; martial adept with psionics but more of each. Swordsage and Warmind are going to remain but getting there is going to be a somewhat different route.
Lvl 1 Swordsage//Psychic Warrior Able Learner, Lightning Reflexes, Psionic Body, Practiced Manifester, Psychic Renewal
Lvl 2 Swordsage//Psychic WarriorOverchannel
Lvl 3 Swordsage//Fighter Talented, Efficient Defender
Lvl 4 Swordsage//Fighter Improved Toughness
Lvl 5 Psychic Warrior//Human Paragon Psionic Meditation
Lvl 6 Psychic Warrior//Warmind
Lvl 7 Psychic Warrior//Warmind Instant Clarity, Desert Fire
Lvl 8 Swordsage//Warmind
Lvl 9 Swordsage//Warmind Improved Damage Reduction
Lvl 10 Swordsage//Warmind
Lvl 11 Swordsage//Warmind Extra Readied Maneuver
Lvl 12 Swordsage//Warmind
Lvl 13 Swordsage//Warmind Expanded Knowledge
Lvl 14 Swordsage//Warmind
Lvl 15 Swordsage//Warmind Expanded Knowledge
Lvl 16 Swordsage//Human Paragon Expanded Knowledge
Lvl 17 Swordsage//Human Paragon Martial Study
Lvl 18 Swordsage//Psychic Warrior
Lvl 19 Swordsage//Psychic Warrior Martial Study
Lvl 20 Swordsage//Psychic Warrior Martial Study
Okay, I'll admit I had a hard time with this one. The original build of Marsarlis was pretty good all things considered and unlike some of my other builds it didn't rely on feats as much as concept and classes which meant there weren't any real "milestones" I needed to hit. I wouldn't say it was airtight but it wasn't bad; could've used more feats.
This time around though I found myself more or less stumped by the question of what to put on the other side of the equation. Part of it was easy -- Swordsage and as many levels of it as I could take. That was the first part and like I said it was easy enough.
The other side had some of the blanks filled in already -- Warmind 10 was obvious. I went ahead and grabbed Human Paragon too because I had the free levels and because it's an awesome class. But that still left me with seven class levels unaccounted for and I was running into the fact that all the obvious choices seemed...pretty bad. Fghter didn't add much beyond a better HD and the best BAB while Psychic Warrior had it's power list overlaps with Warmind.
As it turns out I decided to go Psychic Warrior for one big reason which was the fact I got a buttload of power points. The fact that I like the Psychic Warrior power list a lot is just icing on the cake. While I could've gone with Wilder or Psion and gotten more psionic muscle that way I didn't want to start leaning on another stat. Of course that makes the case for Ardent as it's the only other Wisdom based manifester but I'll be honest -- I'm not a fan. I don't like the mantle gimmick (tangentially the Ardent in 4E is much more awesome)
So, then. How does this break down?
Well, clearly I went with lots and lots of Swordsage levels -- 17 levels in all with a total initiator level of 19. I've got two levels of Fighter in there purely for the BAB boost and the couple of feats. I could've probably found a fighter variant if I'd wanted to but it didn't seem like it was worth the effort. Kensai, maybe, but overall it doesn't matter much. Three levels of Human Paragon is there for the free feat and, more importantly, the stat boost.
Psychic Warrior is the other big class; I've got a total of 8 actual levels in the class -- enough to get me a few bonus feats -- but Human Paragon adds another two levels to my manifesting meaning I'm getting 4th level powers from those levels. And, of course, I'm getting all 10 levels of Warmind which also gets me lots and lots of fun things plus one or two 5th level powers. So, even though I'm missing out on the very highest level powers, I'll have a huge variety of lower level powers that I can augment to a fare-thee-well.
Now, classes aside, what about feats?
At first level I'm actually getting an insane number of feats -- five of them to be specific. The only class that gets more is a monk. Anyway, what feats? Able Learner I kept around because it's such a great feat and because most of the levels I have that aren't from Swordsage have really, really low skillpoints per level; Able Learner lets me get the most mileage from those skillpoints. Lightning Reflexes is "required" for the build just because I want Marsarlis to continue to use Windlord's Edge but that's the only reason I'm taking it. Psionic Body; the third feat, is present for HP. It gives me +2 HP per psionic feat which translates to an extra 6 HP at level one alone -- 2 from Psionic Body itself and another 4 from Practiced Manifester and Psychic Renewal. Speaking of those two feats -- Practiced Manifester. I don't actually get much mileage from this feat immediately beyond the +2 HP but downt he round the increase to my manifester level means I'll have a better chance of beating power resistance and a greater capability to augment my powers. Psychic Renewal, another psionic feat which means another +2 HP, is from Tome of Battle and lets me spend power points to recover maneuvers mid-battle. Since Swordsage has a real issue with getting spent maneuvers back in a pinch this feat gives me more utility and more durability.
Second level -- Overchannel, another psionic feat which means another +2 HP (total +8 so far). This is a feat that lets me raise my manifester level by taking damage which in turn means I can augment my powers even more. The damage is pretty bad at low levels but it sets me up nicely for my next feat.
Speaking of my next feat at 3rd level I pick up Talented. This feat directly plays into Overchannel and, when I'm Overchanneling a power of 3rd level or lower, I don't take the damage if I expend my psionic focus. Now; given how many low level powers I'm picking up between Warmind and Psychic Warrior this feat becomes incredibly awesome. It's not something I'll necessarily need to use all the time but the advantages in specific sitiuations are pretty cool. It's also a psionic feat which translates into another +2 HP; I've gotten a total of +10 HP from Psionic Body now. At this level I also get my first Fighter Bonus Feat which is something called Efficient Defender. It's not a well known feat due to it being from Cityscape but with it I can increase the AC bonus of any light armor +1 at the expense of also raising the armor check penalty by +1. This'll make stuff like a Mithril Chainshirt even cooler at higher levels.
4th level -- I get a fighter bonus feat which is going to be Improved Toughness. Not spectacular but it's going to give me +20 HP over the course of the character. This plays into my idea of Marsarlis being almost impossible to put down.
5th level -- I'm starting Human Paragon at this point but I don't really get anything truly cool from it just yet. I do get a feat though, for being 5th level (since I'm building this character with a houserule my old group used that we got a feat at every odd level instead of every 3rd level). For this feat I'm getting Psionic Meditation which lets me get psionic focus much more easily (move action instead of full round action). Considering Talented and Psychic Renewal both require me to use my psionic focus in order to use the feat this'll be a huge help in the long run. It's also a psionic feat which means I get another +2 HP (+12 HP total now)
I don't see another feat until I hit 7th level at which point I'm actually getting two feats. One feat is for it being an odd level and the other feat is a bonus Psychic Warrior feat. For the general feat I'm grabbing Desert Fire (from Tome of Battle) which is pretty much there so I can do horrible things with the Flashing Sun+Hustle combo. If I thought I could get away with it I'd grab Blade Meditation (and there's enough flexbility in the build I technically could) except that Windlord's Edge is either a katana or a greatsword which means I don't get the benefits of Blade Meditation -- ergo, I'm not taking the feat. Now, as to what Desert Fire does? When I move 10 feet and then use a Desert Wind strike (like Flashing Sun for example) I do +1d6 damage. Always fun. The second feat, the one I get from Psychic Warrior, is going to be Instant Clarity. Three times a day, after I use a martial strike, I can use a swift action to get Psionic Focus. Situationally awesome and it serves as a nice compliment to Psionic Meditation. It's also a psionic feat which means more HP (+14 HP from Psionic Body now)
9th level is kind of boring level truth by told. I only get my one general feat but it's something called Improved Damage Reduction. See, like Barbarians, the Warmind gets DR X/-- which means I subtract X from the damage of... just about anything that comes my way. Improved DR just makes that X+1. Fun feat all things told.
11th level -- I get another general feat for hitting an odd numbered level and I get Extra Readied Maneuver. Most people think that this should be taken at lower levels to get the most mileage from it and I agree with that in most cases. In this case, not so much because Marsarlis has so many other tricks going his way. But that aside this feat helps with the common Swordsage problem of knowing far more maneuvers than he can ready. While it's only one extra maneuver per day that can make a huge difference at the higher levels when you've got some of the really sick maneuvers.
Okay, the last six feats I get are all the same thing more or less so I'll address them in groups starting with the three iterations of Expanded Knowledge. Now, first of all, this is a psionic feat and I'm taking it 3 times which means a total of +6 HP from Psionic Body (total bonus HP +20). Between Improved Toughness and Psionic Body I'm sitting at +40 HP which is putting me up there with Barbarian level HP at 20th level. That's...nothing to scoff at. Now, aside from the bonus HP what does this do? I get to learn more powers; mostly 3rd and 4th level powers but here's the fun part: those powers can from any anywhere and don't have to be from the Psychic Warrior power list. That opens the door for some real flexibility and lets me plug any holes I may have noticed during the campaign.
Now, the other three feats are all Martial Study. This feat opens up a lot of options for me -- I can choose to pick up more high level maneuvers from the discplines I've alreay got access to (and everyone loves more 9th level maneuvers) or I can get some maneuvers from disciplines I don't normally have access to (though in the case of Swordsage that's only Iron Heart and Devoted Spirit). And, even better, depending on the way the wording is interpeted I could even use these feats to get access to maneuvers from the two disciplines Swordsages normally can pick from and then use my Swordsage levels to pick up martial stances from Iron Heart and/or Devoted Spirit. Maybe. It depends on how much the DM likes you/how much you pay them/how open the DM is to creative reading of the rules. Either way you can pick up a huge amount of (metaphorical) firepower from these three feats.
So, I know that just from looking over the class breakdown and the feats that it's hard to get a real idea of how Marsarlis would perform so I'll try and explain the overall plan now that the details are out of the way. Marsarlis isn't about just having one schtick; he's more about tactical options. A lot of his functionality will come from the specific psionic powers and martial maneuvers picked by the player -- I personally prefer powers that are self buffs and maneuvers that might do as much damage but also have tactical utility (such as Bonesplitting Strike or Bounding Assault) but that could easily be turned around into turning Marsarlis into an energy projector with the psionic powers and a bastion of defense with the maneuvers. Warmind is there to simply give me more options thanks to Chain of Personal Superiority and Chain of Defense Posture.
....granted, Chain of Overwhelming Force + Emerald Razor would be hilarious.
Standard Builds
Alarian Thrakos, Aiel Homage, Archer Mage, Arisias, Assasin Homage, Athlete Balthas Kasra, Bardic Dervish, Blessed Hunter, Cerberus Ranger, Cyro-Concept, Draco-Blade, Dragonmage, Dragoon, Dwarven Thane, Ebin, Elemental Berserker, Force Mage, Goblin Cook, Graeme, Grappler, Halberdier, Hunter of Man, Lady Irae, Lucky Adventurer, Magekiller, Master of Chains, Missile Mage, Mounted Archer, Melee-ist Fighter, Meta-Mage, Naruma, Slashing Killer, Spellsmiter, "Standard Fighter", Stormlord Cleric, Storm Mage, Trapper, Vartyr Kellisk, Vykes, Whirlwind
Gestalt Builds:
Alikin Forgeborn, Anarok Tor, Arazil Ra'Dauthi, Arch Druid of Cair Moloch, Arhmis Diei, Armored Tank, Bloodspine Master, Captain America, Direfrost Mage, Disarmer, Dread Pirate Roberts, Duskblade Vindicator, Dusk Commando, Earthbender Sorcerer, Eddie the Pierce Sniper, Edward Mallory, Eldritch Fistfighter, Elias the Stormwalker, Fangborn Martial Artist, Flash Character, Fortress Sorcerer, Gideon of Incarnum, Graul the Ice Fisted, Highlander Build, Incarnate Dragon, Joshua Numenor, Kalix of Black Iron, Knob, Kobold Pick Fighter, Kurth, Leon Thrakos, Liam Ironarm, Lucian Thrakos, Merek Stonebreaker, Mind Reader, Multiterrain Shocktrooper, Nature Mage, Njal the Warbringer, Original Gideon Concept, Pyronic Knight, Randal Bernard, Ravenclaw Bard, Runecaster Dwarf, Seige Engineer, Shadow Hunter, Tarman Vorse, Tero Dach, Toguro Character, Toran Zane, Tri-Weapon Fighter, Uber Dervish, Ubertrooper, Urlic Vantir, Voice of the Forgotten, Voice of Gruumsh, Warblade/Lurk Concept Char, Warlock/Soulknife, William Corshek, Wordspeaker