Gestalt optimising; planar shepard permitted.

[Lokyar]

Hey guys, first real post. I've got a gestalt game coming up with beefed up core races and core classes, and my DM dared me to come up with a class better than frenzied barbarian. When I pointed him to Planar Shepard, he claimed it "wasn't too bad." and said I could use it. In fact, he almost dared me to. So.... I'm going to. Now, the problem I'm having is deciding on a secondary side of the build. The party will need a trapfinder, and a damned good one, as it's the DM's specialty...  Any ideas? I can feat and prestige class outside core, I can base class inside core and complete series/PHBII, and the playable races are Elves (favoured enemy and combat style as/stacks with ranger and bonus caster levels, track as a bonus feat), Dwarves (DR and free toughness feats coming out of their rear), Orcs (DR and rage as barb), Human (2 bonus feats, another every 5 levels and +2 skill points per level multiplied at level 1 as normal), Gnome (caster levels toughness and bonus feat every 7 levels), halfling (bonus to leadership, free leadership feat at level 11, basically bonus to social situations. +4cha at creation, bonus feat every 6 levels and at level 1)

Also, it must be viable from level 1, because I'm not sure what level we'll be starting at yet.

[Raineh Daze]

Human (2 bonus feats, another every 5 levels and +2 skill points per level multiplied at level 1 as normal)

6 bonus feats? Yes please. Yes. This.

[phaedrusxy]

Are the "Races of" books allowed? If so, human Rogue 1/Druid 19//Cleric 5/Planar Shepard 10/X5 with Able Learner could be quite strong. Go for Extend, Persist, and DMM ASAP. With the right domains, that should be at 1st (Planning for Extend, etc).

[Gazzien]

Question: Do the Elves' extra caster levels give more spells/day and advancement, or only +CL?

[Lokyar]

Question: Do the Elves' extra caster levels give more spells/day and advancement, or only +CL?

It gives spells per day and advancement which is pretty cool. I never thought to ask. Thank you. Also, Able Learner is houseruled to be standard.

[phaedrusxy]

Question: Do the Elves' extra caster levels give more spells/day and advancement, or only +CL?

It gives spells per day and advancement which is pretty cool. I never thought to ask. Thank you. Also, Able Learner is houseruled to be standard.

WTF! So you can get higher level spells earlier than normal? Go elf and don't look back! See if you can use the ranger ACF that gives trapfinding instead of track, and take a dip in that on one side (if not, dip rogue).

[Raineh Daze]

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

[phaedrusxy]

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

Without action economy shenanigans, triple 9s is highly overrated. This post has some great guidelines for gestalting.

[Raineh Daze]

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

Without action economy shenanigans, triple 9s is highly overrated. This post has some great guidelines for gestalting.

Well, it was 'if you want'.

[Endarire]

What about adding Swordsage2 and Monk1?  What about Artificer for trap handling?

[JohnnyMayHymn]

With elf and gnome, how much extra caster advancement are we talking about

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

Without action economy shenanigans, triple 9s is highly overrated. This post has some great guidelines for gestalting.

Planar Shepherd can provide those shenanigans

Is there a feat that would let a druid change his casting stat (to say, INT)? If so elven generalist wizarr looks tempting, dip rouge somewhere,

I would say druid,PS//factotum, except book restrictions
edit: the feat is lost traditions from bastards and bloodlines, turns out it lets you pick ANY stat, completely friggen borked, but if he lets you, pick STR or DEX for wildshape shenanigans

[Ithamar]

Wild Shape Ranger can get into Planar Shepherd.  So if you wanted you can go W.S. Ranger 5 / Planar Shepherd 10 / Warshaper 3 / Whatever 2.  Then on the other side go with whatever Tier 1 class you want, like Artificer, Archivist, Wizard, etc.  If your DM lets you take 2 PrC's at the same time... 

[Lokyar]

With elf and gnome, how much extra caster advancement are we talking about

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

Without action economy shenanigans, triple 9s is highly overrated. This post has some great guidelines for gestalting.

Planar Shepherd can provide those shenanigans

Is there a feat that would let a druid change his casting stat (to say, INT)? If so elven generalist wizarr looks tempting, dip rouge somewhere,

I would say druid,PS//factotum, except book restrictions
edit: the feat is lost traditions from bastards and bloodlines, turns out it lets you pick ANY stat, completely friggen borked, but if he lets you, pick STR or DEX for wildshape shenanigans

a caster level at first and at every 5th, gnomes are arcane only but gnome illusionists are every 4 levels.

[Gazzien]

With elf and gnome, how much extra caster advancement are we talking about

Congratulations, you now have an easy way to basically get triple 9's if you want, I guess?

Without action economy shenanigans, triple 9s is highly overrated. This post has some great guidelines for gestalting.

Planar Shepherd can provide those shenanigans

Is there a feat that would let a druid change his casting stat (to say, INT)? If so elven generalist wizarr looks tempting, dip rouge somewhere,

I would say druid,PS//factotum, except book restrictions
edit: the feat is lost traditions from bastards and bloodlines, turns out it lets you pick ANY stat, completely friggen borked, but if he lets you, pick STR or DEX for wildshape shenanigans

a caster level at first and at every 5th, gnomes are arcane only but gnome illusionists are every 4 levels.

Wizard 2/ Master Specialist 3/ Incantatrix 10 and have 9th's at 14th level? Yes please.

[ZhonLord]

Halflings get free Leadership, AND a bonus to it?!  Personal army right there, and Planar Shephard can do some hilarious things with the right numbers.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3065.0
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8817.0

example: Make your cohort and highest-level followers all casters of one kind or another.  Use Planar Bubble to create an area attuned to the Astral Plane.  Sit back and laugh as up to 43 of your followers cast two or more spells apiece every single round.

[Rebel7284]

The races are so silly, silly good. =)

The main question about planar shepherd is the cosmology of your game?  As it's an eberron prestige class, those are usually the planes that are considered open for you to chose, but if our DM uses any other cosmology, like the default D&D one, your choices expand greatly.

Also, of course you need to clear with your DM what happens if you chose a fast time flowing plane.  The rules do not cover what happens and how to treat initiative and turn order when the combatants are working in different "time zones" like that.

I would focus on Wisdom and Charisma and take a bunch of passive classes that work with those stats.

Neutral Good Halfling Druid
Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 10/Holt Warden 1/Contemplative 1/Sacred Exorcist 1/Hierophant 2 //
Cloistered Cleric 1/Monk 2[Invisible Fist]/Ardent 1[Dominant ideal, customize mantle]/Swordsage 2/Ardent +9/Marshal 1/Swordsage +2/ Druid 2

At the end you have
- Two turning pools for DMM persisting your best buffs (take a substitution level for cleric)
- Wisdom to AC
- Ardent powers for action abuse
- Wisdom to damage when executing strikes
- Good maneuvers, up to 6th level
- Domain slots with fun options like the Spell Domain
- and at level 19, the BEST ability is from Hierophant, you can make your friends into Planar Shepherds too by giving them your wildshape!

[ksbsnowowl]

If you are going to head for wildshape anyway, Scout is likely a better dip for trapfinding than Rogue.  Before you get the crazy-good wildshape abilities of Planar Shepherd, in the mid-levels wildshaping into a leopard or lion, and pouncing with skirmish is a nice little boost.

As I've found in my own gestalt game, gestalt increases the chances a foe has levels of Scout, Rogue, or Barbarian, which really reduces the chances you'll have to sneak attack.  So I've taken to using Scout more often than Rogue for my bad guys (out of four PC's I can only reliably sneak attack one of them; the other three have close to straight-classed Barbarian or Rogue on one side).

Of course, you could go a completely different route, and get your trapfinding from Beguiler.

The possibilities are so endless, I'm not sure what to do with it all.

Druid 20//Cleric 5/Planar Shepherd 10/X 5, with Planar Shepherd attuned to the Astral Plane (assuming this is Great Wheel cosmology) would be very nice, similar to what ZhonLord mentioned.  Basically get a free quickened spell each round, which makes those round/level cleric buffs look a lot more tasty.  Consumptive Field + Owl's Insight will really pump your DC's (collect sick and injured animals, then "cull them from the herd," for the good of nature, you understand) just before going in to deal with the BBEG dungeon.

Lots of interesting possibilities.