Gestalt Warforged Artificer Optimization Help

[DustyParadox]

Level 5, play-by-post Eberron campaign, first time playing gestalt. Actually, to be honest, I think it's my first D&D 3.5 campaign (don't be totally alarmed, I've played some pathfinder. Actually, no wait, that one is falling through so this is - yup, if it actually gets off the ground, my first campaign. Please be kind to my errors of interpretation and tendency towards pedantry).

So I rolled my character's stats and they are an unimpressive :

15 15 12 10 10 8

Basically everyone else in the campaign has a) higher b) more balanced stats - I believe the next lowest is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9 while the high end is something like 18, 17, 15, 12, 12, 9 <= SO JEALOUS DANG, that's like what, mid-40s point buy?) so I could really use some advice as to how to remain effective given the stat discrepancy. I'm strongly considering Artificer/Wizard despite the book-keeping and the fact that my character would have only one good save, a d6 hit die and 3/4 BAB progression because while Int 16 Con 17 Dex 12 Cha 8 Wis 8 Str 8 is a reasonable-ish Wizard build, it's kind of terrible for anything vaguely approaching a martial build.

(for those not in the know, warforged have +2 con, -2 wis, -2 cha and are sweet-ass living robot people. But if I could choose again I'd go with a shifter ranger/druid or barbarian/druid gestalt becamse omnomnom cheese)

Any advice would be sorely appreciated! Duskblade was suggested, but I'm not really seeing its redeeming qualities, might as well just go full fighter and pick up more the more useful passive fighter stuff like warforged racial sub for the first level (battle hardened gets you an untyped +3 bonus to initiative and fear saves), improved initiative for fighter feat 2 for a meaty +7 to initiative right out of the gate without any tricky item stuff at all.

(I guess the slightly more martial stat assignment would look: Int 16 Con 14 Dex 8 Cha 8 Wis 8 Str 15 or the same except Dex and Str switched)

But the wizard/artificer build is really tempting right now since no matter which direction I go, I'm pretty sure I have to dump charisma and that kind of hurts the UMD checks. Advice! Cost/benefit analyses! Postcards! Well wishes! Pity! Rueful anecdotes! I'll accept it alllllll.

[zugschef]

from a mechanical standpoint artificer/wizard seems a lot redundant to me. i'd rather go artificer/psion with a psicrystal and the powers minor psionic creation, psionic repair damage, vigor and share pain. --> 17 con, 15 int, 10 cha

share vigor and share pain with your psicrystal and manifest repair damage to heal your crystal and you at the same time.

[JohnnyMayHymn]

Artificer//Binder

Just avoid the binder abilities w/saves (if dumping cha) and abuse that vestige[Edit:Asteroth] that gives a crafting feat.  Now you have tons of versatility even if you chose to specialize; ie meleeficer, wandificer etc

[DustyParadox]

Tome of Magic is banned (so binder is right out) and when I say I'm new to D&D 3.5 I'm most definitely new to psi-stuff. I literally have no idea how the psychic stuff works (other than artificers can't craft psi-restricted gear) and that there's a secret creation forge somewhere creating psi-forged warforged. 

I guess I'll take a look at a few handbooks for psion then.

[Kasz]

Binder's are bad ass... shame it's banned or I'd say Artificer//binder/wizard/anima mage.

Give some thought to Artificer/Warlock, all day long buffs, can dump cha if you take the right invocations, and a take 10 on UMD means who cares if you dumped Cha.

[Jackinthegreen]

Psionic stuff isn't very difficult to get into usually.  The key thing to remember is: The number of Power Points you can use to manifest a power is capped by your Manifester Level.  So if your ML is 5 for being a 5th level Psion, then you can only spend up to 5 PP on a power, though some feats and class features can raise effective PP a bit.

If you don't have the Expanded Psionic Handbook, take a look at http://www.d20srd.org/ and go to the Psionic Rules section which is smack dab in the middle of the index page.

[DustyParadox]

I really like what I'm seeing for psionics (if I'm reading it right, inertial armor is really boss), but I'm not convinced that - mechanically speaking - an artificer/wizard gestalt is any worse than an artificer/psion. In many respects, the opposite seems true: for instance, metamagic has to be taken twice in order to be able to apply it to both sides of the gestalt progression, right? You lose most of the artificer's ability to hit the panic button and piss flaming gold if all of your metamagic feats are going towards your psi stuff.

Is the psion simply better than the wizard? Because their chassis is identical and the artificer/wizard stuff doesn't so much overlap as reinforce each other. I'm trying to stay unbiased here, but I realize I really lack knowledge about psionics so tell me if I'm completely off base here with my interpretation.

And yes, I definitely considered the warlock. Not just for the artificer, because the idea of a warforged juggernaut/warlock gestalt was really, really, REALLY tempting because even with the ridiculous ASF on the adamantine body you could just grab all the 24 hour stuff and invoke every morning until you got it and then you'd have a flying spiky ball of death doing dungeon crasher fighter + warforged juggernaut shit all day long until someone did a dispel. Might even add some laser beams if you were feeling optimistic and go all War Machine.

Not optimized, necessarily, but still! Awesome!

Warlock artificer seems really fun (and taking 10 at level 4 is sweet since artificer you have to wait till 13), but still objectively worse than taking artificer/wizard? You'd wind up with the same chassis as an artificer/wizard only without the artificer/wizard's versatility.

[Jackinthegreen]

Psions are technically lower tier than wizards, but there are some things only psionics can do since there aren't any spell equivalents.  But you're correct in that metapsionic feats don't apply to infusions (unless you're using the psionic artificer adaptation, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.)

Psions are different from wizards, but not necessarily any better or worse overall.  For your purposes though, wizard would probably be the better choice.  Alternately, there's the Archivist (Heroes of Horror page 82) which is a divine caster that relies on Int instead of Wis to cast spells.  It can also get access to spells on any divine caster's list, though it starts with Cleric casting.  Note that since Artificer-created scrolls and such (assuming use of the Item Creation class feature) are neither arcane nor divine, you can't add them to your Archivist (or Wizard) spellbook.

Have you looked at the Warforged Artificer substitution levels in Races of Eberron?  Definitely look at it, because the 1st and 4th level substitutions are such that you'd be nuts not to take them.  5th sucks though since Retain Essence is a very good feature to keep.

[ksbsnowowl]

I'd go either Warblade or Crusader opposite the Artificer.  I forget which the Arty needs more, Intelligence or Charisma, so I would base the choice around that.

All the blasty fun of an Artificer, plus buffing for some nasty strikes, and a whole lot better HD.

But, that's just me.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Arty 20 // Ranger 1 / Druid 19
or Arty 20 // Barb 1 / Druid 19
... are both entirely viable. 

[Jackinthegreen]

Arty 20 // Ranger 1 / Druid 19
or Arty 20 // Barb 1 / Druid 19
... are both entirely viable.

Especially for wild shaping into an ape and then dual-wielding wands?

[DustyParadox]

While I could probably swing ranger, a druid warforged artificer makes my role-play brain break into convulsive laughter before shutting itself down. I'm sure someone could make a believable backstory out of it, but I'm afraid that fine gent isn't me.

We've got a new 36 point-buy option which opens things up a lot!

[Jackinthegreen]

Warforged do get their own druid-like PrC actually.  Check out the Landforged Walker.

One more thing psionic warforged do have going for them is the Psiforged Body feat.

[ksbsnowowl]

Warlock would be alright.  You could be Ironman!

I do think Druid would be good.  Transformers: Beast Wars!

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Arty 20 // Ranger 1 / Druid 19
or Arty 20 // Barb 1 / Druid 19
... are both entirely viable.

Especially for wild shaping into an ape and then dual-wielding wands?

Robot in Ape form = 
So like Transformers Bumblebee
could turn into an actual ... Giant Bumblebee.

Wildshape says no to (almost all) items.
It's good enough on it's own terms w Natural Spell feat.