Gestalt (Or however its spelt) out of the Unearthed Arcana

[zypherillius]

Has anybody in here ever played or run a Gestalt character variant out of the Unearthed Arcana? I'll need comments from both players and dms, does it swing gameplay one way or the other too much? some of the combinations are outright rediculous, but the possiblity aspect also seems out of this world.
I was thinking about running one, and any comments about how the campaign worked with all gesault pcs worked, or if its only designed to be an npc development tool.
thanks

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gestalt.

 

[VictorC]

Has anybody in here ever played or run a Gesault character variant out of the Unearthed Arcana? I'll need comments from both players and dms, does it swing gameplay one way or the other too much? some of the combinations are outright rediculous, but the possiblity aspect also seems out of this world.
I was thinking about running one, and any comments about how the campaign worked with all gesault pcs worked, or if its only designed to be an npc development tool.
thanks

One time I had two people run a four character adventure with Gestalt characters, I don't rember off hand what combinations they used. It worked out ok, and they didn't seem too overpowered.

 

[VictorC]

Gestalt.

Yes, yes anybody that passed 10th grade knows that.

 

[Yellow Sign]

Gestalt.

Gesundheit!

 

[Andor]

Gestalt characters can be quite powerful, but usually they're simply more flexible that regular characters. A Fighter/Magic user can fight or cast as he pleases, but not both at once. That's the key limit, while you have more things you can do, you still get only one action per round.

But do look at the characters carefully, there is some impressive cheese possible in Gestalt.

Another option for gestalt is to run a campaign where everybody has one fixed class, and the other is flexible. For example in a wuxia style campaign everbody might be a Monk/Whatever. For an anime style game Soulknife/Whatever. Thieves guild campaign? You get the idea.

 

[victorysaber]

any prestige classes made specifically for gestalt characters (ie one prestige class taking up the slots of both classes)?

 

[Umbran]

Gestalt characters can be quite powerful, but usually they're simply more flexible that regular characters.

Flexibility is a form of power.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Gestalt groups are fun, but can get to be extremely powerful at high levels after they've had a chance to combine all of the PC's abilities into a powerful machine.

At low levels you get the benefits of having many abilities, better hit points, and better saves. It gives you better chances of survival.

As you go up in levels you learn better how to mix your two (or more) classes that give you a slight edge allowing you to take many monsters that are 1 or 2 CRs higher on a daily basis.

By your mid-levels, if you have time to buff up before combat, your group is an encounter trashing machine. Your DM will have to throw tougher and tougher monsters at you to keep things interesting. By this point in time, many magic items lose their luster because of the sheer number of throw-away spells you have. Who needs a wand when you have many good spells left unused at the end of the day? A keen weapon, well I guess I could take it. And forget potions when everyone in the group can cast spells from scrolls.

And it only gets scarier at higher levels.

The only downside is the egg-shell issue, once of you falls in combat, you've just lost a large chunk of your group's power and the rest of the group may fall soon too. This assumes you only have 2-3 PCs in your group.