The Gestalt Characters variant rules were probably--don't @ me-- the most notorious and most long-lasting legacy of the 3.5 version of Unearthed Arcana. An admittedly and unabashedly high-power variant, they allowed players to combine two (or more, in some variant-variants) character classes at every character level. Great for small parties, jaded veteran players who like complex mechanics, powergamers, and compulsive weirdos like myself. Not great for people who like "low op" games, iconic character archetypes, or mechanically simple games. The later you got into 3.5 and/or PF1 class design, the less good these rules were for anyone. (Don't @ me!!)
The vanilla Gestalt variant was pretty simple: at every character level, when you'd normally pick a class to advance in, you'd pick two and combine them. By default, you could only take one Prestige Class per character level, and "multige" Prestige Classes were prohibited... but these restrictions were frequently waived/ignored by the kind of players who were attracted to the Gestalt rules in the first place.
I was always a fan. But... after years of toying around with bizarre campaign variants and other FRPGs, I've started to think about ways to use these rules to create unique campaigns.
Fixed Progression - "Fixie" - Gestalt (nobody else calls it that)
Of course, the real fun comes from mixing and matching.
The vanilla Gestalt variant was pretty simple: at every character level, when you'd normally pick a class to advance in, you'd pick two and combine them. By default, you could only take one Prestige Class per character level, and "multige" Prestige Classes were prohibited... but these restrictions were frequently waived/ignored by the kind of players who were attracted to the Gestalt rules in the first place.
I was always a fan. But... after years of toying around with bizarre campaign variants and other FRPGs, I've started to think about ways to use these rules to create unique campaigns.
Fixed Progression - "Fixie" - Gestalt (nobody else calls it that)
- Standard Gestalt rules, but one or both "sides" of the progression are chosen and locked from 1st to 20th level.
- Simplest implementation and closest to "old school" multiclassing.
- Greatly expands character options without bogging down into analysis paralysis.
- Almost always combined with fixed progression: characters combine three classes, with two or all three "fixed" at 1st level.
- Whoooooooof. No.
- There's a short list of classes (even as small as one) that all characters must choose at each level.
- Use "occupational" classes to represent shared jobs or organizations: Fighters (and Magi/Warpriests/Warmages) for sellswords, Clerics/Paladins/Warpriests/Inquisitors for a church hiearchy, Rogues/Bards/Beguilers (etc) for a Thieves' Guild...
- Use "heritage" classes for theming: all characters have a bloodline class with different bloodlines for X-Men; all characters have a bloodline class with the same bloodline to demonstrate common origins across diverse ancestries. Works great for Oracles, too.
- Use criteria: BAB, skills, spellcasting progression, Tier, etc., campaign setting, product line...
- Gestalt selection is based on "class tiers": T1-2 classes can combine with Tier 5 (mostly NPC) classes, Tier 3-4 classes can combine with each other, maybe even tristalt if all your classes are 4 or 5.
Of course, the real fun comes from mixing and matching.
