Gestalt character progression...

[Anubis]

I'm having a problem figuring out how the rules go for gaining levels for Gestalt characters.

At first glance, it sound like you get a "double class" instead of a regular class. This would mean a character, instead of being a fighter, would perhaps be a fighter-cleric or the like. At every level, you advance fighter-cleric up a level and get all the benefits of both.

At closer inspection, however, it states that you pick two classes at every level, and it does not say you have to pick the same two classes. This would imply that you could be a fighter-cleric, then get fighter-sorcerer at level 2, then cleric-sorcerer at level 3, then fighter-rogue at level 4, then sorcerer-rogue at level 5, then cleric-rogue at level 6; with this, you would effectively have fighter3-cleric3-sorcerer3-rogue3. Is that actually how it works?

Finally, how do gains work? do you take things like BAB per level you gain or overall? What I mean is this: if you do fighter-sorcerer and then barbarian-cleric, your BAB would be +2. If you instead do fighter-barbarian and then cleric-sorcerer, would your BAB still be +2 (fighter +1 and barbarian +1) or would it be +1 (fighter +1 only and +0 for the other level)?

 

[DanMcS]

Finally, how do gains work? do you take things like BAB per level you gain or overall? What I mean is this: if you do fighter-sorcerer and then barbarian-cleric, your BAB would be +2. If you instead do fighter-barbarian and then cleric-sorcerer, would your BAB still be +2 (fighter +1 and barbarian +1) or would it be +1 (fighter +1 only and +0 for the other level)?

Use the better fractional gains, applied at each level. For the first level, Fighter/Barbarian, your guy gets a +1 BAB, because either one provides a +1. He'd get a 12+con hp, the best saves from the two classes, skill points as a barbarian I think, and could pick from the fighter's and barbarian's class skill list. A bonus feat for being a fighter 1, and rage for being a barbarian 1.

At 2nd level, his BAB would gain 0.75, because clerics get a 3/4 BAB progression. Total BAB is 1.75, round down for an effective +1 in use.

But really, if you're running a gestalt game, disallow multiclassing, and probably prestige classes. It saves a lot of headaches.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Basically (sorry if I cover the same info as someone else) a gestalt character only gets the better of any overlapping abilities and anything in the "special" column for each class. For instance, in the case of a fighter/rogue, the character would get BAB +1 (the better of the two), 8+INT modifier for skill points (instead of 2+INT for fighter), the fighter bonus feat, and sneak attack + whatever else the rogue gets at 1st level (don't have the book in front of me). Now, at second level, the character (assuming he was sticking with fighter/rogue) would only get a +1 BAB (for a total of +2), because the +1 BAB from fighter and +1 BAB from rogue overlap for that level. Same with saves, each taken individually (fort from class 1 vs. fort from class 2, Ref from class 1 vs Ref from class 2, etc).

For Class skills, you take the total lists from both classes and spend your skill points for that level freely. However, if at 2nd level he takes fighter/wizard, he can use his 2+INT skillpoints (better of the two classes in this level) on class skills for the fighter and wizard, and rogue skills are considered cross-class for him.

In any case, I would suggest making the players keep track of what 2 classes they took for each character level.
For example:
1st character level: fighter1/rogue1
2nd character level: fighter2/wizard1
3rd character level: cleric1/rogue2

As for multiclassing... I haven't found any rules for it, so it is up to the DM. Tread carefully, as it is nearly impossible to figure out multi-classing xp penalty.

All the above is what we do in our gestalt games. Hope that made sense.