Gestalt character question

[Gundark]

Are 2-3 gestalt characters = to a standard party of 4 characters? I ask becasue I have a small group (2 for sure players, and the 3rd has a busy life). Comments?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Yes and no.

Yes, they'll probably have all the appropriate skill sets covered.

No, they'll still lack the "actions per round" of the larger group. It's been proposed, and generally accepted, that the real "currency" of D&D is how many actions you get. It's why a single CR 12 creature is, generally speaking, less of a threat than two CR 10 creatures - it's far too easy to gang up on it.

 

[Voadam]

The relevant considerations are the limited number of actions a gestalt can take in a round, and the level of wealth for a party.

A gestalt party will have six classes to play around with so there can be healing and trapfinding and fighting and magic, enough to fill niches, but small groups means anybody going down is more serious and it is harder to bring multiple guns to bear at once.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Are 2-3 gestalt characters = to a standard party of 4 characters? I ask becasue I have a small group (2 for sure players, and the 3rd has a busy life). Comments?

In general, assuming that the gestalts chosen aren't poor synergies (such as Bard/Rogue), you can expect that a gestalt character is about as powerful as a normal PC of two levels higher. Using the EL propagation system, this would mean that 2 gestalt characters are roughly equivalent to 4 normal characters in EL power rating, although they will of course be hurting for extra actions.

 

[blargney the second]

I'd say 3 gestalt are about equivalent to 4 regular. It's great for small groups of players.

-blarg

 

[genshou]

As has already been said, the party doesn't have the same number of actions per turn, but they are more or less equal with that one caveat.

The typical party size in Pledge of Tyranny is three (one Paladin/Fighter, one Rogue/Ranger, and one Bard/Fighter). They're not exactly optimized to be the perfect Gestalt party, and while I don't have to tone down the challenges, they do have to earn the greater amount of XP they get for taking things on with only three party members instead of four.

 

[genshou]

One thing to point out is that gestalt characters do not get more skill points than either class would have gotten anyway. This is nice for a Fighter/Rogue but less so for, say, a Fighter/Wizard. You can't expect them to cover all the bases unless everyone takes gestalt levels in either rogue or bard (which would be really awesome in a thieves' guild type city game).

 

[DaveMage]

I'd say 3 gestalt are about equivalent to 4 regular. It's great for small groups of players.

-blarg

Seconded.