Gestalt in Eberron?

[Kristivas]

I'm just wondering, would a campaign with 4 gestalt characters in Eberron seem interesting? I had suggested the DM looking it over (and will be linking him to this thread). One of my buddies who was in the car with us thinks Gestalt is overpowering and that we don't need it.

Sadly, enough, the party consists of a Changling rogue, Warforged Fighter (me), Warmage (from Complete Arcane), and an Elven Sorceress. We have no healing what-so-ever. The DM has such a great campaign planned (I hope hehe) that I think it would be a shame for him to have to heal-bot us a cleric. No one wanted to pick a cleric, as they all wanted to do "interesting" things.

I would have played the cleric, except with it being my first Eberron game, I HAVE to try a Warforged Fighter (and get warforged juggernaut later!).

So, suggestions on the gestalt thing?

 

[Stone Dog]

Do it. I'm serious. We had a blast and didn't feel overpowered in the least.

Gestalt characters are only moderately more durable than normal PCs. They still only get one hit die a level and their saves are only a bit better than normal. Whoop de doo. Remember this mantra and all will be well. Fewer, harder fights. That is the key. Don't hit them as often, but hit them harder. It balances out perfectly. There were plenty of moments where people were scared that their character might die and won by the skin of their teeth.

Okay, the first few sessions they thought they were pretty bad ass, but then the numbers started to click and they realized that it was just as deadly as before.

Gestalt is a different feel, but once you get into it you swiftly realize that it is still the same game.

One thing that makes for an interesting Gestalt game is making all the characters the same on one side. All rogue/something for a batch of elite trouble shooting agents. All fighter/something for a group of warrior whatevers. All wizard/something for an arcane circle of magic. It adds versitility, theme and a mild increase in durability all in one go!

 

[Corbert]

I started a gestalt game with 2 players Saturday. I'm still feeling my way around, and almost killed both characters . You're right Stone Dog, fewer, harder fights, especially with just 2 players.

 

[Drowbane]

If you only knew the P-O-W-E-R of the Darkside!!

Go for it man. I wish I could convince my current group that Gestalt isn't the devil. Fools!

Sign me up for a Warlock|Artificer! Or perhaps an Incarnate|Totemist! Oooh, ooh... Monk | Psion! (holy crap that would have MAD.... Dex, Int, Wis.... + Str and Con....)

 

[Lobo Lurker]

According to Unearthed Arcana, Gestalt really isn't THAT overpowered because the PCs aren't gaining any extra actions. They should be able to handle single enemies 1 CR above thier level (2 if the monster relies on a 'save or something horrible*' gimmick). Also, gestalt characters can 'supposedly' handle more encounters per day as it takes the party longer to run out of spells (Hit Points become the encounter limiter rather than spell slots).

What level are you playing at. You can always take the Leadership feat and get a Healer (mini's handbook).



* Basilisk, Bodak, Ghoul, Cockatrice, Medusa, etc...

 

[Kristivas]

Starting at level 1. I think he wants to run the opening adventure in the book so we get a feel for the setting, then move into whatever he has planned for later.

I like the responses. Not a bad one so far. And as far as I understand the Eberron setting, it's a slow role-playing type with fast-paced action. Where you said 'fewer, harder encounters" really brought that around.

Man, I hope you read this post..

 

[MaxisDB]

Well.. if one thing Kristivas is persistant. I'm looking over the stuff now. Thanks for all the advice, keep it comming.

 

[Dog Moon]

Depending on what classes, however, and combinations the character does, a Gestalt character can be quite powerful. It does allow for an even greater potential for min-maxing and can be quite frightening.

But yeah, the biggest mistake the DM can make is thinking that Gestalt = uber. There were two of us, both Gestalt, the last campaign and it's got to be a pain in the butt how many times we died. The DM seemed to feel that he could throw anything at us. How he didn't realize after we each died five times that something was wrong, I have no idea, but that's a different matter.

Generally, from what I've noticed for my group, Gestalt is more about being able to have more options of what you want to do, and an increase in survivability [not necessarily in combat] because you gain more abilities to add to your character.

Knowing basically nothing about Eberron, however, I don't have anything to add on that portion.

 

[Sejs]

At a suggestion for a Gestalt campaign - you may want to disallow certain classes altogether.

I'm thinking primarily here of the Druid, but from speaking with others, possibly the Psychic Warrior as well. Part of the draw of the gestalt game is it allows for characters that can cover multiple areas of ability well, despite having fewer players. The Druid on its own already handles many (arguably most) areas of ability well, and when combined with the second class in the combo, tends to get overpowering quickly.

The druid normally can do most things quite well.
The gestalt character normally can do two things quite well.
The druid gestalt character can do some things exceptionally well, and everything else quite well.

 

[Kristivas]

At a suggestion for a Gestalt campaign - you may want to disallow certain classes altogether.

I'm thinking primarily here of the Druid, but from speaking with others, possibly the Psychic Warrior as well. Part of the draw of the gestalt game is it allows for characters that can cover multiple areas of ability well, despite having fewer players. The Druid on its own already handles many (arguably most) areas of ability well, and when combined with the second class in the combo, tends to get overpowering quickly.

The druid normally can do most things quite well.
The gestalt character normally can do two things quite well.
The druid gestalt character can do some things exceptionally well, and everything else quite well.

I'd not considered the druid to be over-powered. We've had a friend who always played one and he sucked, Mighta been him, though. What makes them so tough?

Same with the Psychic Warrior? What's so tough about them? I've seen a lot of real powerful Psion powers, but nothing really groundbreaking about the psychic warrior.