Gestault Powergaming

[blargney the second]

Here are the melee-centric characters from our current gestalt game:
Warforged cleric/fighter
Duskling totemist/barbarian
Empty vessel wilder/divine mind
Changeling crusader/UA feat rogue

They all approach melee from very different angles, and are both fun as well as powerful in their own ways.

 

[szilard]

With the stats you have, you can do a lot:

Swordsage/Fighter would be impressive. A swordsage with Fighter BAB, HD, and bonus feats? Consider the Combat focus tree.

Warblade/ Swashbuckler 3/Rogue X - Daring Outlaw, Vexing Flanker - Sneak Attack while recovering maneuvers.

Warblade/Monk - A monk with d12 HD, good BAB, and maneuvers? Ouch. For extra fun, mix in Vow of Poverty.

- Stuart

 

[Kae'Yoss]

In my Gestalt Eberron campaign, one character is a warforged Fighter/Psion. Proving very effective indeed.

I play a Warblade (Diamond Mind, Iron Heart) / Psion (Kineticist). It works out quite well. D12 plus Vigor and Hostile Empathic Transfer ( via Expanded Knowledge Feat) Means that it takes a while for you to fall. Both classes make good use of Int, so you won't feel guilty giving your combat brute smarts. You can do cool mind mojo, and make awesome fighting moves, often both in the same round (due to feats and manoeuvres and whatnot), all while wearing whatever armour you want. You can buff yourself (more so if you go Egoist), do all the nice Jedi stuff, weaken the opposition with some sort of energy attack or other, and then wade in.

It makes for a good samurai concept.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

posts like these make me reconsider if I should play D&D anymore....

If stuff other people do in their own home makes you consider not playing D&D anymore, you really should stop. What if someone in your gaming group does something like this? You'll flip out and kill him. And then take his stuff

Do you give up TV because someone watches fetish porn with his set? Do you stop eating hamburgers because of those disgusting burger contest champions.

 

[Drowbane]

blah

 

[Drowbane]

Strongly agree.

Gestalt either punishes LA heavily (by having LA take up "both sides"), or rewards LA disproportionately (by having LA take up "one side").

Personally, I favor punishing LA heavily, because the alternative means a character with nothing but templates on "one side" will generally out-perform anyone else.

(Why is this? Because templates allow you to specialize. The benefit from a template or LA will "stack with" the benefit from a class level in a way that two class levels WILL NOT stack. For example, a Fighter 3 // Barbarian 3 will have 2 extra feats over a regular Barbarian, which could increase his attack bonus by +1 -- but any other Barbarian could have taken Weapon Focus, too. However, a Half-Dragon // Barbarian 3 has +8 Strength. His attack bonus is +4 over what a normal build could have.)

Cheers, -- N

Our group has been playing with the second option (LA on one side) for over a year now. We've all pretty much recognized that we're playing "Supers D&D"... which is kinda groovy.

Some (not all) of our most powerful characters in this time have been completely "LA-less" in a party full of LA | Class types. For example: a warforged Psion | Wilder with alot of Boom, Astral Constructs, some versitility, and a *ton* of powerpoints...


My favorite character has been a Halfling Azurin Warlock / Hellfire Warlock | Binder 1 / Incarnate (Chaos with focus on fire-based powers) with that Desert Wind stance that gives immunity to fire.... yeah... thats right... they Halfling Torch (see avatar ). He isn't the most powerful in either of the groups he has been affiliated with... but is hella fun to play.

 

[Nifft]

Our group has been playing with the second option (LA on one side) for over a year now. We've all pretty much recognized that we're playing "Supers D&D"... which is kinda groovy.

Some (not all) of our most powerful characters in this time have been completely "LA-less" in a party full of LA | Class types... so... YMMV.

And that's okay.

Some groups play with "choose your stats", and they're okay. It sounds like your group plays with "choose some free LA", and that's cool, too.

I don't think that one could call it "balanced", but if no-one is trying to break it, balance may not be necessary for your group.

IMHO the rules as such should be balanced; they should be designed so a rabid munchkin with an agenda can't easily pillage your campaign. But not because I expect to play with rabid munchkins... rather, because it would suck if a good player created such a thing accidentally (or through role-playing) and then felt bad when his good idea was taken away.

I'd much rather have the rules be strict, and leave generosity in the hands of the DM, so he can be the popular guy who gives you a break.

Cheers, -- N

 

[wildstarsreach]

I am going to be making a 5th level gestault character for the Red Hand of Doom. I am looking for a powergamed melee destroyer. I am thinking of going with a Barbarian Cleric. The other option would be a survive anything type of charcter using Paladin/?. My stats are 18, 16, 16, 15, 14, 13. Arrange anyway needed. For the Barb I am thinking of 18 str, 16 dex, 16 con, 13 int, 15 Wis, 14 cha. I will probably go no devotion to take the destruction domain and Planning domain. Use the divine metamagic with extend and Persistent. I know that there are more powerful ways to go any suggestions?

Try Paladin/Psion. Armor doesn't hinder the use of psionics. Depending on the psion specialty you could get a lot of benefit to your paladin class with this.

 

[wildstarsreach]

Gestalt characters are almost a must if you have a one or two person game. It keeps the DM from having to have multiple NPC's. I play in two online game with maptool and on one, I have a gestalt duskblade 3_Druid 1/Wizard 4 with a couple of reccuring NPC that I control, and in the other we are playing a planescape into the demonweb where I have a succubus/Paladin where you have to take a savage species class and we have 3 plsyers. They are interesting but not as overpowering as you might think. We are at 8th, taking on challanges that are between 1 and 2 CR's higher than normal for 8th and barely surviving. On one we almost didn't survive and we pulled out by one of our patrons.

 

[blargney the second]

Swordsage/druid would be pretty fun.

Incidentally, to get the most mileage out of gestalt you want to plan on using all of your actions per round as much as possible. Finding something useful to do with your standard and swift actions is easy - move actions are the tricky ones to fill up. Improved Feint is one good way to do just that.