Korimyr the Rat said:
I do not believe it does-- LA is more than the loss of class abilities, but the loss of hit dice, BAB, and skill points. While LA must be lowered somewhat in Gestalt games, it should remain pure.
For races with monster HD, I allow them to Gestalt their HD with their original Favored Class. This, at least, makes sense to me.
LA represents the fact that the extra racial abilities a race recieves are worth as much as a full class level (HD, BAB, saves, skills, abilities). Gestaulting grants almost double the benefits of a class level per level (almost because you don't get double the BAB, saves, or HD). A LA +1 is
far weaker than a gestault level. To compensate for this, I recommend granting racial HD (or allowing a race that already has racial HD, such as a doppelganger, to gestault those HD with the LA).
If you consider that each point of LA grants what is essentially a group of extremely powerful class features--enough for two classes, more or less, hence the lack of the other half of a class (HD, BAB, saves, skill points)--then adding empty HD, in the form of racial HD, completes it and makes it equal to a normal gestault level. Like them you get double the class features, and one single HD with benefits. Super features + empty HD vs. normal features & HD + normal features & HD. Odds are your racial HD won't be as good as normal gestault HD anyway.
Thus, a Hobgoblin|Humanoid 1 would be about on par with a Fighter|Monk 1, or what have you. A Hobgoblin 1/Fighter|Monk1, on the other hand, is significantly weaker than a Fighter|Monk 2.
