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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Binho" data-source="post: 5906867" data-attributes="member: 6674967">The spell Tongues (which is not a druid spell)+Imbue with Spell Abilities, it caps at lv2, but your animal could cast spells with vocal component like: Avoid Planar Effects, Close Wounds, Divine Interdiction, Grave Strike, Omen of Peril, Peaceful Serenity of Io for you. Err, I know, crap selection of spells. But some are useful: close wounds (imediate action), grave strike can be useful for the party (swift), peaceful serenity of Io can be used to buff you and your companion (not a great buff). The share spells makes all spells that affect the druid also affect the animal companion. So the imbued buffs would be casted on the Druid, not the animal (that's why I usually make builds that mount the companion, to affect both, always).As a druid//cloistered cleric you can choose to go melee or to stand casting offensive spells. If you choose to cast, that does not mean that your buffs are being wasted. This build favor buffs that increase Wis to make your spells irresistible; your AC higher; grant mobility like 3d combat options.If you choose to go melee, you can still cast spells. With the wild shape and a feat, you can cast grace (sacred bonus to Dex plus other things), knight's move(flank without move action), blade of blood, blood wind (full attack at distance with claws), Manifestation of the Deity, delay death, close wounds, etherealness swift. All these spells are swift actions from cleric spell list, not druid. If you add the druid spells, metamagic and divine magician, you can be a lot more useful than a druid//ninja for example.I agree with you that gestalt is about passive//active way. Almost always the passive will be a buffer. The active can be a spellcaster, a tactical assassin or a big fighter. The buffs you cast can make you the war machine in melee, make your spells stronger or make you an immortal tank. These last two kind of buffs have a lot of uses for a spellcaster. Also, your companion makes use of the buffs as well.About the identification of monsters, I should be more clear. Cloistered Clerics have access to all knowledge skills and 6+int skill points. With this he can identify most monsters on sight. Lore can give information about magic items.The overlapping: this is really true. But you are only seeing the overlapping. Both classes can make use of spells that belongs to each other lists. So, the first thought should be search for spells that do not overlap, not the contrary. Let's say, shield other and your animal companion; you can heal both with one spell. You can also persist any persistable druid spell (sirine's grace for example, that helps with turning). A lot of spells of the druid list do not overlap the cleric.Divine magician is from Complete Mage: You would be interested in this handbook too: <a href="http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=gu5cnsgdb462tpo4v15ipc1bd3&topic=8344" target="_blank">Divine Magician Handbook</a>Your arguments are that the classes I'm pointing can do the same without going gestalt, but they can't do it all at once. They can possibly be as awesome as a gestalt, but, isolated, they just don't have enough spell slots. They have limited spells and can't do every trick without resting 8 hours.Let's compare with your suggestion: druid//ninja can go wildshape and strike the weak spot of the foe. But the foe only need access to See invisibility/tremor sense/true seeing/smell (abilities that can be seen in a lot of monsters) to negate your sudden strike. You would end like a druid with monk's belt, worst than the cloistered cleric//druid because of the all day buffs. Actually, choosing a class that gives an ability that can be easily simulated by an item is a bad idea, from the point of optimization. On the other hand, the CC//druid could use the same tactic more effectively: casting Nightstalker's trasnformation with anyspell greater the cc//druid and his companion would be affected too, so both can flank and deal sneak attack together. (the Nightstalker's transformation is just an example to show how magic can be versatile, by far not the most optimized way to waste your spells)You are neglecting the most awesome class ability of the game: Spells. With it you can simulate every game mechanic ever created in D&D.Ow, you are right about other thing: Cloistered/druid is not the king of Gestalt. You can do a lot better than this simple combination. I'm just saying that it is a really good choice of gestalt; useful, versatile and strong. It cover all the bases, far better than isolated druid or cleric.I'm curious, which class do you Jack Simth would pick to be pair with cloistered cleric in a gestalt build??? =)Sorry for my crap English, i know i may have written a lot of things the wrong way. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/blush.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":blush:" title="Blush    :blush:" data-shortname=":blush:" /></blockquote>

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