Pondering Gestalt -- advice?

[blargney the second]

Someone in our gestalt group wants to play a Hexblade/Warlock - that just sounds like fun to me!

The idea about gestalting monster hit dice with their favored class is pretty skookum.
-blarg

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Funny. Complete Divine is the only Complete book I ended up using more than one class from-- though I did make use of a lot of Ninja material for my Monk revamp and I still occasionally strongly consider adding the Spellthief. (I just can't get past the magical Sneak Attack abilities.)

 

[Gilwen]

I love the gestalt rules, especially since my group regularly only has 2 ppl in it.

The one thing i recommend is that if you use savage species or otherwise break your LA races into levels make those "monster" levels take up both sides of the progression tree.

Gil

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

The one thing i recommend is that if you use savage species or otherwise break your LA races into levels make those "monster" levels take up both sides of the progression tree.

I'm actually inclined to advise the other way-- but I would only allow the character to Gestalt the levels that gave them HD, as opposed to pure LA levels.

 

[molonel]

As some folks have already (and wisely) suggested, if you are going to use Gestalt, then I recommend you put some strictures on its use.

We played a specific campaign for the purposes of busting the game wide open. We called it the No-Holds Barred game, and we played Gestalt characters.

The players sat down and combed through books, and found the most ridiculous combinations of prestige classes and base classes that we could devise.

The game spun so quickly out of control that it didn't even run for more than three or four sessions. It was ridiculous.

Suggestions might include:

1. You select two base classes, and advance in both.
2. You cannot Gestalt with a prestige class.
3. The DM or player selects a base class for the character in one of the Gestalt tracks, and that track is set for the character throughout his or her career. The other class advances and can be chosen normally.

 

[molonel]

I love the gestalt rules, especially since my group regularly only has 2 ppl in it.

The one thing i recommend is that if you use savage species or otherwise break your LA races into levels make those "monster" levels take up both sides of the progression tree.

Gil

Oh, good point. I forgot that. We allowed monster races to take up one side of the Gestalt track, and also template levels, like the Half-Celestial template levels from Sean K. Reynolds's Anger of Angels, or the template levels on WotC's website:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030912a

I do NOT recommend doing this.

 

[xplosivo]

Something tells me a gestalt Barbarian/Fighter Frenzied Berserker/Dervish would destroy the game completely.

 

[molonel]

Something tells me a gestalt Barbarian/Fighter Frenzied Berserker/Dervish would destroy the game completely.

Oh, you don't even know the half of it. That's nothing. We had a 10th level character with an AC of 70+, and another character who combined the wereboar template with fighter and monk levels, and ended up a killing machine that would dry-hump anything that popped onto the battle mat.

We found that spellcasters overall benefitted the least from Gestalting, except to increase their spellcasting stats, and fighters/rogues/monks and melee types benefitted the most.

 

[Voadam]

Oh, you don't even know the half of it. That's nothing. We had a 10th level character with an AC of 70+, and another character who combined the wereboar template with fighter and monk levels, and ended up a killing machine that would dry-hump anything that popped onto the battle mat.

We found that spellcasters overall benefitted the least from Gestalting, except to increase their spellcasting stats, and fighters/rogues/monks and melee types benefitted the most.

How did gestalting increase their spellcasting stats?

Can you provide an example of how the 10th level character got AC 70+?

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Oh, good point. I forgot that. We allowed monster races to take up one side of the Gestalt track, and also template levels ... I do NOT recommend doing this.

Definitely agreed-- Level Adjustments should be slightly reduced, because they're a bigger penalty in Gestalt than in a standard game, but by no means should they be combined with classes. Bad, bad, bad.

Something tells me a gestalt Barbarian/Fighter Frenzied Berserker/Dervish would destroy the game completely.

There's a very good reason that Unearthed Arcana tells you to only combine one Prestige Class with a base class.

I'm still trying to figure out why so many arguments about how bad the Gestalt rules are focus around having two Prestige Classes in combination.

We found that spellcasters overall benefitted the least from Gestalting, except to increase their spellcasting stats, and fighters/rogues/monks and melee types benefitted the most.

That's something I've discovered, as well-- spellcasters do not benefit nearly as much from the Gestalt rules as melee/skill characters. Hell, a big part of my decision to forbid like casters from combining (so no Wizard/Sorceror or Cleric/Druid) was because it's more crippling than anything else. Really, the only reason I allow mixed casters to combine is that it's a more feasible archetype and was supported in previous editions.

Of course, I'm still not willing to allow the Cleric/Fighter/Wizard/Eldritch Knight/Mystic Theurge. Closest you can get to that old chestnut is revolving levels of Cleric/Fighter, Cleric/Wizard, and Fighter/Wizard.