RHoD with Gestalt PCs [Spoilers]

[Sidekick]

This thread contains spoilers for Red Hand of Doom. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNEED

Okay so I’m thinking that I might Gestalt my group. This will increase their power level but none of them are what I’d call super builds anyway. Their currently 3rd level & I’m intending to put them through the RHoD (Eberronized of course) at 5th but I was wondering what changes I’d need to make in order to make it a realistic challenge. I figure I can just bump up some of the smaller dragons (green & Black) and then chuck in a few extra monsters/knob-goblins in the battles.

What do you guys think? Do I need to start gestalting the NPCs (that’s a lot of work) or should I just tack on a few extra levels on the BBEGs.

The party will likely be:
Human monk5/cleric5 (Sov Host)
Human Warlock5/kineticist5
Human Scout5/??5 – dunno probably ranger or fighter I’m guessing
Dwarven fighter5/barbarian5

 

[Venator]

RHoD is a rough adventure. 4 gestalts is probably fair since its such a deadly game.

I would play up through the Keep normally, as written, and see how they do. If they are rolling through it all adjust as you see fit. The fighter/barbarian might kill things to well, so maybe giving some monsters 75% of their max HP (instead of ~50%) might bring things back into balance for some of the more major fights.

Just stick to the book and they will have a hard time. Dont give them the benefit of the doubt and dont pull any punches.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I play a lot of gestalt in my face to face, and I do make some adjustments like Venator suggested.

Generally I give my monsters 75% hit points, easy to add 50% tothe MM, and give monsters a overall +2 'luck' bonus on all rolls, SR, saves, attacks and damage. It works well without playing a lot with CRs.

For the major guys, give them the luck and a level or two to make them more dangerous.

 

[Bad Paper]

I've never played gestalt, and I haven't run the RHoD yet, but I am planning to next year. Do you really think it's that rough of an adventure, Venator? It seemed more rough on the DM (maintaining tension and pace) than on the players. There are a couple times where the PCs are obviously overmatched (namely, if they choose to walk into the opposing camp or get captured), and I would worry that gestalt builds would ruin the power imbalance. This would mean you would have to run them against the entire horde at once, and mass battles are generally not the DM's friend.

 

[EvilGM]

I run a gestalt campaign with very few changes. Only 50% experience is awarded.

 

[Venator]

I've never played gestalt, and I haven't run the RHoD yet, but I am planning to next year. Do you really think it's that rough of an adventure, Venator? It seemed more rough on the DM (maintaining tension and pace) than on the players. There are a couple times where the PCs are obviously overmatched (namely, if they choose to walk into the opposing camp or get captured), and I would worry that gestalt builds would ruin the power imbalance. This would mean you would have to run them against the entire horde at once, and mass battles are generally not the DM's friend.

Its more intense on the DM in that theres a fair amount of events happening "behind the scenes" and creating the sense of time-pressure is always kind of hard. Compared to other adventures though (Shackled City, and probably Age of Worms too, no spoilers on AoW though plz, im currently playing through it) there really isnt to many NPC personalities or politics to deal with. So its a bit of a trade off.

As far as the difficulty goes, I do thinks its pretty rough. Its as rough as Shackled City anyways, but RHoD takes a while to really get hard whereas SC is pretty brutal throughout.

Running it as written for 3 gestalts i found pretty difficult and unenjoyable. We ended up stopping. I had a Fighter/Cleric gestalt that would dish out tons of damage, and in tern take tons of damage... Hard part about it was that he was the party tank, melee damage dealer, and primary healer. In tougher fights his action was either spent killing, or healing... the party needed him to do both.

Other times i ran into trouble with encounter ease/difficulty. Stuff with 40ish HP was getting 1 shot, so some encounters would be total cake walks... but others, where theres several enemies, the party could easily be overwhelmed. When one PC got into trouble it basically fell apart... One guy is down, and another one has to try and save him mid battle, thats 2/3rds of your group whos "not fighting" on a given round.

Damage out vrs. Damage in is kind of wacky in a small party of Gestalts. They tend to do really well against "trash" encounters, but not so well in the "boss" types of encounters. (when compared to regular parties)

Anyways... RHoD is a really nice adventure to run for 6 people. 4 Gestalts should be worked pretty hard, especially towards the end which is pretty damned nasty. Just make sure the tank/primary melee guy isnt the healer .

 

[brehobit]

The other issue, which I'm expecting to be large when I run this, is that you *need* people to be effective at range in this one. Our traditional party-of-tanks will get eaten. With a Gestalt group it is much more likely that everyone _will_ be useful at range. Some flights are killer otherwise.

Note: I've not run this yet, I was just looking at how deadly it is and how well it would work for our typical group. I was thinking of giving everyone a bonus feat _and_ using Eberron action points to make it possible for our group.

I really do like it though...

Mark