Specific questions concerning Gestalt characters

[Drowbane]

... Anyone else ...

Sukael is absolutely right.

When I have used Gestalt Characters, I use a Primary/ Secondary class design. The secondary class is static, 1st -20th level. You can multi-class your primary class all you want, but the secondary class remains the same because it represents something personal in your background, history or bloodline.

Sorcerer, Psion and Favored Soul are good "bloodline" choices. If you were raised on the streets, take Rogue; in the wild, then Ranger is good or had to fight your way, go with Fighter.

Race can also play into it, Elves are "magical" so secondary Wizard works good for them and Elan are literaly made from psionics, so a secondary psionic class is almost mandatory.

One of my potential House RUles for Gestalt is very much like this. Everybody's Primary Class is dicated by thier Race. Dwarven Gestalts are Fighter | Something else. Halflings Rogue | Something else, etc. However, once again Humans own with this...

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Pardons, all. I haven't been keeping up. It's been 7 years since I played, and my thinking was stuck in 2nd Edition mode.
Things have changed profoundly since then, obviously, and the new rules come as an astonishment to Yours Truly sometimes.

But I am back, and reading up on things. I have the core 3.5 books, and am working on them. I'll have more and more of the supplements with time.
Eventually I'll figure it out enough to shop talk about it. Until then, bear with my assorted astonishments and floundering like a drowning man in a whirlpool.

 

[dcollins]

You realize that Gestalts are a Variant from Unearthed Arcana that's intended change the whole way a D&D campaign is played, right?

In this high-powered campaign variant, characters essentially take two classes at every level, choosing the best aspects of each. The process is similar to multiclassing, except that characters gain the full benefits of each class at each level. if the two classes you choose have aspects that overlap (such as Hit Dice, attack progression, saves, and class features common to more than one class), you choose the better aspect. The gestalt character retains all aspects that don’t overlap.

The gestalt character variant is particularly effective if you have three or fewer players in your group, or if your players enjoy multiclassing and want characters with truly prodigious powers. This variant works only if every PC in the campaign uses it, and it results in complicated characters who may overwhelm newer players with an abundance of options.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm

 

[Thanee]

How exactly can anyone justify this?

Is there a University of Everything out there for characters to go to?

Up to the DM.

If you need training to obtain a new class or an ingame story-based explanation for them, then you cannot simply become a barbarian/wizard/cleric/assassin/monk/druid/whatever. Under the core rules there is no such assumption, because it is left to the individual DMs how to handle these specifics in their campaign.

Besides, who says, that the fighter was not studying magic all the time already, and by 5th level had learned enough (delayed by his martial training) to actually succeed in casting the first spells?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Silveras]

Pardons, all. I haven't been keeping up. It's been 7 years since I played, and my thinking was stuck in 2nd Edition mode.
Things have changed profoundly since then, obviously, and the new rules come as an astonishment to Yours Truly sometimes.

But I am back, and reading up on things. I have the core 3.5 books, and am working on them. I'll have more and more of the supplements with time.
Eventually I'll figure it out enough to shop talk about it. Until then, bear with my assorted astonishments and floundering like a drowning man in a whirlpool.

To elaborate on what DCollins said, if you are new to 3.x from 1st/2nd, edition, I would recommend you leave Gestalts aside for now; they seem like they were intended to help parties with only 2 or 3 characters survive and thrive in a game where the rules assume there would be four (1 each of Combat, Stealth, Arcane, and Divine focus). There is enough of a learning curve with regard to the core rules that adding variants, especially one that has far-reaching consequences like Gestalts, is more likely to confuse you than help you.

 

[BeauNiddle]

So, my hypothetical character spent, say 20 years becoming a barbarian/bard (wonder of wonders!)
Over the next 4 years In Character, he advances to 12th level and is now 4th level in the 6 classes I described.

In other words, he has crammed 120 YEARS of training and learning into a span of 24 years.

Not really because for a good 15 or so of those years you spent your time learning to control your body and hormones. You only really spent 4 years learning how to be a Barbarian/Bard.

If at university I had wanted to switch from Comp Sci to Eng Lit I wouldn't have had to go back to primary school (or pre-school, or whatever it's called). I would have had to start 1st year at uni thus loosing upto 3 years but not the 20 you mention.

One of the main things Uni is meant to teach is the ability to learn yourself.

 

[maggot]

So can you do this:
1 Cleric/Wizard
2 Cleric/Wizard
3 Cleric/Wizard
4 Mystic Theurge/Fighter
5 Mystic Theurge/Eldritch Knight

How does that work?

But for the original question: Why the four levels, couldn't you go
1 Barbarian/Bard
2 Cleric/Ranger
3 Fighter/Sorcerer
4 Druid/Wizard

And have 160 years of training crammed into 4 single levels without an XP penalty.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So can you do this:
1 Cleric/Wizard
2 Cleric/Wizard
3 Cleric/Wizard
4 Mystic Theurge/Fighter
5 Mystic Theurge/Eldritch Knight

How does that work?

Generally, it doesn't. One of the first things the Gestalt rules recommend is getting rid of the "Just Advance Two Classes" PrCs, because they are no longer necessary.

 

[Pyrex]

@OP: Fitting both Barbarian and Monk into a gestalt (or, well any multiclass) progression is going to be a problem because of Alignment restrictions.

@Maggot: No, UA "strongly recommends" that hybrid PrC's (Mystic Theurge, the rogue/mage one, etc) be dumped in a gestalt game. I believe it also states that you can't take two PrC's at the same time.