Using Gestalt?

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I have a question for you guys. How do you all feel about the scout class in general as well as if it wer, combined with, say... the monk?

Take away Battle Fortitude-- you don't need to be adding a quasi-medium save to a good save progression.

Otherwise, it's fine. Probably a little suboptimal, really-- it moves really, really fast, and it has a lot of skill points, but it just doesn't have the sheer abuse potential of many other combinations. The one you want to watch out for with Scout is Psychic Warrior.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

I have a few ideas for adding to gestalt campaigns.

1) I am thinking of allow a class that is essentially Ftr/Ftr, like fighter, but a bonus feat every level. (Maybe adding an extra Weapon Focus Feat at Level 1, as they don't get anything new until Level 3.)

2) If the campaign is a Dungeon Crawl, Wizard combined with Sorceror or Warmage can be a bnrilliant combination.

 

[Stormborn]

Yes this generator here has a gestalt character option

http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

Thanks for the link, although i can't seem to actually get it to let me choose the gestalt option.


I have been thinking about a "young gods" campaign for gestalt. Basically a world on the outskirts of some cosmic war is inflitrated by the enemy, devils or demons most likely but possibly Lovecraftian aberattions as well, who have begun to take over the natives. The Gods,who would be more like the limited and mortal Asguardians than the DnD uberbeings, don't want the enemy to know they are aware of this and don't want to start a new battle front. The solution is to send in their children, the young gods, who would incarnate in heroic mortal bodies and begin the hunt for the demonic overlords. Gestalt would represent their godlike heritage, while mortal heros and villans would be single classed. While on this world they would have no contact with their home realm, and Contact Other Plane might draw attention so should only be used in emergency. If they die they return to their home realm, but can't return to that world lest they tip off the enemy.

I would probablly make it a very highpowered campaign, good stats and maybe even max hp per level, and throw the kinds of baddies at my players they almost never get to fight. If we want variety they might have to do this on world after world. A few levels in a standard DnD world, a few levels in a Frostfell world, a few in a Sandstorm world, and then maybe off to the real battlegrounds of planar cities etc.

 

[Insight]

Has anyone tried Gestalt with modern characters? It seems like a natural fit to me, but I'd be curious to see if anyone else had playtested this scenario.

 

[Andor]

Interesting. I'd have expected to see a few ftr/rogues in a gestalt game. Two highly complementary classes that combine for huge melee carnage potential. I'm kind of surprised to see some people don't like the PsiWarrior although I suppose in a gestalt game he might bring too much to the mix. Personally the Psiwarrioir is one of my favorite classes.

 

[Pbartender]

I have a question for you guys. How do you all feel about the scout class in general as well as if it wer, combined with, say... the monk?

Just be careful... I think extra movement gained from the Scout class is a named bonus. It may not stack with other classes.

Interesting. I'd have expected to see a few ftr/rogues in a gestalt game. Two highly complementary classes that combine for huge melee carnage potential.

My wife is beginning a Gestalt game next month. The idea is that humans are the bad guys, and all the non-human races, including the monstrous ones, are banding together to kick the humans out.

As much as a super-spellcaster sounded fun, with how many extra class abilities you get as a Gestalt character, I wanted reduce the number of things I had to keep track of for my character, especially since I'm running another game and I have enough preparation to deal with DMing that game... So I ruled out spellcasting and psionic classes altogether, and nixed barbarians because of their rage ability (I detest having to keep two separate characters sheets for one character).

That left pretty much Fighter and Rogue.

I've decided to go with a very dextrous, very intelligent Goblin Fighter/Swashbuckler-Rogue/Invisible Blade, with a piratical backstory. He'll be a Hiding, Move Silenting, Tumbling, Sneak Attacking fiend, dual-weilding two of those barbed daggers from Complete Adventurer.

 

[Nightfall]

Charwoman Gene,

Nah if you want to Gestalt with another fighter type, Warmain and/or one of the Iron Heroes classes would be a better bet.

Sorcerer/wizard seems a tad redundant to me. Warmage/Wizard or Warmage/Sorcerer makes more sense.

Korimyr,

What is it with you and psychic warrior anyway?

I'm not dissing people that like it just find it not my cup of tea when it comes to psionics. It's probably why I like Wilder and Psion better.


Andor,

I think the reason most don't do fighter/rogue is probably because they can do swashbuckler now.

 

[blargney the second]

I'm playing and co-DMing a gestalt game right now, and it's a LOT of fun!

I really notice the limit of number of actions per round in a gestalt game. The versatility afforded by gestalting permits more potent activity in any given round. Mind you, the players have to be more aware of all the options available to them in order to take advantage of that.

Somebody mentioned above gestalting with NPC classes, and I happened to discover that particular joy last night. I took a significant villain from a Dungeon adventure and slapped on an NPC class. Bingo - instant hit points, BAB, saves, and that's it. It's pretty handy! I don't bother gestalting anything other than major baddies with class levels.

In general, gestalt characters seem to have much more staying power than usual. More spells, more HPs, more special abilities all amount to them being capable of an extra encounter or two per day. If there is only a single encounter, they'll waltz right through it very easily. Making them aware that they need to last longer tends to even things out a lot.

-blarg

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

What is it with you and psychic warrior anyway?

I'm not dissing people that like it just find it not my cup of tea when it comes to psionics. It's probably why I like Wilder and Psion better.

I actually love the class, and I think it's well balanced for normal D&D play. In a Gestalt game, however, you can't allow it to combine with Fighter-- way too many damn feats-- or the Psion or Wilder, because of the way psionic classes stack. It's easier just to ban the sucker, since the idea of "psychic warrior" is probably best covered with either Fighter/Psion or Monk/Psion.

As far as the Scout/Psychic Warrior hybrid... hustle and psionic lion's charge. Three PSPs and a swift action, and you can make a full attack Skirmish. If you use hustle, that's a full attack ranged Skirmish.

Psychic Warrior also has the bonus feats to make this count.

edit: I don't ban either power, but since Psions and Wilders have to be a level higher to grab it up-- and they don't have all the bonus combat feats-- it's not something I worry about. If a Scout/Psion wants to pick up hustle with Expanded Knowledge, I have no problem with them taking advantage of it.

It's also a really neat build for heading into Elocator.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Has anyone tried Gestalt with modern characters? It seems like a natural fit to me, but I'd be curious to see if anyone else had playtested this scenario.

It's... delightfully bad. Two class talents at every odd level, two bonus feats at every even level, and almost no overlap. When you get to Advanced Classes, it's even more messed up-- whether or not you allow characters to combine two AdvCs.

If you want the "Gestalt effect" for Modern characters, whip up something like really pale generic occupational classes-- maybe give each Occupation a couple class abilities-- and apply those to the Modern classes normally. It's kinda like the "NPC class Gestalt" variant that Kahuna Burger uses.