Gestalt Games

Although I've GM'd for several years I've never run a gestalt game, what is that exactly? I read on the net is was something like a character takes two class levels every time they level up?

yes,I found out several years ago you basically combine the classes taking the better hit die, individual saving throws, and skill progression of each class.

these beastly hero gain class features at same  in both classes, but spells are handled separately for each class,  so while say a bard/wizard could cast with a shield his wizard spells would suffer from arcane spell failure.

Moved to Off-Topic.  - Gauss

I usually run D20/Pathfinder games, and have allowed my players to gestalt for a while now. Generally I like to run high powered games, but fiddle wit the Challenge Rating rules to compensate. EG: usually I minus 2 from the CR to get the new CR, so an Ogre is now CR1, and an Orc is CR 1/8. This allows the characters to take on creatures that both provide a challenge and don't break the CR/XP system, allowing the characters to advance to quickly. The other thing I do sometimes is dis-allow some combinations, some of the combinations of the classes are horrific and allow the characters to become absolute killing machines, making a mockery of creatures many levels higher than themselves. In general, I'd say that if you're using the gestalt rules, be prepared for some amazing things to happen during combat, but never be afraid to disallow combos and to demand a hand in all steps of character creation. Leigh H.

Kaizer said: Although I've GM'd for several years I've never run a gestalt game, what is that exactly? I read on the net is was something like a character takes two class levels every time they level up? <a href="http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/" rel="nofollow">http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/</a>... That link gives the basics of gestalt pc's for 3.5. I have only played in one game, it went from level 1 to level 3, and we were NOT that much more powerful than regular characters. I played a sorcerer/oracle and I really liked my character, but even at level 3, I could still only use 1st level spells, so I didn't think he was all that and a bag of chips. The PCs that had both fighter and caster combinations could "buff" themselves, which seemed to be useful as far as combats went. I would have liked the game to have continued, I think my character would have really shined in city/town situations and at higher levels, but at low levels, he was easily the weakest in the party. Which is fine with me, he was built as a face type, not a combat machine. If you DM it, keep in mind, your PCs only have 1st level hit points and spells, assuming you start at level 1, they are not the equivalent of 3rd level PCs. At higher levels, they are probably much more powerful than an equal leveled single class character, but at low levels, they are still squishy.