[3.5] Gestalt Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[Holocron Coder]

Andrew, Derrick, and David, keep out :smallfurious:

That done, I'm running a PbP campaign for some friends. Since there are only three of them, I allowed them to make their characters gestalt. They made the following characters:

Dante
Chaotic Good Human Factotum // Swashbuckler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6799732&postcount=6) 6
Str 13, Con 16, Dex 16, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 16
Quick Summary: Jack of all trades ego-case

Quriril (Quir) Mabrit
Neutral Good Human Warblade // Spellcaster (Int) 6
Str 12, Con 12, Dex 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 11
Quick Summary: Your average gish

Sage Harthin
Neutral Good Human Cloistered Cleric // Enchanter 6
Str 11, Con 13, Dex 12, Int 19, Wis 18, Cha 13
Quick Summary: Vow of Nonviolence, Vow of Peace. Buffer, debuffer, healer

Sage Harthin's cohort, Arvaunt
Lawful Good Human Crusader 4
Str 18, Con 16, Dex 11, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 8
Quick Summary: Harthin's persona meat-shield

Yes, they rolled rather well on their stats.

So, given they have their characters all together and that they're rather strong, I'm wondering if there's any long-standing advice for this campaign, or any advice when it comes to gestalt-ing during it, such as:

1) Do I make Strahd stronger? He looks kinda piddly, but I could be misjudging.
2) Do I gestalt any of the named NPCs (such as Strahd)?
3) Is there anything most people miss that make the adventure more exciting or intriguing?
4) ...
5) Profit!

[Keld Denar]

There's a pretty good link floating around with info on running EtCR in a play-by-post. One of the biggest things mentioned is removing some of the random encounters. There are seriously a TON. Most of them are like, EL2-EL4 even, so they are more annoying than a real resource drain.

Thats said, I'd suggest the cleric swap from an Enchanter to a Transmuter. Transmutation buffs better than Enchantment, and almost all of Enchantment's debuffs have the [Mind Affecting] tag, and thus suck in ~85% of EtCR.

The sacred vows won't be too big of an issue in this game, since MOST of the encounters are undead, but those 2 in particular are annoying at best, disruptive at worse. Tread carefully.

[Holocron Coder]

Ahh, thanks. I had noticed that it basically expects 2 random encounter per day (one at night, one during the day), consisting mostly of animals, tending towards undead.

Any other notes? Or possibly that link?

[Jack_Simth]

The sacred vows won't be too big of an issue in this game, since MOST of the encounters are undead, but those 2 in particular are annoying at best, disruptive at worse. Tread carefully.

You may want to re-read Vow of Nonviolence and Vow of Peace. They prevent the one who took the oath from harming living critters, and they impose penalties on companions who attack helpless or defenseless living critters. They don't, however, impose penalties on companions who attack living critters that are still active opponents. So the Warblade in the party can swing his greatsword, the swashbuckler can still poke holes in things, and the cohort can make use of improved trip. However, if the Enchanter puts an attacking living critter to sleep, it needs to be left alone.