Playground be my Motrin!

[Orsen]

Greetings All!
I have a headache that I hope you will all help me fix and that headache is called Gestalt. I'll start with a question about Gestalt before asking advice for my specific character.
When using gestalt do you treat both sides as separate when determining prerequisites for a prestige class? If I had a fighter X/Wizard X would I have to take levels of a casting prestige class on my wizard side or am I thinking about this all wrong?
If the above is incorrect, then would I be able to take two casting prestige classes at the same time? If both had + 1 level of existing spell casting class and I've only got Wizard as a casting class I would advance one level spell wise in Wizard and just gain the class features of each prestige class, correct?
My character will be a level 3 Gestalt that is a Focused Conjurer 3/ Daring Outlaw (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188150) 2 | Fighter 1 (S 6, D 16, C 14, I 18, W 10, C 8). I'd like to mostly focus on the conjurer half with the martial classes being chosen to help toughen me up and avoid being too cheesy. My group is semi optimized but I'm still the only one using a tier one in the gestalt. Any suggestions? I've been reading Treantmonk's guide to being God (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19873034/Treantmonks_guide_to_Wizards:_Being_a_God) and would also like to see what the playground has to offer.
Thanks in advance! :smallsmile:

[AmberVael]

People like to think of Gestalt as having "sides" and being multiple classes, but what it really is is just combining two classes into one. You never have two classes at the same time, you only have one that is an amalgam of two.

Therefore, "sides" are utterly irrelevant, as they don't actually exist.

Yes, you could theoretically take two casting classes at the same time, gain the features of both (and only gain one advancement of your casting per level, as that would overlap). The basic gestalt rules do not allow two prestige classes being used simultaneously though, just as a note (though many DMs ignore this).

[The Glyphstone]

As said above - it might be somewhat easier if you don't think of it as two separate halves...it's like you took two levels in ConjurerDaringOutlaw, then multiclasses into ConjurerFighter, where all classes named ConjurerSomething stack for spellcasting.

[Grendus]

Gestalt is poorly described, as it was really intended to be an idea for house rules rather than an actual system. Generally speaking, most people prefer to say that each side must stand on it's own, but it's really more of a case by case thing. Ask your DM, or if you are the DM come up with your own ideas.

Generally speaking, I like to go with the "each side must stand on it's own", otherwise you can get builds like Druid 3/Factotem 17//Wizard 3/Mystic Theurge 7/Arcane Heirophant 10 and get dual 9's, the king of skillmonkeys, a pretty pimped out animal companion, and you can get extra standard actions on each encounter, and this isn't using anything particularly cheesy. But it's up to you, Gestalt is pretty much asking for a high powered game anyways.