Gestalt for Monsters

[Sir Swindle89]

I'm running a gestalt campaign but i run into the issue where just raising the CR of encounters by x1.5 doesn't really get the proper challenge increase. Namly the monsters Offense and Defense go up by a lot but the players are generally near the same defensive level. (basically monsters can one shot non-tank folk on accident)

To try to balance the whole thing better I want to start gestalting the monster HD with levels. Fighter, Barbarian, and Rogue are good starts. But a lot of class features (armor and wepon profs.) and feats don't make a lot of sense.

Is there a generic advanced monster class or something someone has homebrewed that can gestalt well with a wide variety of monsters?

[Soren Hero]

I'm running a gestalt campaign but i run into the issue where just raising the CR of encounters by x1.5 doesn't really get the proper challenge increase. Namly the monsters Offense and Defense go up by a lot but the players are generally near the same defensive level. (basically monsters can one shot non-tank folk on accident)

To try to balance the whole thing better I want to start gestalting the monster HD with levels. Fighter, Barbarian, and Rogue are good starts. But a lot of class features (armor and wepon profs.) and feats don't make a lot of sense.

Is there a generic advanced monster class or something someone has homebrewed that can gestalt well with a wide variety of monsters?

maybe start adding templates to the other side? that seems to be a good way to increase the challenge that monsters possess. if you need more ideas you can always check out oscelamo's guide to being ra'as al goul...its available at Brilliant Gameologists (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11476.0) but for some reason, i cant login atm

[gbprime]

Yeah, for those monsters where rogue or fighter levels don't make sense and you don't want them all to be spellcasters, slap in a Feral Monster of Legend upgrade and watch the fun. :smallamused:

[Soren Hero]

here's a handyguide (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19869266/Master_Template_List) to templates...have fun...if you need more specific advice, we need more specifics about ur campaign...what level your players are at? low/mid/high op? classes?