Quick question for them DMs

[Immabozo]

I am DMing a gestalt game and I am trying to gauge the CR my level 7 gestalt characters should be fighting (there are 3 of them). I have settled on +2 CR above normal (they are also decently equipped, but far from optimized).

What CR do you usually do in a Gestalt game?

[Fates]

Depends on the level of optimization. I usually stick to +2, but for an abysmally-optimized group, I'll bring it down to +1 at times, and for particularly powerful characters I introduce marginally more difficult encounters.

[Flickerdart]

I usually have one fight per day when I DM, to allow for flashier encounters. However, the fights are most often against many slightly weaker creatures, to avoid overwhelming the PCs with sheer numbers. On paper, CR+2 or CR+3 fights are about the sweet spot where PCs will be seriously worried that they might actually lose, without actually having a risk of a TPK - two or three guys of the party's level or slightly higher.

The power levels in gestalt can vary a great deal - the optimization floor is slightly elevated, but the optimization ceiling explodes upwards like a rocket to the moon. I would definitely encourage probing your party's competence with singular powerful encounters rather than many weaker encounters, to see how competent they really are.

[Immabozo]

Yeah, I am trying the one or two big strong opponents, cause they are fairly hard to hit, although low optimization (and one is jokingly abysmal optimization, although high AC)

they would have beaten the encounter I just threw at them on the ouskirts of a frost giant camp if it wasn't for shockingly horrible tactics that drew the attention of the ENTIRE camp to them (lighting a tent on fire during the first round of combat and then fighting next to it for 3 rounds), bringing more frost giants than anyone could handle.