Gestalt character shoehorn

[Mulcibaer]

(System: D&D 3.5)

I was thinking of allowing the use of gestalt characters in addition to normal characters in my next campaign, albeit with an exp penalty to reflect their extra power. Thing is, 50% less sxp is actually a bit harsh, seeing as how they are not really 100% better than a normal character. What are the thoughts of the populace?

[Crake]

(System: D&D 3.5)

I was thinking of allowing the use of gestalt characters in addition to normal characters in my next campaign, albeit with an exp penalty to reflect their extra power. Thing is, 50% less sxp is actually a bit harsh, seeing as how they are not really 100% better than a normal character. What are the thoughts of the populace?

I know the tier system suggests gestalt for lower tiers as a balancing system? Perhaps use that when deciding what to allow/disallow?

[mabriss lethe]

I've run a tier based gestalt before and it worked really well. Short version. T1 and 2 classes can't gestalt. T3-4 can gestalt with NPC classes only. T5-6 can gestalt with any other T5-6 class + Adept.

[hymer]

I usually allow gestalt (in a fairly restricted form) with +2 LA which cannot be bought off. This means (due to other things) that gestalts ususally have ECL one higher than they are, and they can't get rid of that. It seems to work. But I have a different restriction on gestalt: No multiclassing, no PrCs. All gestalts are (e.g.) Barbarian1-20//Sorcerer1-20.

I've yet to see something like a druid//psion or wizard//cleric, and I don't think my players want to be bothered with all the paperwork.