Gestalt House rule idea

[Anlashok]

Floating the idea of adding a house rule to my next gestalt game and want to see if there's anything horrible that might happen, anyways:

Dual progression PrCs are allowed, but under no circumstances can both halves of a gestalt advance the same class feature. Really two separate house rules, because someone was trying to stack classes that gave sneak attack and it was getting annoying.

In the former case it's just a matter of a lot of dual progression PrCs, imo, giving some really fun class features on top of said progression that I'd hate to see simply taken out of the running entirely.

Alternative to that is the same as the above, with the additional requirement of the full entry into the dual progression PrC having to come from the same half of the gestalt (( i.e. wizard/cleric//rogue could go mystic theurge but not wizard//cleric ))

[ksbsnowowl]

I would advise against this. I ran a gestalt game from level 1 to level 20. It gets crazy enough without someone being a "tri-stalt."

Immediate thoughts: Cleric 20//Wizard 3/Druid 3/Arcane Hierophant 10/Mystic Theurge 4.
I have 9th level spells from three classes.

(Granted, action economy is still going to limit you a bunch, but still...)

If you are wanting characters to have access to interesting class features, allow dual-progression PrC's, but it takes up both "sides" of the character each level you take it.

For example:

Druid 1//Wizard 1
Druid 2//Wizard 2
Druid 3//Wizard 3
Druid 4//Wizard 4
Druid 5//Wizard 5
Druid 6//Wizard 6
Arcane Hierophant 1
Arcane Hierophant 2
etc...

That's what I did in my gestalt game.


...because someone was trying to stack classes that gave sneak attack and it was getting annoying.I assume you pointed them to the part of the gestalt rules that expressly prohibits this, right?

Class features that two classes share (such as uncanny dodge) accrue at the rate of the faster class.Unless you are talking about multiclassing rogue PrC's on one side:

Fighter 20//Rogue 3/Scout 1/Ninja 1/Spelltheif 1/Nightsong Enforcer 1/etc...

... to end up with 14d6 sneak attack, 2d6 skirmish, and 3d6 sudden strike by 20th level. In that case... so what? He can hit fleshy things hard. Fortification armor, undead, elementals, etc would be good foes to bring out every third game session, so he has to have other means of dealing damage.

[The Vagabond]

Personally, I prefer the method for- With dual progression classes, you have to Gestalt the duel progression class with one of the classes that's being progressed. This results in them being avalable, but also able to draw upon their unique abilities. So, in the above person's example, rather than Wizard 6/Arcane Hierophant X//Druid 6/Arcane Hierophant X, you're instead a Wizard 6/Arcane Hierophant X//Druid 6+X.

Druid 1//Wizard 1
Druid 2//Wizard 2
Druid 3//Wizard 3
Druid 4//Wizard 4
Druid 5//Wizard 5
Druid 6//Wizard 6
Druid 7//Arcane Hierophant 1
Druid 8//Arcane Hierophant 2

[ksbsnowowl]

Personally, I prefer the method for- With dual progression classes, you have to Gestalt the duel progression class with one of the classes that's being progressed. This results in them being avalable, but also able to draw upon their unique abilities. So, in the above person's example, rather than Wizard 6/Arcane Hierophant X//Druid 6/Arcane Hierophant X, you're instead a Wizard 6/Arcane Hierophant X//Druid 6+X.

Druid 1//Wizard 1
Druid 2//Wizard 2
Druid 3//Wizard 3
Druid 4//Wizard 4
Druid 5//Wizard 5
Druid 6//Wizard 6
Druid 7//Arcane Hierophant 1
Druid 8//Arcane Hierophant 2

That's not a bad plan. (At least in this example) it just allows a smidge higher HD (and maybe a higher BAB?)

I might think of adopting that next time I run gestalt.

[Aleolus]

I suspect he was meaning gestalting Rogue//Ninja, since SA and SS are technically different abilities but basically do the same thing.

The way I have always done Gestalt is you pick two classes, and those are the gestalted ones, picking up extra classes requires either regestalting those, or single classing it

[ksbsnowowl]

Yeah, the gestalt rules as presented are basically just the basic idea, with a few pointers. Each DM has to decide the finer points for himself, and make sure he relays that additional information to his players. Mostly a matter of how high-power you want it to be.

[Asteron]

My rule is that you can run two PrCs, but only one can advance spellcasting. Any odd questions that arise can be handled on a case-by-case basis.

[Shining Wrath]

Our last 3.5 campaign we used the Tier system - you could only gestalt Tier 3 with Tier 4 or 5. Tier 1 or 2, no gestalt.

[Anlashok]

If you are wanting characters to have access to interesting class features, allow dual-progression PrC's, but it takes up both "sides" of the character each level you take it.

This is a cool idea and works pretty well for something like hierophant, but I'm not sure it'd work as well for say, JPM and other classes like that