Need help with gestalt class combinations

[EldritchWeaver]

For my game I have two NPCs which qualify for the Gestalt treatment. Each of them has already a class chosen for one side (arcanist and medic resp.), so it's "only" a matter to find a good partner. I'm using Spheres of Power as magic system for the NPCs, so Paizo classes are limited to those for conversions exist. Which are those contained in the PHB, APG and ACG. In addition, all Path of War classes are ok, as long they don't rely on Psionics or other non-Paizo subsystem (except for maneuvers, etc. :smallamused:). In case, it makes a difference, the medic NPC will start at level 4 or 5, but will level up, the arcanist one is at least level 15 (haven't decided yet on details yet). Need to know more? Just ask!

[avr]

If the arcanist is a very learned type then empiricist investigator may be appropriate. If they're all about magical power then an oracle with the spellscar or lore mysteries might work. If you just want them to not die easily then warder is your answer.

For the medic then life oracle is the best healer, but if there's anything else you want them to do you'll need to clarify their role.

[stack]

For the medic, path of war is very active, so something that gives good passive options. Coupled with npc wealth, I would say armorist. Much better than npc equipment, a bit of casting to round out the corners.

For arcanist, you can hardly go wrong slapping incanter on one side if you want versatility. Or even better, hedgewitch with spiritualism. Full CL from arcanist, huge flexibility. Might be overkill. Thaumaturge could be fun too, have one fixed specialty and one that changes day to day that way.

[EldritchWeaver]

I need to check the proposed options out first in more detail, before I can make my decision. But the arcanist is a demigod and should be both powerful and resilient (I'm considering adding mythic stuff as well). Regarding the medic: One of my players, playing the healer character, dropped out. While for story purposes the character is still around, once the current adventure is done, I'll switch him out with the medic, to ensure that the party stays functional with only 3 players. It also works nicely with the upcoming turn of events as well. Overall, I don't want the NPC to overshadow the other PCs, which means that a more passive side seems to be a good fit.

[Doc_Maynot]

For the Arcanist, I recommend Aegis. With the class you can pick up Initiator's Soul to pick up and change out maneuvers, and its recovery mechanic is temporarily changing out customizations as a Full Round. Making them an extremely versatile character on or off the battlefield.

[EldritchWeaver]

My original plan was to give an update if I had finished checking the proposals, but then I got distracted enough that I only got parts of it done so far. Still I have some news to share. Firstly, the proposal for the medic to use the life oracle: I've discussed with a medic player, if he felt that something would be missing, but aside of covering a lack of dealing with status effects there was nothing, a life oracle side could contribute to help the medic side. Considering I use SoP, I can simply choose an armorist using the Life sphere and take only restore talents. Looking at the class features of the armorist, they seem to synergize well with the medic, too.

Otherwise I thought about excluding the Aegis proposal, because it violates my mandate "No psionics!", but then it occurred to me that the psionics part is very limited. If I read it right, it only gets power points to fuel a handful of abilities, which are translatable to SoP. So it is still part of the options. Unlike the oracle for the arcanist. SoP arcanists have access to all magic talents thanks to non-existing class spell lists anyway and are spontaneous casters, so the oracle base chassis is not that desirable. Spellscar mystery has some effects replicable in SoP in some other way, and the others causing wild magic stuff to happen don't fit the character. Lore mystery is similar, except the non-replicable ones are tied to Charisma. As for an int-based character, this doesn't help that much. But there is some overlap with the empiricist investigator which might be worth a level dip at least, if I choose not that class in full. I'll provide another update, once I know more. :)

BTW, would a gestalt with a SoP class on every side get more SP, too?

[stack]

The way I see it, if you gestalt a sorcerer and an oracle, you get spells known and spell slots for each, so why wouldn't a gestalt sphere caster get talents and SP from both sides? If you wanted to make things difficult you could allow separate casting stats on each side, but those are easy enough to change anyhow.