Multiclass Into A Gestalt

[Bartmanhomer]

How do you multiclass into a gestalt?

[legomaster00156]

You don't. Gestalt is a special sub-system for small parties or high-powered games, which the GM decides whether or not to use at the beginning of the game.

[Zman]

If you check out my Homebrew I have rules for an E10 variant of 3.5 that lets you level up from a 1st level single classed character to 20th level where you're a 10//10 character. It was written to go with my 3.5 Overhaul but is workable to multiclassing into gestalt.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

There are a lot of ways to simulate gestalt with a non-gestalt characters, though none of them are exact.

Theurge-type classes and feats can pseudo-gestalt by progressing multiple classes at once. Whether it's the mystic Gohan theurge, true necromancer, abjurant champion, or Tashalatora, Ascetic Hunter/Knight/Mage/Rogue/Stalker, Daring Outlaw/Warrior, Devoted Performer, etc, they're all RAW and RAI ways of stacking multiple classes in a single class progression.

Illithid savant allows you to perma-nab abilities from other creatures by eating their brains, thereby picking up the most important parts of a class in just a few levels.

Combining the fusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm) and astral seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralSeed.htm) powers can super-gestalt you in ways that normal gestalt doesn't (such as stacking hp).

Metaconcert (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metaconcert.htm) allows you to gestalt certain parts of your mind with others to produce a presence that is an amalgamation of everyone you target.

The ghost template and fiend of possession class can allow you to inhabit the bodies of others, which lets you act using your abilities while wearing their bodies (so if you find a strong body with mainly natural attacks and super-Str/Dex/Con but not many magical or class abilities, you can gestalt your class abilities with the body's racial abilities).

The hive mind ability of the vermin lord PrC, from the BoVD can grant you effective sorcerer levels, thereby (essentially) gestalting you. There are other ways to gain effective (but not actual) class levels, such as the wyrm of war draconic template, which basically gestalts you with fighter at half-progression, or the various ways of adding sorcerer casting to dragons and kobolds.

Polymorph and similar spells can essentially gestalt you with a monster class, granting most of a monster's traits without the trash LA and (mostly) trash HD.

[Morcleon]

The simplest way is to stop thinking about gestalt as being an entirely different framework, because it's not. Assuming that your DM has given you permission to go from a single classed character to a double classed character, think of gestalt not as two separate classes, but as one superclass that has the best of each of two classes. So rather than taking a level of Fighter//Wizard, you're instead taking a level of FighterWizard.