Gestalt Characters with Racial Hit Dice and/or Level Adjustments

[druid zook]

When I run a game that allows gestalt PCs, I have told my players to avoid racial HD or LAs because they exist separately from the gestalt class, and are not as good as a level in the gestalt class. A 2nd level gestalt human is just better than a 1st level planetouched gestalt character. However, I do tell them that they can pay off the LA per Unearthed Arcana rules.

Another DM I knew instead allowed racial HD and LAs as half of the gestalt's build. I.e., one build at 14th level could be a half-celestial human cleric 14/fighter 10; but he didn't allow paying off the LAs.

I'm just curious as to how you other DMs out there like to handle this in your gestalt games.

[Krazzman]

Since we use Gestalt in Pathfinder we don't generally have Racial HD or LA anymore.

That said wether LA-Buyoff is used is up to the DM but having Class//Class-LA is good "balanced" way to play which I would recommend doing. I would, depending on starting level ban LA of 3 or higher. LA of 2 would be a maybe and LA of 1 is most likely allowed.

[Dekion]

I follow the same logic that you indicated. Racial HD or CR (we play Pathfinder exclusively, but use the gestalt build. It's the only remnant of 3.5 we still have) are accounted for on both sides of the gestalt build for each HD and/or CR adjustment. I feel like allowing it to work otherwise creates a situation that is rife for abuse or complicated explanation. It's not a huge impact for most races, as Pathfinder doesn't have LA (we handle higher RP costs in a completely different way,) but for anyone who wants to add a template or play a character of a race that has racial HD or a CR adjustment, they have to weigh the cost associated with losing a gestalt class level for each racial racial HD and/or CR adjustment point they gain. Pathfinder also has a method of paying off racial HD/CR, if they are significant enough, but not really anything as good as the actual LA buyoff in 3.5, which we do not use.

[Dagroth]

As far as I remember, every mention I've seen of Gestalt characters with Level Adjust only has the Level Adjust affecting 1 side of the Gestalt.

I mean, Gestalt is brokenly powerful already... who cares, right? :smalltongue:

[OldTrees1]

I keep RHD & LA separate from the gestalt levels, but I refactor* the RHD & LA cost of a race to account for the higher value of a gestalt level compared to a normal level.

*Refactoring is where you take a WotC race and determine the fair price for the racial features rather than use WotC's estimate. It is a skill that you get better at over time with practice and it also helps fine tune those RHD & LA costs to match your groups power level. In all honesty, DMs should refactor in non gestalt games too.