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Grim Reader
2019-08-31, 03:02 PM
Classes may move to World-building later.

So I have been thinking... a lot of the bottom-tier classes have strengths that can cover each others weaknesses. If you gestalt them. But how to keep such gestalts from becoming a complete mess in terms of fluff?

What kind of background fluff could you suggest for gestalts of two of the following classes:

Truenamer, Shadowcaster, Monk, Healer, CW Samurai and Ninja ?

Eldan
2019-08-31, 03:52 PM
I'm not sure the Truenamer is salvageable without extensive rewrite to its core magic system.

Good its, I'd imagine: Ninja/Shadowcaster, Monk/Shadowcaster. Maybe Healer/Monk. Monk/Samurai... is a monk with full BAB and two-weapon fighting, which is not the worst. I'd just fluff Ninja/Shadowcaster as a ninja and Monk/Samurai as a monk, really.

Grim Reader
2019-08-31, 05:03 PM
I'm not sure the Truenamer is salvageable without extensive rewrite to its core magic system.

Good its, I'd imagine: Ninja/Shadowcaster, Monk/Shadowcaster. Maybe Healer/Monk. Monk/Samurai... is a monk with full BAB and two-weapon fighting, which is not the worst. I'd just fluff Ninja/Shadowcaster as a ninja and Monk/Samurai as a monk, really.

Well, the Truenamer, as I understand is playable at low levels. As you level you run into the little problem that difficulties increase by 2x a monsters CR/character HD while you can only add 1 rank per level to truespeak. But your ability to use utterances for utility should still be playable. So something that may be very weak at low levels, such as the Shadowcaster... its low number of mysteries make it exceptionally hard at lower level, while it gets access to some OK stuff later on.

So gestalt Truenamer and Shadowcaster... maybe they use the echoes of creation? The last shadows of making, listen to and learn the last echoes of the words the creator used to create? Or shadows are some kind of pre-creation stuff?

Samurai/Shadowcaster is the Knight of Shadows really.

EndlessKng
2019-08-31, 11:46 PM
Shadowcaster/Ninja: The true masters of the shadow. Kage merge the shadow energies with their life force, mastering a set of ninjutsu tricks for infiltration and assassination. They are masters of illusion, deception, and distraction.

Monk/Samurai: The yamabushi are trained in isolated monasteries, ascetic save for their masterwork swords. Their speed astonishes their victims, adding to the terror they can inflict. They can channel their ki into their fists and feet if they choose not to draw their blades, or into their voice to focus it into a single deadly stroke. (For this gestalt, consider allowing the use of the daisho as a monk weapon to make them even deadlier). One that focuses more the samurai class and quick draw/iaijutsu function may instead call this a “Kenshinzen.”

Monk/Ninja: Masters of Ki, the shinobi channel their life energy into their hands to make them more dangerous, while also developing stealth to act as infiltrators and assassins. They are difficult to hit, fast, and utilize martial arts and strange weapons - at least, that’s what the few who have seen them and survived have claimed. They are versatile and deadly, and can get into and out of areas others consider impossible.

Samurai/Ninja: These warriors occupy the shadows as shadow handlers. Where other ninja types are often try to never be seen, shadow handlers are used as messengers between their masters and those that their masters bring under their control. Their intimidation skills allow them to cow their victims and scare off their guards, and they can get in and out to even the most well-protected hideouts with their skills.

Maat Mons
2019-09-03, 05:55 PM
I'll just address combos of the classes I'm actually familiar with.

Healer/Monk
I'm pretty sure magic users having Monk-ish stuff is standard in Estern lore. In fact, wasn't the OA Shaman class basically this?

Healer/Ninja
Sakura, I guess? A skills-y healer who can stealth and dodge attacks is fine. But Sudden Strike feels a bit weird. I guess you could refluff it as "anatomical knowledge," but then I'm not sure why the enemy needs to be flat-footed.

Healer/Samurai
I guess it's sort of like the Sohei class, but less terrible. (Still not very good, though. Using your Samurai class features means TWF, and that means not being able to cast spells without taking Somatic Weaponry, and maybe also Worldly Focus. So you'll probably just use a two-handed weapon. I guess it'd be like a Cleric who DMM-Persists Divine Power, and ignores most of his spell list.

Monk/Ninja
Ninja is already a sort of Monk/Rogue mashup.

Monk/Samurai
Samurai's TWF stuff only applies with a katana and wakizashi. And monk's bonus damage only applies with unarmed strikes. So this is kind of either "a Monk with full attack bonus," or "a Samurai with all good saves."

Ninja/Samurai
Kind of reminds me of the Ronin prestige class. Main problem is, katana isn't a finesse weapon, and Sumurai's TWF doesn't work with just two wakizashis. So you'll probably have to go for a Str-based character, and not have too much Dex. The lack of Dex will undermine your Ninja-ness, and then your Ninja-ness will be undermined again when you put on heavy armor to try to have a decent AC.

Morphic tide
2019-09-03, 06:51 PM
Going to throw out a few Divine-themed ones. Because I like touching on flavor niches people tend not to think about.

Healer/Paladin: Hospitaller, flavored as more hazardous response than any sort of expected frontliner. Smoothing the mix with some adjustments, the Lay on Hands pool can be instead replaced with a Cure spellpool with the Healing Hands feature baked in and auto-self-Quicken, with condition removal spells coming as the Healer gets them. Furthermore, the merger of Special Mounts offers a pretty noteworthy upside in the simple fact of being able to pick from either list, allowing the Paladin martial abilities a Healer's beater-buddy. Adding Paladin-theme spells for levels 5-9, those being various buffs and Uphold Law effects, would further assist bringing to t3, ultimately resulting in the expected Cleric playstyle of healing up allies and focusing on buffs being fully and permanently canned, as opposed to the... Nasty shenanigans the Cleric's larger spell list and Divine Metamagic offer. Result is firmly Cleric-, save the better healing, not Paladin or Healer+.

Paladin/Knight: Templar, flavored with the rather straightforward merger of the two class's flavors of being the Divine Champion who beats in the faces of the Great Horrors. The mechanics pair wonderfully in so many ways, as you can actually redirect damage from your mount, to preserve otherwise-terrible mobility, and allies, as well as cow chaff that you don't have the action economy to deal with, while having the effective HP pool to actually soak up all that damage. Smoothing the merger, condition removal and Turn Undead could be baked into the Knight's Challenge uses, allowing for a better off-healer role to supplement the tanking and limited damage. Solid combat all-rounder outside lacking buffs, but doesn't actually need the buffs to work.

Healer/Spellthief: Leprosaran, flavored with regard to handling the unsavory aspects of religious matters, publicly focusing on the harshly diseased and other long-term-condition victims, but also being the Church assassins to deal with rival faiths, ripping the buffs off enemy Clerics, turning Undead on their makers and generally giving opposed spellcasters a Bad Time while making sure those who arrive for other reasons can finish things up. Smoothing the mechanics, there actually isn't much at all, save possibly smoothing over the wording for using the taken slots on the Healer spells, and maybe some wider condition-taking on top of being able to take the debuffs and curses off allies to begin with.