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evisiron
2008-03-02, 04:47 AM
I just started a new campaign with a mini prologue involving two of the players. However, due to the inability of the 3rd to arrive we have decided to run it with just the two. Gestalt will hopefully even the score. It is 3rd level and the proposed classes were:

1) Rogue/ Druid
2) Barbarian/ Dragon Shaman

It looks okay on paper (and I am waiving alignment issues) but have not used gestalt before. Will these characters do okay, or is there a flaw I am missing?

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-03-02, 04:53 AM
The Rogue//Druid is going to be a melee tank, between summons and a companion to give him an auto-flank. The Barbarian//Dragon Shaman is going to be underpowered comparatively, though, because the auras benefit the Druid's summons and companion. The party will be very effective, though, so you should be fine. Look into having the Rogue take a swordsage dip and the barbarian look into warblade instead if you really want it to be overpowered, but otherwise this should be fine, if a bit unbalanced between the party members.

weenie
2008-03-02, 08:20 AM
I'd switch the Barbarian//Dragon Shaman for a gish, since you have no arcane spellcasting in there. Duskblade//Wizard should do fine. The other character will suffer from some MAD, but is otherwise ok.

Starsinger
2008-03-02, 09:08 AM
Yes, they're perfectly usable. Do remember though, that gestalt doesn't give you more actions just more options. So a party of 2 gestalt characters is still lacking the extra action or three per turn that most parties are expected to have.

Jack_Simth
2008-03-02, 10:42 AM
Yes, they're perfectly usable. Do remember though, that gestalt doesn't give you more actions just more options. So a party of 2 gestalt characters is still lacking the extra action or three per turn that most parties are expected to have.
There's a trick to that, at least at low levels.

Have one be a Druid/Arcanist, the other a Druid/Skillmonkey. Note: Swordsage is a very good skill monkey for this - just about ideal, really.

Have both grab the "combat" animal companions (Riding Dog at 1st, Ape at 4th). If the DM decides it works that way, have them take Natural Bond to offset the adjustment on the Apes.

Roles:
Healer: Both are 9/10th's healers - they can split the role very effectively.
Arcanist: One is a full arcanist.
Skillmonkey: One is a full Skillmonkey.
Meatshield: An Animal Companion can't normally keep up with an approprietly equipped Fighter or Barbarian, but two of them can, especially with Druid buff spells and/or that nifty Natural Bond feat. A little Barding helps, too.
Anti-Traps: Summon Nature's Ally I can locate almost all the traps you need. Detect Magic can find the rest - and at the point where you've got spell traps with a trigger range over 45 feet to worry about, Arcane Sight will do it better at 120.
Anti-Locks: Wand of Acid Splash handles this very well. Or just train the animal companions to "Attack Anything" and order them to bash down the door.

Edit: At high levels, the animal companions fall behind, but you're still working with two full casters, so....

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-03-02, 12:24 PM
Building off of Jack:
Druid 19/Beastmaster 1//Swordsage 15/Master of Nine 5
And
Druid 20//Wizard X/PrC X/PrCx(I like Wizard 3/Master Specialist10/IotSFV 7)
Arrange the levels as you want, have them both take Natural Spell, Companion Spellcasting, and Obtain Companion. You end up with 5 meatshields, full druid casting*2, full wizard casting, and a power level of OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND!!!1!

evisiron
2008-03-02, 01:46 PM
I had proposed some of the ideas (like the gish stuff) to the players, but they are pretty new to the game and are happy with their characters.

So, is there any way I can scale the adventures? Whats the ECL of 2 level 3 gestalts? Should I replace many enemies with fewer, stronger enemies?

Zincorium
2008-03-02, 01:54 PM
I had proposed some of the ideas (like the gish stuff) to the players, but they are pretty new to the game and are happy with their characters.

So, is there any way I can scale the adventures? Whats the ECL of 2 level 3 gestalts? Should I replace many enemies with fewer, stronger enemies?

Fewer, more powerful enemies enemies is a good idea, but realize that the gestalt combos are still not worth two separate characters, primarily because they still only get a limited number of actions and only one hit die per level.

Try going a little bit easy on them at first, maybe CRs of one or two less than the level of the characters, until you see how good they are. Increase it from there, especially for encounters where the party is going in fully rested, but beware of special defenses that may shut down the party completely (allips, which are CR3 and cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons, are notorious for this).

Chronos
2008-03-02, 04:32 PM
Anti-Locks: Wand of Acid Splash handles this very well.It wouldn't even do anything to them. Acid doesn't bypass hardness; the bit in the PHB about acid and sonic doing full damage to objects just means that you don't divide by two, like you do for fire or lightning.

Jack_Simth
2008-03-02, 05:15 PM
It wouldn't even do anything to them. Acid doesn't bypass hardness; the bit in the PHB about acid and sonic doing full damage to objects just means that you don't divide by two, like you do for fire or lightning.
Wand of Knock, then. Or just destroy the door by brute force from your animal companion.