Age of Worms as a gestalt campaign?

[Whiplord]

I'm interested in running Age of Worms for my players, and they've been wanting a gestalt game for awhile. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but what would need to change to make it work? If it would even work.

And while I'm asking questions, how many players is optimal?

[Gorbash]

Age of Worms is supposed to be a tough campaign and is made for 6 characters. So 3-4 Gestalt PCs.

[Epinephrine]

Awesome - I too will be running AoW, and was curious about what changes may need to be made. Obviously the chance of a wipe due to bad rolls goes up with fewer players, but they tend to have better saves overall.

Would you Gestalt major villains? Adjust HP? I notice that in general, gestalt characters can't take a beating too much better than non-gestalt (unless they are pre-buffed etc.), but they do dish out more damage, especially at low levels.

Particularly for part 5 (The Champion's Belt)
which focuses on several arena-style fights against level-matched opponents, should these be gestalt opponents? I worry that the party will cream them by that point. We use ToB, so the party melee will be much stronger than the opponents (unless I ToB the badguys), and synergised characters may trounce badguys without two classes of abilities to draw upon.

[Telonius]

Age of Worms was a tough campaign for our five-person crew. I'd see nothing wrong with Gestalting it.

[Whiplord]

Awesome - I too will be running AoW, and was curious about what changes may need to be made. Obviously the chance of a wipe due to bad rolls goes up with fewer players, but they tend to have better saves overall.

Would you Gestalt major villains? Adjust HP? I notice that in general, gestalt characters can't take a beating too much better than non-gestalt (unless they are pre-buffed etc.), but they do dish out more damage, especially at low levels.

Particularly for part 5 (The Champion's Belt)
which focuses on several arena-style fights against level-matched opponents, should these be gestalt opponents? I worry that the party will cream them by that point. We use ToB, so the party melee will be much stronger than the opponents (unless I ToB the badguys), and synergised characters may trounce badguys without two classes of abilities to draw upon.

This is along the lines of what I'm wondering.

[Epinephrine]

Well, maybe we should counsel each other :) Or keep each other posted on modifications - I will likely start running mine in the next few weeks, I'm still prepping at the moment, but 2-3 weeks from now I should be started.

Among the changes I am currently planning:
Since the party is small (3 players) I don't plan to do too much to boost the difficulty to start with. I'm actually giving them each two bonus skill points, to try to make up for lacking a 4th (or more) character's worth of skills. This might allow them to grab a few extra skills among them.

I'm looking at Gestalting Auric/Tirra/Khellek, as major NPCs and potential rivals they should be imposing. Minimally, I'm looking at making Auric a Warblade, as I'd like him to be a bit more impressive - Warblade suits the idea of an Arena champion.

For chapter 4, I may have to dispense with the kidnapping/replacement of one of the characters. With only 3 in the party it'd be far too easy to have it become deadly. If I do go through with it, I may weaken the replacement doppelganger a bit, as I don't want the betrayal to spell instant death. In a 5 or 6 person party, having one turn on you is much more forgiving than in a 3 person party - it's very easy to become alone with the doppelganger and have a quick one on-one. What do you think? I know that at least one of my players could easily pull off the roleplaying involved, and might well enjoy it, but he's also the strongest of the group in terms of game knowledge and could really make life hard for the other two. The least experienced player probably wouldn't want to be the replacement, though she'd be great in that nobody would expect it.

The characters:
So far one player is making a Warblade/Artificer most likely, he'll be the trapfinder, and there's some Int synergy between the two. Another wants a Shadowcaster/Unarmed Swordsage - with Charisma and Int for the shadowcaster he'll likely pick up the face role to some extent; he's a bit MAD, but Weapon Finesse (or better yet, Intuitive Attack?) could help address it a bit. The third hasn't decided, but she likes healing and crusaders, and could well play a Cleric/Crusader. I'm a bit concerned about the wildreness portions if they don't have a character who can hadle that, but they could always hire a guide/tracker if needed.

So not the most optimised party, but if they're each using a ToB class on one side and covering various caster-types with the other they'll do pretty well I think, and they've got face skills and trapfinding covered.