Question about Obtain Familiar and gestalt

[senrath]

I have a question about Obtain Familiar on a gestalt character. Obtain Familiar states that your levels in all arcane casting classes stack for purposes of determining your familiar's abilities. In gestalt, would this count both sides of the character, or only one?

For instance, would an Arcane Caster 3//Some Other Arcane Caster 3 be counted as level 3 or level 6 for determining what their familiar can do?

[FishAreWet]

3. Because +1 arcane caster level is given on both sides and you pick the better one.

Same reason Fighter 3//Barbarian 3 only has BAB +3.

[senrath]

That's what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

[sonofzeal]

3. Because +1 arcane caster level is given on both sides and you pick the better one.

Same reason Fighter 3//Barbarian 3 only has BAB +3.

Er, not really. One side gives "+1 Wizard CL" and the other side gives "+1 Sorc CL". If you had a Wizard 10 // Sorcerer 9 / Fighter 1, and both sides took Fireball, one would do 10d6 and the other would do 9d6.

However, I can't imagine any DM letting that character treat their familiar as 19th level.

[Riffington]

Er, not really. One side gives "+1 Wizard CL" and the other side gives "+1 Sorc CL". If you had a Wizard 10 // Sorcerer 9 / Fighter 1, and both sides took Fireball, one would do 10d6 and the other would do 9d6.

True so far, but when asking what your familiar gets at a given level, you say "oh, I advance him as the wizard" or "oh, I advance him as the sorcerer"; you can't have both advance him during any one level.

[2xMachina]

I thought you get 2 familiars. 1 from Wiz, 1 from Sorc.

I'm not sure though.

[PhoenixRivers]

Duplicate abilities do not stack. You take the better. In this case, familiar would be a duplicate ability.

Gestalt isn't really 2 sides. It's a blending of two classes into 1. As such, you don't get the full benefit.

That said, if you're an ultimate magus with sorc and wizard, they DO stack (for non gestalt).

[Gnaeus]

The familiar does get a lot of good stuff from the other side of the gestalt though. A Warblade//Wizard has a familiar with full BaB and pretty good hitpoints. A Rogue//Wizard has a familiar with a lot of ranks in different skills, etc...