Gestalting Things

[My Self]

I just wanted to know how a few things interacted in Gestalt, or at least how people think they should interact:

Slayer + Rogue: Does Sneak Attack gained at different levels stack?

Magus/Bard/Bloodrager + Arcane Fullcaster: Spells from other classes still count as other classes when gestated into one class, right? Particularly for casting in armor.

Monk/Brawler/Fighter/Barbarian/Rogue: Class features that count your class levels as monk/fighter/rogue/barbarian/etc. levels count as a single class when gestated into one class, no? In particular, Improved Uncanny Dodge and qualifications for Fighter feats.

Paladin + Fighter: DR/- and DR/Evil of different amounts overlap and you still get the different DRs, right?

Fighter + Barbarian: DR/- from different classes doesn't stack unless it's like a Damage Reduction rage power, no?

Wizard + Cleric: Spell alignment restrictions only apply to one spell list, correct? Same thing with school specializations?

[Davor]

1) Sneak Attack damage from multiple sources stack, so a 3rd level Slayer/Rogue gets 3d6 Sneak Attack.

2) Unfortunately, yes.

3) Correct.

4) They overlap, but do not stack. So a character with DR 5/Evil and DR 3/- would take 5 less damage from most attacks, and 3 less damage from evil attacks.

5) Correct.

6) Correct.

[My Self]

Alright. Back to Sneak Attack- If you're a Rogue // Vivisectionist Alchemist, do you get 2d6 at 1st level, 4d6 at 2nd level, etc?

[glass]

The Gestalt rules are a bit vague, but when I last ran it I ruled that you could not have more effective levels in any given class ability than you had character levels - if they progress at different rates you take the best levels.

But then, we were doing it because I had a small group, so encouraging broad competence over specialisation was kinda the point.

_
glass.

[Claxon]

There are no official rules.

In the case of gestalting between two different classes with sneak attack as a GM I would rule you take the best progression of either. That is to say, you do not stack them. So, for instance you could not gestalt vivisectionist alchemist and rogue to get double sneak attack dice progression and end up with 20d6.

In fact, in general if two classes provide the same benefit I would say they don't stack, but rather you get the better progression of either.

Now, if you multiclass half of your gestalt, like one half you take levels in cleric and on the other half you mutliclass slayer and rogue, then sneak attack would stack per the normal multiclassing rules.

[GM Rednal]

That's actually not a houserule for gestalt, glass. XD That's official.

Quote:

Class features that two classes share (such as uncanny dodge) accrue at the rate of the faster class.

-Gestalt Guidelines

Basically, gestalt isn't meant to let you break things by advancing abilities faster than normal. I believe the traditional interpretation is that you're not actually gaining two levels in gestalt - you're gaining one level that just so happens to have all the abilities of two separate classes, so you'd never be advancing more than one level at a time in any ability.

[Taja the Barbarian]

Gestalt rules were never well thought out (or at least not well expressed) in my opinion.

My personal thoughts have always been:

• Gestalt characters have 'left side' class(es) and 'right side' class(es).
• Each 'side' is calculated independently through your current level (if you are a Fighter 1 / Rogue 1 on your 'left side' then your Left Side BAB is +1).
• - Even though the two sides are tracked separately, they are still the same character and can use abilities from combined character for prerequisites (A Left Fighter / Right Ranger could use one of the bonus Ranger feats he took as a prerequisite for a fighter bonus feat).
• Combine the two 'sides' into a single character:
• - If they have features that would normally stack (like BAB, Will saves, etc.), take the better of the two 'sides' for each.
• - Any ability that would not normally stack, the character gets to keep (a 'left-side' wizard / 'right side' sorcerer would keep both spellcasting abilities).
• - note that 'Skill Points' are a class feature, but the skills themselves are not: The character gets the better total skill points and the combined list of class skills from each 'side' but a level 6 character can not have 12 ranks in perception by buying 6 ranks on each 'side,' nor can you 'double-up' on your skill points by spending the points on each 'side' before combining them.
• Character features that are not class-based (such as traits, the 'normal' feat progression and the +1 stat every four levels) should be tracked on the 'combined' character only.

Please note that while I have given these rules some thought over the years, I have never actually played with them, so it is quite possible they are horribly flawed in some way.