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My players asked me, if I could DM the AoW after our present campaign. I sure would like to, but I have only two players.
Now I read the entry in the UA about Gestalt Characters.
I wonder if anyone here has tried this already and could give me a hint if this will work or what to take care of, if I allow this option?
Nothing wrong with doing it, 2 gestalt characters might still be a little weak, maybe add a regular NPC. Or go to your local game store and try and get a third, D&D is a lot more fun when you get a different dynamic of people.
Forgive my ignorance, but what are Gestalt characters?
With only 2 players, some parts of the Age of Worms might still be really, really tough, but I think it's doable.
If you haven't played a Gestalt campaign before, it looks like the characters should be very powerful. But there are some limitations to gestalt characters that you should keep in mind, and some possible House Rules or campaign design decisions that can alter some of them.
1) Each gestalt character still gets only one round's worth of actions in a round. This is obvious, but it's also worth thinking about. In a fight against multiple bad guys, two gestalt PCs can only engage a couple of them in combat. The gestalt PCs are more vulnerable to flanking and to being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Possible Fix - provide each PC with an Animal Companion (and be sure everyone understands the PCs will get enough extra money for stuff, and they need to spend some of it on their animal companions; you could instead give them the Leadership feat for free so they each get a Cohort, but this wouldn't kick in during the earliest few levels). Alternately, just go ahead with the two PCs, but modify encounters as necessary.
2) Each gestalt character must divide their feats and skill points across two separate classes. This hurts a lot more than some people expect. Basically, a gestalt character is typically either good at one class, with a few minor aspects of the other, or else they become an inferior version of both classes because they lack focus. ALSO, two PCs are required to have all the possible skills that the party might need, including the various Knowledge skills that can usually be divided up across a larger group. Possible Fix - allot BOTH sets of skill points (or just a flat bonus of +4 to the higher number), and also some extra feats (granting two feats every three levels would be about right). (Please, no accusations of munchkinism here - you can get by without doing this, but we've found that this makes things a LOT less frustrating for our two-member group.)
3) Gestalt characters who have typical wealth for their levels are underpowered. This is similar to the skills/feats issue above. If I create a Fighter/Wizard, for example, I need good armor and weapons to use my Fighter combat abilities, including MORE expensive armor than a straight fighter build would normally allow, because I can't afford something with an arcane spell failure chance. At the same time, I need all the typical Wizard toys - Intelligence-boosting items, Pearls of Power, etc. Gestalt characters who have TWICE the wealth of normal PCs actually come out about right (especially if you add in the Animal Companions mentioned above, and appropriate wealth is spent on items for them).
4) Gestalt characters are "differentially-affected" by save-or-die spells. Okay, here's what I mean by this one: if the Mind Flayer hits a gestalt party with a Mind Blast, it's pretty likely that every gestalt character will have good saves, so the Mind Blast is less likely to work on any PCs (critters that depend heavily on abilities that allow saving throws will be MUCH weaker against gestalt characters). HOWEVER, if just on of your two gestalt PCs does fail that save, half the party strength is incapacitated, and it's entirely up to the one remaining PC to save the day. (The Animal Companions suggestion above is actually less helpful here, as such critters will NOT have the excellent saves of the gestalt PCs - they're far more likely to be Dominated to attack the PCs, for example.) You'll want to look carefully at any encounters that have critters with abilities that allow saves, and consider modifying them.
5) Gestalt character can level up FAR too quickly. Because they can typically handle encounters that are 2 challenge ratings higher than non-gestalt characters, you really need to adjust things when calculating XP awards. What I prefer to do is lower the CR of each opponent before calculating XPs (if you do it the other way, treating the PCs as two levels higher, I think it inflates things more).
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We began our "Age of Worms" campaign with only three players, so I presented them with the opportunity to play gestalt characters. They currently consist of:
1) A half-orc druid-barbarian.
2) A changeling (yep, we're in Eberron) rogue-fighter.
3) A changeling transmuter-bard.
Knowing that the campaign would be deadly, and not wanting things to stall as they continually replaced characters at the early stages, I also gave each of them an extra 10 hp to start.
Things were still challenging to them, and when they met Ulavant and he managed to paralyze most of them, we got into near-TPK territory. Same goes for when they had a terrible series of attacks against the second swarm.
We're now adding two more players, so the others are making the uncomfortable transition back to standard single-class characters (druid, rogue, and likely still a transmuter, respectively). The new members will be an exalted cleric (using the much-maligned Vow of Poverty) and a warforged artificer. Yep... not a single one among 'em with a full base attack bonus.
Should be interesting!
Final thoughts for your game: even with gestalt rules, two characters by themselves are unlikely to survive the adventures as written. Gestalt rules are fun, though, especially for players who enjoy multiclassing... and who you can trust to not do hardcore powergaming with the potential for "broken combinations" at low levels made possible through gestalts.