One thing to note about the Magus/Sorcerer is that unless you bend Gestalt to allow them, by default, their Sorcerer spells will still suffer Arcane Spell Failure for armor while their Magus spells do not. Broad Study specifically picks out that when using spells not on the Magus spell list, they suffer Arcane Spell Failure as normal for those spells.
When I run Gestalt games I keep arcane spell failure on the spells of each class separately. Since I do that, though, I suppose I can't really comment on full-armor full-caster balance in practice.
That is true, it is a feat tax on the magus he will need to take at least one feat in order to keep his armor. But what is great is it is just one feat then Elven chain and done.
Arcane Armored casting ligt is a must. For that build. But o my how powerfully full of flavor and fun it would be.
I'll have to give more thought and talk with the Player -- hopefully a Sor / Wiz: Starsoul Bloodline (instead of School) will be appealing.
Sor(Starsoul)/Wiz(Fire)....?
Odd that you think summoner/anything is overpowered... If your players tend to play for finess instead of optimization then theres no reason a summoner gestalt has to get out of hand... I happen to be one!
I played a Wizard/Psion in 3.5, which I think would be pretty comparable to the Sorc/Sorc. He was a terror. He rarely ever ran out of spells, usually had the right tool for the job, invested his money in big boosting items. He didnt outshine other characters necessarily, but he took care of a lot of problems so they could focus on their specialty, like the fighter/psychic warrior did on dealing damage. We did a whole published adventure one time without stopping to rest in character. I think around 10 combats.
Our GM doesnt like dual caster classes to have twice as many spells per day so the only way you could pull it off in our campaigns was to be half arcane half divine...
Taking sorcerer twice would be the same as just being a sorcerer since you dont combine like traits but choose the best of the two...
Thats how we handle it anyway...
Mechanics and rules aside, it would all come down to flavor for me. If one of my players wanted to play this I would make it a prerequisite that they play a hybrid race such as the half-elf or half-orc in order to justify the two bloodlines merging. I would also allow the planetouched races.
It's kind of a moot point by now considering this thread is over a year old and was dead until Vincent Dagomir felt the irresistible urge to defend the honor of his gestalt summoner.
I've played a few gestalt characters. It's fun!
Bladebound Kensai Magus/Admixture Evoker Wizard - A nightmare of arcane destruction and versatility.
Ninja+Paladin/Fey Sorcerer - Actually quite weak as far as gestalts go, but these were things squeezed into a strict theme rather than character power. Surprisingly bad at combat. Good at social affairs.
It's kind of a moot point by now considering this thread is over a year old and was dead until Vincent Dagomir felt the irresistible urge to defend the honor of his gestalt summoner.
Actually I'm not defending my build... I'm dual arcane... I'm just saying that under the rules we use a dual sorcerer doesnt get double the spells. As a dual arcane I don't get double the spells either and its still a blast to play. I offer it as an alternative way to make it so GM's dont freak out so much about dual casters because we use them... Its just a different way to run things that might make your GM less gunshy of a dual caster.
Offering different perspectives is what the forums are all about and I apologize if I happen to have a different way of looking at an issue that died a year before I arrived. Doesn't make the point any less valid.
In fact the only reason I resurrected this thread is using the process that is recommended by everyone here.
I wanted to see what people had come up with for interesting summoner/wizard gestalts and I could have easily been a noob and made a new thread called summoner/wizard getsalt: ideas?' which would inevitably provoke the kind of 'go read the millions of threads we've already written' kind of response.
So instead i did a search for summoner wizard gestalts and theres like what. 2 of those threads and most of them go 'so broken i'd nuke it from orbit! never never!'
And thats probably because summoner wizard is so deadly the way people have been used to doing gestalt casters before... I asked my GM what his biggest fear about dual arcane gestalt was, and he very honestly said you're going to be able to cast too many spells per day... And i thought why? And he responded that dual arcane added spells per day and I thought wow. thats a horrible idea. I know why everyone is terrified of the idea now...
How could we fix it? Easy! Stop doing that because it makes no sense anyway when you consider we handle hit dice and skillpoints and every other similar number not by adding them but by choosing the best of the two...
So actually I've just followed the correct procedure in the forums and i've decided i have something new to say on the subject. Is that ok?