FAQs that aren't publicized may as well not exist.
I fail to see this logic. There are occasionally errors or unclear/inaccurate wording. FAQ's are there to fix that. If you don't want to use them, that's fine for houserules, but they are official updates to the rules, so if you want to ignore them, then you'd not be using the rules as they're meant to be.
@ Atarlost: Oh, you know what... I thought I had linked it. I had originally begun responding to you about both the BAB and Stat issues, and when I started questioning myself about the BAB, I took that part out.
When fused, use the eidolon's BAB instead of the summoner's class BAB, and add in BAB from other sources as normal. For example, a fighter 19/summoner 1 normally has a total BAB of +19 (+19 from fighter, +0 from summoner), and when fused with his eidolon this increases to +20 (+19 from fighter, +1 from the 1st-level eidolon).
—Sean K Reynolds, 08/03/11
This is only related to the BAB issue of course, but your comparison between Synth and Monk is incorrect. Despite the wording in the PRD, they do function the same way.
FAQs that aren't publicized may as well not exist.
That's just absurd. Feel free to houserule things however you like, but the FAQ are very much a part of this living, evolving ruleset. You don't need to use them, but they are tere, and they DO contribute to and define the current version and interpertation of both the RAW and RAI.
Besides, even if you want to ignore the FAQ, you're still wrong about rage and mutagen. They are morale and alchemical bonuses. Those are typed bonuses that do not overlap with any of the bonuses an eidolon provides to a synthesist. They stack. Them's the rules.
Houserule it if you don't like it. Houserule it if you don't want to look up or keep up with FAQ. That's perfectly okay. But don't come on the boards and try to argue the rules when you are willfully ignoring clarifications to those rules by the game designers themselves.
pally/ dawnflower dervish.... sick.
They're not bonuses to the eidolon's stats. You use the eidolon's stats. Bob the wizard over there uses Bob's stats and if he cast's bull's strength on himself that doesn't effect your eidolon's stats either. A non-personal spell cast on you after you're merged would certainly apply to the eidolon because of the "cannot be targeted separately" clause, but rage and mutagen aren't targeted. There's no reason they should benefit the eidolon any more than inherent bonuses.
You ARE the eidolon. You are the same being. When fused you have the same stats. Anything that affects it affects you and visa versa.
We obviously are not in a position to agree with one another. If you want to ignore how the rules work thats cool. Run your games however you like. i seriously have no problem with that. The rules aswritten and intended* do not agree with you but that doesn't matter. Have fun.
Peace.
* i readily acknowledge that the rules as published in the APG and UM regarding the synthesist and the summoner class in general leave a lot to be desired. I understand your argument if you are ONLY using that information. If you want to use those rules and only those rules, by all means do so. The FAQ modify and clarify them, and are very much a part of the current actual rules, but if you don't want to use them, don't.
One I've had fun with is a Teifling Paladin/Sorcerer. Bloodline - Abysisial/Infernal.
He isn't the most optimized character (we are using Mythic Playtest, and he has Armor Mastery - so he will get better armor as game goes on) but oh man, the roleplaying is fantastic. He is a Paladin by belief, and has to fight off his darker tendencies. The Sorcerer represents the power of the bloodline - I've focused on spells that do not have evil descriptor, but are destructive or have sorta devilish or dark visuals. He prefers not to cast, but does when he has too - but every time he does, he feels guilty for touching his evil side.
He is a blast.
I think the favorite I'd like to try is either rogue/wizard going for Arcane Trickster or ranger/wizard or ranger/bard going for arcane archer. The arcane trickster I just like the flavor tons and I think pathfinder improved the heck out of it, just hate that build up time before you actually hit the class. As to the arcane archer, he'd either be the king of field control, stopping enemies in thier tracks so he can litter them with arrows, or the roving artillery piece that buffs himself and his allies beyond belief.
Asta
PSY
Where might I find how gestalt characters work?
Conjurer/SUmmoner (maybe master summoner) would be fun to play.
Arcane Dualist Bard+TWF Fighter
Goes with a concept character I have.
Some of the combinations I would look at:
Fighter/Rogue, Paladin/Ninja (depending on the DM), Barbarian/Summoner (with Eidolon as a mount), Fighter(Tactician)/Wizard, Fighter/Barbarian (Eldritch Heritage Abyssal Bloodline), Ranger(Woodland Skrimisher/Spirit Ranger)/Inquisitor(Spellbreaker), Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)/Oracle(Battle w/legalistic curse), Gunslinger(Pistolero)/Inquisitor(Preacher), Gunslinger(Experimental Gunlinger)/Alchemist(Grenadier), Magus(Bladebound/Kensai)/Witch(Bonded Witch), Cleric/Fighter, and Monk(Master of Many Styles)/Sorcerer(Empyreal Bloodline)
I think I'll leave it their for now.
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Cavalier/Cleric was fun-- using the advice from the Reach Clerics guide with a lance on horseback. Remember, you share your mount's square, and horses are 10x10, so as far as threatened area goes it's like at-will Enlarge Person, plus you get two hooves and a bite attack.
Since alchemists don't "cast spells", an Alchemist/Fighter is free to wear full plate without fear of ASF. At that point you're like a Fighter with his own private reservoir of buffs. The downside: bombs don't fall into any of the fighter weapon groups.
Gunslinger/Monk is pretty cool-- use your fists in melee and a gun at range. All the Western movie heroes were pretty good with their fists anyway, right? Plus you can get Dodge and Mobility as monk bonus feats to qualify for Deft Shootist!
I'd like to try Monk/Druid, if only to flurry of blows with a Shellaleigh'd quarterstaff. At least they both care about the same stats, right?
How do you link up classes when making a gestalt?
Usually I look at what classes have abilities that compliment one another, or that share emphasis on a particular ability score.
Are there any particular combinations you especially favor?
I love monk|paladin, it actually compliments really well. You end up with a monk with an unarmed strike (thanks to divine bond) that works on a par with other weapons.
Are there combos you thought would work that turned out to not really?
To be honest, there are very few combos that really don't fundamentally work. Caster|martial combos do suffer from problems with action economy, though.
Do you like to mix martial/caster, or double-up on one side or the other of the caster/martial divide?
As I said above, a lot of combinations I like depend on an ability score, or on class features that compliment. Whether they are caster or martial is less important to me. If you do mix caster|martial, then spell selection becomes important: you have to decide, "is this a warrior who can cast, or a caster that can fight?"
The first way, spells are best used as buffs rather than cast in combat. The second way, martial ability is a fall-back and not a priority.
Unless there's another set of FAQs than the one linked earlier there's nothing about stat bonuses. Penalties taken while merged persist after the eidolon is dismissed, but that's the closest the FAQ gets to discussing bonuses.
I'll grant you're apparently right about BAB working in a metaphysically nonsensical manner, but the FAQ does nothing to convince me that the eidolon receives personal stat bonuses.
The eidolon does not recieve +4 strength for the summoner being an orc, why should it recieve +4 strength for the summoner being hopped up on mutagen or having trained his body to make better use of adrenaline?
There's nothing in the Synth's rules for spelling out how bonuses to ability scores stack, because it would be redundant. The class/archetype doesn't change how the general rules work. Specifically, any bonuses of a different type stack.
The only thing the archetype changes is your base score. While you're fused, you DO NOT have two sets of physical ability scores. The synthesist's unfused physical ability scores may as well not exist while the eidolon is summoned. This is where I think you're getting hung up. The eidolon's physical stats ARE your stats. Any modification to your stats while fused affects you/the eidolon just like any other character.
Are you trying to say that an synthesist cannot benefit from enhancement bonuses to physical scores, either via items or spells either? What about morale bonuses? Circumstance? Rage and Mutagen are no different, just a different type of bonus.
As for getting bonuses while "being hopped up on mutagen or having trained his body to make better use of adrenaline", go back to the point that you and the eidolon are ONE creature. When you ARE the eidolon, anything that affects you, affects it (since it IS you).
In the synthesist's case, you've really got to stop thinking of the eidolon as a separate being. It's not. The synth's eidolon more closely resembles a sup'ed up Rage feature (that takes much longer to enter) than the normal summoner's eidolon feature.
(And by the way, "gestalt" is a really stupid name for this concept.)"Gestalt: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts."
I rather think it's a fitting name.
Well, if German—from which language the word gestalt was loaned—is your first language, it just sounds stupid. :)
I tend to like combining martials with any of the 2/3 casters like Bards and Inquisitors. Most 2/3 casters will give a nice selection of reasonably useful spells, and come with class abilities that can really buff your face-punch power (Bardic Music, Alchemist Mutagen, Inquisitor Bane and Judgement). Not to mention more class skills and an expanded skill list.