How many players? If you have a full party of gestalts and are STILL dying, there's a problem. I've found fighter/rogue to be a good gestalt. With a melee/caster, you run into the problem of you can EITHER cast or swing, but not both. All you get is versatility. With fighter/rogue, you mix up the good Fort & Ref, max out your skill selection, and gain evasion, uncanny dodge, etc. But you get the fighter attack progression- the better to land your sneak attacks with.
You could go archer fighter/ diviner wizard. +1/2 level to initiative is very good, especially for a martial type. Spam scrying and other divinations out of combat to avoid traps/ ambushes/ danger in general. In combat forget you're part wizard and just be a fighter with an obscene initiative who can full attack every turn.
there's a couple things to think about when making a gestalt character- survivability, competence, action economy...
its hard to give real specific advice without knowing more specifics (point buy, starting level, wealth), but we can talk generally about those things.
- survivability: with two classes to draw from, you should be able to have good HP and saves (there's actually a number of ways to get d10 or d12 hp with all good saves), you should have decent defenses (either because both classes allow armor, or one provides magical or innate bonuses), and some classes grant additional survivability (mostly through healing or DR).
- competence: every character has things they want/need to do, and they want to be good at them. some classes will synergize (making the total better at that thing than either individual class), others do completely different things (and, so, aren't any better at either than a non-gestalt character).
- action economy: you can only do so much in a round. having a decent attack and a decent spell that both require a standard action results in you getting one decent action in a round (inferior to one good or great action), and two classes that have no use for a swift action results in wasted swift actions every round.
i suppose there should be a flexibility category too... a fighter/barbarian will be great at swinging a big heavy death-stick, but not super useful outside of combat.
so looking at this all together- combining a pally with anything with good Ref will get d10 hp and all good saves; same with a ranger and any class with good Will. a monk or bard will work with any full BAB class. in terms of competence the best synergy comes from a 3/4 BAB class (that's still supposed to be competent in melee) with a full BAB class (you gain full BAB/iterations the bonus feat/rage/smite/etc, plus all the melee abilities/bonuses of the 3/4 BAB class). action economy really has to be looked at on a combo by combo basis but as much as possible you want to be able to take standard actions that benefit from both classes and have at least 1-2 options for swift actions (but not so many that you can't take them all).
paladins are a good starting point for this: good toughness, great saves, swift action self heal is HUGE, and smite will benefit just about anything you combine it with. adding sorcerer to that leaves you a slight weak-spot in your Ref save (probably the least important save), and defenses become a bit of an issue- armor will give you spell failure % and the arcane armor feats use up your swift action (meaning you can't LoH your self in the same round you cast). if you decide to go this route, focus on buff spells (preferably ones with longer durations so you can cast them out of combat) and utility spells (again, for outside of combat). Another good option would be to go pally/ninja- there's less Cha synergy (though there is still some) but all your saves will be great, you'll have better skills, and you'll have good combat synergy (especially if there are other melee guys you can flank with). Lay on Hands and Vanishing Trick are both swift actions, so there's a little conflict there, but they're both defensive abilities so generally you'd only be looking at one or the other in a single round anyways. pally/ranger would also work, especially if you have enough idea of what you're fighting to maximize use of your favored enemy bonuses; or ranger/inquisitor (if that's an option), though then you miss out on swift heals (which is an enormous boost to survivability). As handy as straight casters are, you don't see a lot of people recommending them for gestalt builds because they gain less benefit from the system than other classes (spells don't scale up or down with campaign power level, so they're at their most powerful in a low point buy game and at their weakest in very high point buy and/or gestalt games). that said, they are still handy and if you want to make one paladin is a decent choice (the 'best' option for a full arcane caster might be a monk- you miss out on full BAB and some hp, but unarmored AC bonus stacks well with defensive spells and unarmed combat is nice when you need free hand(s) for casting). for something completely different- a fighter/bard doesn't get swift heals but has all good saves, good skills, good combat ability (including performance buffs that he can maintain while fighting), and a smattering of spells (including heals) that he can cast in light armor (including mithril breastplate, which your proficient with thanks to fighter levels)...
that ended up being a much longer post than i intended... i hope it has some useful info for you (and feel free to share anything that seems helpful with the other players who are switching).
he said it was a 15 point buy- i'm guessing from the stat array that he's allowed to use an Aasimar (you could get those stats for 15 points with a base aasimar or the angelkin, idyllkin, musetouched, or peri-blooded variants).
@OP- the way you assigned stats looks like you're primarily a caster with pally for survivability (and a little melee for resource management)... what are you going to do about the 10% ASF? remember that lay hands is your biggest boost to survivability... so rounds when you can't use it (because you're using arcane armor training) may be dangerous, and even though you have +5 BAB, with that Str and a 1d6 weapon actually engaging in melee combat will only really be a viable option when you're smiting.
Did you consider paladin/oracle? Charisma synergy and you could be an actual healer for the group.
Did you consider paladin/oracle? Charisma synergy and you could be an actual healer for the group.
depending on what the OP is trying to accomplish, that's really probably a better option. it defensively stronger (because there's no ASF% to worry about, so armor works great), would allow for more party healing, and depending on curse/mystery could fill a couple different roles: the metal mystery would make for stronger melee (though you might want to drop Cha just a little to raise Str for that); a flame oracle with the blackened curse would be even worse in melee but could be the party healer (with LoH and channel from pally plus oracle cure spells) and would have access to a bunch of good blasting spells...
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I would mix Barbarian and cleric. Dwarf for race.
Str 14, dex 12, con 16, int 7, wis 16, cha 10 (15pt w/racial mods)
raging and buff spells will make you a good combatant, you can heal, have access to a good bunch of spells, can wear medium armor, never encumbered, darkvision, good speed for a dwarf from barbarian, nice weapon proficiency, great hp and a great mix of saves. He isn't the most mix/maxed dude but he has the ability points to do all the things he needs to as both a barbarian and a cleric. skill points are a little low but you need a survivor.
You could even decide to be more ranged focus with this build if you wanted and try to stay out of melee as much as possible.
Did you consider paladin/oracle? Charisma synergy and you could be an actual healer for the group.depending on what the OP is trying to accomplish, that's really probably a better option. it defensively stronger (because there's no ASF% to worry about, so armor works great), would allow for more party healing, and depending on curse/mystery could fill a couple different roles: the metal mystery would make for stronger melee (though you might want to drop Cha just a little to raise Str for that); a flame oracle with the blackened curse would be even worse in melee but could be the party healer (with LoH and channel from pally plus oracle cure spells) and would have access to a bunch of good blasting spells...
Looking at his party makeup, I'd either go metal oracle or battle oracle, and play a more melee based character when combined with the paladin. If going with a 15 point buy, I'd bump Str, Cha, and a bit of Con. Dex, Int, and Wis can all be dumped with the heavy armor the character could wear.