The Gaming Den

Okay, so a little while ago I was thinking about what is possibly one of my favorite variants, Gestalt and the main problem with it, it's LA (x1.5).
having a multiplier LA means your BAB, saves, skill points, and all other level dependent benefits start out vaguely okay (a 2nd level gestalt character [ecl 3] is one level down) but they quickly get out of hand (a 10th level gestalt [ecl 15] is completely crippled in a way that no classes abilities can make up for.)

I thought about it and realized that the benefits were fairly minor, really, about the same as having a cohort of your level that can't take their own actions, or go off to do other things... so on and so forth. I realized that rather than having a multiplier for a la, it might work better to have a flat bonus, of about +2. Does that sound about right?

the other thing is the fact that LA sucks, it's screws up HD, skills, saves, attack bonus, and pretty much every other level dependant thing, and it's really not worth a level, generally speaking. I was thinking it might work if a LA gave you, essentially, commoner HD.

so, each point of LA would give you:

• d4 HD
• 2+Int skill points
• poor bab
• no good saves.

You'd still loose something, ie, level dependent benefits that really matter, but at least you wouldn't be crippled. How does that sound?

The problem with the commoner HD fix is that it does absolutely nothing for spellcasters, and I'm not sure it does enough for warriors to matter.

Why not just us the humanoid type for the adjustment

• 8-sided Hit Dice, or by character class.
• Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
• Good Reflex saves (usually; a humanoid’s good save varies).
• Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die, or by character class.

For casters I would give full casting minus a level.

Prak, where did you get this 2/3 bullshit? The UA guidelines say to treat Gestalt as 1 or 2 levels higher, not 3/2 the level.

for the commoner HD, I was just looking at the smallest possible boost that would still be a boost. Humanoid HD could work, along with the spellcaster thing.

As far as Gestalt LA... I've been doing it wrong for years, apparently, thanks for pointing that out. If I remembered who told me it was x1.5, I'd go smack them upside the head...

Well, IIIRC it's +1 CR which mean a Gestalt character is theoretically 1.5 times as powerful...

Boolean wrote:Well, IIIRC it's +1 CR which mean a Gestalt character is theoretically 1.5 times as powerful...

Which is, of course, BS. More so with Gestalt characters than "normal" LA'd characters.

A 1st level Gestalt character is not generally as good as a 2nd level character. A 15th level Gestalt character is likely considerably more powerful than a 16th level non-Gestalt character.