Editing Gestalt character (section)

==How does it work?==
The first step is the same as rolling up any old character: pick a race, roll/buy abilities and stuff. You then pick not one but TWO classes to build your character from! You get the highest Hit Die, Base Attack Bonus, saves and starting gold of the two classes, and use them to build your character with. A gestalt character is so powerful because you get the Class Features of BOTH classes as you level up! Spellcasting progresses normally, but the two are completely separate from one another: for example, your casting as a [[wizard]] does not affect your abilities as an [[archivist]]. You can even pick levels in [[prestige classes]] to level up higher, but this is somewhat limited: you cannot take levels in prestige classes for both classes at the same time, and you cannot pick prestige classes that would advance the spellcasting of two different sources, IE the Mystic Theurge and friends.

The obvious ups to being a gestalt character is that you're powerful as fuck. You are essentially two characters at the same time, which gives you plenty of options even for classes that previously had only limited flexibility. Another usable part of this is that it covers up weak spots that certain classes normally had: suddenly, your wizard has a nice hit die, or your [[fighter]] gets good saves, or your [[warmage]] gets full BAB.

Gestalt characters normally exist in two kinds: the "same but more" and the "double feature". The "same but more" build takes one thing it does well, IE casting, and starts to do the same thing but with two classes, like the aforementioned wizard/archivist. The other is the "double feature": two clases that use the same ability but do different things with it, like the [[bard]] and the [[sorcerer]].

The downside to playing a gestalt character is that they are only as tough as the best of the two: a fighter//[[soulknife]] is only as tough as the fighter, and less tough than an equally-leveled duo of a fighter and a soulknife. Similarly, the action economy keeps gestalt characters from completely dwarfing normal ones, as any given character can only take so many actions in a round. The other thing you should keep in mind is that just because you took levels in a martial class you do not suddenly become immune to the effects of armor that affects your spellcasting. You also only have one set of ability scores and the same number of feats (aside from any bonus feats you pick up). The most common workaround for these limitations is to focus one side on passive abilities, and to pickup abilities that modify what stat boosts something (such as a Paladin's Divine Grace on a [[Sorcerer]] or [[Factotum]] with any intelligence based class.).

If you desire to fix these very minimal downsides and acquire even more cheese than playing a gestalt provides, play a [[Dvati]]. For those not in the know, Dvati is a race from ''Dragon Compendium'' that consists entirely of twins that share a soul between two bodies. For LA+1 you literally get to play two characters. That's right boys and girls, [[munchkin|you get 2 full-round actions every single round]]. The downsides of this are that if one of them casts a spell the other doesn't get to act that round, and each twin gets half of your rolled HD on level-up. This is less of a problem when you're playing gestalt and can slap a barbarian's d12 HD onto a wizard. Or you could be a super nerd and play a Binder/Rogue since you can flank against yourself, take a full attack for full Sneak Attack dice, and then do whatever it is the binder levels are doing for you. Call lightning, I guess.