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D&D 5E - 5e gestalt builds

Matthew Miller |
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I love the idea of a Moon Druid/Warlock who becomes a bear (or octopus) that shoots laser beams out of its eyes! Unfortunately though it doesn't work--Archdruids get to cast druid spells without components, not all spells.

Still, Warlock does nicely paper over the Moon Druid's biggest real weakness: lack of ranged firepower. For the same reason, Fighter/Moon Druid and Necromancer/Moon Druid could also work, although the latter is grotesque from a roleplaying perspective. You'd wind up as some kind of anti-human death-worshipping nature cultist, obsessed with rotting and decay.


pukunui
I've always wanted to try a gestalt character. Unfortunately, no one else I game with has ever been interested in it.

Right now I'm playing an arcana cleric. If I could have him be a gestalt cleric/wizard that would be awesome! As it stands, I'm looking at maybe taking a one level dip into wizard for some more utility.


Bitbrain
Are gestalt rules the same as multiclassing?

If so, then the secondary DM for my group is obsessed with multiclassing combinations . . . With the exception of paladin.

He put a ban on them in his game, so my favorite multiclassing combo (paladin/sorcerer) is not possible.


Ath-kethin

Are gestalt rules the same as multiclassing?


Sort of. Back before Wizards of the Coast bought Dungeon & Dragons, when a character multiclassed they advanced in two classes at the same time (instead of "take a level of class X, the take a level of class Y," the way it has worked since 2000).

"Gestalt" is the term some people use to describe the old style of multiclassing, and many people would like to see its return. Like all systems and ideas, it has its plus sides and negative sides, but it also seems somewhat challenging to implement in 5e due to the subclass system.


I have been having some fun with an Undying Warlock of Davy Jones/Swashbuckler pirate. You might also enjoy Monk/Swashbuckler, for excellent hit and run damage. Both have flexible uses, depending on how you build them, and the classes work together quite well.


Imagine how awesome a 20th level Half Orc Fighter Barbarian Champion Berserker would be? 6 attacks per round with a great axe, crits on 18-20, 4 extra damage die rolls per crit, regen 12hp per round when bloodied, never fail a save again, frighten everybody all the time, 24 Str and Con, pretty much impossible to kill, and could action surge up to 14 attacks in one turn that would end up dealing close to 400 damage after crits and rerolls of 1s and 2s! haha

Like the Fighter class, The Rogue class pretty much meshes with everything too. I like the idea of a Rogue/full caster combo for extra sneakiness and evasiveness.


Monk/Cleric
Barbarian/Bard valor
Ranger/Druid Land


pukunui

Are gestalt rules the same as multiclassing?

Gestalt is where you have two classes, and you gain a level in both each time you level up. It's similar to AD&D's dual classing. Here are the rules from D&D 3.5: gestalt characters.

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Gwaihir
Gestalt was a thing we ran with in 3.5 for a campaign, and my players loved it. They loved it so much it was hard to make them go back to standard classing. Its different than AD&D dual classing and as said above, more similar to what the nonhuman advancement was like in AD&D. The characters take both the benefits and the restrictions from both the classes, so for example a fighter 1/Wizard 1, would be able to use armor, but couldnt cast spells while wearing it, (different than 1E multiclass). He would get the best attack bonus and the best saving throw. I thought the cool part of the Gestalt was the character engineering that went on, several players would take only a level or two in a class. The gestalt rules lead to some interesting character combinations and really can help out a group that is low on players.

We abandoned it because most of the NPCs were gestalt too, and it wore the DM (me) out creating NPCs. Later we discovered the Heroforge spreadsheet that supported it.

G


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