Sparky:
To be clear I didn't compare the damage to an equal level cleric cheesing divine metamagic, I said just basic straight forward cleric or wizard with no particular optimization.
Consider druid, a druid making a minimal effort to deal damage sticking to core sources. Cursory glance at core using a big cat theme I'll show you the Dire Lion (wild shape form) and Tiger (animal companion), using greater magic fang single casting because it's a common 9-hr buff two spell levels under what a 9th level cleric can cast.
That's 3d6+1d8+24 (39) damage from the druid plus 2d6+3d8+25 (45.5) damage from the companion (Slight str bump from animal companion) which mean 84.5 damage on average, compared to 24d6+6 which does 90 damage on average.
This is why I'm confused, but maybe it's a people are bad at math thing. 24d6 is a large number of d6s it's pretty normal damage for a 9th level character to be putting out just weirdly more dice.
But those attacks you mention indicate higher rates of possible failure than what you are suggesting as well. There is also the set-up time for those abilities, 1 to 2 rounds before those can go into effect in a normal battle set up.
This is also operating under the assumption that the Druid in question chooses those options, which is not always the case.
I have given you my response in PM. I am pretty lenient when it comes to making sure characters fulfill a niche part of a party. This isn't a Roll Playing Game, it is a Role Playing Game. Gestalt can make some combinations quite powerful, but, as in the character creation thread, everything has to be approved by the DM, an extension of Rule Zero.
I expect to start on Monday, so for those of you who haven't filled your character sheet section, please do.
