[quote]
From your example, we will always be stacking/considering our Gestalt nature in an advantageous manner? I.E the Rogue rolling stealth but not suffering disadvantage from the Cleric’s chainmail? What if the Gestalt itself were wearing Chainmail? Once the Gestalt is Hidden/Unseen, we could combine all four Spirits into one Advantage’d Burst in one instant?[/quote]

Generally yeah, being gestalt usually means you get the best of what everyone can bring, barring a few specific examples I may have not brought up. Again for example, since the Gestalt is technically [i]alone[/i], some abilities that are dependent on being on a party may not work, such as a Rogue's Sneak Attack proccing off being adjacent to your allies. Despite multiple spirits being bound to the Gestalt, the Gestalt is still physically alone, and thus the sole "threat" to the enemies, so unless the rogue or someone else develops an ability to create a copy or ally, the rogue cannot get sneak attack off an adjacent ally. There are probs other examples I haven't thought of that would be pertinent, so we'll have to deal with them case-by-case.

Also, abilities that only affect the character themselves generally will only apply to themselves, or unless it can affect them by proxy through the gestalt. Take for example barbarian abilities: rage not only enables the barbarian's attacks to hit harder, but the physical resistance from rage will grant them, and by extension the gestalt, resistance against physical, piercing, and slashing. [i]Reckless Attack[/i] however will only apply to the barbarian's attacks, not say the rogues, and the drawback to reckless attacks [i]will[/i] still apply to the gestalt as well, meaning all attacks against the gestalt will be at advantage. Which while perhaps not too much of an issue if someone makes sure they bring a high AC, it may still be a problem for characters who prefer not to get hit at all such as casters. Balancing these abilities when the users all share a single body is one of those unique challenges I wanna see everyone work through.

[quote]This is just a brief clarification for my own mental health. I’m beginning to see the bound characters almost as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Stands, which is fine and merely an amusement thing. We’re able to use differing gear and weapons despite the Gestalt just being an unarmored and unequipped (humanoid); so the vision of some ghost barbarian swinging a giant axe around this lightly panicking person sounds hilarious.[/quote]

This is a valid idea. Just like stands, despite being spiritual creatures in nature you can still affect the physical world, and most physical things can't affect you directly. Though just like stands, there may exist creatures not entirely unlike yourself who [i]can[/i] target your character directly, or even by proxy through the Gestalt. In other words, only stands can affect stands. 

[quote]Will changing our equipment/handling the collection of coinage require the Gestalt to do some ritual? Are we able to attune to items through the Gestalt? Would drinking a potion of healing be an action the Gestalt does, or could we theoretically drink five potions a turn?[/quote]

At the moment, while I'm still thinking about who or what exactly the Gestalt is, I do know that for the most part they won't be able to utilize most of the equipment they find. Largely due to a lack of training: again they're about as capable as a commoner, perhaps even less so, as they don't even have simple weapon proficiency. That being said yeah, the Gestalt more or less will be able to do a ritual in order to sort of "buy" equipment for your characters, and finding certain NPC's can expand what you can get. Physical coinage isn't really something to worry about, but an functional equivalent will be made simply by slaying your enemies or finding certain items in the world. In other words, instead of gold coins you'll have some "soul" sort of currency, which basically serves the same function but simply has a more reasonable justification for how you're getting them off random monsters you kill and how a feeble character can carry 10000+ at any given time.

As for attunement, depends on the item. Items still have limitations based off classes which the Gestalt may not qualify for, at least not immediately. For example a wand that requires attunement by a spellcaster wouldn't be something the Gestalt can attune to, since despite the multitude of spirits helping them, the Gestalt themselves is not a spellcaster. However if one of those spirits want to use the wand, they can attune to it, and it'll only use that character's individual attunement slots, freeing up other casters to attune to other items. However events that may happen could strengthen the bond the caster character has to the Gestalt, and the Gestalt themselves may begin to show signs of their influence. Usually small things, like a single proficiency in a skill or weapon, or more notably things like having a weaker or limited use of a class feature, such as spellcasting or a fighting style.

Despite the power that a Gestalt usually has, therein lies the potential to be [i]even stronger[/i], which is fine to me. I like my players feeling like they're strong, and thus it makes me feel less guilty when I try to use more enemies, weirder foes, or strange tactics. I may have mentioned this before, but I also just want to see how it'll be like if the usual perspective is flipped for the players: instead of usually being able to outnumber a big and powerful threat, now the players are collectively that big powerful threat, and the enemies are the ones who must outnumber, outmaneuver, and overwhelm the PC. I'll be fair about it of course, but at the same time the things the party will fight are not things that you may normally fight in a conventional adventure. 

Example of enemies you may face are minions and mooks with casting abilities. Some are able to cast combat cantrips or even leveled spells like magic missile or hold person, which can be an alarming prospect since the gestalt is alone, and thus if they do somehow fail or can't protect themselves, all those spells are going to one person. Some enemies may even effectively have class levels, like madness stricken warriors being able to rage or craven assassins sneak attacking. Some enemies can also just do weird shit. I have in mind to add a sort of flying kamikaze foe who flies in close, explodes, and force the gestalt to roll a save against being stunned and taking some damage. And there'll be _a lot_ of those. And that's not even including some of the crazy shit I have for bosses. I already know the first boss you'll be facing does and will use legendary actions, so be prepared to face some harrowing foes.