D&D 5E Multiclassing in Next

Wizards of the Coast · Sep 17, 2012

Multiclassing has been a feature in D&D, and itâ??s not going away for D&D Next. Read what Mike envisions for multiclassing for the upcoming game system.

Read Multiclassing in Next on D&D Insider here!

Ahnehnois · Sep 17, 2012

Optional but full multiclassing with more attention paid to the math. Maybe this will make everyone happy...

RangerWickett · Sep 17, 2012

Me likey.

Particularly that a fighter who decides to learn a little magic at 10th level won't have to cast dinky magic missiles that will never be as useful as his longbow. Apparently he'll be able to do some more impressive magic. I'm interested to see how they figure out a balance of power and plausibility.

"Oh, you just started learning magic a week ago, and you can already fireball? Dandy."

The Shadow · Sep 17, 2012

It's the plausibility that bothers me too. I suppose one could justify it from the fact that the XP it takes to go from 10th to 11th is a lot more than what it takes to go from 1st to 2nd; so gaining that level represents getting multiple levels of wizard?

EDIT:

Also, it's hard not to be a little cynical about trying to enforce prestige-classes-as-organizations. We'll see.

Vikingkingq · Sep 17, 2012

RangerWickett said:
Me likey.

Particularly that a fighter who decides to learn a little magic at 10th level won't have to cast dinky magic missiles that will never be as useful as his longbow. Apparently he'll be able to do some more impressive magic. I'm interested to see how they figure out a balance of power and plausibility.

"Oh, you just started learning magic a week ago, and you can already fireball? Dandy."

One possibility: no access to at-will spells or tradition encounter spell-lists, and maybe no spells below a certain level. So you get power, but at the expense of utility.

slobster · Sep 17, 2012

It's interesting that they decided to make an entire new class table for each multiclass just to get around the problem of frontloading. I guess it's all a little too vague right now to really make judgments, but it sounds pretty convoluted to me. I prefer to use the normal class levels for multiclassing, especially if all they are really worried about is what happens at level one.

I do enjoy pre-4E multiclassing though, so it's nice to see it coming back.

Raith5 · Sep 17, 2012

The Shadow said:
Also, it's hard not to be a little cynical about trying to enforce prestige-classes-as-organizations. We'll see.

I like the idea that prestige-classes should have organic real world connections but I also like generic options as well. I just dont like the name prestige class. It is not really a class more like a background or specialization. Maybe advanced specialization? Too wordy. Maybe some other alternative?

tuxgeo · Sep 17, 2012

4E allowed multi-classing at 1st Level, either by feat or by hybrid. If 5E doesn't allow any multi-classing at 1st Level, the fanbase will be just that much less unified.
Is that a big deal? Probably not -- but it does seem to be the way they're going.

Iosue · Sep 17, 2012

The Shadow said:
It's the plausibility that bothers me too. I suppose one could justify it from the fact that the XP it takes to go from 10th to 11th is a lot more than what it takes to go from 1st to 2nd; so gaining that level represents getting multiple levels of wizard?

EDIT:

Also, it's hard not to be a little cynical about trying to enforce prestige-classes-as-organizations. We'll see.

That's an interesting idea. If it takes 4,000 XP to go from level 9 to 10, and 3,750 to get to level 4 from level 1, then at level 10 you'd have access to level 4 abilities. If the scaling is minimized, that might work. It would, of course, require a very careful balancing of the various levels. They'd really have to check all the permutations.

RangerWickett · Sep 17, 2012

tuxgeo said:
4E allowed multi-classing at 1st Level, either by feat or by hybrid. If 5E doesn't allow any multi-classing at 1st Level, the fanbase will be just that much less unified.
Is that a big deal? Probably not -- but it does seem to be the way they're going.

What do you think a rogue with the necromancer theme and soldier background is? He's a thief/mage/fighter. Doesn't even have to be a half-elf (2nd edition represent! [just kidding]).