Paragon Path Multiclassing - Another Option

[ZetaStriker]

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about the current state of Paragon Path Multiclassing, and I myself have been somewhat disappointed at the complete lack of class feature being included in it. More than the powers, those are the things I expected from multiclassing options. While I myself may not use this little houserule option, I figured I might as well post it here in case someone else manages to make some use out of it.

These 'Class Paragon Paths' work with 4E's normal Paragon Multiclassing rules except where they are directly contradicted; meaning that these don't touch the rules for new Encounter, Utility and Daily powers, only the class features that have been placed at 11th and 16th levels.

These are a bit more powerful than some Paragon Paths... but they require 4 feats to acquire, and I'd rule that those feats cannot be retrained afterwards without losing all your multiclass abilities.

Cleric Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Cleric at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Cleric at-will power as an Encounter power and the Healer’s Lore class feature.

16th Level: Healing Word becomes a twice per Encounter power, or you gain Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and Channel Divinity: Divine Fortune as Encounter powers.

Warlord Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Warlord at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Warlord at-will power as an Encounter power and the Combat Leader class feature.

16th Level: Inspiring Words becomes a twice per Encounter power, or you gain the Commanding Presence class feature and its effect on related powers.

For the Leader role classes, I decided to put the full use of their healing class features as a Level 16 feature, and felt it was best balanced by the offensively supporting abilities such as Commanding Presence and Channel Divinity. I packed their weaker support abilities in with an additional at-will Encounter at level 11, which I think balances a brand new at-will power rather nicely.

Fighter Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Fighter at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Fighter at-will power as an Encounter power, and gain the Combat Superiority class feature.

16th Level: You gain the Combat Challenge class feature, or gain a permanent bonus from your Fighter Weapon Talent.

Paladin Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Paladin at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Paladin at-will power as an Encounter power and the Lay on Hands class feature as an Encounter power.

16th Level: You gain the Divine Challenge class feature, or the Channel Divinity: Divine Mettle and Channel Divinity: Divine Strength Encounter powers.

With the Defenders, I placed their marking abilities in the 16th level feature, much like Leaders had their healing placed there. I also tried to keep that choice between fulfilling their role and operating offensively. 11th level was difficult with these two though; on its own, Combat Superiority isn't too much, but it feels almost too powerful if the PC picks Combat Challenge at 16th level. Lay on Hands was also too powerful, as the Paladin doesn't really have any low-power class features, so I had to bump it to an Encounter power to balance.

Ranger Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Ranger at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Ranger at-will power as an Encounter power and the Prime Shot class feature.

[FONT=&quot]16th Level: You gain the Hunter’s Quarry class feature, or the Fighting Style class feature.[/FONT]

Rogue Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Rogue at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Rogue at-will power as an Encounter power and the Rogue Weapon Talent class feature, or a Rogue at-will power as an Encounter power and the First Strike class feature.

16th Level: Gain the Sneak Attack class feature, or the Rogue Tactics class feature and its effects on related powers.

Warlock Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain the other Warlock at-will power for your pact as an additional at-will power, or change your Warlock at-will Encounter power into an additional at-will power and gain the Prime Shot class feature.

16th Level: Gain the Warlock’s Curse class feature, or gain the Warlock’s Curse class feature but not the extra damage it grants and your Pact Boon, or gain the Shadow Walk class feature.

The Strikers felt harder to balance. The Ranger was near perfect for this approach though; the difference between an at-will and Prime Shot is effectively the difference between Twin Strike and using a bow. At 16th, the Striker class feature of extra damage seemed to balance well with the utility-based fighting style as well. Especially for TWF Rangers, there's a real reason to avoid Hunter's Quarry at 16th.


The Rogue, and the Warlock, suffered from having too many class features. I felt I had to incorporate them all in some way to create variety, and so their options are expanded a bit. Sneak Attack vs. Rogue Tactics works fine at 16th level, but I'm not entirely sure Rogue Weapon Talent stacks well with First Strike. I may change it so that you don't gain any new at-will Rogue powers in any form if you take Rogue Weapon Talent at 11th.


The Warlock has so many things missing, like the Rogue, that this multiclass path feels a bit bloated. I had to fit Pact Boons, Warlock's Curse for traditional Striker roles, and Shadow Walk in the level 16, power-feature bracket, but I faced another unique challenge as well. If a PC only wants one of his pact's 2 at-wills, the 11th level class feature effectively invalidates his entire multiclass feat. So I made the option of upgrading it to an at-will and packed a class feature with that instead.

Wizard Paragon Path:

11th Level: Gain a Wizard at-will power as an additional at-will power, or gain a Wizard at-will power as an Encounter power and the Spellbook class feature without the free Rituals.

[FONT=&quot]

16th Level: Gain the Cantrips class feature, or gain the Arcane Implement class feature.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]

The Wizard really doesn't have an end-all be-all Controller class feature, and initially I thought it suffered from the 11th level invalidation the Warlock did. And then I remembered that Wizards have 5 at-wills to choose from, and I didn't feel so bad. As for the 16th level class features... I felt the utility of Cantrips against the combat use of an Arcane Implement were the best balance I could strike, but for many PCs, Arcane Implements will probably just beat out its competition. I'm still as happy as I can be with my build of it, though.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]I'm always up for comments, suggestions, and the rest. Not that my last couple of homebrew topics have gotten any. XD Anyway, fire away.

EDIT: Grr, I don't like the new boards. It will not let me fix the broken appearance of my Wizard entry, as it continually puts in a /quote and quote tag between the 11th level features and the 16th level features after I try to fix it. It also randomly changed the text sizes of a few random lines and added a <p> html tag to the bottom when I first posted it.
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[Zelc]

Here's the problem with making the Healing Word or Inspiring Word you get from multiclassing an X/encounter power. If you get a Cleric/Warlord, you'd end up with 4 or 5 uses of Healing Word and Inspiring Word per encounter, which feels way too high. I came across the same problem when I was making my set of level 11 and level 16 multiclassing rules.

 

[ZetaStriker]

Yeah, I admit, that thought did strike my mind... although I was more worried about Striker multiclassing into a Striker giving them too large a damage boost. I guess one fix would be taking out the 'role specific' class features. No Healing Word boost beyond the 1/day from your multiclass feat, no Sneak Attack for multiclassing into rogue... instead you get all the other stuff. A Warlock/Rogue, for instance, may select Brutal Scoundrel(for Str to damage when you have combat advantage) and Rogue Weapon Talent to increase the usefulness of their Pact Blades. Let's try this...

Cleric:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Healer's Lore
16th: Channel Divinity: Turn Undead or Channel Divinity: Divine Fortune

Warlord:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Combat Leader
16th: Commanding Presence

Fighter:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Combat Superiority
16th: Fighter Weapon Talent

Paladin:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Lay on Hands as encounter power
16th: Channel Divinity: Divine Mettle or Channel Divinity: Divine Strength

Ranger:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Prime Shot
16th: Fighting Style

Rogue:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and First Strike, or Rogue Weapon Talent
16th: Rogue Tactics

Warlock:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Prime Shot
16th: Warlock's Curse without damage and Pact Boon or Shadow Walk

Wizard:
11th: At-will, or at-will->encounter and Spellbook without Rituals, or Cantrips
16th: Implement Mastery

It fixes the problems I had with my initial build, and skirts around the issue of doubling up on role-based powers, unless you count a Warlock/Ranger taking Prime Shot for the +0 bonus he'll get from having the same class feature twice.

Edit: And I am really seriously considering just leaving the ENWorld boards for a while now. Having to manually change your font color to white and all the tag weirdness... it just bothers me so much that posting almost becomes a pain, rather than a pleasure.

 

[Zelc]

Go to My Account, Edit Options (on the left), scroll all the way down to Miscellaneous Options, Message Editor Interface, and change it to Standard Editor .

I have to say I like my fix better . Primarily because there will be extra uses of the power granted by the feat, which often is required to fill in that role. And it's like the other paragon paths, with an action point ability at level 11. Still, I think your change would be fine if it granted an extra uses of the abilities.