Again, the biggest problem is you can't just pull this off organically in 4e, you have to plan in advance, all quirks and deviations on the growth of the character specifically happening in the backstory, being carefully scripted or taking a painfull and nonsesically long time to pull off while compromising effectivity instead of emerging organically in the day to day play.
You mean 4e is a class-based game like OD&D, B/X, BECMI, AD&D, and 2e? Except it's a lot easier to develop organically in 4e than those other editions?
A second level 4e rogue who decides he wishes to change his life and reform to be a cleric has no way to stop learning and developping roguey abililities and dedicate all of his efforts to become a cleric, he still has to keep learning rogue things for eight levels before he can be an effective cleric, and even then he never stops learning to be a rogue, and the amount of resources he has dedicated to this will make him very suboptimal overall.
You mean that a rogue who decides to follow the path of a God doesn't mysteriously
stop using and practicing his existing skills, instead using them to stay alive as over the course of quite a few levels they gain cleric abilities through feats. But they don't fundamentally stop being who they are. This is actually organic development in which they add abilities and
keep using and practicing the abilities they already have. Because those are the best tools they have when the rubber meets the road.
In 2e he could just have dual classed the next time he earned a level
2e dual classing is possibly even more ridiculous. Possibly less so. Because to earn XP when you dual class
you need to not use the abilities of your original class until your new class is dominant. That actually works to change your class - you are explicitely rejecting your old class and not using any of its abilities. It's not organic - it's sheer brute willpower.
4e assumes you keep doing what you do best under pressure and then add to it. You spend your feats on multiclass feats and power swap feats, then take a Paragon Path from the class you are shifting into. This is organic - steadily increasing growth in the new class even as you continue to do what you do best. AD&D assumes mind over matter and that you have sufficient discipline and willpower to not behave as you used to if you want to change classes. 3e - if you think as a rogue with a few spells and move as a rogue with a few spells and generally act as a rogue with a few spells and you so choose you gain a level in ... Cleric. Far from being organic, this is
digital.
Weirdness aside from pretending there is a lasso that isn't there, this is actually pretty close, but I'm starting to notice that a good amount of PCs of diverse classes that I had on previous editions can only be expressed on 4ey play as a Lazy Warlord with ritual casting.
Bards are generally also pretty good for the tricksters - guiding strike and a whip, and coming with ritual casting would work well.
