A (Dumb) Experiment - 9 (or 10) of 11

[SnowleopardVK]

I've decided to (for fun) make a character, and (if I can) level him/her up to 20th level while multiclassing among nine of the core classes. I haven't decided which two to exclude, but they'll have to be among the ones with alignment restrictions (in other words Paladin, Monk, Barbarian, and Druid).

I may throw in one of the base classes too and do two levels of each class.

I'm aware that this is incredibly stupid, and that it's probably been done before. It's for fun though, so I don't really care.

At any rate I've gotten a friend to agree to GM this as a solo campaign for me, so we'll be starting once we clear up the details. For now I have to decide on which class to take first, which alignment to be (and by that measure, which classes to drop), and which race I'm going with.

After that I'll keep a record of how it goes. Hopefully it's entertaining. For now I'm off to work, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the things I haven't decided on yet (i.e. race, alignment, the order to take the classes in, etc).

Ciao for now.

 

[Systole]

Out of the remaining four classes, there are only three workable combinations:
Barbarian/Druid (NG, NE, N or CN)
Druid/Monk (LN)
Paladin/Monk (LG)

Of those, barbarian/druid seems the strongest to me, since you're soloing and probably not going to be wearing much more than light armor, assuming you pick up Arcane Armor Training so wiz/sorc isn't totally wasted.

So your final list of classes:levels will be something like this...
Barbarian: 1 or 2
Bard: 1
Cleric: 1 or 3
Druid: 1
Fighter: 2, 4, or 6
Ranger: 1 or 2
Rogue: 1, 2 or 4
Sorcerer: 1, 3, or 4
Wizard: 1 or 3

Even taking the higher numbers, that only amounts to ~25 or so, so you're probably ending up with the higher ends of those ranges. In particular, you have to remember that if a spell does d6/level damage, you're topping out at 4d6, which will be worthless, so all your spells should be control spells, like Invisibility and Grease. Because your spell selection is limited anyway, I think that makes Sorcerer a lot more attractive than Wizard.

Similarly, you're going to want bloodline/domain powers whose low level powers are still worthwhile at high levels. Fire Elemental for Fire Resist 10 for Sorcerer, probably. Liberation or Luck for Cleric definitely. Probably Weather for Druid, although ... yuck. Not many good choices there. Still it's a better choice than animal companion, which will die if a CL8 so much as sneezes on it. For Wizard, you might as well pick up arcane bond over a familiar for the same reason.

I would probably end up planning something like this:

1 Cleric
2 Bard
3 Druid (And Arcane Armor since you're now caster level 3, and the feat doesn't specify arcane caster, muahaha)
4 Sorcerer
5 Sorcerer
6 Sorcerer
7 Sorcerer
8 Barbarian
9 Barbarian
10 Rogue
11 Rogue
12 Ranger
13 Ranger

Then you've just got Wizard and Fighter to wrap up.

An interesting thought experiment. Good luck.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Glad you found it interesting. I've decided I'm going to be taking Druid/Monk (plus the other 7 non alignment-restricted core classes), again mostly because it sounds the most fun of the three choices.

The 10th class may be alchemist. I haven't made up my mind quite yet. Also, I'm not going to start putting any of them into second level until I've got a level in all 10 chosen classes first.

The info on the various caster classes is useful (they aren't my strength). Going with control spells sounds like a tip that's going to be helpful in the long run.

Starting as a cleric did indeed seem the most obvious way to go. On the other hand... What if I were to roll a d10 and leave it up to luck?...

 

[SSuser]

I have wanted to try that for as long as I can remember. There was a feat from the Complete Arcane that would be an immense help.

Practiced Spellcaster

Choose a spellcasting class that you possess. Your spells cast from that class are more powerful.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 4 ranks.

Benefit: Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by 4. This benefit can't increase your caster level to higher than your Hit Dice. However, even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain Hit Dice in levels of nonspellcasting classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus.

For example, a human 5th-level sorcerer/3rd-level fighter who selects this feat would increase his sorcerer caster level from 5th to 8th (since he has 8 Hit Dice). If he later gained a fighter level, he would gain the remainder of the bonus and his sorcerer caster level would become 9th (since he now has 9 Hit Dice).

A character with two or more spellcasting classes (such as a bard/sorcerer or a ranger/druid) must choose which class gains the feat's effect.

This feat does not affect your spells per day or spells known. It increases your caster level only, which would help you penetrate spell resistance and increase the duration and other effects of your spells.

Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you choose it, you must apply it to a different spellcasting class. For instance, a 4th-level cleric/5th-level wizard who had selected this feat twice would cast cleric spells as an 8th-level caster and wizard spells as a 9th-level caster.

I'd like to make a suggestion, if you are going to play a jack of all trades, master of none. Then start with the bard, and get it over with.