Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1127231" data-attributes="member: 9410">First of all, the Multiclassing rules just don't work.  There... I've said it!A 4th level Ex-Barbarian/Fighter/Paladin/Ranger has the Fortitude save of a 12th level Fughter, as well as +2 Reflex.  Obviously, this is wrong!The LN Level Two Druid/Monk isn't quite as bad, but has no weakness, like the above's +0 Will.  Again, this is a problem.The "fix" is to lower DCs, and make "Good" saves +1 first level.  Then this problem will be no more.  Maximum gain/level is +1, for all classes.Now the Fighter's skills...  IMHO, ALL classes need more skill points, and I see no reason why any class should have a mere +2/level, so I support a boost for all.  For the Fighter's skills, let me digress, for a moment...Remember 1e?  No one but a THIEF could climb walls, or Move Silently/Hide in Shadows, and even a Ranger had to rely on his better Surprise dice?  Now Fighters have climb!  Why?Because they're big and strong, and Climb/Jump/Swim are STR skills.  Oh, sure, their archetype doesn't really call for a lot of climbing (although the DC:15 climb check to get up or down a non-knotted rope, when it's away from a wall (IIRC), is annoying), and sure, his armor penalty is working against him, as well as his shield penalty, but oh well, at least he has it!Now, onto the DEX-based skills, especially Move Silently & Hide...  Seems to me that the same applies here.  Fighters need DEX & CON, let'em have these skills, too.  Sentry-stalking is - most assuredly - primarily a military art!  Again, the average Fighter's Armor & Shield Check Penalties will be working against him, so the ROGUE will still be better (as will the Ranger), but that's all well and good, too.Next, Spot & Listen.  The military is, and almost always HAS BEEN the primary producer of "trained observers".  There are many in the airline industry, today, but still, unless I miss my educated guess, I'll bet the military still outnumbers them by a wide margin.  Besides...  If I were a Fighter assigned to stand Sentry duty, and I thought someone was stalking me, you betcha I'd develop some Listen skill!If I were running D&D (and I'm not), I would look carefully at classes to see what skills they needed to do their jobs.  Then, I'd make sure they had them.  I would then see what Professions and Crafts would also fit, and add them to the list (instead of the more general list).  I would bever entertain the idea that a Fighter needed to multiclass in order to be a good sentry, or a good commando, or mounted archer, or any other Medieval military roll.  If he has to, then the D&D Fighter is flawed, and needs fixing.The same is true with ALL classes."So, Steverooo, what's YOUR Fix?"First of all, see above...Next, EVERY class gets either Special Class Abilities, OR their choice of Special Class-Only Feats from a list, at EVERY level.  For the Fighter, for example, one of these might be:OfficerYou have ascended to high Rank in the military.Effects: Diplomacy, Knowledge (Local), and Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) are added to your class skills.  Skill points/level are increased by two, but these points can only be used for these three skills.For Druids, Rangers, and perhaps Monks, special extensions to the Improved Unarmed Strike chain could be added, to let their hand(s) do slashing damage.  In general, though, MOST of the selectable Feats should be non-combat-oriented (as opposed to now, when many, if not most, are)!Gaining new abilities at every level would make more people want to stick with a base class.  There's another thing that would help, though...The DMG-stated FACT that Prestige Classes are more powerful than "normal" PHB Classes is just wrong, IMHO.  I hate that.  I would much rather see the following (in 4.0+):There are no more Prestige Classes, as such.  Instead, all of the PHB PC Classes have a wide variety of Class-only Feats at higher levels (such as the Rogue's), which allow them to be customized to become the equivalents.  Clerics/Paladins or Druids/Rangers might share some Feats/Special Abilities, but then, they do now, so so what?  In 4.0, you can gain the abilities of the Prestige classes through selecting the Feats or Class-Only Feats that you need to gain the abilities.Another way to do that same thing would be to assign an XP cost to each ability, and then MULTIPLY that by a certain amount, depending upon what level it was gained at...For instance, gaining 1D6 worth of backstab (uh, I mean Sneak Attack!) might cost, say, 500 XP, times the level.  500 XP at first, 1,000 at second, etc.  (Yes, yes, I know that someone could stay first level and pick up a lot of stuff, but think about it... low saves, low HP, etc.  Perhaps a limit of "no more XP in special abilities than in your class" could fix that?)Anyway, just some ideas.  Until the PHB Classes are as powerful as the Prestige classes, this problem will only continue...   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

Verification