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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7187181" data-attributes="member: 4937">No, on the contrary, it's assuming that whatever your aesthetic of play, it's best served by having your player character survive as long as possible.  No matter how much you want to engage your thespian instincts, you can't have a fully satisfied dramatic/narrative aesthetic of play if your player character dies and is replaced so often that you can't develop a narrative arc.  In other words, in a game that doesn't protect the protagonists with the power of plot, then every gamer that wants to play is best served by being a power gamer - even if challenge or self-validation aren't highly prioritized aesthetics of play.It depends.   Personally, I think that the thief is mostly superfluous, but that the party can gain an advantage out of having one (mostly in spells saved) and the cost of having a minimally component thief is so low that someone ought to either multiclass or dual-class into or out of thief.  It's single class thief that I don't recommend, because the advantage in spells saved is generally more than outweighed by the disadvantage in lost hit points, lost damage dealt per round, and lost utility compared to having another spell-caster or another fighter subclass.  So, since your humanoid is likely harsh level capped, go ahead and multiclass into thief to give them at least some sort of end game - especially if you are going to be an M-U and you need any help with hit points you can get.   If might be worth giving up 7 or so hit points, to have something to do with your dwarf after he level caps at 7th level, and you can make at least some of that back if you survive.  Or, go for a Bard build if you qualify.  Or consider going straight thief for a few levels, then back out into ranger or fighter to become an archer or specialized short sword wielder to gank things with your backstab.   Or if you really want to play a thief in the long term, take a fighter up to 5th level or 7th level or so and then race through the thief class.  Now you are thief with better weapon selection, better hit points, and much better damage capabilities. The dual class mechanics ensure you'll be out of the pain if you are leveling up in about the time it takes the rest of the party to gain a level or two.  The point is that having a thief is 'extra'.  It stops you from having to open doors by knocking them down, and helps reduce the spells that you have to use to overcome some problems.  But if it means that the cleric has to spend more healing keeping the character alive, and that combats on average go a round longer (and the cleric has to spend more healing now keeping everyone alive), and so forth - then it just isn't worth it.  On the other hand, you can be a M-U that cast invisibility AND can Move Silently, and you can be a thief that can scout by casting Polymorph Self and turning into a sparrow, a rat, or a bat so that even if you fail your move silently rolls you are unlikely to attract attention or pursuit.  You can be a thief that if you can't open that lock, can knock it, and if you can't climb the wall can levitate and if you fall off the wall you can feather fall.  Thief/M-U is vastly better than straight thief at the small cost of being a level or so behind.  You are also a thief that worst come to worse probably has a magic missile, fireball or cone of cold stashed away meaning you are never completely useless in a combat situation which is a frequent problem straight thieves face after 2nd or 3rd level.It's difficult to say which is better.  Dual-Class is more flexible but it allows for some heavily twinkish actions to abuse the rules and XP tables.   On the other hand, if you aren't level capped, multi-classing would be utterly awesome.  Multi-class is after all 'gestalt classing'.   You get to avoid the pain of restarting a profession, and you get to wear armor as a M-U.  You're a level behind but you have powers out the wazoo.</blockquote>

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