Dropping favored classes and mutliclassing restrictions

[cptg1481]

Hummm....favorite Class.....

I personally don't think that the favored class is useful. Likewise, I don't penalize the players for multiclassing in any way. The reason.....

I think that the inherent penalties of multiclassing are penalties in and of themselves. I mean while a multiclass character is more of a jack of all trades type guy he will never be as powerfull as one of a straight class. There's the BAB penalty at 1st level for most and then loosing spell levels and the fact that most really powerful class abilities are of higher level.

I don't buy the effort required to maintain the varied and diverse skill sets opinion. In essence a player is making a himself a unique class by combining existing ones into the spesific role the player sees his character filling.

Take for instance...,me, I'm a military intelligence officer in the army. However, I have several varried skilll sets that I have learned over 17 years of time....like I was a sniper in the infantry, a special forces weapons specialist, an EMT, a linguist, an interrigator and a counterintelligence operator.

I don't compartmentalize these seperate skills, rather, I have molded them into one "class", which is unique to me. I draw upon all of these abilities to make decisions, plans, and utilize all of my skills to accomplish something.

While I will admit that my skills as a sniper have atrophied over the years I still apply the fundementals I learned in that training to basic problems and such. Although, I think with a little refresher before a mission I could still pull off the role. I don't think that I suffer any penalties to any one skill set because I exclusively use another for a short time. I think that multiclassing is the ultimate PrC, it's a conglomerate of those skills you as a player want your character to have.

I like it that way....I let my players freely multiclass as often as they want without penalty.

IMO multiclassing is making a unique "class" or persona for a character based upon what role the plaer sees the character playing in said game. I don't and will not penalize them for it.

 

[SylverFlame]

haiiro

There is an option that will work quite nicely for your system. If you want to make all the skills a player has access to as class skills (ie. if they are fighter/rogues then this would be the fighter an rogue lists), then just make a feat. Such as this one.

I am So Smart! General
Your knowledge of skills and and such is broad and accessible at at moments notice.
Pre-Requisites: More than one class, any feat that directly relates to at least one specific skill
Benefits: You may add the skill list of one other class in which you have at least one level to your class skills list. These skills are considered class skills even if you advance in a class other than the class to which these skills belong.
Normal: Skills other than those that belong to the class which you level up in are considered cross class.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times but must select a different class each time. This feat may be used on Prestige Class skill lists.

I think this should work... However, I definitely see it as not being on the fighter's bonus feat list. That makes the fighter a definite class for multiclassing and this feat isn't in line with the theme of the fighter's bonus feats.

 

[haiiro]

After mulling all of this over, I think I'll probably wind up just leaving the multiclass XP penalties and favored class rules in place. I'll definitely be leaving the restrictions on multiclass skill points unchanged (it makes much more sense to me now, particularly from a game balance standpoint).

The only real barrier to nixing the favored class rules that I can see is deciding what to replace the human and half-elven "favored class: any" ability with. I like FreeTheSlaves's idea, but I'm not sure if it feels quite right to me; it is the best fix for this change that I've seen so far. Unless I have a flash of inspiration about this issue, I'll probably just leave it unchanged.

Thanks to all who replied.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I don't think you're considering going to this extreme, but here's what I'm doing in my current campaign:

Favored Classes: Gone. The only real effect they had was to limit my player's imagination - if they want to, why can't someone play a dwarf cleric who discovers his sorcerous heritage, without penalty? I agree with most posters who have found that excessive multiclassing brings more negatives than positives.

Skills: Except for Use Magic Device, all skills are class skills to all classes. While this may seem extreme, what I've found is a player goes either of two directions:
1. They choose class based on the character's role in the party (tank, healer, etc.) and skills based on flavor, e.g., a halfling fighter who has Track and lots of ranks in Wilderness Lore and other "ranger" skills.
2. They choose the same set of skills for each character (Spot, Listen, Search, etc). This allows the character to have some of the most commonly used skills, but at the cost of not having a needed skill when it's desperately needed.
Either way, I haven't seen anything unbalancing by these changes.

If anyone feels humans and half-elves are too weak, relative to other races, with these changes, it's easy to add a small benefit, as suggested above.

 

[haiiro]

If anyone feels humans and half-elves are too weak, relative to other races, with these changes, it's easy to add a small benefit, as suggested above.

Once you've eliminated class skills, what small benefit would you provide (since FreeTheSlaves' idea is only partly applicable)?

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I haven't had to change them in my current campaign, but if I did, I would give them both an extra +1 skill point at each level (+4 at 1st level). I see skills as helping to flesh out characters and rarely (UMD) unbalancing, so adding skills points is relatively safe. WOTC may be coming around to this view, as rumor says some classes in 3.5 will have more base skill points.

One thing I like to do is give out tomes of Skill Focus as treasure, with a given tome focused on a particular subject, e.g., Skill Focus : Knowledge (planar races). The tome found is usually dependent on what its owner was interested in (the party found one on necrology in the hands of a necromancer).