airwalkrr
Adventurer
Those are some excellent points, Lorehead. Your insight persuades me that this is counter-point to what I was actually trying to encourage. It is something I was starting to realize the more I thought about it. Thank you for the feedback.
Taking this into account, I have derived a simpler system, although it requires altering the way XP works in 3.5. I have re-created the XP tables from the DMG and the XP by level table from the PH to create a more unified system. Essentially, leveling up to each additional level takes twice the amount of experience points it took to level up in the previous level. For example, a 2nd level character has 200 xp. A 3rd level character has 400 xp. A 4th level character has 800 xp, etc. (I start using hundreds instead of thousands to account for the fact that at higher levels you are dealing with much bigger numbers.) I maintained the philosophy from 3.5 that for a party of four characters all the same level 13.33 encounters with an EL equal to their character level will advance them a level. I admit the XP chart does not look as pretty as the 3.5 one, but mechanically, I much prefer the way it works. Also, this requires I change the amount of 1,000 xp spent to gain a level in a new class to something like 200 xp instead.
Under this system, a multiclass PC is counted as one level higher (for the purposes of XP only) for each class he possesses in addition to his base class. His HD is still equal to his level in his highest level class. This will discourage dipping into classes for only one or two levels because it significantly slows down your rate of XP accumulation. For instance, a Bbn1/Ftr10 earns the same amount of experience points as a Bbn10/Ftr10 per encounter (although the Bbn10/Ftr10 is splitting his XP between two classes and the Bbn1/Ftr10 is only using it for one class).
Also, I should mention that under this system, certain classes, like mystic theurge and arcane heirophant become obsolete. The arcane heirophant could probably be tweaked to be allowable since it grants other minor abilities besides arcane/divine spellcasting though.
Favored classes now come into the picture a bit differently. There are only three types of classes: Arcane, Divine, and Adventurer. Arcane classes include any class that grants arcane spells. Divine classes include any class that grants divine spells. Adventurer classes include any class that grants no spells. If using psionics or incarnum in your campaign, you could include additional types of classes, such as psionic and incarnum classes. Each race has a favored class "type" instead of one specific class. Elves, for instance, have Arcane as their favored class type, while dwarves and halflings both have Adventurer as their favored class type. Humans and half-elves may have any favored class type. When a character wishes to become a multiclass character, at least one of that character's classes must be of the favored class type. So an elf Ftr/Rog would not be a viable build, although an elf Ftr/Wiz or Rog/Wiz would be. An optional variant of this rule would be to only allow a character to have levels in one class of each type, meaning that no character could ever have more than three classes.
Otherwise, the rules are as listed above. As I see it, this has the advantage of maintaining the same rate of advancement as the 3.5 system while ensuring that multiclass characters will typically be 1 or 2 levels behind. How does that sound? Are there any perceived problems with this fix?
Taking this into account, I have derived a simpler system, although it requires altering the way XP works in 3.5. I have re-created the XP tables from the DMG and the XP by level table from the PH to create a more unified system. Essentially, leveling up to each additional level takes twice the amount of experience points it took to level up in the previous level. For example, a 2nd level character has 200 xp. A 3rd level character has 400 xp. A 4th level character has 800 xp, etc. (I start using hundreds instead of thousands to account for the fact that at higher levels you are dealing with much bigger numbers.) I maintained the philosophy from 3.5 that for a party of four characters all the same level 13.33 encounters with an EL equal to their character level will advance them a level. I admit the XP chart does not look as pretty as the 3.5 one, but mechanically, I much prefer the way it works. Also, this requires I change the amount of 1,000 xp spent to gain a level in a new class to something like 200 xp instead.
Under this system, a multiclass PC is counted as one level higher (for the purposes of XP only) for each class he possesses in addition to his base class. His HD is still equal to his level in his highest level class. This will discourage dipping into classes for only one or two levels because it significantly slows down your rate of XP accumulation. For instance, a Bbn1/Ftr10 earns the same amount of experience points as a Bbn10/Ftr10 per encounter (although the Bbn10/Ftr10 is splitting his XP between two classes and the Bbn1/Ftr10 is only using it for one class).
Also, I should mention that under this system, certain classes, like mystic theurge and arcane heirophant become obsolete. The arcane heirophant could probably be tweaked to be allowable since it grants other minor abilities besides arcane/divine spellcasting though.
Favored classes now come into the picture a bit differently. There are only three types of classes: Arcane, Divine, and Adventurer. Arcane classes include any class that grants arcane spells. Divine classes include any class that grants divine spells. Adventurer classes include any class that grants no spells. If using psionics or incarnum in your campaign, you could include additional types of classes, such as psionic and incarnum classes. Each race has a favored class "type" instead of one specific class. Elves, for instance, have Arcane as their favored class type, while dwarves and halflings both have Adventurer as their favored class type. Humans and half-elves may have any favored class type. When a character wishes to become a multiclass character, at least one of that character's classes must be of the favored class type. So an elf Ftr/Rog would not be a viable build, although an elf Ftr/Wiz or Rog/Wiz would be. An optional variant of this rule would be to only allow a character to have levels in one class of each type, meaning that no character could ever have more than three classes.
Otherwise, the rules are as listed above. As I see it, this has the advantage of maintaining the same rate of advancement as the 3.5 system while ensuring that multiclass characters will typically be 1 or 2 levels behind. How does that sound? Are there any perceived problems with this fix?
