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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6754594" data-attributes="member: 6799649">For a single class PC, we assume that he has been training as a (whatever class) for a decade or so without any class abilities being usable, until one day he wakes up as a 1st level (whatever), able to use all of those abilities when he couldn't use any of those abilities the day before.On his first day adventuring, he earns 300xp and levels up to level 2 (whatever), and suddenly, without any training whatsoever, has abilities this evening that he didn't have this morning. Unless you fluff this as the eventual culmination of that decade of pre- 1st level training but it took some *ahem* experience in order for it to finally click.Let's say....ranger. He's been ranger training since he was 8 years old, but did not have the abilities of a 1st level ranger, because if he did then he would already be a 1st level ranger!One day he goes to bed and he doesn't have any ranger abilities. When he wakes up, he has all of the abilities of a Rgr 1. We must assume that abilities are binary-you either have an ability or you don't-and that although abilities seem to suddenly spontaneously 'appear' that this represents your training finally 'clicking'.After the first day/300xp, suddenly, spontaneously, he has the TWF weapon style, and can cast spells. He couldn't this morning! It's stupid!Well, stupid or not, this is how D&D works.The reason I wrote all that is to point out that this process is identical for both single class AND multi class PCs! You train for years, one day you wake up with abilities you didn't have the day before, then you kill 300xp-worth of baddies and have abilities that you didn't have before.This process makes as much (or as little) sense for both single class AND multi class PCs!My Rg 1 gains 300xp; he can either become a Rgr 2 or a Rgr 1/Ftr 1. 'But that's stupid and unrealistic!' I hear you cry. Why? So, instead of the 'perfectly sensible' spontaneously-gained abilities of TWF style and spellcasting, he gains the 'totally stupid and unrealistic' abilities of...TWF style and second wind...!'But he trained for 10 years to be a ranger, and his abilities are only clicking now!' Well, it turns out that he spent that decade training to be a Rgr/Ftr, and those abilities are only clicking now.'He never said anything about training to be a fighter, until just now!' So? You don't know about every minute of every day of that 10 years. Just like the stories we read/watch, the writer decides that the hero is an expert chef/has a famous uncle/was trained in ju-jitsu/speaks fluent swahili/whatever, even though this was never mentioned before, because the writer ret-conned it in.Now, we can't just 'ret-con' in that, 'oh yeah, didn't I mention, I'm also an archmage!' We have to play by the rules. But the rules certainly do allow us to say (as we level up), 'oh yeah, didn't I mention, I also was made to go to wizard school for a bit when I was a kid. I hated it at the time; doing boring finger exercises and reading boring theory books while I watched my mates through the window playing and fighting and having fun, pointing at me and calling me a softie. Still, now that I have some experience it, well, it just...clicked!''Ah, but some things don't make sense, because the barbarian class is not a profession, it's a background!' Bollocks. You can fluff ANY class how you want, and the game has any background usable with any class. Barbarian...urchin? Noble? Entertainer? Acolyte? We are certainly not tied to the outsider background.The description of the class, the fluff, is up to the player. Anyone who benefits from his fury in a fight can be a barbarian in class terms. You may treat barbarian as a background, but that doesn't mean that everyone else has to.There are some books by Robert Green that deal with a far-future human space empire. The hero, Gavin, is a noble whose entire noble line has been genetically enhanced with an adrenal gland that delivers combat drugs into his system at will (although not forever). As soon as I read this, I thought 'civilised barbarian'.TLDR: the multi class system is actually the same as the single class system: you train for a decade before play, abilities seem to spontaneously appear with experience with no further training required. Same system for both. Penalising MC PCs without imposing the same penalties on single class PCs is either hypocritical or shows a lack of understanding of how the game actually works compared to how you think it should work.</blockquote>

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