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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4534691" data-attributes="member: 19675">I didn't see 3Ed multiclassing as that big of a change, really.1&2Ed had 2 forms of multiclassing- multiclassing and dual-classing.  Multiclassing was the exclusive purview of the non-humans, and dual-classing was limited to humans.3Ed dumped almost all PCs into the old dual-classing regime while dropping the "humans-only" requirement and the high primary stat requirements for changing classes (replacing it with "favored class" and an XP penalty for being out of balance).It kept old-school multiclassing as "gestalt" multiclassing and again, dropped the limitation that it was available only to certain races.Opened up?  Sure.  Radical change?  Not so much.Yes, that's quite the bone they threw us.The fact remains that its gone from being the major form of spell resource management to being an appendix that could well be excised in the next revision.Its like the difference between real, fresh-squeezed orange juice and Orange Fanta. What ARE you smoking?  My conclusion stands on solid experience.Core to Core:1) All of my gnomes and 1/2 Orc PCs are gone- many DMs of my acquaintance only allow PCs to be generated from PHB races, so no MM races allowed.  Even if that were not the case, the racial abilities available to PCs from MM races doesn't compare in quality to that available to PHB races- go for an MM race and you're already gimping your PC out of the gate.2) Non-blaster mages are absent in 4Ed.  There goes 100% of my Wizards (and Sorcerers) going back to 1Ed and all through 3Ed. 100%.3) Druids also gone.4) While not core in 1 or 2Ed, Barbarians were part of 3Ed's Core.  4Ed doesn't have them.5) The thief/rogue role has been gutted.  Maybe it wasn't your idea of fun being the scout/trapfinder/stealthy killer/skill monkey, and you're fine with the 4Ed class being the scout-assassin, but not everyone likes having 2 of the class' roles just evaporate.6)  Dating back 20+ years, it is the rare PC in my D&D portfolio who isn't multiclassed or dual-classed, with 3+ classes per PC accounting for fully 1/2 of all my multiclassed/dual-classed PCs.  The radical change in the way multiclassing works alters the substance of what my PCs would be capable of doing to the point that the 4Ed version hardly resembles prior incarnations.  Conversion of certain key PCs to 4Ed would result in having to retcon 20 years of an active campaign that started in 1Ed, continued through 2Ed, and survived the transition to 3.X with only minor blips.  Backwards compatibility in an RPG doesn't mean I can kludge something together that approximates 50% of a PCs role.  While "roles matter as much as class names," I have found that 4Ed versions of my older PCs cannot perform the roles they currently fill.</blockquote>

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