Half levels

[Heretic Apostate]

Has anyone taken the Apprentice rules from the DMG and extended them all the way up to 20th level?

Basically, in one level, you can take half of the features of 1st level in one class, and half of the features of 1st level in another class (one of them has to be your race's preferred class). Next level, you get the remaining portions of your classes.

I've thought this might be a good way to do multiclassing. Instead of, for instance, suddenly being able to cast spells without any effort, you gain your first level of wizard or cleric over a two-level period. Also, it allows for more customization. If you take a half-level (1st minor) of wizard and a half-level (12th major) of fighter, you're a fighter that has picked up a few tricks (fighter 11.6/wizard 0.4). And if you never complete the 1st level of wizard, that means your next level would be a half-level (12th minor) of fighter and a half-level (13th major) of fighter, making you fighter 12.6/wizard 0.4.

Any comments?

 

[cptg1481]

A thought

I had a brain storm (rare) a few months ago and thought what if instead of getting all of your abilities suddenly upon leveling they came slowly like say you are a 1st level fighter working towards your second level....

at 2nd level you get 5 upgrades and aditions based on your class:

+1 to your BAB;
a +1 to your fortitude save;
a bonus feat;
2+mod skill points
and an extra hit die.

so to go from 1st to 2nd level cost 2K exp

so divide 2K by 5 and you get 400, so at every 400 exp you get to add one of the new assets.

you could roll randomly on a d10 for them or assign them according to player or DM's fiat, however you do it it will take away the get it all feeling associated with leveling.

I never really persued this further since it would take alot of table making. You'd have to break down each class level into it's component parts divisable by the amount of experiance needed for each level.

So feel fre to use this idea, I'd be curious how well it worked and if there is any payoff in realism to it. I'm not much for realism though...raising the dead, walking on water, shooting fire from one's fingertips, and the dragons and all but some people quest for it in their games.

I think like with the age of majority, drivnig and the drinking age sometimes there just has to be a standard set and the rewards/priviledges given for ease of administration in real life as well as in a game.

I mean what made me more responsible on 1 July 1987, than I was on 30 June 1987....probably nothing, (and incidentally, some would argue that I am not still mature enough) but that was when I could go into a bar and order a drink. Silly yea, but the rule none the less.

BTW I'm not POO POOing your 1/2 level idea just adding an idea I had a while ago that might help you out.

Well, that plus a little philosophy on standards....

 

[Aaron2]

Basically, in one level, you can take half of the features of 1st level in one class, and half of the features of 1st level in another class (one of them has to be your race's preferred class). Next level, you get the remaining portions of your classes.

I did a similar thing when I was working on a Basic D&D version of 3e. For example, a Elf was a multiclassed fighter/wizard at a 1/2 ratio. I figured what they would be at 18th level (figher 6/ wizard 12) and then evenly distributed all the spells, BAB, saves and feats over those 18 levels. I averaged their hit dice to d6 even (d4+d4+d10=3d6, so d6 hit dice).

Halfings were fighter/rogues in a similar way.

This, of course, was for a game without multiclassing so I wasn't worried about matching levels perfectly.


Aaron

 

[Arc]

I've contemplated ideas along the same lines, but partial levels don't seem very useful to me. Maybe it's because I like to give out XP at the end of a session, and that would require too much bookkeeping on the part of the players and the DM.

What I came up with is a 'declaration' system. Basically, upon achieving a level, you declare what class/Prc you are going to be taking next. So a character who just hit Fighter 2 decides he wants to be a fighter 3 next level. The trick is, if a character decides to change target class, they lose half of the xp they've gained towards the next level. So this fighter 2 has 1800 XP, and then decides that he wants to take a level of rogue instead. (1800-1000)/2 is 400, so the character drops down to 1400 XP. It makes the progress towards a new class more realistic, instead of the 'Hey, I've got a level of Sorceror! Watch me cast spells!'

 

[Hashmalum]

Sean K. Reynolds has tables for advancing spellcasting by half a level for the "major" spellcasters (those that eventually get 9th level spells) on his website. His original intention was to allow for prestige classes that advance another class's spellcasting half a level every level instead of one level every other level, but it may prove helpful for what you have in mind as well:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/fractionalspellcasting_adv.html