D&D 5E Has anyone ever had a PC take multiple subclasses?

[Clint_L]

Yes. Someone asked and we tried it to see how it would go.

As a strange coincidence, it was almost Clint's example of a Battlemaster/Rune Knight (in this case Edritch Knight). They went EK 1-5, then BM 1-3, then EK 6-... I think 9 or 10 before the campaign petered out. As you can imagine, the delay in getting your third attack (and before that the 3-level delay in your F8 and F8 ASIs) was hugely significant, mathematically (perhaps a little less so because of EK's attack+BB). However, the benefits of both EK and BM abilities (and getting 2 action surges super-early) did eat into that deficit. And it certainly felt like there was a lot more decisions the fighter got to make (in combat, and out, since they took some of the skill-boost BM maneuvers).

It worked really about the same as those builds where you take a martial up two two attacks and then drop into something else (Ranger5/Druid 1-..., Fighter5/Rogue1-..., sorcadins, etc.). By that I mean:

1. The 'build' only really takes off at level 8+. Since you really don't want to wait until level 8 or so for multi-attack as a martial, you likely will power-level whichever you want to take 5+ levels in. This means your first tier looks very much like a single-class advancement.
2. At level 8 (L5/L3), you get all the cool benefits of the second archetype, which certainly feels more significant than what you might otherwise get at levels 6-8 (maybe 7-9 for paladins, who really want that aura).
3. When you hit the upper tiers, those nifty level 11+ abilities classes get seem really delayed.

To clarify, I was suggesting that the sub-class levels would be divided, but not the class levels. So there would be no delay in getting the third attack; the character I described would still be a 10th level fighter, but for subclass features they would just have the 3rd level Battlemaster features and the 3rd and 7th level Rune Knight features.

Is that power gaming? I dunno; it doesn't seem hugely unbalancing on the face of it, but I'm sure someone like ECMO3 could figure out a ridiculously strong combination. They're much more the exception than the rule, though.

 

[Horwath]

it's a good way to buff up bad classes, IE: monk, rogue, ranger.
3 subclasses for monk, 2 subclasses for rogue and ranger, maybe free BM for fighter also(that should have been the base class feature).

 

[Willie the Duck]

Is that power gaming? I dunno; it doesn't seem hugely unbalancing on the face of it, but I'm sure someone like ECMO3 could figure out a ridiculously strong combination. They're much more the exception than the rule, though.

My hot take from a rather limited experiment size is that, in general*, it's powergaming at the same level as any other MC/dip for mechanical advantage. Sure, throwing 3 levels of Battlemaster onto Rune Knight has some real synergy, but so would a 3-level dip into barbarian or ranger or warlock.
*so barring some specific combo ECMO3 or the like might come up with

 

[aco175]

I might allow a 3rd level wizard (diviner) to take 3 levels of wizard to take the necromancer sub-class. He would have a lot of 1st level spells and a few 2nd level, but no 3rd level as I would not let them stack to be a 6th level caster. Kind of the same 3rd level wizard wanting to take 3 levels of cleric or rogue.