Is Multiclassing Balanced?

[Felix]

in terms of prestige classes

Is that a problem with the PrC system, or the individual PrCs being too strong, or do you not think there is a difference twixt the two?

 

[Votan]

Is that a problem with the PrC system, or the individual PrCs being too strong, or do you not think there is a difference twixt the two?

I think it is partially a problem with prestige classes existing at all (as most seem to be what you should use skills and feats to accomplish within the context of the base classes) and partially a problem with power creep in prestige classes in general.

Also, some of the assumptions of the game don't work out so well if you can stack many prestige classes with similar pre-reqs and harvest a host of benefits.

 

[woodelf]

I think the system is fine how it is. A fighter 5/caster 5 shouldn't be able to take on a caster 10 in a duel of magic only and compete. They've only spent half their time and energy at it.

Yes, casters get hosed ... if you think that only a full level caster is what you want.

I think the real problem isn't the fighter 5/wizard 5. It's the wizard 5/sorcerer 5. And other similar caster/caster multiclasses. I'm not sure the fix. My gut reaction is dissociated caster level from class level, same as BAB and class level aren't identical. But that might go too far the other way--if a multiclass spellcaster (that is, caster/caster) got full character level for determining effects of spells, combined with the larger number of spells of two classes, that might actually be too much, despite the loss of higher-level spells (compared to a single-class caster of the same character level).