Monk and Paladin Game Balance?

[gin]

Well I am finally starting a new campaign, using the Ghostwalk setting(with a little fleshing out I think it could be really cool!). Anyway I've been contemplating house rules for character creation and I found myself Kind of annoyed with the multi-class restrictions on monks and paladins. My question is has anyone let these characters multiclass freely and does it upset game balance. One of my players has a concept for a monk but wants his character to be trained in weapon use as well. I found this believable since some martial arts(Escrima) are more weapon orientated than unarmed combat. He wants to split his levels between monk and fighter evenly. I can't really find an in game reason not to. Are martial arts harder to learn than fencing. And won't his lack of dedication be reflected in the high level monk abilities he'll miss out on? Anyway, any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

In FR, there are monasteries that let their monks multiclass freely in some classes. I guess you could devise such a monastery for your player. Or you could forget about the multi-class restrictions since it's more, the way I see it, a question of flavor than a question of power-gaming...

AR

 

[Volaran]

I've always felt that the monk and paladin restrictions were added to represent a character's devotion to a spiritual path more rigorous than most, and to discourage "dipping" into a class for a few choice benefits.

My opinion is the the PHB information on classes are just guidelines and lables. I remember talking to someone who ran a "ranger" campaign consisting of a rogue, a ranger, a rogue/druid, a fighter/druid, and a barbarian... if his school of fighting is best represented by a fighter/monk with even level distribution and you're cool with it, I say go nuts.

 

[Aaron L]

I've always felt it was very ridiculous that you would lose the ability to advance as a paladin if you decided to take a level of cleric to be just a little bit MORE devoted to your god...


I think the restrictions are dumb. Fighter/Monk and Paladin/Sorceror all the way in any game I run.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I've heard that the reason those restrictions were left in the Revised edition was to give DMs something to allow the players to make them happy. It certainly makes sense, since the restrictions don't do much for either balance or story concerns.