D&D 5E Multiclass in 5E

[TwoSix]

They'll never do what I would like, especially with what we've seen thus far. I'd like 1E/2E style multiclassing, but not fixed at 1st level and without the exponential XP tables. Instead, I'd do it as any character can pick up a level in any class they want, any time they want, which progresses independently. But the XP charts are smooth enough that going very far in more than about two classes really starts to eat into your progression. So I guess a 1E/2E/3E hybrid, with a few twists. Backgrounds and specialties already handle the 4E-style dabbling well.

However, the XP chart would look something like this: 0 level - 5000, 1st level - +1000, 2nd level - +2000 more, etc. You get the first class at 1st level for free. After that, you pay a premium to get one started, but then advance normally from there. That structure only works if you keep the increase each level relatively slight. But then, I've never been a fan of 1,000,000 XP at some higher point. (Heck, I'd drop a zero off of all of them. It's just not all the fiddly tweaks for monsters to start at 1,000.) That also doesn't work well if they go into something like 36 character levels, but I doubt the progression will go that high.

As always, I can't XP you, but I think this is an excellent approach.

 

[Danzauker]

Errr... huh? You have multiple classes. You're multi-classed.

Not in the way I intend it.

To give an example, if you mix blue and red, you're not multicoloured. You're violet.

1E/2E multiclasses were just fixed classes whose numbers were left to you to calculate, by taking averages and/or minimums and maximums of other classes. But you had to choose them at level 1 and you were bound from then on.

You could not start as a thief and have an epiphany and become a priest from a certain point of your character life. Or start as a fighter and discover that you have magic potential later on.

That's what I want from multiclassing. To be versatile and allow me to shape my character depending on the direction of his fictional life and the campaign.

If I really have to be a fighter/mage from level 1, I then prefer them to give me a "spellblade" class with all the crunch worked out, but that's really not what I want.

 

[KidSnide]

If I really have to be a fighter/mage from level 1, I then prefer them to give me a "spellblade" class with all the crunch worked out, but that's really not what I want.

One of the major advantages to a "spellblade" class is that it has better synergy with both the wizard and the fighter than the two classes have with each other. So, if a fighter wants a little arcane magic, they can pick up some spellblade that gives them the type of arcane magic that is useful in melee with a weapon in hand. And, if a wizard wants a little sword-wielding melee ability, taking a few levels of spellblade will (hopefully) provide some melee capability without generating totally dead levels in terms of progressing as an arcane caster.

Of course, the dragon sorcerer looks like another way to get that functionality (at least on the fighter side), but "dragon sorcerer" a pretty specific concept. I like it as an element of D&D, but it requires a lot of refluffing in campaigns where sorcery doesn't come from dragons.

-KS

 

[Crazy Jerome]

One of my acid tests for multiclassing that isn't flawed: It doesn't matter what order you do the classes in, a Fighter/Rogue 3/3 is the same mechanical basis whether the character went F,F,F,R,R,R or opposite or R,F,R,F,R,F or any other combination.

It's not the same character in the story, because the order says something about the character in play getting those levels. And of course different characters will have exercised options differently (e.g. skill picks, feat picks, etc.). Yet the options were the same even if exercised differently.

There are some things to be said for violating this rule on the edges, if warranted, but it shouldn't be done casually. Because to violate it creates all kinds of annoying accounting issues, that compound as characters reach higher levels. Want to know if a 10th level Fighter/Rogue 3E character has correct skill ranks? You almost need to know what order the levels were taken. (PF cleans this up somewhat by the simple expedient of replacing the x4 skill ranks bit at 1st level.) As a DM with players that routinely miss things and thus underpower themselves, I'm well familiar with that annoyance.

More widely experienced, avoiding such stacking issues means that making high level characters from scratch is generally easier. You can just say that you have a Fighter/Wizard 4/3 and start looking up what that means in any order you please.

The "hidden cost" of the 3E approach is that in simplifying the process of the XP chart and its relation to character levels, it complicates the stacking of the classes. That doesn't make something like the 3E approach automatically a bad idea, but it is an issue that I think a 3E-like approach must address carefully in order to really shine. (1E/2E and 4E approaches have different issues to deal with.)

 

[The Shadow]

I also like the 3e version of multiclassing the best, though it certainly does need to be cleaned up in a number of ways. Notably, front-loading.

Multiclassing in 1e was fun, but broken. The only mechanical reason for a demihuman NOT to multiclass was to avoid level limits if you were a pure thief. And an option that nobody in their senses doesn't take is pretty clearly a broken option.

Removing the (utterly arbitrary and senseless) level limits would only make it worse. And don't even get me started on dual-classing... The restrictions on it were so draconian that it hardly seemed worth doing. I don't think I ever saw a dual-classed character - not that there were all that many human characters to do it anyway. (Yet another sign of multiclassing problems.)

I would like to be able to have my character actually change in response to events. The 3e system makes that possible.

 

[Halivar]

Multiclassing in 1e was fun, but broken. The only mechanical reason for a demihuman NOT to multiclass was to avoid level limits if you were a pure thief. And an option that nobody in their senses doesn't take is pretty clearly a broken option.

There is one very significant reason not to: it take for-flippin'-EVER to level.

 

[The Shadow]

There is one very significant reason not to: it take for-flippin'-EVER to level.

Eh. Your classes leveled independently, so you were still getting goodies periodically. Plus, you were never that far behind the humans, thanks to the exponential chart.

And I don't think I ever saw a single-classed demihuman in 1e/2e days. Did you?

 

[Halivar]

And I don't think I ever saw a single-classed demihuman in 1e/2e days. Did you?

No (caveat: I only saw the 2e days). Buuuuuut.... I think the situation is different now because attributes mean something more. Multiple-Attribute Disorder disincentivizes heavy multi-classing in a way 1E never did. In 1E you could get by with a high-str Ftr/Thf/M-U with a Dex of 14 and an Int of 10. That won't really work in 5E, I think.

 

[1of3]

Maybe it'd be enough just to say you can have one additional class for each "Skill Training" feat you take, it would make Skill Training nicer, and help explain how you're learning to be another class.

3e multiclassing with a feat cost is an interesting option. It alleviates the problem of frontloaded classes somewhat. Making this cost a skill training instead of a just discarding a feat slot is also a good call.

It would probably work best with retraining per level. Otherwise you can only start a new class every third level.

 

[drothgery]

Eh. Your classes leveled independently, so you were still getting goodies periodically. Plus, you were never that far behind the humans, thanks to the exponential chart.

And I don't think I ever saw a single-classed demihuman in 1e/2e days. Did you?

Well, I ran one once, but I wasn't anywhere near as interested in the numbers behind the game as a college kid as I am now; it's clearly kind of silly not play a multi-classed demihuman in 1e/2e unless you know for certain the game will exceed demihuman level limits and the DM will enforce them.