Multiclassed penalty and CR

[Vrecknidj]

Someone correct me, because I want to be wrong.

In the existing rules, if, say, there's an elf who takes levels in rogue, barbarian, fighter and ranger, and spaces them out poorly, this person could end up with a whopper of an XP penalty. Furthermore, if this person adventures with others, the others could be, say, 12th level, and this elf might still be 10th level.

Does this 10th level elf count as CR 12 or CR 10? I mean, according to the intent of the penalties (I suppose), this 10th level elf is as powerful as another 12th level character, and is being reigned in by assigning this penalty.

I don't buy it. As a result, I take this as a counterexample of why the multiclassing xp penalty doesn't make sense. After all, there's this worship of game balance that seems to be in place, and it seems to me that this imbalances things (unless it's true that this elf is supposed to show up as CR 12).

Dave

 

[XO]

"Power Curve"

The main problem resides in the significantly lower "power" of multi-classed PCs compared to their single class counterparts. Unearthed Arcana goes a long way in correcting that with Gestalt characters (qv).

That elf would be better off paying the XP penalty but getting the gestalt benefits.

Cheers...

 

[Li Shenron]

Well if he's got 10 level worth of PC classes, he's CR 10 for a party which encounters him. It doesn't matter if he had the burden of -60% Xp to become 10th level, he just is 10th level.

And by that I mean that the Xp penalty doesn't look at all like a price you have to pay to be more powerful. At best it is a price you have to pay to be more versatile, but I believe it is just an in-built restriction for flavor.

I don't see why a Fighter 3 / Rogue 3 is worse than a Fighter 4 / Rogue 2 for example.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Interestingly in the Conan game they did away with xp penalties for multiclassing outside of your favoured class and instead gave a bonus feat for every 5(?) levels you gained in your favoured class.

I like this idea of giving a benefit rather than a penalty. It also means that "favoured class" ceases to mean "class which anyone is likely to pick up a bit of without hindrance" and becomes the rather more logical (to my mind) "class which they tend to be particularly good at. Seems a much more natural meaning for favoured class. The only downside would be a potential reduction in variety if every race focussed only its "favoured class".

Cheers

 

[dcollins]

Does this 10th level elf count as CR 12 or CR 10? I mean, according to the intent of the penalties (I suppose), this 10th level elf is as powerful as another 12th level character, and is being reigned in by assigning this penalty.

That is not what multiclassing penalties represent (balancing powerful combinations). What it does represent is enticement to followed the "favored class" for a given race, so as to propogate each racial profile for campaign-building purposes.

The example elf is CR 10, regardless of how he paid for the levels he has.