Multiclassing and Powers/Day

[Seizure Robot]

I was considering some things on the bus today, and what is all boiled down to was "Will multiclassing give access to more powers/day?" along with some other Multiclassing issues.


Here's my train of thought: Imagine you are playing a 9th level Fighter. You have access to some pretty cool Utility/Combat exploits but you've always secretly wanted to dabble in Magic. You decide against taking that class-training-feat-thing that was talked about in Races & Classes, and instead decide to multiclass into a Wizard - but then you wonder "What am I giving up by not just going straight-Fighter?"

We know that multiclassing will be different than simply adding the features of an n-th level X to a i-th level Y, and it can be agreed that going from mighty-swordsman to mighty-swordsman + terrible spellcaster would be wholly unsatisfying. But will you be forced to give up your trusty 'Heimlich Counter-Manuver' in exchange for 'Sylar-Style Telekinesis'?

We know the designers want to keep the number of powers available to a player at a managable amount, and that all classes will be recieving more-or-less the same number (Wizard's Spellbook class ability aside) - but do you think that it would be reasonable for multi-classed characters to have a few more at-will/encounter powers than their single-classed brethren? How many more? And further, what subset of Wizard powers would/should our Fighter have access to - 5th level? 8th level? 1st level?

If you think that our Fighter SHOULD get more powers for his Wizarding stuff, do you think he should be limited to mostly Utility powers? Mostly Combat powers? Should it depend at which level he takes this multiclassing? What about daily powers?


That's pretty much all I could come up with is questions Obviously we can wait and see how they end up implementing it, but that doesn't mean we can't have an opinion about how they should in the meantime.

 

[fedelas]

I think that IF true multiclasing will be available it consist in some choice of class feature and power, but this don't change the total amount of day/encounter/will, powers a PC have.
Just pure speculation

 

[arscott]

I'm betting multiclassing just lets you take powers from a different class instead of class powers.

 

[Blue]

Okay, here's a big fat guess.

I don't think you'll have to lose things. I do thing that you'll always be able to retrain old abilities. My guess is that retraining plus your normal character-level progression of gaining new powers may be the ways that you gain powers from a new class. My guess is that you won't end up with more powers per day/encounter/round.

My guess is that you'll be able to pick from lists up to your character level, not class level. So a Fighter 9 / Wizard 1 will have very few wizard abilities, at most the powers gained from going from 9th to 10th, plus any retrainign they want to do. But those powers will be able to be chosen from up to Wizard 10 powers, so they are useful and on par with the fighter powers you would otherwise be picking up that level.

This is a just a guess, fitting a few of the things the designers said, but not based off anything they said directly. Lots of other options also will match what designers said, and I very well could have missed or mis-remembered some information.

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

 

[Kzach]

I'm betting multiclassing just lets you take powers from a different class instead of class powers.

Yeup. That's pretty much been stated in the most recent podcast.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Hmm, although it's a good thing to allow some mixing, this might create a host of generic crossover characters with all the best abilities of the different classes if it isn't restricted somehow...
Anyway, I guess we'll have to wait and see how the exact rule turns out...

 

[neoweasel]

Hmm, although it's a good thing to allow some mixing, this might create a host of generic crossover characters with all the best abilities of the different classes if it isn't restricted somehow...
Anyway, I guess we'll have to wait and see how the exact rule turns out...

The general belief I've heard (mostly over on RPGnet) has been that you spend a feat or some similar resource to have the ability to get abilities from different classes. Someone who doesn't grab from multiple classes should therefore have more feats to spend on maximizing their abilities in their chosen role.

Obviously, this is ALL speculation so take it with a fistful of salt.

 

[DandD]

Obviously, Wizards of the Coast need to show us a Multi-class character on their website.

 

[Wormwood]

I'm betting multiclassing just lets you take powers from a different class instead of class powers.

I'm also betting that this is the best possible solution.

 

[Seizure Robot]

I'm betting multiclassing just lets you take powers from a different class instead of class powers.

But if the number of powers/day is ment to stay managable that means inevitably you will have to give up an existing Fighter power to gain a Wizard power. I think the example the designers gave was instead of always gaining new powers you will upgrade existing powers.