D&D 5E Multiclassing Borked?

[KarinsDad]

I can't know for sure why the designers made multiclassing this way, but one possible additional issue is complexity.

Not only 3e multiclassed spellcasters lagged behind in terms of spells level, but since their spellcasting abilities from each class were treated separately, they tended to have a lot of spells slots. A lot of low-level spell slots to handle separately, sometimes with different rules (spontaneous casters vs vancian, or domain slots in addition to regular cleric's daily slots), are quite burdensome. In 5e you still have separate prepared spells, but at least your daily slots are merged. It's generally easier to play such character.

Perhaps.

But if a player is capable of playing such a character, it should be allowed. There is a significant loss of power (and in some ways, versatility, in other ways, more versatility is gained) by multiclassing. To penalize the player more seems punitive. It's really as if the designers are saying "Sorry, but we do not want to allow Cleric 10 / Druid 10 in the game".