Level Up (A5E) Multiclassing for 5E-Level up (dual-class)

[Horwath]

Feats at level 1 is excellent, I agree. But I do think that Feats costing your ASI is a much heavier design constraint than was fully appreciated when they first implemented the idea.

This is true, I would like to see separation of ASI and feats resource pool.

 

[glass]

This is true, I would like to see separation of ASI and feats resource pool.

If they were to be separated, do you have any thoughts about what you would do with those feats that give you a stat boost and something else?

EDIT: Since Level Up will need mostly new feats (only Grappler is in the SRD), they could just not create any feats of that type, and say Level Up characters cannot take them from the PHB if both are in use.

_
glass.

 

[Horwath]

If they were to be separated, do you have any thoughts about what you would do with those feats that give you a stat boost and something else?

EDIT: Since Level Up will need mostly new feats (only Grappler is in the SRD), they could just not create any feats of that type, and say Level Up characters cannot take them from the PHB if both are in use.

_
glass.

take 2 "half-feats" together without ability boosts.

I.E. if 20 levels give you 3 ASI's and 3 feats, you could have 3 feats, 2 feats + 2 half feats, 1 feat + 4 half feats or 6 half feats.

In addition, if your total sum of ability scores is an odd score; I would say that you can trade 1 ASI or FEAT slot for a half feat with added ability boost.
So you can make all your scores even in the end.

 

[NotAYakk]

Having a rule that requires all of your class levels be within 1 point of each other would fix nearly all of my issues with multiclassing.

Do you not want anyone to multiclass? Because the above, plus base 5e rules, means multiclassing would be horrible.

Any non-rogue martial class would delay their extra attack until level 9. So from level 5-8 they'd be incompetent.

Any spellcaster would delay their higher level spells known to the same degree as a half-caster would. A level 9 multiclass caster/X gains access to 3rd level spells; from 5-8 they'd be incompetent.

In 5e, level 5 is a huge power bump; 3rd level spells and extra attack. Both can make you about twice as effective in key battles (or more).

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1. Add 1/2 of your other classes levels to determine what spells you can learn, limited by your slots.

Spoiler

A Paladin 6/Sorcerer 14 can access up to 6+14/2 = 13, level 4 Paladin spells, and up to level 9 Sorcerer spells.

A EK 7/Wizard 13 can learn up to level 3 EK spells known and up to level 8 Wizard spells (only has level 8 slots).

Without this, almost all casters are doing to be dips. If you ban dips, it mean you won't get much multiclassing, and when you do, the character will be meh.

Martial/Spellcaster multiclassing has action economy problems (each round you want to cast or attack, and both are weaker because you multiclassed; hybrids like EK and Paladin get around this with features and spells that let you do both)

Spellcaster/Spellcaster pretty much has to be a dip, because two classes worth of 4th level spells is much weaker than one classes 9th level spell access.

2. Extra Attack(level 5) stacking rules:
2a) When you have 2 or more classes with extra attack(2) at 5, and your levels add up to 5 in them, you bump the features of the class you gained by 1 and gain extra attack instead.
2b) If you gain extra attack(2) a 2nd time as a core class feature, you bump your features up 1 level (so you gain the level 6 feature instead of 5, etc).
2c) If you gain extra attack(2) as a subclass feature and and from a class feature, you bump one of the core classes that had extra attack(2).

3. Fix EB dip and Hexblade dip.
3a) Pact of the Blade lets you make ranged spell attacks as melee spell attacks with your weapon. You add 1/2 (round up) your Strength (or Dex if finness) damage to these attacks.
3b) Hexblade doesn't let you attack with charisma; if your weapon is non-magical, you can add 1/2 of your charisma bonus (round up) to attack rolls, and you can always add 1/2 of your charisma bonus (round up) to damage rolls with it.

4. Fix Smite dip. Instead of max (5d8) it is max 2d8, increasing to 3d8 at level 5, 4d8 at level 9, 5d8 at level 13 and 6d8 at level 17.

Now a Paladin 2/Sorcerer 18 isn't a smite-monster. They can 2d8 smite all day, but they cannot drop 5d8 smites all day like they can now.

(Smites are action-economy free, so the "add half of other levels" isn't needed here)

5. Repair back-10 of martial classes. Fighter 12-19, Barbarian 6-19, Ranger 4-20, Paladin 7-20 are full of meh.

6. Possibly with rule 1 above, casters need more features as well; a cleric 10/wizard 10 has access to 8th level spells in both Cleric and Wizard and full casting progression. It just lacks level 11-20 wizard and cleric features.