AD&D 1E On Demi-Human Level Caps

[Celebrim]

What do you mean by 'gestalt'? A term for independently-advancing classes, as opposed to 3-4-5e's additive version?

Yes. To get the benefit of two classes for basically the price of one.

I also like independently-advancing classes as it allows players more options when creating their characters; in that I allow them to assign what proportion of the character's earned xp goes to which class... The player can change the assigned proportions only during between-adventure downtime...

I find it interesting that most of the criticism I got on the "thief" thread was "the thief is fine as it, it doesn't need your power creep", and the criticism that I'm getting in this thread is, "This is not nearly enough power creep."

I take it you've never actually played with any power gamers, because that's as busted as heck. And they rarely change the proportions? Because the guys I played with back in 1e era would have abused the heck out of everything you just outlined.

 

[Lanefan]

I find it interesting that most of the criticism I got on the "thief" thread was "the thief is fine as it, it doesn't need your power creep", and the criticism that I'm getting in this thread is, "This is not nearly enough power creep."

I don't see it as power creep, though.

I take it you've never actually played with any power gamers, because that's as busted as heck. And they rarely change the proportions? Because the guys I played with back in 1e era would have abused the heck out of everything you just outlined.

Most of the time the proportions are set when the character comes in and then never change. If they do, it's because of an in-character change of focus on what it does while adventuring.

I don't see how it could be power-gamed to any great extent - I mean, you still need the same xp numbers to get to the next level, and you're losing any single-class benefits you might have had. What it does mean is that, for example, you can do like a player of mine once did where the character wanted to be a Fighter but for in-game family reasons also had to be a Magic User; so she went 90-Fighter 10-MU and stuck with that throughout, finishing up (if memory serves) as something like F-8/MU-4.

Perhaps worth noting I don't allow Mages to cast in armour even if multi-classed with Fighter or similar (Gygax was far too generous to Elves here IMO), which means she was only really casting spells at camp or during downtime - usually Identify - but did mean she could use items normally restricted to Mages only.

Edit to add: I also cap any character at two classes, maximum.