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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mad_Jack" data-source="post: 8761007" data-attributes="member: 6750306">For a lot of things, it really depends on the individual combination, and often on the subclasses involved. It's not too difficult to find archetypal examples in fiction of multi-classed characters - the warrior-priest, the green knight, the wizard whose studies led them astray into the dark arts, the holy character who is willing to stain their soul by using the dark arts to fight evil...Most mainly non-magical classes can be thought of as a particular skillset that can be acquired by anyone. Those with a bit of a theme to them often fit well with magical classes of similar theme (ranger/druid or barbarian/druid, paladin/cleric) or perhaps the two classes simply work well together to model a particular archetype - the magical trickster (rogue/mage) or the arcane warrior (fighter/mage).For many arcane classes, multi-classing into another arcane class is merely a matter of expanding their magical studies beyond mere book-learning or simply seeking greater magical power. Perhaps the wizard was originally tutored in book magic by an extraplaner being, or their warlock pact magic is a boon given them by some being they've done a service for, or perhaps (particularly for one whose patron is a fiend, fey or genie) it wasn't a matter they necessarily had much choice in. For a wizard/warlock, the pact of the tome class feature is particularly thematically appropriate. My gnome illusionist/fiend warlock used to belong to a notorious mercenary company of siege engineers famed for their use of incendiaries, and he made his pact in the middle of a particularly fierce battle in order to survive. The being who bestowed his magic upon him was simply massively entertained by his capacity for chaos and mayhem and now watches him like some reality tv star.For a divine class, adding in a non-magical class can often be attributed to the particular god they worship - cleric/barbarian, cleric/fighter, or cleric/paladin for a war god, cleric/ranger for a nature god, cleric/rogue for the god of thieves. This also can cover some of the divine/magical combinations - cleric/mage for the god of magic, cleric/druid for a nature god, or even cleric/rogue for the god of thieves... (In fact, in previous editions, the lore for certain gods specifically stated that they had multi-classed cleric/mages and cleric/rogues among their clergy.) For those with two "masters", such as a cleric/warlock or paladin/warlock, this often isn't much of an issue if both masters are allied either literally or at least in spirit and goals. For a cleric/warlock, if the pact patron is a servant of their god it's simply an additional blessing they've had bestowed upon them to help them further their god's aims. Alternatively, maybe the cleric/warlock was unwillingly forced or tricked into a pact by a fiend, and now use the fiend's power in the service of Good. Or they may have taken it upon themselves willingly, using the pact as a means of draining their patron's power.For a paladin/warlock, depending on their oath and alignment, they may take up a pact as part of their oath. An oath of the ancients paladin may well become a feylock - and that fits with the Arthurian "Green Knight" archetype. (I have a druid/feylock character whose backstory involves being shanghaied into the Feywild after being invited to a fey revel and ending up spending years in service to a Fey Lord - his devotion to Nature and his service to his Lord are not in any way in conflict.)An oath of vengeance paladin may well decide that the ability to literally rain down hellfire on their enemies is a useful tool. This is well-represented in comics and movies by Marvel's Ghost Rider, a good man literally possessed by a spirit of vengeance - and even the Punisher, at one point, was gifted divine power in order to serve the greater good.</blockquote>

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