Pure speed!

[Sanackranib]

aprentice levels

Unfounded? Let's see. Well, he says he is playing a barbarian who didn't have the strength to hang with the rest, then he is like "...well, I am going to have him take rogue apprentice & barbarian apprentice simply so I can have more skill points". That is power gaming. I have never once seen anyone use multiple apprentice levels for anything other than rules-lawyering themselves to higher stats & abilities, just like in this case.

here is the example that you havn't seen yet. 2 of my players in my current game started off with aprentice level characters 1)rogue/ranger 2)rogue/sorc. in both cases the did this to avoid having the character train for a long time and have to come out of the party to do so (training for a spellcasting class thkes a year or more in my game) both characters planed to multiclass on a 1-1 or 1-2 basis. both had decient backgrounds and neither is rules lawyering. (allthough both are tring to maxamize.)

there is a diference between abusing the intent of the rules and making the best character you can within the rules. neither has taken feats that would disrupt game balance and both characters are playable (although the rogue/sorc is gonna be 7th level before he gets 2nd lev spells.) it may not seem like much of a diference but the diference lays in the intent.