Question on multiclassing and Saves

[AnonymousOne]

I'm sure this is a very noob question, but I was having a discussion last night about the builds for our campaign and suddenly went clueless about this.

When Multiclassing, how do the saves stack?

If, for the sake of the discussion we assume a Rogue1/Swashbucker1 build.

Are the saves for this 2nd level character

FORT +2 REF +2 WILL +0
or
FORT +2 REF +4 WILL +0

?

 

[irdeggman]

From the SRD:

CLASS AND LEVEL FEATURES
As a general rule, the abilities of a multiclass character are the sum of the abilities of each of the character’s classes.
Level: “Character level” is a character’s total number of levels. It is used to determine when feats and ability score boosts are gained.
“Class level” is a character’s level in a particular class. For a character whose levels are all in the same class, character level and class level are the same.
Hit Points: A character gains hit points from each class as his or her class level increases, adding the new hit points to the previous total.
Base Attack Bonus: Add the base attack bonuses acquired for each class to get the character’s base attack bonus. A resulting value of +6 or higher provides the character with multiple attacks.
Saving Throws: Add the base save bonuses for each class together.

So they are the first one.

1 rogue gets +0 Fort, +2 Ref, +0 Will

1 swashbuckler gets +2 Fort, +0 ref, +0 Will

so the total is +2 Fort, +2 Ref, +0 Will

I don't see how you got a +4 ref from any combination, even a straight 2 rogue wouldn't get there.

 

[AnonymousOne]

heh ... I copy and pasted the wrong save progression... whoops.

 

[udalrich]

If you did Rogue 1/Monk 1, you would have +2/+4/+2, since Monk 1 gives +2 to all three saves.

One character that I played with had four classes (maybe 5) by either level. He had a ridiculous fort save, since all of the classes (except maybe 1) had good fort saves. OTOH, they all had bad will saves, so I think his will save was +1 (and that was from wisdom).

 

[Sektat]

Actually I think this is a design mistake. You shouldnt get the +2 (on the good saving throws) if you multiclass. If you have a monk 1 / cleric 1 / ranger 1 you have a total of 14 saving throw boni. On level 3!

 

[UltimaGabe]

Actually I think this is a design mistake. You shouldnt get the +2 (on the good saving throws) if you multiclass. If you have a monk 1 / cleric 1 / ranger 1 you have a total of 14 saving throw boni. On level 3!

You would indeed have +6/+4/+4 saves- however, you'd have a +1 BAB, caster level of 1, and a bunch of abilities that wouldn't make you as good as a 3rd-level character who just took one class. You'd have great saves, yes- but multiclassing, in general, sucks.

 

[irdeggman]

Actually I think this is a design mistake. You shouldnt get the +2 (on the good saving throws) if you multiclass. If you have a monk 1 / cleric 1 / ranger 1 you have a total of 14 saving throw boni. On level 3!

Use the fractional saves variant from unearthed arcana then - it tends to avoid the sudden "bumps".

 

[rgard]

You would indeed have +6/+4/+4 saves- however, you'd have a +1 BAB, caster level of 1, and a bunch of abilities that wouldn't make you as good as a 3rd-level character who just took one class. You'd have great saves, yes- but multiclassing, in general, sucks.

Yes and rolling a '1' on the save is just as bad in either case.