Rodney Thompson on Multiclassing

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

in his Livejournal Rodney Thompson speaks a little about the multiclassing of his wizard in a fighter looking forward in taking a paragon path that let use the sword as a wizard implement

http://gamescribe.livejournal.com/

the relevant part of his post

I started Vargas out as a straight-up wizard, and so far that's been fun. We just hit sixth level and are over halfway to paragon tier, however, so it's time for me to start thinking ahead to paragon paths. I found a very neat one that let me use a weapon I'm proficient in in the place of a wand (Vargas' chosen wizard's implement is a wand), and whaddya know I'm already proficient in the longsword. Rather than just be a sword-wielding wizard, though, I decided to take the plunge: I multiclassed into fighter. Vargas spends a lot of his time with Anvar, our dragonborn fighter, so lately he's been studying the art of the sword with the fighter. Since I worked as a developer on the book, I knew there were some powers in the upcoming Martial Power Sourcebook that I could pilfer that would go just fine-and-dandy with the already-nimble Vargas.

It's a dangerous world out there, even for a wizard. So Vargas is going to start carrying a sword, and maybe not be so afraid of being right up next to the bad guys. My AC's still not great, and I don't have a ton of hit points, but I've got enough powers to help me get away...and once I start getting a wider array of spells, I think it could work out well. Vargas is definitely more wizard than fighter, and really the fighter side of things is going to be more to let me fight back-to-back with Anvar more often. One of my favorite tactics is to stand next to the big, bulky fighter, letting him use his defensive abilities to help keep Vargas safe, so now he should be able to contribute more than just a warning that someone's about to attack.

 

[lasergreger]

Anyone else that got the munchies for creating a Battle Mage that delivers massive touchspells when hitting with his weapon?

/LG

 

[Ipissimus]

-raises my hand- I'm salavating already.

Still, I can't help thinking that Warlord might have been a better dip for him. Still martial with armour proficiencies, he's already proficient with the sword, plus he adds powers that enable him to buff his fighter buddy. Also, more likely to have an Int synergy (if such things still matter). Honestly, I'd rather not be a 'sticky' Wizard... unless I was being attacked by a horde of Nymph minions.

Still, I think we might see more 'double dip' style characters in the future, particularly with Class Training Feats. A Wizard built around sticking to his Fighter buddy like glue could benefit greatly by dipping into Warlord and Rogue. Actually, considering the Cha synergy with Artful Dodger and assuming Sorcerer is still Cha based, Sorcerer/Warlord/Rogue sounds mighty appetizing...

Still, back to wizard, the idea of taking a Staff as my impliment then changing up for a spear (since you just have to be proficient in a weapon) also sounds like a roustastic idea. Keep the sharp bits of metal away from me, please.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Not a lot there on multiclassing as it relates to 4E.

I'm not sure if I'm reading more into what he's written than is actually there but he does seem to imply that some planning is needed to prepare for paragon paths similar to making sure you'll be able to tick off all the requirements for a prestige class.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I'm not sure if I'm reading more into what he's written than is actually there but he does seem to imply that some planning is needed to prepare for paragon paths similar to making sure you'll be able to tick off all the requirements for a prestige class.

He didn't seem to be doing any preparing to meet requirements, just "thinking ahead."

I find it interesting the way he said he found a neat path. This is probably reading way too much into it, but that sounds to me like it might not be one of the standard ones in the PH. Is it the Bladesinger, which presumably will be in the Forgotten Realms player guide?

 

[small pumpkin man]

Not a lot there on multiclassing as it relates to 4E.

I'm not sure if I'm reading more into what he's written than is actually there but he does seem to imply that some planning is needed to prepare for paragon paths similar to making sure you'll be able to tick off all the requirements for a prestige class.

Really doesn't look like that to me. What it looks like is he saw the ability to use a longsword as an implement in one of the paths, went "hey that looks cool fun sweet, but what good is using a longsword as an implement if you can't use it to smack people?" and decided to take some abilities that let him smack people with a longsword. A natural evolution of "how can I use these abilities" as opposed to "you must have power blah to get into this path".

 

[Belorin]

He didn't seem to be doing any preparing to meet requirements, just "thinking ahead."

I find it interesting the way he said he found a neat path. This is probably reading way too much into it, but that sounds to me like it might not be one of the standard ones in the PH. Is it the Bladesinger, which presumably will be in the Forgotten Realms player guide?

I get the feeling it might be the Eldritch Knight, the Bladesinger I'm not sure of.

Bel

 

[LEHaskell]

This raises some interesting questions: If a wizard is able to use a weapon as his implement, will it provide benefits to his spell-casting? Will different weapon/implements be associated with different benefits (attack, accuracy, damage bonus, etc)? I can completely envision a wizard performing a ritual to make his sword into a +1 sword of Spell Accuracy.

 

[VannATLC]

looking good for my Wizard/Warlord - Warmage conversion.

 

[amysrevenge]

The apparent 4E notion of "We just hit sixth level and are over halfway to paragon tier, however, so it's time for me to start thinking ahead to paragon paths." makes me happy.

As opposed to the 3.0/3.5 version "I'm starting to build a 1st level PC, so I'd better hammer down my eventual PrC requirements now or I'll never make it in before level 18."