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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9352709" data-attributes="member: 7026594">Well, no naughty word. Obviously some players and groups thought the restriction under the Character With Two Classes section made sense to apply to everyone.  But per the actual text, it was not the rule and did not apply to multiclassed characters for the first 15 years of the game.Dex doesn't apply to AC while casting per the rules of 1E.  Once again you're interpreting the games and editions through the lens of your personal table. And making a Fighter/Mage dependent on finding bracers and rings to do their shtick is pretty cruddy.  IME.   <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷‍♂️" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" title="Man shrugging    :man_shrugging:" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />As for whether multiclassing is overpowered... it's a tricky thing.  It gives more options, but between the split hit die and the slower leveling, it generally means a substantial reduction to hit points if you multiclass Fighter with M-U.  Even with full armor usage, you're inevitably more fragile than the true front rank warrior classes, and your fighting and casting are a bit inferior to the single classed characters.  And you still are subject to being able to do only one thing on any given round.The bigger imbalance is, of course, all the free powers demihumans get.  Especially elves.  As you say, the class and level restrictions in 1E, while well-intentioned in terms of evoking an implied setting, were never actually balanced.  Making every race use the same multiclassing system and giving humans racial benefits like every other race were two of WotC's key innovations, and ways in which their editions are manifestly better balanced and designed than TSR's.I DO think that giving demihumans different options can work and be balanced.  This is one reason I like B/X so much.  Demihumans work differently than humans and have different advantages and disadvantages, but these things are factored into their xp charts directly and the classes are gated behind minimum ability score requirements, rather than races giving bonuses ideally suited for min-maxing.  In some ways I think race as class is actually superior design because it allows you to have the flavor of the implied setting without the min-maxing which race & class mix & match has always enabled and encouraged.Totally agree.This is one of those things that seems to be rooted in the source fiction and doesn't make sense otherwise.  Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, in particular, having apprenticed in one career before switching to another. I think there are at least a few heroes in the inspirational fiction who did this, and the mechanic was designed to emulate.  But those heroes happen to all be human.</blockquote>

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