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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 970127" data-attributes="member: 3424">For those who did not have the chance to play 2e, a little history lesson.&nbsp; The 2e multiclass system worked as follows:All class advantages overlapped (did not stack).&nbsp; A Ftr10/Wiz10 would have the &quot;to hit&quot; chance of a Ftr10 and the spells of a Wiz10, and would use the best saves of a Ftr10 or a Wiz10.&nbsp; Multiclass characters were supposed to split experience earned between their classes.&nbsp; The problem with this system was that the amount of experience required to gain each level was about twice that of the previous level.&nbsp; As such, a Ftr10/Wiz10 would only be one level behind his &quot;pure class&quot; companions, until about 10th level or so, when each class required a fixed amount of experience to advance.&nbsp; However, many campaigns never made it to that level of power.3e introduced the concept of &quot;stackability&quot;.&nbsp; Now, BAB stacks, skill points stack, hit points stack, base saves stack.&nbsp; Caster level does not.&nbsp; There are flavour reasons why it does not - some would argue that wizard spellcasting is very different from cleric spellcasting, for example.However, from a game mechanics perspective, spellcasting levels that do not stack result in some fairly sub-optimal combinations.&nbsp; This is a quick calculation that I did over at the WotC boards:Even assuming the extra flexibility makes him twice as effective as before, a Clr10/Wiz10 still only has about half the power of a Clr20 or a Wiz20.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 970127, member: 3424"] For those who did not have the chance to play 2e, a little history lesson. The 2e multiclass system worked as follows: All class advantages overlapped (did not stack). A Ftr10/Wiz10 would have the "to hit" chance of a Ftr10 and the spells of a Wiz10, and would use the best saves of a Ftr10 or a Wiz10. Multiclass characters were supposed to split experience earned between their classes. The problem with this system was that the amount of experience required to gain each level was about twice that of the previous level. As such, a Ftr10/Wiz10 would only be one level behind his "pure class" companions, until about 10th level or so, when each class required a fixed amount of experience to advance. However, many campaigns never made it to that level of power. 3e introduced the concept of "stackability". Now, BAB stacks, skill points stack, hit points stack, base saves stack. Caster level does not. There are flavour reasons why it does not - some would argue that wizard spellcasting is very different from cleric spellcasting, for example. However, from a game mechanics perspective, spellcasting levels that do not stack result in some fairly sub-optimal combinations. This is a quick calculation that I did over at the WotC boards: Even assuming the extra flexibility makes him twice as effective as before, a Clr10/Wiz10 still only has about half the power of a Clr20 or a Wiz20. [/QUOTE]

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