As fate would have it, a player for the Living Greyhawk campaign recently retired. He emailed me his character for use as an NPC in our region (I am a triad). For those who are not in the know, Living Greyhawk does not typically use house rules as the Circle (the directors of the campaign) are required to use game rule information as written unless it conflicts with the campaign (such as evil characters). The player has the following build:
Diviner 5/Archmage 2/Divine Oracle 2/Fatespinner 4/Loremaster 1/Wayfarer Guide 1
Now compare that to a 15th level wizard and tell me the wizard is equal. The wizard gains the following from levels 6-15:
-familiar benefits
-two bonus wizard feats
-10 levels of spellcasting
-+5 BAB
-+3 Fort, +3 Ref, +4 Will
By contrast, the divine oracle, fatespinner, loremaster, warfarer's guide, and archmage classes give the following:
-10 levels of spellcasting
-mastery of shaping
-mastery of elements
-oracle domain (cast divination spells at +2 caster level)
-scry bonus (+1 sacred bonus to DC of scrying spells)
-prescient sense (evasion)
-trap sense +1
-spin fate (4 points per day)
-fickle finger of fate (immediate action: friend or enemy re-rolls any roll)
-spin destiny (4 points per day)
-deny fate (automatically stable when dying 1/day)
-resist fate (reroll 1/day)
-secret (knowledge of true avoidance)
-enhanced capacity (1 extra character when teleporting)
-improved range (+50% range when teleporting)
-+4 BAB
-+1 Fort, +1 Ref, +14 Will
Now tell me which character you'd rather play. Only a fool would choose the wizard. Perhaps this highlights a problem with prestige classes. In this case, I would suggest that the idealized multiclassing rule must include prohibitions against excessive prestige classes. Perhaps a limit to the number that can be taken or an XP penalty.
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Regarding the Bbn2/Clr1/Ftr4/hexblade1/marshal2/Rgr2/Rog2/dervish1/duelist1/exotic weapon master1/frenzied berzerker1/occult slayer2, it is indeed possible. A human takes his first six levels as Bbn2/Ftr4, taking the following feats:
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (butterfly sword) 1
Destructive Rage 1
Weapon Focus (butterfly sword) 3
Intimidating Rage 3
Improved Initiative 4
Power Attack 6
Cleave 6
At 7th level, he take frenzied berzerker. At 8th and 9th level, he takes occult slayer.
Dodge 9
At 10th level, he takes exotic weapon master. At 11th level, he takes cleric of the Lucky Traveller with luck and travel as his domains. At 12th level, he takes hexblade (hello, mettle).
Mobility 12
At 13th and 14th he takes rogue (hello evasion). At 15th and 16th level he takes ranger (and now he starts dual-wielding).
Combat Expertise 15
At 17th and 18th level, he takes marshal (bonus on melee attack rolls and force of will to boost his Will save).
Weapon Finesse 18
Now he can take dervish and duelist.
Of course this build isn't really optimal. I thought of it on the spur of the moment. But despite a few oversights (like the futility of power attack when using a butterfly sword), the build is phenomenally robust. I'm sure a more optimal feat arrangement could be selected as well. With the +11 base Will saving throw (far better than any single class frontline character could hope for unless he is a knight, hexblade, or paladin), he can afford to have a low Wisdom score. With a cloak of charisma (he uses a vest of resistance), his Will save can be even higher thanks to his marshal force of will aura. When not raging or frenzying, he can combat expertise to get a great AC. Even if he sticks to light armor, he will have a respectable AC. We could probably drop the duelist in favor of another prestige class and nix the weapon finesse requirement, leaving us open to use a better slashing weapon; even a bastard sword would let us power attack freely. And if we swap weapon finesse for oversized two-weapon fighting, he doesn't take a penalty for dual-wielding bastard swords, yay!
I'm tempted to build this character, but I don't think I will because it isn't necessary to prove my point. Even fantastic saving throws aside, this character is a force to be reckoned with. As a primary frontline melee combatant, I have no doubt this character will outperform the fighter on almost everything, even if the fighter has the PH2 feats at his disposal. This character can tumble, dervish dance, rage, frenzy, take no damage when he passes saving throws (which will be often), re-roll once per day, escape from a grapple for free once per day, deal an extra d6 damage against spellcasters or creatures with spell-like abilities (at high levels almost everything), free action spell turning once per day, sneak attack for +1d6 (with his speed and tumbling, this will be often against creatures that are vulnerable to it), power attack for x2 damage thanks to exotic weapon master (and he's dual-wielding, how about that!).
The fighter might pick up some nifty tricks like the special abilities and feats from PH2 or spring attack. A barbarian might have more hit points, more rages, and damage reduction. A ranger gets some cool spells and more attacks when two-weapon fighting. None of this stuff really compares to the multiclass character's myriad abilities.
There are tons of common multiclass characters. Spatzimaus mentions the common rogue 1st level trick. There is also the "every fighter is also a barbarian" and "every barbarian is also a fighter" problem; there really is no good reason not to dip into one if you have the other. Ranger and bard are common dip classes simply for the skill points. A level of wizard (diviner) or sorcerer to get true strike three or four times per day (no arcane spell failure since it lacks somatic components) is not a bad deal for a melee character who wants that full power attack to hit a high AC foe. A level of cleric for a reroll is great idea. A couple levels of paladin to boost your saves if you are a high charisma character is rarely a bad decision, even for dedicated casters like a sorcerer. The list goes on ad infinitum.
Now we can argue ad nauseum about this, but I have made my point. If you aren't convinced by now, you have probably already made up your mind not to change your opinion. If you have nothing to contribute to the discussion, then simply don't post in this thread. This thread is for people who agree with the assumption that multiclassing is flawed towards creating overpowered characters.
