D&D 5E What do you about dead levels in multiclassing?

[greg kaye]

The same reason the ranger can suddenly sense dragons at level 3, or the barbarian gets better at crit hits at level 9. Because gaining new abilities is fun. Obviously, getting better at something makes you better at unrelated stuff. It's why all our cardiologists are so damn good at golf.

Well, we could certainly interpret, if a 19th-level cardiologist took a level in golfing, that they'd suddenly be able to compete at a high level.
Same as we could say that a 19th-level fighter or barbarian might find a spell book and get to cast 4d10 firebolts.
(The type of people that might become cardiologists might similarly be able to gain skills in a variety of other things they invested themselves into).

 

[Redwizard007]

Well, we could certainly interpret, if a 19th-level cardiologist took a level in golfing, that they'd suddenly be able to compete at a high level.
Same as we could say that a 19th-level fighter or barbarian might find a spell book and get to cast 4d10 firebolts.
(The type of people that might become cardiologists might similarly be able to gain skills in a variety of other things they invested themselves into).

It's official. Cardiologists are real world adventurers.

In all seriousness, in a game with monsters that derive all their sustenance from brains, floating eyes that nullify magic, and giant flying lizards that belch lethal energy, this is not something worth getting hung up on.

 

[Corinnguard]

Are you familiar with the Star Wars 5e fan project? It's a full conversion of the 5e rules for the Star Wars setting. One of the things it does, that I really like, is that there is a feat that requires 3 levels in one class and 3 levels in another class and then... levels in those classes partially stack for the purposes of specific, named class features.

I am not familiar with this Star Wars 5e fan project you speak of, but I have seen something like the feat you described in EN Publishing's Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition.

Synergy Feats | Level Up

a5e.tools

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It's not relevant for Rangers and Paladins. 5th level is when both of these classes gain access to their 2nd level spells. That might be a weak level-up without extra attack, depending on how you feel about the level two spells of those classes, but it isn't remotely "dead". You accept that some of your level-ups may be underwhelming when you multiclass, and that goes double when you go for a deep multiclass with 5+ levels from more than one class.

Really Fighters are the only ones who get a truly dead level for their extra attack level if they multiclass. I wouldn't be opposed to letting a player take an extra fighting style or something.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

My solution to the potential dissatisfaction of multiclassing was to make multiclass feats that characters can spend their usual AB/feat slots for. It helps keep things relatively balanced without significantly changing the mechanics of the game, and offers potentially flavorful rewards for advancing into class levels where the features may not be so great.