When does multiclassing become excessive?

[Snoweel]

When does multiclassing become too much?

When you're 9th level with no spells higher than 1st level, a caster level of 1 and a BAB of +3: Barbarian 1/Bard 1/Cleric 1/Druid 1/Fighter 1/Ranger 1/Rogue 1/Sorcerer 1/Wizard 1.

At least your saves would be impressive...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

anybody else had a quad-classes character in their game?

Only counting prestige classes:

Fighter 8/Rogue5/Ranger (monte)1/Devoted Defender 1/Slayer 1/Guild Thief 2

 

[arwink]

anybody else had a quad-classes character in their game?

Yep. fighter/aristocrat/bard/sorcerer. I usually find it works okay as long as you have a strong hook to hang the mutliclassing on. In this case, the character in question wasn't really thought of as any of these things. He was just a guy who had a varied approach to learning new skills. A true jack of all trades.

 

[John Smallberries]

Just one quad-classer in the past 2 years.

Human Bard/Rogue/Fighter/Duelist

Cool character---not too effective but fairly interesting.

 

[Sanackranib]

multi-classing

IMO when you gain more then 1 class you will never reach the same hights as somone who didn't multi-class but this is most evident for spellcasters. you can definatly round out your character by multiclassing and overcome obsticals that you couldn't otherwise. some character concepts work well multi-classing and some combos will always be attractive ie rogue/mage
they just work better (for spellcasters) if you have a non multiclassed character in the party as well. this is especially good if the party has a rogue/mage and either a mage or sorc. that way you have a info mage(recon) and a combat mage. it's a big hit in what the multiclassed spellcaster can cast so he will never be as good of a caster, but he should be able to deal with a wider variety of issues due to differn't class skills and more skill points. It's all about having fun so do whatever you enjoy.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

anybody else had a quad-classes character in their game?

I've played two of them. The first was a "feral" human whose tribe background was that all 'cubs' trained in the three aspects of the forest - bear (barbarian) cat (rogue) and wolf (fighter). Then they found their true aspect and trained in that - her's being a mixed aspect of a druid. So since it was a high power campaign, she was something like rog1/barb1/ftr1/dru12. It worked well from a roleplaying stance.

The second was what happened when I cast "transmute character to cheese" on a fairly interesting mixed use character who was useless in my powergaming group. She was an amazon (ranger then maxed out deep woods sniper then one level of windrider to get the giant eagle mount) who just wasn't working out, so I gave up on my standards and powergamed her into ranger1/fighter4/sniper6/order of the bow6. Luckily, I quit the group before sullying my name with this particular cheese...

Personally I think multiclassing becomes too much when it is done to optimise abilities rather than reflect a character concept. (Especially mixing prestige classes which are supposed to reflect major life paths). So its a judgement call. If the player explains the multicalassing with a good background story AND integrates that background into future roleplaying and advancement, that excuses far more classes than the 'good' herald with two levels of assassin because "uh, I though death attack would help in fights... I dunno, maybe she was evil at one brief point in her past, but then she got over it... or could we houserule that...."

(in a similar vein, while I really like the guilds in the new bastion press book, I would NEVER allow them to be placed into the background of a high level character, due to the powergaming posibilities. The benifits would have to be gained via roleplaying the process of joining and rising through the guild.)

Kahuna Burger

 

[Ravellion]

My friend back home is playing a Barbarian/Fighter/Ranger/Wizard/Deepwood Sniper/Arcane Archer.

No Xp penalties, I don't know which classes he has two levels of. He is going to go all out on Arcane Archer levels.

Rav

 

[jgbrowning]

My newest character is a 4th level Barbarian/Ranger/Fighter/Cleric, heading towards the Warpriest PrC fro DotF. Is this obnoxious? When does multiclassing become too much?

IMHO, its too much when you mulitclass to get certain abilities of that class and not for role-playing reasons. this means, that just because you can come up with a role-playing reason (and get real, who playing this game can't come up with a reason for anything ) doesn't mean it qualifies, again IMHO, as a role-playing reason.

using your example, i can't think of how you'd become a ranger in the game. barbarian's do fine in the wilderness, so they'rd be no reason why you'd go up in ranger as opposed to barbarian. Someone tought you to track? well take that as your next feat. I doubt if you as a player, had your character spend the time he gained all that EXP to become a ranger wielding two-weapons, and accepting all the peanlties that come with it so you could "train" to be a ranger. Again, IMHO, it appears you as the player wanted the ranger abilities. I wouldn't allow that in my game.

I view it this way. the Character doesn't know what skills/feat/magic each class gets like a player does. People in general tend to add on bits and pieces to a present class as opposed to what i think is accepting an different mindset that comes with a class.

That being said, i'd only allow a triple class. two core, 1 PRC or 3 core. but only if, there's good reasons.

and always remember, its your game. do what you want to and ignore party poopers like me...

joe b.

 

[Happy Monkey]

I pity the reflex saves of this ftr/barb/cleric/ranger, nice fort though.

 

[Kamard]

I have a character who is a fighter/barbarian/wizard, working on taking levels of the rage mage and frenzied berserker prestige classes.

I admit, I took the level of fighter just to get the feat, because I needed the extra one to take the mix of prestige classes I wanted.