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Where did my options go? - The New Paradigm
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<blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4293132" data-attributes="member: 1054"><p>In actual play, though, this tends not to happen. As long as you stay within the melee classes (in 3e), you can do the 'rogue joins the military (gains fighter levels) and then finds god (gains paladin levels)' routine -- sort of -- and still be effective. Once you add in spellcasting, though, it becomes much harder. A level or two of a pure caster class tends to benefit a mostly-melee character; the reverse, not so much.</p><p></p><p>4e, actually, allows this a bit more, with retraining. You can always retrain a low level feat to be a multiclass feat instead. Your rogue discovers a talent for magic at level 6? Retrain Backstabber to Arcane Initiate -- you have spent time studying magic, and you're a *little* less stabby than you used to be due to neglecting your Stabbing Practice while you learned how to make your enemies BURN from Quite A Long Way Away.</p><p></p><p>Granted, you can only pull this trick with one multiclass at a time, which is problematic for more complex characters. Again, though, we get back to Actual Play. I've never seen a PC with more than two base classes+one PrC; the mythical This 2/That 3/The Other 2/PRC1 4/PRC2 3 never seems to show up at a real gaming table. </p><p></p><p>3e's system modeled well the fact people can learn new skills all the time (pick up different classes) and let you have your class reflect what you're character was doing at any given moment. The in-play mechanics, though, tended to punish dabbling (and sometimes reward it in very odd ways, like huge save bonuses). 4e "fixes" this by (as is typical for 4e) nerfing it to hell and gone. The 4e mantra seems to be "If it's too complex to be balanced, simplify it until it can be." Whether this leads to a more satisfying play experience over the long term, especially over multiple campaigns where people want to try out new things, remains to be seen.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lizard, post: 4293132, member: 1054"] In actual play, though, this tends not to happen. As long as you stay within the melee classes (in 3e), you can do the 'rogue joins the military (gains fighter levels) and then finds god (gains paladin levels)' routine -- sort of -- and still be effective. Once you add in spellcasting, though, it becomes much harder. A level or two of a pure caster class tends to benefit a mostly-melee character; the reverse, not so much. 4e, actually, allows this a bit more, with retraining. You can always retrain a low level feat to be a multiclass feat instead. Your rogue discovers a talent for magic at level 6? Retrain Backstabber to Arcane Initiate -- you have spent time studying magic, and you're a *little* less stabby than you used to be due to neglecting your Stabbing Practice while you learned how to make your enemies BURN from Quite A Long Way Away. Granted, you can only pull this trick with one multiclass at a time, which is problematic for more complex characters. Again, though, we get back to Actual Play. I've never seen a PC with more than two base classes+one PrC; the mythical This 2/That 3/The Other 2/PRC1 4/PRC2 3 never seems to show up at a real gaming table. 3e's system modeled well the fact people can learn new skills all the time (pick up different classes) and let you have your class reflect what you're character was doing at any given moment. The in-play mechanics, though, tended to punish dabbling (and sometimes reward it in very odd ways, like huge save bonuses). 4e "fixes" this by (as is typical for 4e) nerfing it to hell and gone. The 4e mantra seems to be "If it's too complex to be balanced, simplify it until it can be." Whether this leads to a more satisfying play experience over the long term, especially over multiple campaigns where people want to try out new things, remains to be seen. [/QUOTE]
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