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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6745561" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Personally, although I am keenly aware that the two mechanics are highly distinct, I would say 5e multiclassing's effect is very similar to what you got from 4e hybrid classes. That is: the vast majority of choices will result in a character that is weaker overall, but which has access to a broader scope of abilities...but there are certain combinations which are more powerful than the sum of their parts. (Ironically, I'd even say that Paladin-Warlock is the archetypal "more powerful together" combo for both systems, for completely unrelated reasons!)But yes, as a general rule of thumb, multiclassing in 5e is not the charop-user's friend. The biggest reason being ASIs: unless carefully managed, an MC character will typically end up with fewer ASIs than a pure-class character, and exchanging ASIs for feats is core to much of 5e charop.Not even sure that's strictly necessary. Obvious racial choice is half-elf of course (no other race gets 2 skills), or Variant Human (1 skill + Skilled feat). Start as Bard, get to level 3; that gives you 6 freely selected skills (Bards count all skills as "class skills" in this edition), plus two from your background (which you can choose to be anything). For the half-elf, that's a total of 2 (race) + 2 (bg) + 3 (Bard) + 3 (Lore) = 10 skills; for the variant human that's 1 (race) + 3 (feat) + 2 (bg) + 3 (Bard) + 3 (Lore) = 12 skills. Multiclass Cleric 1 (Knowledge) grants an additional 2 skills; multiclass Rogue 1 grants both Thieves' Tools (nearly the only 'tool' prof that's on par with a skill prof) and one Rogue list skill. V. human Lore Bard 3/Knowledge Cleric 1/Thief 1 has 15 skills, but Warlock alone cannot bridge the gap to get 18, even with 2 levels and an invocation. Thus it is better to take a 4th level of Bard, and take Skilled a second time, filling out the last three skills.In fact, overall it's probably best to go pure Bard from there on out: you're only down 2 levels, but you get a "third" application of Expertise (that is, Thief 1, Bard 3, and Bard 10 each grant 2 Expertise choices), three bonus skills, Thieves' tools, Medium armor, and Shields, giving you just about half the benefits of being a Valor Bard (plus the benefit of Sneak Attack!). For this, you give up 1 5th-level spell slot, 1 ASI, and the honestly lackluster Bard 'capstone' (when you roll Init, if you have 0 Inspiration dice, get one back), as well as needing to have at least 13 Dex and Wis--which you'd want to have anyway, since those govern critical skills (Stealth and Perception mainly, but Thieves' Tools as well).Ironically, I am actually feeling somewhat tempted to play one of these at some point--assuming, that is, the campaign starts at least at 4th level. By the time the character is overall 6th level (Bard 4/Rogue 1/Cleric 1), it would have proficiency in all skills and Expertise in 4 of them, plus access to the first-level Cleric spell listand 2 Cleric cantrips. Go with an array of {8,13,12,13,12,15} and choose +1 Dex, +1 Cha as your racial stat bonuses, for final stats of {8,14,12,13,12,16}. Dex doesn't need to go any higher because MC Cleric grants Medium armor and shield profs. Spend next 2 ASIs (Bard 8, 12; clvl 10, 14) on Charisma; final ASI (Bard 16, clvl 18) goes to a half-feat that boosts Int, with Keen Mind or Linguist being at the forefront (more for flavor than power--I actually really like Keen Mind and just wish it were a little more...potent), though this could happen earlier if the campaign in question offers lots of exploration- or language-based challenges. JOAT becomes technically superfluous for everything but Initiative, though it does mean that you can never truly be caught off-guard--you never add less than half your proficiency bonus to anything.Of course, all this depends on getting Variant Human, which not all DMs are cool with. But it could be a really interesting character--a master of "all" trades, under a certain light.Edit:Part of my reason for saying I'd hope the character would start at level 4 is to have more control over the backstory (though I freely admit, I also just hate the uber-squishy early levels). If I had to "thematically" explain this character, I'd call her a "glutton for knowledge." She wants to know all of it. She started out apprenticed to a Bard college, the closest her family could get to a formal education. Then, after graduating, she "found faith" with the/a god of knowledge--after all, if "knowing everything" is her goal, the church of knowing things can't be a bad place to turn! But there, she found out that for a "church of knowledge," they're pretty stuffy and stuck up about...a lot of things. Picking locks isn't something you should know how to do! That's evil and wrong! So, at the game's outset, she leaves--not the faith, because knowledge is still her higher power, but the clergy, because they don't really care about actually knowing all there is to know. First level up, she goes Rogue--literally. But being a cutthroat really isn't her style--it's about the challenge, about going out and learning new things, testing the limits of her knowledge. Continuing the path she began, as a Bard, lets her continue to explore the mysteries of all magic, the last frontier she has yet to investigate.</blockquote>

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