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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 9371582" data-attributes="member: 8014">Speaking personally, I like flexible characters and play these in every system. As others have said, it’s about being able to contribute whatever the situation the group finds themselves in and I expect to play second fiddle to any specialist in the party. But I will be there backing them up when other off-topic specialists are politely golf-clapping on the sidelines. This starts to break down in contexts where ‘second best is meaningless’ but I find those situations have grown less over time.D&D seems to have a problem with hybrid characters in the way classes are structured, using a mechanism where you get the core for free and then put cherries on top. All the sub-classes fit into this mould - an Eldritch Knight has the same to-hit and HP as a Battlemaster, a Bladesinger can cast as many spells as an Evoker. Yes, those other sub-classes have their own, different cherries that you are giving up but this is a less significant (or immediately apparent) trade-off in my opinion. So that can make a hybrid seem powerful on paper; I’m not convinced it is a reality in play.I think the bad-rep also comes from the need for min-max optimisation to achieve the more capable hybrid class combos, at least in some editions of the game. 5e is better than most at this in my opinion. In the last game we played of 5e we house-ruled ‘no multiclassing’ and it played just fine.Contrast this with a well balanced points-based system, however, and the situation becomes very different in my experience. Because point systems tend to minimise the ‘free rides’ (at least the ones we play do) if you are a hybrid you will feel those costs of the extra flexibility. We converted our 5e campaign to Savage Pathfinder and my Bladesinger became a lot more expensive when it was a choice of buying up my fighting skill versus buying up my different magical skills. GURPS is very similar in this vein and in these systems choosing to be a specialist versus a multi-skilled character is a decision that needs significant consideration.</blockquote>

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