What is multiclassing?

[ronpyatt]

Xandros brought up a very good point about multiclassing being an important element to many players of D&D.
What is multiclassing supposed to represent, and how is it handled in each version of D&D?
Are there fantasy characters that multiclass?
Would multiclass characters be better represented by just creating a full class of that character archetype?

[Kalanth]

Wizards tried to create some of those "better representations" in a single class and ended up making some drastically broken classes. Multiclassing, to me, represents a character with multiple interests who seeks to be able to achieve those desires instead of just focusing on one aspect of their life. A spellsword, for example, loves magic but is very adept with a blade as well so he spends time on both things which ultimately results in a multiclasses character.

There is a icon in fantasy that is multiclass from what I hear about him, and that is the famous Drizzts. I know nothing on the books but I have heard that he would be a combination of three, maybe four classes. There are many others out there I am sure but in those novels that are not so stringent on rules it is easier to provide a character that excells at many things and seems very powerful. Its easy to put out the impression that the Wizard is a master swordsmen with just words because no rules determine his ability with a blade.

I believe that each version of D&D has gotten better at handling it. 2E had the clunky system that I don't recall ever seeing used when I was playing or DMing. 3.X was better, but after a while the power gamer really learned it and created the cherry picker mentality developing odd builds that do little in the way of RP like a Rogue 2 / Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 16. More than before it was really a numbers game. With 4E it is less desirable than previous editions but still opens a lot of doors for the player to take advantage of. It requires a different form of commitment as well, but is it the best way to handle it? I love my 4E, but I say no.

[Aidan]

The original multiclasser in D&D was the elf, they were conceived of as magic -wielding warriors and ended up being a combination of the two classes. This was expanded in AD&D to include other demihuman races, which were the only ones who could multiclass.

I have always liked playing warriors who wield mystical powers, so a lot of the time I was playing fighter/mages.

In a preview of the 4e Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, there was a Swordmage class which is an arcane defender.

This seemed to me a more archetypal approach to the whole matter, a warrior wielding a glowing blade and defending with a shield of pure magic.

I'm against the idea of making classes for the sake of pointless matrix filling, or for the sake of having a bunch of classes, but this seems to me the proper way to have addressed the elven mystical warrior tradition.

[nijineko]

bards and theif-acrobat-illusionists back in the day were the classic examples of multiclassing. my very first d&d character ever got frustrated with finding so much magic as treasure that he couldn't keep (we did a split by class, and who got what last method of treasure division...) that i multi-classed from fighter to fighter-mage, just so i could use magic stuff too.

i find that the multiclass rules allow me to better create specific character concepts. i don't always use them, but they give so many options. in some cases too many, i'll grant. and there is always the possibility of going overboard. i think that most prestige classes were not designed with multiclassing in mind. but in any case, that's where the dm makes adjustments.

what does multiclassing represent? i guess it depends on in-game or out-of-game points of view. in game, i think that it can represent the wide range of experiences that people pick up in life.... when people travel together for a while, they tend to share various tricks that help them to get by, you can't get skill points any way but via a level, so how else do you represent learning some new stuff?

the dragonstar campaign setting had a method for that called education packages. you could purchase them with an expenditure of gold and xp. in exchange you would get a one-time allotment of points to spend on a specific set of skills. you could do this only a certain number of times based on your level. and of course there was the "in game expenditure of time..." not that many track that realisiticly. i have been know to borrow that from time to time.

there is another prestige class in savage species that follows this same concept. it allows you to toughen your defenses a lot faster than any other class in the game, but you get no bab and the qualifications are a bit odd. it represents those who survived a close escape and are determined to train to be tougher for next time.

in summary, i think that multiclassing has two purposes. one, it can represent a more general broad range of miscellaneous 'things' that a character has learned how to do. (of course, i require a detailed, logical, and more importantly interesting, storyline to allow such a progression that would otherwise be cherrypicking.) and two, it can represent a focus in two or three areas of expertise. ("ahah! you knew that i had mastered the range of skills necessary to become a force missle master, but you didn't know that i was also a master of the unseen hand, did you!?"-cheesy lines, but i hope the point gets across. )



early versions of d&d had some good ideas about multiclassing. it was recognized that it would make for more powerful characters, so penalties were put in place. overall, it was difficult to track. tesral has a great solution for that, i advise that interested parties contact him for his system of background options and multiclassing xp kickback rules.

the 3.x system for handling it, works fairly well. however, the dm need to eyeball each class in combonation and make some decisions about any alterations needed to the various options. i tend to be of the opinion that if someone is willing to work hard enough for i, then let them take it. the better the end result is, the harder it will be to get. simple enough. after they've jumped whatever in-game and out-of-game hoops the dm sets, then they've earned it-let them have it and use it.

i cannot speak for 4e, haven't read any of the books yet. ^^



i think that there are numerous examples of characters who are good at more than one thing to the extent of being considered as multi-classed. i read a story recently (reminds me, need to find the other two books in the series...) about a guy who was a noble, well trained in swordsmanship, and happened to have a strong untrained talent for a certain type of magic. that sort of thing happens all the time in literature. i suppose if we dug through the d&d books enough, we could manage to find some more examples of some.



in some cases, representing a set of abilities would be better done by just making a new class. i have done this myself. a ranger-type of character but one who does not spellcast, yet has various special abilities tied in with defending his homeland. he draws his power from the land itself that he defends, and in return for his active defense he is granted some abilities that boost him in various ways. so i created an alternate ranger class which has a slightly different skill set, no spellcasting, and only a couple of the original abilities. the rest of the abilities and spellcasting are swapped out for the special abilities for the class. worked out rather nicely, and is a fairly balanced class. i only wound up taking five levels in it, after all the work of developing a 20 level class! i still have the full writeup around somewhere.

anyway, that's my handful of copper pieces. =D

overall i find multiclassing to be a benefit, so long as the dm eyeballs everything and the player earns it in some fashion.

[drewshi]

There's a very good article in one of the issues of Footsteps, a first edition fanzine online at the Dragonfoot website (http://www.dragonsfoot.org) that deals with multi-class characters. I've incorporated into my campaign as one of the players is a half-elf thief/magic-user. The article refers to him as a charlatan which is always funny when he encounters a full thief. Full thieves regard him with anger as he couldn't commit to the thief way of life completely and the "magic" it offers, that he needed other magic to feel fulfilled.

[Thriondel Half-Elven]

ya Drizzt is like 3-4 or more classes.

[cplmac]

In my game, it is a PC who is usually two types of character in one. A couple of the most common are: Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Thief, Thief/Mage, and a Cleric/Fighter. They are able to do what either type of class is able to. If a party was not very large, have a multiclassed character or two helped to have extra abilities available to the party without having a whole lot of people.

[Valdar]

I've not seen much of the 4e multiclassing in action, but I like what I've seen so far- that while you get the opportunity to dabble in the abilities of another class, you've still got your primary role, so teamwork doesn't suffer. Many of the existing classes already have primary/secondary roles built in- Fighter as Defender/Striker, Spellsword as Defender/Controller, and Paladin as Defender/Leader for instance. Now multiclass allows you to pick any secondary role. Also, no ASF anymore, so fewer restrictions on what you can combine.

The feats themselves seem to encourage multiclassing- Skill Training gives you a skill, while multiclassing gives you a skill and something else in addition. If you're only getting one Skill Training feat, and have no other multiclassing plans, picking up another class seems to have no disadvantages over just taking the skill.

[ronpyatt]

drewshi's post above points out a very nice article on combining classes for 1st ed (thanks for the link). That was a good read.

There are classes that were derived from multi-class combinations. Spell-sword is obvious enough, but what of others? The Ranger and the Paladin seem like multi-class derivatives.

[drewshi]

drewshi's post above points out a very nice article on combining classes for 1st ed (thanks for the link). That was a good read.


No problem. Glad you were able to find it useful.