PairO'Dice Lost
2010-09-24, 02:01 AM
WARNING: Wall o' text ahead.
The Problem
Multiclassing for full spellcasters is generally a bad idea. Most people (at least those on D&D forums) feel that you should never take a PrC that loses more than two spellcasting levels, that very few things are worth giving up a level of spells, that dual-progression classes are rarely worth it unless you can get in early because you're behind a spell level or two, that dipping casting is rarely as useful as dipping melee classes because you just get mostly cantrips, and so forth.
A Potential Fix
Drawing on the ardent and the ToB classes and PrCs for inspiration, here's my proposal for a possible fix for caster multiclassing. It's still very rough, so it probably needs some tweaking, but here's the basic idea:
1) Just like ToB has initiator level, spellcasting classes have a spellcasting level (hereafter SL for brevity). SL is equal to levels in the spellcasting class (including "+1 level of spellcasting" PrCs) plus half your total levels in any other classes, rounded down; each spellcasting class has its own separate SL. SL is entirely separate from CL, and cannot rise above character level by any means (no bloodline cheese for you!). Examples: A wizard 10 has a wizard SL of 10, a wizard 1/fighter 9 has a wizard SL of 5, and a wizard 5/cleric 5 has a wizard SL of 7 and a cleric SL of 7.
2) Take the spellcasting progression charts and, wherever the class gains new spells per day or spells known, replace the total number with the number gained at that level; levels where that number does not change have a 0 or a blank space. The 1st SL should only grant 1 spell per day or spell known of a given spell level; the "extra" cantrips/orisons and 1st level spells gained at 1st level are granted, regardless of your SL, upon taking your first level in the class. For instance, under this system the wizard's spells per day table looks like this:
{table]Level|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st|1|1||||||||
2nd|1|1||||||||
3rd|0|0|1|||||||
4th|0|1|1|||||||
5th|0|0|0|1||||||
6th|0|0|1|1||||||
7th|0|1|0|0|1|||||
8th|0|0|0|1|1|||||
9th|0|0|1|0|0|1||||
10th|0|0|0|0|1|1||||
11th|0|0|0|1|0|0|1|||
12th|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|||
13th|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1||
14th|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1||
15th|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1|
16th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|
17th|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1
18th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1
19th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0
20th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1[/table]
The wizard gains 2 cantrips per day and has all cantrips (and 3+Int 1st level spells) in his spellbook regardless of SL, because he would normally gain 3 per day at 1st level.
3) When you take a level in a spellcasting class, you gain the spells indicated for your SL, and only those spells. For example, a fighter 8 who takes a level of wizard would be a fighter 8/wizard 1 and thus have a wizard SL of 5. Looking at the wizard's spells per day table, that character would gain 1 3rd level spell slot per day and 2 spells known of up to 3rd level (as a wizard adds 2 spells to his spellbook at each level). In contrast, a wizard 5 who took 2 levels of fighter and then another level of wizard (putting him at a SL of 7) would have all the spells per day of a wizard 7 under the normal system, less the one 2nd and one 3rd level slot that he would normally gain at 6th level.
Overall Ramifications
This does a few things for caster multiclassing. It makes losing spellcasting levels less painful, making non-full-casting PrCs more attractive. It makes gishes easier to build, and makes gish PrCs not absolutely necessary, as even something simple like a fighter 10/wizard 10 ends up with 8th level casting (wizard SL of 15 by 20th level) if you alternate the levels evenly. It makes dual-progression PrCs less necessary, as again a simple build like cleric 10/wizard 10 ends up with 8th level casting for both if you alternate the levels.
Like ToB and its issues with maneuver prerequisites and IL, this does make partial casters take a bit longer to plot out through higher levels because you have to know what SL you have at each level, but full casters taking a minor detour shouldn't be too much more difficult. I feel that the extra effort involved in this part of the process is a fair trade for the effort required to meet prerequisites for dual-progression PrCs and/or the effort required to pick the spells you aren't getting under this system.
Theurges/Dual Progression
How does this compare to dual-progression classes and BMB? Well, it gets you started a lot faster than a theurge--giving you more spells on the casting side(s) at earlier levels where you want them more--while giving fewer spells at higher levels, evening out the power curve a bit. Where the expected (non-optimized) theurge build stub of wizard 3/cleric 3 has 2nd level casting on both sides (3rd level equivalent in each class) with 8 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons, a wizard 3/cleric 3 under this system with evenly alternating levels has 2nd level casting on both sides (SL 4 for each) with 12 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons.
At 20th level, the wizard 5/cleric 5/mystic theurge 10 has 8th level casting on both sides (15th level equivalent in each class) with 63 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons, while the wizard 10/cleric 10 under this system with evenly alternating levels has 7th level wizard casting and 8th level cleric casting (wizard SL of 14, cleric SL fof 15) with 47 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons. It ends up less powerful than the (admittedly somewhat weak) mystic theurge, but it gets off to a much better start and holds nicely in the low mid levels.
Here's how this build would look, level by level:
{table]Char Level|Wiz Level|Cler Level|Wiz SL|Clr SL
1|1|0|1|0
2|1|1|1|1
3|2|1|2|1
4|2|2|2|3
5|3|2|4|3
6|3|3|4|4
7|4|3|5|4
8|4|4|5|6
9|5|4|7|6
10|5|5|7|7
11|6|5|8|7
12|6|6|8|9
13|7|6|10|9
14|7|7|10|10
15|8|7|11|10
16|8|8|11|12
17|9|8|13|12
18|9|9|13|13
19|10|9|14|13
20|10|10|14|15[/table]
Gishes
Most gish builds aim to get +16 BAB and 9th level casting; a martial 10/caster 10 multiclass under this system doesn't quite reach that, but it comes close with +15 BAB and 8th level casting, quite good for a no-PrC build, I think.
Full Casters
Under this system, like martial adepts in ToB a full caster can take up to 6 levels in (an)other class(es) and still get 9th level spells. This means even PrCs granting only half casting progression are suddenly more attractive. Mindbender becomes more than a 1-level dip now that its class features aren't outstripped by 9 more levels of wizard. Acolyte of the Skin now grants power along with its flavor. Green Star Adept isn't a laughable choice anymore.
Noncasters
Where before a martial character might want to dip a level of wizard for a 1/day true strike or similar, or might want to dip a level of cleric with the Magic and Knowledge domains to use some items without UMD ranks and get Knowledge Devotion, now you can get something closer to level-appropriate spells with a few levels in a casting class. Also, it makes NPC creation a bit easier--casting NPCs can now have many fewer spells for the DM to have to deal with while diversifying their repertoire in other ways, and if you just want to let them cast a handful of spells you can do that without requiring items or ad hoc SLAs.
Final Verdict
Builds that essentially take a full caster and add stuff onto it (mystic theurges with 9th level casting on one or both sides, gishes that are basically full caster + better BAB, etc.) are weakened in this system, even theurge builds are made more appealing at the lower levels where having dual casting is actually an advantage while slightly weakening them at higher levels, and martial half-and-half or caster-dip builds are improved and given more level-appropriate tricks.
----------------------------------------------
So...thoughts?
The Problem
Multiclassing for full spellcasters is generally a bad idea. Most people (at least those on D&D forums) feel that you should never take a PrC that loses more than two spellcasting levels, that very few things are worth giving up a level of spells, that dual-progression classes are rarely worth it unless you can get in early because you're behind a spell level or two, that dipping casting is rarely as useful as dipping melee classes because you just get mostly cantrips, and so forth.
A Potential Fix
Drawing on the ardent and the ToB classes and PrCs for inspiration, here's my proposal for a possible fix for caster multiclassing. It's still very rough, so it probably needs some tweaking, but here's the basic idea:
1) Just like ToB has initiator level, spellcasting classes have a spellcasting level (hereafter SL for brevity). SL is equal to levels in the spellcasting class (including "+1 level of spellcasting" PrCs) plus half your total levels in any other classes, rounded down; each spellcasting class has its own separate SL. SL is entirely separate from CL, and cannot rise above character level by any means (no bloodline cheese for you!). Examples: A wizard 10 has a wizard SL of 10, a wizard 1/fighter 9 has a wizard SL of 5, and a wizard 5/cleric 5 has a wizard SL of 7 and a cleric SL of 7.
2) Take the spellcasting progression charts and, wherever the class gains new spells per day or spells known, replace the total number with the number gained at that level; levels where that number does not change have a 0 or a blank space. The 1st SL should only grant 1 spell per day or spell known of a given spell level; the "extra" cantrips/orisons and 1st level spells gained at 1st level are granted, regardless of your SL, upon taking your first level in the class. For instance, under this system the wizard's spells per day table looks like this:
{table]Level|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
1st|1|1||||||||
2nd|1|1||||||||
3rd|0|0|1|||||||
4th|0|1|1|||||||
5th|0|0|0|1||||||
6th|0|0|1|1||||||
7th|0|1|0|0|1|||||
8th|0|0|0|1|1|||||
9th|0|0|1|0|0|1||||
10th|0|0|0|0|1|1||||
11th|0|0|0|1|0|0|1|||
12th|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|||
13th|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1||
14th|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1||
15th|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1|
16th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|
17th|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1
18th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1
19th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|0
20th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1[/table]
The wizard gains 2 cantrips per day and has all cantrips (and 3+Int 1st level spells) in his spellbook regardless of SL, because he would normally gain 3 per day at 1st level.
3) When you take a level in a spellcasting class, you gain the spells indicated for your SL, and only those spells. For example, a fighter 8 who takes a level of wizard would be a fighter 8/wizard 1 and thus have a wizard SL of 5. Looking at the wizard's spells per day table, that character would gain 1 3rd level spell slot per day and 2 spells known of up to 3rd level (as a wizard adds 2 spells to his spellbook at each level). In contrast, a wizard 5 who took 2 levels of fighter and then another level of wizard (putting him at a SL of 7) would have all the spells per day of a wizard 7 under the normal system, less the one 2nd and one 3rd level slot that he would normally gain at 6th level.
Overall Ramifications
This does a few things for caster multiclassing. It makes losing spellcasting levels less painful, making non-full-casting PrCs more attractive. It makes gishes easier to build, and makes gish PrCs not absolutely necessary, as even something simple like a fighter 10/wizard 10 ends up with 8th level casting (wizard SL of 15 by 20th level) if you alternate the levels evenly. It makes dual-progression PrCs less necessary, as again a simple build like cleric 10/wizard 10 ends up with 8th level casting for both if you alternate the levels.
Like ToB and its issues with maneuver prerequisites and IL, this does make partial casters take a bit longer to plot out through higher levels because you have to know what SL you have at each level, but full casters taking a minor detour shouldn't be too much more difficult. I feel that the extra effort involved in this part of the process is a fair trade for the effort required to meet prerequisites for dual-progression PrCs and/or the effort required to pick the spells you aren't getting under this system.
Theurges/Dual Progression
How does this compare to dual-progression classes and BMB? Well, it gets you started a lot faster than a theurge--giving you more spells on the casting side(s) at earlier levels where you want them more--while giving fewer spells at higher levels, evening out the power curve a bit. Where the expected (non-optimized) theurge build stub of wizard 3/cleric 3 has 2nd level casting on both sides (3rd level equivalent in each class) with 8 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons, a wizard 3/cleric 3 under this system with evenly alternating levels has 2nd level casting on both sides (SL 4 for each) with 12 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons.
At 20th level, the wizard 5/cleric 5/mystic theurge 10 has 8th level casting on both sides (15th level equivalent in each class) with 63 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons, while the wizard 10/cleric 10 under this system with evenly alternating levels has 7th level wizard casting and 8th level cleric casting (wizard SL of 14, cleric SL fof 15) with 47 base spells per day excluding cantrips/orisons. It ends up less powerful than the (admittedly somewhat weak) mystic theurge, but it gets off to a much better start and holds nicely in the low mid levels.
Here's how this build would look, level by level:
{table]Char Level|Wiz Level|Cler Level|Wiz SL|Clr SL
1|1|0|1|0
2|1|1|1|1
3|2|1|2|1
4|2|2|2|3
5|3|2|4|3
6|3|3|4|4
7|4|3|5|4
8|4|4|5|6
9|5|4|7|6
10|5|5|7|7
11|6|5|8|7
12|6|6|8|9
13|7|6|10|9
14|7|7|10|10
15|8|7|11|10
16|8|8|11|12
17|9|8|13|12
18|9|9|13|13
19|10|9|14|13
20|10|10|14|15[/table]
Gishes
Most gish builds aim to get +16 BAB and 9th level casting; a martial 10/caster 10 multiclass under this system doesn't quite reach that, but it comes close with +15 BAB and 8th level casting, quite good for a no-PrC build, I think.
Full Casters
Under this system, like martial adepts in ToB a full caster can take up to 6 levels in (an)other class(es) and still get 9th level spells. This means even PrCs granting only half casting progression are suddenly more attractive. Mindbender becomes more than a 1-level dip now that its class features aren't outstripped by 9 more levels of wizard. Acolyte of the Skin now grants power along with its flavor. Green Star Adept isn't a laughable choice anymore.
Noncasters
Where before a martial character might want to dip a level of wizard for a 1/day true strike or similar, or might want to dip a level of cleric with the Magic and Knowledge domains to use some items without UMD ranks and get Knowledge Devotion, now you can get something closer to level-appropriate spells with a few levels in a casting class. Also, it makes NPC creation a bit easier--casting NPCs can now have many fewer spells for the DM to have to deal with while diversifying their repertoire in other ways, and if you just want to let them cast a handful of spells you can do that without requiring items or ad hoc SLAs.
Final Verdict
Builds that essentially take a full caster and add stuff onto it (mystic theurges with 9th level casting on one or both sides, gishes that are basically full caster + better BAB, etc.) are weakened in this system, even theurge builds are made more appealing at the lower levels where having dual casting is actually an advantage while slightly weakening them at higher levels, and martial half-and-half or caster-dip builds are improved and given more level-appropriate tricks.
----------------------------------------------
So...thoughts?