As many classes as possible?

[Dragrun]

How effective would a char be if they only took multiclass feats and started as a hybrid?

[Dark Elf Bard]

Not.


Like, just plain bad.

[Dragrun]

I assumed so but I wanted a response to my "slight" insanity

[Tegu8788]

Doing one or the other is normally a sign of a bad build, but I think I once saw a fighter/cleric/wizard that was trying to get back to the warrior/magic-user/cleric feel of yore.

That said, you can make hybrids with a MC feat that work pretty well. Not high op perhaps, but more than just competant.

Edit: That said, if you just want a ton of classes, be a bard, they can get a new MC feat every time, and even have a PP for heavy arcane MC bards. I also once tried to get as many power sources as I could, Blackguard|Scout/Warlock with Noble Adept theme. It was one of the Ranger variants, and any Arcane MC would do. Not the best build ever, but it would be functional.

[NecroRebel]

Since you can't take multiclass feats from 2 different classes unless you're a bard, in order to get as many classes as possible you'd have to start with a non-hybrid bard base. Each MC feat would then add a minor trick to the character as well as skill training. Since they'd have to have a 13+ in most stats to qualify for all the MC feats and would likely end up with training in every skill, this character would probably be a good jack-of-all-trades, being better than most characters would be at every task.

The tradeoff, of course, is that this JoaT would be worse than the specialists at everything, too, and since most parties in 4e have a specialist that can cover at least one of the skills very well, the fact that the bard has OK bonuses in every skill is just basically worthless. And since said bard spent their stats and feats on things that mostly don't directly help them in battle, they wouldn't be very good there, either. In general, such a character would simply be weak.

A while back there was a thread that somebody was trying to make a character that could play secondary or tertiary in all 4 roles. I think that the conclusion was that a paladin|warlock could manage that reasonably well; pally for defender and leader, warlock for striking and control. Such a character could also play the party face role out of battle, too, so that would be a far more effective jack-of-all-trades-type character.

[Tegu8788]

That was me, that build is the second link in my signature. I've thought about it more, and the paladin|warlock is good, I think a Blackguard|Bard might be better, using Ardent Strike for at-will marking to get the defender in, and maybe MC Warlock to get a few more controller powers. But the Bard is a good controller substitute as I understand it, blackguard has a solid striker feature and with plate armor and high NADs it works well. Not the OPs point, but a thought.

Edit: I've given it some more thought, and a Dragonborn Blackguard|Bard, 10, 16, 11, 10, 8, 20, with a Cold/Con breath, Staggering Note and Ardent Strike with Power of Strife feat, Dread Smite encounter, and Stirring Shout daily, works out to be fairly good. Pick Cha weapon powers with defender leanings (divine sanction!), then debuffing bard powers that heal, and viola! Functional 5th man that can actually be useful, and may not need to use hybrid talent on armor! Charge and frost cheese friendly as well. A strong heal if only once per encounter, with ways to boost it.

[darkdragoon]

Do hybrid bards get Multiclass versatility?

[Tegu8788]

No, they don't.

[BlckDv]

I'd have to dig up the old file to give you specifics, but I have made 2 PCs on the 'Lots of crazy classes" idea.

1) A Goblin named Caster who started Bard and MC'd into every Arcane class; not very Op, but lots of fun.

2) The oh-so-cleverly named Half-elf Bard "Jack" who was trained in every skill somewhere in Paragon, and was basically the Swiss Army knife for Skill Challenges; He tried to take mostly action granting/ally buffing/effect on miss powers to make up for his sub par attack rolls, and was actually fairly fun to play and did not feel like a burden in fights. (Of note, I think a non-MCing Bard-of-all-trades build is probably a better bang for your buck for skill challenge oomph)

[Ravian]

An interesting concept I wondered was essentially a Changeling bard that took a multi-class feat for every one of the classes that the rest of the party had, then taking the Chameleon racial Paragon Path so he basically could at least partially imitate every other party member in the group.

Add in a dash of roleplaying where the Changeling disguised himself as the party member he was imitating and even tried to act like him (possibly in broad charcitures) and you have yourself a very humorous and comic relief character if not one with optimization in mind.