Multiclassing: Roleplay way

[DontEatRawHagis]

I got some interesting responses to this idea when I brought it up to my various groups.

In one game I had a rogue who was very jealous of the spellcasters. Well during the game he met with an NPC who was a Warlock to a Great Old One.

Next session hits and he already has a spellbook made of human flesh. Off screen he had made a deal with the Warlock and was able to Multiclass into Warlock.

It extended to switching subclasses as well:

A situation happened with our Cleric, Mage, and Fighters. Cleric was given the option to switch domains when a deity visited her face to face.

The Wizard was given the option to forget their fire spells to become an Ice Mage(Wizard with boost to offensive Ice Spells at the cost of fire spells).

What do you guys think?

[BiPolar]

I got some interesting responses to this idea when I brought it up to my various groups.

In one game I had a rogue who was very jealous of the spellcasters. Well during the game he met with an NPC who was a Warlock to a Great Old One.

Next session hits and he already has a spellbook made of human flesh. Off screen he had made a deal with the Warlock and was able to Multiclass into Warlock.

It extended to switching subclasses as well:

A situation happened with our Cleric, Mage, and Fighters. Cleric was given the option to switch domains when a deity visited her face to face.

The Wizard was given the option to forget their fire spells to become an Ice Mage(Wizard with boost to offensive Ice Spells at the cost of fire spells).

What do you guys think?

It's an interesting idea, but you're allowing a full rebuild of their character? How did he multiclass without first levelling? Are you allowing them to change the makeup for their character on the fly? If it's the latter, I'd say if you and your players are having fun, go for it, but it might not be a bad idea to have some punishment for making that change. If major decisions like those done at each level are fungible, it can make things a bit squirrely.

[Fighting_Ferret]

Looks like you gave them hooks in the story to accomplish something they wanted out-of-character for their characters. Good job trying to keep your players happy, and also at trying to give in story reason for those changes. You can take all of those plot hooks and create additional quests/flavor from them. The cleric changing deities might have some ramifications. The rogue took warlock to get power... they got it... now what is the hidden cost? The wizard trains in ice magic... only to be taken to a frozen wasteland in future endeavors.

[JeffreyGator]

It may not always be optimal but building your character according to story of the adventures is much more organic I think.

Whatever stage in life that one is at now, it is often a pretty different point than they might be later. It is pretty rare someone follows a linear plan according to what they thought they would do at age 15 or 20 all the way until they retire. I don't know why we expect our roleplaying characters to plan much further ahead than 2 or 3 levels at any given time.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Whatever stage in life that one is at now, it is often a pretty different point than they might be later. It is pretty rare someone follows a linear plan according to what they thought they would do at age 15 or 20 all the way until they retire. I don't know why we expect our roleplaying characters to plan much further ahead than 2 or 3 levels at any given time.
Holdover from 3.5 where prerequisite-chains meant you HAD to plan carefully if you wanted certain things?

[Fighting_Ferret]

JeffreyGator... I think you and I agree on character development.

[smcmike]

Sure, why not? With clerics and warlocks, the plot hook for a character change is built right in to the nature of their powers... Though it does raise the question of what an ex-cleric or ex-warlock who has been abandoned by their higher power might look like.

[Theodoxus]

I offered up the players in my current game tomes that let them swap one 'career' for another. There were twelve tomes, one for each class. Each tome had a page that offered instructions on how to swap to another class. Some tomes had pages torn out (previous people had already swapped classes). IIRC, the monk and ranger books were nearly empty, while the Warlock was untouched (this was a subtle jab at how the players feel about those three classes).

I did have a stipulation that the magic only worked before the characters 5th level. I didn't want them hording the tomes and have them all swap out to wizard at a later point ;)

The only player who took me up on it swapped their Fiendish Tomelock for an oathbreaker (this is for a gestalt game, and this particular player didn't hear about oathbreaker until the character was well established as a warlock/wizard necromancer - had they known about the synergy between oathbreaker and necromancy, they wouldn't have picked warlock in the first place).

I had a revenge plot all ready in the wings when I first heard their plan to change classes... but they decided to worship their patron as a paladin... arguing that it was actually an increase in power for their patron - getting a paladin for their cause rather than a warlock who was less than thrilled at the prospect of servitude. As the game was one of wish-fullfillment, I let it slide... Though I'll still probably have some kind of karmic drawback for the swap - nothing major, just a reminder of the power they left on the table, so to speak.

[DontEatRawHagis]

It's an interesting idea, but you're allowing a full rebuild of their character? How did he multiclass without first levelling? Are you allowing them to change the makeup for their character on the fly? If it's the latter, I'd say if you and your players are having fun, go for it, but it might not be a bad idea to have some punishment for making that change. If major decisions like those done at each level are fungible, it can make things a bit squirrely.
Not a full rebuild, they had to keep their stats and previous class levels.


Looks like you gave them hooks in the story to accomplish something they wanted out-of-character for their characters. Good job trying to keep your players happy, and also at trying to give in story reason for those changes. You can take all of those plot hooks and create additional quests/flavor from them. The cleric changing deities might have some ramifications. The rogue took warlock to get power... they got it... now what is the hidden cost? The wizard trains in ice magic... only to be taken to a frozen wasteland in future endeavors.

It was definitely going to cause some Deity issues, but the player was kicked out of the game.

The Warlock was getting missions from the Old Ones to essentially bring about the apocalypse, but due to a scheduling conflict he left.

Wizard and Fighter didn't want to change up their classes so I kept the offer on the table and moved on.

[BiPolar]

Not a full rebuild, they had to keep their stats and previous class levels.

I'm a bit confused. Did the character(s) level at the end of the last session? I thought you said the opportunity came up, he took it and whammo, next session he had multiclassed. Or did you just grant a level?

[RumoCrytuf]

The way I see it personallly, is that if it doesn't hinder your ability as a DM or make any player overshadow others, go for it. But be sure to throw interesting twists based on their decisions.

[djreynolds]

I once had a fighter, and our cleric left the party. We needed healing. So decided to become a cleric.

But the faith I chose was that of the monk, a party member who worship Silvanus. So even though I had a 20 in strength, I became a nature cleric, clearly not optimized but it was organic.

How did Drizzt become a barbarian? He had to overcome surviving on his own. A plot piece.

So unless your player has a reason, and is stating at the beginning this what I plan to multiclass with is valid, provide him something so it feels right.

I have no problem with a guy at creation saying I'm going to do this or that from the very beginning and has the background and story to back it up.

But if later on, say a rogue wants to become a warlock, allow him something that feels right "in game"

And you have done so.

[BayardSPSR]

It's an interesting idea, but you're allowing a full rebuild of their character? How did he multiclass without first levelling? Are you allowing them to change the makeup for their character on the fly? If it's the latter, I'd say if you and your players are having fun, go for it, but it might not be a bad idea to have some punishment for making that change. If major decisions like those done at each level are fungible, it can make things a bit squirrely.

I've run games - not D&D - where I allowed partial rebuilds, or even full rebuilds, at the end of every session. I never had a player abuse that; the most people did was update builds to do what they had wanted their character to do all along, but better, as they became more familiar with the mechanics.

[Lycanthrope13]

I've always preferred this approach to multiclassing. I absolutely despise level dips. In my mind, if you wanted to learn magic, especially divine magic, you need to make a commitment. Gods don't take kindly to wishy-washy part-time followers. Some classes require some sort of oath too. If you're multiclassing into cleric, druid, paladin, warlock or even monk, I think the new class should become your primary focus.

Some things can't really be learned either. Sorcerers have an inborn magical ability, and not everyone is capable of rage like a barbarian. For these kinds of classes, I think there should be a cap on how many levels you can take. If you don't discover your talent until late in life, you simply won't have the time to develop it like someone else.