Multi Sub Classing idea

[sightlessrealit]

So yeah, this is kind of a thing that's hard to balance and mechanically it's not built to work.

But here's my take on doing it.

So we all love sub classes but some times you might go well, I love being an Assassin Rogue but I sure wouldn't mind my character also being a Arcane Trickster as well. So how would I get to be both?

Here's how

At 3rd level you get your sub class. All fine and dandy but next level you decided I'm also going to take the Arcane Trickster sub.

So, you'll get just that and your ability score improvement. Regarding your Arcane Trickster spells you learn what you normally would learn at the start of that but would have the spell slots of a 4th level Arcane Trickster.

But wait, what this seems to good. Now I can get both Sub Class features at 6th level! Nope, for each additional Subclass you take, you bump up your next sub class feature by one level. And you can only take the first subclass feature. Meaning at Seventh level you can take Assassins 6th level feature but not the Arcane Tricksters. At 8th level though you can choose to take the Arcane Tricksters subclass 6th level feature. So it's a still pretty strong feature but it is gated a bit. Of course this bit could instead be bumped up an additiona

Regarding instances where you would get a subclass feature and a class feature in the same level. You only get the sub class feature. This is just to prevent getting the same class feature again.

[Honest Tiefling]

I think if the entire table wanted to do this, it'd be simpler to just gestalt 2 subclasses. Maybe have a limitation that you can only do that for your starting class.

Not all features are the same, so getting a powerful one later might still be a better trade off then getting a weak ability.

[lunaticfringe]

Agreed just do a Gestalt. With Archetypes Rogue/Rogue would work you just wouldnt be as flashy as say a Thief/Bladesinger. (Having played Assassin, it's my least favorite Rogue)

[Afrodactyl]

How about having it so you can select a new sub class instead of the upgrade for your other sub class? So when you hit level six as an assassin, you take the level three arcane trickster, and have the spells as per a level three arcane trickster rather than a level six trickster.

[lperkins2]

The issue is with front-loaded subclasses (Wizard being probably the most extreme example). There are 3 options. The simplest is to simply not allow it. The second is to look at each class and decide how to do it, usually calculating a total-class-level and a sub-class-level for each subclass, or in a high-power campaign letting a player pick which subclass benefit to gain at each level.

The third way, which seems to be balanced for all classes, is to treat it as a full multiclass. Remember that, unless specifically stated, gaining the same feature from multiple sources doesn't stack, so this will generally mean a significant power hit. Spellslots available will scale as normal for the class, spells known/prepared/max-level will not. No new skills or saves. Things like druid's wildshape duration don't increase, you might let the druid wildshape 4 times between rests instead of 2, if you count moon-druid's wildshape as different from land-druid (it sorta is, since the CR cap is different, as is the action economy).