Level 20 and multiclassing

[dededo11]

Has anyone ever had, or heard of, a party of sinlge classes characters reaching level 20? Is it necessary for a character to multiclass to be strong enough to survive to reach level 20, or can a party of single classes characters do it?

[Griswold]

I usually see people talking about multiclassing as a way to optimize characters. None of the published adventures really require any optimization.

In addition, multiclassing isn't great unless you're going for something very specific, because usually you're giving up something by starting a new class. Each of the classes is built to be quite good until level 20. Some people will argue that you should usually multiclass out of certain classes (i.e. Ranger's not amazing after level 5), but staying in Monk, Wizard, or any full caster for 20 is usually your best bet.

[dededo11]

So which classes should be multiclassed out of?

My party consists of
A Variant Human Abjurer Wizard
A Feral Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue
A Variant Human Battlemaster Fighter (Going for an archery fighting style)
A Hill Dwarf Life Cleric
A Half Elf Oath of the Ancients Paladin

Should any of these fellows multiclass?

[Jasder]

No, all of those are fine single classes. Several of them could multiclass fairly well with others, but I'd say unless you have roleplay reasons or a specific build you want I wouldn't bother with multiclassing.

[Griswold]

So which classes should be multiclassed out of?

My party consists of
A Variant Human Abjurer Wizard
A Feral Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue
A Variant Human Battlemaster Fighter (Going for an archery fighting style)
A Hill Dwarf Life Cleric
A Half Elf Oath of the Ancients Paladin

Should any of these fellows multiclass?

Those are all solid single classes. I don't think any of them have a pressing need to multi-class, especially since:


Fighter's the only way to get more than 2 attacks per action
If a Wizard or Cleric multiclass, they lose out on their access to the highest possible level of spells.
Rogues lose sneak attack progression.
Paladins have great features every level.


Multi-classing usually opens up options for versatility at the expense of raw power. For example, sometimes people will do the following. Not always, but sometimes.


Arcane Trickster Rogues dip 1 level of Wizard to gain access to more low-level spells and ritual casting.
Melee-heavy Rogues, Clerics, and Wizards can dip 2 levels of Fighter for proficiencies, fighting style, and action surge.
Paladins multi-class after 6 into Sorcerer for more spell slots to smite with, and metamagic to quicken buffs. Check out the Unlimited Blade Works Sorcadin guide on this forum. This is probably the only option that increases your overall power.
Druid or Bards dip a level of Life Cleric to boost their healing spells.

[PeteNutButter]

So which classes should be multiclassed out of?

My party consists of
A Variant Human Abjurer Wizard
A Feral Tiefling Arcane Trickster Rogue
A Variant Human Battlemaster Fighter (Going for an archery fighting style)
A Hill Dwarf Life Cleric
A Half Elf Oath of the Ancients Paladin

Should any of these fellows multiclass?

Of that list the only one that should even feel inclined to multiclass might be the fighter. After fighter 11, there isn't much going for the class all the way until it gets its fourth attack as a capstone. That isn't to say that the fighter will fall behind. 11 levels of fighter is plenty strong enough to make any character competent all the way to 20.

All of them could multiclass, but they aren't at all required to (including the fighter).

Basically your approach is off. If you're worried about your party being strong enough... well don't. D&D is a game where the DM is going to adjust the difficulty to keep it fun for the players. The only real concern is when some characters are optimized playing with a bunch of noobs. If you're all noobs or all optimizers it doesn't make much of a difference. Even so 5e, isn't nearly as diverse in character builds in comparison to 3.p or whatever. Optimized characters are not multiple times better than regular ones. You can get by with pretty much anything.

[Chronos]

Multiclassing doesn't usually increase power. Usually, what it does is increase versatility. But you can also get that from a party of several different single-classed characters.

In the uncommon cases where it does increase power, it usually does so by hyperspecialization, like the sorcadin who can go supernova on a boss. But if you're spending all of your resources on a single fight, then you're not too useful in a large number of smaller fights.

EDIT: Oh, I should also add: My first party went all the way from 1st level to 15th, and we don't do multiclassing. And when we retired, it wasn't because we were feeling overpowered, but just because all of the characters seemed to be in a good place to retire. We had a totem barbarian, a war cleric, a vengeance paladin, an arcane trickster rogue, and an abjurer wizard, plus sometimes either a fey warlock or a lore bard (two guys take turns DMing).

[CTurbo]

Multiclassing is NEVER required to have a great character. In many cases, a single class character will be stronger overall. Multiclassing does increase versatility.

Some classes like Paladin and Monk I usually recommend against multiclassing at all, but some classes like Ranger and Warlock I usually recommend only in small doses.

[RogueJK]

Arcane Trickster Rogues dip 1 level of Wizard to gain access to more low-level spells and ritual casting.


Or more.

Elven or Half-Elven Arcane Tricksters benefit greatly from 2-6 levels of Bladesinger, for +INT to AC and Concentration, faster movement, Arcane Recovery, Rituals, additional higher level spell slots for upcasting, additional cantrips and 1st/2nd/3rd level spells known, potential earlier access to 2nd/3rd level spells, and potentially Extra Attack.

[Blood of Gaea]

Multiclassing really depends on the goal of your PC build, and the levels you want to be most effective at (usually ~3 to 12). All the classes work just fine as a single class, especially with the right multiclass.

[jas61292]

I actually think single class characters tend to be more likely to reach 20 than multiclass ones. The tricks and versatility that certain multi-classes can provide are sometimes pretty awesome, but doing so often puts you behind in other ways. For example, I personally trust the 9th level Sorcerer who can cast 5th level spells to be more likely to survive and keep progressing than the 7th level Sorcerer/2nd level Warlock who has some nice short rest recharge and eldritch blast, but only 4th level spells. Obviously, everything is situational, and depends a lot on the specific adventures as well as who else is in your party. But I feel like a large portion of multiclassing is to give yourself more to do or to be able to use specific neat combinations, more so than directly make you stronger.

In fact, there are very few cases where I would argue that any given multiclass is better than any given single class involving the same main class. I know one that gets pointed out sometimes as an example is Wizard 19/Fighter 1 or Wizard 18 Fighter 2 as being better than Wizard 20, but that's really only "true" once you reach the highest levels. Prior to level 18, if you have taken any Fighter levels then you will be a spell level behind half the time or more, which can really hurt. And even if you wait that long, taking a Fighter level at 18 means pushing back Spell Mastery, which is incredibly powerful. And by the time you hit levels 19 or 20, is it really worth spending a full level just to boost your AC? I personally don't think so.

Again, none of this is to say that multiclasses are bad. But multiclassing is a tradeoff. And often times what that trade is is pushing back strong abilities in order to get other good, but weaker, abilities, faster.

[Blood of Gaea]

And even if you wait that long, taking a Fighter level at 18 means pushing back Spell Mastery, which is incredibly powerful. And by the time you hit levels 19 or 20, is it really worth spending a full level just to boost your AC? I personally don't think so.
You go from ~15-16 AC (Mage armor + 14-16 Dex) to ~20 AC (Medium armor, 14 Dex, defense, and a shield). The second level gets you action surge, and being able to cast two spells in one turn per short rest is actually a very notable capstone. That's pretty notable, especially as Wizards don't really need their last ASI, as they've long since gotten 20 Int and likely at least a couple feats.

You _can_ take your 1st level for more AC throughout the game along with Con proficiency, but it's not needed to be a good combination.

[Randomthom]

If you have a small group then the versatility offered by multiclassing can make the difference sometimes between checking out early and making it to the promised land of lvl 20. It allows you to pick up spells or abilities that your group might need (e.g. healing magics or reliable survival skills).

With a larger group you're more likely to want to focus on your niche (e.g. sneaky skillmonkey or controller wizard) as someone else will likely have the other needs of the party covered.