how to fluff multiclassing wizard and druid

[newguydude1]

a fighter taking a sorcerer makes sense. fighter discovers magical power inside him and decides to train that instead of his fighting ability.

but wizards require college level training.
druids require initiation and learning a language that isnt taught anywhere.

so in a middle of a dungeon, deep underground, legally a fighter can take a wizard level or a druid level because these classes dont have prerequisites, but whats the fluff that lets him skip college level training and druid initiation?

[Doctor Despair]

They studied or initiated previously, but the lessons finally clicked after their most recent encounter

[Eldonauran]

... but whats the fluff that lets him skip college level training and druid initiation?
Depends on how you want to approach it. Perhaps the character had some training earlier in life and wasn't quite cut out for that particular path until they have had more life experience. Perhaps the character is able to intuitively grasp certain concepts and has been building on those ideas long enough to gain a working understanding of the subject?

Really, it comes down to how you view classes overall. Are they a set of abilities or is the fluff of such high importance that each class requires prerequisites like prestige classes do? That is up to the GM/DM to decide how they run their game.

[Psyren]

1) There's a whole prestige class designed for this combination (Arcane Hierophant). The background on that should give you some flavor ideas.

2) Wizards don't actually need formal schooling/Hogwarts - there are plenty of famous examples that simply apprenticed to a master or were even self-taught prodigies.

[H_H_F_F]

My solution is usually: you can't.

Meaning, you can't just turn into a wizard mid-dungeon without establishing first that your character has been working on a spellbook and mastering cantrips, or at least that they have interest in the arcane they've been working on (which can work for most arcane spellcasting classes)

If a player realizes mid-adventure they wanna go wizard, we work together. Maybe they'll take another fighter level and I'll let them retrain once they have the time. Maybe they take the Wiz level, but they can only use cantrips until they spend some time on a spellbook.

[noob]

If you give sufficient amounts of downtime you can say the character spent his downtime joining a druidic circle or learning magic or finding a riding dog and casting entangle.
Just give one year of downtime and even without previous training there is no logical problem and if the fighter already had ranks in arcana or knowledge(nature) you can shorten the period of learning without straining suspension of disbelief.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Personally, I'd make the character be interested in science. As in, studying and understanding the nature of the universe (ie, physics, mathematics, etc). In a fantasy world where magic is part of physics, that includes magic.

And unlike most divine magic, which is often siphoned from a deity, arcane magic is (in every setting that isn't the Forgotten Realms) derived by studying the universe, taking notes, and figuring out how to push the rules in such a way as to get a specific result -- that is, a spell.

Now druids, are all about living with nature, and nature is a big part of the universe. After all, everything that occurs in an untouched state is natural in some form or other. So studying how the world works could easily be what a druid's calling is. Deriving energy from nature itself is basically just pulling magic from the the same universe that wizards study.

Those two things are pretty much the same, although going about it with aligned but differing philosophies, and combining them isn't really difficult at all if you think about it a bit. It's similar to how scientists often go on expeditions to live in rainforests to study the ecologies there to find new chemicals to use as medicines to treat illness, or to study how animals and plants work together in the web of life.

So just have the character be interested in learning how the natural world works, and he stumbles on how the natural world can be described with math (that, when manipulated, makes magic) or starts feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of how nature and the maths he's studying are intimately intertwined.

[GrayDeath]

If you give sufficient amounts of downtime you can say the player spent his downtime joining a druidic circle or learning magic or finding a riding dog and casting entangle.

Which is all well and cool for him or her. I had a neighbour who was member of a Druidic Lodge for 2 years.
But how does their Character profit from that? ^^


Jokes aside, if the Character STARTS off with doing both Classes, its easy.
They were a Druid raised guy/gal who found the big 2 Suitcase Library of a Wizard who died in the Forest. Luckily all the books where in common, and they have been reading it in every free minute ever since.

Actually did something like that once. Was fun enough.

Now for more detailed answers we need to know if your DM treats levelups as "Computer RPG Click, levelup within a few seconds, done" or more Simulationist "each levelup takes a few days to 2 weeks of training/reading/casting/etc.

In the first case, you ahve a fluffless and bring game, but its easy to argue for it working.

In the second case, you need to spend time with Druids, or Wizards , and discuss/study/hug trees/watch how nature works/the works or use my "2 dropped Suitcases of books" Method.

[MoiMagnus]

(1) Middle of the dungeon level up will always be kind of absurd if you don't prepare for it significantly in advance. Even when preparing in advance, the fact that you unlock all the features/spells at once rather than progressively day after days of work will always be fill weird if you look too much into the details.

(2) With enough preparation and collaboration with the DM, you could say the following: "You found a master that accepted to train you during your previous downtime period. You showed some gift and were able to cast few spells in 'perfect circumstances', but were mostly unable to do anything in real-life circumstances. This is still an exploit you are proud of as some students take years to reach this level. As you train daily to finally master the spells you wrote helped by your master in you spell-book, you finally manage to cast your first spells without your master's help after levelling up."

(3) If the universe is too strict for "(2)" to work (you can't learn magic in a time that short), you can always have been at a university of magic in the past, drop out before really mastering anything, forgetting everything you learnt to focus on being a fighter, and now coming back to your old notes with a more mature vision, as you fully understand that this "useless theory stuff" you were mocking might save your life tomorrow.

[rel]

Let's face it, leveling up instantly, in the middle of the dungeon without training or equipment never made any sort of sense.

My wizard takes a level of fighter and suddenly gains proficiency in a dozen different weapons he has never touched before and can now wear armour without getting tired.

My fighter takes a level of rogue and goes from being the least stealthy member of the party by a long way to sneakier than the wizard and sorcerer despite wearing all that armour and carrying a literal golf bag full of weapons.

Hell, you don't even need to multiclass. The factotum could if they wanted level up and learn half a dozen languages while waiting for the party to finish looting the bodies.

If you want things to be internally consistent but don't want your game to focus on finding teachers and organising training time I suggest really leaning into the gaining of power as a tangible benefit of journeying into the dark places beneath the earth and confronting that which lurks in the darkness.
Taking classes out of the fluff layer of the game entirely and focusing on what the character is and want's to become can also help with verisimilitude.

[ChaosStar]

You shouldn't be able to level up in the middle of a dungeon. I'll have to check the books, but don't they say you can only level up in towns?

[newguydude1]

You shouldn't be able to level up in the middle of a dungeon. I'll have to check the books, but don't they say you can only level up in towns?

nope. thats your dms house rule.

you level up whenever you achieve enough experience, which is at the end of an encounter. you can choose to delay to level up however.

[Ramza00]

Druids are a divine spell caster class.

They talk to god, in this case the god is nature, a form of pantheism (Greek for Pan aka “all” and theos which means “God”.) And/Or Druidism can be a form of animism where you believe there are souls not just in humans or animals but also other things like plants and non organic objects, even the inanimate objects have souls. You may not see the spiritual part of the river, or the stone, but it too has its own form of being alive even if normal men do not have the language to describe it.

Thus flavor wise once a multiclass taps into the divine they learned the Druidic language. The “basic” structure of the language is telepathic engraved into their mind.

But even if you know the basic structure of a language, language is a cultural thing as well. Just knowing words is not the same thing as describing a richer experience with words. These things will be taught via people, the Druidic culture with its various sects. But culture is not a thing that is described by the game leveling system. A level 1 Druid vs level 3 Druid or a level 30 Druid may know the same amount or completely different amounts of Druid culture. The closest in game paper line on your character sheet would be the D&D skill system not the level or class system.

Yet non character sheets things like your backstory, and the active played story is more important than that.

[Segev]

Wizard/Druid with a necromancy / earth-and-stone focus: He recognizes the earth as a living thing; the bones of the earth are as much his to command as the bones of the dead. Life and death are part of a natural cycle; undeath is no more unnatural than causing plants to twist and move. It is the positive/negative energy balance in action. Undeath is just as natural as life, and nothing is eternal, not even the grave.

[Fouredged Sword]

Druids study.

Who's to say a druid's study of the natural world doesn't lead him into uncovering discoveries about arcane magic and set him down the path of unlocking some arcane spellcasting?

Druids frequently work with elemental magic. Dragons are associated with elemental magic and they are the source of arcane magic for a number of casters. Maybe your druid has met frequently over the years with a friendly copper dragon who lives in his area and has spent many hours talking about the differences between arcane and druidic casting.

[rrwoods]

Let's face it, leveling up instantly, in the middle of the dungeon without training or equipment never made any sort of sense.

*snip*
This is only true if you have the viewpoint that the mechanics of the game 100% model (a fictional) reality -- and, more importantly, that anything *not* represented by the mechanics of the game doesn't exist.

Your wizard taking a level of fighter is represented mechanically by (for example) the -4 nonproficiency penalty disappearing when they swing their greatsword. And yes that "feels" weird, because you aren't going to suddenly have a 20 percentage point increase in your chance to make a meaningful hit on someone "in real life".

So what?

There's a zillion other things that the mechanics abstract away; why are the things that happen when you level special?

More importantly -- it doesn't "suddenly click". Just because your character is a wizard who does arcane things during the "screen time" of the game doesn't mean they aren't trying to learn martial things "off-screen" -- or heck, if this really bugs you that much, do it "on screen" (or if you're the DM encourage your players to)!

I'm deliberately not going to respond to each individual example in the snipped post, because each one of them is based on this core assumption that is inherently flawed.

EDIT:

If you want things to be internally consistent but don't want your game to focus on finding teachers and organising training time I suggest really leaning into the gaining of power as a tangible benefit of journeying into the dark places beneath the earth and confronting that which lurks in the darkness.
Taking classes out of the fluff layer of the game entirely and focusing on what the character is and want's to become can also help with verisimilitude.
I realize now that this paragraph is probably trying to say the same thing I'm trying to say, from a narrative-first perspective instead of a mechanics-first perspective. Assuming that's the case, add my mechanics-first voice to the chorus!

[lylsyly]

Simply sticking to the title of the thread: Everytime I did the Arcane Heirophant thing I started out as a Wizard whom became more and more interested in nature. Then one day came across a Druid while travelling and struck up a conversation and earnestly expressed my interest in their style of magic.

As far as leveling up goes we have always ran our games in such a way that that ONE adventure only has enough XP avaiable to up us one level so that leveling up in "downtime" is the norm.