Quote Originally Posted by jinjitsu View Post
Dips feel cheap to me, like the RPG progression equivalent of a deus ex machina.
I don't see any connection between dips and either cheapness or a deus ex machina.

Walt Disney took a dip in Animator before his major levels in Director and Producer.
Many actors took a dip in some other profession for awhile.
Stan Lee took a dip in producer after many, many levels of Comic Book Editor.
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable gentlehobbit, took a one-adventure dip in Burglar.
Cardinal Richelieu, a life-long cleric, took a dip in Politician.
Snow White, a princess, took a dip in Housekeeper for seven miners.
I took a dip in Ranger (two years as a Philmont Ranger while studying mathematics and statistics).
Captain America took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean between times as a super hero.

The idea of having only one profession all your life is simply not supported by the evidence, in either real life or fantasy literature.

Quote Originally Posted by Mordante View Post
Maybe DnD should move away from character levels.
Why? People are using them and enjoying them and buying the books that support them.

We vote against character levels with threads like this, and vote for character levels by buying the splatbooks that add to them.

Wizards of the Coast only counts the latter votes.