Multi-class annoyance

[Finarvyn]

Much of this my my fault, and not that of the rules, as I often ignore XP and just award levels as I feel they are deserved. I have been strugglilng with the notion of adding a second class to my character and have been thinking through the numbers and they annoy me a little.

First, I should note that I have earned "GM XP" for running games at the game store and I can apply this XP to a character I run in an official game. Our Sunday group has no thief but a bunch of spellcasters (myself included) and I thought to my self, "self, why not help the party by cashing in some GM XP and adding a level of rogue to my wizard. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

Then I tinkered with the numbers.

The XP chart goes something like 0, 300, 900, 2700, 6500, and so on. If I was to spend, for example, 300 GM XP I could start at 2nd level (or in my case 1st level wizard, first level rogue). Those 300 GM XP give me a nice advantage early on, since I have an extra hit die and extra skill proficienies, and stuff like that.

However, later on the advantage seems to go away. When the party reaches 6500 XP and hits 5th level, I would have 6800 XP and five total levels to make myself a 4th level wizard and 1st level rogue. I still have some nifty rogue stuff I can do, but I'm now behind the other wizard characters by a level. Those 300 XP that I invested early on have actually put me roughly 7000 XP short of keeping up with my peers (14000-6500=7500). And since the XP gap from level to level gets larger as we go up the chart, I get farther and farther behind. All to gain a little edge early on.

Is there something I'm missing here?

[Porphyre]

If multi classing goes in 5th edition like in 3rd, I think that you don't keep track of different scores for XP in each class: you add a level in whatever class you want when hitting the XP requirement .

So:
0 XP: Wizard 1
300 XP: wiz 1/th 1
900 XP: wiz 2/ th 1
2700 XP: wiz 3/th 1
6500 XP: wiz 4/ th 1
14000 XP: wiz 5/ th 1

or

0 XP: Wizard 1
300 XP: wiz 1/th 1
900 XP: wiz 1/ th 2
2700 XP: wiz 2/th 2
6500 XP: wiz 3/ th 2
14000 XP: wiz 3/ th 3

etc.

[Dohojar]

It works the same way as in 3rd edition. So you start your character as wizard. You have 300 exp (enough to level up) so you choose to take a lvl in the thief class so now you are lvl 1 wizard/level 1 thief but are considered a level 2 character just like Porphyre said.

Being a multi-class character will always put you behind compaired to a single class character. It has been that way since ad&d. Its the trade off for having more abilities than single class characters. I would even consider the elf class from basic as a multiclass character because they can use both magic and weapon/armor and elves need almost double the exp to level up compaired to the wizard or fighter class.

At least multi-classing in 5th edition does't require you to split exp between the two class and make you spend years of gaming just to get to level 10. Anytime you reach enough exp in 5th edition to level up, you can choose which of your classes you want to level up or even take a new class if you so desire.

[archersix]

I'd probably just advance more as a thief. Boom! Grey Mouser. YMMV of course :-)

[Finarvyn]

I know how the rule works, and it does seem to follow the 3E rule. My main point was those extra 300 XP to gain the level early turns out to really limit my character later on. Doesn't matter which class advances faster than the other.

May 10, 2015 20:19:36 GMT -6 archersix said:

I'd probably just advance more as a thief. Boom! Grey Mouser. YMMV of course :-)

I had thought about that option, but this could be the only chance I get to use the new spells in the Elemental Evil campaign. I hate to waste that chance.

[cooper]

However, later on the advantage seems to go away. When the party reaches 6500 XP and hits 5th level, I would have 6800 XP and five total levels to make myself a 4th level wizard and 1st level rogue. I still have some nifty rogue stuff I can do, but I'm now behind the other wizard characters by a level. Those 300 XP that I invested early on have actually put me roughly 7000 XP short of keeping up with my peers (14000-6500=7500). And since the XP gap from level to level gets larger as we go up the chart, I get farther and farther behind. All to gain a little edge early on.

Is there something I'm missing here?

Why would you expect it to be any other way? I think you may be hung up on the xp values which are not really germain. 1 level of another class puts you 1 level being a single class character exactly like 3E. The difference is they explain it differently.

[Porphyre]

May 11, 2015 6:23:33 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I know how the rule works, and it does seem to follow the 3E rule. My main point was those extra 300 XP to gain the level early turns out to really limit my character later on. 

That's probably why you can found lengthy discussion threads on 3+ ed forums about the "best way" to "build" a character , by "optimising" each class progression. 
And that's probably the reason why I never maneged to get into this editions. 

[cooper]

Which is why I recommend coming up with a backstory for any multi classing or a "new" class that requires a hint of rogue in a wizard build. Gray mouser has 3 levels of Mu, it's not optimal, but he started out as an apprentice to an alchemist so that's the character.

CharOp builds that are only interested in power are their own thing (kudos to those that like them) and are separate from a unique wizard class that incorporates a bit of rogue.