multi classing

[spacemonkeydm]

I will be using the thief class from greyhawk cause my players want more class options. This has brought up the issues of mult iclassing. More to the point how to do it? I am thinking of when I give them xp to drop it into what class they chose to drop it into? Is that too simple or some how broken?
Also for starting hit points could they just roll both sets of dice at creation and divide the number by the classes. Than as they level up they reroll the hit dice again and divide by level.

[Deleted]

Here is a variant thief class suggested by one of the "Old Guard" from TSR's halcyon days. Frank Mentzer posted this over at the Dragonsfoot Forums.

THIEF
Greyhawk Page 4: Men & Magic
Characters (Additions and Changes)
Fighting men (including Paladins)
Magic-Users
Clerics

And: Most classes may choose to add new Abilities known only to Thieves, as follows:

• Any character not of Lawful alignment may add Thief.
  
• Once Thief is added, all XP is divided equally between the original class and Thief (see table of advancement).
  
• A character with Thief ability may at any time choose to permanently forego Thief progress. XP is no longer divided thereafter, but no further progress as Thief can ever occur normally (though some magical progress may be possible, such as by reading certain Tomes or using certain Artifacts). All abilities remain usable at the percentage chance of success previously obtained.
  
• Thief skills (abilities) are gained as given on the chart (Greyhawk pg 11): Open Locks, Remove Traps, Pickpocket, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Hear Noise.

Notes: Move Silently and Hide in Shadows are possible only if not wearing metal armor of any sort. Failure at the Remove Traps roll generally does not activate the trap. In this case a character may immediately try again to Remove the Trap, and this second attempt will almost certainly activate the trap if unsuccessful. All Thieves belong to a special Guild of such, and acquire their training thereby, in standard fashion. n.b.: Outside this Guild, no Thief is ever forced to reveal his Thief status, though over time such may become obvious to his or her fellow party members.

Cooperation: When more than one character with Thief ability attempts to Open Locks, Remove Traps, or Pickpocket (these three only), ADD the individual percentage chances of success to determine the joint chance, which action takes the same time as an individual attempt. If multiple characters are engaged in Trap Removal when the trap activates, and if the trap is target-specific (rather than an area effect), randomly determine which of the participating Thieves is targeted. Example: A character of Footpad (L2) status has a 15% chance to remove a trap, an action which normally takes 1 turn (10 minutes). If four Footpads cooperate, the cumulative chance is 60%, again taking 1 turn to execute.

Locks & Traps (modifiers): Note than an advanced Master Thief may have a listed 100% chance of success in these endeavors. This is by no means absolute. Certain locks may be rusty or specially made; traps may be unusually well-crafted or otherwise more difficult. Given such a rationale, the DM may apply a penalty (in 5% increments, i.e. -10%, -25%, etc.) to the attempt at handling such a lock or trap. However, this should in fairness be made known to the player in some general way (e.g. "The trap seems to be unusually small and well-protected..."). However, such devices should be infrequently encountered by parties and Thieves of lower levels.

[Deleted]

I realize you didn't ask about Thieves, but I thought the multi-classing rules he included might be of some use to you.

[zeraser]

My contention: If multiclassing appeals to your players, you might as well jettison the notion of classes altogether. Following Searchers of the Unknown's lead, I like to give all characters the mechanical profile of fighters who can also attempt thiefly maneuvers (Searchers links this process to AC, so that armored characters are less successful at acrobatics and stealth than unarmored ones). Then, if clerical or wizardly powers are desired, those could be acquired through research, communion, etc. - all tasks that you can explore in play and make more or less challenging and demanding to fit your taste. When initial mechanical distinctions between characters are thusly minimized, player skill - and, more importantly, player will - can really shine. If you have a player who's eager to pretend to be a fighter/mage/thief (as I often was, in my salad days), this is a system that allows for precisely that kind of flexibility, and nobody has to go to the trouble of writing "fighter/mage/thief" (or any other class) on his or her character sheet. It's also a great way to emulate swords and sorcery protagonists like the Gray Mouser... if emulating swords and sorcery protagonists is a priority for you, and considering how dead that particular OSR horse now is, I couldn't blame you if it weren't.

Now that I've typed all of that up, it sounds like it might be a lot of work for you, though.

[llenlleawg]

There's nothing especially "broken" about allowing the players to choose the class into which XP goes. The main impact is the speed at which the levels are gained. That is, if an elf F/MU/Thf can choose to put his experience points wherever he likes, then when he has become a 4th level fighter, he need never put XP there again, and so has only two classes to choose from (and likewise when he becomes and 8th level MU). Of itself, there is nothing wrong with this, and it does allow for having more varied mixes, e.g. a F/MU/Thf who is 1/5/2 or 4/1/3 or 1/2/7 or whatever.

On the flipside, if you always must divide XP, even if no new levels may be gained in one of the classes, then level gaining is always slowed (which may be a feature for you, not a bug). Note, that it is not slowed too much. With two classes, the classes tend to lag only one level behind their one-classes counterparts (and with three classes, sometimes 2 levels behind). For example, at 6000 xp, a fighter is level 3, a cleric level 4, an MU level 3, a thief is level 4, a F/MU is 2/2, a F/Thf is 2/3, a F/MU/Thf is 2/1/2, and a (half-elven) F/MU/Cl is 2/1/2.

Starting hit points you can either (a) keep track of each class' hit points, always using the higher/highest, and so add to that class' total when that class gains a level (which, at lower levels, gives multiclassed characters more hit points in general), or (b) at 1st level roll hit points for each class, add, and divide by total number of classes, and when a level is gained, add that die roll for the class, divided by the total number of classes. This is the AD&D method (and one possible reading of post-Greyhawk D&D) and tends to average out the hit dice.

EDIT: I corrected some of the levels above for the multiclassed characters.

[spacemonkeydm]

I am playing with a group of people who see Dungeons and dragons as a wargame/ puzzle game. Not really into deep role playing or anything like that.
I am so tired of sword and sorcery lol, I had to stop reading grognardia cause of it.

[Falconer]

Mar 5, 2013 10:34:19 GMT -6 spacemonkeydm said:

I am thinking of when I give them xp to drop it into what class they chose to drop it into?

That’s what I do.

[talysman]

I more or less do that, too. You can only gain experience in one class per adventure. Elves (etc.) can switch between classes at will. Humans can only switch to a class they have a 16+ prime ability for.

I believe the official rule for hit dice is the method described in the OP (roll for each class, total, divide by number of classes.) The way I handle it instead: just use the highest hit dice out of all your classes. No need to total all the dice or do any math that way.