Demihuman and Multiclass Thieves

[James Maliszewski]

Supplement I notes that dwarves, elves, and hobbits can all progress as some other class while also progressing as thieves. In the case of elves, they can even be fighter/magic-user/thieves. While it's outright stated that XP is divided equally between all three classes, there is no explanation for how other benefits/abilities "split" (armor is an exception generally).

I'm curious to hear how people who've allowed multiclass thieves into their games have handled them. Likewise, the discussion of multiclass elf thieves seems to canonize the notion that elves advance simultaneously as fighting men and magic-users, with XP divided between the two classes. Does anyone have experience with alternative ways of doing this? That is, I've seen lots of other interpretations of how to handle the fact that elves are both fighters and MUs, but the addition of Thieves as a multiclass option seems to close off those interpretations as a possibility for Supplement I+ games. Has anyone come up with some other way to allow F/MU/T elves that doesn't use what will become the standard AD&D way of handling multiclassing?

[ffilz]

You could use any interpretation of elf progression based on Men & Magic for fighter and magic user progression, taking either 2/3 or 1/2 experience for fighter/magic-user and 1/3 or 1/2 experience for thief.

Another option, if you like the "elf chooses to be a fighter OR a magic user each session" option is to ignore the AD&D-like rule for thief multi-classing and state that all demi-humans multi-class like a thief.

I have to admit that I think I'm biased towards the AD&D system though. The either/or interpretations seem to allow an elf to be a magic user who can wear armor (since it seems that even when the elf chooses to be a magic user, he can always wear armor: "They may use magic armor and still act as Magic-Users."), and as long as the player can choose how XP is divided (if only by deciding to be a fighter OR a magic user on an expedition, and gaining XP in the chosen class), the character could always be advanced purely in magic user XP.

Frank

[philotomy]

May 28, 2008 10:50:46 GMT -6 ffilz said:

The either/or interpretations seem to allow an elf to be a magic user who can wear armor...

I like the "declare class/XP" method, but this could definitely be a problem. I haven't seen it happen, yet, but the loophole is there. How about this house-rule: if the Elf's Fighting Man level is less than half the Magic User level, no additional Magic User experience may be gained.

[dwayanu]

Aside: If you let multiclassers divide XP as they choose, and you want to keep them about a level behind in advancement ...

... double XP requirements for two classes, and quadruple for three.

[ffilz]

dwaynu: that keeps them a level behind if they single-class, but then it keeps them 2 levels behind if they actually multi-class...

The idea of allowing customization, but restricting XP if the balance is too far off is a nice one. One way to do it might be if you have more than twice as much magic-user XP than fighter XP (or visa versa), then any further XP assigned to the greater class is halved or something (of course that particular model sort of basically allows you to be 1 level higher in one class than the other.

Frank

[dwayanu]

Let's see:

16kxp =

F 5
MU 4
C 4
F/MU 4/3
F/MU/C 3/2/3

64kxp =
F 7
MU 7
C 7
F/MU 6/5
F/MU/C 4/3/4


Okay, maybe just x3 for three classes:

18kxp = F/MU/C 3/3/4

66kxp = F/MU/C 5/5/5

[rabindranath72]

In B/X I allow multiclassing by taking the most expensive XP table from all the classes, and dividing XPs earned by the number of classes. So, any multiclass with MU uses the MU table, with the exception of Elves which are adept at magic, so they are allowed to use the fighter table; incidentally, this method reproduces the B/X XP table of Elves. I would think it would work with OD&D, too.