I think this is the best way to finish up my series on classes by being a just a whee bit heretical. There really weren’t any multi-classing rules and, well, the races (especially the Elf) were the replacement.

This isn’t about that age old debate of race vs class. Do it how you want. I got no problems with that. Heck, I’ve done it both ways in various campaigns. But I do tend to lean a bit more towards the multi-classing option. Here’s my thoughts. You can use the four basic classes and then combine them to make most of the other classes that go beyond the basic four. Want to be paladin? Ok that’d be a Fighter-Cleric. Assassin or Ranger; Fighter-Thief. Bard; Thief-Magic User. Yes, i know those aren’t exact correlations. And you’d need to do a little more tweaking for Ranger. But you get the idea. Go right ahead and flex those creative muscles and work things out. Bend those rules.

Here’s the crunchy bits on how I handle. First, the decision to multi-class is made at 1st level and what classes the character has. The character has all the the abilities and weaknesses of all their classes, So the Fighter-Magic User can’t cast spells in armor. You could house rule that magic armor is OK. That’s up to you. For the attack bonus, use the better. Average their Hit Points. For the Saving Throw, use the worst one but use all of the bonuses. How many XP to level up? Just add them together. That way the character levels up in all of their classes at the same time.

This little technique may sound harsh but it keeps things simple especially with combining the XP into one lump sum. The character progresses slower but all the leveling happens at the same time. Just the price to pay for having all those abilities. What about racial level limits? Well. use them if you want to. I’ve rarely had it be an issue but it can happen in a long campaign or one with lower death rate.

Thanks for stopping by. Next week, I might spells or monsters. Just wait and see.

Like this post or others? Want to see more behind the scenes rants and stuff. Want to support the blog? Check out the RPG Pig Pen on Locals or the Patreon.