DMs, Stop Putting Up Barriers To Multiclassing

I've said it before, but for those who don't know me, I've played maybe three to five characters in my nearly 15-year career as a gamer who were single-class PCs. Every other character I've ever played (and there have been a lot of them, since my early gaming career was full of DMs who would run for about five sessions before scrapping the game to do something new) has been a multiclass character. Sometimes it was split right down the middle, and sometimes it was just dipping a toe or two into a second class, but they were never only one thing.

I've got two levels of swashbuckler. Fight me!

In all my time as a gamer, though, I've noticed that certain DMs will arbitrarily try to throw up red tape to keep their players from multiclassing. They demand that you spend in-game resources, seek out a trainer, and in some cases fold their arms until you prove to them that your story should be allowed to go in a particular direction.

This isn't making your game better. It's just enforcing class stereotypes, and restricting players' freedoms.

Work With Them To Craft A Solution

I talked about this forever ago in What's In A Name? How Character Class is Limiting Your Creativity, but I feel it should be repeated. Your class is, more often than not, just a name for a particular set of mechanical tools and abilities your character uses. A monk doesn't have to come from a monastery, a paladin isn't necessarily a knight in shining armor, and a cleric doesn't have to be a priest. These are just traditions and stereotypes we've attached to these classes, and our brains sometimes throw fits when we try to step outside the boxes we've put these classes in.

As long as a player's character follows the actual rules of the game (they maintain the required alignment, follow any attribute, skill, or spell requirements to take levels of the class, etc.) they aren't breaking the rules. And, as their DM, your goal should be to help your player realize their character, rather than throwing road blocks in their way.

Sure, you can take a level of wizard. After you give me a 5-page essay, and spend six in-game months with a teacher.

You see this most often in classes where spellcasting is concerned. After all, how would Hardwick have learned any spells, much less put together his own spellbook, in the middle of the jungle on a dungeon crawl? Especially if he's just a fighter?

Well, since you ask, there are a dozen different ways that occur to me. I'll give you a few.

- Hardwick became a mercenary because he didn't want to be a wizard. He still underwent several years of tutelage in his youth, though, and has the spellbook from when he was a novice.

- Hardwick is a smart guy, and he has seen his share of magic both from allies and enemies. Mimicking the gestures he's seen, and reading through arcane texts he's found crawling through dungeons, he's managed to figure out the core concepts of basic spells.

- Hardwick has had friends, family, and maybe even lovers who knew something about the mystic arts. As such, they've all tried to answer his questions, and show him an apprentice trick or two. All of that knowledge has finally culminated in his ability to cast starting spells.

These are just a handful of potential solutions, but you notice what isn't listed here? Something that makes a player spend their hard-earned resources in-game, or which acts as a time sink making them waste time looking for a teacher and attending lessons, taking time away from being an adventurer and following the plot they're actually a part of.

If They Qualify, Let Them Have Their Toys

Now, it should be noted that some games have restrictions on who is allowed into certain classes. Multiclassing in 5th edition requires you to have certain attributes at certain levels, for example. Certain prestige classes in Pathfinder require you to have a particular spellcasting level, a certain skill rank, or special requirements (killing someone to become an assassin, vanquishing a demon to become a hellknight, etc., etc.). If a players has already met those requirements, there's no reason for you to make it harder on them.

Or, worse, to just say no for no particular reason.

20 years of pitiless combat... but taking a few rogue levels is too much?

Now, it is your game, and as the DM you have the authority to say no if you feel that a player's build or actions are going to be a problem. However, if you know up-front that you're not allowing certain things (evil alignments, summoners, non-core races, etc.) then you should make that clear up-front when you talk to your players and set the ground rules. And if you're putting additional steps into the multiclassing process, make it clear that is how your game works before Eliza decides that her thuggish barbarian should really have more skills and some sneak attack.

But before you do that, ask yourself why? Why are you putting arbitrary restrictions on the building blocks your players are using, and when they're allowed to use them? And what, if anything, is this action meant to accomplish?

More often than not, you find the answers to those questions tend to suck a lot of enjoyment out of a game.

That's all for this week's installment of Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully it helps folks who are trying to have a constructive discussion regarding character building and career path. For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or just go to my Gamers page to see only the tabletop stuff. Or, if you want a little drama with your advice, check out the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help bring the world of Evora to life! To keep up on my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And if you want to help me keep creating content just like this, then tip me by Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or becoming a patron over on The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Either way, there's a lot of free stuff in it for you along with my thanks.

Your Story Progression Doesn't Have to be Linear (Even if Your Levels Are)

We all know how character advancement works in class-based systems. You start off at level 1 as little more than a pest removal agent, and you fight, cast, and plot your way to level 15 or 20 where you're ruling over nations, or winning wars with a wave of your hand. However, because level progression is linear, we also tend to tell stories that are linear. Bob the Fighter got tired of being a farmer, and left home at 17 to see the world, and make his fortune. A dozen years later, he's become a champion of nations, and his name is a whispered legend in the iron trade.

Also, only his childhood friends get away with calling "Robert the Red" by "Bob" these days.

However, it should be noted that nowhere in the level progression sections of our favorite games does it state that when we gain a new level, or when we multiclass, that we are necessarily learning unfamiliar skills. While the books make suggestions for explaining where you picked up new skills (like the ever-popular, "the wizard has been tutoring the bard, and thus the bard now takes a level of wizard," example), I'd like to propose an alternative.

That alternative is non-linear character progression.

What, Precisely, Does That Mean?

Flavor and mechanics need to work together. Your mechanics have to support your story, and your story has to inform your mechanics. However, it's also important to remember that your level does not, necessarily, dictate the story you're telling. Put another way, not every first-level character is a kid, out on their own for the first time. Some of them are characters coming out of retirement, who may be a little rusty on their former skills, or people who have forgotten, lost, or had stolen from them who they once were.

I've been a city guard for ten years. I don't know if I've got it in me to take on a dragon again.

I first covered this idea in The First Level Badass (Freeing Your Backstory From Level Restraints), but there was a practical use for non-linearity that I didn't hit too hard when I wrote that previous post. Namely that there are a lot of feats, prestige classes, and other mechanical concerns that have a story requirement to them. For example, in order for you to become an assassin, you have to be evil aligned, and kill someone for no purpose other than to take levels of this class. So how do you make that work if you also want to have levels of paladin?

It's quite simple, really. You were an assassin in your younger years, but you left that life behind, and turned your skills to a more righteous cause.

Storywise, that likely means your character starts out older than one would expect. He has a varied history, and some skills you wouldn't expect a righteous warrior to have. Things that are easily done by taking the right background traits at character creation, and perhaps dipping a few levels into rogue for the sneak attack, and better skill ranks. Mechanically, the character still needs to have the necessary skill ranks to take the class. However, the evil alignment and requirement to kill someone were taken care of in his backstory. It isn't that he's only just now learning these skills; he's always had them, but has simply not used them. And in many cases, actually using them would break his paladin oath, which explains why he never put those abilities to use as a story tool.

If that sort of scenario interests you, then you might also want to check out 5 Paladin Multiclass Characters (You'll Never Expect). Just saying.

This works for almost any situation that has a purely flavor requirement. In 3.5 you had to spend several years in the Underdark before you could take levels of Dungeon Delver. In Pathfinder, you need to slay a devil with HD greater than your own to take levels of Hellknight. This list goes on, but I think you get the idea.

If You Like It, Give It A Try

This is not a technique I would recommend for newer players. In order to make a non-linear story work with linear mechanics, you have to be a deft hand at both roleplaying, and at explaining what's going on in your current story. You need to make sure that mechanical inconsistencies jive with what's happening in regards to your story.

Most importantly, though, you need to be sure that you, and your DM, are on the same page regarding your character, and where you're going with it. Not every DM is going to be comfortable with this sort of storytelling, especially if it's used to justify flavor prerequisites for abilities or prestige classes. However, it is an option, and if you want to give it a whirl, then you might find it to your liking.

Hopefully folks found this week's Fluff post interesting, even if it's not something you'd consider doing at your table. Often all you have to do is mention something is possible to start expanding horizons. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, all you have to do is stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page, and leave a little bread in my jar. All it takes is $1 a month, and you'll get some sweet swag from me as thanks! Lastly, if you haven't done so yet, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?