How do you explain multi-classing?

>>50725603
IC or OOC?

>>50725603
OK, so like, you have your class that you picked, but then you take a second class, so you split the XP you get between your first and second class. When you advance a level in your first class, you roll your HP for both classes but only get the average of both rolls...

Wait, is that dual-classing? This shit's complicated.

>>50725603
I... don't even understand the question. What is there to explain?

>>50725628
IC, I just can't see some adventurer randomly learning to be a spellcaster or warrior over night.

i don't multiclass to much but i try to make it make sense. TIme skips are helpful. My group doesn't let you take levels in the middle of a dungeon, you have to wait to go back to town usually, so we generally explain it by time spent in town learning. Some are easier than others. Find religion and become a cleric or paladin. Make a deal with an eldritch being and pick up a level in warlock. Manifest under stress and discover you were a sorcerer all along and just didn't know it (that one's bullshit, i'll admit). Spend time in questionable company and learn a bit about being a rogue. etc etc.

>>50725671
Well, I usually suspend lvlups to downtime, so you could easily think of a way to explain it there.

>>50725603
a person spends longer training because they are training in 2 opposing fields. one emphasizing knowledge over physical might and vice versa. thus they may be level 10 but they will only be a level 5 wizard + level 5 fighter or whatever. they're a jack of 2 trades if you will.

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Similar classes/archetypes/whatever should be able to cross-train fairly easily. More drastic jumps need either downtime or prior planning such that the character has been obviously building towards this jump for some time. basically, reward players for sticking with a theme whether it's a build they planned from the start or something that's growing organically.

>>50725603

You're playing a shit system?

>>50725671
If your players don't roleplay training and researching that's on you.
Unless you think PCs level up in a flash of fucking golden light like an MMO and just know how to fight gooder innately.

>>50725671
But they don't. Multi-classing happens at level 1.
You pick multiple compatible classes and split experience between them.

Unless you mean dual-classing, in which case a human gives up all benefits of their old class until their new class reaches the same level and can never advance in their old class again. Not to mention that they need a strong aptitude for their new class to begin with.
That is never a decision to be made lightly.

>>50725630
>Wait, is that dual-classing?
>This shit's complicated.
No it's not.

You start leveling a second class from scratch.
All XP goes to that class, and all benefits are received from levelling.
If you use abilities from an old class before outleveling it, then you take a huge XP penalty.

You need a 17 in a classes main attribute to switch to it.
You don't need a good score related to your current class.
Either way, you can never raise the old class's level.

Humans only, because multi-classing is for subhuman level-limited filth.

>>50725603
Does PF even have rules for multiclassing? I know people do it, but is it kosher?

>>50725603
Wizard does calisthenics every morning and all of the children in his village had basic militia training from the ages of 8 until 16. Just because he was the local wizard's apprentice did not exempt him from training. Fighter1/Wizard1

>>50725603
IC: physically weak character was forced to learn how to fight. It was a long campaign, serious shit happened, he have spent few years training, mostly for self defence, just to survive. It was hard, but quite nesessary.

>>50725603
Only really works in situations where professions might overlap
Say, a Ranger, goes about doing his Rangerly duties saving bunnies and whatnot in the wilds might take a keen interest in magics of a natural type and study or consult druidic ways eventually you get a Ranger/Druid multiclass so he can speak to bears and tell them to stop killing pack mules in their own language.
Or maybe he thinks over to spiritual matters of nature, what is it that births a dryad form a tree, what determines which way the wind blows, in this case he might turn to more shamanistic pursuits.

On the other hand if he suddenly decides "Hey I'm going to look into demonic pacts and magics!" to multiclass with warlocking, that's a bit of a stretch and merits a slapdown

>>50725603
You know how in movies the good guys tend to be decent at a lot of things rather than having a laser focus on being able to do one thing super awesomely?

Like that.

That being said, class-based systems are a poor method for recreating media figures for exactly this reason, outside of classes that are 'this media figure: the class'

>>50725603
When I'm roleplaying a multi-class character, I always roleplay them training up the skills that are pertinent to their new class. For instance, when I played a battle-sorcerer spellscale, who picked up levels of barbarian, I wrote him up having a history of rage issues, specifically towards other spellcasters, then roleplayed him finding a clan of barbarians and living with them for a while and training with them. Then when he went into the rage-mage prestige class, I roleplayed him finding another rage-mage in the world who taught him to blend his rage with his magical prowess, and bam, sensible multi-class character, and great motivations for adventuring. As a DM I require players to do this sort of roleplaying if they want to multiclass. For instance, I had a paladin who also wanted to take levels of monk, so I forced her to train with monks before she could take levels in it. Pretty simple.

how do you explain classes at all?
protip: you don't
they're obsolete concept that should die long ago and liberate rpg characters from the prison of shitty label-boxes
classless 4 life
t. karl marks

>>50727574
there's variant multiclassing, which gives up feats and whatnot for secondary class abilities. I don't like it much.

Alternatively, there's the usual way. You take 2 levels of X then take a few levels of whatever. It's sometimes tricky to do the bookkeeping, but I look at it like accounting.

~60% of my builds end up multiclassing some sort of way

>>50727942
Classes are fine. They're a reasonable trade-off for flexibility to have strong archetypes and aid in chargen.
What's bad is when you use them in your world as if they're career paths or some shit like that.
There isn't a Fighter School and a Rogue Academy, dammit. That's not how it works.

>>50726205

getting all your health back and a power boost immediately when you level up is the best part of vidya RPGs

>>50729993
Gladiators arenas and thieves guilds are cool concepts though.

>>50727942
How do you explain professions at all?
Exact same shit, a nurse is a nurse his job is tending the ill, his title is nurse.
A ranger is a ranger who's job is to range an area and make sure everything stays in check, nobody's getting mauled by bears, no dingos running off with babies, no wild haggis eating the local deer etc.

A class is no different from a profession, it's a skillset and role that an individual performs for their livelihood, whether you're a Paladin or an Office Drone it's all just putting you in a box for your skills

>>50725603
Sometimes, instead of zapping a nigga, you gotta stab 'im, and you gotta know how.

>>50725603
Much like how you play a character instead of an alignment, you also play a character instead of a class.

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>>50725603
Plan ahead.
>Playing sword-and-board defensive warrior in a 3.P game.
>Know the system, so does the party, not going to go full martial, just enough to keep the party alive for the early levels and then transition into Gishtypes.
>Fellow player is putting together a Witch.
>Witchguard Ranger works just fine.
>Play as Witch-PC's bodyguard and apprentice, trading martial skill for tutelage.
>Ranger4 with Sword-and-board style before dipping into Wu Jen 2: Learning from master but both of them recognize that the Witch style won't suffice for the bodyguard's role nor his persona.
>Metal spec, keeping the armor aspect relevant but switching out for armor-boosting spell "Steel Shadows, from Tome of Magic with DM approval.
>Start running into enemies that cannot be warded off with sword-and-board due to supernatural nature. I am not terribly helpful but low-level spell attacks keep their attention on me with taunts and intimidation while the rest of the party circles, kites, and whittles them down.
>By lvl 10, Ranger4/Wu-Jen2/Abjurant Champion4, decent spellcaster with no-save damage attacks, good BAB and remarkably high AC (Steel Shadows is an Abjuration spell that grants both Armor and Shield bonus, both of which are boosted by AbjuChamp). Gone from medium-armored warrior to Fashionable-Chains-Abound-On-Bitchin'-Coat defensive warrior who grabs and tears at enemies to keep them off the debuffers, healers, blasters and skill-monkies.

Going into Elemental Savant after finishing Abjurant Champion, gonna variant metal element focus and trade the Energy Resistance for DR/- of the same value, and spell damage is going to convert to Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing for things like Fireball being converted to Shrapnel Sphere.