Saturday, May 11, 2024

AD&D Multiclassing, Level Limits, and XP Division

 So, an idea I had a number of years ago that recently floated across my brain. It is primarily for 1st edition, but works ok for 2e (where level limits are higher). Now, my preference is to get rid of level limits altogether, but that's a bit too much change for some people. This is a tweak to make multiclassing less onerous once you've hit level cap on one of you classes.

When you multiclass, you divide your XP between two classes... a fighter/thief gets 100xp, they get 50xp in each class. However, once they hit the fighter level limit, they still have to give half their XP to the fighter class... they're not getting any better, but they're paying full price for it. This changes things a little.

Under these rules, you still divide your XP... but only until you have paid for your maximum level again. Alternatively, you can look at it as post-cap level gains in your continuing class as having a "tax" of your old class's XP.

So, let's have an example. A 1e Halfling has a fighter level limit of 4, and is unlimited in thief. You hit 4th level fighter at 8001 XP, and at that point you're also a 4th level thief. You get to 10,001 XP, you become a 5th level thief. Normally, you would get  6th level thief in another 10,000 XP, at 20,001. That would require you to earn 20,000xp, though, since you're splitting it in half. In this case, though, you only have to earn 18,000... 10,000 to earn thief, and 8000 to keep up your fighter side.  7th level thief takes a single-classed character 22,500 XP, and a multiclass character 45,000 XP. Under this, it would cost 30,500 XP... 22,500 for a new level of thief, and 8,000 to keep up your fighter side. 8th level is 70k, or another 27500 for a single classed. Instead of 55,000 for a multiclass character, it would be 35,500... 27500+8000.

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