Saturday, December 3, 2022

Subclasses as Multiclassing [5e]

I do not like pick-a-level multiclassing as done in 3.x and 5e. The beginning levels of classes either aren't suited to high levels, or they often contain unexpected synergy with other classes (qv the Warlock's Pact Magic with the Paladin's Smite... not an egregious example, but Pun-Pun exists in that same space, as well). To my mind, a multiclass character is better represented with a subclass, and a multiclass dip is often best handled by feats.

So, I've been playing with subclasses for every class that represent a pseudo-multiclass option. Some of these already exist; the Player's Handbook has the Eldritch Knight (a fighter/wizard multiclass) and the arcane trickster (a rogue/wizard multiclass), plus Valor Bards (fighter/bard), Totem Warriors (barbarian/druids), and many more, both in the PH and other official books. Note that a fighter/wizard is distinct from a wizard/fighter... a fighter/wizard is a fighter who has picked up some wizard traits; a wizard/fighter is a wizard who has picked up some fighter traits (e.g. the Bladesinger)

I've got a number that I haven't posted yet that I am about to spam the blog with (sorry). I'm going to put them under the label multiclass, if you want to find them, and I'm going to index them here. The class down the left side is the base class, the class across the top is the class multiclassed into. Some, I've posted in the past; I'll try to add them to the multiclass label quickly.
Some of these classes are thematic models... the Great Wyrm Pact is obviously quite close to the Draconic Sorcerer in abilities and concept, but just a warlock with dragonlike abilities. The Bandit, however, borrows and modifies abilities directly from the class it emulates.

Oh, and most of them don't use the jump cut feature, because it has been borked for me for quite a while.

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