Q - MultiClassing (From Hyboria's Fallen)

[Supplement Four]

I'm reading through Hyboria's Fallen, and I see these two sentences: With any sort of Multiclassing, the character will lose access to the high level abilities of the thief character class. All of these combinations include this inherent weakness.

I don't understand that. Have I missed a multiclassing penalty or limit somewhere?

I mean, doesn't the above sentence mean that it will just take you longer to get to the high level abilities of the thief class because you're spending time learning another career?

Or, is there some limitation I haven't seen that says, if you multiclass, you can never go back to your old class?





For example, let's say you're a 1st Thief. At 2nd level, you chose to multiclass, becoming a 1st Thief/1st Soldier.

At 3rd level, you go back to your thieving ways, becoming a 2nd Thief, 1st Soldier.

At 4th level, you spend a year with the Zuagir, and you take that level as a Nomad. So, now, you're a 4th level character with 2nd Thief/1st Soldier/1st Nomad.

Or, do I have this all wrong (I may have...I don't know).



And, if I don't have this wrong, what does the bold sentence above mean?

 

[flatscan]

I'm reading through Hyboria's Fallen, and I see these two sentences: With any sort of Multiclassing, the character will lose access to the high level abilities of the thief character class. All of these combinations include this inherent weakness.

The Conan RPG levels cap out at Character Level 20. Currently there are no "epic" character rules for Conan. The quoted sentences are saying that if you're a 5th level thief and a 3rd level soldier, your character won't have access to 18th, 19th, or 20th level Thief abilities because your total Character Level caps at 20. In other words, the highest you could get (without introducing "epic" rules) is a 17th level thief, 3rd level soldier. Even if your character multi-classed only a single level, they'd cap at 19th level main class, 1st level multi-class and not have access to the 20th level main class abilities.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Conan RPG levels cap out at Character Level 20. Currently there are no "epic" character rules. The quoted sentences are saying that if you're a 17th level thief and a 3rd level soldier, your character won't have access to 18th, 19th, or 20th level Thief abilities.

Interesting. Thanks.

I saw that the game was designed for characters 10-12th level and below, but I didn't know it had a hard level cap at 20.

What about this sentence, from pg. 41 of the 2E rules on multiclassing: However, characters are encouraged to stick to one class for at least 10 levels so as to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules.


The Favored Classes rule provides three extra Feats, one at 1st level, one at 5th level, and one at 10th level.

So...

You run a 1st level Thief, and you're a Zamorian. You get an extra Feat at 1st level.

As a 2nd and 3rd level character, you pick up two levels as a multiclassed Soldier, so you're 1 Thief/2 Soldier.

You go back to Thief at 4th level. (2 Thief/2 Soldier)

Then, you go back to Soldier at 5th level and 6th level. (2 Thief/4 Soldier)

As 7th and 8th level character, you go back to Thief. (4 Thief/4 Soldier).

9th level sees you do the soldier thing again. (4 Thief/5 Soldier).

And, at 10th level, you become a Thief again...this time getting your Favored Class bonus feat, right? Because you're 5 Thief/5 Soldier.

From 10th level on, you stay a Thief, so, as a level 15 character, you're: 10 Thief/5 Soldier.




The line above from the 2E rule book implies that you cannot get your bonus feats if you multiclass before becoming a 10th level character...but, unless I'm doing something wrong, haven't I just shown how a character could still get all three of his bonus feats (and still have 5 levels to spare)?

 

[flatscan]

The Favored Classes rule provides three extra Feats, one at 1st level, one at 5th level, and one at 10th level.

You get a bonus feat as a Zamorian for 1st level Thief, 5th level Thief, and 10th level Thief. These are not Character Levels, but Class Levels. So, using your example of 15th level thief/soldier, in order to get all three bonus feats you would have to be a 10th level thief, 5th level soldier.

1st level Thief, Zamorian. You get an extra Feat at 1st level Thief.

1 Thief/4 Soldier. No bonus feat, even though your Character Level is 5 you don't have 5 Class Levels of thief.

5 Thief/5 Soldier. Zamorian here would get his 2nd bonus feat for 5 Class Levels of thief.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Favored Classes rule provides three extra Feats, one at 1st level, one at 5th level, and one at 10th level.

You get a bonus feat as a Zamorian for 1st level Thief, 5th level Thief, and 10th level Thief. These are not Character Levels, but Class Levels. So, using your example of 15th level thief/soldier, in order to get all three bonus feats you would have to be a 10th level thief, 5th level soldier.

That part is understood, and if you look at my example above, that's exactly what I described.

My question in that post had to do with the line from pg. 41 of the 2E rules on multiclassing: However, characters are encouraged to stick to one class for at least 10 levels so as to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules.

That infers that a character doesn't get all three Favored Class Feats if he multiclasses before level 10.

"...so as to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules."

Why wouldn't you gain all three Favored Class Feats if you multiclass before 10th level?

 

[flatscan]

This is from the d20 SRD:

Level

“Character level” is a character’s total number of levels. It is used to determine when feats and ability score boosts are gained.

“Class level” is a character’s level in a particular class. For a character whose levels are all in the same class, character level and class level are the same.

The Conan RPG amends the standard d20 Favored Class rules. A Zamorian character would get the bonus feats at 1st Class Level of Thief, 5th Class Level of Thief, and 10th Class Level of Thief. No matter what, he has to have 10 Class Levels of Thief to get all the Favored Class bonus feats. So a Thief 1/Soldier 9 Zamorian would only have one bonus feat because he has only one Class Level of Thief despite him having 10 Character Levels.

 

[Supplement Four]

So a Thief 1/Soldier 9 Zamorian would only have one bonus feat because he has only one Class Level of Thief despite him having 10 Character Levels.

I understand the difference between class and character levels.

Why do you suppose the book says, "However, characters are encouraged to stick to the one class for at least 10 levels so at to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules."

Why are characters encouraged not to multiclass before 10th level?

What penalty is the book inferring if the character does multiclass before 10th level?

Whether he multiclasses or not before 10th, he can still get all of his Favored Class Feats...so why the encouragement not to multiclass until after 10th level?

 

[Vortigern]

There are no penalties for multi-classing at low level, you can still get the bonus feats later if your class levels eventually qualify you for it.

That language I believe is simply talking about the natural consequence of not getting those bonus feats until potentially much later if you are aggressively multi-classing.

 

[kintire]

Why do you suppose the book says, "However, characters are encouraged to stick to the one class for at least 10 levels so at to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules."

Why are characters encouraged not to multiclass before 10th level?

You don't lose the feats for multiclassing before 10th level, but you do delay them. I believe the thinking is to encourage PCs from a particular nation to be at least somewhat representative of that nation until later in the game: Not oo many Aesir pirates, for example.

Also, of course, it is slightly misleading: you can multiclass into another class that your nation favours and still get the bonus.

 

[flatscan]

Why do you suppose the book says, "However, characters are encouraged to stick to the one class for at least 10 levels so at to gain the maximum number of feats under the Favored Classes rules."

Why are characters encouraged not to multiclass before 10th level?

It is a misleading sentence. It's not saying "take 10 levels of a class to the exclusion of all other classes and then a level of another class at 11th level" it's saying, "take at least 10 levels of a class to get all the favored class bonus feats." There is no penalty what-so-ever for multi-classing other than you won't have access to the highest level abilities of a class. Multi-classing is encouraged in the Conan rules set. Multi-classing in Conan is set up to emulate how Mongoose views Conan's career progression. He didn't take 10 levels of Barbarian before taking a level of Thief. You can make more out of the sentence you quoted if you want, but the truth of it is, it's just poorly written. :wink: