Quote Originally Posted by Craft (Cheese) View Post
If I might ask, what's the problem with one-level dips again?
in the right system? nothing.

however, "1 level dips" in the context of a system like 3rd ed made me cringe.

why? IMO system failure, pure and simple.

i had a hard time making some characters, like non-casters, feel useful or viable without abusing the dip due to the need of some resources, normally feats, to make some maneuvers more reliable or some combat styles capable of pressuring the enemy. on the flipside, multiclassing away from your normal caster progression was usually a penalty to yourself unless you were doing so specifically to meet the prerequisites to a PRC or feat.

multiclassing into a caster was just not done at all (unless, again, you needed it to meet some prereq), as the spells you gained were normally quite weak, often easily repelled and their duration ignorable.

now, a few characters i've seen had "in character" reason to multiclass as they had gotten a life-changing event happen, but IMO the multiclass system failed to properly show that.

very rarely was that multiclass something radical, like from 3rd ed paladin to wizard or vice versa as this would often hurt the character in either the short run, long run or both, and oftentimes such a character becomes the millstone of the group so it was usually into a "one class removed" (like from fighter to ranger) and didn't change much other then the character suddenly gaining a lot of front-loaded abilities.

a radical change in style, like from wizard to paladin, needs to be something the system can handle if it's going to do multiclassing in the dip fashion. in the most serious of cases, i've seen done and recommended a character rewrite: scrap the old sheet and redo it from scratch to match the character's new outlook as the current system failed to represent it mechanically without needing to play another 3 months to gain several levels.

if it's simply a multiclass because the character wants to dabble into something new, then i would say multiclassing is the wrong way to do so. a ranger who wants to learn a few arcane spells should not be a ranger/wizard and there should be a system in place to allow for a slight dabbling that doesn't require your character to give up his class progress.

do i believe a one-dip multiclass can work? yes, but for it to be balanced, it needs to be implemented alongside the rest of the system in a way that account for it.

from what i've seen with next, it currently doesn't seem like that system: it has lots of front-loading on the melee guys' side and casters lose out on their ever-important spells. multiclassing into a caster also seems like a rather bad idea unless you already have the stats to be a caster, and you're still going to be lacking the higher level spells & effects, basically making you a worst caster AND a weaker fighter at the same time then a single class of your level.

themes/specialties also don't seem to give enough IMO to represent dabbling. a fighter capable of casting "detect magic" or mage hand once per day at first level or a single casting of cure light wounds per day at level 3 doesn't feel like he's dabbling enough for my liking to take the Arcane initiate specialization or divine magic specialization seem worthwhile.