D&D 3.5e, multiclassing feat troubles

[FoIded_Phoenix]

if I'm level 3 in one class, and then I get to level 3 in the other class, do I get another feat?

[Koo Rehtorb]

Yes. But not because of why you think you do.

[PrismCat21]

Feats don't care about class level.
You gain feats at every 3rd Hit Dice, as well as 1 feat at your very first Hit Dice.
The only time class level comes in is if it's a prerequisite for a feat.

[Kelb_Panthera]

To be a little clearer, you total all of your levels in all of your classes to determine how many feats you get. If you're a rogue 5/ fighter 4 then you get 4 feats from having 9 levels. Adding a 6th level of rogue won't make any difference but adding 2 more in rogue and 1 more in fighter would get you a 5th feat based on your character level.

[Nifft]

if I'm level 3 in one class, and then I get to level 3 in the other class, do I get another feat?

Every creature in the world gets a feat at its first hit die (HD), and then another feat every time it gains a HD which is a multiple of 3.

Each one of your class levels gives you a HD, so you get feats at level 1, level 3, level 6, etc.

Monsters which don't have class levels also get feats, on the same schedule, using their monster HD instead of level.

So, it doesn't matter which classes you take -- every (HD/3) gets you a feat, and every class level gets you a HD.

[PrismCat21]

To be a little clearer, you total all of your levels in all of your classes to determine how many feats you get. If you're a rogue 5/ fighter 4 then you get 4 feats from having 9 levels. Adding a 6th level of rogue won't make any difference but adding 2 more in rogue and 1 more in fighter would get you a 5th feat based on your character level.

Character level means nothing.
Class level means nothing.
Character level and Class level are two very different things.
.
Hit Dice is the only thing that matters.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Character level means nothing.
Class level means nothing.
Character level and Class level are two very different things.
.
Hit Dice is the only thing that matters.

For any newb this fresh, there's no functional difference between level and HD.

[PrismCat21]

For any newb this fresh, there's no functional difference between level and HD.

Would that be class level or character level?
You began by talking about class levels and then suddenly switched to character level without bothering to say there's even a difference.

Giving a 'newb' bad information, is bad.
Your post claimed to be making it more clear. It doesn't.
You gain new feats by your number of Hit Dice. You didn't even bother to mention Hit Dice.
...but apparently HD is the same as character level now...

[Mordaedil]

Is there actually a difference? Hit dice are composed of your monster race levels and all of your class levels. Character levels are composed of your racial hit die and your class levels. They count as the same thing as far as game mechanics are concerned.

[Ruethgar]

Effective Character Level includes Level Adjustment which has no Hit Die. Also, because Bloodline Levels can’t boost your ECL but do increase your Class Levels there are a few things that they change the normally applied rules for. Then there is the strange case of Awakened Animals, many of which have effectively negative LA for an Effective Character Level 1 with 3.25 Hit Die.

Ex: An Awakened Cat, Barbarian 2/Minor Lycanthrope Bloodline 1/Were-Tiger 1/Tiger 1

This little kitty has an ECL of 4(or 3 if the Were-Tiger is allowed to be immediately bought off), a Class Level of 5, and effective HD of 6. The glossary definition of just Character Level(not effective) would put this kitty at Character Level 5.

If he was instead a templated lycanthrope instead of classed, this will lower to Character Level 3. However the Effective Character Level would jump to 10. And have 11 Hit Die.

[Nifft]

Is there actually a difference? Hit dice are composed of your monster race levels and all of your class levels. Character levels are composed of your racial hit die and your class levels. They count as the same thing as far as game mechanics are concerned.

Normally there's not much difference.

It gets a bit confusing if you use WotC's official "Monster Class Progression" which mix LA and HD into a thing they call "class level".

But yeah, for normal play within the PHB there's not much reason to distinguish between them.

[PrismCat21]

Is there actually a difference? Hit dice are composed of your monster race levels and all of your class levels. Character levels are composed of your racial hit die and your class levels. They count as the same thing as far as game mechanics are concerned.

Quite a big difference. Ruethgar has provided a couple good examples for you.
If you're still convinced otherwise, please, provide some source that claims Hit Dice = Class Level.

[Malimar]

The differences are subtle. Roughly:

• class level = levels in one class
• racial hit dice = levels from race not including level adjustment
• level adjustment = non-hit-die units to bring monstrous races in line with non-monstrous classes
• race level = racial hit dice plus level adjustment (as in Savage Species monster classes)
• hit dice = levels in all classes plus racial hit dice
• character level = levels in all classes plus racial hit dice
• effective character level = hit dice plus level adjustment

Class level is used to determine features of that class, race level is used to determine features of a monster class, effective character level is used to determine encounter challenge and experience awards, and hit dice are used to calculate most everything else (including, as in the original question, feats).

(Luckily, nobody uses bloodline levels except for cheese purposes, so most people don't need to know the strange and bizarre ways they interact with the above.)

Then there is the strange case of Awakened Animals, many of which have effectively negative LA for an Effective Character Level 1 with 3.25 Hit Die.

Source for this?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Quite a big difference. Ruethgar has provided a couple good examples for you.
If you're still convinced otherwise, please, provide some source that claims Hit Dice = Class Level.

Nobody that's been playing the deeper game for 3.5 thinks class level, character level, HD, and ECL are the same thing. That doesn't change the fact that there's no functional difference between the last 3 of those if you're playing one of the overwhelming majority of races presented specifically for PC use. A total newb like the OP is almost certainly playing one of the PHB races and virtually no PC race has racial HD. Being inundated with new, mostly useless information isn't helpful to most people.

[Ruethgar]

Source for this?

Dragon Magazine #293. Most of the article was voided with later publications, but the Awakened Animals are still a legal option.

Being inundated with new, mostly useless information isn't helpful to most people.

But the point was that providing inaccurate information is bad. Simple is fine, or with qualifiers, but false information only leads to misconception later on. While it is not overly important for a PHB only character, a Lycan for a new player is certainly not unheard of and there are differences there depending on how it is taken.

[Mordaedil]

Quite a big difference. Ruethgar has provided a couple good examples for you.
If you're still convinced otherwise, please, provide some source that claims Hit Dice = Class Level.

You mean the monster manual that details the various base races?

Ruethgar was talking about ECL, which is different from just character level. Character level just means all of your cumulative class levels + racial hit dice for determining certain effects, such as benefits from certain feats will sometimes ask for character level instead of class level, and then that is what they want. They don't want your ECL.

Malimar's post outlines what I mean.

[HighWater]

Alright, less infighting, more constructive answer-giving?...

@Op, the short story is that in your case, all you have to take into account is this excerpt from the Player's Handbook:

7. Feats: Upon attaining 3rd level and at every third level
thereafter (6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level), the character gains
one feat of your choice (see Table 5–1: Feats, page 90). The character
must meet any prerequisites for that feat in order to select it. As with
ability score increases, it is the overall character level, not the class
level, that determines when a character gets a new feat.

Summary: take all your class levels in all your classes and add them together. Is the result a multitude of 3? => you get a new feat when you reach that level!

Just remember that there may exist other things that can affect your character level (such as racial HitDice) and ask your DM (or the Internet) how that works if you ever run into such a thing, because that gets needlessly complicated to newer players really fast.