Multi-Classing in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Should I or Shouldn’t I?

October 6, 2015

The important thing to look at is role playing has nothing to do with the mechanical character sheet that you use to track your progress through the game of Dungeons and Dragons. 5th Edition presents very good reasons for multi-classing but also makes it simple enough to make happen.

The question you have to ask yourself when you are considering multi-classing is it a character choice or a player choice. Sometimes the lines get blurry when classes are similar. Take your martial classes, fighter, paladin, barbarian, ranger or rogue. With limited or no casting ability dipping into these is easy. Fighter is the easiest of the lot as it just represents more martial training.

Multi-classing – to be or not be?

Divine classes; cleric, paladin and druid have ties to greater powers behind them. Earlier editions considered rangers in this section as well but that is for each DM or group to make the decision on how it is run in your world. Since it can be divine intervention, literally, levels of cleric can be taken or given with little notice as long as the story makes sense. Almost the same with Paladin or Druid as long as it fits the character, though I believe that Druid is harder to explain.

When you enter your arcane classes things can get a little more complicated. Warlock just takes a desperate enough situation to warrant it. Sorcerer, since it applies to a bloodline, can be worked in from the beginning or happen with a grand gesture of awakened power if the player finds the need to not work it in slowly. Wizard is the tricky one as it takes training to learn to cast magic through a book.

So now we look at choices. If you are playing the long game the powers at 15th level and above out weigh the combination of abilities you can take by multi-classing. I played a scorcerer-warlock and by taking a few levels of warlock I gained some cool powers but as a casting I paled in comparison to the wizard who did not deviate from his class.

There are some combinations though that offer enough of an incentive to make people want to multi-class. A hunter ranger combined with assassin rogue offers quite a few advantages. Hunter’s mark and colossal slayer combined with a bonus to ranged attacks makes for a nice edition to the rogues abilities. However, if you are already hunting people as a rogue adding levels of ranger just continues your training.

How do You Multi-class in 5th Edition

Identifying your character concept should be easy. If adding a new class fits into how you are already defining the character than the choice is clear. If it falls out of the character concept then you have to ask yourself why do I want this multi-class level, and has my character undergone a change to make this the right path to walk down.

If the new level still fits then feel free and add it. If you find that you cannot justify the level, and that you only wanted to take the level for mechanical advantage, then avoid taking the level.

It all boils down to just that. Mechanical vs Role playing. Make the distinction and make the right choice with your end game firm in your mind. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!