Crysknife's page

I don't mind avoiding dump stats as a player and I enforce a "no dump stats" rule as a GM. The lower I allow is 8 after racial adjustments (15 point buy) and even this penalty has to be roleplayed in some way.
I never got as far as to do what your GM did, but only because I prefer to address issues out game rather than get into an arm race with my players in game. As a player, if I'm told to avoid dump stats I do so. The GM is the one putting in the most effort, so I either respect his wishes or I choose another game.

In your case, I understand your GM position but I think it would be better (and easier) to enforce the rules out of game.

When i see words like sourceror, resistence, rouge and similar, i get very annoyed, but i resist correcting the people who wrote them. And i see some people persistently write like that. Why does that annoy me so?

Any ideas?

It's "I", not "i".

Antagonize, one of the only ways for tanks to be useful.

Just a question: did the DM tried to punish this player? You know, like having the world behave like it would and have his character killed by this kind of choice?
Like:
"Siren want to dominate you"
"Well, ok, she has this right!"
"She order you to slit your throat".

I'm not sure where to even begin. you seem to have responded with quotations from the Book of Fighter Orthodoxy. Why would I lose the bastard sword proficiency (a very modest but nonetheless real DPR boost over other one handed weapons) when I could swap out quick draw (which, by the way is simply a placeholder to be retrained at 8 to greater shield focus or perhaps improved critical) for power attack instead (were I inclined to do so)?

People don't seem to understand the value of accuracy. You cannot take 10 on your attack rolls. If you could I would be all over power attack, but as it stands I scrounge for every measly point of attack bonus I can get because because being able to consistently hit on a low roll is more valuable than (imo) being able to hit somewhat harder when you do hit, but requiring a higher roll to hit at all.

My priorities go like this:
Attack bonus
Armour class
Damage
Saves

In the last combat (not session, but combat) that I played there were three hits I landed that would have missed had I been power attacking. that's 33-60 points total of damage lost over three attacks. I would have to make 7(!) successful power attacks to recoup the minimum lost damage from reduced accuracy just for that feat to begin to pull its own weight.

Not sure how to take the first comment, bu still...

If there was a trait (and it may very well exist, I don't use traits) that gave me +1 to damage I could take it. Maybe. A feat? No, thanks. That's what proficiency with bastard sword give you (compared to the good ol' longsword).

For every one of my character I run an excel file which calculates the average damage for my character using all kind of different options against a specific target AC: among other things, I compare the values using power attack and not using it. I know what I'm talking about when I say that using power attack is generally better (by far) than not using it. You need massive bonus to damage (higher than a bit of weapon training and of weapon specialization) and very low to hit (a problem fighters certainly do not have) or a very high AC to make power attack a disadvantage. Power attack it's even more important in case of DR. And, most importantly, if you know that your opponent is at 5 hp and you just need to hit him to get a kill, well, just don't use power attack.

I don't understand why people hate AC so much. High AC characters can often end up dealing more damage than (as long they don't sacrifice attack bonus) Two-handers simply because sometimes that +7 (or whatever) AC you have can be the difference between dropping after two rounds of being full-attacked by the fire-giant Anti-paladin or four rounds of said beatings.

Just a random example but it illustrates my point.

I do not hate AC, but I don't agree with you. Simply, a dead enemy can't hurt you. My idea of "effective" for a melee character is maximizing damage output while having a good AC.

I will say that of all your comments the bit about my build being a bit... shall we say dry, would be the most accurate were it not for the fact that I've played him in an almost Warlord like fashion (coordinating strategy, setting up ambushes, tutoring the paladin on tactics ;)and so on).

Good to know that you enjoyed your character anyway, I was just trying to give you an advice since I played a character similar to that one and converted into a paladin mid-play because I was not having much fun.

Spellcasting.

Right, lore warden.
Actually, I'm a bit disturbed by how often lore warden seems to be the answer...

More importantly, how dumb a wizard have to be be to throw his familiar at someone?
I mean, where the whole "bender of reality" thing went, if the best you could came up with is throwing your own familiar at someone's face?

Wow, you really showed him who is da boss!

In that situation I'd have just ignored you and proceeded acting like you were not the GM anymore: then I'd have sent you on a quest to get your powers back, something like fetching beer.

My main problem with elves used to be that they take forever to get mature: I mean, how retarded you have to be to need a hundred year to get as skilled as a 18 year old human? What the hell did you do for a hundred years? So what of your +2 to int?
Then it came to me: they party and hop each other like sex-addicted bunnies for a century. Seriously, they do just that for a hundred years. THEN, after their lust has been satiated, they can start caring for other stuff. This made them a lot easier to comprehend, and a lot more interesting.
The problem for me had always been their aloofness: dwarves are always out for beer and getting drunk. Half-orcs are raunchy and lustful. Halflings and gnomes are always having fun in their own way. You play an elf and feel like you are the only one who can't do fun stuff, why? Well, bacause you have already done it all. The dwarf makes fun of you because you sip your wine instead of getting drunk? Right, you have been stoned drunk for more than a year straight for more times than you can remember. The half-orc makes fun of you because you don't hop prostitutes as soon as you see them? Of course, there is a crazy orgy far from the judging sight of all the other races that has been going on for more than a thousand years non-stop: once you went in there and came out ten years later.
You do not shun earthly pleasures because of the broomstick up in your butt, you are simply so jaded that you don't care anymore. As a side note, when your lust return you'll take off your adventurer boots, back to that crazy stuff and get wasted until you loose all of your levels. That's why elves don't take over the world.
Seriously guys, think about it: paizo can't put this stuff in a manual, but that's the truth. Now that you know it you can sip your wine and be mildly amused at the sight of a dwarf get drunk, just like Mike Tyson would while looking at a brawl between two eight-years old kids.

Here's my advice at being better at optimization in and of itself.

Before optimization there must be a focus. What are you wanting to do? What is your primary means of achieving success? You need to focus your character in on what you want him to do.

First Mechanical optimization:
You need to know what the spread is that you are likely to be facing, at each level. You can build to your heart's content but if you don't know what your target numbers look like you won't know if what you build is any good or not. You need to be aware of the average AC, save throws, CMD, and HP of each CR. You'll also need to have a general knowledge of the attack bonus, average damage and save DCs of abilities for each CR too. Having this knowledge helps you know what your character is going to need in order to successfully harm and not be harmed by the monsters you will face, and just how successful he is likely to be against each CR.

Very nice post Abraham!

As for the original request, remember that some classes have more chances of survival than others: for example, paladins are a great choice for someone who want to keep being alive.

Generally, when I build a new character I do it like described below: since it turned into a wall of text I'll summarize the key concepts.
- choose a concept that you like but keep verifying that it works: compare what you do with the kind of enemies you will come up against. If other characters are available on these boards, compare how your PC performs against them. Some concept can't really be made to work in D&D: know how much effective you want to be and be ready to drop something out of your original concept
- be efficient: always verify if you can spend less resources (money, feats, etc) to achieve the same result.
- be effective in your primary role: choose how you will contribute in combat and make sure you do it. Don't waste too much resources on other stuff before you are 100% sure that you are doing really well your job. To do this YOU MUST RUN THE NUMBERS IN EXCEL. I've see plenty of guys that don't have a clue about their character effectiveness (an hint: all of those spend a lot of time blaming the dice)
- know your weaknesses: to know if your next pick of the treasure should be the ring of protection or the cloak of resistance you must know how good your defenses are against the typical monster of that CR.
- read the guides: guides are a good starting point for optimization. Read them and get the key of what the authors are trying to achieve, then keep them in mind as you build your character. Some may be outdated, some may be too extreme: read them anyway and look for ideas and key concept, then use those as you see fit.

step 1, character concept.
I think of a kind of character that I'd like to play. It may be a savage warrior with a big weapon, a swift archer, a smart and charismatic magic user, a zealot priest.
Up to this point no mechanical choice is made.

step 2, focus.
I try to envision the main area of contribution of my character. It could be straight damage, it could be maneuvering, it could be buffing, it could be debuffing.
I still try to simply envision the character, but this time in a dynamic way: I envision how it wins against its foes.
Up to this point its all stuff I do in random moments: maybe I see a movie which makes me think of something I'd like to play, maybe it's something I read on the boards, maybe it's a book or a comic. All this takes almost no time at all: if I think "that's cool" next time I need a character I'll dig up the idea and spend some time on it.

step 3, mechanical evaluation.
Now that I have some kind of idea of my character, I see if it's worth pursuing further and in what way. Various things are considered.
- The context: not every campaign is the same. The level of optimization needed, the focus on combats, the range of levels involved in the campaign: all of those will vary and need to be considered.
- The mechanic of my role (decided in step 2). I make a list of what is key in performing well in that roll: this mostly includes a few key feats and a couple of suitable classes. In this process I read a few guides and I look through the whole feat list singling shining gems.
The result of this step should be 1) the generic assessment that what I had in mind could be possible and effective (if not, rethink the concept, maybe concentrating on a single aspect) and 2) a couple of possible skeletons with only a few key feats and 2-3 possible classes/archetypes. I also set what my primary characteristic will be (in some cases is very easy, such as for wizard, but for other kind of characters it's not).

step 4, consolidation.
From step 3 I've a couple of stubs of builds: from there I proceed to build around their key features.
I look for the rest of archetypes to see if I missed something, I put down about half of the feats directly related to what I want to do. I try not to put all my resources into doing this: for example half (sometimes three quarters) of the feats will usually be enough to define what your mid level character will be able to do. I also start considering some items, either because key to the build (for example ability enhancer for prerequisites) or because directly related to my primary role (the big weapon my warrior is going to wield).
For now I still don't focus much on secondary roles, but I start putting down ideas for later (for example if I'm building an archer I take mental note that it could be a good scout, but I leave that for later).
The result of this step is a general idea of what my character could be able to do in his area of competence. For a damage dealer I'll have an idea of what his bonus to hit will be, how much damage every hit will deal. I also look up some target number to see if those value are acceptable.
At this point I decide if what I have in my hands is good enough to play or not. Maybe a concept is simply too weak; maybe another is not right for the level range I'm going to play in; maybe the campaign uses 15pb and I need much more; maybe I need a lot of gold to make the build work and the campaign is low wealth/low magic; maybe I can obtain a much better result by changing the concept a bit (or maybe it can inspire me a new concept and I go back to steps 1-2).
I usually still have a couple of builds with different classes/archetypes and a few key feats.

step 5, survivability and variety.
Now that I know that the character can be good enough in a specific area, I try to let him live enough to do so.
I evaluate the weakness of the character: the whole stats array is put down (usually a couple of them to choose later) and I try to assess if the defenses are enough for how I will play it. I try to cover its weak points with stats, feats and equipment.
I also try to make sure that the character has enough to do out of combat to be always fun: skill points (and spells when appropriate) are the main resources. I try not to use feats for this and I only dedicate about one tenth of my wealth to situational things.

step 6, choice.
Once that all this is done, I evaluate the 2-3 builds I made and choose the one whose balance between effectiveness/survivability/usefulness outside of combat I like the most.

step 7, finishing touches.
Now that I have a basic build I run some numbers in excel and see if what I had in mind really works as I thought. This is primarily done for the main area of contribution and is more important for damage dealers.
This is the area in which I may notice that a +1 enhancement is better than flaming or that weapon focus is less important than I thought and thus the feat slot is better spent on something else. In this phase I put great important to efficiency: I'm careful about how I spend my goal or my feat slots.
Without the excel I also check the skills (for example I may notice that due to the CMD of the enemies of a certain CR is impossible to tumble and it's useless to put full ranks in acrobatics), my saves, my AC and see whether I must reallocate something or not.
It's a fine tuning endeavor that may require more time than everything else but which really makes a difference.

Just poppin' in to give my 2 cp.

Guided weapon: fantastic choice but make sure to get your DM approval before-hand. As said is paizo but 3.5, so not core: you do not want to build your character around it and discover at the first arrow shot that it's not allowed.

Focus: choose your focus wisely. There are far better classes for archery, you will suck at it if you don't dedicate yourself to it entirely: on the other end, you will not be very good anyway. You can choose to be an effective cleric (high wis and metamagic feats) and a recreational archer (decent if guided weapons are allowed) or you can be decent at both if you focus on archery. As said, you will never be very good at archery, but archery is perhaps the most effective combat style of the game, so being decent will be enough in some games.

From now on I'll assume you want to focus on archery.

Race: Human is the best (except maybe vanara if allowed). You need all the feats you can get, archery is very demanding, and the extra skill point is nice since you'll need to dump int. Favored class I'd put in hit points.
If guided weapon is allowed put the bonus in WIS, otherwise in DEX. As for stats, if guided is allowed, put that wis through the roof: is not, your highest stat should be DEX (level increments should all go there), followed by WIS (something like 14 is enough to cast spells with the help of items without further increments) and STR (at least 12, 14 would be nice: most likely deadly aim will not do you much good, a bit of STR will help you but don't sacrifice your to hit as that's what matter the most). INT and CHA are dumps, CON should not be negative but hopefully you will not be in melee a lot (at least 12 though).

Feats: point blank shot, precise shot and rapid shot are a definite must, get them as soon as you can.
Weapon focus is not a very impressive feat (and you have few of them) but you will have trouble hitting things reliably: you may need to take it.
Manyshot is fantastic: yes, DEX 17 is harsh if you focus on WIS, but this feat is unbelievably good. Without checking the number I'd say "go for it" even if you are using a guided weapon, it's that good.
Deadly aim: here I'm in trouble. Deadly aim is the feat that made archery go from meh to OMG. The thing with archery though is that you need to hit: as I said this will be difficult for you, adding additional penalties may not be a good idea. I'd need to run a few numbers but my guess is that most often than not you will not benefit a lot from it unless you are buffed like a steroid addict. Maybe others will have some insights on this, I'm split: I'll say that if guided weapon is allowed you may be better off without it, if not you may need it to pack some damage.
Improved precise shot: the feat that make rangers and zen archer so good at low-mid levels, you won't see this until level 16. You will have to deal with cover with tactics (I'd go for threatening the other PC: something like "get in the way and say goodbye to healing" should work).

Equipment: your to hit is the key.
For the weapon, there are two ways about it.
The first is to regularly cast greater magic weapon: buy a rod of extend for it and in time the beads of karma to increase your caster level. Since your enhancement bonus is covered, you can make your bow seeking, holy and keen: if you can predict what type of energy will be uncommon, the energy stuff could be useful too.
The other way is to simply upgrade your bow straight to +5 and then seeking, holy and other stuff: which to choose depends on your wealth by level. Since you need all the to hit you can get you may be probably better off with the second option, but if you are very poor go for the first option.
In both cases, if guided weapons are allowed, go for it (if guided weapon is allowed it will cost you a lot more to upgrade your weapon and thus the first route should be better).
Lesser bracers of archery are nice once your weapon is +2, the greater version of them is too expensive until high levels.
Depending on guided weapons, invest in belt of DEX or headband of WIS. Even if you focus on DEX, in time you will need the headband too to keep getting new spells.
As a general rule, you will be starving for money: the need to increase two stats and to have a very good weapon will live you pennyless. Compensate with just basic stuff for armor (most likely your AC won't be very good anyway, concentrate on staying out of trouble) and use spells to increase it.
For passing DR, keep handy all kinds of arrow (maybe use cold iron as your standard and keep handy the silver ones) and use align weapon for alignment.

Spells: there are some that are good for an archer.
Divine favor 1: one of the best, your basic buff
Aid: usually not worth it, only if you really have time to waste before combat.
Weapon of awe 2: +2 to damage, shake on crits. Not bad but not worth spending a round of combat to cast it: only as a buff before the start of the combat.
Daybreak arrow 3: nice duration, 1d6 damage to undead and vampires. If you you are going into a undead-infested dungeon this is good.
Magic vestment 3: A simple way to save money.
Sacred bond 3: not impressive but can help you healing from distance (of course healing during in combat is not a good option to begin with).
Blessing of fervor 4: in a way it's the poor man haste, but offers some other options. It will also help your fellow PCs if you don't have anyone casting haste. Probably overshadowed by divine power if you are selfish.
Divine power 4 : this substitute divine favor as your buff of choice at mid-to-high level.
Greater magic weapon 4: late entry and you are probably better off with buying the best bow you can get. If you are stuck with a crappy bow, use it.
Fickle winds 5: this will let you kill all those other archers who thought they were better than you.
Righteous might 5: only wanted to say that the standard buff for melee cleric does not work for you.
Blade barrier 6: good for defense, not your top priority in a fight but impressive spell nevertheless.
Bloodsworn retribution 6: if you have hps to spare (which you probably have not) this is very nice. It's from Elves of Golarion though, so check with your GM. For 25 hp less, a +5 bonus to hit and saves is good. Very risky though.

That's it.

I tried my best to offer you insights for a cleric that wants to be an archer.
My final insight is that you probably shouldn't unless guided weapons are allowed, and even then you are not going to really shine.
You will need to spend a lot of resources (and rounds, which are not meant to be wasted) just to get close to what other archers are able to do right from the start.

Multiclassing will not help you much: you need spells, even for a pure-archery perspective. If guided weapons are allowed, a level of monk may be handy for AC and saves but no more than that.

I still think that other classes will suit you better: paladins make very, very impressive archers (full BAB, smiting and access to most of the worthy spells). Inquisitors are good too: they get most of the good spells, the bane ability is fantastic and the right judgment can go miles to make you effective. Both classes can be thematically very similar to a cleric but make far better archers.

Here is my take.

You have to concentrate on 3 things:
- action economy
- staying power
- puny damage

Action economy:
You want your BBEG to do a lot of stuff: if you really plan a solo fight (I usually advocate the use of minions, but if you are set on a single enemy so be it) you want you BBEG to do a lot of things. Classes that allow you to do a lot of attacks, use a lot of abilities every rounds should be favored.

Staying power:
You want your BBEG to stay up for a lot of rounds. This means that you should have a fair amount of hp, solid saves (best if you also have rerolls), good AC and defenses.

Puny damage:
I don't really mean "puny". But if you try to follow the above suggestions, you could simply add up levels until you simply have a TPK instead of an epic fight. You should aim at making a BBEG who can reasonably hurt your party but that's disproportionately strong in the defense department.

All in all there are a few choices that I like.

Magus: the king of action economy, can have very good defenses (mirror image, shield), has good saves, can buff himself if needed.

Anti-paladin damphir: very good saves and AC, damphir is for swift healing like a normal paladin, but you can work around it in other ways if you need to. Sword and board can help with defenses and you can still deal high (but not too high) damage with smiting.

Casters: I like charisma based spontaneous casters (see dips) since they make memorable opponents (who remembers the quiet wizard?). Concentrating on blasting with a few debuffs is good, you can buff you before hand (mage armor, empowered greater false life) and with quickened spells during the fight (some do wonders, like mirror image or even shield). You should avoid save or die spells unless you want more spice in the fight and concentrate on targeting the highest number of opponents every round.

Another good option is dips:

You can decide the level of threat by concentrating in a single class (like the above mentioned magus or paladin) and then expand your option and increase your staying power by dipping into things that hardly increase your offense but are good for defense or for different options.

Monk dips: one of the best imo. Not a big increase on offence but very good defenses. 2 level will increase your bab only by one, but will help you with: saves (+3 to all saves is a lot), evasion, 2 bonus feats (crane style and deflect arrow if needed for more staying power), unarmed attacks in case you get grappled/disarmed. 4 levels may be a bit too much offensive-wise but give you very good increase in defenses.

paladin/antipaladin dips: in case you decided to go with a charisma based caster, no one will notice your 2 antipaladins level when you cast your spells, but those 2 levels will let you stay around for more rounds thanks to your incredibly good saves and a few more hps.

caster dips: even a single level of wizard or sorcerer will greatly improve your BBEG staying power thanks to a couple of good level 1 spells (+4 ac thanks to shield really makes a difference) and to a +2 to will saves. It will also let you use scrolls and wands more easily, which is good for versatility.

Ok, I think that you can see what I'm saying. The idea is to simply decide the level of threat your BBEG should pose to your PC, trying to not be overshadowed too much in the action economy department, and than add dips that let the level of offense mostly unchanged but that let you keep going for more rounds.

so i ask again "Why ranger?"

Favored Enemy? Yeah it's good but a little limited
Combat Style? The feats seem too spread out
Hunters bond? if i liked the first ability i'd probably like the option to spread it, but the animal companion...it's a VERY limited selection and it's 3 levels lower than you so it's not very effective.
Evasion? well i love this ability, but it's at level 9, REALLY LATE

i don't dislike them but i just don't get them.

Favored Enemy: lately it's an unbelievably powerful ability, thank to instant enemy and hunter's howl. For level under 10 the Guide archetype is extremely strong.

And more importantly:
Skill points: it's a lot of skill points, you can do stuff the fighter can't dream to do (btw, rangers are the best trackers in the game). If you want you can be a skill monkey, if you only care for combat you can put a heavy dump in INT, put your favored class bonus to hp and still have more skill points than a fighter with decent INT and put is favored class bonus in skills.
Favored terrain: some campaign heavily revolves around specific type of terrain, in those you laugh in the face of rogues for scouting (you are already as good as they are unless you decide that you don't care about it) and the bonus to initiative is something the fighter can't get access to.
Spells: this is really huge. Comparing the spellcasting ability to that of full spellcaster it's like comparing a ferrari to a range rover and being pissed because your boot is smaller. Spellcasting is the icing on the cake for the ranger, but it's a frigging delicious icing. Ranger's spells from Core are already good and offer very nice bonuses: they free the main spellcaster from the need to nurse you and let him do more useful stuff while you take care of the base stuff, they allow you to decide what to cast and when, they get you healing without UMD. But is as soon as you stray from core that the good stuff becomes wonderfully wonderful stuff: there are spells that allow you to make your favored enemy bonus come into play when you want to (and that's huge, you will be the star in any boss fight); there are spells that make you a top notch maneuver master at any maneuver you want to (animal aspects line, aspect of the XXX line); spells that, given enough time to prepare (and remember that you have the potential to be the best scout in the game), will make any other damage dealer be ashamed of the air they are breating (named bullet and greater: crazy stuff, as soon as you can cast 3rd level spells and buy a few pearls of power, which are dirty cheap for rangers since ranger's spell usually are of lower level than for anyone else, you can launch a single volley capable of killing a monster with CR so high that an entire party of fighter would spends rounds to be noticed by); spells that will improve your strong points (damage dealing with gravity bow or lead blades, favored terrain bonus active even in other terrains, scouting etc); spells that will make up for your shortcomings (especially since you can do a lot of stuff without making UMD checks with really cheap scrolls). Oh, and spells are keyed to WIS: you need only limited investment for basic purposes and anything more you punt into it its good anyway since it helps with the only weak save you have.

Well, those are the reason for playing a ranger. To sum it up, they are the most versatile full BAB class, so versatile that the only problem with them is that they make the rogue class useless.
Honestly, my point of view is the opposite: I see rangers as the baseline choice I weight any other full BAB class against to see if its worth playing.

I'll play paladin if the concept requires it and if I want the highest durability and the campaign offers good opportunity for roleplay in civilized area (actually, the question for me is: should I play a paladin or ranger? the other classes are for corner cases).
I'll play a fighter only if I really want to specialize in one or two maneuver OR dealing high damage against EVERY enemy OR the campaign have a lot of fights per day against a lot of weak enemies of a lot of different types.
I'll play a barbarian to play a barbarian, that's it (and even than, a Guide ranger may substitute for it, just describe Ranger focus as rage and spells are rage powers: some stuff may be not replicated but spells can do things that rage powers cannot, and you get to choose them every day).

Just kill him.
If you really are against it, just keep killing its PCs.

No need for a cleric since there is a paladin: he compensate the healing by killing monsters faster.

RAW no, but I'd allow it without a second thought.

Roleplaying at its most extreme - a person who talks in character at all times and describes in narrative what is happening with everything the character does. If the character attacks, he explains it in vivid detail. If the character casts a spell, he explains it in vivid detail. If the character makes a spellcraft roll, he explains it in vivid detail. If the character makes a diplomacy roll, he explains it in vivid detail. The dice results are incorporated into the details.

Rollplaying at its most extreme - a person who pushes his miniature forward on the battle map. Rolls a D20. Says he hit AC 16. Rolls damage. The character sheet is a collection of numbers and mechanics. When a player must attack, he rolls a dice and gives you the math. When a character casts a spell, he rolls some dice and gives you the math and explains the rules mechanics. When the character must make a spellcraft roll, he rolls the dice and gives you the math. When the character makes a diplomacy roll, he rolls the dice and gives you the math. The details are all in the number rolled.

Which one is the best and which one is "doing it wrong"?

Actually, in our games we require that you do both: you have to describe in a graphic way what you are doing but you are also required to explain all the mechanic, all the while taking care of your miniature and having all relevant text printed on your sheets.

An example would be, when casting haste, saying: "I moves my hands at increasing pace, while runes of power begin to show on the ground around everybody's feet: you all feel the world as slowing down a bit and your reflexes becoming better". Then I look at the DM and says I cast haste, then look at the other players and say they get an extra attack at maximum bonus on a full attack, +1 to to hit, AC (dodge bonus) and reflex saves for 10 rounds and keep track of the duration using a die.

The level system is an approximation of reality. If there is a minimum of background I don't see it as a problem.

Take your fighter1/rogue1. He probably was a bit roguish even before the dip, but the player couldn't portray it within the game's mechanics. He would have been hard pressed to portray it simply because the skill points were not enough.

Some dips are more credible than others, but as long as there is a bit of roleplay I don't see a problem in it.
High level character should be expected to have learned a lot that does not reflect on their sheets immediately: such experience will become useful when they put their mind onto rationalizing what they learned so far, for example being stealthy and fighting dirty(rogue dip), using proper stance when fighting (fighter), giving more than a lip-service player to your deity (cleric and paladin), putting into use all the diverse stuff you had to listen while talking to the fellow adventuring wizard (wizard) and so on.

Personally, I'd like all leveling being done with at least a couple of weeks off, during which you study books or try to get an hang on the maneuver which you tried in the last fights. I like to plan ahead and justify the change on my sheet before they happen, but then I get the powergamer label for planning ahead. As a DM you could try to understand where your players are planning to do with their characters and offer them chances to roleplay such changes. Don't frustrate your players banning multiclassing and dipping just because you don't like the flavor, try instead to help them do it in a better (roleplaying-wise) perspective.

3.5 Sorcerer gish
An evil cleric was on a 3 meters passage.
I threw my returning weapon at him, hit him and he escaped in the passage. I jumped the 3 meters rolling very high and being hasted. I threw my weapon again (just got the new spell and was having fun with it) but he prepared a wall of stone (or a lesser version of it, can't remember) AFTER the weapon hit to steal it (it was an heirloom weapon and the villain knew how important it was for my character). I had stoneskin and insane strength bonus: I punched the wall, rolled a 20 for the strength check, run through it, caught the weapon and beheaded the evil cleric with another critical it.
Probably not really RAW, but damn COOL