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I didn't want to hijack Fatespinner's thread...
What are people's general impression (or actual playtesting) of these fancy new feats that allow class abilities to advance when multiclassing?
For the record, I am not a fan. If I'm a wizard and then I take a level in fighter, why would my caster level go up? I just spent my "experience" learning to wear armor and swing a weapon. I couldn't have been studying as much as last level...
Yes, I know I made this up, but it exemplifies the flavor.
Oh, and I also do not like reserve feats! Play a warlock for goodness sakes.
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I think if you can get some sort of reasonable combination together, it is OK - like rogue and monk, for example, which are both stealthy classes. Or rogue and bard, ranger and scout, and so on. You have a number of synergies between the classes. I agree that wizard and fighter would be odd, but then I'm not aware of any such feats.
It can sometimes be a bit crippling to PC builds when some of the core competencies don't scale up at high level. Off the top of my head I can't think of any, except a monk's unarmed damage, which scales at class level (so if you multiclass, even in something like fighter, you will end up doing less damage, which seems odd). That can be a real disincentive to multiclassing. So a feat which allows multicalssing options to remain viable help players to create interesting multiclass builds without actually hindering the mechanical effectiveness of their characters.
Oh yeah, reserve feats - don't really like those either.
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Haven't had it come up much yet, but I can say that some very characterful multi-classsing has NOT been done in the past because those feats weren't available.
One way to look at it is as follows. Most cahracters get 7 feats between 1 and 20, humans get 8, fighters get 2890, other classes get a smattering of bonus feats, but by choice, the plurality of charaacters get 7.
So now, if a character spends 1/7 of a very rare resource "studying the innate link between their fighting art and their magic" should they not get a benefit? Like Aubrey said, certain combinations don't work well, and fit more in the category of prestige class where it is a whole new way of doing things, but for a lot of combos, it makes sense that the two would be combined.
A good example to work off of (because there are so many combos) is the monk. With LG, LN, and LE backgrounds available, and a host of semi divine orders as well as secular orders, you can see a bunch of different combinations popping up. The order of the silent fist (rogue/monk) the order of the hunting man (monk/ranger) the order of the dark heart (monk/assassin) the order of the inner fire (monk/sorceror), each with its own history, fighting style, and feat. Not enough to make a prestige class out of, but a decent combination.
The Scout/Ranger feat is amazingly good, since you can get Skirmish damage to apply to undead that way. An 11 Scout/9 Ranger is a tremendous build. I really, really want the Rogue/Swashbuckler feat to be good... and it kind of is, if you take 3 levels of Swashbuckler and X of Rogue. The problem with a Swashbuckler with Sneak Attack is that Swashbucklers don't really get much after 3rd level to supplement that, and the difference between a 3 Swashbuckler/17 Rogue with that feat and one without it is almost nothing.
I really like them as they give a reason to stay within 2 core classes and not go into a PrC.
Reserve feats are, IMO, very cool since they give Wizards some options for fights that might otherwise leave them with nothing to do. "Okay, I know there's a boss monster around the corner, so I don't want to waste my spells on his underlings, so... I'll use my crossbow!"
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The Scout/Ranger feat is amazingly good, since you can get Skirmish damage to apply to undead that way. An 11 Scout/9 Ranger is a tremendous build.
Yep, it's quite good.
However, as written above, you need to take a feat to have this bonus, even if that feat seems an essential choice for such a combo.As I am currently playing a scout 6/ranger 4 in SCAP (with this feat), I can tell you that my choice of enemies comes directly from both my background and the adventures I went through until now.
I think this should be done like this !!
About my PC :
- my father disappeared while fighting "giants" (ogres & trolls) at the northern border of Tethyr -> my first hate was toward giants and I studied about them (but had not met one of them until recently),
- I met many "evil outsiders", some who did great damage to my pals and I -> I did the same,
- My pals told me about a beholderkin and few other "monstrosities" and I have come to both fear and hate the evil those creatures may cause -> I hate aberrations.
I have a +4 on giants and evil outsiders, since it's more coherent than aberrations ; so, only +2 vs aberrations.
I was tempted to take undead because of that advantage (and I was hit by a wraith), but hey, come on, it has to be something that has to do with the story and your PC and your BG.
I still do not know if I will ever have use of my advantage vs aberrations, but when my friends told me about that slaving creature (beholderkin), I felt like such evil had to be undone & defeated !!
Well my group rarely multiclasses to begin with. When I read some of the feats I took them as a way for people to make interesting character concepts without hindering the mechanically. The only one I have actually seen in use is Master Spelltheif, which allowed my groups Spelltheif to pick up one level of sorcerer and up his caster level for both classes.