I honestly thing we should go back to 1e/2e style multiclassing and make it cost a feat. Because the 3e experience chart progression doesn't level off you avoid the problem of multiclass characters catching up and only being a level behind. Just make the character divide his experience between two classes. By the time the party is 20th level, your multiclassed character is 14/14 level which is a bit better than being 10/10. I thought about giving a 20% cost break for favored class which would make the multiclassed character 16/16 by the time everyone is 20th level. Of course, I do hate characters with ECLs and I dislike prestige classes so this doesn't answer those concerns unless somebody has an idea.
I honestly thing we should go back to 1e/2e style multiclassing and make it cost a feat. Because the 3e experience chart progression doesn't level off you avoid the problem of multiclass characters catching up and only being a level behind. Just make the character divide his experience between two classes. By the time the party is 20th level, your multiclassed character is 14/14 level which is a bit better than being 10/10. I thought about giving a 20% cost break for favored class which would make the multiclassed character 16/16 by the time everyone is 20th level. Of course, I do hate characters with ECLs and I dislike prestige classes so this doesn't answer those concerns unless somebody has an idea.
I was thinking something similar, to just let players multi-class the old way but I'm concerned it would break too many things. You could make the multi-class feat say something like "a character with the multi-class feat may not have a prestige class". I dunno, I do strongly like the idea of classic multi-classing but just too afraid of what else would break.
Firstly:
If they choose two favored classes, do they get 2hp/level?
A small issue, true, but something to think about nevertheless.
Secondly;
You'd have to work out how you wanted things like saves or bab to work out.
Lets say wiz/fighter 14/14 at "20". bab 14? bab 24? BaB 20?
What about saves? 14th level best saves of both?
prestige classes:
Some prestige classes would work well. A pure casting or pure melee would work fine- just rule they have to take the PrC in place of the base class it's "replacing".
Then white-out any prestige class that's a combination of classes. (Mystic Theurge for example, or Eldritch Knight). Those are the ones that'd truly be an issue.
How would HP work? in 2nd edition you got 1/2 Hp for each level to keep you from getting "ahead". In this scenario how would you work it? If you end up being 14/14 at 20, how would you figure HP?
How would you figure how many HD- hP not withstanding.
Do you have 14 HD? 20 HD? For spells and effects that only effect X HD creatures and lower, for example.
How would you deal with the WBL guidelines? Is the character 14? 20?
Something in between?
I'm not against the idea of it, but there's alot of things to be worked out before it's a solid work to be used in a campaign.
-S
I thought about allowing a simple gestalt instead of trying to average them just with a much greater cost.
I thought the idea was improve upon 3.5, rather than radically change certain mechanics. When attempting backwards compatibility, there will be a great number of so-called "sacred cows" that simply cannot be slaughtered.
This cow was killed with 3e, I'm just casting Animate Dead on it. Being a Grognard I have no particular loyalty to some of the "sacred cows" of 3e and believe that maybe older editions may have done somethings better than 3e.
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I am definitely against this idea. I never played 1e or 2e, but I did play Baldur's Gate, and this is not the way to go. Stacking classes is simple and easy. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's way better than the xp-devouring, slow-leveling monstrosity of old-school multiclassing. Please, don't let my feelings stop your own house rules, but I just don't feel like this is the way to go for Pathfinder.
Once again, I intend no offense. :p
Because the old multiclassing system sucked?
3E multiclassing works very well, unless you want to play a caster/anything. And by now, even that got resolved more or less with the Duskblade or a good combination of PrCs.
Actually, the possibility to multi-class as I like is what I love most about 3E, because it shows the inherent flexibility of the system.
You know you can have your cake and eat it too.
A feat which allows 2e mutli's is fine if you don't prevent people mutliclassing the 3e way as well.
In fact you can put a few restrictions on the feat and simply limit the possible combinations.
e.g. Have 3 tiers the BAB20's, the BAB15's and the BAB10's
A 2e multi feat can only have 1 of each group.
So you can have a Fighter/Rogue or Ranger/Wizard, but you cant have a Monk/Rogue or a Fighter/Ranger.
And I say eliminate the potential to take a PrC and that will solve pretty much any problem which might occur.
BAB solution use 3e rules for a 50/50 multi at equivalent level so basically when the party level up your multi will get HP BAB increases at the same time.
e.g.
3 Fighter / 3 Rogue with 5000xp/5000xp
would have 5 x [{(1d10+1d6)/2}+CON] HP equiv to a 5th level
[80HP base before CON at 20th level XP]
and would have the BAB of a 3 Fighter / 2 Rogue = 3 + 1 = 4
[10/F/10R = 10 + & = 17BAB at 20th level XP = 14Fighter/14Rogue]
This multi would get class like abilities when his class level goes up
The great thing about this is the multi will match the party's HP and BAB's when they levelup so the encounter toughness can go up accordingly
I guess the question to ask is are there any blatant combos right off the bat
14 Wizard / 14 Cleric
Both are limited to 7th level spells max. both could take practiced spellcaster and casts as 18th level casters.
BAB of 12
HP 60 base Avg without CON
A crapload of spells but a Mystic Theruge would acutally be slighty better with 8th level spells equiv to 15Wiz/15Cleric casting as 19/19 using 2 feats
so in that case most defiantly not an issue
Fighter/Monk would have a better BAB of 17 vs 15 but would miss out on the 2nd Flurry at Monk level 15.
Honestly as long as you limit the 2e multiclassing to core classes and no PrC's then I dont see where any real abuse can occur.
Besides as a house rule any treuly borken combo and easily be rules aginst by your DM when you present your char idea.