Okay, so I get that absolutely no one likes my multiclassing house rules. C'est la vie. One of the problems it creates-- if you allow class changes, which I intend to-- is how to handle level-based ability score bonuses.
In addition, I have always preferred that systems like 4e and Conan d20 have given out more ability score bonuses than the standard +1 every four levels. I'm also interested, as always, in making the PC's choice of race more significant over the course of his career.
- The standard rules state that you gain +1 to one ability score of your choice at 4th and every fourth level thereafter.
- The 4e rules state that you get +1 to two ability scores of your choice every at 4th and every fourth level thereafter, and +1 to all ability scores at 11th and 21st level.
- The Conan d20 rules-- in which all PCs are human-- give you +1 to one ability score of your choice every four levels, and +1 to all ability scores at 6th and every fourth level thereafter.
What I am thinking is that every character should, instead of getting to improve the ability score of their choice at every fourth level, characters should get fixed bonuses every even level-- racial bonuses at 2nd level and every fourth level after, and class bonuses at 4th level and every multiple of 4. These are named bonuses, so that multiclass characters with overlapping prime requisites don't get stacking bonuses.
The racial bonuses are simple. All of the non-human core races add their racial bonuses to the same abilities that they get bonuses to at 1st level. Human characters, and others that gain the Human ability score bonus, gain the bonus to their highest ability score and their lowest ability score.
Then, for classes, each class gets two prime requisites:
- Barbarian: STR and CON
- Bard: INT and CHA
- Cleric: WIS and CHA
- Druid: CON and WIS
- Fighter: STR and DEX
- Monk: DEX and WIS
- Paladin: STR and CHA
- Ranger: DEX and WIS
- Rogue: DEX and INT (Ninja gets DEX and CHA)
- Sorcerer: CON and CHA (Sage gets INT and CHA, Empyreal gets WIS and CHA.)
- Wizard: INT and WIS
- Alchemist: CON and INT
- Cavalier: CON and CHA
- Gunslinger: DEX and WIS (Mysterious Stranger gets DEX and CHA.)
- Inquisitor: CON and WIS
- Magus: STR and INT
- Oracle: WIS and CHA
- Summoner: CON and CHA
- Witch: INT and CHA
- Psion: INT and WIS
- Psychic Warrior: STR and WIS
- Soulknife: DEX and WIS
- Wilder: WIS and CHA
- Vitalist: CON and WIS
- Aegis: CON and WIS
- Marksman: DEX and WIS
Prestige Classes would each have their own primes, but most of them wouldn't matter since they'd overlap the primes of the base classes that led into them. This would also assist in adaptation, if anyone's interested in using these rules for a normal game.
If using these rules, I would disallow inherent bonuses, such as granted by the wish spell or tomes and manuals.
For normal games, you would simply leave the racial bonuses attached to character level, and attach the class bonuses to class level-- allowing them to stack normally.
So, thoughts?
Yeah. Thinking on it, it would probably just be better to let characters get their feats and ability score bonuses multiple times-- repeating 0th to 6th is faster than going to 10th, but you're going to pay heavily for those extra ability score points.