My players are about to reach a milestone in their adventure and hit level 11. Once this is done, I was thinking of letting them "unlock" a secondary class on their characters. The idea here is so that they can take a prestige class or a second class while still advancing in their primary class. It's similar to gestalt characters, whenever they gain a level they pick 2 classes to advance, they get the better of the 2 classes' bab, hd, and saves. They will get all the class abilities of the character as if they had gained both classes. A level 10 fighter that took rogue as their secondary class would effectively be a level 11 fighter, 1 rogue.
So that I can see what I could be getting myself into, what would you guys do as one of the following characters.
Half Elf-Life Oricle- very focused on heals, refuses to get offencive powers as it's not in her character.
Gnome-Alchemist- completely focused on bombs
Half Orc-Barbarian- played by my 9 year old son, first rp game
Dwarf-Inquisitor- Two weapon combatist, crits way too much...
Gnome- Fire Elemental Blood Line Sorcerer- Focused on Nuking
and one player currently rerolling, maybe going controller wizard type.
What would you do as these characters given the opportunity to pick up a secondary class? Flavor is more important to most of these players than power, but feel free to go both ways.
for the inquisitor, i would probably pick up fighter for the martial weapons, bab, bonus feats and heavy armor.
for the barbarian, i would add fighter for the extra feats and take up a secondary combat style (like archery)
for the oracle, i would go with bard for the buffs
for the wizard, i would add rogue for the extra skills, evasion, rogue talents and sneak attack dice.
for the nuke sorcerer, i would add flames oracle for more thematic blasts and some intersting side things like healing or condition removal.
Your son would have fun with sneak attack. It would help mentally develop his ability for battlefield maneuvering, trying to make his way into flanks. But, he may already do this well.
It seems like a lot of fun versatility could be added by doing this, but it is going to add a lot of complexity. Did the players request this, or is this something you're thinking up on your own?
Honestly, I wouldn't do this to a party with a newbie in it. Especially if he is still a kid. Maybe if it was a relatively long going group that have done multiple campaigns.
Unless you, as the GM, are planning on beefing up the encounters a bit. Then the added versatility will be much appreciated, I'm sure.
I actually like this idea. It's basically giving everyone a prestige class, which really boosts the melee and other non-magic users, but doesn't really give the primary magic-users as big as a power boost.
Dwarf Inquisitor _ Bard (Dervish Dancer) just to frustrate the GM with more crits.
Gnome Sorceror _ Paladin (if it within his alignment) BAB, Saves, Charisma synergy
Gnome alchemist _ Fighter for the BAB and all the range combat feats he always wanted but couldn't afford
1/2Elf Oracle _ Paladin, same reasons as Sorceror, might also be more likely to be thematically appropriate, Sacred Shield or Divine defender maybe
With the Gnome Alchemist, I would take rogue. The range increment on a rogue's Sneak Attack is 30ft. Using this, I would have it so that I could add even more damage onto the bombs.
This is a neat idea! I'd been wondering how to introduce any campaign-specific prestige classes down the road. Maybe I'll just give them the option of gestalting one level of one campaign prestige class during the game. If they like, they can take more levels in it using the regular rules.
Would sneak attack add damage to bombs? I thought it had to be precision damage
For the life oracle I'd go cleric for the domain powers or witch for the hexes. Both can work very well for buffing and healing. Or some paladin archetype for hp, bab (increases CMD) and special abilities.
For the blaster gnome I'd think about fire oracle to buff his blasting with revelations or fighter for the bonus feats and hp/bab/cmd
The much critting inquisitor could go magus for spell combat and spell strike to get criting spells on top of criting strikes
Oracle//bard
Inquisitor//fighter, picking up Critical Focus and Critical feats, maybe Inquisitor//paladin for smite + judgement
Alchemist//wizard or witch hex + bomb
Barbarian//rogue add sneak attack + lots of defenses & skills
Wizard//witch double the spell power, plus handy hexes or Wizard//ranger for all good saves, more skills, and there are some nifty feats that synergize favored enemy and spells.
Oracle- I can totally see her adding bard as her second class. I can also see her adding paly for lay on hands plus sick saves.
Inquisitor- she isnt focused on crits at all she just always seems to get 20's. Definitely see paly or fighter in her future.
Barbarian- will need something melee based fighter is boring but may be what he needs
Fire sorcerer- wow flame oracle seems a good fit. Ill suggest it.
Alchemist - i am totally lost on this one. A gunfighter may fit best if we can mesh it right.
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Oracle - paladin(Hospitalier/sacred servant) Much fun healing, plus access to a domain
Barbarian - Ranger(Skirmisher) - Lots of nasty tricks, but you don't have to worry about spell casting
Alchemist, Gunslinger - but give him access to the explosive missile discovery
I won't make a repeated suggestion for the fire elemental sorcerer. What everyone else has alreay mentioned fits it to a T.
The inquisitor is difficult to peg. Is he a melee fighter or a ranged fighter? If he's melee, then the best way for him to take advantage of his teamwork feats is to let him have plenty of friends. I'd recommend Summoner, (Master Summoner). In this cast a bunch of weak monsters serve the purpose of both flank and teamwork buddies.
If he's more focused on range this is a trickier fix. Ranger has great synergies, but he's likely already taken the feats provided by their combat styles. Magus could be cool, or just really cheesy. Kind of hard to say. Fighter is probably the best be available.
What about prestige classes. Most seem suited to multi classing any come to mind for them.
I would suggest the Horrifically Overpowered Feat of "Gestalt" as a bonus 11th level feat for them instead. Adding in single class levels from 11th on is pretty ... weak at first - and will rapidly become too much by 18th+. This adds 5th level sans any spellcasting - including archetypes that swap out spell casting - to the characters in question that advances every even level after 10th. 6th "add-on" class at 12th and so on. If you have to add a full spellcasting class on (bard, magus, summoner or any of the full casting classes) toss "Magic-User" into the kip with it.
Not sure what you are saying there turin. I dont mind the power level the characters should have going up to around 20th. Ill balance my encounters around it. I really didnt follow what you were saying the feat does though.