So, we met the Murderhobo yesterday (although written for Labyrinth Lord, he can easily be used with any OSR system to derail most any campaign ;) and it got me thinking about multiclassed characters.
For me, my favorite multiclassed characters have either been the straight up Cleric with a high strength (allowing him to be a very effective fighter up to at least mid levels) or the Magic-User / Thief. There is an awful lot of synergy between magic and thievery. Both classes tend to avoid front line (or any line) of direct combat.
Actually, if were playing with gnomes, Illusionist / Thief might have even better synergy than MU / Thief, especially if one is looking to enhance their thievery side.
Never saw much of a need for a Fighter / MU and Cleric / Anything is pretty useless, as a cleric is pretty much a spell casting fighter in any case.
So, what is your favorite multiclass combination?
As something of a partisan in favor of OD&D vs AD&D, I never use multi-classing proper, to the point where even elves in my campaigns aren't fighter/magic-users. (If I'm using race as class, elves wind up being based on clerics instead.)
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do use some of a ramped-up take on name level promotion. All fighters in my campaigns that reach 9th level effectively become paladins and start casting clerical spells and learning to turn (or if Chaotic command) undead, and all thieves that reach name-level don't just start reading scrolls; they can actually cast magic-user spells, just like ninja-type characters from JRPGs (the model here being the thief/ninja class from Final Fantasy, or characters like Hanzou and Slade from Shining Force).
In AD&D the Mu/T - MUTT's rule. invis and go in for that massive backstab. Make the fighters turn green with envy as you take out a big bad with one massive hit - then get the heck outa there.
ReplyDeleteIn AD&D, I also would prefer the MU/T combo -- the passive spells, especially the detects and protections, were a natural combo to allow a burglar to assess a large hoard and be able to focus on the items of potentially highest value either in coinage, or party (personal) benefit. And being able to identify magic items on your own after the heist definitely helped with gaining an edge when deciding how best to market an item for resale.
ReplyDeleteI tried Fighter/MU, but it was usually easier to get magic augments in the form of potions to give the boost.
Pairing Cleric with anything was always a bit of a crap shoot because unless you had a good mesh with the deity's designs, you ran the risk of losing functionality. After all, the deity could always override your spell choices when you prayed for them. (Unless you chose to ignore those rules)