Hybrid Versus Multiclassing, Part 2

I’m a fan of 4E’s iteration of multiclassing because its very simple to do, makes it impossible to completely cripple your character, and is much gentler for the game narrative. If your concept calls for more than “dabbling” in another class, 4E also offers a way to combine two classes from the get-go, in a sort of homage to 2nd Edition’s own multiclassing style/3rd Edition’s gestalt characters via hybrid classes. I wanted to try out these rules, but they lost traction with me because I didnt have a character that demanded a half-and-half ratio until now.

Its been quite awhile since I last blogged about hybrids and multiclassing, and hopefully no one was holding their breath on this: in short, I like multiclassing better in-most-cases. Here’s the thing. Hybrid classes claim to let you take the features of two classes and combine them, but when I initially sat down to do just that, I discovered that the result was less than the sum of its parts. Normally I wouldnt mind this much as I’m a bigger fan of executing an interesting concept over character optimization, but in this particular case the sum was a lot less.

My foray into hybrids started with Tuska. As it stands, he is perfectly viable mechanically (moreso because of his racial bonus to Strength) and mostly fits the concept I’d envisioned with the only caveat being that Josh let me swap out a warlord at-will for magic weapon because it fit the concept. I decided to give hybrid classes a shot so that I could try and create Tuska “legally”, merging the warlord and artificer, which would let me take magic weapon and not have that irritating yellow flag glaring at me. Judging me.

Hell, they’re both leader classes, what could go wrong?

Well…a lot.

Both the artificer and warlord get dick for class features. Artificers get to heal once per encounter (yawn), and warlords are in the same boat except they still dole out free Initiative bonuses (stifled yawn). Okay…thats all well and good, only not. I mean, artificers normally get to fiddle with magic item daily powers and get free rituals, while warlords can (again, normally) constantly mod action points.

You dont get any of that shit in any capacity.

When you tally it all up, you can heal twice per encounter (like a normal leader) but get fuck-all else. It sucks ass. Sure, you can burn a feat on Hybrid Talent, but its about an effective patch as Pathfinder was for 3rd Edition. Warlords can pick up Commanding Presence and mod one action point per encounter, while artificers can choose from either item-daily-fiddly-feature. You dont get rituals, but you can always burn yet another feat to take Ritual Casting (and then buy your own damned rituals, moocher).

What if I dont want to burn a feat on Hybrid Talent so I can still be less effective than a single-classed character? In that case I’m stuck with leather armor, no shields, three skills, and the ability to give my allies an Init boost. In the end, I found that it would take about five feats just to get almost back up to where I was, when before it took a single feat and DM permission to snag a thematic power to get the character I was going for. Another feat and I could freely swap one one category of powers as I please. Hell, at the cost of four feats I could do what hybrids set out to do, just more effectively (and efficiently).

I know that Wizards came out and said that, yeah, its not always going to work. Thats fine. I totally understand. I dont expect all MC combos to work either. Frankly the major problem here isnt the hybrid rules or the warlord, but the artificer. I went through and checked the other leaders, and they all get their healing power plus something extra, even if its something shitty like Skill Versatility. Throw it a freakin’ bone here, people.

In other news, I did a quick-and-dirty ranger/shaman hybrid, which seemed to be much more mechanically viable. Ultimately, I would say that hybrid characters can have a place, its just a pain in the ass that it can take quite a bit longer to determine whats sound and whats shit. In the case of traditional multiclassing its pretty damned easy to figure out whats a good MC for another class by checking their attack stats. Also, if you dont like it, you can always train the feat out later (you cant trade out hybrid classes or “unhybrid”).

Multiclassing vs. Hybrid Classes, Part I

Multiclassing in 4th Edition has gotten a lot of flak since the specific mechanics were introduced a short time prior to the game’s release, probably because it functions nothing like it did in the past, excepting that it lets you pilfer abilities from a class other than the one you started with. Some people think that it sucks just because of this, while others get all butt-hurt because they think that either: A) multiclassing feats suck too much to be worth the effort, or B) that it just doesnt let you spread yourself out thin enough.

In general I don’t think that is a bad thing. In fact, I like it more than before since it makes more sense when you stop and think about it.

Huh?? Yeah. WHA?? Uh-huh! Explanations abound!

In 3rd Edition class wasn’t a hardwired option for you, as it was really a point based system masquerading as a class based game for the sake of tradition. At any point in your character’s career, you could opt to pick any class you wanted to when you leveled. ANY. You could start as a fighter and then take a level in wizard, rogue, dread Necromancer, totemist, whatever the fuck you wanted. I’m not going to go into the logistics behind this, but suffice to say that problems would ensue depending on what you did since many classes had abilities that scaled by level. For example, there was little point in multiclassing into wizard for only a level or two since the more levels you got the shittier those spells were.

In a nutshell, abilities and features tied to a specific class’s level do not work when you can freely pull levels from multiple sources on a whim. Well, they work so long as you never stray from the class they are tied to.

The other flaw isn’t really mechanical but…not…mechanical…? Er, it arises when you consider the game narrative/consistency. What I mean by this is lets say that you started out the game as a wizard. You’re proficient with only a couple simple weapons and no armor of any sort. You go adventuring for a bit, perhaps a few days, and gain a level. Usually you’d just take wizard again so that you get more spells, but you could instead take a level in another class. Lets say…fighter. Since you gain all the class features, proficiencies, and class skills of the class, your wizard can now use all simple and martial weapons, as well as all forms of armor without any penalty whatsoever (except for spell failure, that is). Make sense? Yeah, I thought not.

For better or for worse, 4th Edition does not roll that way.

Multiclassing in 4E is a mechanical option that lets you acquire powers and/or class features from a class other than the one you started as by expending feats, but you have to burn a feat each for encounter powers, daily powers, and utility powers. What this means is that you end up “dabbling” in another class. Using the above example you dont gain a level and spontaneously gain a mastery of all cantrips and low-level magic, you instead pick up a single spell and also a fundamental understanding of arcane magic and shit. As you get higher level you can gradually pick up more and more spells at the expense of learning whatever the hell it was you were doing with your actual class.

The best part is that its considerably easier to ensure that your attacks are effective since A) attack bonuses scale by level, not by class, and B) powers also scale and you can swap them out as you progress. So, no having to fall back on magic missile at epic tier. The only drawback that I’ve encountered is that the ability score used doesnt change, so in some cases you might have to stretch your ability scores a bit in order to make it work.

As far as feats go, the opening multiclassing feats are actually quite good for what they provide, which is basically Skill Training plus something else. Generally if I want to pick up Skill Training I end up browsing the list of MC feats to see if one will give me the skill I want. Past that things get a bit trickier because you have to burn a feat each if you want to swap out encounter, daily, and utility powers. I think people get hung up on this “feat tax”.

On one hand I want to say that it does seem a bit much since you are just swapping things (and therefore gaining nothing), but on the other hand you get twice as many feats as you did in other editions and its not like any particular feats are necessary to survive. Plus, you can always paragon multiclass and not pay anything at all for your troubles. Or both. Whatever.

Actually, what I would like to see are multiclass combination feats that let some races get extra benefits when they multiclass in a thematic combination, kind of like how tieflings got that infernal captain thing going on, just not as shitty (warlords and Con-based warlocks dont really mix).

From a narrative stance this method shines since you dont get an entire class’s suite of stuff, just a trick or two. It makes so much more sense that the Fighter was able to pick up a spell by “reading over a Wizard’s shoulder”, instead of somehow mastering them all in a fraction of the time it took the wizard to do so.

I’m not an optimizer in the sense that I methodically construct characters, mapping them out in intricate detail throughout all 30 levels. Mainly I think of a concept and just roll from there, preferring to take the “organic” approach and pick new options as I actively play the character and see how it grows. Usually the starting concept is a logical one, such as a Warforged Fighter or Longtooth Shifter Barbarian. Sometimes its a bit more unorthodox, like a Gnoll Monk or Gnome Barbarian. Depends on if the concept looks cool in my head.

The entire process goes like this, I pick a race like…minotaur, and mash it with a class like, say…rogue? Well they’re strong so I’ll go with the brute scoundrel class feature and try and pick powers that emphasize mobility and forced movement. Is this ideal? I dunno, just sounds cool to me. I then go through the motions picking feats and powers that work with the concept. They may not be the most optimal, but they’re the ones that fit the theme that I’m aiming for.

Multiclassing can help with this conceptual phase quite a bit, and I dont have to worry about it crippling me in the process. I made a Minotaur Tactical Warlord/Artificer that was based on the idea that he was a general during the Last War and got hit by a particularly nasty living fireball, which caused him to lose his arm. He got a mechanical replacement, and decided to learn how to maintain it himself. This concept was made functional because of how multiclassing works in this edition. In 3rd Edition it would have made for a very sub-par character since my Artificer infusions would have gradually depreciated (and my attack bonus would have sucked ass, making for a very piss-poor Fighter…which is saying a lot since 3E Fighters were always piss-poor).

So thats my opinion of multiclassing. It works out alright from a mechanical and narrative perspective, perhaps better on the latter. I think a good “fix” would be to make racial feats that make it easier to pick up powers from thematic classes (like eladrin multiclassing into wizards, elves into ranger, etc). Maybe a feat that lets you use another ability score for attacks instead of the original one? Dunno. Really though I’m content with it as is since for me multiclassing is an option to assist me in realizing a concept, nothing something I utilize for min/maxing purposes.

Next up, hybrid classes.

Character Concepts: Kara, Kenku Rogue/Bard

A friend asked about making a good multiclassed rogue/bard, or bard/rogue, whichever works. I think that they can both work extremely well since both classes use Charisma in some capacity. Rogues can get a lot of mileage out of it with the Artful Dodger class feature, and bards are entirely dependent on it, so there’s a lot of room for synergy.

I was considering what race to use, and wanted to default to the half-elf since they are great iconic rogues and bards, not to mention their multiclassing affinity. That seemed waaaaaaaaaay too easy and I dont really care for half-elves, so I quickly discarded it in favor of a more…unique race: the kenku.

Kenku made their debut in Monster Manual 2, and was something I was going to kick around as a Charisma-based paladin of the Raven Queen in an “oriental setting” part of my Points of Light campaign, where I called the Raven Queen something else entirely. However, thats neither here nor there, so for now I’ll just stick to the plan.

I decided to start out with the rogue as a good foundation, since my friend wanted to have the built excel at melee stuff. This works out well since the bard has plenty of brutal melee spells at its disposal, but being as we only get one feat at level 1 to play with, we wont be seeing any of that at the start.

It was a simple matter of immediately slapping 16’s in both Dex and Cha. I need Cha anyway for Artful Dodger, and once I actually get around to learning bard spells it’ll be doubly useful. I put some pips into Strength, since I wanted to reflect a rough upbringing on the mean ol’ streets as viewed through the eyes of China Mieville. I almost never seem to put Con at 8, so I did just for that reason, chalking it up to chronic malnourishment while growing up.

At any rate, here is the finished level 1 product.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Kara, level 1
Kenku, Rogue
Rogue Tactics: Artful Dodger

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 8, Dex 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 8, Dex 16, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16.

AC: 16 Fort: 11 Reflex: 16 Will: 14
HP: 20 Surges: 5 Surge Value: 5

TRAINED SKILLS
Stealth +11, Thievery +9, Acrobatics +9, Intimidate +9, Bluff +11, Streetwise +11, Diplomacy +9

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana, Dungeoneering, Endurance -1, Heal, History, Insight, Nature, Perception, Religion, Athletics +1

FEATS
Level 1: Bardic Dilettante

POWERS
Rogue at-will 1: Sly Flourish
Rogue at-will 1: Piercing Strike
Rogue daily 1: Handspring Assault
Rogue encounter 1: Fox’s Gambit

ITEMS
Leather Armor, Adventurer’s Kit, Dagger, Short sword, Shuriken
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

I prefer to advance a character in a more organic fashion (ie, actual play), but I advanced Kara up to level 10 to see how well she plays with groups. Basically it ended up with me taking a bard attack and utility, which was easy since bards are leaders and thats their thing: work with the group.

Speaking of bards, lets see how she looks as a bard-multiclassed-rogue.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Karasu, level 1
Kenku, Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Cunning

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 8, Dex 18, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 8, Dex 16, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 16.

AC: 17 Fort: 10 Reflex: 15 Will: 15
HP: 20 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 5

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +6, Diplomacy +9, Acrobatics +8, Bluff +11, Streetwise +11, Thievery +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Dungeoneering +1, Endurance -1, Heal +1, History +2, Insight +1, Intimidate +5, Nature +1, Perception +1, Religion +2, Stealth +6, Athletics

FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Sneak of Shadows

POWERS
Bard at-will 1: War Song Strike
Bard at-will 1: Guiding Strike
Bard daily 1: Slayer’s Song
Bard encounter 1: Inspiring Refrain

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Hide Armor, Short sword, Spiked gauntlet, Adventurer’s Kit
RITUALS
Glib Limerick, Silence
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

I think that this build better compliments the flock mentality that kenku emphasize. The problem I ran into is that none of the bard virtues rely on Dexterity, where the rogue/bard combination readily uses both high ability scores. In this case, the Int of 13 ensures that Virtue of Cunning gets something, but not much. On the chance that most melee powers synch up to Virtue of Valor, its a simple manner of swapping Int with Con. In the end, its a minor benefit at best, at least until paragon tier.
Now, you could drop Dex a bit and take the bard multiclass feat that causes all multiclass powers to rely on Charisma. This basically sidesteps most of the mess and lets you get away with having a Dex of 16 and an Int of 14-15. Your damage is slightly lower (by one whole point, yawn), but I think its a worthy tradeoff.

Both builds work out very well and are thematic in their own way, and this actually makes me want to run an all kenku urban campaign…