In my mind there's the 1E Dual Classing, where we say that classes are distinct sets of learning and we have separate XP point totals for our levels in each class. We might design our classes to encourage people to stay in 1 or a few classes and not dip in 15 classes for quick leveling (once our main class has achieved a high level) or perhaps even add increasing XP costs in each additional class such that taking additional classes cost more per level each time.FrankTrollman wrote: Uh... why? You're basically implicitly assuming 3e multiclassing as the standard and demanding that the game make it function. That's an achievable goal. It's difficult because you're asking characters to increase in power every level and dilute their main shtick by a variable percentage based on the number of levels they have in the old class before jumping ship. But you could do something like "build a WoF Maneuver deck every level" so that having multiple classes would always give you an equal amount of level appropriate options, but there's no reason to believe it's the only way to make a simulationist game.
Or, we could go the 3E route, where we have a unified character with 1 XP total. We'd design our system such that spellcaster level doesn't exist, and there's only character level. Thus a Wizard 1/Fighter 8 or a Fighter 8/Wizard 1 casts Magic Missile at 9th level rather than 8th or 1st respectively and we'd make the power or ability system such that at Character level 4, you get a 4th level power. At Character Level 7, you get a 7th level power or at whatever power gain scheme is used, a level appropriate power is granted. I don't see you diluting your schtick, you'd simply at the level you wanted, gain an alternative ability for that level, all your previous powers scale appropriately.
FFXI subjobs don't grant this ability or versatility and neither do Hybrid Classes and 1E Style Dual Classing adds unnecessary paperwork imo.
In 1E Rangers eventually were able to cast MU spells and by RAW a 12th level ranger casted magic missile as a 12th level magic-user. Bards also learned Druid spells later on and they were never required to go away for school for an explicit significant amount of time. In real life I've met Senior High School Varsity Soccer Player who had never played Soccer in his life before his final year before college and yet his natural talent showed out amongst players who'd been at it since 1st grade. Similarly my brother after learning Tae Kwon Do has been able to gain Black belt in Karate and Jui-Jitsu quicker than it took him the first go around. So really, any training fluff in the books is simply fluff to me, I'd argue most of the time is spent due to kids not doing magic or swordfighting most of the time anyway and a lot isn't learned cause the kids are immature and not putting their whole heart in it anyway, never mention classic D&D's own examples of magic learning not taking very long anyway.FrankTrollman wrote:Player characters start at the beginning of adulthood as 1st level Wizards and Knights, having just spent the last twelve years as apprentices or squires. So why the fucking hell would it be simulationist to expect some 22 year old Barbarian to pick up spellcraft and use it effectively in the middle of a dragon hunt? It takes a starting character their entire adolescence to get to the level of an entry level position, why wouldn't it take years of training to get a basic proficiency for someone trained in a completely unrelated field? The idea that people have to be allowed to embark upon multiclassing in the middle of their adventures is a frankly kind of weird idea. It's good for certain kinds of character growth, but you could easily decide to do things some other way.
A DM can always veto a player by disallowing an option by saying it doesn't make sense, but the game system itself shouldn't make such judgements. There's no reason for the system to insist that a character is in the middle of an adventure and that they cannot learn another class or that they don't have enough time to learn a new class. And similarly, if you were to make the argument that there isn't enough time, I'd say the same thing about gaining a level in their current classes or gaining a Prestige Class.
