The Gaming Den

[User3]

No one pays the XP penalty for multiclasses. Even the most novice gamer can do the math and see how crappy it is.

But, read the rules on multi-classing in the 3.5 DMG, and then read the rules in the PHB. According to a strict 3.5 determination, PrCs count as non-favored classes. Now, no one I know plays by that rule, but what if they did?

People wouldn’t do the single level dip into four PrCs for the cool abilities

Elves would take Wizard PrC’s, and no others. Other demi-humans would be forced to play either archtypical PrC classes based off of their race’s favored class, or single classes their whole career. They might do dual-type classes(ranger/paladin, etc), but with the XP penalty they’d be forced to keep the classes even-ish in levels, and a PrC would be right out.

Humans would be the new favorite cheese class.

All in all, I don’t think it would be a bad thing. The most broken builds on the boards always involved 4+ classes cherry-picked for the best abilities.

[The_Hanged_Man]

You don't need multiclass penalties to stop PrC abuse. The RAW explicitly allow the DM to say um, no. It's the DMINAG syndrome.

IMC, you get one PrC, 2 if you're otherwise a straight fighter, until 16th level. I don't have problems.

[Josh_Kablack]

Actually, the PrC multiclassing bit was dropped from 3.5 solely by accident.

Here's SkR stating so.

And the tail end of page 3/ start of page 4 of the 3.5 main FAQ also states that the dropping of that text was an error.

Somewhere out there, Andy Collins has also weighed in, saying that he has no idea how it got dropped from 3.5.

It would be nice if rules issues 3 of the designers have stated were errors and which are referenced as such in the official FAQ would be addressed in the errata - but that's not going to happen anytime soon.
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[User3]

One would think that would be in the errata somewhere.

[The_Hanged_Man]

WotC doesn't like errata, probably b/c they employees aren't quite mature enough to admit they can make mistakes. So, they like to put things in the FAQ and pretend it's just an "interpretation" error. I got pulled into a WotC flamewar just the other day about this, where a bunch of people were insisting that Sunder was just a melee attack by the RAW.

One guy eventually said that there was no such thing as the RAW rather than conceded the point. Sad days.

[FrankTrollman]

It's not just their employees. When was the last time Skip Williams ever admitted fault rather than come up with convoluted backwards talking about how two incompatible states were both going on simultaneously followed by a quick exit?

-Frank

[The_Hanged_Man]

Skip's dead-on right the vast majority of the time. So is Customer Service, really. It'd just be nice if every now and then they could just say, "Yeah, that really blew. Wish we'd done x. In fact, that's the new rule."

[rapanui]

They admitted that they had screwed up the first version of polymorph. They still haven't provided a decent fix.

[FrankTrollman]