multiclass advantages

[mrszabo]

Hi Adventurers!

Iam planning create a new multiclass build and it would be a great help if you share your experience about the most loved or must to get abilities/preferences at endgame and how much lvl needed to reach, for example:

Monk lvl 9 - Touch of Death, Improved Evasion
Fighter ...
Barbarian ...
Paladin ...
Ranger ...
Rogue ...
Bard ...
Cleric ...
Fvs ...

Iam most interested in monk/paladin/and something build, but dont know a lot about paladin or another class ...

Thx,

[Ystradmynach]

Hi Adventurers!

Monk lvl 9 - Touch of Death, Improved Evasion, 1st tier PrE, speed bonus plus various minor monk abilities I'd have to look up
level 2 - two martial arts feats, evasion, wis bonus to armor, best save progression.

Fighter level 2 - 2 fighter feats, +1 strength, toughness 1, martial weapons, tower shields

Barbarian ... level 1 - 10% speed, short lived rage, toughness 1, martial weapons, most hp per level

Paladin ... level 2 - martial weapons charisma added to saves, smite evil, aura of good, lay on hands, toughness 1, wand use
level 3 - level 2 + Aura of courage, Divine health, Fear Immunity

Ranger ... level 2 - bow strength, favored enemy, rapid shot, twf, wand use
level 6 - level 2 + itwf, manyshot, diehard, ram's strength plus 2nd favored enemy and 1st tier PrE

Rogue ... level 2 - 1d6+3 SA damage, evasion, most skill points per level, umd
level 7 - 4d6+9 SA damage, 1st tier Pre, trapmaking, threat reduction.

Bard ... level 1 - Bard song, UMD + wand use. Qualify for AA PrE.
Cleric ... not recommended as splash imho
Fvs ... ditto

Generally I plan on multiclassing in a way that ensure I have three tiers of PrE's if possible (some classes will have to wait for class updates though). So I tend to divide classes by six levels with 2 levels over to splash into other things. I also look at how needed stats work together. For example, paladin need high charisma, most monks need just about every stat other than charisma and int, so a paladin/monk is going to be more difficult to get the most out of their abilities because they basically need five out of six stats.

[mrszabo]

Monk lvl 9 - Touch of Death, Improved Evasion, 1st tier PrE, speed bonus plus various minor monk abilities I'd have to look up
level 2 - two martial arts feats, evasion, wis bonus to armor, best save progression.
Fighter level 2 - 2 fighter feats, +1 strength, toughness 1, martial weapons, tower shields
Barbarian ... level 1 - 10% speed, short lived rage, toughness 1, martial weapons, most hp per level
Paladin ... level 2 - martial weapons charisma added to saves, smite evil, aura of good, lay on hands, toughness 1, wand use
level 3 - level 2 + Aura of courage, Divine health, Fear Immunity
Ranger ... level 2 - bow strength, favored enemy, rapid shot, twf, wand use
level 6 - level 2 + itwf, manyshot, diehard, ram's strength plus 2nd favored enemy and 1st tier PrE
Rogue ... level 2 - 1d6+3 SA damage, evasion, most skill points per level, umd
level 7 - 4d6+9 SA damage, 1st tier Pre, trapmaking, threat reduction.
Bard ... level 1 - Bard song, UMD + wand use. Qualify for AA PrE.
Cleric ... not recommended as splash imho
Fvs ... ditto

Thank you, great post, but iam suspecting that not endgame-able to make a lvl 9 monk / lvl 1 Bard / lvl 2 Fighter / lvl 7 rogue / lvl 1 Barbarian. ... so iam curious another suggestion for the remaining 11 lvls.

[WielderofGigantus]

You can only take 3 classes max.

[Ystradmynach]

Thank you, great post, but iam suspecting that not endgame-able to make a lvl 9 monk / lvl 1 Bard / lvl 2 Fighter / lvl 7 rogue / lvl 1 Barbarian. ... so iam curious another suggestion for the remaining 11 lvls.

That was more general info on what is gained out of splashing classes rather than anything to specific to monks. Certainly barbarian is out if you are taking monk anyway because of alignment conflict, same with bard (and as said above, only three classes are allowed anyway). Also, as I said above you want to divide classes in a way that gives you three tiers of PrE if possible, so you really should avoid taking 9 levels of anything if at all practical.

I would help if I knew why you wanted to multi-class, as doing so is always a trade-off of benefits and weaknesses, and not knowing what you are after makes suggesting a multi-class more difficult.

You did say you wanted touch of death, which means you would be making a dark monk and thus taking Ninja Spy PrE (the only other PrE is light monk only). Looking at Ninja Spy, the SA and stealth bonuses seem like they would go well together with rogue abilities.

So what you could do is go 13 monk/7 rogue, take the Ninja Spy and the Assassin PrE and get a good 8d6+9 SA damage plus your death touch as you zip along in shadow form. For more SA goodness you can make your character a halfling for their +8 SA damage for 8d6+17 total damage (plus they get saving throw bonuses). Just remember to take your first level as rogue for the extra skill points.

[fluffi]

Level 2 rogue = rog haste boost
Level 2 fighter = fighter haste boost

[phum]

I go by quite a few steps, when assessing multiclassing. Namely if I want and how much
1. Self healing/healing
2. Primary dps - melee/ranged/nuking/instakill
3. AC - if so, tanking capable or just for trash?
4. Traps - if so, trapmaking also?
5. Evasion
6. Hp
7. Saves
8. Secondary dps

Of course you cannot in guess any build have all (at a commendable lvl). And to include many, will require quite a bit of studying on feats, enhancements, classes, races, gear.. and risk failure For first multi, something simple like a splash for more melee dmg, feats, hp, saves or traps might be good. This is not a guide, just something I use when planning.

[JeffreyGator]

You may want to think about leveling as much or more as endgame when multi-classing.

When you get particular abilities is a lot more planned than with single classing.

For a simple example think of a wizard 18 rog 2. You want to take rogue first to greatly optimize skills, but want to wait on rogue 2 for evasion until after you get firewall and so take it often at 9.

Deeper mixes are even harder. It helps to have the majority of your character's toolset available halfway through leveling (about 14 or so I think) with generally just incremental things remaining.

You mentioned a pally/monk.

One route to take with that combination is max healing-amp for lots and lots of self-healing. (solar) phoenix.
This requires 7 monk for 20% monk healing amp and light monk for fists of light (monk3). Stunning fists are also helpful since you will live in fire stance and need to use that ki somewhere.
Paladin 12 give Hunter of the Dead II for another 20% healing amp and immunity to lots of undead badness - but you get this pretty late depending on how you're building. getting it at level 15 where you are still fighting undead a bunch at level is probably more useful than my build where I get it at 20 and am fighting devils.
The limitations of this build is that you are using longswords with 2 feats or handwraps or kamas....

[Uska]

I am playing a monk/paly/rge its really suited to light monk though it rellies on healing amp and she is awesome of course mine is a 36pt build so its not going to be completely typical and I proably set my int higher than most would have but I wanted my skills to stay max'd at end game she will be 1rge/9mk/10 paly but I plan to tr her as soon as she hits cap and do the same build 2 more times for the past life healing amp


take rge as first level for max sp then 3 monks for fists of light then 3 paly for immunity to fear and disease,

[Pintail]

If I remember correctly Barbarian and Bard cannot mc as monks or pallys do to alignment issues.