From: gusar@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Sean A Reith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Dual classing
Date: 1 Oct 1992 16:53:42 +0800
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au

mrmarcel@eos.ncsu.edu (MICHAEL RONN MARCELAIS) writes:

>In article <5689@news.duke.edu>, dks@acpub.duke.edu writes:
>|> 
>|> 	I have a few strange dual-class situations, and I want to know how
>|> some other people would respond to/rule on them:
>|> 	We have a 9th level fighter, Str 15, Int 17, Con 15, proficient in
>|> the use of the staff, among other weapons. After years of study, he dual-
>|> classes as a magic-user (this is for 1st or 2nd ed.)... He takes dagger 
>|> proficiency as an m-u.
>|> 	1) Does he get a "free" proficiency in the staff, so long as when
>|> he attacks with it he uses the mage tables?  He already knows how to use
>|> staff, and m-u's have staff on the allowed weapon list...  Does he mystic-
>|> ally "forget" and need to attack as an m-u with the -5 non-prof penalty?

>My view is that he does NOT get a 'free prof' in the staff.  He could attack
>without penalty, but then he would be using his Fighters skill and would get
>no experience for anything he did that campaign.  (See Dual Classing)  He
>could also use the -5 non-prof penalty and attack as a mage.  

>Dual Classes pour fourth all of their effort in their new class until it is as
>good as their old class.

Aha.  So he gets more XP for bad role-playing?  Or perhaps mages have a
different style of fighting which enhances their magical prowess, but is
about as effective as yelling insults in a language the opponent doesn't
know?  Aha.  Right.

The rules (and most of the others replying) agree with you, but
doesn't this extreme classness seem just a little too stupid to pay
attention to?  Of course, 'twould be extremely strange circumstances
where a character would want to change his lifestyle, and the loss in XP
due to having to spend several years gaining the knowledge assumed to be
existant in a first level character, should be more than enough to
balance it in game terms (this period would be even longer if the
character wanted to maintain his old skills).

Another way of handling this would to be to assign a cost in proficiency
points for a class, and when that many proficiency points had been spent
on the new class, then the character could be considered to first level
in the class, this method can also be used to balance multi-classed
characters...
Of course, for these proficiency points to be expendable in such a way,
the character would have to have a teacher, though these points should
also be gainable by studying with a teacher (not adventuring), but this
is always true (extensive training should result in the aquisition of
NWPs).

>|> 	2) (2nd ed in particular)  What happens to his non-weapon proficien-
>|> cies?  Languages I'd expect he'd retain at no penalty for their use. (Lang-
>|> uages are NWP's in 2nd ed, in many campaigns.)  Can he use all of his other
>|> NWP's at no penalty?  Only non-warrior group ones? Only the general and 
>|> (though unlikely to be possessed) wizard-grouped ones?

>Languages stay.  Others don't unless they are selected.  I would give the new
>NWP's but he couldn't use the old ones without the penalty mentioned above. 
>He could select the same one again, if (for example) he couldn't deal with not
>having appraising.

Hmmm, this is very strange, I agree that skills not maintained should
dwindle (and this is one way of implememnting it), BUT, this means only
skills which are not class based do this?  How is fighting different to
say, herbalism?

Enjoy, be free,
Sean.
-- 
Sean A Reith aka Lynscar             | gusar@uniwa.uwa.edu.au
C programmer and net.addict at large | sean@gu.uwa.edu.au
Obquote:                             | reith_s@kultarr.cs.uwa.edu.au
 "I have a cunning Plan" - Baldrick  | sean@his.own.really.fast.machine (RSN)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd