Chapter 123: Multiple Classes
‘Anyway, it’s good news.’
Anse no longer dwelled on it, his consciousness touching the twenty-sided die, one memory fragment after another surfacing in his mind: bombing merfolk, slaughtering wyverns, hunting kobolds, forest battles, killing mind flayers…
Moments later, the symbols formed two back-to-back shadow figures, one with a robe and staff, the other blurred and indistinct.
Ding—
【You gain Adventure Trait: Multiple Classes】
「Multiple Classes」: When any of your attributes reaches or breaks through the human limit of 20, you can multiclass into a class that uses that attribute as its primary attribute.
Peak human attributes can help you quickly master the traits and abilities of that class, but you cannot gain the enhancements from leveling up, such as life, proficiency bonuses, etc.
This class is independent from the main class, leveling experience is double that of a normal class, and for growth in the same type of traits or abilities, effects do not stack, taking the stronger one as standard.
‘Independent multiclass?’ Anse was stunned, this was truly beyond his expectations.
He had considered multiclassing before, but felt that nine-ring spells were more important, so he decided to specialize in sorcerer for now.
Traditional multiclassing has no quantity limit, as long as prerequisites are met, you can multiclass.
Multiclassing grants abilities from different classes and seems very strong, but it has many drawbacks.
The biggest issue is experience, the experience required for leveling is based on your character’s total level, for example, 7th-level sorcerer/1st-level warrior, total class level 8, so you must gain enough experience to reach level 9 to level warrior to 2nd level or sorcerer to 8th level.
At this point your class level is 9, with life and proficiency bonus corresponding to that level, but you cannot master 5-ring spells.
「Multiple Classes」 is different from traditional multiclassing, it is completely independent, which fits everyone’s general cognition better.
The advantages are obvious, Multiple Classes has an independent leveling system, even if leveling experience doubles, you can still quickly raise class levels and master new abilities.
For example, 7th-level sorcerer/1st-level warrior, 「Multiple Classes」 only needs 600 experience to raise warrior to 2nd level, the initial difference is very obvious.
But every benefit has a cost, leveling up in this situation is not complete.
In the original class system, every promotion is equivalent to life’s sublimation, whether multiclass or main class.
In 「Multiple Classes」, after multiclass levels up, there is no “level up effect”, class abilities and feats can be mastered, but attributes like life will not increase.
Similarly, 7th-level sorcerer/2nd-level warrior, ordinary multiclass total class level is 9, 「Multiple Classes」 total class level is still 7, “2nd-level warrior” is a nominal level, the body only has life, proficiency bonus etc. corresponding to level 7, life strength weaker than the former.
‘Strong, but not that strong.’ Anse couldn’t fully figure out the pros and cons of the two for a moment.
But he knew that synchronously leveling multiple classes was definitely not feasible, two classes together having ridiculous triple experience, wouldn’t it be better to use all that experience to level the main class.
The correct usage should be at higher levels when promotion requires massive experience, spend a small amount to level the sub-class.
Anse clicked on the blurred shadow figure on the die, light and shadow exploded, shadow figures representing different classes circled around him, striking different poses, lifelike.
Most classes were dim and lifeless, only bard, paladin, warlock were lit, all charisma-based classes.
He touched them one by one with his spirit, other classes popped up “attribute not met” prompts, only priest had an extra warning:
Unable to sense the abode of the gods!
‘Hm?’ This information was completely different from when he first chose a class.
Priest’s primary attribute is wisdom, they can reach out to and channel divine magic from the outer planes where the gods reside, and wield such great power to bless the masses and shatter strong enemies.
If they cannot draw power from the gods’ realms, they completely lose spellcasting ability.
‘So originally it was just losing contact with the gods, now even the outer planes can’t be sensed? What exactly happened…’
Unfortunately he was too weak, without the ability and strength to travel the outer planes, only able to passively wait for everything to unfold.
He checked warlock, found some subclasses similarly affected, some patrons unselectable.
‘The disaster may have just begun, sigh…’
He set aside his worries about the unknown, calmed his mood, and carefully weighed the pros and cons.
Warlock was ruled out first, it is a mysterious scholar who draws power from otherworldly pacts, if the patron “goes offline” one day, the channel for magical power is cut.
Bard is a performer who inspires hearts with music, dance, and magic, known as “jack-of-all-trades”, “cure-all”, but “strong in an not very obvious way”, spell list average.
Multiclassing bard can master a few new spells, and somewhat unprofessional melee abilities.
Paladin looks pretty good, after multiclassing can wear various armor, master martial weapons, outstanding melee ability, and learn paladin-exclusive spells.
Divine magic is very special, ordinary spellcasters cannot master it.
Paladin’s power is obvious to all, but their numbers are very few, the biggest obstacle is the oath.
Paladins may swear before the altar witnessed by priests, or pledge to nature spirits in forest holy sites, or make pacts under the witness of the dead when facing despair and disaster, all these paladin oaths are extremely strong contracts.
And it is precisely the power of the oath that turns a devout warrior into a hero bearing blessings.
Most paladins faith good alignment deities, but with or without faith they can cast divine magic, this comes from the power of the oath.
Oaths are numerous, Oath of Devotion, Oath of Glory, Oath of the Ancients, Oath of Vengeance are mainstream, there are also less common oaths like Oath of the Crown, Oath of Conquest, Oath of Zeal, Oath of the Giant Noble.
Different oaths constrain abilities differently, alignments vary, but none can betray the oath.
Anse looked around, found only Oath of the Giant Noble relatively easy to follow, colloquially known as “Jotun Pal”.
Oath of the Giant Noble: “Build upon destruction, reshape new life; with splendor as banner, with elegance as guide; respect elements, revere their wrath.”
“Build upon destruction, reshape new life.” is the core philosophy of the oath, acknowledging destruction as a necessary premise of creation, as for how to interpret it, that’s a matter of opinion.
The second tenet seems simple but is actually quite difficult. It makes you pay attention to appearance and conduct, maintain generosity and poise, actions should be as legendary as possible, like openly challenging strong enemies, avoiding poison and backstabs etc.
The third tenet is simpler, you must hold reverence for elements themselves and the powers they represent, elements are your partners, not slaves and dogs.
Oath of the Giant Noble is a very rare neutral oath, no morality binding, at most a bit of not very strong constraint on personal behavior.
‘That’ll do, worst case shout before ambushing.’
Anse pondered for a moment, waved his hand to cancel the class projections, and pulled up the character card.
Experience at 19147/23000, still quite a bit short of level 7.
Below, a new 「Experience Pool」 bar appeared, value 5147, which exactly matches the experience saved after leveling to 6.
All classes share one experience pool, raising multiclass to 4th level needs 5400 experience, obviously not enough, and he wasn’t willing anyway.
Sub-class absolutely cannot affect main class leveling progress!
But raising multiclass to 2nd level only needs 600 experience, simply too cost-effective.
He clicked the blurred shadow figure representing 「Multiple Classes」 on the die, selected the shadow figure representing paladin.
The next moment, all images instantly dispersed, Anse’s spirit jolted, in a daze as if entering a bizarre space, filled with magical elements and strange creatures.
He understood intuitively, and began reciting the oath: Build upon destruction, reshape new life…
The sonorous voice triggered energy oscillations, interweaving and aggregating, gradually forming a four-colored prismatic magic mark, branding on his forehead, then disappearing.
Then, his body heated up, muscles trembled, massive skills and knowledge projected into his body and mind.
In his consciousness, “he” trained in combat skills year after year, proficient in various weapons and armor, adept at using the power of the oath to wield magical forces.
