Now that we have covered the basics of character creation as well as alignment in a sword & sanity game it is time to discuss a character’s career path. More specifically, what character classes will the players pursue as their characters gain experience and levels.
The game mechanics discussed can be used for any edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but are specifically written for Castles & Crusades. As with most game materials I will present, this article is considered Open Game License (OGL).
Multiclassing
There is a grand tradition in sword & sorcery (S&S) fiction for the heroes to have engaged in multiple professions during their careers. This helps the author establish a series of eras in the hero’s life, and also makes for an interesting read. Conan is an excellent example of this. Of course he began his adventuring career as a barbarian, but the stories also refer to him as a thief, a soldier, a pirate and ultimately as a noble when he finally becomes king of Aquilonia.
I strongly urge any game master running a S&S style game to include multiclassing in their game. Allowing characters to have multiple career paths is an essential element to the S&S genre. Ultimately, it is up to the players to decide what turns their characters career paths will take. When designing adventures keep this in mind, and help setup opportunities for the characters to branch off into new classes. This will also help keep things fresh for you and your players.
The Rules
As written Castles & Crusades does not support multiclassing. There have been articles in The Crusader that present various methods of handling this. Personally, I feel the multiclass rules in the d20 SRD are more than adequate, and C&C is easily house ruled, so there will be no issues importing these rules. As long as the character meets all the class requirements, has the opportunity to switch to a new class during his adventures and works hand-in-hand with the game master, I see no reason why multiclassing should pose a problem.
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