D&D 5e Multiclass Tiers Final Rankings!

over the past several months Kelly and I have gone over every multi-class combination possible in the core rules of 5th edition and ranked them under our tier ranking system and so we've been wondering which of the classes came out on top which ones aren't very good at multi-classing and what was our overall conclusions and feelings on the strongest multi-class possibilities in which classes were best for multi-classing in the game My name is Monty Martin and I'm Kelly McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes and today we're going to take a look back at all of our multi-class rankings for all the classes in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling but before we get into the rankings this week's episode is sponsored by The Wanderers guide to Enchanted emporiums which is launching now on Kickstarter it's a standalone sequel to the hit Source book the wanderer's guide to Merchants and Magic this book offers a variety of new magic items and magic items shops for you to explore in your games first and foremost the book offers rules guidelines and price lists for magic items in 5th edition campaigns something that has been sorely needed in the game rules it also comes with a simple crafting system that allows you to enchant and make your own magic items within your games and for when your players are ready to dive into a shopping session there are three magical marketplaces and 25 magic item shops for your characters to explore and purchase over 80 new magic items so make sure to get in on the kickstarter well it's live by checking the links down below big thank you to the Wonders guide for sponsoring this episode and now let's get on to the episode if you haven't watched the rest of the multi-class tier rankings that we've done and you want to see how we are grading the multi-class combinations you can check out our video where we go over that right up over there and of course we just want to acknowledge that Kelly and I do have our own biases and opinions about how we play the game we try to rank Things based on our experiences and what we feel works really well in the types of games that we play so let's kick things off with the artificer let's take a look at all of the rankings that we gave them and first and foremost there's no s rankings that we awarded the artificial but we did give an a to the fighter the Rogue and The Wizard as multi-class combos a b went to the cleric and the Paladin a c went to The Bard the Ranger and the Sorcerer And D for barbarian Druid Monk and warlock I think I think right away the clear indication here is by not giving an S tier what you're really saying is that there's a good chance that if you're playing an artificer you want to stay single classed artificial I agree I do think that the the artificer gains some very interesting things when you multi-class but you have to have a goal in mind for how you want to build the character and I don't think that there is a single standout in particular remember our rankings are considering that you're still keeping the majority of levels as artificer and you're picking up a couple levels of any one of these classes and I think that that is the biggest difficulty here because the artificer really wants to go deep into artificial levels unlock those more powerful higher level infusions unlock those more powerful higher level class features and because it is a half Caster but a class built around still casting spells you really want to preserve those that being said it was obviously indicated that if you want to have a bit more fun with the artificer the wizard is the Clear Choice I'm pretty sure that's the battlesmith blade singer yeah but then also it was it was really fun to see the potential of adding a couple levels of fighter or Rogue to augment the battle capabilities of an artifice or if you wanted to go more that way I think that the wizard offers the I want to be more of a spellcaster and then the fighter and Rogue say I want to double down on the melee or combat mechanics with only four subclasses it really felt like the battlesmith was the recurring theme for the artificer as the first Port of Call although we also looked at the armor in particular the combinations with the armor on the Rogue or stealth based classes I do think that the artillerist and The Alchemist offer the least potential for multi-classing with the artificer and those two subclasses are going to be the ones you're more likely going to want to stay single class with as your artificer so with the artificer one multi-class combination would you want to play it's not even necessarily what you think is the best what would you want to play at the table I think the stealth mode Arbor is the way that I would go I would take a couple levels of Rogue uh so that I had cunning action and the expertise in stealth thieves tools take the stealth armor really go full on infiltrator mode I 100 thought you were gonna say blade singer I too am going to go with the Rogue artificer I I just think it sounds the most interesting to me I love the stealth suit idea and the the ability to sneak attack with your uh with your ranged attacks in the suit moving on to the Barbarian to no one's surprise the fighter is the S tier combination however I was very surprised that we ranked the Paladin so highly but I'm not surprised anymore having played a barbarian Paladin in Baldur's Gate 3 and it slaps hard yes the ability to Smite when you're raging yes it's just really great also the the Rogue is also a tear on our list um because you can also sneak attack when raging it's your Conan build right I think it's really cool and I think that a couple of Rogue levels add a surprising amount especially being able to use cunning action to dash to get into combat as a barbarian you get a lot of even out of those two levels we gave a b ranking to the cleric the Druid the Monk and the Ranger and we gave a c to The Bard and a D to the artificer sorcerer Warlock and wizard as you go down the list you get into more of the spellcaster classes and one of the recurring themes with the Barbarian is that you can't cast spells or concentrate on spells while you're raging so what this has you do to try to make it work is you try to grab what spells you can use on yourself that you can carry with you into a rage yeah and they can't be concentration based you can't cast spells so you are really looking only for buff spells that don't require concentration which is a tough thing to build around where you're going to have much more luck if you just grab fighter or Rogue a lot of people also though did say that multi-classing as a barbarian into a spellcaster class or one of these other classes brings a lot of much needed out of combat utility to the Barbarian which the core class doesn't really have and I do agree with that I think that that is an absolute Factor there I just think that the Rogue kind of gives you what you're looking for there by giving you the extra skill proficiencies and giving you the expertise skills that you are looking for and it still feels to me very diluted yeah um and so yes you gain some versatility but it comes at a cost and with everything you have to weigh the cost is that worth it to you in my opinion it's not but that's where opinions can differ I I will say that if you notice looking at the major spellcasters Bard gets a little bit above it gets the C instead of the D and I think the reason for that is same idea if you're looking for a way to amplify The Barbarians out of combat potential jack of all trades and having a very good Charisma and the ability to be the party face means that you're going to be good at skills yeah if you take those levels apart you're gonna have to be very picky with your Spell choices but once again even a small investment in Paladin gives you a lot of interesting support abilities that you can use with lay on hands or with just a couple really well chosen Paladin spells that I think you can work with very easily maybe you could do the same with some Druid and Ranger levels but I I think that you really have to decide what you're looking for with the character at that point I think if I was playing this a multi-class from the Barbarian I would go Zealot Barbarian Vengeance Paladin and that would be that would mean my jam I think that's the one I'm most excited for yeah I think that would be super cool moving on to the Bard The Bard only got one s tier combination and that's going to be the Warlock and that's really for the one level dip for the swords barred hex blade I think that one of the things that really struck me about looking at The Bard is it's such a versatile class inherently that it's surprising how little the bar gains from multi-classing deeply and it came up time and time again that it's almost like that The Bard is inherently the Jack of all trades class you just want to be keep going forward as a part rather than necessarily picking up levels of something else yeah uh we did give an a though to cleric Paladin and sorcerer with a B to fighter and Rogue we gave a c to the artificer and the Ranger and D rankings to Barbarian Druid Monk and wizard I think the key here is if you look at the Paladin and sorcerer who both got a ranks it's because they're also Charisma based clusters yeah two levels of Paladin is wonderful a couple levels of sorcerer can also add a lot especially with subtle spell metamagic and I do really like that one level of Life cleric and going the rest lorebar builds those are amazing build options and there's a bunch of different ways that you can build those characters regardless of what the subclass choice is I will also say that the multi-class tier ranking Series has brought to life something that I've been pondering on for a long time if you go back and watch our subclass tier ranking video where we rank the swords barred very low yeah that's definitely the of swinging a Miss we we missed on that I'm playing a swords barred in Baldur's Gate 3 and loving it I I think I love the swords Bard especially as the Prime Choice for multi-classing totally and I will say that there that that has opened up a very interesting build between doing I currently have a swords barred six Rogue three Fighter 2 in Baldur's Gate 3. that build is surprisingly strong as a sharpshooter Archer it reminds me of the Swift quiver Bard build as well that shows some interesting ways of building a non-standard combat oriented Bard but that still has all of these other capabilities in Social and utility that is where you get into really interesting things although I think that the mechanics of balder Skate 3 make that build work in a way that doesn't reflect in in tabletop although I'd be interested to try it I do think though that The Bard uh has a lot of great potentials for multi-classing it's it falls probably around the high middle for me for multi-classing potential in a class I it goes without saying we gave it the S tier but the one I'd be most excited to play is I love the hexblade swords Bard it's so fun I do think there is an argument that the Warlock ranking should get bumped down and the other three that are in the eighth here should get bumped up to a because that hex blade swordsbard is only one build whereas the barred Paladin and the barred sorcerer and the to another extent The Bard cleric you have a much more wider range of subclass options with those I just think it's so standout powerful though that it's hard to not give it s tier for just that I mean you could still take pack to the blade you still could and I think two levels of warlock just to grab Eldritch blast and agonizing blast on a Bard it's one of those options that all of a sudden your Bard didn't have a lot of damage dealing options and just with two levels of warlock even if you're not doing the hex blade thing any Bard can grab those two levels of Warlock and be really good as a blaster so that they have something to do Beyond handing out bardic inspiration and casting Battlefield control spells or whatever you have a really good attack to default to while you're concentrating on something else what would you be most excited to play I think it's still the hex plate sword Spartan yeah Fair yeah so the cleric was a class that routinely got a b or higher ranking for every other class but incidentally we didn't give the cleric a single s tier multi-class if you're primarily staying as a cleric and multiclassing into something else we gave the fighter an a and the Monk and the Rogue a bee but everything else I mean c c is the C ranking is pretty packed here with the artificer Druid Paladin Ranger Warlock and wizard all Landing in C and then Barbarian Bard and sorcerer Landing in D the the cleric is very particular first of all the options for being a wisdom-based spellcaster doesn't feel the same as the charisma-based spellcasters in there because the only other wisdom-based spellcasters Druid and they don't actually go to Kevin very well well and another interesting thing that happened here is we gave the cleric picking up Bard levels a d but we gave The Bard picking up cleric levels on a but that's what a reversal yeah it's because a Bard with like a single level of cleric gets you really really far but if you're a cleric with a single level of Bard it's nothing yep yep it's it's very very true very very true I think there is an argument to lift the Paladin and the Druid out of the sea tier and maybe bump them up to B when combining with the cleric because I do think you could make those builds work as a dip as something that maybe you've got a little bit of build potential there but I do think it's pretty limited I think that the cleric fighter is just so Stand Out strong and I would do that over the Paladin I I can see that because we actually have a lot of synergy in some of the subclass options between those which I think is kind of exciting the nature domain cleric isn't my favorite but it does make a good connective tissue theme wise to something like the Ancients Paladin or any Druid I think the one that excites me the most not an optimal build necessarily but I I we did give the monk a B I think I'm very interested in playing something like a shadow monk with the Twilight Claire yeah that is I think there's potential there for a really good good balanced build between the cleric and the monk because you can do this character that is going in stunning people with stunning strikes while they're being swallowed up in spirit Guardians yeah yeah yeah so I I want to try the spirit Guardians Monk and I think that there's some fun to be had there moving on to the Druid we gave an a to the Barbarian the cleric the Paladin and the Ranger very surprising to think of how highly we gave the Paladin and Ranger for multi-classing with Druid but I think these were kind of Dark Horse rankings in both cases yeah I I think that we were actually quite surprised or some of the fun that we were able to have multi-classing the Druid we we gave a b to the fighter and the Monk and a c to the Rogue and sorcerer the D rankings were the artificer The Bard the Warlock and The Wizard and so coming back to the top of things the Barbarian Druid build as the tanky bear the bear bear the bear totem bear Barbarian bear bear all bears all the time if you're wild chafing into a bear you're going into a rage you're taking the bare totem it's great it's a very specialized strong Frontline tanky build that combines two great features rage and wild shape very very well it's very strong at low levels I do feel it drops off as you level up a little bit more but it remains uh a solid option and one that feels very flavorful I found the other a tiers that we gave really unique and interesting uh the cleric we just talked about the cleric Druid there is some connective tissue there and if you're going most of the way Druid the cleric can just give you access to uh more spells and a few Divine features that I think are are actually beneficial yeah the cleric dip is going to just add a little bit more to your Druids Arsenal it's going to give you some Channel Divinity powers and by well by it's a very natural ability score match and so by choosing the right domain to match the play style that you're going with with your Druid especially if you're going more of a Caster root like say a light domain cleric with Wildfire Druid there's a couple nice pairings there that you can make that you don't have to invest too much and it doesn't slow down your spell casting that much because you're still getting those higher level spell slots for up casting and it might be a viable way way into a bunch of different options when we looked at the Paladin I think the big kind of standout there was this idea of well what if you're a bear that smites yeah and I I mean that's so fun to picture now the other thing that Ranger is also in in the eighth year and I think the one that I'm most excited to play is uh silly Beastmaster yeah so that I have my bear bear you got your bear now that's not even the best it's not even the best option but I think that it has some interesting potential there especially if you do want to go more in the melee route I think that there's an interesting way to do the Ranger and the Druid where you're a spores Druid yeah with a two weapon fighting Ranger with a couple two up one fighting Ranger options um and then boosting that up with the druidic spell casting so there's you could very easily just do five levels of Ranger and then go the rest Druid and I think you have a very powerful character one that still gets access to very high level spells I do like the idea also if the spores Druid cleric I think that there's some some really cool potential there especially with the death domain yeah combined in there really being the necrotic damage specialist that that Herald of rot I do think though that as usual the fact that we don't give an S tier is significant uh is is significant in the idea that Druids like to be Druids they do and it's a very strong class and it's you ultimately are going to make a trade-off when you're multiclassing with the Druid especially if you're going with a moon Druid I think that it's unless you're doing the Barbarian thing I don't think I would multi-class with the moon Druid but multi-classing with the other Druid subclasses is a cool inroad to explore alternative builds when we come to the fighter I think again the fighter is the bacon yep of multi-class it's the bacon of classes for multi-classing it goes on everything when we've got our chart up here we gave s tier to the Barbarian and the cleric a tier to the Paladin the ranger the Rogue and The Wizard we gave a b tier to the artificer and The Bard a c to the Druid Monk and Sorcerer And A D to the Warlock but I think there's an argument for bumping everything up one tier for the fighter I'm actually surprised looking at the Warlock now I think the reason why we gave a d to the Warlock is again classes are kind of ranked in their own bubbles so like a d tier on the fighter isn't the same as a deter on yeah cleric the fact that we gave a warlock D I still think that like a hex blade warlock fighter like there's there's although that would be more a warlock build and I think that was why it ended it would be it's it's hard to justify taking just the couple levels of warlock no matter what you're doing with the fighter you can do it but there's I think there's way better options out there if you compare what you get as a as a straight up fighter from two levels of Barbarian with two levels of warlock it's for for what you want to do which is hitting things with your ex you get a lot there even a couple levels of cleric with so many different Channel Divinity options so many different spells that it can add into the mix you get so much more out of those two levels than you did from two levels of warlock I think with the fighter being the bacon of multi-classing I think what's important here though is that right now we're talking about the fighter multi-classing and picking up other classes where I actually don't think that's where it's the bacon I think it's the bacon when we look at every other class picking up fighter but that is the joy of the fighters the fighter probably gets if we were giving rankings in this episode it might be my S tier multi-classing class I think everybody wants a bit of fighter and the fighter can benefit a lot from other things it can because there's so many different ways to build a fighter whether you're going for a Frontline tank a damage dealer an Archer anything and so because of the diversity of combat options and because of the way that Fighters also want to pick up a little bit of extra utility along the way there's a lot of different choices of how you envision your character and I think that Fighters also have a lot of break points it's like are you going to grab two levels of fighter five levels of fighter eight levels of fighter are you gonna grab a couple levels of this class this class this class or this class and you can almost throw the classes into a like roll randomly and decide how many levels you're going to take and end up with something that is actually surprisingly playable yeah I think if you're going fighter is your primary the challenge becomes when do you jump off the fighter train to grab your multi-class levels because it's when you start looking at it it's like okay two levels of fighter I've got action search three levels of fighter I've got my subclass four levels of fighter I got feet five levels of fighter I got extra attack six levels of fighter I got another feat seven levels of fighter that feels like the first yeah yeah that feels like the first opportunity we're like okay now I can pick up another class but then you're like oh I'm only two levels away from another feat I think that um that's gonna be the the hardest thing to do and starting with fighter is almost always the best choice because that's going to give you Constitution saving throw proficiency and heavy armor I think that I'm gonna break the mold a little bit here the the exciting combo for me is the fighter with three levels a Battle Master fighter okay three levels of gloomstalker Ranger and a few levels of Rogue in there as well I think that's a pretty cool character yeah I mean they're an Archer that is that is the archetypal assassin build um I think that it's very hard to top the force straight up melee damage dealing potential Barbarian 2 fighter however many levels you want you know what I want to see I want to see your Barbarian fighter and my gloomstalker rogue fighter in combat together if you I I feel like those two characters are the Wrecking Balls of weapon damage in fifth edition because if you just want that sustained I can do like both of those character builds the other thing that really stands out about them is that they very much have the Captain America I can do this all day sort of vibe whereas you contrast that to say the Paladin based builds where the Paladin's like I smoke five times now I'm done the Barbarian fighter and the fighter gloomstalker Rogue they're just like yep keep them coming keep them coming keep them coming I I'm just gonna go non-stop so you really see the contrast of like that sustained high damage versus burst damage in contrast yeah so for the Monk we gave a lot of s tiers out for the monk I think what's important here again with each class kind of existing in its own bubble nobody really wanted to dip into the monk but the monk loves taking five levels of of itself then grabbing five levels of something else let's be real um I know that we rag on the monk a lot on this channel and I want to be very specific I think the first five or six levels of Monk are great they're so fun they're so cool then the rest of the time you're like what am I what am I getting but you only have to look at how many builds Colby does where he does five levels of Monk and then gets out of there he's just out right and so in that respect the cleric offers a lot of potential the ranger offers a lot of potential the Rogue offers a lot of potential this is mostly because the ability scores line up super perfectly these are all classes that love having wisdom and dexterity in equal measure they have interesting things to do with their actions but in in all cases they also want to have more things to do with their bonus actions and so I think in in all three cases you can kind of take your favorite subclass of either mix them together and you've got great characters I think that uh giving the a to the Druid and the fighter there's a lot of fun potential there the monk who then switches into Barbarian is is really fun so we gave Barbarian the B when we move into you can tell the spell castry classes are the ones who want to wear a lot of armor mostly spell casters though C gets the Sorcerer of the Warlock and The Wizard D with the artificer The Bard and the Paladin none of these really offer us a lot the Paladin is down there because there's too much of a mismatch with the ability scores and then spell casters and monks don't really work I'm gonna again I know we're trying to not make these rankings based on Baldur's Gate 3 of any in any way shape or form so what do you want to say that Baldur's Gate 3's implementation of Tavern brawler yeah makes the strength based monk viable and opens up all these things like the Barbarian Monk and opens up real just really cool stuff with throwing weapons and strength-faced monks and having now tried those builds out with a car lock in Baldur's Gate 3 I just wish they you could make that work in tabletop I I really do it's over it's pretty overpowered even in the context of Baldur's Gate 3 um because Carlock just throws that returning it's combined also with the magic items that are in the game yeah but it is one of those things where like I look at the Barbarian Monk and go okay that could be really cool I really like the idea of the strength based Monk and Baldur's Gate 3 gave me the taste of what that could look like if it were allowed in tabletop and I like it I like that like it's like those are two flavors that you're like oh man you know how you know it's like one of those things where someone tells you have you ever had a deep-fried Mars bar and you're like that sounds gross and then you have one and you're like this is gross but I love it and like I hate myself sort of way I mean have you ever had deep fried butter you know I I don't want to have deep fried butter you say that that would be my Doom until you have deep fried butter my belt my my favorite build here um also been playing a lot of balder's K3 so there might be some uh some parallels here not from a character build but just from the themes yeah I want to play a gift Yankee Monk ranger the ranger being uh the the dragon riding Ranger right right the dragon Monk and the dragon ranger as get Yankee Red Dragon Rider yes cool that's cool that's what I want to play I think the shadow Monk Arcane Trickster Loom stalker as well yeah Shadow monk gloomstalker just embrace the darkness yeah I so for me it's Ranger I have two potential builds I want to be either a dragon rider or complete Shadow gloomstock yeah that's I think those are both really cool options and could be really strong characters moving on to the Paladin we gave the S tier to both The Bard and the Sorcerer And I think both of those are very well deserved with a to the Barbarian the fighter and the Warlock we gave a b to the cleric and Rogue a c to the artificial in Druid and a D to the monk Ranger and wizard I feel guilty that we gave the Warlock an A and I think it should be s I think that we made the wrong call there by only making it a I think it is s I think our argument was that it didn't come online until high levels and it was only the hex blade I think that's why it landed in A's yeah you couldn't tell me like there were other options but none of the options were as powerful as one so there's one I think that was the discussion in the episode was there's one warlock Paladin build that is absolutely the most s tier but all the rest of the warlocks yeah you might get Eldritch blast on your Paladin but like you don't really Eldritch blast is like an alternative to I can't reach it's I can't reach the enemy yeah but that's really really I also have javelins yeah it's true but I do think that it is really good and I think that that's the one maybe revision that I might make here if I was going to make a revision I'm not going to revise it because I still think there's an S tier build in there but overall the Warlock Combos and a that's that's just my take but I I see I I remembered as we were talking about this why it landed where it landed but it is deceiving because you look at warlock palette and the first thing that pops in your head is hex blade and you're like why is that a not s Paladin sorcerer is really strong yeah um and the Paladin can get a lot out of just a couple levels of Bard the Paladin swords bar can be a lot of fun for myself at the end of the day having played the hex blade Paladin it's still my favorite I love it it's amazing I love that it feels like the main character I hate saying that but it feels like the main character build this is another uh twofer that I'd like to see both of us playing at the same time with these characters you go the witch Knight I'm going with the uh head of a nightly order and he's the charismatic swords Bard I don't know what Paladin I would pick I want it like it's my least favorite but I feel like there's a okay for storytelling purposes not for mechanical purposes oath of the crown swords Bart otho the crown is not my favorite Paladin by any means but I like the idea of me being the like captain of the kingsguard sworn an oath to the king to protect them and so I'm the charismatic front man of this like nightly order um it just it just sounds very cool to me even even if I'm not the best because I I mean technically I could role play that with any Paladin but let's just go for theme over mechanics and say uh swords barred oaf of crown Paladin nice our Ranger ranking gave the S tier to the fighter and the Rogue and we already talked about the fighter Rogue Ranger yeah I think no arguments there no and I that's still my favorite build for this a goes to the monk B and again I think we already talked about that highest monk ranking I think so I think the monk Ranger uh because they're they're they just they mirror each other with ability scores and there's a lot of fun potential uh B goes to the the Barbarian the cleric and the Druid see to the artifice or in the Sorcerer And quite a few down at the bottom here with uh spellcasters uh we got the D ranking for The Bard the Paladin the Warlock and The Wizard I think the only reason why the sorcerer didn't get D was because we said that there could be some cool meta magic stuff that you could do by having subtle spell on a ranger for stealth missions yes yeah and I think that's that raised them up to a c because there was a few potential builds that we could make there but and the artificer got is not in the D tier because we still love the idea of having The battlesmith Beastmaster or the the battle Beast Master Smith yeah and having your robot bear and your bear bear no yeah there's a lot of conflict there with like what's wrong with your bonuses it's not a good build it it sounds awesome it's fun but I I don't think that that character works very very well I think that ultimately the the the the strong stuff here is the classic Ranger Rogue and the ranger fighter now my actual favorite build here I've already talked obviously about when we were talking about the fighter and I said fighter Ranger uh Rogue but I want to go a little bit different here because we're Ranger main yeah my favorite build is the pushing potential of a swarmkeeper Ranger and a Battle Master fighter storm keeper Ranger has the ability that on any attack they can cause the target to make a saving throw or get pushed 15 feet and then you can take a Battle Master maneuver that also makes them make a saving thrower be pushed 15 feet and then if you take the telekinetic feet on top of that you can push a Target 35 feet they have to fail to saving three saving throws but if they do you can shoot them once and push them 35 feet off of a ledge that they didn't even think they were near so that's it's the push build uh I love it I think the gloomstalker gloomstalker 5 Fighter 2 assassin three like it gets the surprise round and just destroys the world it's so good and yeah it it's one of the one places where like the Assassin Rogue really sings it is your classic stealth Archer build and if you've never dm'd for it you're fortunate because it's very hard to balance combat encounters with a character like that in your party because they will just snipe out whatever the biggest threat is on the battlefield when we come to the Rogue uh there's a few s tier builds with the Rogue we have Druid fighter and Ranger up in the S chair so the S tiered for Druid is because we love the idea of the Assassin rat assassin rat wins assassin rat totally it's the wild shaping into a small creature to Aid your infiltration the Druid also brings spells like pass Without a Trace that you can stack on top of stealth expertise I think it's super cool and uh it's a fun alternative take because the ranger brings a lot of the same it also brings pass without Trace no this is this is a very rare case and I actually think right away my my winner is the Assassin rat yeah because it's just so unique but it's the only time that the Druid really Rises to the S tier for for a multi-class yeah in a we gave the artificer Bard cleric Monk and wizard with B going to the Barbarian the Paladin and the Sorcerer a sea to the Warlock and we didn't give a d which makes me it makes it seem like the Rogue loves to multiply the Rogue totally does because you've got a lot of exit points for the Rogue as well where you can pick up those extra levels um you can decide how many levels of another class you want to take the Rogue loves taking five levels of another class that gives it extra attack like taking five levels of fighter or taking five levels of Ranger but then you can go the rest of Rogue from that point onward just like Jill has done with veya with which is her Ranger Rogue yeah I think um other than assassin rat the ranger seems like the most obvious choice and it's interesting that I've I've said that now for three classes so I think the ranger also offers a very good potential for multi-classing you know where it comes down to it's like the dexterity wisdom classes and the Charisma classes and anybody that can be fighty and the marshals those are kind of like the three pools of multi-classing that you've got a lot of potential to draw on the Caster multi-classing is not really a thing in fifth edition because of the way the spell casting mechanics work around multi-class unless you're Charisma based and again that's the exception right that's why I say it's the Charisma casters the Marshalls more broadly and like the dexterity wisdom sort of process yeah when we come to the sorcerer the sorcerer got Warlock and Paladin as s-tier potential but didn't get any A's the sorcerer is the basis for two of the strongest multi-class combinations in the game the sore lock or the sorcerer Warlock and the Paladin sorcerer having played both they're insanely good and that that's the interesting thing about this is those are the two two of the most powerful and potent multi-class combinations in the entire game everything else Falls well below it which is why you can actually see on the chart a gap and then everything else falls into the BC or D ranking we gave the B to The Bard cleric fighter and uh Rogue the C to the artifice are in the Wizard and the D to the Barbarian Druid Monk and Ranger and I think really all of those just fall to the Wayside when if you're thinking of multi-classing the sorcerer you're probably already thinking of either the sorelock or the source it yeah it is so strong but all all these character builds and that is even before you get into the the the slew of broken interactions yeah at the at the s t here the characters are great um and I think that if you had I think the party that I perhaps fear the most in fifth edition as a DM would be a paladin sorcerer with a sore lock with a hex blade Paladin and then the gloomstalker Rogue fighter yeah I think that that might be like an Unstoppable pretty Unstoppable party we should do an all multi-classing play like a one shot or something where we we build we should get like Colby in on that yeah do like everybody build your broken characters although we tried that before I think that we need to do the more like let's discuss what the character what are the actual broken builds rather than making characters in isolation everyone makes the characters together together and see just how much it can tear through for the sorcerer multi-class which one would you be most excited to play I okay I feel like I'm very torn because I have two playthroughs happening right now in Baldur's Gate three one is a paladin sorcerer and one is a sore lock but which one are you having more fun with the sore lock it's it's it's also the itemization in Baldur's Gate 3. this the sore lock is just broken involver skate 3. that's my choice too not just for both Escape three I mean for d d as well but the sore lock just it's so fun the coffee lock yeah I mean doing the coffee thing where like you get the infinite spell slot stuff is really um pushing it like that's where the D as a DM I'd be like no no no I would only play it at your table in a one shot with you allowing it and knowing that it's coming with the Warlock we actually see something similar again with our s tier we have the Paladin and the Sorcerer so it's interesting that with the sorcerer we had the Paladin and the Warlock and now with the Warlock we have the palette so it's those three there's the trifecta they are they're the Triforce of of their yeah they are the Triforce of multi-classing so it we don't need to say much about why the Paladin the sorcer got the S here it's the same reasons we just explained really it's just what are you taking more of in this case you're taking more hex blade Warlock and then you're dipping into either Paladin or sorcerer sorcerer for metamagic yeah Paladin for some smiten and uh go to town I do think that maybe we overrated sorcerer for this because I do think that taking more taking two levels of Warlock and going the rest sorcerer I feel like as you take more warlock levels it gets less strong it's still viable but it's not as good I think as the as the flip side whereas with the Warlock Paladin thing works no matter what the breakdown is like you could have 14 levels of warlocks six levels of Paladin you can do it a more even split there's a bunch of different ways that you can play it and they all work looking at the chart we did give an a tier to the fighter a b tier to the uh the Barbarian The Bard the cleric the Ranger and the Rogue we gave a c tier to the artificer Monk and Wizard and a d tier to the druid hex blade picking up two levels of Fighters is respectable and that's that's kind of when we were looking at the fighter the Warlock fell into the D tier yeah and it was like and I even as I was saying it I was like well this is more of a warlock build and here we see it the Warlock build taking fighter yeah that's it's great what would you play if you were multi-classing Warlock 14 levels of warlock six levels of Paladin same and rounding things out with the wizard we gave nothing to the S here because I think that single class wizard is super strong and it's really hard to justify not going all the way up to those very high level wizard spells that said if you're going to multi-class with your wizard I think that the a tier options as a dip of one to three levels are worth considering and those are the artificer the cleric and the fighter we gave a b ranking to the Rogue and the Sorcerer uh the Rogue because it offers an interesting option for wizards yeah and the Sorcerer gives you metamagic which might be useful on a wizard and a bit of a stretch it is a bit of a stretch because I think it's a high level dip so once you have 17 levels of wizard under your belt taking three levels of sorcerer is pretty awesome at C ranking we have The Bard and the Paladin and at D we have the Barbarian the Druid the monk the Ranger and the Warlock I I probably wouldn't pick any of those and with the wizard honestly I'm probably staying single class Wizard and actually in the comments on our wizard multi-class ranking something that a lot of people brought up which is something that I feel I know was it your favorite class yeah so don't don't yell at me for this one but um the wizard doesn't really have a lot of interesting mechanics going on with its class build which is why people were like yeah how does it not have multi-class potential when it's got nothing going on so this is the Crux of the matter Baldur's Gate 3 once again is the exception that proves the rule in Baldur's Gate 3 many of the high level wizard spells are simply not present or have been substantially reduced in power there's no wall of force involvers gate 3. there's no animate objects in Baldur's Gate 3. polymorph is gutted hypnotic pattern only lasts for two rounds dispel magic is gone contingency gone a lot of the super high powerful high-level wizard spells in that traditional wizard build are not present in the game at all and so what that illustrates the power of the wizard class is in the Spell access and as soon as you don't have access to those high level spells the wizard is the wizard is just spells yeah the Wizards feature is their spell list they get access to spells that nobody else gets access to and they're the most powerful spells in the game but without that they're nothing and so what ends up happening is when you multi-class the wizard every step of multi-classing you take has a chance of diminishing your potential to pick up those high level Wizards reducing your access to that and I think that the best example of it we talked about this in the wizard multi-classing video is the blade singer battlesmith artificer so people really like the potential of that build because it lets you go full in intelligence by having three levels of battlesmith so that when you're fighting with a magic weapon you can use intelligence to attack with and then you've got the six levels of wizard to give you the blade singer multi-attack that's a ninth level character build and getting to that point is not particularly fun you after the three levels of artificer and the six levels of wizard together to make it work and before then you're kind of like just a slightly worse wizard and so I think that um and you also have to compare that because that character casts third level spells on the wizard list has fourth level spell slots and you have to weigh that against the value of having access to fifth level wizard spells spells again it's a trade-off I personally think it's a trade-off that's not worth it but others others are free to disagree I think it's a it's a it's a viable build it works and people have played it and and give it a thumbs up I don't rate it but it works but it's there if you were multi-classing the wizard would your build be the battlesmith I I would either be that or a one level of cleric I want or two levels of fighter I want to try the The Tempest domain cleric and take all electrical spells with my wizard yes that's yeah that will my lightning and thunder damage wizard probably just an evoker the fighter and the characters are both great the sorcerer dip at high levels is also great the artifics are pretty good pretty good I I'm we're giving it an a because people have highly recommended it and it comes up again and again I don't love it myself but I do think it's worthy of an a that kind of wraps up our overview on all the multi-classing and taking a look at it all uh just one last question that I kind of want to answer if you had to pick three classes that you think offer the most multi-classing potential what are they sorcerer Warlock and Paladin wow I was gonna go fighter cleric and uh warlock I think that the sorcerer warlock Paladin combinations overall yeah even though the fighter and the cleric pair wonderfully with everything and that's why I'm giving them like the S tier for multi-classing is you can grab you can yeah if I was giving an S tier for multi-classing potential mine goes to the fighter the cleric and the Warlock warlock because it just Blends so well with so many things and then fighter and cleric because anybody can take them I think for me it's just that those three Charisma classes offer so many different builds and so many different options that also result in very powerful characters I think that there's yes there's a lot of places where you can take a level of cleric or two levels of fighter and they'll go with almost everything but it doesn't necessarily produce something that is insanely powerful right where is it I mean I think action surge is insanely powerful in a lot of cases I I totally agree with you I just think that the the Warlock the the the Triforce of the Warlock Sorcerer And Paladin those the three combinations that are possible between those three classes first of all give you a huge range of build diversity just between the three of them and a huge range of power that can play at all pillars of play including role-playing social interaction and combat all right here's here's I think the deal classes that are excellent for multi-classing fighter cleric warlock sorcerer Rogue and Paladin yep uh classes that should not be multi-class unless you're really trying something for me Druid and wizard for me I would add artifice for that the Drew of the Wizard and the artificer you have to really decide what are you doing before you multi-class those three so the ones that we mentioned those are like yes multi-class the ones down here are the probably don't multi-class single class might suit you better everything in the middle is kind of a b tier of multi-class well the monk the ranger the Barbarian all have options I think the ranger has those specifically excellent combinations yeah behind it and then bringing up the last one is The Bard because the Bard is such a jack of all trades inherently it doesn't need to multi-class to create the feeling of multi-classing of being good at a lot of different things and so I think that when you multi-class The Bard you want to specialize and build your character in a certain direction and that's where I think that they they have that very key choice to make with 13 classes in the game countless subclasses there are more combinations that are possible in fifth edition than we could ever hope to cover in years of making videos on this channel and almost certainly we have failed to mention a combination that is super powerful that you might love or something that has a lot of potential in the right campaign that with so many options on the table where it's inevitable that we're gonna miss something and we have our own biases too I think that we should uh start talking on this channel about the three-way combinations soon because I have a few videos I want to make on that I want to hear though no matter how many different classes it is that you're combining in the broad scheme of multi-classing what is the most powerful multi-class combination that you have made whether it's two three or four or more classes combined together tell us about your builds in the comments below the videos that we create on our channel are made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our patreon supporters if you enjoy the work that we do here on YouTube please consider becoming a patron of the show by following the links down below and if you want to see a ranger Rogue destroying combat encounters check out our live play in the worlds of Dragonite which is Tuesday evenings on Twitch you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and we've got plenty more tier ranking content that you can watch for the whole archive right back up over here please subscribe to our Channel like this video and ring that Bell so that you never miss an episode thanks so much for watching we'll see you next time

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 132,314

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: CjjtbktqVzk

Length: 52min 41sec (3161 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 19 2023