Stay Multiclassy

Dated: 29 Mar, 2026

(with thanks to Dave Chapman for the title…)

Here at Dunromin University Press we are BIG fans of the Multiclass facility within OSR/D&D, and such characters have been at the core of our play since we started Dunromin in 1987. We were perhaps ahead of the curve in thinking that the multi-role character with a variety of skills was a good idea – the flexibility has become an implicit part of the 5th ed and such.

A quick browse of SM01 the Players’ Guide to Dunromin will inform an experienced player that we favour the Multiclassed character quite a lot: we have lifted restrictions on level, racial limitations and the kind of combinations allowed, all to make multiclassing more attractive. Add to this preferential hit point, proficiency and saving throw/to-hit selection (rather than averaging) and it starts looking like going for a pure class is a bit of a stale selection.

But we all love the classic classes as well, and the pure tropes that inspired them!

Unfortunately, we have come to realise the game balance is becoming skewed away from the pure class person. This is unfair – a specialist should be a specialist and better than a non-specialist.

So how can we right this wrong?

Being very much fans of crunchy rules, gimmes and loop-holes, we are going to “fix” this by adding more stuff rather than taking away. Here are some of the ideas we are going to be piloting with our own play-testing group…

The main changes to the single-class character will be:

• Get 10% bonus on ALL earned experience – including any 10% bonus they may have for having a high Prime Requisite. So, add the 10% for a high Strength (or whatever) first and THEN add 10% to that if you have only one class. This reflects the focus of the single-class character – everything they learn is seen and learned through the prism of their chosen role.
• Roll hit points TWICE when advancing levels and select the best of the two. A bit like the “Roll with advantage” idea in later editions. You may already have a mechanic for this but it’s a nice little extra to keep pace with change.
• +1d10% on the Prime Requisite each level – on top of any other level or age-related changes (within racial limitations).

Other changes we are considering:

• Change the XP bonus to 20% - probably a bit over-the top.
• Weapon Specialisation – limiting multi-class Fighters to single specialisation, not double-specialisation. You may not use this rule as it is a bit messy and unbalancing, and our plan in this whole exercise was to make the single-class option more attractive rather than penalise the Multi-classers.
• Extra spell slots – this seems a reasonable idea given the specialist nature of the casters, but how to implement? This is very much a work in progress.

And there you have it!

Nothing revolutionary, perhaps an unrequired re-balancing, maybe not. We do, as has been said, love a complicated, crunchy game so this might not be your cup of tea anyway. The “Your Table, Your Rules” missive trumps everything, of course, but this might be food for thought.

What about “Characters With two classes”?

We love these too, oh yes! Such individuals would get all the above benefits for their primary, first class taken but not their second (or third etc.)

"BUT!" We hear you cry, "This is all a bit generous and gimme-gimme! Why not just play a different system where everything is properly designed and balanced? Something that isn't classic D&D/OSR?"

To which we just laugh, gibber and lose ourselves in our cups… Again: Play something other than our own bastardised hotch-potch 1st edition AD&D OSR cludge? No. No, we don’t think that would do at all… Can you imagine? [ the author chuckles to himself and eats more cheese]

Forewarned is fore-armed!

We are currently planning a re-vamp of SM01 The Players’ Guide to Dunromin; a 3rd edition! It is very much pie-in-the-sky at the moment, but the above ideas are some of the rules developments we are considering including.