Multiclassing: does the first class matter?

[lilypad]

I'm planning to make a half-ork thief with 3 levels of fighter to get the battlemaster skills. Does this sound ok? How would it be different to start as a fighter or a thief first? Do you lose anything by choosing to start as one class over another?

Thank you. :)

[[MOO] Dark God Azrael]

Depends on how they follow the pnp multiclass rules. It effected things like saves and proficiency a bit. They are already removing stat requirements from the pnp rules, so until we get more info, it will be hard to say.

[seandeven]

You get heavy armor and all weapon Proficiencies at lvl 1 Fighter

Starting as a thief begins you in a hole combination with fighter

..but Larianisms so whose to say

[HozzMidnight]

Yes. All subsequent classes do not get all of the proficiencies that you would get if you picked that class first. There are some other qualifiers as well. Mostly you don't miss much but like if you were gonna take any Rogue levels you would want your first class to be Rogue because of the proficiency heavy level 1 that class has. Google 5e Multiclass and you should find a table that shows what proficiencies you get when you multiclass into a new class.

[Soteria]

Assuming they follow the core rules (they're not; we know they're waiving the stat requirements) then the main consideration is what you get when you multiclass into something. Based on https://5thsrd.org/rules/multiclassing/

Class Proficiencies Gained
Barbarian Shields, simple weapons, martial weapons
Bard Light armor, one skill of your choice, one musical instrument of your choice
Cleric Light armor, medium armor, shields
Druid Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)
Fighter Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons
Monk Simple weapons, shortswords
Paladin Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons
Ranger Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, one skill from the class's skill list
Rogue Light armor, one skill from the class's skill list, thieves' tools
Sorcerer -
Warlock Light armor, simple weapons
Wizard -

Do you care about getting heavy armor? Then definitely start as a fighter.

[Starwight/ttv]

First Starting class does matter, because most classes get their class features at level 3 for one. Also your starting class determines your starting proficiencies. So for example, fighter's get heavy armor proficiency at the start, where rogues do not. So if you wanted to START with heavy armor proficiency you would need to start as a fighter. You don't gain EVERY classes proficiencies when you multiclass either (at least in tabletop, not sure how Larian will do it). So you really need to see what proficiencies you will gain from multiclassing vs starting out, and let that guide your start.

Also bear in mind, you will probably end up putting more levels into one of your classes; so look at what class features you want to get when multiclassing to plan around it.

[Runic Tunic]

Yes and no. Traditionally in 5e, starting with certain classes first or following a certain pattern of when to dip optimzed your stats and ability to survive. Here though it's a bit more difficult to say how much it matters because you have a lot more control over early point allocation and gear that can offset any weakness/strengths.

I'm no expert, but I think in this case it just depends on your preference. You're gonna have better survivability in the beginning with Battlemaster, but you'll probably hit harder and be a better sneaky boi with Rogue (also lock picking skill will be better). So I'd go with what you like more until we know more, imo.

[Foolswalkin]

Rogue gets 2 extra skills if you take it at level 1, only 1 extra (per the table posted above) if multi classed into and if they implemented that (all this advice is by tabletop).

A fighter and rogue multiclass wants use sneak attack, and sneak attack only works with ranged or finesse weapon, which means you should attack with dex. Also, you probably want to sneak. So heavy armor isn’t for you.

Take rogue first, then 3 fighter. I would say 5 fighter to get extra attack (well actually I would say 5 gloomstalker ranger, but that’s my damage), but you do you. Then the rest rogue.

[Commander_Ryuk]

Not 100% sure for this game, normally dnd it does with Armor proficiency weapon proficiency and skills you are good in, only other thing is just early game HP

[seandeven]

Op: I like Fighters in game my response is skewed fighter over the thief.

Sneaky characters and ranger thief might be worth looking into with your half-ork. Thief/fighter maybe, as assassin maybe, trickster or thief rogue you might start as rogue go ranger 5 as illustrated above by Foolswalkin.

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

So this is something ive been thinking about.
someone posted a video on the forums earlier, someone who played the full game was talking about "itemization" and they mentioned how magic items tend to have armor classes. This is different than 5e table top where most magic items are just "magic items" and dont usually have an armor type unless its a suit of armor and theres only a few types of those.

So. If theres going to be lots of magic items from gloves, helmets, boots, etc, all of which have armor proficiency, this HEAVILY slants the advantage towards everyone picking fighter or paladin as their first class just so you can guarantee that you can equip -any- magic item you find as those are the only 2 classes that get -everything-. Tempest Cleric I believe also gets everything if you want your first level to be in a full caster.

You might be pushing back your overall power by 1 level by doing this, but as others have pointed out in other threads, the max spell slot is level 6, which unlocks at level 11.
So you can always take a 1 level dip into Paladin or Fighter as your first class and still put the next 11 levels into a full caster to unlock the most powerful spells in the game.

keep in mind that fighter doesnt get a subclass until level 3. but i think paladin and cleric both get theirs at level 1. So Paladin or tempest cleric is probably the most efficient to start your character with if you just want to make sure you can equip anything and everything.

Having said that, the itemization bro talked about how many items are restricted by race, including items unique to Dark Urge only.

The itemization video mentioned how there are only about 9 legendary items in the game. If they are tied to class, then you'll definitely want to multiclass to make sure you can equip 2 different legendary items, but of course, thats mere theory.

[Foolswalkin]

Well, that's an interesting point about heavy armor and item access.

If they haven't changed it from EA, and if they are following tabletop rules otherwise, one of the options you can select whenever you take your first level of Ranger is Ranger Knight (it's what they call a "Favored Enemy" choice in this game). This will get you heavy armor proficiency whenever you take it, as should being Cleric of the Life, Tempest, Nature, and War domains (could be some others, I don't remember). This is because this access to heavy armor is due to selectable features within the class rather than just being the default armor proficiency they get.

So, if it were me and I were worried about it, I would still go Rogue 1st, then Ranger into Gloomstalker through 5, then back to Rogue, and just be sure I picked Ranger Knight at my first Ranger level so I could wear big metal gauntlets and an armet along with my super sneaky studded leather ninja costume and look maximally silly.

[lilypad]

Thank you, everyone! :) I was looking between your replies and the bg3.wiki to figure things out. I think I get how it works now, assuming Larian doesn't change anything but they might.

For fighter/thief, it looks like start as a fighter to get heavy armour (which nullifies your dex bonus) vs. start as a thief to get one extra skill point. I think the extra skill point will be more valuable since you don't get many in the game? Looking forward to krumpin' in medium armour, though! :D That's a cool perk I hadn't thought of. I hope there's a really cool heavy armour set in the game for the few classes that start with heavy armour proficiency. Not many classes get it without the heavy armour feat.

I also looked through the glove list to see if any gauntlets require heavy armour. Some of the gauntlets require medium armour proficiency. I'm sure some gauntlets in the full game will require heavy armour. I didn't even look at helmet requirements. I can see the value in picking one level of fighter class to gain access to magical equipment.

I looked at rangers and other classes. I'll hold off for now until we hear more. It's kind of dizzying to consider the options! XD I'll probably go with 3 levels of fighter. Disarming attack, pushing attack, and trip attack all look fun. :)

I wonder what half-orks will get. :D

Ah, it looks like no racial traits about half-orks are listed on bg3.wiki, but fextralife lists a few things: menacing, relentless endurance, and savage attacks.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Half-Orc
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Half-Orc

[Foolswalkin]

Good luck have fun!

I will say, 3 levels of multiclassing into something is a choice you want to do rarely, because it's only one more level before the ability score increase/feat, and those are pretty good, and after that it's only one more level for the fighty classes to get Extra Attacks. It's certainly not "never multiclass 3 levels" but making the tradeoffs work is a little trickier.

But the good news is that the respeccing looks very forgiving, so you can try it one way and then try it the other, and see which you like best for yer Sneaky Git.

[lilypad]

Oh, that's a good point! Yeah, levels 4 and 5 look useful as well. Maybe an even split in levels would be good to have as a fighter/thief, which is a pretty good combo. It's a trade-off between being the character you want to be earlier in the game or class changing longer to become more powerful.