In D&D, multiclassing is the act of gaining a level in another class or classes to gain advantages and abilities. When multiclassing, you are choosing to take beginning levels from another class instead of leveling up in your initial choice. If you’re a level 5 Artificer, you might take 2 levels as a Wizard to expand your arcane knowledge. That would look like Artificer 5/Wizard 2 on your character sheet.
Whether you have an exciting new build, or you’re looking for something to add a little spice to an existing build; multiclassing can truly open up a world of possibilities. Note that multiclassing in D&D fifth edition is an optional rule, so be sure to check in with your DM to make sure your build suits your table rules before you dive in.
The Benefits of Multiclassing
- Added customization options
- High-level gameplay opportunities for more combat-focused games
- Creative storytelling opportunities, to describe how you acquired new abilities in roleplay-heavy games
- Diversifying your gameplay experience mid-campaign to keep things fresh
- Being able to utilize that 20/20 hindsight, and add a healer to the party
- The ability to make a barbarian throw an eldritch blast
Sounds great, right? Endless flexibility, new ways to decimate your enemies, multiclassing has it all. Multiclassing can expand and challenge your knowledge of the game, and provide you with immense flexibility in telling your story. And don't forget that D&D Beyond is here to help!
When to Begin Taking Levels in Another Class
Technically, you have the ability to start multiclassing at level 2, reaching outside of your base class. However, in doing so it’s likely your character will be rather limited and not see many of the benefits of either class. It is commonly recommended to hold off on multiclassing until you reach at least level 5 in your base class.
In an ongoing campaign, when you can multiclass will be largely decided based on your DMs leveling structure. Milestone, XP, etc. Additionally, you will have to meet certain prerequisites to take a level in any given class. These prerequisites are determined by important spellcasting and ability modifiers, with the intention of making sure you don’t back yourself into a useless character corner. For instance, a very low INT Wizard sounds hilarious, however, your spellcasting modifier might not be entertained.
Prerequisites for taking a level in the various classes:
Class |
Ability Score Minimum |
Barbarian |
Strength 13 |
Bard |
Charisma 13 |
Cleric |
Wisdom 13 |
Druid |
Wisdom 13 |
Fighter |
Strength 13 or Dexterity 13 |
Monk |
Dexterity 13 and Wisdom 13 |
Paladin |
Strength 13 and Charisma 13 |
Ranger |
Dexterity 13 and Wisdom 13 |
Rogue |
Dexterity 13 |
Sorcerer |
Charisma 13 |
Warlock |
Charisma 13 |
Wizard |
Intelligence 13 |
Once you have met those requirements, you’re free to start diving in!
If you’re interested in roleplaying the acquisition of your new-found strengths, here are some thoughts to spark your story integration.
- You could take on a knowledgeable mentor to study under and be shown the ways of their practice.
- Your character could find an ancient amulet imbued with a new kind of magic
- A more aggressive character could have a change of heart, and start taking levels in healing classes to care for those they’ve previously hurt.
Working your multiclass choices into your story can make the benefits you gain so much richer, and give your character a new purpose.
How to Multiclass (And the Practical Implications of Doing So!)
Once you have your sights set on what kind of build you’re interested in, there are a few things to think about.
Take a look at the level tables of the classes you’re interested in, to see how many levels you’ll need in that class for your desired effect.
Example: At 2nd level Monks gain an extra Ki point, you might want to take at least 2 levels when dipping into Monk to really pack a punch.
Remember that:
- Your proficiency bonus and XP are always based on your total character level.
- Your proficiencies will vary based on the classes you choose.
- And lastly, to form your hit points, you’ll add together the Hit Dice granted by all of your classes to form your pool of Hit Dice.
Fortunately, we have long since graduated from the days of only having pen and paper to work out all these specifics, and DnDBeyond can make this progress a whole lot simpler. On your “edit character” page, it’s easy to just add another class and start exploring the benefits.
From there, you could practically spend all day exploring combinations of subclasses and what kind of magic the combinations can create!
However, If spending all day looking through subclasses doesn’t quite suit your needs at the moment, I have a few ideas of creative uses of multiclassing that you could implement into your game.
This is definitely for your benefit, and not just because I have too many ideas and need someone to bring them to life… Promise.
You've Got Your Perfect Sorlock...
When your innate magical abilities are no longer enough, and your character is left craving more, the Sorlock is an incredibly powerful multiclass build.
As a Divine Soul Sorcerer, this character desires control of as much magic as possible. Access to the cleric spell list simply didn’t cut it, and they were willing to take a risky deal to gain the great powers of a Warlock. The Pact of The Tome would be an excellent fit for an extremely diverse casting catalog.
Required levels: Sorcerer 5/Warlock 3
You Got Bard in my Barbarian!
Judged by their appearance this mighty warrior utilizes their intimidating stature to gain respect and captivate audiences. Taking spells that are less damage-focused, would allow the barbarian to do their thing in combat, while your bardic abilities can add flair and charm to any who dare listen.
Consider taking the Path of The Zealot as a Barbarian, and letting your bardic side tell the tales of their own dangerous close calls at the taverns.
Required levels: Barbarian 5/Bard 3
Necro-Druid? Necro-Druid.
A Necromancy Druid giveth and taketh away. This multiclass is built to tamper with nature and challenge mortality. Opting for a Circle of Spores Druid at 3rd level would allow you to take on features like gentle repose, and eventually animate dead. This natural attachment to controlling nature however can only be strengthened by the addition of scholarly understanding of life and death. That’s where the Necromancy Wizard comes in, learning how to draw energy from those lives you tamper with.
Required levels: Druid 5/Wizard 5
If you manage to tear through your 2 class builds, you can continue to add variety by even taking on a third class! There is technically no limit to how times you can diversify your class within your 20 levels, though at some point you might end up with quite the beast if you go overboard.
Whatever you create, may it be powerful enough to win your battles, and interesting enough to bring joy to your table. And let us know what multiclass character you'll be taking to the endlessly mysterious Candlekeep Library and Ravenloft's Domains of Dread, both available for presale on the D&D Beyond Marketplace.
Happy building!
Saige Ryan is a writer, host, and content creator in Los Angeles, California that builds too many Druids. Her love for TTRPGs mostly comes from being a drama nerd in high school. You can find her rolling dice weekly on the PixelCircus Twitch channel, or getting too easily scared in video games @NotSaige everywhere.
Sweet Article!
Real Helpful! Some mess ups, but it's still some solid stuff.
You can't cast spells using a Action & a Bonus Action in 1 turn. No Sorcballnanza for you!
Artificers aren't in the SRD(System Reference Document) aka the free rules for 5th.
My first multiclass was a bard/monk 3 years ago. Needless to say, it wasn't the greatest thing I ever built.
I like the thought of a necromantic Druid!
It depends heavily on what you're multi-classing into and why; if you take a level or two in Cleric you get so much out of it that it's easily worth one or two fewer total Ki points. For one level you get spellcasting, two or more cantrips and four or five first level spells, plus whatever extra bonuses your chosen domain gives; Light Domain and War Domain both have really good first level bonuses for Monks; Warding Flare is a zero Ki cost Patient Defence vs. a single enemy attack, while War Priest gives you an additional resource for triggering full weapon attacks (in that respect it's equivalent to having 3+ extra Ki points per day just for triggering Ki-fuelled Attack).
Having played Monk with a few levels in Cleric I'm going to find it very hard to go back to pure Monk. Access to Guidance alone is worth it! Even with Four Elements or Sun Soul, a couple less Ki isn't a big deal when you're getting regular spell-casting instead, as you can use it to gain spells you can't cast at all otherwise.
Currently playing a Ranger/Monk multiclass built for melee monster slaying
Ever since I learned about multiclassing, I've always wanted to try the craziest combinations, like a monk that is also a barbarian, or a bard warlock.
The lack of an Abserd reference is surprising.
Yeah cleric is the exception I think as you get so much value for 1 level...Fighter 1 is tempting as well as then you can make a longsword a monk weapon for you, get dueling fighting style to add +4 to damage for the turn or unarmed to jump up your unarmed die, and get a BA heal once per short rest.
Cleric dips work really well on a ton of builds. That would be one interesting thing to talk about...what classes are the best for 1-2 level dips.
I stand by what I said earlier: There is a hard limit on spell slots. Sure, you have some spell-slot-regaining features, such as Sorcery Points for the Sorcerer and Arcane Recovery for the Wizard, but those still won't make your spell slots infinite. You might not run out of them in a regular day before resting to regain them all, but they still aren't infinite. This actually brings me to an idea I had a while ago: Make higher-level spell slots take longer to replenish. If you have, say, a 20th Level Wizard and can cast 1 9th-Level spell a day, that could be a wish a day, for example. That, I think, is just too overpowered, even for a 20th Level character at the height of their power. But, I'm getting off topic. Spell slots are not, and will never be, infinite.
EDIT: Except cantrips.
Yup. You can cast a bonus action spell and a cantrip on same turn so sorc quicken on fireball would allow a firebolt on same turn but not another fireball (short of action surge approach). It was covered here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/rules-game-mechanics/33821-quickened-spell-clarification
i'm thinking of playing a Palock with a hexblade patron, pact of the blade and oath of the ancients
Serious question: is the paladin’s lay on hands pool determined by your total level or Paladin level?
Thanks.
Sounds like a solid build.
Haha! I love it! The obviously most overpowered multiclass.
True; though I'd actually say that most classes can work for a 1-2 level dip. The only exceptions I would say would be Monk and Sorcerer for basically the same reason (too few Ki/Sorcery points), and maybe Ranger which may or may not give you much for one or two levels (whereas there are a bunch of interesting 3rd level sub-class bonuses so it favours bigger dips), though Tasha's makes it possible to get more out of the first two levels only.
Everything else gives good bonuses at 1st and 2nd level; the draw of Cleric though is the sheer number and variety of domains, and some really good unique spells, as well as being Wisdom based which I think meshes more easily compared to Wizard that really needs Intelligence. That said, Wizard can be a good multi-class for an Arcane Trickster, Artificer or Eldritch Knight who wants to emphasise their casting more since it's already compatible. Druid can be easy to mix in for some of the same reasons as Cleric, but is the only multi-class that actually limits your equipment choice (depending how strict your DM is on the whole metal armour thing), though Wild Shape even at lower CR is a just plain fun ability, and Druids actually have a really good spell list IMO (especially if you want some badass elemental magics or a nature theme).
Warlock can be a good one to multi-class in as it can give a lot for one or two levels, but it's arguably the trickiest class to multi-class due to the way it affects spell slot progression; you can get a lot from one or two levels, if you're fine with only having one Pact Magic slot. Hexblade can be fantastic to mix with martials, and you only need two levels to give yourself some mean Eldritch Blast based firepower (especially since the cantrip itself isn't Warlock level dependent). Warlock mixes well with Bard and Sorcerer, and weirdly well with Paladin (mechanically at least, as you may need a good excuse thematically depending upon which patron features you want 😉), but it's also goes great on most martials.
Artificer is the one that's most of a question mark to me; it feels like in theory it could make a good secondary class, but every idea I've ever had ended up being better with Artificer as the main class. Despite how few sub-classes it has, it's actually pretty easy to make Artificers feel radically different from each other just with the base class, so it seems like usually it'll make more sense just to keep going with Artificer and maybe just pick up a level or two in something else to emphasise your theme (Wizard for more magic, Barbarian/Fighter for more martial prowess etc.).
Those are just my own thoughts/experiences.
You nailed the big ones IMO: Cleric, Warlock, Artificer seem like the best to me too. I like Rogue and Fighter but I think the others you mentioned give you a bit more for the investment.