I'm not sure I can give much genuine advice on this, but let me go ahead and throw in my opinion.
1). What purpose does multiclassing serve for the character? That is to say, what aspects of your character do you want the multi-classing to reflect? Why do you want them to multiclass?
For example, you can demonstrate that a character has worldly experience by knowing how to use many varieties of martial weaponry, or that a character is very dedicated to be able to study multiple forms of martial or magical combat.
It's also important to note that you don't have to justify every class your character has in-game. To try to justify everything is essentially arbitrary and serves no purpose from a writing standpoint, and also reeks horribly of Mary-Sue.Â
To use Nero as an example, in-game I have every Disciple of War and Magic levelled to 50. However, IC he fights mostly with his fists, an axe, or thaumaturgy. This thinly-spread array of combat skills is meant to be a reflection of his wandering--he went from learning with his fists in Ul'dah, to learning with an axe in Limsa Lominsa, and cycling back to studying thaumaturgy in Ul'dah. He is, essentially, three different classes.Â
However, he's absolutely not above average in proficiency. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that he's below average. A lot of people underestimate the amount of time it takes to genuinely master a skill. Were he to fight a reasonably experienced pugilist or pirate or thaumaturge player character, he would lose. His versatility loses when pitted one-on-one against specialisation.Â
His fist-fighting is scrappy and unrefined, his axe blows focus purely on strength and not technique, and he can cast fire, blizzard, and thunder spells, but his limited time spent studying thaumaturgy (five years) means he'd never be able to cast Thunder III or Flare or Manaward IC. And sometimes his spells will fail due to a lack of focus or concentration.
2). What does your character lose as a tradeoff when they multiclass?
For me, personally, I always treat this part like assigning attribute points in RPG games. For a character to have a proficiency in something, there must also be an equal deficiency in some other area.
To use Nero as an example again, he can't use bows. At all. He hits himself in the face with one every time he tries to shoot. Even though I have Bard levelled to 50 in-game, I do not want him to have that proficiency because using a bow is difficult. Being a good archer requires dedicated training; Nero's only studied thaumaturgy with any amount of dedication, and all of his other fighting skills are from combat experience. This means he can fight reasonably well but lacks any sense of finesse or technique one would gain from practise. He also can't use swords with any degree of proficiency besides "swing the edge at people", he can't use arcanist's grimoires, or conjury. He can stick the pointy end of a lance in people but can't do much elses with them.
To bring back up my previous point, about reflecting an aspect of your character: let's say you were using a character who is very dedicated. If they spent their whole life training with every weapon and form of magic, they would be deficient in social skills due to all the time spent just practising instead of interacting with other people or building a social life.
Anyway, hopefully my rambling made a bit of sense in all of that. Multi-classing is a tricky thing but is possible without making your character appear as "good at everything".
1). What purpose does multiclassing serve for the character? That is to say, what aspects of your character do you want the multi-classing to reflect? Why do you want them to multiclass?
For example, you can demonstrate that a character has worldly experience by knowing how to use many varieties of martial weaponry, or that a character is very dedicated to be able to study multiple forms of martial or magical combat.
It's also important to note that you don't have to justify every class your character has in-game. To try to justify everything is essentially arbitrary and serves no purpose from a writing standpoint, and also reeks horribly of Mary-Sue.Â
To use Nero as an example, in-game I have every Disciple of War and Magic levelled to 50. However, IC he fights mostly with his fists, an axe, or thaumaturgy. This thinly-spread array of combat skills is meant to be a reflection of his wandering--he went from learning with his fists in Ul'dah, to learning with an axe in Limsa Lominsa, and cycling back to studying thaumaturgy in Ul'dah. He is, essentially, three different classes.Â
However, he's absolutely not above average in proficiency. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that he's below average. A lot of people underestimate the amount of time it takes to genuinely master a skill. Were he to fight a reasonably experienced pugilist or pirate or thaumaturge player character, he would lose. His versatility loses when pitted one-on-one against specialisation.Â
His fist-fighting is scrappy and unrefined, his axe blows focus purely on strength and not technique, and he can cast fire, blizzard, and thunder spells, but his limited time spent studying thaumaturgy (five years) means he'd never be able to cast Thunder III or Flare or Manaward IC. And sometimes his spells will fail due to a lack of focus or concentration.
2). What does your character lose as a tradeoff when they multiclass?
For me, personally, I always treat this part like assigning attribute points in RPG games. For a character to have a proficiency in something, there must also be an equal deficiency in some other area.
To use Nero as an example again, he can't use bows. At all. He hits himself in the face with one every time he tries to shoot. Even though I have Bard levelled to 50 in-game, I do not want him to have that proficiency because using a bow is difficult. Being a good archer requires dedicated training; Nero's only studied thaumaturgy with any amount of dedication, and all of his other fighting skills are from combat experience. This means he can fight reasonably well but lacks any sense of finesse or technique one would gain from practise. He also can't use swords with any degree of proficiency besides "swing the edge at people", he can't use arcanist's grimoires, or conjury. He can stick the pointy end of a lance in people but can't do much elses with them.
To bring back up my previous point, about reflecting an aspect of your character: let's say you were using a character who is very dedicated. If they spent their whole life training with every weapon and form of magic, they would be deficient in social skills due to all the time spent just practising instead of interacting with other people or building a social life.
Anyway, hopefully my rambling made a bit of sense in all of that. Multi-classing is a tricky thing but is possible without making your character appear as "good at everything".
