Multiclass Guide for Ruins of Myth Drannor

What are the hard rules for multiclassing?

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor uses D&D 3rd Edition multiclassing with a PC-specific cap:

• 16 levels maximum in any one class (FAQ; Steam features, 2026-11-07).
• You may combine classes such as 16 Rogue / 16 Sorcerer for 32 total levels—not “32 in one class” (FAQ; manual Ch.4 clarifies the FAQ’s easy-to-misread wording).
• When you earn enough XP, you choose which class to advance or whether to start a new class at level 1 (manual)—levels are not auto-balanced across classes.

Hit dice on each level-up use the class you picked that level (manual). A Sorcerer level adds a d4; a Fighter level adds a d10.

At total character levels 4, 8, 12, and 16, you may add +1 to any ability score (manual). That counts total levels, not per-class levels, and can push stats above 18.

Do not cite the Sorcerer’s Place FAQ’s garbled example (10 Barbarian / 12 Ranger, etc.)—it exceeds the 16 cap and is treated as a documentation error in our fact index.

How does the experience penalty work?

The manual describes a 20% XP penalty on underleveled classes once any two of your classes differ by two or more levels (Manualzz; RPG Classics commentary). Example from the text: 5 Sorcerer / 3 Rogue is fine; leveling Sorcerer to 6 while Rogue stays 3 triggers the penalty on the Rogue until the gap closes.

Favored class rules modify the comparison:

Favored levels do not count when checking whether a class is “behind” for penalties, and they are ignored when determining which class is highest (manual example: 7 Fighter / 2 Cleric / 1 Rogue on a Dwarf—no penalty).

Gap we still have: No per-level XP table is published in our sources; quest XP split (full per member vs shared combat XP) comes from RPG Classics and is community-described, not manual-quoted. Unverified in the remaster: Whether the −20% modifier matches 1.4 byte-for-byte.

GameTruth (2026-11-06) warns beginners to keep Cleric and Sorcerer on single-class rails early so divine and arcane lists stay ahead of dungeon difficulty—multiclass divides slot progression even without penalties.

Which combinations show up in guides and forums?

These are Original (2001) community or walkthrough pairings—not official recommendations:

NPC companions already embody hybrids: Faeril (Cleric 9 / Fighter 5) and Kellan (Fighter 7 / Sorcerer 6) in the GameFAQs walkthrough (Original stats—Unverified in the remaster). See /guides/companions/ for the full list.

When should you avoid multiclassing?

Stay single-class—or delay dips—when:

1. You are the only Cleric or Sorcerer in the four created heroes. Healing and arcane peaks arrive late if you dilute levels (GameTruth; /guides/best-party/).
2. Alignment blocks the combo. Paladin requires Lawful Good; Barbarian cannot be Lawful; Monk requires Lawful (manual Table 1-4). A Chaos-aligned Barbarian cannot later add Monk levels (forum anecdote 80542122).
3. You need Rogue skills now. A three-level Rogue dip is popular, but each non-Rogue level delays skill ranks for Open Lock and Disable Device if skill growth is player-controlled—Unverified in the remaster if skills are auto-assigned.
4. You cannot babysit XP gaps. Dungeon-length fights mean a penalized class may lag for hours until you rebalance levels.
5. You expected tabletop 3E feat planning. Reviews and Steam posts report automatic feats and skills on level-up in the remaster demo (Unverified in the remaster for Sorcerer spell choice UI). Multiclassing still advances class features but may not let you steer feats.

Fighters and Rogues as short dips (Paladin 2, Rogue 3) remain the most cited “cheapest” multiclass taxes in Original posts because early levels buy features without needing 16.

How does multiclass interact with BAB and attacks?

Community fighting guides state that base attack bonus stacks across classes and that roughly +6 BAB grants an extra attack per round (RPG Classics §Fighting). Unverified in the remaster: We do not have a clean Table 4-1 BAB progression from the manual OCR—do not paste SRD numbers as if they were in-game tables.

Turn Undead levels for Paladin/Cleric mixes have conflicting community descriptions (Paladin counts as Cleric minus two; combined Paladin+Cleric turn level may stack per RPG Classics). Unverified in the remaster for divine caster level stacking on spell slots.

Where to plan builds next

Use /classes/best-class/ to decide which jobs need a dip, then drill into /classes/fighter-build/, /classes/cleric-build/, /classes/monk-build/, or /classes/paladin-build/ for attribute targets. Character creation order and point buy live in /guides/character-creation/.

Sources and what we haven’t verified

Sources: Sorcerer’s Place FAQ (multiclass overview, 16 cap); Manualzz Ch.4 multiclass and XP penalty (OCR 2026-11-07); GameTruth party guide (2026-11-06) early single-class caster advice; Computer Show walkthrough (class pair mentions); GameFAQs thread 80542122; romd-facts.md conflict note on FAQ typo examples.

Unverified in the remaster: XP −20% implementation; favored-class detection on Half-Elf “any”; automatic feat/skill pipelines on multi-class level-ups; divine caster level stacking; exact BAB/feats per level table; Legacy Mode toggling any of the above.