Western Classes

     Western classes are often considered the "core" classes, or "standard" classes of the Thunder Rift campaign.  In addition to the Universal Classes, Western Classes include:

• Bard
• Cavalier
• Cleric
• Druid
• Paladin
• Psion
• Psychic Warrior
• Wizard

     Every race has a favored class, a class that represents their racial/cultural leanings.  Some of the most obvious and iconic are the half-orcs that take after their orc parentage and have the favored class of Barbarian, tapping into their cultural bias towards violence and rage, or the gnome illusionist bringing their natural talent for illusions and fey magic to the front, or the thri-kreen tapping into their natural talent for psionics. 

     Some races are more adaptable, one particular class does not define their entire society.  Chief among races like this are the humans and half-elves (eta); both races do not have a singular favored class, instead humans being as adaptable as they are, and half-elves having the choice to live among humans or elves, both of them make the first class they take their favored class.  The elves also do not have a single favored class, instead each Great Clan of elves have their own favored class; the Silvercrest favor the Ranger, the Timber Wolf and Swallowtail clans favor the Samurai, the Imperial Sun clan's favored class is the Shugenja, and so on.

Benefits of the Favored Class:

• When a character gains a level in his/her favored class they gain +1 hit point or +1 skill point (player's choice).
• Favored classes do not count against multiclassing penalties (see below).

     Most classes within the Thunder Rift campaign, there are some classes that have restrictions to multiclassing (Cavalier, Paladin, Samurai, etc) but for the most part, all classes are open to the possibility of multiclassing.  When a character gains a new level, instead of gaining the abilities granted by the next level in your character's current class, he/she can instead gain the 1st-level abilities of a new class, adding all of those abilities to his existing ones. This is known as "multiclassing."

     For the most part, the rules for multiclassing as presented in the Player's Handbook on page 56.  Below are some of the restrictions of multiclassing:

• Rule of Three: Study in a particular class is essential before a character can move on to something different.  This translates into the rule of three.  A character cannot multiclass until they have achieved at least level 3 in their first class.  Upon attaining third level, the character has the option of gaining another class at the next level.  After that, the character must achieve at least third level in the new class before being able to level the previous class, or taking a 1st-level in yet another class.
  
• Experience Penalty: The strain of splitting your attention between two (or more) areas of study can sometimes be straining on an individual.  If the levels of all the character's classes ever strays by 2 or more, the character suffers a -20% experience penalty on experience points.  So a fighter of 3rd-level who takes 1 level of rogue will not suffer a penalty at levels 3/1, but if that character raises his fighter level to 4 so he's now 4/1, he suffers a -20% penalty to experience earned.
  
• Dual-Class Characters: At 1st-level the character may opt to be a dual-class character.  This is essentially "multiclassing at 1st-level" as described in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 40.  In this fashion the character does not have to abide by the rule of three for these first two classes.  However, if the character wants to acquire a third class later, he/she must wait until both his starting classes are 3rd-level or higher.  Note that the Experience Penalty is still in effect if these two classes separate by 2 or more levels.
  
• Favored Class: Character who take levels in their race's favored class (see above) can ignore their favored class when muticlassing.
  
• Prestige Classes: By their very nature prestige classes are not handled the same as the core classes and they do not abide by any of the rules for multiclassing core classes.  When the character qualifies for and picks up levels in a prestige class, he merely levels the class freely.  The character would only suffer -20% experience penalty if he/she had two core classes with greater than a 2 level difference between them.