Multiclassing
Multiclassing allows you to gain levels in multiple Classes. Doing so lets you mix the abilities of those classes to realize a character concept that might not be reflected in one of the standard class options.
With this rule, you have the option of gaining a level in a new class whenever you advance in level, instead of gaining a level in your current class. Your levels in all your Classes are added together to determine your character level. For example, if you have three levels in Wizard and two in Fighter, you’re a 5th-level character.
As you advance in levels, you might primarily remain a member of your original class with just a few levels in another class, or you might change course entirely, never looking back at the class you left behind. You might even star progressing in a third or fourth class. Compared to a single-class character of the same level, you'll sacrifice some focus in exchange for versatility.
Prerequisites
To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score Prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table. For example, a barbarian who decides to multiclass into the druid class must have both Strength and Wisdom scores of 13 or higher. Without the full training that a beginning character receives, you must be a quick study in your new class, having a natural aptitude that is reflected by higher-than-average Ability Scores.Hit Points and Hit Dice
You gain the Hit Points from your new class as described for levels after 1st. You gain the 1st-level Hit Points for a class only when you are a 1st-level character.You add together the Hit Dice granted by all your classes to form your pool of Hit Dice. If the Hit Dice are the same die type, you can simply pool them together. For example, both the fighter and the paladin have a d10, so if you are a paladin 5/fighter 5, you have ten d10 Hit Dice. If your classes give you Hit Dice of different types, keep track of them separately. If you are a paladin 5/cleric 5, for example, you have five d10 Hit Dice and five d8 Hit Dice.
Proficiency Bonus
Your proficiency bonus is always based on your total character level, as shown in the Character Advancement table in chapter 1 of the Player's Handbook, not your level in a particular class. For example, if you are a fighter 3/rogue 2, you have the proficiency bonus of a 5th-level character, which is +3.Proficiencies
When you gain your first level in a class other than your initial class, you gain only some of new class’s starting proficiencies, as shown in the Multiclassing Proficiencies table.
Class Features
When you gain a new level in a class, you get its features for that level. You don’t, however, receive the class’s starting equipment, and a few features have additional rules when you’re multiclassing: Channel Divinity, Extra Attack, Unarmored Defense, and Spellcasting.Channel Divinity
If you already have the Channel Divinity feature and gain a level in a class that also grants the feature, you gain the Channel Divinity effects granted by that class, but getting the feature again doesn’t give you an additional use of it. You gain additional uses only when you reach a class level that explicitly grants them to you. For example, if you are a cleric 6/paladin 4, you can use Channel Divinity twice between rests because you are high enough level in the Cleric class to have more uses. Whenever you use the feature, you can choose any of the Channel Divinity effects available to you from your two classes.Extra Attack
If you gain the Extra Attack class feature from more than one class, the features don’t add together. You can’t make more than two attacks with this feature unless it says you do (as the fighter’s version of Extra Attack does). Similarly, the warlock’s eldritch invocation Thirsting Blade doesn’t give you additional attacks if you also have Extra Attack.Unarmored Defense
If you already have the Unarmored Defense feature, you can’t gain it again from another class.Spellcasting
Your capacity for spellcasting depends partly on your combined levels in all your spellcasting classes and partly on your individual levels in those classes. Once you have the Spellcasting feature from more than one class, use the rules below. If you multiclass but have the Spellcasting feature from only one class, you follow the rules as described in that class.Spells Known and Prepared. You determine what Spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of that class. If you are a ranger 4/wizard 3, for example, you know three 1st-level ranger spells based on your levels in the ranger class. As a 3rd-level Wizard, you know three wizard cantrips, and your Spellbook contains ten wizard spells, two of which (the two you gained when you reached 3rd Level as a wizard) can be 2nd-level spells. If your Intelligence is 16, you can prepare six wizard spells from your Spellbook.
Each spell you know and prepare is associated with one of your classes, and you use the Spellcasting ability of that class when you cast the spell. Similarly, a spellcasting focus, such as a holy symbol, can be used only for the spells from the class associated with that focus.
If a cantrip of yours increases in power at higher levels, the increase is based on your character level, not your level in a particular class.
Spell Slots. You determine your available Spell Slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes, and a third of your fighter or rogue levels (rounded down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster feature. Use this total to determine your Spell Slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table.
If you have more than one Spellcasting class, this table might give you Spell Slots of a level that is higher than the spells you know or can prepare. You can use those slots, but only to cast your lower-level spells. If a lower-level spell that you cast, like burning hands, has an enhanced effect when cast using a higher-level slot, you can use the enhanced effect, even though you don’t have any spells of that higher level.
For example, if you are the aforementioned ranger 4/wizard 3, you count as a 5th-level character when determining your spell slots: you have four 1st-level slots, three 2nd-level slots, and two 3rd-level slots. However, you don’t know any 3rd-level spells, nor do you know any 2nd-level ranger spells. You can use the Spell Slots of those levels to cast the spells you do know—and potentially enhance their effects.
Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the Spell Slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the Spell Slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast Warlock spells you know.
Changing Your Subclass
To change your subclass, your DM might require you to spend time devoted to the transition, as you study the ways of the new specialization. This transition requires a number of days equal to twice your new level in the class; a higher level represents more to learn.The DM might also require an expenditure of money to pay for training, magical reagents, or other goods needed for the transition. The cost is typically 100 gp times your new level. This cost might be accompanied by a quest of some sort. For example, a sorcerer who wants to adopt a Draconic Bloodline could be required to receive blood, a blessing, or both from an ancient dragon.
If you return to a subclass that you previously held, you forgo the gold cost, and the time required for the transition is halved.
Sudden Change
Sometimes a character undergoes a dramatic transformation in their beliefs and abilities. When a character experiences a profound self-realization or faces an entity or a place of overwhelming power, beauty, or terror, the DM might allow an immediate subclass change. Here are a few examples:- An Oath of Devotion Paladin failed to stop a demonic horde from ravaging her homeland. After spending a night in sorrowful prayer, she rises the next morning with the features of the Oath of Vengeance, ready to hunt down the horde.
- A wizard lies down for a nap beneath an oak tree whose roots reach into the Feywild. In his dreams, he faces visions of multiple possible futures. When he awakens, his subclass features have been replaced by those of the School of Divination.
- A cleric of the War Domain has spent years in conflict with the enemies of her temple. But one day, she wanders into a sun-dappled glade, where her god once shed a tear of mercy over the world's suffering. Drinking from the glade's brook, the Cleric is filled with such compassion for all people that she now bears the powers of the Life Domain, ready to heal rather than make war.
