[BIRTHRIGHT] Mult- and Dual

[David Sean Brown]

> > > Say you're a lawyer who has passed the BAR but before you begin your
> > career you
> > > decide to become a doctor, so you drop your briefs and start studying
> > anatomy.
> > > (Sorry, couldn't resist the underwear joke.) In an AD&D world after you
> > pass your
> > > residency and start practicing you could start acting like a lawyer
> > again, right?
> > > Why couldn't you decide to drop your doctoring, go back to law and start
> > gaining
> > > experience in that profession again? Why couldn't you be a
> > lawyer-doctor? (I
> > > actually know one of these guys in real life, so it's not impossible.)

Why couldn't you do this? Sure its not impossible, but lets do a bit of
math here just to show some numbers:

Suppose you graduate from HIgh school at 18
4 years of undergraduate University puts you at 22 years old
So you go to Law school now..3 more years..25
article for 2 years, and pass the bar...27
You then go through 4 years of med school..31 years old
Now you have to do your residency...suppose you don't specialize, then
only 2 more years...you are 33 years old and can practice...not sure what
the rules are in the states, but here in canada, you now have to do a
minimum number of continuing education hours a year in order to keep
practicing..keep this in mind..
Of course, by this time your debt load is some enourmous number you really
don't want to even hear it (you are looking well over 6 figures in the
hole..) and you are 33 years old..hope you didn't want a family cause you
don't have a lot of time.
Now you practice for a while and tehn decide you want to be a lawyer at
the same time...well, you still have to keep up your CME credits, and work
a minimum number of hours to look after your patient (after all, you ahve
a billing number, so you are expected to work as a physician...)

You are also 6 years out from having done anything like law..do you think
you are as good now as you were then? Not likely...try to think of
something you used to do 6 years ago that required a fair amoout of
knowledge or skill that you haven't done since then..how do you think you
would do?

The point is, while t is possible, it is EXTREMELY difficult...the AD&D
system reflects this in a way, while attempting to maintain game balance
(after all, you could just keep switching back and forth between character
classes, and end up with some sort of God-mortal)..just doesn't work very
well..

[Gary V. Foss]

David Sean Brown wrote:

> > > > Say you're a lawyer who has passed the BAR but before you begin your
> > > career you
> > > > decide to become a doctor, so you drop your briefs and start studying
> > > anatomy.
> > > > (Sorry, couldn't resist the underwear joke.) In an AD&D world after you
> > > pass your
> > > > residency and start practicing you could start acting like a lawyer
> > > again, right?
> > > > Why couldn't you decide to drop your doctoring, go back to law and start
> > > gaining
> > > > experience in that profession again? Why couldn't you be a
> > > lawyer-doctor? (I
> > > > actually know one of these guys in real life, so it's not impossible.)
>
> Why couldn't you do this? Sure its not impossible, but lets do a bit of
> math here just to show some numbers:
>
> Suppose you graduate from HIgh school at 18
> 4 years of undergraduate University puts you at 22 years old
> So you go to Law school now..3 more years..25
> article for 2 years, and pass the bar...27
> You then go through 4 years of med school..31 years old
> Now you have to do your residency...suppose you don't specialize, then
> only 2 more years...you are 33 years old and can practice...not sure what
> the rules are in the states, but here in canada, you now have to do a
> minimum number of continuing education hours a year in order to keep
> practicing..keep this in mind..
> Of course, by this time your debt load is some enourmous number you really
> don't want to even hear it (you are looking well over 6 figures in the
> hole..) and you are 33 years old..hope you didn't want a family cause you
> don't have a lot of time.

Oh, God. Thanks for depressing me. I'm thirty-two and unmarried and still paying
off my college loans. Thanks for the pep talk, babe. You're worse than my
mother....

> Now you practice for a while and tehn decide you want to be a lawyer at
> the same time...well, you still have to keep up your CME credits, and work
> a minimum number of hours to look after your patient (after all, you ahve
> a billing number, so you are expected to work as a physician...)
>
> You are also 6 years out from having done anything like law..do you think
> you are as good now as you were then? Not likely...try to think of
> something you used to do 6 years ago that required a fair amoout of
> knowledge or skill that you haven't done since then..how do you think you
> would do?

Just like ridin' a bike, man. I know too many lawyers to think it's THAT hard....

> The point is, while t is possible, it is EXTREMELY difficult...the AD&D
> system reflects this in a way, while attempting to maintain game balance
> (after all, you could just keep switching back and forth between character
> classes, and end up with some sort of God-mortal)..just doesn't work very
> well..

Would things be made even worse if I explained that my friend is also a CPA?
Really. He is. Brains are just squirting out of this guy's head like watermelon
at a Gallagher concert. He's got more sheepskin on his walls than the Big Bad
Wolf....

A few points:

The lawyer-doctor comparison was a RL example that is good as far as it goes, but
breaks down pretty quickly when you tone things down to the AD&D equivalent of
"professional" fighters, thieves, wizards and priests. Oh, there's a certain
amount of education that one has to go through in order to become a "professional"
in gaming terms, but nothing like that of my lawyer-doctor-accountant friend. It
takes a year of study to become a 1st level wizard at the College of Sorcery.
Another two to become 3rd level. Using that 1:1 basis for study and experience,
my friend would be a 4th level accountant (his undergrad major) a 3+ level lawyer
(I don't know if article for 2 years counts as study or experience) and a 4+ level
doctor (same thing for residency.) That's not bad. But if he chose to simple do
the accelorated one year course and then go about the business of adventuring he'd
be able to switch classes pretty quickly, and probably gain experience levels much
more quickly.

This is one of the weaknesses of the dual-class rules. How much studying does it
take to switch class? From the rules you think you could do it just as quick as
turning on a lightswitch. I have a house rule that PCs who switch class actually
begin at 0-level and have to work up to first, thereby giving at least the
illusion that they had to go through a process of learning first.

Another house rule: I don't like the flat rate 10% exp. bonus for high ability
scores. The difference between a 16 and an 18 is pretty big in game terms (and
odds) so why not have something a little more reflective of how ability and
experience relate to one another? Players get prime req - 5 as a bonus to
experience in my campaigns. That is a thief with a 17 dex gets a 12% bonus.
Character classes with more than one prime requisite average them and subtract
five to get their bonus number. This also gives most PCs different experience
point totals and makes everyone unique in a party that often gets group experience
point awards.

Gary