> > > 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..