Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Multiclass spells "clarification" from Larian via WCCFTech

*Sigh*

Since Niara is no longer around I feel compelled to clarify some of the misleading information and ideas that are running around in this thread.

Bad news for you lot - I'm not as nice as she was.


Cleric Domains and Fireball

Out of 14 official Cleric Domains only 1 gets access to Fireball. 1. One. Uno. Ichi.



Clerics can match Fireball

No. Just no. Flamestrike, the closest equivalent a Cleric has to Fireball, is a 5th level spell. You gain access to it at Cleric lvl 9. You can cast it 1 time at this level, and it deals 4d6 fire damage and 4d6 radiant damage.

Fireball is a 3rd level spell. You gain access to it at Wizard lvl 5. You can cast it 2 times at this level, and it deals 8d6 fire damage.

At level 9 a Wizard can cast SEVEN Fireballs, with most of them being upcast and gaining extra damage die.

There is no competing with Fireball. It's FIREBALL!!



Multiclassing and what spells you know

A level 19 Cleric / level 1 Wizard can know and cast every Wizard spell and knows every Cleric spell up to 9th level.

Except this is not true.

...

Confused? Let me clarify!

You prepare the list of cleric spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the cleric spell list. When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.

You prepare the list of wizard spells that are available for you to cast. To do so, choose a number of wizard spells from your spellbook equal to your Intelligence modifier + your wizard level (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

These are the official rules for both the Cleric and the Wizard about how they prepare spells and what spells they know (or can learn in the case of the Wizard). Notice how they both talk about your spell slots as a measurment for the spells you can learn/know? If you go by that, a lvl 4 Cleric / lvl 1 Wizard SHOULD be able to learn Fireball, because they have 2 3rd level spell slots even though they multiclassed. Spell slots = spell slots after all, and a Wizard can learn any spell as long as they find a spell scroll of that particular spell. So a lvl 5 Cleric / lvl 1 Wizard should know every Cleric spell up to 3rd level and could learn every Wizard spell he can find up to 3rd level!

But here the multiclassing section kicks in!

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 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.


These fairly balanced rules mean that our Cleric 5 / Wizard 1 might know every Cleric spell there is (in the game) up to 3rd level, but they only know 1st level Wizard spells, AND THEY CAN'T LEARN HIGHER LEVEL SPELLS! So no Fireball for our multiclassing wonderboy!



So what does this mean for BG3? Hell if I know - Larian went at the 5E rules like a blindfolded Edward Scissorhand on crack, and everything they have shown so far doesn't convince me that they would ever chose balance over their version of "fun". They MIGHT have been talking about the basic multiclassing spellslot progression, in which case I have to wonder what the penalty is for trying to pass off a 10 year old work someone else did as their own achievement.


All I know is the THIS is supposed to be "the definitive D&D 5E Digital experience!" and Thief Rogue 4 / Monk 2 might deal 3d6+4d4+20 damage in a single turn.