Multiclassing: Mastering The Dip
What is a dip? I'd define a dip as multiclassing one level into another class to increase the strength of your character. Sometimes, it may be two levels but I'd consider 3+ levels as a traditional multiclass.
What makes a dip powerful? Adding powerful syneries to your class, getting access to certain weapons/armors/shields, or gaining better saving proficiencies are some of the reasons you'd like to dip into another class.
What classes offer the most by dipping? Most, if not all classes can benefit from dipping into other classes. A lot of classes offer hidden feats at level one and this is crucial to understanding why a player might want to dip:
- Fighters choose a fighting style at level one. This is equivalent to taking the Fighting Initaite feat, which means you should think about multiclassing into a fighter instead of taking that feat.
- Rogues get Expertise at level one. This is mostly equivalent to Prodigy (without the human requirement) or Skill Expert.
- Clerics get their domain (subclass) at level 1.
It's incredibly unlikely your campaign will make it to level 20 (for a variety of reasons) but there are some classes with incredibly strong capstone abilities that I'd avoid multiclassing with: Barbarians, Druids, Fighters, and Paladins (varies). Wizards (Spell Progression), Clerics (DM dependent) and Rogues have decent capstones but every other class (especially rangers) probably benefit more from 1-2 levels in something else.
What about two level dips? The best two level dips are fighters for Action Surge and Thief for Cunning Action.
This is more important for casters than martial classes but each level you dip into another class, the further it slows your spell progression in your main class. For example, a level 5 caster (4 wizard / 1 cleric) does not have access to level 5 spells even though it has the level 5 spell slot progression.
The Best Classes
Fighter (13 STR OR DEX)
- Fighting Styles
If taken at level 1...
- Profiency in all weapons, armors, and shields.
- Profiency in STR/CON saving throws
A 2 level dip into fighter is argubaly the strong dip in the game because of Action Surge:
- Action Surge - This allows you to use an additional action and bonus action on your turn once per short rest. Incredibly strong for just about any character (although there are some nuances with casters casting a spell as a bonus action...)
Rogue (13 DEX)
Rogues get a lot at level, most of it being useful to any character.
- Expertise in 2 skills
- Access to Thieves' Tools.
- Sneak Attack (bonus 1d6 damage on finesse and ranged attacks)
- Thieves' Cant (might not be relevant in most situations)
If taken at level 1...
- Profiency in light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, and thieves' tools
- Profiency in DEX/INT saving throws
- Four skills
If you decide to dip two levels, you'll get...
- Cunning Action - A great way for just about any character to use their bonus actions, constantly being able to use Disengage as a bonus action will make combat feel less static.
Cleric (13 WIS)
- 3 Cleric cantrips and some level one spells
- A Domain Choice (see the next section) - very likely profiency in heavy armor
At level two...
- Channel Divinity
- Harness Divine Power (Optional Feature) - Allows you use Channel Divinity to regain a spell slot, this scales with your profiency bonus so it can be useful for just about any caster.
Cleric Domains
These aren't all of the cleric domains, just the most notable ones for a level one dip. A few domains offered marginally worse spells or abilities with similar static abilities (War and Tempest compared to Twilight).
- Arcane
- Profiency in Arcana
- Two Wizard Cantrips
- Detect Magic and Magic Missile
- Death
- Profiency in martial weapons
- One Necromancy Cantrip
- The ability to target two targets with any necromancy cantrip
- False Life and Ray of Sickness
- Forge
- Indentify and Searing Smite
- Profiency in Heavy Armor and Smithing Tools
- Make a nonmagical armor or weapon into a +1 magical armor or weapon
- Knowledge
- Two languages and profiency/expertise in two skills (INT)
- Command and Identify
- Life
- Profiency in heavy armor
- Add 2 + spell level to all of your healing spells
- Bless and Cure Wounds
- Twilight
- Profiency in heavy armor and martial weapons
- 300 ft Dark Vision (plus the ability to share it)
- Advantage on initiative rolls for you (or one party member)
- Faerie Fire and Sleep
Warlock (13 CHA)
- Subclass at level 1
- Pact Magic - Refreshes spell slots on short rest (only one at level one, two level one slots at level 2), great for paladin smites
- Armor Profiencies (Specifically Hexblade for medium armor, shields, and martial weapons)
- One of the most powerful cantrips in the game (but only really useful for CHA-based characters) -- Eldritch Blast
- Good level one spells -- Armor of Agathys and Hex
At level 2...
- Eldritch Invocations
- Agonizing Blast - Useful for CHA-based characters, kind of a trap otherwise
- Eldritch Mind - Advantage on concentration checks is almost worth a feat.
- Devil's Site - Allows you to see in magical darkness and even better for characters without Darkvision naturally
Other Classes
This guide is limited to dipping -- 1 level ideally, 2 levels sometimes.
There may be fringe cases for Sorcerer (specifically Draconic Bloodline or Divine Soul and CON saves), Barbarian/Monk (for Unarmored Defense), or other classes may exist but I don't want to give you too many options to think about for these more specialized builds.
The same goes for Artificer where a multiclass for Infusion would go a long ways in a low magic world.
Read our guide on multiclassing for these suggestions.
Examples
X Ranger, 1 Cleric (Life)
This gives your ranger access to heavy armor, the Cleric spell Bless, three cantrips, and increases the effectness of your healing spells by 2 + the spell level.
My favorite thing about this dip is that it allows your character to perfom the healer role of your party without much impact on your overall build (if any impact, really).
This is particularly strong for the Ranger spell Goodberry. Each berry will heal for 4 hit points (instead of one) after multiclassing into the cleric. This means your level 1 Moonberry spell can heal for 40 hit points without worry too much about your character's wisdom (spell casting modifier). This also may be even stronger with a ranger's Moon Sickle (but check with your DM first).
This is a great option for strength based, polearm wielding rangers. The Cleric's Sacred Flame and Toll the Undead cantrips help fill in gaps when you're not in range. The stat distribution is a little clunky because of multiclassing requirements (you'll still need 13+ dexterity in order to multiclass a ranger with anything else). I'd recommend the following stat distribution (then select a race that can push your STR after meeting the multiclass requirements):
STR: 15
DEX: 13
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 12 + 1 (from racial)
CHA: 8
You could also dip into life cleric with a druid but the main reason I like this dip is to give my ranger heavy armor. A 3 level multiclass into cleric also gives you access to Lesser Restoration and Spiritual Weapon.
1 Cleric (Knowledge), X Wizard
An alternative cleric domain is Light but you'll want reasonably high WIS (14+) to make this work.
-- DO NOT USE THIS EXAMPLE, NO NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER WIZARD EXAMPLE --
1 Fighter, X Wizard
Order matters here, you must take fighter at first level in order to get the appropriate saving throw proficiencies.
Artificer also works great here. CON/INT saving throws, medium armor/shields, and possible proficiency with firearms is pretty nice. Both artificer and fighter have decent options if you go for a two-level dip and when you grab the second level of fighter/artificer will largely depend on when you want your other spells to come online.
Note: Spellcasting gets complicated when weapons or shields come into play. It's even worse when you're mixing artificer tools with wizard focuses. Plan on casting artificer spells out of combat, while casting wizard spells in combat if you go that route.
Thankfully, wielding a two-handed weapon only matters when using the weapon (i.e. making an attack), so the caster is free to let go of the weapon with one hand to satisify the somatic requirements of a spell.