Why the bad but not the good class features?

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I don't understand that. It's always bugged me. Why do you get all the penalties from a class when you dual class but you get none of the good things? I'm changing a Kensai to a mage but for some reason I forgot how to use my dagger as good as I did with my Kensai class? Seriously someone please explain this to me. I'm not trying to cry or get upset. I just would like to know

Or what about a barbarian to some other class? He looses his resistance to physical attacks.
Things like that just confuse me

 

The Kensai abilities (including proficiencies) will be unlocked once your Kensai class becomes active again. So if you dualed at Kensai lvl 9, your Kensai abilities will be unlocked once you reach mage lvl 10.

Why this is so? I believe the reasons given in the rulebook state something like focussing on your new class requiring all your attention so you have no attention for the other stuff anymore.

 

I know that already

That's just a cheap cop-out for giving the answer "We just want it that way for balance. But really we can't explain it so live with it." or something like that

I just don't see me not knowing how to use my dagger from class to class
And I don't see the barbarian resistance going away for a few levels either.

Don't take this as a flame.
Just saying

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It also doesn't make sense that you don't get your previous class abilities until you hit a level over your first class and then BAM! all of a sudden your brain cracks open and you remember everything. AND you get to use all of that knowledge despite your need to "concentrate in your new class" or whatever.
Just saying

 

I agree that it doesn't make much sense. But then again, it also doesn't make much sense that I could mutter a few words, wave my arms around, and have a ball of fire erupt from my hands either.

 

Lol! But that's why it's called "magic" right? We can do anything when all we have to do is say it's magic right?

 

The point is simply that the game is based on a set of rules, many of which have no basis in real life existence. One such example is the dual class rules; another is fireball (or magic in general). Another would be the whole notion of hit points, where you can take all sorts of damage without any ill effects until your HP’s actually hit zero. The purpose of the rules is to try to create an enjoyable but balanced gaming experience, and the fact that many of the rules are unrealistic is, particularly in RPG’s, kind of the point of gaming in the first place.

 

AD&D (aka first generation) had dual classing. The games are based on second generation. A barbarian cannot dual class (just as a monk, paladin, or sorcerer cannot).

From first generation, Gygax believed the shifting of classes was very complex. In fact, it took months or years of game time to learn enough of the basics to be 1st level in the new class. A fighter cannot just set down his sword and suddenly cast magic missile -- he must first learn the basics of magic. The reverse is also true and a mage cannot just pick up a sword and be effective.

A dual classed individual had to become proficient proficient in their new class before they could use their old class without penalty -- using skills from the old class killed progress in the new class and no experience was gained during an adventure where the PC ... strayed. This is simply because if a person continually reverts to what they are comfortable with they will never learn (which is true in our world as well). There was some historic precident for this with martial arts requiring masters from one art to exclusively rely on their new skills and master the new form before they were allowed to combine their skills into a new form.

The time aspect of dual classing was not implemented and neither was the penalty for straying from the new path. Neither would be practical in the game.

 

True ... the AD&D second generation (which is BG, BG2, and IWD were based on) was actually the third generation of the game. In D&D when you chose a demihuman it came as a set multiclass.

 

I thought that in the original D&D a dwarf was always one class, an elf was always another class, etc.
At least, that's what I gathered from people here on the forum, as I've no experience whatsoever with the 1st generation D&D.