Death gates.

[Haim]

I can understand that if you were once of another class you should be able to record certain spells of which came of use to you, but it looks as if it must be balanced in the end. Such as penalties?

[Miah]

I thought death-gates only took you to an already pre-existing portal. Like, the "other end" has to be constantly sustained in case anyone should jump through, not like a portal where it can all be done by one person, its literally just a gate, the entrance. Therefore, making it to anywhere other than a well sustained (in terms of magic) fortress like the ebon hold would be the only option, you couldn't just appear in stormwind as they dont keep the other end of a death gate constantly open.

[Zarquon]

If we look at this from a rules and a realistic point of view, multi-classing isn't theoretically possible in canon World of Warcraft, but it -is- in Dungeons and Dragons/D20 rules. On the other hand, if you are following -that-, then I would just lay down the first assumption that the maximum possible level is 20. According to D20 rules, anything higher is an "Epic-Leveled" character, and hence probably not going to be accepted in CoTH for being overpowered.

If that assumption is accepted, then look at it from this point of view. Teleportation is a 6th level Wizard/Sorcerer spell (AKA Mage). Teleportation Circle (AKA Portals) are 9th level Wizard/Sorcerer spells. Warlockry in D20 has its own rules, eldritch blasts and incantations. So now, if you are multi-classing, I think its theoretically possible. But you need to be level 11 to learn 6th level spells and level 17 to learn 9th level spells. Hence, if you multi-class as a Mage/Warlock and you want to make portals, according to D20 rules, you must be a level 17 Mage and a level 3 Warlock. Simply said, you are a mage. If you want to teleport yourself; level 11 Mage, level 9 Warlock. Still a mage.

Warlockry is a short-cut through Fel into attaining more power then normal mages at the cost of one's body and soul, permanently scarred by this contact with the powers of the Fel. To master this ability and to ensure that one does not lose himself to the foul sorcery he practices or end up killing himself by taking in too much energy takes decades of practice, and those are known as Warlocks; people who mastered the ability to use the Fel, summon demons, creating summoning circles, healthstones and the likes. I honestly do not believe that summoning a demon is anywhere near a simple task; it takes years of theory and years of practice before a warlock even dares to summon it, and even then, it should be in a controlled environment. Ultimately, this makes warlocks a pretty specialized class; the power over demonology, affliction and fel destruction in exchange for decades of careful studies.

Mages are the users of the Arcane, trained in the theory, calculations and similarly decades of practice to "focus on magic that creates and that changes things, most often with the purpose of damaging their enemies and boosting the power of their allies.[1] Such beings can obtain a familiar, which is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a mage,[1] while others choose to become focused mages.[2] Mages also understand the workings of arcane energy so well that they can counter most magic with great effectiveness. An adept mage who has dedication to and natural predilection for one of the schools of specialization becomes more entrenched. At this point the mage chooses either evocation or transmutation as a preferred school, and casts spells from his chosen school" [WowPedia]. Mages do not shake legs and drink Dalaran White all day long; they spend decades of training and learning to master their arts.

What I am saying is simple; World of Warcraft and its "rules" in retail really doesn't allow multi-classing as an option. But if you follow the D20 rules, which I believe many reads about and knows about, it does. But it inflicts massive penalties on those who multi-classes; the lack of abilities that pure warlocks or mages would have. Someone who is a warlock but wants to blink must be at least a 5th level mage and then a 15th level warlock. In D20 terms, a mage can focus on eight seperate schools of magic, taking one means giving up two others. In many ways, this works quite similarly in World of Warcraft; mages and warlocks and specializations in a particular field of magic, the Fel and the Arcane, two very very different methods of spellcasting and mastery over magic. A mage would probably not have much of a hope summoning a demon as compared to a warlock who spends decades on it. A warlock would probably not have much of a hope opening a portal as compared to a mage who spends decades on it.

My conclusion is very simple. If a warlock capable of summoning Felguards and Doomguards, going around with healthstones and opening summoning circles want to open a portal. . .Then a mage would start going around summoning Felguards and Doomguards, going around with healthhstones and opening summoning circles, because on an equal playing field, they have as much time as you do to learn what they want to learn. If what they want to learn, magecraft, takes so much time and so much of their life, then we can easily assume that what warlocks want to learn, demonology and the likes, takes as much time as as much of their life.

Warlocks are NOT Fel-Using Mages. They are a specialization unto themselves, capable of things that mages can barely dream of; casting an infernal from the sky in the form of a meteor, for example. And equally, mages are capable of things that warlocks, without these very specialized trainings, are incapable of.

In conclusion, I have two very distinct points:
1) If you are talking about multi-classing, then know that a Mage/Warlock will not be capable of the powerful spells that a pure Mage or a pure Warlock is capable of.

2) If you want to be a pure Warlock capable of casting spells that a pure Mage can, or vice versa, then you defeat the very purpose of there being two classes; a warlock and a mage trains in two very distinctly different ways in two very distinctly different schools, a mage cannot summon a demon and a warlock cannot open a portal. It is as simple as that, because they are learning two different things. You do not ask a Chemistry Major to write a treatise on Quantum Mechanics and you do not ask a Physics Major to write a treatise on Kinetic Particle Theories. Yes, they are both studying science. But they are studying very different fields.

Thats just my two silver pieces. Have a nice day please and thank you very much for your time if you are reading through my words.

Yours sincerely,
Zarquon

[Brutalskars]

I believe what we are trying to get past is that Necromancy and Fel magic have their own teleportation skills very similar to a mage. What is frustrating to players is that the mage can summon a portal in mere seconds, and in lore so can necromancers and warlocks. But we say a warlock must make demon circles or necromancers just cannot do it; even if they can in lore.

And I guess multiclassing is not as much of the argument as oh wait, it can be.
Mages in lore may dispel magic, but by gameplay only priests can do it.
Etc.
Etc.

I am saying they want to have the classes be more about the roleplaying flavor, less about why the mage is better than the warlock or vice versa.
Personally I would want to see spell breakers and battle mages, necromancers and incribers, runemasters and other such things more simple and easy to play. Just keeping them within reason, you know Roleplaying Flavor over What seems to be coming across as 'fear of DnD rules' or 'dislike of DnD rules'.

RP is more important than the rules of a system we don't even use on CotH except in small groups for our own RP sessions.