Dual-Classing question

[Zhofe]

Okay, so based on the fact that Quin spends most of his time exploring, hunting, fishing, or generally running through the forest, and the fact that Ozy gave him panther kitten to take care of, I was thinking of dual-classing Quin to a Ranger (scary thought, I know, but I have the RP to back it up .... so *shrugs*)

So, I have a few questions.

First, would I actually be allowed to do this? I haven't seen any other fighter/rangers out there, so I don't know if that is just because the combination doesn't make any sense outside of a particular RP situation, or because one would not be approved.

Second, I was planning on taking Ranger up until level 20, making Quin a 12 Fighter/ 8 Ranger. At that point, I was thinking of returning Quin to something more familiar to the other people who know him by having him join the church in his epic levels, either as a paladin or a cleric. I want to know if this would be possible aswell. I think it would be the only fighter/ranger/paladin ever though ... but that could be cool.

I might have more questions based on the answers to those ... but I may not ... Thank you for your time.

[vgn]

It is certainly allowed to multiclass fighter/ranger and a 12/8 split is within our rule guidelines for mutli-classing.
On adding paladin or cleric at level 21. I don't think there is a problem here either, though I believe if the switch was to paladin it would have to be forever. You couldn't flip between paladin and fighter or ranger levels.
You would have to keep in mind that with a 12/8 fighter/ranger split, it may not matter to you, but you should be aware that if you add a third class (paladin or cleric) at level 21, you will endure a 20% penalty to your XP for the first several levels, and while unlikely, if you managed to make it that far, after you reached 13 levels of this new class the penalty would start again because of the 8 ranger levels.
Just a mechanical thing to keep in mind, which may or may not matter to you.

[Zhofe]

I knew that once I hit paladin it would be forever, so that is not a problem.

The XP penalty thing hit me a bit earlier today, but the way I figure it, that high in levels, Quest XP is going to mean alot more than adventuring XP.

Is Quest XP also calculated with the class penalty? Even still, at that level it isn't really going to matter much I would think. an ungodly amount of XP needed is still an ungodly amount of XP needed.

[Talan Va'lash]

quest xp doesnt take ecl or multiclass penalties into account (Paraphrasing when pan or someone answered that question before)

And technically, its multiclassing.  Dual-Classing was something weird that only humans could do in 2nd edition.

[Zhofe]

Yeah, sorry, terminology isn't my strong point.

In 2nd edtion, multiclassing was something that only non-humans could do, and dual classing was a weird human thing that had certain penalties and stuff.