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Can characters/NPCs be multi OCC?

If so how does that work?

What you're basically asking about is a Dual Class character. There are plenty of threads on the boards about PB's official answer and then how the players have worked around it.

The closest I've come to this is a character I made for a BTS2/HU crossover. None of the Occ's, super categories, or (single) Bts2 occupations fit my concept. So what I did was take a HU Alien with 4 minor powers and instead of using the education tables or choosing an OCC I picked the 2 BTS occupation that best summed up the skill set I wanted the character to have.

Doing the math, the 2 occupations came up to the same number of skills +/- 1 or 2 that I would have gotten from an OCC or HU Education. Sometimes skills would overlap (both having the same skill) in that case I would move the skill up 1 rank; or one occupation would offer the same skill with a higher bonus, in which case I took the higher bonus choice and subbed the lower bonus out for a skill in the same category. What resulted was a character that is very skilled in a narrow area (paranormal and investigation) but still has a broad general base. There may be a few skills that start out higher than a 1st level player normally would, but not so much as to overbalance the game.

All of this was approved by the GM once I showed him how I had worked it all out.

Palladium doesn't really do dual/multi classing. the closest you get is the "changing your OCC" rules, which are found in PFRPG and also presented on the cutting room floor (misleadingly labelled as 'dual OCCs')

with these, to gain a 2nd OCC your first one has to be completely frozen the moment you start.. doesn't even gain %'s. and you have to basically sink 2-3 levels worth of XP before they even gain anything from their new OCC. after you get that first level in the new OCC, you can't go back at all, and your old OCC will never progress at all.

Kargan3033 wrote:Can characters/NPCs be multi OCC?

If so how does that work?

The way PB does it is that the char can only have one active Character Class at one time. This means that the char has to switch classes to another class to have the abilities & Skills of more then one Character Class.

The core published canon changing class rules for PFRPG 2nd ed and for RUE Rifts are in the "High Seas" PF book. Who's text only mentions changing the classes of OCCs.
(note: there have been arguments over how broad the definition of OCC is for these rules. Some it's "only OCCs because the PCCs already have their own specific rules" and others it's "they really mean Character Classes generally when they say OCC there.")
There are in additional to these are....
❖ Additional text in the PF2 main book that prevent the changing ``to and from`` Psychic Char Classes.
(Note: the dispute is whether or not the canon rules concerning PCCs in PF are ether "class specific" or "generalized rule because they are in every PF2 PCC.")
❖There is text posted in the cutting room floor under the title "Dual OCC's" that are more of a expansion of the changing class rules geared more to Rifts' new with RUE liberal crossing of classes. Even thou the text is posted in the PF2 errata.
(note: because these are just posted there is an argument over if these are just optional or if they are equal to published canon.)

Kargan3033 wrote:Can characters/NPCs be multi OCC?

If so how does that work?

I found multi-classing rules in the Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy book once and I can't seem to find them at the moment. As I recall, it was limited to a tech-class in that book being combined with a psychic-class in that book. I do remember that for leveling you would take the main one and combine it with half of your secondary one to figure out how much xp you needed for the next level. So using Rifts for this example, if you had a LLW as your main OCC and Mind Melter as your secondary OCC, and both classes needed 100 xp to reach level two, then you would need 150 do to so.

I don't remember if it said anything about skills or what have you, which was why I was trying to find it again. I'll thumb through a bit more to see if I can find the page again. However this book is a collection of some of Palladium's earliest works. The skill systems in it resemble the one from 1st Ed PFRPG. They might not be something easily converted to RUE's system.

Could that be the Espers on page 20? Mentions reduced electives, sounds similar to Major Psionics.

126 also mentions "Double-Classed Charactters Maglc and Technology"

Kargan3033 wrote:Can characters/NPCs be multi OCC?

If so how does that work?

By the way it would be helpfull if people mentioned which setting they are talking about since each setting has it's own canon.

So we all would know which books to look in when answering questions.

Okay I found the rule. They're on page 126 of the Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy book. It is about combining the magic-based with one of the tech-based classes. So for calculating the level you'd take the mage as the primary and the tech as secondary. You have to meet the attribute requirements for both classes, plus your IQ has to be at least 12. It doesn't really address skills other than saying that not all members of the magic society study magic exclusively and may have other skills.

Now personally I don't think that combining classes is really needed. I think that there's enough OCCs available that one can find just about any combination as an OCC already. (There are some OCCs/RCCs that should have a version of their write-up as if it was for an already existing character transitioning into that OCC, but that's another topic.) However if I were to do it I'd do the following:

1. Attribute requirements and determining levels as how I pointed out above.
2. You get the OCC skills of both classes. If the same skill is in both OCCs you take only the higher bonus.
3. For OCC Related and Secondary skills I'd have the player pick one of the OCCs as the primary one, and that's how many skills the character can get. You can pick from the skills available to both OCCs, and again you only get the higher bonus.
4. You have to meet alignment, racial, and all other restrictions according to each OCC. Plus I wouldn't allow any combination that wouldn't mix together (ie: CS Flyboy combined with a mage).
5. HtH would be the better form of the two available.
6. SDC would be the determined by the primary OCC.

That's what I can think off for now. Likely won't add to this since, as I've already said, I think there's enough OCCs available to find one that covers most combinations.

In 2E Robotech, the Military OCCs select an MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) and then some other/secondary skills. An option exists though for them to select a second MOS if they have an above average IQ stat at the cost of other/secondary skills. This is found in a few of the books. It's not quite selecting two OCCs, but it might offer some insight into how to go about it.

And there are NPCs megaversally speaking with multi-class, and Rifts has rules for it in a few places (SB1o FAQ IINM, Juicer OCC, Bionics SB all come to mind).

And there are NPCs megaversally speaking with multi-class, and Rifts has rules for it in a few places (SB1o FAQ IINM...

You're not mistaken but it's just for characters who have gotten enough bionics that Mr S felt they needed to be forced into the bionic OCC. It's not really general purpose rules for people like Coake or the various multiclassed gods and demons.