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As much as I enjoy cracking open the books, one of my friends persuaded me to get a D&D Insider subscription for access to the full character generator by planning a session that will involve the same characters at levels one, eleven, and sixteen (due to some timey-wimey stuff, I gather)... the generator makes that kind of thing a lot easier.
Having done it, I'm kind of glad... I'd known that the generator opens up all the official content, even stuff that's in playtesting or has only been released in the pages of the e-zines. This not only broadens the choices, it gives a look at the shape of the developing game to come.
For instance, they have a playtest version of the Monk. Interesting to see that they've classed the Monk's source as psionic. As of at least the first printing of the Player's Handbook, they were considering ki and psionic as separate sources. I suppose when they started filling out lists of potential classes for each source, they realized that a lot of them in the same role would look the same... i.e., someone who used psionics for body control and augmenting physical strikes would look a lot like someone using ki for the same. Perfectly sensible to decide that the monk learning to harness ki inwards and the telepath learning to reach outwards with powers of the mind are using the same thing in different directions.
They also have a bunch more archetypes for familiars than were presented in Arcane Power with the initial familiar rules, including an ooze (probably popular with players of old school console JRPGs with their slimes and jellies), a disembodied hand and a floating skull. There's also a flame lizard and a nigh-identical lightning lizard, which provides a nice model for anybody who wants a homebrewed [element/energy] [creature] familiar, and a parrot that's essentially a tweaked version of the previously existing Raven. Familiars have few stats, so it's not at all hard to homebrew something that's in balance with the existing ones, but more examples makes it even easier to come up with something in keeping with them.
(It also makes it easier to spot something ready-made that you like, of course.)
But two of the more exciting things are in the area of multiclassing.
Many people have have bemoaned the loss of a true multiclassing system in 4E. Instead, there are "multiclass feats" that allow you to borrow a specific class feature and/or a power (often watered down) from another class to represent dabbling, and a succession of other feats that let you swap out your own class powers for that class's. When you reach the middle level tier, you can choose to take your cross-trained class as your Paragon Path, part of 4E's answer to prestige classes, and gain more powers from it in place of the powers you normally get from a Paragon Path.
The end result is very much workable, but it takes long-term dedication (you have to spend four of the six feats player characters have by level ten on it) and you have to grow into the second class
I see it as a trade-off: as each class in the new edition has a much more strongly asserted unique identity to it with its own unique mechanics, the system becomes less modular but some nifty things become possible as a result. An ad hoc multiclassing system like 3E had, where you can level into another class more or less at will, would have some weird results with 4E's power progression model. A system that lets you blend two classes more harmoniously by picking the same numbers but divided from both from the beginning would work better, but it would require paring down the class features in a way that preserves their identity but remains balanced.
There wasn't enough room in the Player's Handbook for something like this, and I imagine it would have set their playtesting schedule back quite a bit. But they've added it as of Dragon #374 (and apparently refined it in #375, though that information hasn't been updated in the generator) - Hybrid Multiclassing. Pick two classes, get some of their benefits, choose an at-will power from each, pick daily and encounter powers from among both classes. I did a quick test character of a Swordmage-Rogue and it seems to be pretty solidly thought out.
It does take a bit more planning to make a Hybrid character... in order to have high enough Dexterity and Intelligence to make good use of both power sets, I ended up with pretty low Strength and Constitution. Hybrid Swordmages apparently give up their Swordmage Warding feature, which gives an AC bonus I'm used to relying on. As this character concept called for a weapon that was both a sword and a light blade, I had to choose between using a short sword or using a feat to gain weapon proficiency in rapier... I went with rapier, because the whole point of making a Swordmage-Rogue is for the swashbuckling appeal.
Essentially, as with the existing multiclass option, you have to be committed to your character concept to make it work. But that's only fair... it would take a very particular mind in-game to become a skilled fighter who also studies the arcane secrets of throwing fireballs.
But at the same time as they're developing the Hybrid rules, they've also got writers exploring the full potential of the existing multiclass rules, where the initial feat that starts you down the path takes a somewhat arbitrarily chosen defining feature of the class and gives it to you, and then further feats let you swap out your powers. There was apparently an article or articles that explored the world of rogues in some detail, as there are a number of new thieves' guild-related feats in the character generator's choices... and also a set of unique "multiclass" options where instead of crossing over into another class, you take on a more specific deadly trade: Bravo (in the meaning of thug or enforcer), Poisoner, etc.
Each of them comes with their own version of the three successive multiclass feats, with a unique power that may be swapped for. These would be something analogous to the "kits" presented in 2nd Edition AD&D's "Complete Handbook" series. Though, despite having an obvious thematic tie to the Rogue class, these options are open to anyone, which makes sense. Fighters would be employed as Bravos as often as Rogues, and almost any arcane class would make sense dabbling as a Poisoner.
It's an interesting approach, though the ground they've covered with it initially isn't terribly interesting to me... but I'm hoping to see more development along those same lines, giving other walks of life a similar amount of detail and consideration. A bunch of different magic focus demiclasses/trades would give a way to make any character a dabbler in magic, and give arcane characters a bit more options when it comes to fine specialization.
Having done it, I'm kind of glad... I'd known that the generator opens up all the official content, even stuff that's in playtesting or has only been released in the pages of the e-zines. This not only broadens the choices, it gives a look at the shape of the developing game to come.
For instance, they have a playtest version of the Monk. Interesting to see that they've classed the Monk's source as psionic. As of at least the first printing of the Player's Handbook, they were considering ki and psionic as separate sources. I suppose when they started filling out lists of potential classes for each source, they realized that a lot of them in the same role would look the same... i.e., someone who used psionics for body control and augmenting physical strikes would look a lot like someone using ki for the same. Perfectly sensible to decide that the monk learning to harness ki inwards and the telepath learning to reach outwards with powers of the mind are using the same thing in different directions.
They also have a bunch more archetypes for familiars than were presented in Arcane Power with the initial familiar rules, including an ooze (probably popular with players of old school console JRPGs with their slimes and jellies), a disembodied hand and a floating skull. There's also a flame lizard and a nigh-identical lightning lizard, which provides a nice model for anybody who wants a homebrewed [element/energy] [creature] familiar, and a parrot that's essentially a tweaked version of the previously existing Raven. Familiars have few stats, so it's not at all hard to homebrew something that's in balance with the existing ones, but more examples makes it even easier to come up with something in keeping with them.
(It also makes it easier to spot something ready-made that you like, of course.)
But two of the more exciting things are in the area of multiclassing.
Many people have have bemoaned the loss of a true multiclassing system in 4E. Instead, there are "multiclass feats" that allow you to borrow a specific class feature and/or a power (often watered down) from another class to represent dabbling, and a succession of other feats that let you swap out your own class powers for that class's. When you reach the middle level tier, you can choose to take your cross-trained class as your Paragon Path, part of 4E's answer to prestige classes, and gain more powers from it in place of the powers you normally get from a Paragon Path.
The end result is very much workable, but it takes long-term dedication (you have to spend four of the six feats player characters have by level ten on it) and you have to grow into the second class
I see it as a trade-off: as each class in the new edition has a much more strongly asserted unique identity to it with its own unique mechanics, the system becomes less modular but some nifty things become possible as a result. An ad hoc multiclassing system like 3E had, where you can level into another class more or less at will, would have some weird results with 4E's power progression model. A system that lets you blend two classes more harmoniously by picking the same numbers but divided from both from the beginning would work better, but it would require paring down the class features in a way that preserves their identity but remains balanced.
There wasn't enough room in the Player's Handbook for something like this, and I imagine it would have set their playtesting schedule back quite a bit. But they've added it as of Dragon #374 (and apparently refined it in #375, though that information hasn't been updated in the generator) - Hybrid Multiclassing. Pick two classes, get some of their benefits, choose an at-will power from each, pick daily and encounter powers from among both classes. I did a quick test character of a Swordmage-Rogue and it seems to be pretty solidly thought out.
It does take a bit more planning to make a Hybrid character... in order to have high enough Dexterity and Intelligence to make good use of both power sets, I ended up with pretty low Strength and Constitution. Hybrid Swordmages apparently give up their Swordmage Warding feature, which gives an AC bonus I'm used to relying on. As this character concept called for a weapon that was both a sword and a light blade, I had to choose between using a short sword or using a feat to gain weapon proficiency in rapier... I went with rapier, because the whole point of making a Swordmage-Rogue is for the swashbuckling appeal.
Essentially, as with the existing multiclass option, you have to be committed to your character concept to make it work. But that's only fair... it would take a very particular mind in-game to become a skilled fighter who also studies the arcane secrets of throwing fireballs.
But at the same time as they're developing the Hybrid rules, they've also got writers exploring the full potential of the existing multiclass rules, where the initial feat that starts you down the path takes a somewhat arbitrarily chosen defining feature of the class and gives it to you, and then further feats let you swap out your powers. There was apparently an article or articles that explored the world of rogues in some detail, as there are a number of new thieves' guild-related feats in the character generator's choices... and also a set of unique "multiclass" options where instead of crossing over into another class, you take on a more specific deadly trade: Bravo (in the meaning of thug or enforcer), Poisoner, etc.
Each of them comes with their own version of the three successive multiclass feats, with a unique power that may be swapped for. These would be something analogous to the "kits" presented in 2nd Edition AD&D's "Complete Handbook" series. Though, despite having an obvious thematic tie to the Rogue class, these options are open to anyone, which makes sense. Fighters would be employed as Bravos as often as Rogues, and almost any arcane class would make sense dabbling as a Poisoner.
It's an interesting approach, though the ground they've covered with it initially isn't terribly interesting to me... but I'm hoping to see more development along those same lines, giving other walks of life a similar amount of detail and consideration. A bunch of different magic focus demiclasses/trades would give a way to make any character a dabbler in magic, and give arcane characters a bit more options when it comes to fine specialization.