Power Sources and Power Level
Each Class has its own "Power Source". Barbarian, for example, has Rage. Rage determines the effectiveness of many of the Abilities in the Barbarian Ability Tree. Rage increases the damage of abilities, the number of Projectiles, Penetration and other effects, such as Duration. Increasing the effectiveness of Rage is called gaining a "Power Level". This is the case with all Power Sources, allowing players to Multiclass without feeling too much of a damage reduction in their Abilities.
When playing as a Multiclass character there are obvious benefits over a Single Class character, but not everything is better. For example, you gain a Power Level for each 2 levels you gain when you are Single Class. When you are Multiclass this becomes every 3 levels. This means that you won't have access to higher level Abilities as quickly if you Multiclass, because you unlock the next tier of Abilities each time you gain a Power Level. This is one of the biggest downsides to Multiclassing, and it can make early parts of the game harder until you are geared up.
Secondly, Multiclass characters cannot access Ability Level 8 or 9 of either Class they play because their Power Level only increases every 3 levels instead of ever 2. This is another huge downside of a Multiclass character, because the best and most powerful Abilities are at the bottom of each Tree. Be sure to preview these Trees when making your character so you can see what you'll be missing out before confirming during Character Creation. This alone makes a case for a Single Class character.
Power Source by class
- Barbarian:
Rage - Chanter:
Phrases - Cipher:
Focus - Druid:
Nature - Fighter:
Discipline - Monk:
Mortification, Wounds - Paladin:
Zeal - Priest:
Faith - Ranger:
Bond - Rogue:
Guile - Wizard:
Arcane
Power Source Points and Combat
Each Class uses its Abilities with the Power Source Pool of that Class: Rage, Arcane, Discipline, Bond, etc. Abilities cost varying amounts of Power Source Points, which will replenish out of Combat. Instead of giving each Ability a certain number of uses like they did in PoE, now the player is free to decide how to spend his/her points in whatever combination makes sense for the victory. Wizards and casting Classes can only cast a certain number of each level of spell per encounter, but they no longer need to Rest to replenish these. Players can also use an Ability called "Empower" that will allow them to increase the effectiveness of an Ability or regain half of their max Power Source Points. This can only be used once per encounter per character and replenishes upon Resting.
If you are a Single Class, every 2 levels you will gain an extra Power Source Point. If you are a Multiclass character you will gain 1 Power Source Point for both Classes every 3 Levels, regardless of how you leveled up each time. This means that at level 7 if you are a Single Class character you will have a total of 6 Power Source Points to use for you Abilities per encounter (you begin the game with 3). If you are a level 7 Multiclass Character you will have a total of 10 Power Source Points (5 in each Class). This means Multiclass characters will have much more Abilities to use, albeit with lesser effectiveness.
