I was really surprised they didn’t include a necromancer class in the undead book they put out a few months ago. I guess if you took the “Summoner” wizard build from Arcane Power and replaced the living creatures with undead ones you could get pretty close.

My 4thEd character is pretty homegrown because it’s a necromancer with a skull as an implement- most of my spells are adaptations of the inferno pact for warlock, or stuff my DM and I came up with together that seemed appropriate for the skill level I was reaching. And he sort of fudged things so I could have a familiar (a mini-Boneyard, GOD is that thing awesome) without multiclassing because, and I quote, “Multiclassing sucks really big whale balls, so we’re going to avoid it at all costs.” But maybe what I wanted to do with the character is what would have made multiclassing suck so much. I mean, whale balls? Yikes. ;p

You can do it as Multiclass Swordmage which gives you longswords as implements. Or you can do it as wizard with the Eladrin feat from Arcane Power that gives you longswords as implements, which eventually gets you to the wizard of the spiral tower PP which, itself, gives you longswords as implements so you get your feat back.

If you use a longsword and choose weapon attacks that target non-AC defenses, the math scales just like implement attacks and your primary damage comes from your multiclass abilities — along with all the awesome stuff that taclords give the party. If you take Melee training from PHB 2 to do melee basics with your int, you almost don’t notice the lack of strength.

The problem, of course, is you need to spend 4 feats on multiclassing which prevents you from taking the aforementioned math fix feats so you lag behind the rest of the party and the bad guy’s AC.

I agree that 3/3.5ed had it’s issues. Multiclassing was entirely broken and druids were insanely broken, but they could have done something else other than turn D&D into tabletop WoW. I’d agree the combat system is much better with the removal of instadeath and the upgrade to saving throws.

Multiclassing can work, but you have to think WAY outside the box to get it right. Like my Eladrin Taclord multiclassed with Wizard — but to make it work I had to have a warlord with a 14 str and 18 int.

I prefer 4th Ed., but I’ll admit it’s probably because I roleplay as opposed to rollplay, so my DM and fellow players usually just tell me what dice and stats to use when I need to actually roll something. As such, mechanics don’t really get to me all that much, and I am not remotely an authority on the subject. Also, as a player, while I liked Dogs a lot, I like 7th Sea more. Lots of potential for swashbuckling badassery, like, “I’m going to swing from the chandelier and hook his tankard onto my sword.”

And while we’re on 4th Ed. a bit:

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1289/christianbalefinal.jpg

Of course, if those aren’t play experiences you enjoy, that’s a big market closed to you.

I’m not saying 4th Ed. is perfect, but like with a lot of things that get upgraded, some aspects are better, while others are, yes, totally screwed up (like multi-classing, oh my friggin’ GOD…) (and saving throws bug the crap out of me, too…). It’s not all of either, though.