Does a Paladin 3/Fighter 1 get the level 4 ability score improvement?

Question

I'm about to level up in a fifth edition campaign and so far I'm a level 3 paladin. I'm thinking of multiclassing into a fighter instead of increasing my paladin level to 4. I am wanting to know, if I do multiclass into a fighter and not increase my paladin level, will I still get the +1 (to two) or +2 (to one) ability score improvement or not?

Answer 1

No, the ability score improvements are from gaining the specific levels in a class, as listed in each class's table. See page 71 for the Fighter's advancement table and page 83 for the Paladin's advancement table.

To be precise, these are what you would get if you went Paladin 3/Fighter 1 now, reading right off those tables:

• Paladin 1: Divine Sense, Laying on Hands
• Paladin 2: Fighting Style, Spellcasting, Divine Smite
• Paladin 3: Divine Health, Sacred Oath
• Fighter 1: Fighting Style, Second Wind

You won't get the Ability Score Improvement class feature if you multiclass now, because that comes from the Paladin 4 level (or the Fighter 4 level, but that's even farther away), which you won't reach when you become Paladin 3/Fighter 1. You will get it if you go to Paladin 4/Fighter 1 the level after this one, or if you just go with Paladin 4 now.

Answer 2

You would not. An Ability Score Improvement, or ASI, is gained through the class itself. It's an exclusively earned feature for each individual class as shown by their class tables. This is also why each class has a description of the ASI feature.

So for this scenario of being Paladin 3 and then taking 1 level in Fighter, you only gain what is mentioned in the Multiclass table of the PHB and what a level 1 Fighter gets.

Also, not every class gains an ASI every four levels in 5e so that should also demonstrate why it doesn't count your characters total level. I think all of them get their first ASI at level 4 and last at 19, but if you look at the Fighter's Class table you can see that they gain a lot more ASIs than say a wizard.